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From CAD User AEC Magazine  Vol 22 No 3 - FEBRUARY/MARCH 2009

Internet-based shopping is where it's now at - and no wonder, when you can fulfil your wide format printing needs as quickly and as simply as you can at plot IT’s new website

What the heck is Black Friday?! I came across the term when I was looking for some stats on the rise of Internet shopping. I thought it was a reference to yet another cataclysmic economic event that I had somehow missed, but was relieved to find that it is a popular term in America, used to describe the Friday after Thanksgiving when, by all accounts, it heralds the onset of the buying frenzy leading up to Christmas. Black relates to it being the day the retailer finds his bank balance no longer festering in the Red! And Cyber Monday? That's the Monday afterwards, when those who had spent the previous weekend browsing through the Malls comparing prices, models and so on, go back to the office -
and buy what they want online! The American cyber retailers appear to have leveraged Cyber Monday, with loads of deals/coupons and special offers to tempt customers onto their site.

PLOT IT

The fact that the process of buying online has passed into common slang is proof enough of its increasing relevance in the marketplace. Lacking the impetus of significant retail events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the UK, we have to fall back on the traditional methods of encouraging customers to peruse our goods. A bricks and mortar retail outlet fails if customers find it difficult to navigate its stock holding, or to get technical information out of its staff! The same concerns should motivate anyone running an online store.

Internet users are pernickety people, and have little time for websites that are slow, difficult to access and find their way around. As such, the requisite information should be as readily available as the price and the appropriate buying mechanism. A company that appears to have taken that advice to heart is plot IT - specialists in wide format printers and their consumables. Their new website, www.plot-it.co.uk, has been developed for CAD users who require good quality large format output devices - whether you work in the mechanical CAD market, architecture and construction or GIS. To support them, they also stock a comprehensive and growing range of traditional design consumables from leading OEMs, with excellent environmental accreditations including FSC & Recycled CAD and plan copier papers.

Not quite everything has gone online though. Plot IT is an accredited Autodesk software partner. As such, it has provided an online purchasing facility for AutoCAD LT, but prefers to supply the rest of its AutoCAD range of software through its experienced sales team. New CAD users can take advantage of a special offer, bundling AutoCAD LT with any hardware to give a low set-up price.

A WEB SITE FOR PRINTERS?

The trouble with printers is that they can be pretty boring. If you are an architect or a graphic designer, your main focus is your design software, and the large beast sitting in the corner of the office is a necessary accompaniment that takes up an inordinate amount of your time getting it to work properly, because you haven't had the time to really learn what it’s capable of, or what media it can use.

The developers of the new plot IT website understood all this, and knew that they had to be pretty smart to hook the average user. The key to this lay in designing a site that was both simple and smart! But this ease of use hasn’t compromised the amount of useful information available on the site. Plot IT is packed with content, with well over a thousand products from the industries leading manufacturers including HP, Océ, Xerox & Autodesk.

There is a range of well priced plotters, graphic and photo quality printers, including the latest Designjet printers from HP along with their consumables, wide format scanners, multifunctional digital plan copiers - as well as a wide selection of traditional drawing items.

GOING GREEN

Wide format media features heavily in the need to build a greener future. It's all to do with the more traditional ways of making paper. Iso 14001 compliant and environmentally friendly wide format media are now readily available on the site, with recycled CAD & plan copier paper along with quality papers carrying a host of recognised awards, including FSC & PEFC papers.

Plot IT won't supply anonymous papers in plain packaging with their own brand name on the side either. They can supply top quality paper, at competitive prices, by providing customers with bulk buy features throughout the site, and with a flat rate delivery charge regardless of quantity.

Finding the correct media for your printer is quick and easy. You can even do it the other way round just as quickly, by going straight to media and finding out which printers a particular type can be used with, filtering out searches by weight and width. The website also separates different types of media for Technical CAD and graphics

applications, where presentation or photo-quality media is required. The same attention to detail is given to inks and toners, with no refill or generic items featured on the site.

NEWS AND VIEWS

The site not only provides the stereotypical manufacturers information but also offers unbiased product opinions on many of the machines, with brochure downloads and bundled offers. Plot IT have also told us that they are putting together a number of product demo videos online, so that users of the site can get a real feel for how a particular device works.

ONE-SSTOP SHOP

To complete the “One-Stop Shop” look and feel, the site also offers traditional design tools such as Rotring Pens and plan file tapes, and drawing storage such as cabinets & hangers. We might all be going digital in a big way but will always be a need for traditional products.

With a large amount of stock in store, plot IT guarantee that there won't be a

Océ TCS 500

problem delivering most stock items next day if orders are placed before 12noon. Ordering is through the protx secure online ordering system, or through a supply line number.

Delivery options are great. You can find them on the toolbar at the top of the page. Rather than just dropping boxes off, customers can select from a range of delivery and installation options, providing them with the peace of mind of knowing that their hardware will be professionally delivered and installed.

All machines are supplied with standard OEM warranties with extended service cover if required. There are also options to rent equipment over 3 or 5 years subject to status.

READER OFFER

Although Cyber Monday is purely an American phenomenon, plot IT does have an eye for special deals, and is offering the first 250 CAD User readers who register and purchase media a FREE Architectural Scale ruler. A unique URL has been set up for readers to take advantage of this offer: www.plot-iit.co.uk/caduser

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