Pictures of the New Office site

Contributed by Farzana Rasheed

NATC is soon going to relocate from above Master Trading on Randall Street to a loft-style office space also on Randall Street (Exact location is being kept under wraps until the grand opening). We have acquired the services of Miata Jones Design Lab to provide a modern and creative design for the new space and oversee its complete implementation. 

Below are some pictures of the new space. As you can see, we just have a basic structure which needs everything from flooring to ceiling and electricals to plumbing. It is a significant challenge however it also gives us the opportunity to create a space that matches the ambitions of our company. 

Together with Miata Jones Design Lab we have come up with a sophisticated concept for the new office space which will be a first for Monrovia. 

This space is going to give us more space to house our IT services office, hardware repairs workshop, and a show-room for the products we will be selling. However, these sales will be institutional for our existing and future clients. Hence, these will not be over-the-counter sales. We will also have an executive office, a conference room, and a seating area for guests and visitors. 

The space will be decorated with a very modern outlook that will reflect a high-tech IT company but also try to incorporate images and motifs from Liberia. The office and flow of the space will be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing. 

We are extremely excited about moving out of our cozy but small office and expanding into a bigger and more sophisticated space that we are working hard to bring to life.

The new NATC office will not only be the symbol of our company's growth and success but also of our future aspirations as Liberia's premier IT company and later into the rest of Africa. 

So dear friends, please stand by for about 6 weeks to experience a brand new IT showroom which could never be possible without your support and patronage. A formal invitation will go out to all of you for the grand opening sometime in October 2011. We look forward to seeing you there!

Paper Feeder Assembly And Cassette Paper Pick Roller

Contributed by Haresh Karamchandani

A client recently called and complained that their HP5550dn Multi Function Printer was not functioning well. We visited the site and found that the Printer was giving error message 13:01:00 Paper Jam in tray 1. We went online to check what this error message meant and learnt that the problem could be with the Cassette Paper Pickup Rollers or Paper Feeder Assembly.

We opened up the Printer and discovered that the client had inserted a Cyan Toner Cartridge WITHOUT removing the seal!! This caused the ink in the cartridge to overflow all over the mechanism of the printer. The whole printer was polluted with the Cyan ink and it took us 2 hours to carefully open the printer and blow out the ink and clean wherever possible.

Some ink had entered inside the Paper Feeder Assembly and jammed the gears. We cleaned the gears and sensors and tried to take a printout. The printer worked, but only for one printout! The machine has been brought to our workshop and we have opened up the Paper Feeder Assembly to check what the problem may be. We discovered that due to the ink jamming the gears and sensor the PFA has started to malfunction and cannot be repaired.

We have ordered a new PFA from HP USA along with a complete maintenance kit to replace some Cassette Paper Pickup Rollers that have worn out.

The parts will be shipped via Fedex and should be arriving in about 10 days time. Once we replace them the Printer will be up and running.

What amazes and amuses me is that clients are so naïve that they make such errors which end up costing them so much money and trouble. If they would have carefully removed the seal from the Cyan Cartridge this problem would not have risen! Also the client has been using a Fake cartridge which was pointed out to them. They have ordered a set of genuine cartridges which will be installed in the printer before delivery.  

Free Parking on Randall Street!

Contributed by Haresh Karamchandani

Photographs by Cecelia Cooper

One of the youths hired by the MCC to collect parking fees.
Randall Street

Corner of Randall and Benson Street

Randall Street

Randall Street

Corner of Centre and Carey Streets

Center and Carey Street

Center Street

Recently some contractors were seen around the major streets of Monrovia, painting lines for parking and zebra crossings and building concrete shoulders for the intersections. I was impressed as this would make parking around town more disciplined and neat. Then they came up with parking tickets! LD50.00 for up to an hour. They would charge LD50.00 (Roughly 0.75 US Cents) even if you stop your vehicle to offload or load goods for 10 minutes.

There have been lots of protests and newspaper articles but the Government is determined to enforce the new system and is succeeding at it. We hope the revenue generated is put to good use to improve the general condition of the city of Monrovia eventually.

The good news is that we have acquired a new swanky showroom space on Randall Street, with PRIVATE PARKING! Yes, you heard it right, private parking for all our existing clients and new potential clients. They would have to drive in and park free of cost not worrying about the MCC boys harassing them for the LD50.00.

The renovation work has begun and Farzana will be posting some entries with photographs on the stage wise development as the work progresses. We expect to have the grand opening sometime mid October.

Until then we have offered to redeem all parking tickets by refunding the cash to our clients if they are visiting our office on Randall Street.