- Gundle has formed over 30 years ago and is one of the largest manufacturers of a diverse range of flexible plastics in Africa. With factories and distribution centres located around the country, the company supplies plastic materials to the market, such as construction sheeting, agricultural film, consumer packaging, dam lining consumer and industrial packaging.
The company’s head office is located in Germiston with its manufacturing facilities in Springs, Germiston + Swaziland with branches located in Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Lowveld (Nelspruit).
The Problem
Gundle’s operations in Springs were facing challenges with the telephone lines going down from time to time, and outdated network and telephony infrastructure. Not only was the infrastructure aging, but internet connectivity was very unreliable, and their voice line quality was poor.
Their biggest problem was downtime, with Gundle sales negatively impacted due to their inability to effectively communicate, via the telephone or internet, with customers. In addition, Branches were experiencing slow connectivity to the Syspro Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software which is the heart of their business operations.
Gundle also had three different service providers, which complicated matters further when trying to resolve problems.
The Solution
Zinia stepped in to assist Gundle with a complete overhaul of their telephony system, network cabling, fibre installation and firewall solution. Because of Zinia’s consolidated offering, comprehensive solution and in-house technical team, Gundle believed that moving internet, PBX and voice calls over to one provider would benefit the business, making them even more competitive.
The solution implemented included:
- Internet: A dedicated Premium Fibre line of 20 Mbps for better internet uptime and faster upload and download speeds.
- PBX & Voice: A SIP-enabled PBX system for Voice over IP (VoIP) located at their Springs office, IP-phones providing a high-quality voice at low call costs.
- Cabling: Local Area Network (LAN) cabling and wall mount cabinet for the network and PBX infrastructure.
- Firewall: Advanced firewall to protect against security threats and manage the network with traffic prioritisation, load balancing, and detailed reporting.
The Benefits
Gundle is extremely happy with the Zinia solution and is experiencing the following benefits:
- Faster internet speeds and increased staff productivity
- Excellent uptimes and quality of service
- The high-quality voice improved communication with customers and suppliers
- Very cost-effective solution
- Firewall limits risk of international voice call hacking
- Remote access functionally of Firewall improved access for employees working at home during lockdown
Pull Out Quote
“The service Gundle received from Zinia, from the sales engagement through to installation and after-sales service, is excellent,” says Quentin Kernes, Technical Sales Estimator and project leader for the implementation at Gundle in Springs.
“Besides competitive pricing, Zinia adds so much value; if there is a technical challenge they get stuck in, find a solution and resolve it quickly. Their technical team is awesome and if we have any problems at all Zinia’s customer service gets it sorted the same day.”
