Kumba Resources has awarded one of the largest tenders in the business technology industry exclusively to Bidvest Group company, Minolta South Africa.
The three-year contract to provide a document optimisation output system at Kumba Resources` head office, nine mines and a processing plant - located in Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Northern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal - is the largest outsourcing deal ever concluded by Minolta South Africa.
Minolta South Africa MD Alan Griffith says the outsourcing deal should provide a 34% annual saving on internal print and copy costs at Kumba.
"About R40 million worth of Konica Minolta hardware will be installed at the various sites to handle the 14 tons of paper that Kumba uses on a monthly basis. Minolta South Africa will employ about 30 additional people and purchase approximately 15 vehicles to deliver the outsourcing deal," says Griffith.
The outsourcing model means Kumba pays for output and not process. "We install the hardware, software, tracking and billing systems and provide the people to manage the process. Kumba only pays for the prints and copies made. Document management system, Equitrac, will be installed to allow Kumba to recover costs and manage expenses associated with prints, copies, faxes and scans. This is done by breaking down document production costs per user, department, cost centre, project or billing code.
Equitrac also allows Minolta South Africa to track print trends to optimise the print environment. Griffith says Minolta will not just hand over reports to Kumba management, it will advise the company on an ongoing basis.
"We will appoint site managers and technicians at every site and train about 5 000 of Kumba`s staff on how to operate the equipment efficiently," he says.
Griffith says that Minolta South Africa has begun a hardware audit at all the Kumba sites and is developing a customised solution to suit the company`s particular needs. "Implementation will commence at the end of February at Kumba`s Grootegeluk mine in Lepalale (Ellisras).
Minolta South Africa was awarded the Kumba contract after a thorough tender process. Eighteen possible suppliers were approached, eight responded, four of these were invited to submit requests for quotation (RFQ) and two of the suppliers were finally selected to present a proof of concept.
Griffith says when the race was down to two suppliers, Minolta understood it was running for 50% of Kumba`s business. "In January we received notification that we had been awarded the entire Kumba contract. That was really great news," he says.
Kumba project manager, Ross Howe, says Minolta`s professionalism, delivery and passion gave it the edge. "The knowledge and enthusiasm of Minolta`s team was evident throughout the selection process and set it way ahead of its competitors."
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