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INDUSTRY ROUND-UP:

Large format scanner support

Colortrac build on quality, ISO 20001 and technical support.

Colotrac Technical Support Worldwide 24/7
Colortrac's new Global Technical Help Desk underlines a commitment to technical support.

We were not surprised to read about Colortrac's new Global Technical Help Desk support system which promises customers, (their large format scanner distributors), fast global support for your end-user issues.

Readers of Colortrac's press releases over the last year will know that many have been about new appointments, QA improvements and a new corporate code of conduct.

Colortrac want you to know that it is hard at work improving its manufacturing processes, engineering quality and technical support every bit as much as it is releasing new products. Part of this commitment to quality is its new and recently announced Global Help Desk Technical Support system which promises quick worldwide answers to their distributors' support needs 22 hours of every day no matter where they are.

Here is a sampling of recently supplied press releases. They show the route to self-improvement which Colortrac want us to believe they are taking.

10th January 2008.
Colortrac boosts Quality Assurance with appointment of Kevin Zheng as QA Manager

10th March 2008.
Colortrac Production Plant Awarded ISO14001 Certificate

28th March 2008.
Colortrac Expands Senior Leadership Team

9th July 2008.
Colortrac initiates first Code of Conduct in Wide Format Scanning

10th September 2008.
Colortrac appoint Matthew Harris as Director of Operations

15th January 2009.
Colortrac appoints Malcolm Lane as President of Colortrac Inc.

14th April 2009.
Colortrac's new Global Technical Help Desk provides worldwide support 24/7.

The economic downturn suits Colortrac's aggresively priced products. The recently launched SmartLF Ci 40 technical document scanner is the lowest priced CIS colour scanner available today. However, many believe that "you get what you pay for", that low cost products are not properly supported. Colortrac's new Global Technical Help Desk is nothing less than an attempt to get the saddle off this tired old nag!

The large format scanner market is nothing but cut-price today. In this economic downturn, it is price (first) and performance (second) that command the attention of an increasingly cost-conscious market. Leading the price and performance charge at present is the new Colortrac SmartLF Ci 40 and the Contex SD Series. Interestingly, the first to OEM the Ci 40 is Paradigm, the USA's leading Graphtec scanner distributor.

Cadalyst, who reviewed and rated the 36" Graphtec CSX300 as "Highly Recommended" claimed that it is "affordable". While this was true a year ago, the 40" SmartLF Ci 40 is now considerably less expensive in the USA. It also has better, easier to use software (an optional paid-for extra). As a result, Graphtec now finds its products over-priced.

Piling the pressure onto Graphtec's more expensive 42" IS and CS models are Contex's 44" CIS-based scanners. For this reason, resellers like Paradigm need more competitive products than Graphtec can supply at present. Paradigm do not yet have the success of an HP or an Océ, the leading OEMs of Contex large format scanners. Many buy an HP and or an Océ large format scanner for the extra support which they offer via expensive maintenance contracts. Paradigm is offering a one year on-site warranty for its imagePRO Ci40HD. They are the first we know of to offer on-site support as standard on a Colortrac product.

We wonder how big a part Colortrac's improved engineering build quality and technical support played in allowing Paradigm to do this? Colortrac has now invested considerably in hiring highly qualified QA professionals in the UK and China to ensure that its products benefit from improved manufacturing processes.

Colortrac won't get it right every time - there were issues with the SmartLF Ci 40e which we reviewed. Importantly, Colortrac now have a system in place to rapidly log such issues as they are reported and to identify, manage and fix them should they escalate into a wider problem. Anyone concerned with support issues should read Colortrac's latest press release. Much thought and hard work has gone into developing an on-line system for supporting every scanner Colortrac has ever manufactured.

Colortrac is now claiming that it can get back to a distributor anywhere in the world within 2 hours of a support ticket being raised with a preliminary acknowledgement of their request. That means that the company responsible for support in your reqion should be able to advise you in turn almost as quickly. In fact, say Colortrac, the answer to many problems will be accessible to regional distributors immediately once they have logged on. If a solution exists, they say, there is now no excuse for your Colortrac distributor not to get back to you almost immediately with an answer.

As we do not subscribe to the belief that "you get what you pay for", this development is great for anyone buying Colortrac products. We are pleased to see Colortrac voluntarily increasing its effort to build a better product and backing it up with fast and reliable global technical support - no matter how competitively priced a SmartLF scanner is!