Optimalprint Blog

Listen to Steve Jobs commencement speech at Standford

Steve Jobs talks about 3 things. A. "Connecting the dots..." B. Love what you do. C. Death.

"If you live each day as if it was you're last someday you most certainly be right".

Look at the Steve Jobs commencement speech at Stanford University (2005)

Steve Jobs final words of widom - Stay Hungry Stay Foolish.

Steve Jobs is the CEO of Apple, which he co-founded in 1976. Steve is also co-founded Pixar Animation Studios, which has created eight of the most successful and beloved animated films of all time: Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars and Ratatouille. Pixar has grossed more than $4 billion at the worldwide box office to date. Pixar merged with The Walt Disney Company in 2006 and Steve now serves on Disney's board of directors.

If you have an eyesight disorder the Optimalprint-team want to do everything possible to improve your online experience. Various browser settings can be done in order to make your life on the Internet better and more fun - here is a quick guide. Drop me a mail if you have comments on this Browser Guide.

Hide Pictures
For some people with eyesight disabilities there exists sensitivity for light, especially blinking light. Here is how to turn these type of images off.
1. Select Tool (ALT+T) > Internet Alternatives (O) in Internet Explorer’s menu.
2. Select the Advance Settings (ALT+TAB) in the pop-up for Internet Alternatives.
3. Under Settings: Multimedia, go to Show Pictures (via keyboard use your arrow buttons.)
4. Select ”Hide Pictures” by un-selecting the checkbox (Space).
5. Click on OK (ENTER) to save your new settings.

Ignore colours, fonts or font size – Set your own formats
1. Select Tool (ALT+T) > Internet Alternatives (O) in Internet Explorer’s menu.
2. Select Tools at the bottom.
3. Click in the squares for ignoring colours on web pages, settings for font size and font types specified by the web pages.
4. You can also choose to format the web browser via your own format template.

Chose colour on text & background
To increase contrast on your computer screen you can select another colour on both text and background. If you chose to ignore colours, font size and font type as was described above you can decide text colour or background in order to facilitate for you when reading on a computer screen.

1. Select Tool (ALT+T) Internet Alternative (O) in Internet Explorer’s menu.
2. Select Color (ALT+O) under General in the pop-up.
3. Chose not to use Window’s colours (ALT+W) this will make the text and the background buttons show.
4. Select Text (T) or Background (B).
5. A colour scale will be displayed.
6. Select a colour. Use the arrow buttons to move around and view the different colours. When you find a colour you like either click on it or press ”SPACE”.
7. Press OK twice or press ENTER twice
8. Close the pop-up for Internet Alternatives by clicking OK or press ”Escape”.

Now use your settings on the web page instead of the settings made by the once that created the site. You can in addition change size and colour settings also on the graphics.

Select link colours
The Optimalprint links that you have visited can be highlighted in a special colour to easily separate them from the Optimalprint links that you have not visited, making navigation on new web sites easier.
1. Select Tool (ALT+T) > Internet Alternative (O) i Internet Explorer’s menu.
2. Select Colors (ALT+O) in the pop-up under General.
3. Select ”Usel inks” or ”Not Use Links” under Links.
4. The colour scale is now displayed.
5. Select a colour either by using your mouse or the arrow buttons. Select by
6. Select OK twice or press ENTER twice
7. Close pop-up for Internet Alternative by clicking OK or press on Escape.

This pop-up also offers the opportunities to display links in a different colour as your mouse hovers above them or points at links which help people with eye sight disabilities to quickly identify links.

Automatic complement
For some people, using the keyboard can be a difficult task. You can then select Complement Automatically filling out personal information such as name, e-mail address, address and so on automatically.
1. Select Tool (ALT+T) > Internet Alternative (O) i Internet Explorer’s menu.
2. Select Content (CTRL+TAB).
3. Once on ”Content” Select Complement Automatically under Personal Information (ALT+U).
4. You can select Complement Automatically for web-addresses by selecting in the pop-up or close the function by deleting the pre-inserted information. You can turn web-addresses on and of by clicking on (A).
5. Close the pop-up for Internet Alternative by pressing OK or click on Escape.

Microsoft Help Files
Microsoft offers help files that show how to change the different settings. In addition Microsoft also offers a help files as text only versions for mouse and keyboard usage. Go to Microsoft Office Support and access text files.

Good luck!

PRESS RELEASE

Oslo, Norway — September 27, 2007 — Optimalprint today announced that Christer Elmehagen, CEO of AMF Pension, a very successful € 28 Billion Pension Company in Sweden, joins Optimalprint as Chairman of the Board. AMF Pension is the seventh largest owner on the Stockholm Stock Exchange.

“Christer brings an incredible wealth of knowledge and wisdom to Optimalprint. During the last 30 years, he has held various top-management positions in large multinational companies such as Ericsson AB as well as within the non-profit business community as Vice President of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprises. We are excited and honoured that Christer has chosen Optimalprint as one of his first private sector boards to serve on,” said Henrik Müller-Hansen, Optimalprint’s CEO. “Christer’s extraordinary credentials and broad experience will significantly complement the management team in developing the growth strategy and executing on our aggressive expansion.”

“Henrik and his team have done an amazing job in building Optimalprint, from nothing, to one of Europe’s fastest growing online printing companies in less than 6 months. I have been particularly impressed with how much the team has accomplished with extremely limited financial resources,” said Christer Elmehagen. “The company’s commitment to construct a user-friendly, and fully automated ordering and production process for online printing, results in a fascinating business opportunity and considerable customer growth without increasing the production input factors.”

Optimalprint offers online printing services to all of Europe. This online printing company has since launch, March 2007, grown to become one of the most visited sites for online printing services in Europe . Optimalprint ignites the traditional, and in many aspects, inefficient printing industry, by minimizing human interactions in the printing production process. Optimalprint is committed to bringing the best online printing experience to individuals and professionals throughout the European market, through its innovative software, customer service and Internet offerings.

Press Contacts:
Optimalprint
Henrik Müller-Hansen
The UK: +44 20 8133 2771
Norway: +47 21 30 21 00
info@optimalprint.com

HOLD ON.... this is a longer than average blog, but there is a reason for it - start reading.

A McKinsey survey of marketing executives conclude that companies, around the globe, now more actively include online tools as essential components of their marketing strategies. However, the executives also point out that they use digital tools less frequent than their importance actually suggest. Main reasons for a less active role in the online community than actually preferred are:

The Power of Social-networking!
If you have ever worked with social networking, you know the immense power of blogs, release of online articles, user forums and much more. Economist released an article this week - "Social-networking and video-sharing sites are booming" - in which they state that YouTube has more than 200 copycats only in China (10% of these are backed by venture capital). Here is China's response to YouTube - Todou.

How do you get started with Social-networking?
Well, that's actually a good topic for my next blog, but until then take a look at this Keyword tool supported by Aroon Wall. In Aaron's Keyword tool you type in any word and out comes a VERY info-heavy table with links to all blogs, articles, tagging, forums, news about this subject. Your challenge is now to identify the discussion groups and topics that you want to actively contribute to. You will quickly find that this type of active engagement, not only improves your knowledge about customers, suppliers and investors but you also regain some of the control you feel that you lost with the explosion of social networking.

I will give another example; try Serph and type in your company name. Serph will, within seconds, provide users with a list to all blogs, user forums and you have it, that display what customer all over the world have to say about your services and your brand – pretty intriguing and energizing!

Executives interviewed by McKinsey comments on the Social-networking trend
”Collaborative tools such as blogs, wikis, and social networks are being used in advertising, product development, and customer service. At the simplest level, for instance, 22 percent of the respondents say that their companies host user forums for customers to help one another. Just over a third of all survey respondents—and just over half of those whose companies advertise online—say that their companies use some kind of collaborative or interactive tool to advertise. About 22 percent are using these tools for customer retention, which fits into the common understanding that they help build relationships between customers and companies. More interestingly, nearly as many respondents, 19 percent, use collaborative tools primarily for brand building. The enthusiasm for experimenting with these tools is clear: more than a third of the respondents don’t know what marketing objective their investments in collaboration and interactivity serve, yet some 15 percent of companies’ online-advertising budgets go to such tools.”

All decisions you take in business are faced with basic uncertainty, effective managers approach problems by interlocking probabilities. Your primary goal should be to gather accurate business information and scrutinize it carefully.

The former US Treasury Secretary and Goldman Sachs executive Robert E. Rubin wrote in his memoirs "Once you've internalised the concept that you can't prove anything in absolute terms, life becomes all the more about odds, chances, and trade-offs. In a world without provable truths, the only way to refine the probabilities that remain is through greater knowledge and understanding".

Talking to your customer... is gathering accurate business information directly from the source that is feeding your shareholders.

Since my last post, 4 Rules About Customers, I have been engaged in different e-mail discussions. One e-mail correspondent has been Bruce Judson, author of "Go It Alone" (HarperCollins, 2004), an award winning book for entrepreneurs and has now founded a new service for growing businesses and nonprofits called Free For Today.

Bruce's Comment: Add a rule # 5 - Make your customers feel smart
In my 1st rule, I discussed the need to always (no matter the size of your company) talk directly to your customers. Bruce wants to add a "Rule # 5 - Make your customers feel smart". Agree with you Bruce.... everyone likes to feel smart . But in order to understand what will make your customers feel smart, you must know them. Thus, for us to deliver on rule #5 - Make your customers feel smart, we must talk to our customers.

So, if there are any shareholder-friendly business people still thinking customer service does not need significant amount of attention - here is a final remark - leave this chat and go call a customer!