MassTransit & ExtremeZ-IP Combination "A Must" For Direct Marketer Arlington, VA - March 27, 2002 - Oriental Trading Company has adopted MassTransit and ExtremeZ-IP products from groupLogic to boost productivity and reduce printing and publishing costs. Oriental Trading is one of the Nation's leading direct marketers of value-priced novelties, toys, party supplies, crafts, gift items, home decor products and garden accents. Company employees rely on the Group Logic products to produce five distinct catalogs and web sites offering over 10,000 unique products. "We use both products every day - they're a must," observes John LaRocca, Oriental Trading's Network Administrator. Oriental Trading's print production workflow begins with Omaha, Nebraska-based graphic artists who create catalog pages, and then quickly extends to external service providers in St. Louis, Missouri and Minneapolis, Minnesota. LaRocca notes, "Both MassTransit and ExtremeZ-IP play a huge role in our everyday operations." LaRocca relies on ExtremeZ-IP, Group Logic's file and print server software that uses the TCP/IP protocol to increase throughput as much as sixfold between Macintosh clients and Microsoft Windows servers, to support local staff. LaRocca prefers ExtremeZ-IP to native Windows file server support for Macintosh clients, observing, "ExtremeZ-IP is so much easier to use. It mounts Mac volumes right away and makes the Macintosh network more accessible." Once catalogs are complete, Oriental Trading turns to MassTransit to electronically dispatch graphics files to the external shops tasked with creation of negatives for printing. By sending files over high-speed T1 network links, the company speeds production and eliminates the cost of overnight couriers. LaRocca calculates that "MassTransit more than pays for itself in only two to three months." MassTransit's automation capabilities also boost productivity. "When the outside companies send us back a proof of the negatives, MassTransit automatically submits the file to a RIP and prints the file," says LaRocca. "MassTransit also places the file into a folder so the appropriate person can see when a file they’ve been waiting for has arrived," he adds.