Johnson & Johnson has standardised its office automation equipment with Xerox through Cape Town based Oxbow and Bytes Document Solutions (BDS). BDS is Xerox’s largest distributor in the world and a wholly-owned division of JSE-listed Altron.
Johnson & Johnson’s South African head office and pharmaceutical manufacturing plant is situated in Retreat, Cape Town. The Company also has a second manufacturing plant in East London and sales offices in Johannesburg and Durban. The switch to Xerox meant scouting for the best Xerox suppliers not only for Cape Town but for its East London and Johannesburg too.
“We consulted a number of different suppliers but only Oxbow, together with Bytes Document Solutions, came close to what we needed as a company of 1,000-plus on-site employees,” says Johnson & Johnson IT Specialist Sean Nomdoe.
“Whereas most suppliers presented us with little more than box-drop options, Oxbow and Bytes Document Solutions developed a comprehensive strategic solution that would significantly advance our office automation capabilities,” he says. “They also suggested numerous value added services, such as scan-to-email that have today become the mainstay of our operations.”
“We are a highly regulated company in a highly regulated industry, and as such have strict protocols for every aspect of our business,” he says. “A large part of that is the printing and signing of documents – both physically and electronically –”
To date the company has invested in 14 multifunction Xerox machines of different configurations and capabilities. It has also invested in numerous copiers for its national branches, and has recently moved from an outright purchase plan to a rental maintenance plan in order to ensure continuity and technology currency.
“Different Xerox digital multifunction printers can be configured to suit different environments depending on the application,” says Hannes Kotze, Oxbow sales director. “Because we invest as much in our customer relationships as we do in the equipment we supply them, we can walk the talk when it comes to finding optimal business solutions to keep them current, productive and most importantly, competitive.”
Nomdoe says the transition from an ownership to a rental and maintenance model was even more seamless than the switch to Xerox, mainly because of the personal interaction with Oxbow.
“When we have meetings they’re face to face, and regular enough to highlight any issues we may have or additional requirements we have from the technology,” he says.
“In almost every case, issues that are raised at the meetings are also solved at the meetings, often with same-day resolution, and at most it takes that week to come up with solutions to more complex issues. It’s a relationship built on trust and consistent delivery, which makes the value of the equipment – which is industry leading in itself – even more apparent.”