FAQs Coronavirus
London, UK, 3rd April 2020
Measures to Control Impact of Coronavirus on Availability of Products and Services
In response to the latest government guidelines, we would like to provide an update based on the latest information available to us and to keep you up to date about the effect of the coronavirus on our production and (service) delivery capabilities, as well as addressing some of the questions you may have.
1. Are you still able to provide products and services to customers?
We are still able to provide products and services to customers whilst working within the latest government guidelines.
We are a global organisation and through our trusted partners we continue to deliver our valuable services and solutions, however we are having to continually review how we are working due to the current situation. We are working with our partners to offer a 7 day delivery window to our customers, from the point the stock is allocated.
During these challenging times, customers can benefit from our remote service tools and capabilities to support their business continuity.
Hardware may be subject to supply chain difficulties if borders close in Europe, but manufacturing in China is back on track, we are currently receiving replenishment from our European distribution centres and which is also being supported from Asia.
2. Will the delivery of Spare parts, toner and consumables continue?
Consumables and spares may be subject to supply chain difficulties as we are experiencing some challenges with delivery within Europe and therefore, we are working internally to ensure where goods such as toner are more limited, provisions are reserved for key customers such as NHS and other vital public services. We will work directly with customers if they are impacted to communicate any delays.
There may be a shortage in some stocks but with reduced demand we are confident we can fulfil orders in most cases.
3. Will my machines be serviced?
We are operating within Government guidelines to service our customer’s machines where our remote capabilities are unable to resolve the issue.
Using our remote capabilities, we will aim to resolve our customer issues and we will fix as much as possible using our existing remote fix capabilities. If required on site, our engineers will observe the recommended safeguards and will look to postpone any non-urgent visits.
Consumables and spares may be subject to supply chain difficulties as we are experiencing some challenges with delivery within Europe and therefore we are working internal to ensure where goods such as toner are more limited, provisions are reserved for key customers such as NHS and other vital public services. We will work directly with customers if they are impacted to communicate any delays.
We are working with our suppliers to continue to deliver goods to support customers.
4. Will my new machine be delivered?
Hardware may be subject to supply chain difficulties if borders close in Europe, but manufacturing in China is back on track, we are currently receiving replenishment from our European distribution centres when required. We are working with our partners to deliver products and hardware to support our customers. Our UK Warehouse is currently open and through our partners are able to fulfil customer deliveries. We are working with our partners to offer a 7 day delivery window to our customers, from the point the stock is allocated.
5. What should I do if my site is shut?
If your site is shut and you were expecting a Field Service Engineer to call to maintain your machines, or if you were expecting delivery of a new machine from us, please let us know as soon as possible by getting in touch with your main point of contact within Konica Minolta.
We will not charge for cancellations under these circumstances, provided you inform us 24 hours beforehand.*
We would recommend that customers leave their machines plugged in but switched off should your site shut. For any billing enquiries please get in touch with BillingTeam@konicaminolta.co.uk – you can also request your account to be updated to PDF billing for all future invoicing.
6. How can I access the customer portal to monitor my account online?
Ebiz is fully accessible to all Konica Minolta customers. The portal enables customers to find up-to-date news and information about their products, keep track of systems and easily manage service notifications and record counts. Customers can access reports about selected systems and see consumable orders as well as keep track of their status.
As soon as your user account is activated, or you have already registered with the correct details you can log in to Ebiz at https://ecommerce.konicaminolta.co.uk To register please contact your account manager.
7. Do I need to provide meter readings?
If your machine is not remotely enabled, and you normally provide us with meter readings, then please continue to do so.
If your site is now shut, customers can provide meter readings via our Ebiz online portal, or by emailing to BillingTeam@konicaminolta.co.uk. If customers can’t access the machines to obtain meter readings, then we are able to estimate these for March, based on historic average usage to ensure accurate billing. If this is your preference please let us know on BillingTeam@konicaminolta.co.uk We will work with customers to understand their specific requirements over the coming months.
8. Are products and services available through Konica Minolta channel partners?
For customers who work with our channel partners, our products and consumables are available as usual from either Konica Minolta directly or our Distribution Partner Westcoast.
We continue to follow Government advice to ensure the safety and wellbeing of our employees and we remain committed to supporting our Partners and customers through this difficult time. We will continue to monitor the situation daily and will update customers and partners of any changes to products, consumables or service delivery if required.
9. Will engineers continue to provide a service?
The availability of our services is heavily dependent on Konica Minolta’s own field service team. We currently have a reduced number of engineers working across Europe. These engineers ensure the maintenance of products and execution of services. Since our workforce travels from client to client, our service model currently poses a potential risk for our clients as well as our employees. We have therefore implement changes to our services model by applying remote services wherever possible: Since most of the Konica Minolta products are designed as IOT devices, platforms or applications that allow remote connectivity. Where possible, we will work with our customers to connect devices to the Konica Minolta backend systems. Any occurring incident would have the possibility of being solved remotely without intervention onsite. Only if we need to ensure connectivity or replace hardware, would a service engineer visit you.
10. What are Konica Minolta doing to ensure the safety of their employees?
We take the safety of our employees very seriously and need to do all we can to support the new government measures. Employees who are feeling unwell are requested to self-isolate and seek professional medical advice after 7 days, as per government guidance. All employees, where possible, are working from home, other than a reduced number of Service Engineers and Warehouse Operatives. Where we have employees, who are unable to work from home, they are following the strict government guidelines and health and safety rules in place.
We carry out daily calls with our teams to review the situation and to support the health and wellbeing of our employees as well as sharing daily updates with all employees.
11. Will Konica Minolta be able to offer customers extended payment terms?
Whilst we appreciate the current conditions are very hard, they are also very hard for Konica Minolta and we cannot cashflow our customers, even our many longstanding customers.
It is because all UK businesses are in the same difficult position that the UK government is offering funding to businesses to help with their cash flows.
We recommend that you access this funding to pay us. If you will not pay us, with regret we will have to place you on stop as we have to ensure our own cash flows are adequate for us to continue trading.
Please see the government website for further advice and support during this time.
For any other finance enquiries, Genpact- who manage our customer queries and are based in India will continue to provide our customers with support.
12. Will Konica Minolta be able to continue to offer remote support during this time?
Our remote support team are based in Romania and we don’t foresee any change in our ability to offer a remote support service to our customers.
Since most of the Konica Minolta products are designed as IOT devices, platforms or applications that allow remote connectivity, where possible, we will work with our customers to connect devices to the Konica Minolta backend systems. Your Konica Minolta products could then be enabled to receive remote services. Any occurring incident would have the possibility of being solved remotely without intervention onsite.
13. Are we able to receive remote support without an engineer attending the site?
The main benefit of remote services are they can be activated remotely – one cloud and one server based. Working with your IT team we will be able to set you up and once this is done potentially 70%+ of the incidents will not need an engineer as we can remotely fix and issues. This includes things like firmware updates, admin password changes, address books which can be scheduled to be "pushed" to the machines overnight so there is no impact to the business and we always do this in line with any IT requirements and policies.
For any further information, please contact your relevant account manager or refer to Konica
Minolta Business Solutions (UK) Limited’s website; https://www.konicaminolta.co.uk/en-gb