Al Mawakeb Schools’ in-house Document Center powered with the latest Xerox® Production Technology

Technology is transforming the way we live and the education sector is not far behind to adopt the latest technologies. Today, digital on – demand printing has become a vital part of the Education sector where institutions are investing in the latest technology to quickly & easily produce education materials & varied content while maintaining the highest quality & controls.   Academia Management Solutions International (AMSI) is a Dubai based, private education solutions & consultancy provider with over 35 years of experience across all aspects of school project development & management.

Academia Management Solutions International (AMSI) is a collaboration of academicians & educators who bring together a wealth of experience & international expertise with a passion for the education industry & what they do. Today, AMSI manages a number of schools regionally including the successful models of Al Mawakeb Schools & the International School of Arts & Sciences (ISAS) in UAE. Al Mawakeb School – Al Garhoud, Dubai was established in 1979 delivering a tri-lingual teaching program & internationally recognized for its advanced e-learning curriculum. In 1997, Al Mawakeb School inaugurated it’s second school with the state–of–the art facilities in Al Barsha, Dubai & has developed a leading reputation for its University placement programs.   AMSI is dedicated to raising the standard of education in its community & provide high quality education to over 200,000 students regionally.

AMSI recognized early the importance of innovation and technological advancements for effective education delivery. AMSI has always strategically partnered with organizations who share their passion & leadership & with this in mind, the management invested in Xerox Technology for a cost effective in-house digital print environment. Its schools’ printing requirements  included complex applications such as course packs, textbooks, examination papers, training manuals, newsletters, reports, circulars, parent information booklets, brochures etc.

AMSI & Xerox Emirates worked closely together to upgrade the entire production printing setup to develop a full-fledged in–house production class document center for the schools run & managed by them.

“AMSI & Xerox Emirates share a long standing business relationship of over 15 years. Having worked closely with the school’s management & the operations team, we understand their objectives of imparting a high quality education to their students & also recognized their need for an efficient & effective printing environment to achieve their bigger goals. The Xerox team assessed the critical requirements of the school & put together a solution that will take care of their current & future needs. The bottom line was to deliver the right fit solution that would eliminate all their printing concerns and allow AMSI & the school to focus on their core tasks”, says Andrew Horne, General Manager of Xerox Emirates.

“When we decided to upgrade the school’s printing center infrastructure we had no doubts about Xerox’s capability to present the best in class solution that would meet our requirements. In addition to providing the digital printing presses & the associated software solution, Xerox Emirates also provided a 360 degree printing consultancy followed by an extensive operator & user training that enabled us to eliminate wastage, save costs, reduce downtime and increase our overall productivity”, says Mr. George Akhras, CIO, AMSI.

As per Mr. Akhras, “The entire print room has been upgraded with the latest digital production presses from Xerox. The school has invested in the Xerox flagship  iGen® 150 press,Xerox® Color Press 1000i with the 5th Colour Option for the Production Colour printing requirements, the Xerox® Nuvera®144 and the D110 production mono devices for the B&W printing requirements.”

It is not just about digital presses. He further added, “The Xerox Emirates Production specialists also helped evaluate, recommend & supply the right post-press finishing solutions required for the AMSI Document Center. The digital production printing engines are complemented with an array of finishing devices for stapling, punching, laminating, spiral binding and booklet making as well as PUR binding equipment. 

The complete end to end solution from pre-press to digital printing to finishing has resulted in the enhancement of the overall functionalities & colour management capabilities of the center which has resulted in a significant increase in the productivity and overall quality of the printed materials.”

The new solution has enabled AMSI to use the document center for a variety of new applications as well. It now caters for the printing & publishing of the schools’ entire customized education content, personalized and customized examination paper sets for complete confidentiality & security, schools’ guides & new student packs, student yearbooks, and other school printing collaterals such as writing pads, conference brochures etc. The ability to print in-house has also resulted in a large percentage of content being now developed & created in house. 

Due to the detailed assessment & understanding of the needs of the schools by the Xerox Emirates team, the new setup now has redundancy built-in to take care of peak production times; it also has eliminated manual and repetitive steps in the prepress process resulting in reduced errors & reduction in the turnaround times resulting in reduced costs and increased efficiency.

The Xerox® iGen® 150 press with the automated Color Maintenance Tool and the Inline Spectrophotometer takes the manual intervention out of the calibration process and delivers outstanding color the first time. This automated process eliminates unnecessary maintenance procedures resulting in increased uptime. 

By investing in the Xerox® Color Press 1000i, AMSI Document Center is now able to achieve high quality finishing with automated stapling, folding and creasing features that are very cost – effective, save on manual labor significantly and is used print on demand. Xerox® Color Press 1000 printing at 100 pages per minute for up to 350 gsm media, includes many exciting innovations such as belt fusing and a seamless transfer belt to provide advanced image quality, expanded gamut and productivity, as well as stability and reliability, which are key to short run on demand printing as well as added value applications such as personalized variable data printing. 

Xerox® Nuvera®144 is powered by the Xerox® Integrated PLUS Finishing Solution for Booklets and is enabled with the Xerox® exclusive, C.P. Bourg Dual-Mode Sheet Feeder that allows selected finishing devices to be set up automatically, through JDF instructions, whether or not they are attached to a specific printer. Productivity is essential to achieving a great return on equipment investments and this machine meets all the right requirements and guarantees substantial ROI.

While workflow automation and finishing are taken care of, AMSI Document Center is also substantially benefiting from the Xerox® D110 Printer which is especially adept in transactional workflows. It allows them to print books, booklets, manuals, presentations, brochures and other high-value applications with color covers, tabs and more. Its choice of high speeds and expansive media capacity ensure that it can handle the large volumes required for applications such as books.

AMSI also has a strong sustainable approach to their operations and kept this point in consideration during the upgrade process. Going Green is one of the key values in AMSI’s DNA and their sustainability practices include usage of certified paper, printing only on demand which eliminates wastage, run multiple activities that help raise sustainability awareness with staff, students and the community.

Overall, for AMSI and its Schools, this technology upgrade with Industry Best Post Sales Service Support in the UAE by Xerox Emirates has ensured a significant increase in productivity, quality, redundancy resulting in better cost economics and operational efficiencies. This has given them the ability to offer a better quality education in the UAE & the region.

To know more about AMSI and its schools’ success story, Xerox digital solutions for the education vertical and the printing industry, please email to [email protected]