'Working with Aster saves us a lot of time'
Zoeterwoude-based Zig Zag Forms is a printing company specialising in the production of carbonless forms, including for the logistics sector. Director Ferry Szabo wants to focus on his core business and is entrusting the automation to Aster.
A truck parks in front of Zig Zag Forms‘ supplier entrance. In the trailer are meter-thick rolls of white and coloured paper. Before long, this paper will find its way to Zig Zag Forms customers, but in the form of shipping documents, packing slips, claim forms and many other documents. Other rolls of paper end up as till receipts in shops or breakdown slips at installation companies.
Tablet
“The forms we produce have one thing in common,” says director Ferry Szabo. “They serve as evidence. For example, for the transfer of goods or recording an agreement. Thanks to the print-through, all parties have the same information, which means the information is valid from a legal point of view.”
“The great advantage of paper,” Ferry continued, “is that it never malfunctions. So even installation companies that work primarily with tablets use our forms as a backup, for example, if the tablet is out of range or broken.”
Automation
At Zig Zag Forms, all their time and attention goes into producing forms and keeping the print shop running efficiently. But to remain successful, continued development of automation and digitisation is also very important. A professional IT partner is therefore an absolute necessity.
Ferry: “I want to be concerned only with our core business, not with connections, servers and updates. In the past, we spent thousands of unbooked hours a year on hardware and automation. And even with that, staying up to date was a challenge. As a printer, even with a full-time IT person on staff, you can never compete with the knowledge and experience of a professional IT party.”
'Working with Aster saves us a lot of time'
Cloud
Aster has been responsible for IT management and digitisation of the work environment since 2011. The collaboration began with transferring the physical telephone system to a VoIP environment. A few years after that, Aster brought the work environment to the cloud.
“We had a number of break-ins in the distant past,” Ferry looks back. “These also involved theft of computers, and a lot of damage was done to our servers. It then took days to get everything going again. That was one of the reasons for moving to the cloud with Aster. They handle hosting, backups, updates and security.”
Proactive
“We have absolutely nothing to worry about, thanks in part to Aster’s proactive attitude. They come up with ideas. And if I suggest something myself, it is quickly implemented. If something fails, there is an immediate emergency solution and it is fixed in no time. Working with Aster just saves us an awful lot of time. And, perhaps surprisingly, also money. Because yes, of course you pay for external IT management. But also remember what the cost would be if you did all this yourself.”
“The most important thing,” Ferry concludes, “is the match between people. Aster communicates clearly and is always open to feedback. I feel I have a lot of room to offer tips for improvement. Then the response is: we’re glad you’ve point that out, we’ll get to work on it. That results in very good cooperation