The Midrand-based company are making vital connections in both business and the local community.
Based in Midrand, with regional offices in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban, Datacentrix is fast establishing itself as a major player in the ICT market. The key to their growing success lies in the company’s all-encompassing offering as a provider of complete, high performing, secure ICT solutions.
With a focus on improving business processes and systems, Datacentrix enables customers to expand their own businesses by offering a one-stop solution for their ICT needs. Across its three divisions – Managed Services, Technology and Business Solutions – Datacentrix provides everything from cloud computing to managed print and document solutions and all points in between.
While operations are managed from the Midrand head office, with a state-of-the-art Logistics Centre in Samrand and service centres in George, Bloemfontein, Polokwane and eMalahleni, their ambition doesn’t end in SA. Datacentrix has also partnered with a leading ICT services provider in Central, East and West Africa (CEWA) in order to extend their local operations to 28 countries across sub-Saharan Africa.
A strong set of yearly results back up the talk, showing that earnings grew in 2014-15 by 16.4% from R89m to R103m, while generating R199m in cash from operations and so improving the cash balance of the group to a very healthy R291m. Across the three divisions, the most significant earnings jump came in the Technology group, which saw a 38% increase for R33m to R45.5m. While perhaps not as spectacular, good growth was achieved in other areas, for example earnings in the Business Solutions division increased from R9.8 million to R10.8 million. Perhaps most pertinently, the Enterprise Resource Planning business announced the capture of a number of important contracts.
“The group secured new three to five-year contracts worth approximately R500m,,” says CEO Ahmed Mahomed. “In addition, the Outsourcing business secured new contracts and extended a key outsource contract for an additional five years.”
He believes the group is well positioned for the year ahead, pointing out that in addition the Managed Services division has also extended a number of expiring contracts, valued in excess of R300m. So with a healthy set of results and the order book looking full, what does the CEO put the company’s increasing success down to?
“One of the contributing factors for our success is the skills investment,” he believes. “Skilled staff are crucial to business success, they provide us with the capability to design, implement and manage complex technology solutions, resulting in better strategic business partnerships with our customers. As such, Datacentrix will continue to recruit, develop and retain the right skills to deliver on the group strategy.”
Mahomed also believes the group’s new contracts and extensions bear testimony to the recognised value that Datacentrix creates for its customers. One such customer is ArcelorMittal South Africa, the largest steel producer on the African continent, who hired Datacentrix to look at the effectiveness of its data centre.
“The original data centre was more than 30 years old and needed to be upgraded to improve energy consumption, space utilisation and environmental conditioning efficiencies,” explains Brian Lendrum, commercial business development manager at Datacentrix.
Following a year of planning and discussions, a brand-new data centre was rolled out within a record 76 days and improved the centre’s power usage effectiveness by over 65%. In addition, the enhanced power, water and cooling efficiencies will save the organisation more than 20% on operational costs over a five-year period.
But it’s not all business business business at Datacentrix. They are increasingly stepping up their CSR work by supporting their local communities. They’ve recently teamed up with one of the world’s largest producers of platinum group metals, Johannesburg-based Lonmin, to supply local schools and community-based institutions with pre-loved PCs and peripherals. Datacentrix’s role is to refurbish the hardware currently being replaced throughout Lonmin offices as part of their three-year equipment refresh contract with Lenovo PCs.
“As a company that is socially aware, with a deep-seated commitment to corporate social responsibility, Datacentrix is most proud to join our customer, Lonmin, in helping to enrich the lives of our surrounding community,” offers Datacentrix senior account manager, Deon Insel.
Their commitment to education is further enhanced when they recently donated and installed computer equipment, worth R150,000, at the newly-built at the newly-built Sophumelela Senior Primary School in King Williams Town, Eastern Cape. Contructed by the Department of Basic Education (DBE), the school is part of the Accelerated Schools Infrastructure Delivery Initiative that will see 25 new schools established in the province. After the technology needs of the school were brought to Datacentrix’s attention by the DBE, the company donated all manner of equipment, which it also installed.
“Datacentrix has made an ongoing commitment to education, in order to help nourish the intellect and self-esteem of tomorrow’s innovators, problem-solvers, employees and leaders,” explains Mahomed.
And while the numbers on paper, satisfied customer testimony and good work in the community all bodes well for Datacentix, there’s nothing like a prominent award to ice an already successful cake. The company’s tagline “Serious about performance, passionate about value” was born out recently when renowned US-based business consultants Frost & Sullivan presented the firm with one of its prestigious Best Practice Awards, the 2015 Southern African IT Systems Integration Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership Award.
“To achieve excellence in competitive strategy is never an easy task,” explains Frost & Sullivan Chairman David Frigstad. “But it is one made even more difficult due to today’s competitive intensity, customer volatility, and economic uncertainty – not to mention the difficulty of innovating in an environment of escalating challenges to intellectual property. Within this context, Datacentrix’s receipt of this award signifies an even greater accomplishment.”
“Receiving the Frost & Sullivan award is evidence of Datacentrix’s commitment to providing competitive and innovative ICT solutions to our customers,” sums up the CEO, Mahomed. “Our superior rating is a testament to our commitment to consistent service delivery, underpinned by the quality and depth of our skills in our product and service teams.”