Konica Minolta South Africa increases customer satisfaction with bizhub vCare

Bidvest company, Konica Minolta South Africa, has announced the release of its bizhub vCare system, offering remote monitoring for maximised performance.

The system, which was developed by Konica Minolta Business Technologies in Japan, is designed to enhance customer care through efficient management of Konica Minolta multifunctional devices (MFP), such as print, copy, scan and fax, all in one system.

According to Greg Griffith, national software services manager for Konica Minolta South Africa, the system consists of a bizhub vCare Server and bizhub vCare-enabled MFPs, and allows for the quick and efficient interchange of data between the bizhub vCare-enabled MFPs and the bizhub vCare Server via the Internet, e-mail or a GPRS modem.

Features of bizhub vCare include:

* Automated counter readings
* Service alerts
* Supply warnings
* Parts life alerts
* MFP firmware reporting

Because bizhub vCare collects all MFP counter and status information, the system improves first-service-call effectiveness, delivers proactive service and facilitates intelligent supply management.

“bizhub vCare is important in two significant ways,” says Griffith. “Firstly, we want to do all we can to optimise customer satisfaction. bizhub vCare will help ensure that all Konica Minolta South Africa MFPs are kept in peak operating condition and ready to perform mission-critical applications when required.

“Secondly, our highly competitive market environment combined with wider adoption of colour MFPs makes it critical that we manage consumables effectively, get timely and accurate counter readings and achieve a high level of service efficiency. The capabilities of bizhub vCare directly address these issues.”

Virtually any Konica Minolta South Africa device user can benefit from bizhub vCare, but it can provide greater returns for organisations that demand the maximum machine uptime for their Konica Minolta workgroup and/or production print MFPs.

Griffith explains the bizhub vCare counter reading will free customers from the counter reading process, thereby eliminating monthly calls or faxes to send or obtain these. “bizhub vCare generates automated counter readings on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, providing prompt and exact counter reads that ensure billing accuracy.”

In addition, because the bizhub vCare system can monitor toner and other supply levels in bizhub vCare enabled devices, it can signal the need for a supply order. “This allows Konica Minolta South Africa and its partners to send supplies to customers on a 'just in time' basis, reducing or even eliminating the need to stockpile goods,” he says.

When it comes to the service advantage, bizhub vCare will inform participating service departments if an MFP is having trouble. Further, it will let the service department know if a device needs a preventive maintenance call to replace a part even before it wears out.

“Thanks to the wealth of technical information provided by bizhub vCare, the system makes proactive service possible and leads to better management of service calls, reduction in service costs and increased customer satisfaction,” says Griffith.

For small or midsize companies and commercial printers or print providers, round the clock reliability and availability of output devices is a business necessity.

For this reason, the bizhub vCare system also provides a state-of-the-art machine-to-machine communication between output devices and the Konica Minolta South Africa service division - through a secure connection of installed output device to Konica Minolta South Africa via GPRS, e-mail or HTTP.

“The mobile connection is a vast differentiator regarding remote care as it relays all relevant systems data in real-time to mobile devices, advising the service experts immediately of routine maintenance or any other required rectification, such as a technical problem. This assists in instant service, thereby avoiding disruptive downtime and allowing a business to concentrate on its core function,” says Griffith.

He explains that the system's automations reduce maintenance cost and boost productivity and efficiency in organisations.

“The automation of services, such as such ordering of consumables, service notifications and counter readings - all based on a 24/7 monitoring of an output device - allow for an uninterrupted business day as precise details from low toner, the fine points of a technical problem and automatic checking of volumes can now all be sent remotely to Konica Minolta South Africa experts to supply, solve or support,” concludes Griffith.