Asite’s cloud platform, Adoddle, is selected as Product of the Year

From a post in the news section of Asite’s web-site:

It's official… Adoddle 17 is Product of the Year and Document & Content Management Product 2014!

Asite’s revolutionary cloud platform Adoddle, is selected as Product of the Year. This was bolstered with Document & Content Management Product 2014, at an award ceremony hosted by the Construction Computing Awards in London last week.

Link to complete post:

http://www.asite.com/newsroom/news-room-view/its-official-adoddle-17-is-product-of-the-year-and-document-content-managem

Newforma and NRI Partner to Promote Construction Team Collaboration

From a Press Release on Newforma’s web-site:

Project information management software company’s SmartUse app shows full-size plans on interactive touch screens from AEC tech solutions provider

Las Vegas, Nev., U.S.A.—3 December 2014—Newforma, a project information management (PIM) software company transforming building and infrastructure project delivery, today announced it has partnered with NRI, the New York-based leader in digital, print and technology equipment solutions to the AEC industry, to promote construction team collaboration through the viewing and interactive mark-up of full-size plans on large, interactive screens.

Link to Press Release:

http://www.newforma.com/newforma-and-nri-partner-to-promote-construction-team-collaboration/

Seasons Greetings to all ... and predictions for 2015

Seasons Greetings to all.

May the year 2015 bring good health, great happiness, and, for my friends in and around the reprographics industry, great prosperity.

My predictions for 2015 (not really!):

The Dow Jones Index will either rise to above 21,000 .... or fall to below 14,000.  (Or, it may do both!  What do economists know that I don't know?, and WTF do I care, anyway?)

Sarah Palin will announce her run for President of the U.S. ...and announce that Michele Bachmann will be her running mate.  We definitely need this to happen!  There's been too little humor the past year!

Canon/OCE will announce that it has developed its own page-wide wide-format print technology (non-Memjet) that will print b/w and color twice as fast as HP's PageWide wide-format printers will print and do so at half the cost of HP's PageWide wide-format printers ... but that its new printers won't be ready for release until the latter part of 2016.

The IRgA will issue a directive to its members that no member company may any longer use the word "blueprint" or the words "blue print" in their company names.

John Oliver's "Last Week Tonight" show on HBO will become the most widely respected investigative news show on cable.  (As it so deserves!)

Amazon.com will announce its new service - "Amazon.Amazon.Amazon.FKGeverything", where you can buy any GD thing you want and get immediate, free delivery via drone, provided that the delivery address is not near an airport.

Reprographers who still offer free delivery will wake up and realize that nothing in life is free (with, perhaps, the exception of air) ... and begin charging for delivery.

Apple will announce iHome.  All ya gotta do when you walk in the house is say stuff like:  a) I want dinner, b) I want the house to be cleaned, c) I want my bills paid, d) I want the lawn cut (or watered), e) I want to watch TV, f) etc., g) etc.  Couch potatoes celebrate; with Apple iHome, you won't have to do anything yourself, at all.  Apple will guarantee that iHome will actually listen to you and react to your commands (something your spouse or significant other will never do.)

Germany-based go4copy.net - a reprographics "cooperative" (comments updated)

(Note:  updated comments appear at the end of the post)

Yesterday, Ed Avis, Managing Director of the IRgA, put up a post on IRgA.com announcing that a Germany-based “cooperative” has become a member of the IRgA.

At the beginning of that post, here’s what Ed says:

The German, Swiss, and Austrian reprographics cooperative go4copy.net has joined IRgA. The cooperative, which was formed by the German reprographics association Motio, is comprised of 65 members. 

Here’s a link to the complete post:

http://www.irga.com/blogs/Repro-Industry-News/german-group-go4copy.net-joins-irga/

Being curious about a “cooperative” of reprographers – i.e., what that’s all about - I visited go4copy’s web-site, using Google Translate to translate German to English.  Below, you will find some of the information I found on go4copy’s web-site.

But, first, a couple of comments:

Apparently, this – go4copy.net - is actually a real-live cooperative, rather than just an association.  In the sense that even though there are 65 member companies in the cooperative, all independently owned, the member companies, apparently, do not compete with each other, rather, they join together to serve customers whose businesses operate in and around Germany, Austria and Switzerland.  Apparently, for larger customers who may need the services of go4copy members in different parts of the region, go4copy will put together a “framework” agreement, and, under this sort of agreement, prices for services - ordered by any customer with a framework agreement – from any go4copy member company – will be the same.  That’s an interesting level of cooperation, for sure.  Perhaps ReproMAX and RSA Corp offer a similar arrangement to larger customers in the U.S. who operate in multiple markets?  I’ve never heard of that happening, but, then again, how would I know for sure.

Here’s some of the  info on go4copynet’s web-site that I translated:

The company go4copy.net eG

go4copy.net stands for professional services such as digital printing, copying, plotting, finishing (laminating / laminating) and more. Our operations are professionals in dealing with digital information.

Acquisition and transmission of data, scanning, document management and archiving, as well as project-based document management, can we manage everything for you - with high quality, with dedicated staff and a contact person.

Our company blanket coverage for you at over 70 operating locations in Germany and Austria.

With the "Federation of European Reprographic Associations" (Eu-re) merged business colleagues in Europe, we work just as intense as the "International Reprographic Association" (IRGA), whose members execute your orders in North and South America professionally.

Framework agreements with go4copy.net eG

Our framework contracts offer coverage a binding description of services and uniform prices and a web-based 24-hour order system.

Our strength: 70 million euro annual sales

The combined in go4copy.net service companies have a combined annual turnover of 70 million euros - a sound and economically strong group!

Over 800 professionals in 70 locations

go4copy.net farms are run by owners. They guarantee, commitment, punctuality and flexibility. In go4copy.net establishments operate over 800 trained professionals. Our members are training companies and have hundreds of young people as "media designer, specializing in media technology" enables a future-proof training.

Certified Quality Management »REQM"

All go4copy.net-businesses operate under the strict quality standard "REQM" of the trade association copy & Media Technology eV Compliance with this standard is monitored by the go4copy.net eG.

Credentials

Nationwide framework contracts

•  Siemens AG

•  German Railroad, Inc.

•  Ed. Züblin AG / Strabag

•  Allianz AG Germany

•  Kaufland goods Handel GmbH & Co. KG

•  Max Bögl Bauservice GmbH & Co. KG

•  d & b-Bau GmbH

Selected Projects

•  Cologne Arena (Esch group)

•  Rhein Energie Stadion (Cologne)

•  Exhibition Halls Cologne-Deutz (Esch group)

•  ICE line from Cologne to Frankfurt (German Railways)

•  Cologne-Bonn Airport Terminal 2 (Cologne-Bonn airport)

•  Media Park Cologne

•  Nuremberg Messe

•  Franken Stadium Nuremberg (proper operation Frankenstadium)

•  Maglev Munich (German Railways)

•  Dusseldorf Airport (airport company)

•  MSV Duisburg Arena (MSV Duisburg)

•  Stuttgart 21 (German Railways)

•  New Stuttgart Trade Fair (Projektges. "New Mass")

•  Sparkassen AG v -. New headquarters

•  IKEA furniture store Kamen (IKEA)

•  Clinics Gelsenkirchen

•  Air Freight Leipzig-Halle (Leipzig-Halle Airport)

•  New university campus Leipzig (State Sächs. Immobilen- and Construction Management)

•  State Central Bank BaWü

•  Munich Airport Terminal 2

go4copy.net eG

Fürstenbergerstraße 151

60322 Frankfurt

Tel .: 069-95 96 36 40

Fax: 069-95 96 36 11

go4copy.net

Follow-up comments, based on input from someone – in Europe - who knows a lot more about go4copy.net than I do:

Apparently, go4copy.net’s members do, regularly, compete with each other for business.

While go4copy.net may, in fact, have “framework” (pricing) agreements with major customers, those customers are also doing business with non-go4copy reprographers, and it may well be that the other reprographers are actually doing more business with those major customers than go4copy members are doing with those major customers.