9 minute read
M icrofilm — Where are we going - by B. Anderson
by Bruce Anderson - Managing Director of Harper Klempgate Ltd.
One could almost rephrase this to,“Where have we been?”, because as an industry we have all been guilty of being rather introverted, not aggressive enough and doing everything too cheap! For example, we look at drawings, we advise the customer, we collect his drawings, film them, mount them, all done to B.S., and for an average of only 25 - 30p each; what an incredible deal. It is quite amazing, on the one hand our clients are progressively expecting us to, at least, hold our prices, certainly not increase them ,'and at the same time get ourselves involved in all these new technologies, most of which are immigrants from the States, you can tell that because they are identified by initials! Yet, on the other hand, they probably have difficulty in accepting the basic principle - WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get). I suggest that one of the major reasons for this state of affairs is that microfilming, like all other reprographics, has never enjoyed any particular prestige in business and commerce, unlike, say, computing, and, in common with other reprographics, it interfaces with almost every business and commercial activity, but in so doing loses some of its own identity.
Change of Image
“If you take the first three issues of The Micrographics Market Place and lie them side by side, it is not easy to immediately distinguish one from another.” This is one piece of constructive criticism that I have received, and one that I have, hopefully, rectified. The spot colour (used only on the outside covers of the magazine) will, in future, be different on each edition throughout the year. Another point that has been made is that it is not made obvious how or where to contact the editor - this omission has also been corrected by adding the address and ‘phone number on page 3. Any other CONSTRUCTIVE suggestions from our readership will be gratefully accepted and, if practical, be incorporated. It is, clearly, very important that we ‘get it right’, so please do not hesitate to put forward any ideas that you may have to improve the general interest or image of the publication.
Tim Nixon - Editor
This situation can change if we, as an industry, keep working to change it - but this can only happen at a pace which people are able to assimilate, and it follows that they will be reluctant to accept things they don’t fully understand. Therefore, our customers have to be educated as to which new technologies will best suit their specific needs and how and when to introduce them into their organisation, for if they wait too long, just to prove that they know best and are not hooked on the latest craze, they will get left behind. Alternatively, if they jump too soon to prove that they are ‘with it’, they may finish up ‘without it’. Using this argument we have to convince them to allow us to advise them what technology they require and, more to the point, provide it for them at a reasonable price. This way we will earn, not only the prestige that we deserve, but also a reasonable living.
Article by: Bruce Anderson, Managing Director of Harper Klempgate Ltd., Unit 1, Indescon Court, Millharbour, Millwall, London EI4. Tel: 01-538 0221.
All advertising copy, editorial material or enquiries to be directed to:- Tim Nixon, The Micrographics Market Place, 65 Winchester Drive, Burbage, Leics. LE10 2BA Tel: Hinckley (0455) 632523
If any additional personnel require copies o f the m agazine or if you would like your copy to be sent to an alternative address, please write to the editor and we will adjust our m ailing list to suit.
EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES.
WHAT COMPANY OFFERS THE BEST SERVICE, QUALITY, RANGE, AND HELPFUL ADVICE?...
Microphax Ltd., Abingdon, Oxford.
Plessey Information Engineering, Weybridge, Surrey.
Memcom Electronics Ltd., Telford, Shropshire.
Agfa Gevaert and Bell & Howell.
For the duration of Info’87 at Olympia, Genneg Associates once again generously invited me to use their Microfilm Shop as my base, though on this occasion I spent less time on the stand but tried to ‘put myself about’ a little more than in the past. During the course of the exhibition I did manage to meet with many people from the micrographics industry, some new - some not so new, (I’ll leave it to the reader to make the distinction) but all very interesting in their own way. I make no apology for the following, blatant, piece of namedropping, but I do apologise, in advance, for anyone that I have missed out - you will appreciate, I hope, that it is quite difficult to remember everyone that one meets over a four day period, especially when its through a semi-permanent alcoholic haze.
The Exhibitors
The Microfilm Shop was manned by the usual Genneg sales team of John Negus, Dave Liggins and Carol Piggon. Also on their stand was Nigel Francis of Swansea Microfilm with his indexing/bar coding system and John Beckingham and Sheila from Solar Microfilm Equipment who were demonstrating their splicing and winding machines. AMW Ltd., who had the very next stand to The Microfilm Shop, were there with Terry Mardlin and Gordon MacRae proudly showing off their new, low cost Minicom unit, which seemed to attract a great deal of interest throughout the trade. I visited the Imperial Film stand where I met Ken MacSween, Marion Freeman and Jack Bishop of Imperial, Dave Meredith of Profile Microfilming whose winding machine was on display, and a charming American by the name of Gary Wehsels of Androcles Engineering, Sacramento who was sharing the stand to promote his ingenious Automix Replenishing Unit for which Imperial are going to handle the U.K. marketing. I met Nigel Mann and Richard Price of Microphax and also on their stand was Andrew Bone, the P.R.O. of the Halma Group - of which Microphax is a part. Another member of the same group - MAB Services - was also present at the show being ably represented by, among others, Archie Menzies and Mike Brinn. Finlay Microfilms were exhibiting a wide range of their products and Maurice Finlay seemed particularly enthusiastic about the interest shown in his GTS COM Recorder. I spoke with Charles Chiappini and John Wilkinson who were there with Bell & Howell who were demonstrating yet another optical disk system. (See Product News). No show, it seems, would be complete without an optical disk demo. Though I did not actually visit the Agfa Gevaert stand, I did have the pleasure of meeting, for the first time, Don Hobbis.
AM W Ltd., Watford, Herts.
It seems strange that we have not met before, as it turns out that we are very close neighbours. Other micrographics companies exhibiting, but not previously mentioned include Plessey Information Engineering, Allen
Microfilm Products, Memcom Electronics, Microfilm Systems
and the Imtec Group.
The Visitors
It didn’t strike me as being particularly well attended, though, of course, its the quality and NOT the quantity that matters. Nevertheless, despite the relatively low attendance, I did manage to meet many interesting personnel from the industry. Tony Sandy (Micro - Tech Services) and Peter Jarvis (Microfilm & Office Systems) both have a fund of reminiscent stories and I am hoping that one or preferably both of them will write down some of these yarns of the ‘Old Days’ that I could publish, either as an article or even as a continuing regular column. Also on my wanderings I ran into Vic Parker (Embassy Microfilm), Stan Smith (Microgen), Mike Kenyon (Kodak), Vic Randall (V. Randall Consultants), Don McQuin (BAS Microfilm Ltd.), Pat Hodge (PDI Microfilm Services), Colin Kibble (Christal VS Ltd.), David Geehan (Planprint Ltd.), Trevor Lumb (Norbec), Ian Coates (Photomatrix), Dave Neal (NMC Ltd.)and last, but by no means least, Jurgen Koppenhofer of the Eichner Organisation in West Germany.
The Problems
As is inevitable when products are imported into the country specifically for exhibitions there were a couple of hiccups. Terry and Gordon of AMW Ltd. were sweating on the arrival of their new Minicom which finally turned up midway through the first morning after a lot of chasing about and raised voices. However, if they considered they had problems, spare a thought for Gary Wehsels of Androcles. He had flown all the way from California in order to promote his Automix Replenishing Units from the Imperial Films stand, but the actual unit didn’t appear until lunch time on Friday (the final day, which finished at 4.00pm). I do admire the optimism of Ken MacSween (Imperial Films) who consoled himself with the argument that the mysterious absence of the product actually increased the interest. - Nice try Ken.
The Star
The star that stole the show was, in fact, nothing whatsoever to do with the micrographics industry. Wayne Greaves is a highly talented, very personable young man who was giving regular performances of his robotic dancing. On this occasion he was there to create interest in a company called Wordplex Ltd. I feel very confident in predicting that we will be seeing much more of Wayne around the exhibition circuit in the future - 1, for one, hope so anyway.
The Microfilm Shop, Genneg Associates, Nuneaton, Works.
Allen Microfilm Products Ltd., Bournemouth.
The Imtec Group pic., Stanmore, Middlesex.
GRAPHIC DATA U K LTD
O.T.E. £ 2 2 ,0 0 0 + CO M PANY CAR
Graphic Data is a long established bureau providing m icrofilm ing, reprographic and laser printing services. The company serves an extensive range of blue chip and institutional custom ers in London and the Home Counties. We are main dealers for Canon m icrofilm equipm ent as w ell as being Regma stockists.
We are currently seeking to expand our London based equipm ent sales staff and require to make tw o appointm ents.
M IC R O F IL M E Q U IP M E N T SALES EXEC U TIVE
The territory w ill cover London and the Home Counties. Experience of m icrographic equipm ent an advantage, a successful sales track record essential.
C .A .R . A N D M IC R O F IL M S Y S T E M S SALES EXEC U TIVE
The territory w ill cover the UK and systems products w ill include m icrofiche and rollfilm units. Relevant experience an advantage.
