One-on-one interview session with the General Manager, Sales, and Marketing of XHS Nigeria Limited, (Xerox) a leading document solution provider in Nigeria – Mr. Femi ABIDOYE, who took us through the challenging business years caused by the covid19 pandemic, and how the delay in accessing forex from Central Bank of Nigeria and heavy dependence of BDC operators, reduced operational cost didn’t hinder quality service to clients but birth the best award in the history of Xerox 49 years operation in Nigeria.
The saying, “Success is not enough in business growth and development, it’s just the beginning”, can best attribute to Juliet Nnajiofor-Uyi’s encounter with Mr. Abidoye during an interview session on Xerox’s agenda for 2023.
According to him, Xerox Nigeria aims to soar higher and rise above challenges to create paths for consistent growth to retain its leadership position in the Print and Document Management Solutions. “The year 2022 has been eventful, I will start with what we did in 2021; for the first time in 49 years of operation, we got the best Middle East and Africa (MEA) partner of the year award among 200 countries in Europe and Africa. We aimed at the African award of the year but got something great despite the Covid-19 pandemic outbreaks in three years, if I leave XEROX today my name is in good cause for getting this special award in my time. To our credit, we have got lots of awards but this particular award is special. So, in summary, the last three years (pandemic era) have been the best for us in XEROX and this is made possible by our teeming client base. When you have over 1000 to 2000 machines that you maintain across all the branches of MTN, CBN, INTERNAL REVENUE, etc. across the nation, it is a huge responsibility and the good news is that our engineers are always on time. We are not just an office equipment supplier; we are there to make them work and support our customers” He stated
Below are some excerpts from the interview
Q: Sir, could you share with us what stands XEROX out among the competition?
A: We have great innovative products and quality service offerings that are unmatched among other competitors. Take, for instance, Xerox Managed Print Services (MPS), with Seamless Integration. Businesses are using MPS to manage information more effectively. With a Xerox ConnectKey Technology-enabled device as the hub of your document environment, you can automate business processes, optimise, and manage devices remotely, and assist your help desk with built-in tools and the Electronic Document Management System (EDMS) DocuShare Enterprise Content Management System offers significant productivity and operational opportunities from the very first day of installation.
In the bid to enhance a smart and efficient post-pandemic workplace, we re-introduced Electronic Document Management Solutions (EDMS) in Nigeria to meet customers’ expectations and shift the paradigm in the workplace occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic and global workplace disruptions by professionals from all walks of life.
EDMs helps ensure that every employee’s documents are always secure and available at their fingertips, granting them secure access, anywhere, any time and on any device. EDMS is the sum total of the processes and technologies involved in the creation, management, retrieval, indexing, storage, and disposition of documents and records of organisation. In simple terms, it can be defined as digitising paper documents or conversion of paper documents to electronic documents for easy retrieval, safe storage, management, and creation of other documents and we are leading silently in that area. So, looking into the future and haven’t seen all this we have this five-point agenda on our business.
To rebrand our production system group (PSG) those are the big presses that can do 300 prints/ per minute to 400 prints /per minute. Currently, the West African Examination Council, for the first have its own printing presses and it is in partnership with XEROX.
To resuscitate the Managed Print Services. We place the machine in your office for use like a rental and at the end of the month, we come back with a bill for what you have used. We back up the service, so it has proven to be good for the XEROX family and it’s for the commercial and private sectors. even for printers in shomolu we have our clients there and they pay every month, some pay per device until they owe it
Q: What is the requirement for someone to benefit from the above-mentioned arrangement?
A: Firstly, you must have an actively established printing business operation and not owe any bank to benefit from this package. we also look into the customer’s business profile to ensure they can pay for 20-million-naira worth of printing equipment within a year or two years. We want to know how long the prospective client have been in the business. where does he/she get jobs from? So, we have been able to resuscitate the press sector and we have our coverage in Abuja and Lagos. In Abuja alone, we have about 10 sites and they are doing well.
We are repositioning our office system group, there are some devices that we have today that if you want to travel out and you have your file with you and need a translator, our machine will do just that as if you are making a copy, it will translate to basic different languages of the world, we call it manual language translator and it will come out perfectly the way you want it. We have some corporate clients who have over 1000 machines in the field, how do we manage them and get them up and running? Our engineers are available to cater to our customers all the time. Total satisfaction guaranteed is what we called our backbone since the beginning of XHS Nigeria Limited; we want to make sure our customers are satisfied. Take, for instance, no human being will buy a Benz for 60 million naira and stop by the roadside to buy fuel, XEROX is not just anyhow brand, we do full packaging and after-sales monitoring because we are big and this is our 49 years in operation in Nigeria. You cannot get XEROX out there, you have to get it from the source, all copy is original and every toner is not adulterated.
The Good News is that during the pandemic, we stood out and serve our customers the best even during a hard time in the world, we have adequate market engagement. It gladdens our heart that XEROX Nigeria has become a bright point of reference in the US and UK
Q: Let’s look at the challenge with accessing FOREX, how has that impacted your business, especially for the cost of equipment and consumables?
A: Forex rate has a huge negative impact on our business; if not we will have made large investments because our business is denominated in dollars and it has made it tough for us to make a good profit. We can start the month with the rate of 635/$1 and before the end of the month it may rise to 700/$ and leads to increased cost drastically, it also reduces our rate of turnover.
Q: How much time do you allocate for forex sourcing to ensure your clients’ demands are met?
A: In those days we used to get forex from the bank and you bring in your goods by sea but things have changed. Today, you go to the bank, fill in all the necessary forms, you pay 200-million-naira equivalent of forex, after four-five months, you will be given 30 million naira and 170 million returned back to you with a reduced value and the value is no longer what it was when you collected the loan from your bank. The only option left to you is to go to the Bureau De Change Operators (BDC) and since it’s the highest bidder you can get your money that same day.
Q: You operate in the Nigeria printing industry, and recently the sector is going through crisis, what is your take on the current state of the industry?
A: First and foremost, I need to salute the current executives of CIPPON for the great job they are doing. Mr. Olugbemi Malomo and his council members for the last three years have done well in projecting the industry to the limelight and the advocacy drive of ‘Let Nigeria printing jobs remain in Nigeria and print contract to license printers only and the election that brought him back to the office, can never be easy to make the printing business profitable again when we have a lot of portfolio printers without establishment apart from that, all those who stole money from the government are not printers, they are just contractors so it becomes difficult for CIPPON to make an impact but if someone did not stand against all these challenges and fight seriously against it, it won’t stop, once again I want to appreciate the effort of Mr. Olugbemi Malomo to make printing business profitable again in our terrain, there is a little light at the end of the tunnel for what is happening, at least the agreement has been made with the federal government to be giving jobs to only registered and licensed CIPPON member and it’s really working because Nigeria is a nation in a nation there’ll still be some loopholes. We thank God that we’ve someone fighting it to have a voice over the issue already. So, lets CIPPON fight the good fight
 a leading document solution provider in Nigeria – Mr. Femi ABIDOYE, who took us through the challenging business years caused by the covid19 pandemic, and how the delay in accessing forex from Central Bank of Nigeria and heavy dependence of BDC operators, reduced operational cost didn’t hinder quality service to clients but birth the best award in the history of Xerox 49 years operation in Nigeria.){kind=link}