Bytes Technology Group, parent company to local Xerox distributor Bytes Document Solutions, has been ranked 10th in the 2006 Financial Mail Top Empowerment Companies listing.
The data used to determine position on this list is compiled by rating agency Empowerdex, which measures all the companies on the main board of the JSE Securities Exchange against a broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) scorecard.
"Applying the BEE scorecard, Bytes Technology Group and all its companies set a target higher than required," says Rob Abraham, MD of Bytes Document Solutions.
"At Bytes Document Solutions, we have always viewed the black economic empowerment initiative as a serious imperative. Supporting the moral issues tackled by BEE, we appreciate that customers increasingly want to buy from black-empowered companies and do business with black-empowered suppliers and partners. Our core values are about people, not colour. The result is a successful, strongly black economic-empowered organisation."
In the ICT sector rankings, Bytes Technology Group achieved fourth place. Telkom, ranked fifth overall, achieved the top ICT spot, followed by Mustek (sixth overall) and GijimaAst (eighth overall). MTN, ranked 15th in the general listing, was placed fifth in the ICT sector, behind Bytes Technology Group.
Wanda Sowazi, GM: new business at Bytes Document Solutions, attributes this latest achievement to the group`s Altron 2010 vision, created by Dali Mpofu, the then group executive director for corporate affairs; and the company`s unwavering focus on rolling out black economic empowerment across the business.
"The Bytes Technology Group SA board is currently 50% black-empowered," Sowazi says. "At Bytes Document Solutions alone, 25% of senior management and 42% of junior management are black-empowered, while a total of 61% of our people are black. Signalling our commitment to becoming a truly representative South African company, 65% of new employees appointed during the last financial year were black. Bytes Document Solutions lives the BEE philosophy and as such has contributed significantly to the group`s achievement."
With the Kagiso Trust Investments empowerment ownership, Bytes Document Solutions contributes a 33% black ownership to the group`s BEE compliance. Further scorecard compliance includes:
* The investment of 3% of the payroll on developing employees, over and above any skills development levy;
* 44% of discretionary purchasing spent with BEE companies;
* The creation of 19 BEE ventures in business critical areas such as sales, service, distribution and printing; and
* A strong corporate social investment record that includes the adoption of Tembisa High and Nyiko Primary schools, the donation of document related equipment to the Bytes Technology Group computer centre at Langa High School, research and development sponsorship at The Centre for Text Technology at the University of North West, and a major contribution to a multimedia centre at Isikhumuso Secondary School.
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As the authorised Xerox distributor to 24 sub-Saharan countries, Bytes Document Solutions, previously known as Xerox South Africa, is engaged in the marketing and servicing of the complete range of Xerox document equipment, software, solutions and services, and operating through an extensive network of dealers, concessionaires and channel partners. With black economic empowerment partner Kagiso Trust owning a 27% stake of the business, it is a wholly owned member of the JSE Securities Exchange-listed Bytes Technology Group.
For more information on Bytes Document Solutions and Xerox, visit www.xerox.com/news.
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