News
Q1 2012
Words from the Editor
Welcome to Apogee News.
EveryEvery Quarter this newsleer will keep you up-to-date with Apogee's latest developments, industry news and the latest hap-penings concerning our Staff. We will also keep you informed regarding Apogee's Charity work and sponsorships. In each issue you will have the chance to win a £50 M & S Voucher in the capon compe on, so get your creave juices flowing. Do keep sending in your news so that we can publish your successes, both profes-sional and personal.
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For those of you who have joined the Apogee Family more recently, we thought you might like to read about the Apogee Story to date, along with some thoughts about the future of this rapidly growing organisaonAsAs many of you may already know, our Joint CEOs, Barry Ferdinand and Jason Collins, founded Apogee in 1993. Almost immediately they out sold some long-standing players in the industry.Key to this success was an early recogni-on of the potenal within this industry of the new digital technology, which many established organisaons within the industry were slow to appreciate. At this early stage, Apogee established an IT Department to understand and respond toto digital advancements in order to be early adopters and innovators in this sector.Contribung to Apogee’s connued rise is our relaonship with our key industry partners, For example, 10 years ago Ricoh’s significant resources, combined with their willingness to develop the skill base of our sales and service funcons, enabled an early deployment and adoponadopon of these emerging digital tech-nologies. Today, Apogee is Ricoh’s Number 1 reseller in the UK. With Ricoh having more than 400 resellers, this is an achievement Apogee can be proud of. Other key industry partners include Canon, Sharp, Siemens and BNP Paribas. ApartApart from the obvious organic growth, Apogee’s founders recognised the strate-gic importance of acquisions to enable Apogee to connue to absorb necessary experse and a relevant customer base along with widening Apogee’s porolio and UK presence. But, what about the per-specve of those who joined Apogee as a result of its 14 acquisions to date? Here is your chance to hear some of the experi-ences with us.Alex Dolby says, “As Head of Internet Sales, I am responsible for the sales made through our Internet sites of Top4Office.co.uk, Top4Office.com and
Digipro.co.uk together with those from our consumables team.WhenWhen I first heard that Apogee was going to acquire F Smith & Co in 2005, I was delighted at the chance of working with Apogee’s founders and the possibilies that would unfold. I like the compe ve nature of the Sales Team to achieve greater heights each year together with the absolute commit-mentment of the divisions to provide a first class service to our clients. Whilst it is challenging somemes, there is no doubt we are all giving a minimum of 100%.”
Sco Brewer says, “I am the IT Service Manager for Apogee Corporaon, oversee-ing the service delivery and project installa-ons for the IT, Professional Services and Telecoms Department. I was former Opera-ons Director for ABS Technology plc. ABS was in need of direcon due to a lack of investment and foresight so my immediate feeling on hearing the news of the change was one of hope and enthusiasm.Apogee’s Board and management structure drives the constant need for growth, improvement and perfecon. This ethos trickles down throughout the organisaon and drives us all to want to achieve innova-on and provide a customer service plaorm, driving proacve, not just reacve, support.support.Investment in the IT and Telecoms division has allowed dedicated service staff to be employed in specific areas, creang me to improve internal processes and therefore customer sasfacon.With the skill-sets and experience held within its divisions, Apogee now has poten-al to become number one in our market. Driving towards that and being a part of it is the fun part.”
“Whilst it is chal-lenging some-mes, there is no doubt we are all giving a minimum of 100%.”
Apogee’s Fast Track To Success
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Bruce Bucke says “I am a Senior Sales Account Manager and was formerly a Director at F Smith and Company. The only shock I had when I heard that Apogee Corporaon was looking to acquire us was that we were quite a long way down the path of being acquired by Danwood, Apogee’sApogee’s fiercest rival. Once acquired by Apogee, it quickly became apparent that we had joined a very highly focused sales/service operaon with fantasc buying prices, lease rates and frequent incenves to help maximise sales. It was difficult somemes to acclimase to workingworking for someone else but a quick reminder to myself on why we were where we were normally did the trick. By and large, I have enjoyed working for Apogee Corporaon and it was probably one of the best business moves I have made in my career. One of the best aspectsaspects has been the constant expansion and change, which certainly keeps you on your toes! In addion, I have met and worked with a wide cross secon of col-leagues from within the company and through acquisions. Any staff or owners of potenal Apogee acquisions should havehave no worries about their ongoing development and opportunies within a larger organisaon.”Carl Silvester says, ”I am a Regional Sales Director at Apogee, having joined the organisaon following the acquision of Advanced Group Ltd. My inial thoughts were mixed regarding the acquision, as I was aware of the potenal advantages and disadvantages of becoming part of a biggerbigger organisaon. Apogee has brought more structure, greater buying power and a great focus on sales. I see Apogee as opportunity, opportunity, opportunity. We can be the architects of our own success with, from me to me, a lile nudge here and there. Rather than a cor-porate straight jacket this is an entrepre-neurial culture in which there are no limits to success. The posioning within the industry and the predicted future means that I am proud to be a key player in the success that is Apogee.”
* * * *
This growth in an extremely compe ve market, both organic and through acquisi-ons has culminated in Apogee’s recognion as one of the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 companies.To enable Apogee to respond to the demands of this rapid growth, Apogee has made some important and key appoint-ments to ensure that processes, communica-ons and systems within the organisaon are robust. The latest of these is the intro-ducon of Apogee Connect; an intranet tool developed in-house which will ulmately be populated by, YOU, the users. It is designed to be a portal for informaon exchange and a gateway to beer communicaons.Having been quick to respond to the changes in the industry, Apogee connues to respond to the rapid evoluon of emerging technolo-gies including mobile technologies, a growing demand from clients for data security and the increasing emphasis on environmentally sustainable soluons. We imagineimagine the significant advancements and acceleraon in the use of mobile technology will inevitably lead to document process-streamlining and consolidaon of infrastruc-ture which means that service based operaons and soluons will be fundamen-tal in being at the forefront of our industry in the future.Apogee’s industry awareness and blank canvas approach has meant that targets have been exceeded year-on-year and that is no less true for 2012. At the end of the first quarter, we have surpassed our 2011 sales Q1 by over 100%. We are well on target to achieve sales in excess of £70 million this year,year, not taking into account any potenal acquisions that we are looking to make.We are very posive about the future and with strong leadership, a movated and growing team, strategic relaonships and our strategic partnerships we are well placed to connue to exceed our ambious targets for 2012 and beyond.
“I see Apogee as opportunity, opportunity, opportunity. We can be the archi-tects of our own success”
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Above: Jason Collins and Barry Ferdinand with The Right Honorable Michael Porllo.
ForFor two days the Ball Room of London’s presgious Four Seasons Hotel was trans-formed to launch Apogee’s ‘Acon with Vision’ Event. Apogee, supported by its industry-leading partners, Canon, Ricoh, Sharp, Siemens and BNP Paribas who have helped Apogee to grow tremendously, wantedwanted to offer clients the opportunity to learn about cu ng edge technologies, and innovave business iniaves, directly from the experts. Delegates were able to roam the 5 zones covering cloud technology, data security, austerity, environment/sustainability and consolidaon. To close a day in which industry experts delivered speeches on these areas, delegates enjoyed the elo-quence and humour of the keynote speaker,speaker, The Right Honourable Michael Porllo, whose speech took the event’s themes of innovaon, technology and insight as well as the power of partner-ships. He proved a huge success as did Capital FM’s presenter, Roberto, who took to the stage as the representave of Apogee’s chosen charity for 2012, Help a Capital Child. Roberto personally thanked Team Apogee for their efforts so far, having raised over £28K for them in 2011 with plansplans to raise significantly more in 2012 with the help of Apogee’s staff, clients and partners. Help a Capital Child’ now covers all the regions where Apogee has offices
and supports young people UK-wide. Phil Holvey said, “We are delighted that so many people aended this event. Our feedback has been overwhelmingly posive, with each of the zones idenfying key business issues, and drivers that resonate with customer’s challenges, both now and in the future.”
It’sIt’s no secret that Good Customer Service is vital to the success of any business. Accord-ing to the Industrial Society a sasfied customer tells three or four people while an angry customer passes the bad news on to ten people. Every member of an organisa-on has a crucial part to play in good customer relaons. To quote Sam M. Walton, CEO Wal-Mart: “Literally everything we do, every concept perceived, every tech-nology developed and associate employed, is directed with this one objecve clearly in mind – pleasing the customer.” As part of our investment in Apogee's per-sonnel, Bernie Muir (whose responsibilies include Communicaons at Apogee) is con-ducng Customer Service Training Seminars both at Head Office and at our Branches in the coming weeks.Bernie says “I trust the aendees will realise what skills they bring to the table and how much we can individually contribute towards achieving good outcomes for our colleagues and customers. It is important to recognise the opportunies that exist to develop a strong and loyal relaonship with all those wewe engage with in the course of our business and the sasfacon we can gain in the process.”
“It’s no secret that Good Customer Service is vital to the success of any business.”
Acon With Vision – Powering This Age Of Austerity
Invesng In Our Personnel
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We are delighted to announce a new part-nership with one of the largest global IT service providers which will see us deploy-ing Apogee soluons throughout mainland Europe over the next 18 months.The contract, which was completed by our Naonal Accounts Team, means a huge number of users will now be prinng, scanning and managing their document output through Apogee supported hardware, Apogee print servers and Apogee soware soluons – all supported byby resident Apogee technical staff across Europe.We are already in the deployment phase of a project to implement 200+ devices in Zurich, Switzerland, with similar soluons in Spain, Germany and France at a much greater scale already in the laer stages of planning.ThisThis deal not only represents a fantasc opportunity to deploy a large number of Apogee hardware devices and soware soluons, but perhaps more importantly means that the Apogee brand will now become a key name in the European market.
OnOn 17th February, Apogee Corporaon was awarded a Framework contract with OGC Buying Soluons (Office of Govern-ment Commerce) to be an approved Audit partner for the whole of public sector in the UK for the next 3 years.
Above: Trophie presented by Ricoh to Apogee, Ricoh’s number 1 UK dealer partner.
Ricoh presented Apogee with an award in recognion of the fact that Apogee is their number one dealer partner for 2012 out of more than 400 other dealers.TheThe relaonship with our major industry partners is key to Apogee’s success and this is especially true of Apogee’s partnership with Ricoh.
1010 years ago, Apogee and Ricoh were at the forefront of recognising the potenal of new digital technology and thus were able to drive the business forward to embrace this digital age. Ricoh, as an undoubted technol-ogy leader, connues to respond to the rapid evoluon of the modern digital office, addressingaddressing the growing demands from clients for data security and environmentally sustainable soluons. We are very posive about our partnership with Ricoh, which will contribute to Apogee being well placed to connue to exceed our ambious targets for 2012 and beyond.
“We are already in the deployment phase of a project to implement 200+ devices in Zurich, Switzer-land, with similar soluons in Spain, soluons in Spain, Germany and France.”
Apogee Spreads Its Wings In Europe
Apogee Win OGC Contract
Ricoh’s Number One Dealer Partner
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Following the acquision of ABS Technolo-gies last year, Apogee has now established a new IT Centre of Excellence in our newly refurbished Waterlooville Offices, just outside of Portsmouth.TheThe new centre will house our freshly expanded IT Help Desk funcons as well as form the central hub for all IT Support related acvity.AsAs has long been the case, Apogee is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of managed print services and the support infrastruc-ture required to support some of the most innovave document soluons in Europe is a keystone for our connued success. To support our ancipated growth, we havehave invested in our Professional Services Division over the last 18 months, the support element of which will also be based from our new IT Centre of Excel-lence.These new developments are part of the on-going development of Apogee’s Team which also included the newly enlarged team of pre-sales support consultants, first, second and third line support per-sonnel along with the connued growth and development of our sales funcons. ThisThis can only mean that we can expect big things from Apogee in the coming months!
The e-commerce Development Team has been hard at work over the last 12 months building a new online plaorm to manage our fleet of corporate and e-commerce websites moving forward. The new plaorm has been under test for the last 6 weeks and was launched with a new look Top4Office.co.uk at the end of March. Top4Office.co.uk at the end of March. This will not only allow us to rapidly develop our exisng sites, but provides us with the opportunity to explore new markets in the online sales space for com-
-plimentary products such as Mail Room Soluons and much more.IfIf you haven’t already had a look, we urge you to head over to www.top4office.co.uk now and check out the new site’s look and feel. What’s next in the pipeline for e-commerce development? You’ll just have to watch this space!
WeWe are delighted that Apogee has opened a new office in Bristol, which will be run by Stuart Turner, Regional Sales Manager. He says, “Apogee’s Bristol Branch opened on Monday 19th April. Our offices are ideally located just off the M4/M5 interchange at Aztec West Business Park. Strategically placed,placed, we can be in Cardiff, Gloucester, Taunton & Exeter within an hour from the office.This branch will be managed by me and will have two salesmen and a sales co-ordinator.I am expecng the team to grow over the next few months. This is a perfect plaorm from which to grow Apogee’s porolio in the South West and I am very excited at the prospect. Expect big things to happen out of Bristol!”
“This will not only allow us to rapidly develop our exisng sites, but provides us with the opportunity to explore new markets in the markets in the onlines sales space”
Apogee Establish New IT Centre Of Excellence
Top4Office Gets A New Look
Accelerang Naonal Expansion
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HelpHelp a Capital Child is Apogee's Charity of the Year for 2012. As part of this commit-ment Apogee sponsored a recent fund raising event held at the Sanctum Hotel in London. It was hosted by Lisa Snowdon who co-presents Capital FM’s Breakfast Show; also involved was another of Capital FM’s presenters, Roberto. Capital FM’s presenters, Roberto.
Apogee provided all the prinng for this event and was publicly thanked by Lisa Snowdon for our on-going support for this charity that aims to make a real difference to young people across the UK.Lisa commented, "We are delighted that Apogee is supporng Capital FM's charity, Help a Capital Child, and it was a pleasure to meet Apogee’s founders at our last event.II am looking forward to seeing my fellow Capital FM DJ, James Barr, taking part in The Great River Race as part of Team Apogee and will also be willing on the Apogee Team in their London to Paris cycling challenge a few days later. I have
Above: Jason Collins and Barry Ferdinand with Lisa Snowden
seenseen for myself the excellent projects funded by Help a Capital Child so please support Apogee in their endeavour to raise funds for Help a Capital Child so that we can make a real difference to the lives of disadvantaged young people in our local areas"
ShouldShould anyone in Apogee be taking part in a run or other acvity and think that they might like to do this for Help a Capital Child please get in touch with Bernie Muir.
Members of Team Apogee are training hard for an extraordinary double challenge in aid of Capital FM’s Charity ‘Help a Capital Child’.AsAs if a grueling 21-mile row on The Thames from London Docklands to Ham House, Richmond, wasn’t enough, the team have also signed up to compete in a 300-mile cycle ride from London to Paris only four days later.
TheThe Great River Race will take place on Sunday 15th September 2012 and the London to Paris Bike Ride will be over 4 days starng on 19th September, finishing on 23rd September 2012. The team, consisng
“Apogee was publicly thanked by Lisa Snowden for our on-going support for a charity that aims to make a real dif-ference to young ference to young people UK-wide.”
APOGEE AND THE COMMUNITY
Lisa Snowden Thanks Apogee For Supporng Capital FM’s Help A Capital Child
Team Apogee Seeks To Raise £40k Through Ambious Double Sporng Charity Challenge We Need Your Help
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of Apogee employees, will be looking to raise significantly more than the £28K they raised last year for Capital FM’s ‘Help a Capital Child’ Charity.
PLEASEPLEASE DIG DEEP to help us achieve our ambious target of £40,000. We aim to change the lives of as many young people throughout the UK as possible - with YOUR help we can.TeamTeam Apogee will be raising funds through a combinaon of sponsorship and good old fashioned donaons. If you can help our fundraising in any other way please write to us at [email protected].
ApogeeApogee Sponsored Olympic Diver, Blake Aldridge, connues his work in the com-munity by taking me out of his training to visit Pickhurst Junior Academy in West Wickham, where he spoke about his expe-riences in the Beijing games as part of an Olympics project at the school.Blake connues to not only dedicate his me to great causes, but also supports
below: Blake Aldridge with pupils Eden Duroe and Leah Hewle-Boyle
and promotes Apogee Corporaon, his key Sponsor and driver in his success. Apogee has more recently furthered the support given to Blake by creang his own website, so that fans and followers can stay up to date with Blake related news.
People can follow his progress on People can follow his progress on www.blakealdridge.com
"Former Olympian, Blake Aldridge, is cur"Former Olympian, Blake Aldridge, is cur-rently training hard in Dubai in advance of the start of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2012. He is one of the permanent divers in this series, which takes in 7 stops around the world. They dive 28 meters from perilous plaorms ju ng out of cliffs in some fascinang locaons include in some fascinang locaons include Corsica, Norway, Portugal, Ireland, USA, Wales and Oman.
CLICK HERE for informaon and videos regarding the forthcoming Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2012
He will be Apogee branded throughout the series so our Logo will literally be ‘flying high’.
“Blake dives 20 meters from perilous plaorms ju ng out of cliffs in some fascinat-ing locaons including Corsica, Norway, Portugal Norway, Portugal and the USA.”
Blake Training Hard In Dubai For Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series 2012Blake Dives In
For Quick Visit To Talk About Games
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For your chance to win a £50 M&S Voucher in June, read on.
The above photo is just asking for a capon. So, get your creave juices going and, if you think it’s a winner, send it. The winning effort will appear in the next Quarterly Newsleer.The deadline is 11.59pm 5th June 2012, Send your entry to Jason Staniforth - [email protected] winner will be contacted on 16th June 2012 and the results will be published in the next quarterly newsleer in June. To enter, register your email address and first and last name. Only one entrant is allowed per email address. Apogee is not responsible for Submissions that are lost, late, misdirected, garbled, or incom-pletely received, for any reason.
Staff News
Cap-Com
OffOff the Starng Blocks – Olive Gardner (RSD Midlands) says “The Midlands office would like to congratulate newly assigned salesman, Mohamed Benlaadar, on his first signed deal in February since making the move from Business Generaon to Sales. Mohamed’s drive and determina-onon has resulted in his efforts coming to fruion and I’m confident that he can look forward to many more successful deals.”
One Box to a Fleet – Darryl Chappell (RSD HQ) says “Greg Coles has signed another fantasc deal this quarter. This account, which started with just one machine 5 years ago, now has a fleet of machines in various ports in the UK, Calais and Dunkirk. A great example of why small businesses ARE worth working with.”businesses ARE worth working with.”
CongratulaonsCongratulaons Due - Carl Silvester (RSD) says “I would like to congratulate Andy Jackson for the new business win supplying Canon systems to a new opportunity in the South and South West. It was a superb team effort that included support from Lee Ironside, Susan Easterbrook, Paul Hayes and ClaudiaClaudia Angilea, oh... and not forge ng Phil Holvey, he had something to do with it too!”
A new face brings a new channel - In October 2011, Eva Key joined the e-commerce team to create new markets for Apogee’s extensive range of products. The e-commerce team are using Apogee’s buying power to supply goods to other dealers and distributors. Eva had tremendous success in FebruaryFebruary with very promising prospects for the future as she cements relaonships with our new partners. An excing new area for growth for Apogee Corporaon.
“Win a £50 M&S Voucher in June.”
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A welcoming start - Not only a welcome, but also congratulaons to Chris Kent of the City Office, who, aer just 6 weeks with Apogee, has managed to rise to the challenge, giving a great performance so far. Perhaps Chris will become another Apogee high-flyer on Apogee’s incenve schemes.schemes.
Praise For Service
COMING SOON – In the next issue of the Newsleer we will be introducing APOGEE’S SERVICE STARS. Judging from the emails below we obviously have some prime candidates for Service Star Recognion. We will be sending out an email telling you all about Apogee’s Service Star Iniave. Service Star Iniave.
Peter Horlatsch – IT Engineer“I’d like to say how impressed I have been with Peter, your IT engineer....... He has been understanding and professional and has responded promptly to my calls for help.” Paula, Birmingham Wildlife Trust
Dane Challenor – Engineer for London Dane Challenor – Engineer for London Area“Pass on my gratude to Dane..... Over the moon that you were able to network our machine and feel that Dane has done a sterling job.” Barry, N C Morris
PushingPushing Forward As A TeamThisThis first quarter, the Sales Administraon Team have been working very well together, loading and ge ng orders through with an average of between £4.5-5million per month which we would not have done so successfully if it was not for the Leasing Desk and the help of Gillian Rendulic,Rendulic, Priya Patel and Melanie Bren-denhaan.
The Sales Administraon Team is as follows:Debbie Wilkinson – ManagerLesley Fursedonn – Senior Sales Admin (City, Scotland)Jackie Nolan – Senior Sales Admin (HQ, Kent) HelenHelen Powell – Sales Admin (Midlands, North West)Gemma Johnson – Sales Admin (Hull, North East)Carole Wellington – Sales Admin (Wales)Rakesh Parmar – Sales Admin (Westergate)Sandra Upton – Sales Admin (Birmingham)
“We“We have made it a very successful working team and look forward to the challenges over the next quarter.” – Lesley Fursedonn
Improvements InternallyCongratulaonsCongratulaons to Jason Staniforth who was promoted to Markeng Manager under the direct management of the Group Sales Director, Phil Holvey. Jason will be focusing primarily on internal marcoms for the next few months including the Apogee Connect Intranet Site.
“The Sales Administraon Team have been working very well together, loading an average of £4.5 million per month.”month.”
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Driving BG ForwardCongratulaonsCongratulaons to Trisha Pegg who was promoted in January to Business Genera-on Manager in the Midlands Office. Trisha will be focusing on increasing the number of qualified appointments to the sales force to enable Apogee to open more doors to new business.
"A Day In The Life"Each issue we will be featuring an inter-view with an Apogee Employee. On this occasion we are focusing on the Regional Sales Manager of the New Bristol Branch, Stuart Turner.
1. Name? Stuart Turner.2. Title? Regional Sales Manager- Bristol, Wales & Birmingham (Caretaking). 3. Age? 34.4. Where are you from? Blackpool.5. What is your role within Apogee? Movate, Manage & Mentor Sales Teams to Deliver Outstanding Performance. 6.6. Favourite quote?Evertonians are born, not manufactured, We do not choose, we are chosen, Those who understand need no explana-on,Those who don’t…don’t maer.7. Favourite food? BBQ.8. Favourite Drink? Malbec .9. Something not many people know about you? I was in prison for 6 years ..........................................working as a Physical Training Instructor!
10. Favourite joke? I’ve just been on a once-in-a-lifeme holiday, I’ll tell you what, never again. 11. The best chat up line you have heard? Are you free tonight, or will it cost me? 12. Describe yourself in 3 words? Funny, Outgoing & Reliable.13.13. What would you do for a million pounds? 10 years, hard work at Apogee!14. Current favourite song? Gotye- Somebody that I used to know.15. Your best skill? Leadership.16. What annoys you most? Negave people.17.17. If we were to look in your fridge what would we be likely to find? Chilled food. 18. Any Family? Married to Marina, with a daughter who is 16 months old, called Zara-Eve. 19.19. What about pets? Got a 2 year old staffy called 'Buddy' and a partridge in a pear tree....
Staff VacanciesApogeeApogee Corporaon are always looking for quality Sales and Service Staff and offer a referral scheme for exisng Apogee employ-ees. You will receive £500 for recommending a new starter who is successfully employed and passes their probaon tenure. It’s always worth le ng your past colleagues andand friends know that there could be an opportunity for them to further their career with Apogee.
“I’ve just been on a once-in-a-lifeme holiday, I tell you what, never again.”
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News From The Apogee FamilyWe want to hear your news. Any baby news, marriages, have you done anything interesng or are you undertaking any challenges – Let us know…..
ConsistentConsistent with Apogee’s rapid growth we are pleased to announce the happy news of so many new arrivals
Congratulaons to Karl Lavender, an Engineer for the Surrey area who recently became a Dad for the second me to the lovely Phoenix. (below).
CongratulaonsCongratulaons to Michael Bes who is an Engineer from the Midlands Branch; Michael became a dad for the first me to the gorgeous Myla Violet. (below).
Stuart Turner would like to Congratulate Ross Ellio who became a father to a baby boy called 'Charlie' on the 14th March.
Congratulaons for the birth of Ivor Emmanuel’s lile boy weighing in at 10lb called Eli Emmanuel.
Keith Francis and his partner had a boy on the 20th March, weighing 7lbs 8oz. His name is Jude Simeon Francis. Congratulaons to you both. (below).
CongratulaonsCongratulaons to Kae Weston who gave birth to Evie Joy Clapson weighing 8.12lbs. (below)
InIn addion to the expanding Apogee family, we would like to Congratulate Michael Dooley, who wed Kae Rew on Sunday 22nd April. We wish you both the best and are confident that the added weight of a ball and chain will not affect Michael’s ability to perform his Professional Service dues.
“We wish you all the best for the future.”
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Industry News
Get Your Head In The CloudWorking with some of the latest technol-ogy, Canon can help you to print jobs securely, anywhere, from any device.Users no longer need to be confined to a desk for their daily tasks. There is a growing need for mobile users to be able to secure and managed print from their mobiles. uniFLOW is the technology to bring this facility to mobile users, allowing users to print regardless of whether they areare prinng from the cloud, their laptop or a mobile phone.There are many benefits to using mobile and cloud based prinng for a business;• You can send print jobs to a secure queue via an email, upload via a website or directly from a cloud based system• Guests users are able to print without the need for a temporary or permanent user account• Users will be able to submit docu-ments in PDF, Word and PowerPoint formats• It allows for the same budget control as normal prinng and secure prinng• Secure jobs can be released from the users phone either via a web browser or nave applicaon•• Users can print and release secure prints without the need to be connected to the internal networkuniFLOWuniFLOW allows users to submit jobs either directly to the printer or to a secure print queue regardless of their choice of device or where they are located - either inside or outside the organisaon’s network. uniFLOW allows users to submit jobs from outside the office, using either a uniFLOWuniFLOW Internet printer driver or by uploading the file to be printed to a web portal. As mobile devices become essen-al in the workplace, simply being able to print from a PC or Mac computer is no longer enough. With uniFLOW, mobile users are able to send a job to the printer via email. Alternavely, a link to a document held in a cloud-based storage system can be emailed to uniFLOW.
Whichever method the user chooses to submit a job, the core funconality of uniFLOW is always available.UsersUsers can be idenfied by mulple iden es, ensuring that the correct user and budget is charged for the print job and that each user only appears once in reports, regardless of how many different ways they have chosen to submit documents. AdministratorsAdministrators can allow unknown users or guests to send jobs to their print devices. An email can be sent back to the new user con-taining a unique code to be able to release their job at the device. All jobs, whether they are submied from a PC on the network or a mobile device from another building, are shownshown to the user in the same secure print queue. The user can see a thumbnail preview of the job and add any finishing opons such as duplex or staple before the job is printed. Users can also use their Smartphone’s to select and release their jobs by using its web browser or nave Smart-phonephone app, without the need for embedded MFD soware. This technology allows for an added range of flexibility in prinng for a business, the uses are plenful and ease of use is excellent.
World’s First MFPs With Finger-Swipe Touch Control Sll Going Strong LastLast year Sharp announced the world’s first MFPs with a finger-swipe touch control interface, as part of its connuing drive to improve producvity in the office. One year on and Apogee have asked Sharp how this product has performed and has it been as well received as they’d hoped.
“With uniFLOW, mobile users are able to send a job to the printer via email.”
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Sharp responded that they had launched the new touch screen interface on two models, MX-2610N and MX-3110N, in April 2011 and since then they have extended it to the other MFPs with print speeds of 36, 41 and 51ppm. New launches in the pipeline for 2012 will give customerscustomers even more opons, bringing the number of devices with finger-swipe technology to more than a dozen.The MX-2610N and MX-3110N were designed for maximum ease of use and a minimum learning curve. The control screen, for example, with its large, clear text and icons for controlling every single feature and funcon, can be lted up or down for easy viewing – even from a wheelchair.wheelchair.Scanned pages can be previewed on the screen as 1-Page, 3D or thumbnail images, and enrely controlled by the finger-swipe interface. The user simply touches and slides to rotate them, change their order, add or delete pages, and then print, file or distribute as required.TheThe ‘user experience’ is fully customis-able, too. Individuals can create person-alised home screens on the control panel, giving them front-page access to the tools and applicaons they use most oen, set against a choice of seven background styles.
With so many enhancements on the new MFPs, it is impossible to quanfy the precise impact that the new interface has had. But with sales of the MX-2610N and MX-3110N 50% higher than their prede-cessors and Sharp’s overall share of the 20-50ppm A3 MFP market up 7.5% in 2011,2011, it has clearly gone down well with customers.
Launching Apogee ConnectWeWe are in the process of improving and developing our internal and external com-municaons in line with Apogee’s growth. Key to this will be Apogee Connect – a valuable intranet tool, developed in-house but ulmately populated by YOU.This will be a valuable tool for all depart-ments. We have launched it at an early stage so that subsequent development would benefit from your input. This is your Intranet and we look forward to everyone recognising opportunies to populate it with collateral, informaon and news that will make a real difference to our day-to-day operaons and also help keep us connected. WeWe see this as a portal for informaon exchange and a gateway for beer commu-nicaons.
www.apogeeconnect.com
Apogee Online Presence.Keep Up To Date With All Things Apogee.Just giving Apogee Page - Just giving Apogee Page - www.justgiving.com/apogee-corporaon
Apogee Facebook Page – Apogee Corpora-on
Apogee Twier page – @Apogeecorp
@Apogeescotland
@Apogeewales
Apogee Home Site – www.apogeecorp.com
Apogee Intranet – www.apogeeconnect.com
“Individuals can create per-sonailsed home screens on the control panel, giving them front-page access to the tools they to the tools they use the most”
