July 19, 2001 - Reading time: ~1 minute

I-control is providing marketing solutions and web-2-print solutions to several markets.
One of the projects is a vertical market solution for real estate agencies.
Agents can upload text and images to the i-control webserver, our systems then compile a new pdf containing their local information in their own unique lay-out.

I-control is an ASP for companies like Versatel, VNU and Azlan.
We use jpg2pdf PRO to convert the uploaded images to a pdf file, this way we are able to use them within the generated pdf.

June 19, 2001 - Reading time: 6 minutes

About OK Tedi Mining Limited
OK Tedi Mining Limited ("OTML") is a Copper and Gold mining operation in the Western Province of Papua New Guinea. OTML revenues last year accounted for approximately 10% of Papua New Guinea GDP.

The problem
The following document is a synopsis of a project OTML commenced in November 2000 and identifies the very positive outcomes for the company and our Vendors.
The project scope was best described as "...a need to develop a more effective method of communicating with our Vendor Base..."
Our active Vendor database numbered over 1500 for the 14 months to February 2001. They accounted for some 56000 Purchase Orders and numerous Requests for Quotation and other facsmile expediting activity in excess of 100,000 transmissions each year. Our success rate in communicating with Vendors was less than acceptable. Our commercial documentation needed to be simplified and made more readable. Communication appeared to be all one way. The cost of our facsimile service was prohibitive.
We've used facsimile as our primary means of communicating with Vendors for some time. The facsimile process is labour intensive and requires paper documents to be handled many times by both parties. Just Imagine the cost in making 100,000 telephone calls each year, most of them metered STD/ISD and multiply that by the number of pages to be transmitted.
Our primary focus at OTML is Mining. We wished to implement a solution that would move us down the "e" path, based on software generally available both within OTML and at the Vendors' place of business. We also wanted a solution that was simple, easy to manage, provided a platform for all of our Vendors, and added value.
The biggest single hurdle was to make the solution flexible. If Vendors did not have email, Commercial documents are sent via facsimile. If Vendors had email then we wanted to send them email with the commercial documents attached.

Why txt2pdf PRO?
We wrote a piece of code (perl) that MIMS (our ERP) treats as a printer. Whenever a document is created in MIMS and that document is directed to a fax device, the perl script applies logic gathered from the ERP and determines the manner in which each document is sent. The document is included as an email attachment. The attachment is generally fixed in its format and content and secure to a point where someone would need to make a conscious effort to interfere with it.
SANFACE Software provided their software called txt2pdf that produces the PDF attachments. We originally installed the shareware version but later procured the Professional Edition to remove some advertising and enable more elaborate formatting features. The txt2pdf resides on our UNIX server. The perl script when it discovers an email message, calls the txt2pdf, includes information on the format the document should take, watermarks, font, text styles, etc., and creates a PDF attachment.
PDF was the chosen format for the attachments as ADOBE Acrobat Readers are very cheap to obtain and install. PDF documents are not readily changeable. PDF will support XML formatting in the near future that we think will provide a future development path should we choose to go that route.
One excellent spin off is that we now use the same technology (email and the SANFACE Software txt2pdf) to run our internal reports. In the past we have run periodic and ad-hoc reports to printers. We now send them to whoever initiated the request via email and in the PDF format. We now make better use of available printing resources and provide a practical and economic means of distributing information company wide or indeed globally.
The cost of the project in total amounted to 10 days of programming and system testing plus the cost of the txt2pdf application. Pay back was inside the first few weeks.

Summary
In the first three months since its introduction we have achieved the following:

• Vendors, representing 80% of our Purchase Order, RFQ and Expediting load are receiving their orders and other commercial documents by email.
• The next 75 Vendors representing up to 90% of the transactional load will be switched over to email by the end of June.
• Success rate on Vendors receiving orders has gone from 95% to 99%. The additional 1% being identified as problems we have yet to resolve internally.
• A significant reduction in our phone account based on the reduction in the number of phones calls made by the facsimile system.
• Order acknowledgments have tripled due to the ease in which email messages are able to be returned. This in itself has created a document management problem we've yet to address.
• Purchase Order duplications have reduced.
• Immediate feedback of non-receipt by the email server which uses better queuing facilities than the facsimile service.
• Vendor acceptance is high.
• We have reduced printed paper consumption both externally and internally by reducing our reliance on printed reports and making better use of the email system.

This is an example of OTML purchase order

Authors
This synopsis was compiled jointly by:

May 25, 2001 - Reading time: ~1 minute

Pixco is specialized in digital high-resolution image retouching and was one of the pioneers in europe in the eighties.
Current clients include Toyota Europe, Lexus, Levi Strauss & Co. and many advertising companies such as Saatchi & Saatchi, VVL/BBDO, Lowe Lintas, Leo Burnett, Ogilvy and many others.
Aside from the image retouching, Pixco also features a multimedia departement which focuses on digital images and more specifically storage and distribution solutions for high-res imagary. Pixco is currently developping image databases for Toyota Europe, Lexus and Levi Strauss & Co. in ColdFusion and ASP.
jpg2pdf is part of an automated system that enables client's to upload images and different resolutions and will be created automatically on the server without user intervention.

April 26, 2001 - Reading time: ~1 minute

Real Data Corp is using txt2pdf PRO

"Txt2pdf was just what we needed to solve an unusual data problem.
We are running a legacy DOS application under Citrix 1.8. We needed a way to view the reported output from this DOS application in the Citrix client window without printing it. We also needed to copy these reports in a printable format to the Windows based Citrix clients using the system. By making .pdfs out of these DOS reports on the fly under program control we could simply use Adobe 4.0 on the Citrix server as a viewer. These same .pdfs could be also copied across the Citrix link to remote Citrix clients for printing (and viewing) if desired by the user. This provided a printer independent means of printing the DOS reports on the client. Given that this is a small application with a limited budget, txt2pdf provided us with a simple affordable way to make these .pdf files and solved what was otherwise a very difficult problem .
Thank you Sanface for making this solution possible."

Irv Tolles,
President Real Data Corp

April 25, 2001 - Reading time: ~1 minute

The Oregon University System, Information Technology Services, Telecom Team produces over 20,000 telephone billing statements each month for nine state universities.
We've implemented txt2pdf PRO to replace an aging microfiche system. Using PDF's and CD-ROM's, the statements are now archived for easy retrieval, viewing, and printing.
Txt2pdf PRO helps us to do our archiving in-house, and we are able to deliver archives to our customers much more quickly.
This improves our product, saves time and money, and eliminates our customers' reliance on aging microfiche systems.