Sytech Supplies // We are a leading importer, distributor and reseller of wide format digital printers, vinyl cutting plotters, CNC routers & engravers, digital print vinyl, colour sign vinyl, outdoor display solutions, dye sublimation systems & equipment, solvent inks, flexible PVC substrates, PVC signex board, tensioning systems and graphic design software.
We are the official African brand partners and importers of products by West End Products of Georgia in the USA, Graphtec Corporation in Europe, Metamark in the UK, Viccam CNC routers & engravers in China and LG Chem. We are also an authorized reseller of Roland wide format digital printers. Through innovative marketing and strong client relations, we consistently sell 40% of all wide format digital printers in our area of operation.
We are based in the city of Durban on the east coast of South Africa - the city that has the busiest marine port in Southern Africa. From here we have managed to build a strong brand presence in every major city in South Africa. Our footprint also covers several other African countries.
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Is it too late to catch up?
What if your organization or your client has done nothing?
What if they've just watched the last fourteen years go by? No real website, no social media, no permission assets. What if now they're ready and they ask your advice? And, by the way, they have no real cash to spend...
Here's a list of my top ten things to consider doing:
- Use gmail to give every person in the organization that can read English an email address.
- Use a free website creating tool or even Squidoo to build a page about your company. Nothing fancy, but list your locations, your people (with addresses) and make it clear you want to hear from people.
- Start an email newsletter using Mad Mimi or Mail Chimp. Give the responsibility for the newsletter's creation and performance to one person and offer them a bonus if they exceed metrics in sign ups and in reducing churn.
- Start a book group for your top executives and every person who answers the phone, designs a product or interacts with customers. Read a great online media book a week and discuss. It'll take you about a year to catch up.
- Offer a small bonus to anyone in the company who starts and runs a blog on any topic. Have them link to your company site, with an explanation that while they work there, they don't speak for you.
- Have the president post her (real) email address in every invoice and other communication the company sends out, asking people to write to her with comments or questions.
- Start a newsletter for your vendors. Email them regular updates about what you're doing, what's selling and what problems are going on internally that they might be able to help you with.
- Do not approve any project that isn't run on Basecamp.
- Get a white board and put it in the break room. On it, have someone update: how many people subscribe to the newsletter, how many people visit the website, how many inbound requests come in by phone, how long it takes customer service to answer an email and how often your brand names are showing up on Twitter every day.
- Don't have any meetings about your web strategy. Just do stuff. First you have to fail, then you can improve.
- Refuse to cede the work to consultants. You don't outsource your drill press or your bookkeeping or your product design. If you're going to catch up, you must (all of you) get good at this, and you only accomplish that by doing it.
The problem is no longer budget. The problem is no longer access to tools.
The problem is the will to get good at it.
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Posted by Seth Godin on December 03, 2009 | Permalink
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This company started trading by selling adhesive vinyl in metres out of a tiny garage in a suburb West of Durban in 1992. Since then, the company has come a long way in servicing the signage, digital graphics and display industry. The company’s current range of products include wide format digital printers, adhesive vinyl, CNC routers, cutting plotters, PVC and other flexi substrates, heat transfer media, outdoor display solutions, PVC signex board, dye sublimation products, liquid de-identification products andsoftware.
In 2003 the company set up a national distributor network that ensures their products and services reach every major city in South Africa. Technicians travel extensively to maintain, repair and service equipment sold by Sytech Supplies. However, despite all the travelling and nationwide shipping of products, the Sytech Supplies brand remained pretty much a Durban-based one.
All that is changing in December 2009, when Sytech Supplies opens its first branch outside Durban – in Port Elizabeth.
In a move toward building a truly South African signage and graphics suplier brand, Sytech Supplies has just taken the first of several step in that direction. “From December the beautiful coastal city of Port Elizabeth will be our second home”. says Arthur Van Wyk, Sytech’s head of Brand Marketing. He jokingly adds that the reason for going to Port Elizabeth first (as opposed to Johannesburg) is because“it’s windy there and we hope that wind will blow us to the rest of the country”.
The new Sytech Supplies offices will open on 1 December 2009. Managing this new branch isColin Rishworth (pictured). Colin is himself asigns & graphics veteran who has been active in the industry since 1988. Colin, like many big names in the industry, started out as the guy that sold you a machine and also the guy that fixed and serviced it. Colin and his staff are just as excited as the Durban-based contingent about this move.
When asked about the company’s expansion plans, CEO Malcolm Groger reckoned: “Sytech Supplies has a vast number of customers around South Africa using the company’s products, and to improve our service levels and value offering to these customers we decided to open in Port Elizabeth in December and in Johannesburg early in the new year”.
For orders and enquiries, Sytech Supplies Port Elizabeth can be contacted on 041 360 2760 orsales@sytechsupplies.com
Regards
| Arthur C. Van Wyk Sytech Supplies Brand Evangelist | ||||
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| Leading Supplier to the Signage and Graphics Industry Check out the Sytech Supplies Google CV READ THE LATEST SIGNAGE INDUSTRY NEWS HERE | ||||
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