MSP Mag Feb/Mar 2012 by Tawanda Hojane

MSP MAGAZINE • SOUTH AFRICA

T H E U LT I M AT E G U I D E T O M A N A G E D I T S E R V I C E S I N S O U T H A F R I C A

THE VOIP OF WISDOM GEORGE GOLDING, EUPHORIA TELECOM

PLUGGING ALL THE HOLES RENTWORKS ON-DEMAND CALL CENTRES MALITHA COMMUNICATIONS THE BIG Q - QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE YOU SIGN THE CONTRACT

Volume 01, issue 01 February/March 2012

MSP MAGAZINE |

advert.indd 1

2011/10/24 4:23 PM

EDITORIAL Editor: Tawanda S. Hojane tawanda@mspmagazine.co.za DESIGN Tigital Media (Pty) Ltd +27 78 800 4487 SALES Sales Executive: Joseph Musonda, Masimba Sasa ADMINISTRATION Anna Banda anna@mspmagazine.co.za SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES MSP Magazine is published six times a year. See website for details or send email subscribe@mspmagazine.co.za ADVERTISING See website for media pack and details or email sales@mspmagazine.co.za PUBLISHER Amilak Trading WEBSITE http://www.mspmagazine.co.za LETTERS TO THE EDITOR editor@mspmagazine.co.za CONTRIBUTORS Ambur Unite-Penny (liquid Ambur Communications), Mandy Graham, Tanya Erasmus (DUO Marketing & Communications), Chris Mutale PRINTING AND REPRO Burlington Dataprint (Pty) Ltd MSP MAGAZINE® Copyright © 2012 MSP Magazine. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a data repository or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. The opinions expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editors, publisher, or advertisers. Even though great care is taken when putting the magazine together, the editors, publisher and advertisers will not be liable for any errors that may be found.

READY, GET SET, GO!

very big welcome to you, our readers. It’s been a long time coming but it was definitely worth the wait. The birth of something new is always an exciting experience. Full of ideas, expectations and aspirations, man has been known to have an insatiable desire to learn, inform and create. Thus, MSP Magazine embarks on a very exciting journey to learn, inform and subsequently create opportunities for you, its readers. MSP Magazine aims to provide resources to organizational IT infrastructure custodians, business owners and managers that will help them make better technology decisions while creating a platform for service providers to showcase their service offerings. I like to think of it as a meeting place for service providers and consumers where partnerships can be formed. In this launch issue we delve into the world of managed telecoms. The cloud is upon us and judging from the buzz surrounding it, in it lies a great promise of torrential rewards for users. We take a closer look at cloud-based telephony and how it can revolutionize your organization’s bottom line through its feature-rich and cost-efficient proposition. George Golding of Cape Town-based Euphoria telecom takes time to share his wisdom with us. Further downstream we cover how a standard needs analysis undertaking resulted in the complete uprooting and replacement of a whole telephone system. And the best part of it all - it was at no cost at all to Childline Gauteng. The analysis of the current status quo marks the beginning of any telecoms audit engagement. Determining where you stand helps you clearly see where you want to be, and how to get there. Enter the Rentworks telecommunications consultancy arm. We spoke to Garth Duncan. In a piece entitled “From Input to Output” we explore the concept of Managed Document Services, how this can help your organization optimise its document flow. Today is a great time to be alive. I am very excited about this publication, and you should be too. Why? Because, it is our baby - yours and ours. Lets take this journey together. Are you ready? Ready, get set, GO!

Tawanda S. Hojane EDITOR

tawanda@mspmagazine.co.za

CONTENTS COVER STORY

ISSUE 01 | FEB - MAR 2012

FEATURES 10 CHILDLINE GAUTENG GETS A LINE

The new state-of-the-art telephone system not only allows Childline Gauteng to reduce its communication costs, but it opens up a whole new feature-rich world, thanks to BITCO.

16 PLUGGING ALL THE HOLES

Analysis of the telecoms setup and expenses forms the basis of the roadmap to reducing overall IT spend for any organization. Enter Rentworks’ Telecoms Audit .

22 THE VOIP OF WISDOM

George Golding of Cape Town based telecoms company Euphoria Telecom upacks the VOIP offering.

32 ON-DEMAND CALL CENTERS

Malitha Communications’ call center solution can be deployed in a few clicks. Companies can have their call center operational exactly when they want it to be.

OPINION

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

08 CLOUD-BASED NETWORK MONITORING Monitoring network performance in the cloud allows organisations to keep an eye on the network anywhere and anytime, allowing them to nip potential issues in the bud.

CONTENTS

ISSUE 01 | FEB - MAR 2012

14 SMALL FIRMS TO SEE MORE RED TAPE

South Africa’s new Companies Act aims to reduce the bureaucratic burden on small businesses – but private sector business practices are likely to undermine some of the Act’s intentions.

28 CLOUD PBX CHANGES THE FACE OF THE TELECOMS MARKET Since BMI-TechKnowledge published the latest SA PBX market report (April 2011), there has been a marked growth of cloud solution models and vendors in this space, pointing to an increasing need to accommodate cloud in the next study.

34 IN THE CLOUD, BUT NOT IN THE DARK

Cloud Service Prividers: Choosing right can mean the difference between success and failure of your cloud implementation.

56 FAX: STILL AN INTEGRAL PART OF 21ST CENTURY BUSINESS

Contrary to popular belief, fax is still a very big part of business today. This is shown by the number of faxes sent each day.

34 February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

CONTENTS

ISSUE 01 | FEB - MAR 2012

INSIGHT 26 FROM INPUT TO OUTPUT

Managed Document Services (MDS) enables organisations to gain control of the document cycle from input all the way to output device.

36 THE BIG Q - QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR MSP

BEFORE YOU SIGN THE CONTRACT

The secret to full-proofing the relationship between you and your managed service provider lies in asking the right questions right at the begining - before you sign the contract.

HIGLIGHTS 38 GETTING AHEAD - SMEs GAIN COMPETITIVE EDGE BY MINDING THEIR BUSINESS

By focussing on their core business, SMEs can begin to take on the giants. This requires help from MSPs to manage the IT side of their business.

42 PARADIGM SHIFT: CHALLENGING THE ADHOC IT SUPPORT MODEL Space Age Technologies embraces the single fee fixed-rate model for all IT support and maintenance services to create value for customers.

48 MORE THAN JUST BUSINESS

MTN BUSINESS - going the extra mile to overcome challenges to provide connectivity even to the remotest of areas.

52 OUTSOURCED IT MANAGEMENT

NETSURIT - Supporting the dreams of the doers

54 FOCUSED SOLUTIONS TECHTRON

Techtron talks to us about how focusing on doing what you do best as a managed service provider is the best.

52 5

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

MSP One platform. Many opportunities. MSP 200: Company Profiles & Directory Every semester, MSP Magazine compiles a comprehensive collection of Managed IT Service Providers in South Africa. MSP 200: Company Profiles & Directory is distributed to companies, institutions and trade organisations in South Africa and the southern african sub-region. It is a single platform that allows you to showcase your businessâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; products and services, not just to anyone, but to the people that need to be listening to you - creating many transaction opportunities for your business.

200 COMPANY PROFILES & DIRECTORY

email on msp200@mspmagazine.co.za or call 078 800 4487, 011 467 0226, 011 042 6395

be visible.

OPINION MANAGED TELECOMS

J A C Q U E S D U T O I T, V O X O R I O N

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

CLOUD-BASED MONITORING: KEY TO

RELIABLE NETWORKS

“

YOU NEED FINE-GRAINED NETWORK MANAGEMENT TOOLS THAT CAN DELIVER REAL-TIME INFORMATION AND TROUBLESHOOTING”. J A C Q U E S D U T O I T, V O X O R I O N

he move to cloud computing means network performance is more important than ever, says Jacques du Toit of Vox Orion – and traditional network management tools are no longer good enough. “Underlying network problems can cause havoc with IPbased voice and video services, real time data and cloud applications,” says Du Toit. “If you’re running any of these applications, including collaboration software, you need finegrained network management tools that can deliver real-time information and troubleshooting.” The Vox Telecom Group has closed a deal with USbased AppNeta to distribute its PathView Cloud network performance management solutions in South Africa. “PathView offers unprecedented network insight without any of the costs or hassle of administration, new server acquisition or maintenance,” says Du Toit. The service is based on PathView Appliances, which can begin delivering real-time data on key performance characteristics such as jitter, latency and bandwidth within seconds of being plugged into a network and power source. “The service can be implemented in minutes, giving managers complete remote insight into their networks,” says Du Toit. “It’s the easiest, most effective network management tool I’ve ever seen.” “The more companies move critical applications and services into the cloud, the more they are vulnerable to failures caused by network problems and third-party performance failures,” notes Du Toit. “But you can only manage what you can see; with PathView, you can see everything PathView, you can see everything down to the level of

individual devices.” PathView also delivers metrics that no other tool can, says Du Toit. “You get active bandwidth and application performance monitoring, end-to-end quality of service verification and remote flow generation and packet capture. We won’t sell a network or PBX solution from now on without it.” 

Vox Orion,

a licensed Telco, provides a suite of comprehensive telecommunications solutions that include corporate voice solutions, data access and ISP services, a variety of PBX, SMART Board and video conferencing services, telephony management systems, corporate faxing and text messaging applications and remote security monitoring. As part of the black empowered Vox Telecom Group (Vox Orion is currently a level 4 BEE contributor) Vox Orion is strategically positioned to leverage future opportunities within a constantly deregulating telecommunications environment. Our unbiased approach when it comes to technology, combined with a dedication to cost minimisation and an uncompromising attitude towards service delivery, has resulted in us supplier partnering within excess of 7 000 South African corporate and government organisations. For more information visit www.voxorion.co.za, www.duomarketing.co.za

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

FEATURE MANAGED TELECOMS

CHILDLINE GAUTENG

GETS A LINE WITH IMPROVEMENTS IN BANDWIDTH AVAILABLE TO SOUTH AFRICAN CONSUMERS, THE USE OF THE INTERNET FOR VOICE COMMUNICATION HAS BECOME COMMON PLACE. AS COMPANIES BEGIN TO OFFER VOICE COMMINICATION OVER DATA NETWORKS AT SUSTAINABLE COSTS, THE REAL BENEFITS CAN NOW BEGIN TO KICK IN.

hat started out as a routine meeting to perform a needs analysis for a standard quote, ended up becoming the conception of one of those ideas whose persistent tugging on one’s mind strings can’t be muted; the sort of idea that keeps you awake every night until you act on it. Have you ever had one of those experiences? More often than not, they result in a shiny specimen, an exceptional example of the corporate world giving back to its’ community. Such is the Story of Childline Gauteng’s new call centre system, donated by BitCo. “Childline Gauteng approached us enquiring about our services. I quickly set up a meeting and a couple of days later, I went through to meet up with them in order to conduct a needs analysis for a standard quote” says Michael Colin, Sales Director at BitCo, a licensed telecommunications operator providing Voice over IP; wireless; PBX and call centre solutions. “As I continued going through my ‘knock-list’ of questions, it became more apparent how dire the telephony needs for Childline Gauteng were. Suffice to say, they were not even able to make a conference call”. After concluding his meeting, Michael made a bee-line for the office and immediately discussed his findings with his boss. They agreed, instead, to donate the entire solution in recognition of the amazing work Childline Gauteng and Childline South Africa do on a daily basis. “The guys at Childline Gauteng are doing some really great work. Donating this solution to the cause was the least we could do” says Garth Van Sittert, MD of BitCo, with so much conviction.

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

B I T C O & C H I L D L I N E G A U T E N G S TA F F

“

FOR ALL BUSINESSES IN SOUTH AFRICA, REDUCING YOUR TELEPHONE BILL IS A MUST.” D E I D R E J O N K E R , B I TCO

The solution included the full Communigate system consisting of an advanced Communigate Server, enterprise reporting application, LCD display monitor and approximately 50 IP Phones. “The solution provides Childline with an advanced call centre platform that assists them in managing and reporting on the inbound crisis line”, says Deidre Jonker, Marketing Manager at BitCo. “In addition to this, Childline Gauteng is now able to reduce operational costs by utilising our VoIP network. The billing is completely transparent and all calls are billed per second from the first second. BitCo provides a web-based TMS (telephone management system) in which they can access real-time billing”, she added. VoIP technology has been around for a while now. Over the last few years the technology has gone full circle and now, more than ever, there is a strong business case for it. The first and most obvious reason is that Voice over IP is highly cost effective. “It provides a very competitive alternative to the incumbent’s fixed lines”, Deidre says. “There is less hardware needed for a VoIP PBX, no installations of additional telephone points throughout

the office, as it only requires your computer’s network point and virtually no fees for further call out for technicians after installation. Because voice is translated into data packets and sent over the ‘internet’ your telephone calls costs are drastically reduced. For all businesses in South Africa, reducing your telephone bill is a must. Larger businesses which have branches in various provinces will find our solution even more viable, as we are able to connect branches to one PBX and branch to branch calls on our network are free”. As is the case with Childline Gauteng, BitCo promises an average of 40% savings on clients’ telephony bills, if they are currently using a traditional fixed line operator. The online TMS and agent reporting software enable Childline Gauteng to control and monitor all incoming and outgoing calls. This management tool thus allows them to control the costs themselves, so much that Childline Gauteng has already reported improvement in its costs. “A million thanks to Garth and the BitCo Team for their incredible generosity to Childline Gauteng. They have blessed us beyond our wildest expectations. We took 20 000 calls in the past 10 days, an increase of about 30%, and the dropped calls are 10% as opposed to 20%” wrote Lynn Cawood, Director at Childline Gauteng. To ensure that Childline Gauteng receives the best possible up-time and can continue to receive calls, BitCo donated a GOLD SLA. “We have daily exception reports which will pick up if the cost saving route is inactive. Should this occur, the system will automatically fail over to the incumbent’s fixed line service, ensuring that Childline Gauteng can still make calls." 

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

FEATURE MANAGED TELECOMS

BitCo is a licensed telecommunications operator under licence number 0135/IECNS/JAN/2009 providing Voice over IP; wireless; PBX and call centre solutions. BitCo was founded in 2005 by Garth van Sittert (BSC Physics and Computer Science) who developed the Communigate PBX based on the Asterisk open source telephony solution. Today BitCo boasts 3 points of presence in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.

OFFERINGS

Communigate refers to Bitco’ S IP PBX system which is software based and enables you to run your entire telephone system on your existing computer network infrastructure. This eliminates the need for excessive hardware and manual programing. It empowers you to manage your own telephone system through a web based interface, so that you are not dependent on your supplier for day to day changes. It is a complete package which is system ready (plug and play). You can start off small and add features or users remotely or via our support team, without having to purchase additional licences or waiting for installation. Once you have your Communigate PBX, we (BitCo) can also terminate your calls over our network. As a licenced telecommunications provider, we are able to offer competitive rates for your outgoing calls through BitCo Voice. BitCo also offers wireless solutions for last mile connectivity and provides you with the internet connection that is required to use VoIP, as well the BitCo virtual PBX solution.

the same connection without any degradation in audio quality. BitCo also supports; dedicated ADSL connectivity, leased line services (Diginet) or fibre optic.

DEPLOYMENT

On average it takes about 2 weeks from signed order to installation. In this time, the system is configured, site surveys are conducted, necessary networking tests are conducted and IVR’s are recorded. Essentially, all the “prepping” is done. Once the system is ready, installation takes between 1 – 2 working days.

INTER-OPERABILITY

BitCo can route outbound calls by means of an inline gateway. The gateway works as a valve, allowing incoming calls through your current system, but send outgoing calls over BitCo voice. Our Communigate platform is an open-ended SIP server. Clients may utilise most common IP phones, but BitCo only recommends the Snom or Polycom brands due to their high quality and stability.

SUPPORT SERVICES

BitCo offers Communigate and BitCo Voice clients the following Service Level Agreement options: • •

SCALABILITY

As Communigate is an IP PBX solution, it runs off software, so adding features can be done through a simple web interface. It’s as easy as clicking a button. It can also be done remotely by our support team, eliminating the costly exercise of call outs. The system comes as a complete package so adding features need only be ‘activated’ once the system is in place. To add more users, you just need to have an IP phone ready for them. This solution is therefore ideal for call centres, where the team size fluctuates according to the various campaigns.

CONNECTIVITY

BitCo’s preferred last mile connection is the BitLink Metro Ethernet. As we provide managed routers that support QoS (Quality of Service) so you may utilise voice and data over

•

BRONZE PACKAGE: Remote support during business hours via our innovative helpdesk solution. SILVER PACKAGE: A monthly site visit and Remote support during business hours. On the rare occasion you require more regular site visits, the silver package can be updated. GOLD PACKAGE: 24/7 365! On-site and remote support whenever, wherever you need us.

As an SLA client or non SLA client, any assistance such as addition of extensions; queue changes; or troubleshooting is as easily solved as sending an email to support@bitco.co.za. Simply pop us an email and your request will be logged as a ticket immediately on our state of the art Helpdesk. This unique individualised ticket number, sent to you from the system, will allow you to track your requests progress. Our support team will keep you up to date and informed on your requests status at all times. Should your request not be solvable remotely, the ticket will be automatically moved across the Helpdesk to the Technical Division, whereby an engineer will be on his way to assist in no time.

You’re thinking, I need a service that monitors and manages my security infrastructure from end-to-end, with minimal impact on my operations. We’re securing... Dimension Data’s Managed Secure Infrastructure Service (MSIS) takes care of the complete day-to-day management of your security infrastructure, with minimal impact on your operations. The result? Enhanced risk management, improved compliance and better cost control, as well as the freedom to focus your resources on strategic endeavours. What’s more, we deliver MSIS consistently across the world, applying industry best practice and standards and leveraging the very best technical, integration and support expertise available to the benefit of your business. Contact us, or visit our website for more information.

www.dimensiondata.com

OPINION COMPANY ACT

SMALL FIRMS TO SEE MORE

RED TAPE

SOUTH AFRICA’S NEW COMPANIES ACT AIMS TO REDUCE THE BUREAUCRATIC BURDEN ON SMALL BUSINESSES – BUT PRIVATE SECTOR BUSINESS PRACTICES ARE LIKELY TO UNDERMINE SOME OF THE ACT’S INTENTIONS.”

outh Africa’s new Companies Act aims to reduce the bureaucratic burden on small businesses – but, says Kevin Phillips of financial software developer idu Software, private sector business practices are likely to undermine some of the Act’s intentions.

However, he cautions, in reality audits are still likely to be required. “The requirements for reporting to the government are one thing, but banks may have other ideas,” he says. “If you want an overdraft or other form of financing, I’m afraid an audit may still be required but now as a banking requirement.”

The promised gains are most likely to materialise in the area of financial reporting requirements, says Phillips.

“This is one case where red tape can’t be laid at the door of government,” notes Phillips. “Anybody who lends you money is still in all likelihood going to want the reassurance of independently reviewed or audited financial statements.” 

“In terms of the Act, companies are required to undergo an annual audit once they exceed a threshold Public Interest Score,” says Phillips. “The score is quite easy to calculate: Put plainly and at the risk of over simplifying you count one point for each employee, each individual shareholder, each R1m of turnover and each R1m of debt to a third party.” “Owner managed entities with a public interest score below 100, in terms of the Act, no longer require an audit or independent review,” adds Phillips. “If the score is between 100 and 350, an independent review is needed. However all entities with a public interest score greater than 350 must have an audit.” Strictly speaking, says Philips, “this means the vast majority of the SME market shouldn’t need to go to the annual trouble and expense of an audit. If you are an ownermanaged small business, there is likely to be little an audit

can tell you as a shareholder that you don’t already know.”

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

Idu

simplifies financial management for non-financial managers. Its flagship product, idu-Concept, provides easy, effective budgeting and financial reporting for medium-sized to large businesses, including many of South Africa’s top firms. idu-Concept integrates easily with ERP software, but unlike more cumbersome offerings, idu-Concept can be implemented quickly, requires little or no ongoing consulting fees and reduces budgeting cycles from months to weeks. For more information visit www.idu.co.za, www.duomarketing.co.za

ABOUT KEVIN PHILLIPS Kevin is an entrepreneur who has built a successful business, and so has a solid understanding of the challenges and questions business owners face. He has degrees in Commerce and Accounting, and started idu Software with partners James Smith and Wayne Claasen in 1998. Kevin is fast becoming a thought leader in his field and makes regular comment in the media about current affairs affecting business as well as accounting, finance, budgeting and software. He is a columnist for Accountancy South Africa, Entrepreneur and Tech Leader and has been featured in Sunday Times, Business Day, Enterprise Risk, Succeed and Cape Argus; as well as being a guest speaker on Radio 702, Kaya FM and Summit TV.

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

FEATURE MANAGED TELECOMS

PLUGGING ALL THE

HOLES W

hen it comes to buying new IT and Telecoms technology, very often companies are scared off when the question of cost comes up. It is very expensive to buy some of the pieces of equipment on outright purchase. There is also insurance, maintenance and obsolescence – all issues that keep CIOs awake at night. This is why the Rentworks preposition is very attractive. Originally an Asset finance company, Rentworks facilitates financing of asset acquisitions for its clients on a rental basis through the smart asset finance facility. Some

of these assets would include IT equipment like telephone systems. At the end of the rental agreement, companies have the option of renewing the agreement with the option of upgrading the equipment leased. Over time, however, Rentworks was getting a lot of PABX systems back from the agreements. Not knowing much about PABX/Voice systems; it was time to get help.

IN THE BEGINNING

“The call came about 6 years ago”, says Garth Duncan, now the Marketing Executive for schools, SMEs and CSI. “My partner and I were asked to come in and help setup a telecoms division which

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

would primarily give advice in terms of what residuals or investments to take into PABXs and what not to invest in. The spin off was an opportunity to approach existing customers to advise them on their voice spend and where they could make savings.” The rest is history.

THE MODEL

According to Duncan, “as the division hit the ground, it was clear that there was going to be two types of customers: Those that would engage us on a continuing basis to provide telecoms consultancy under the managed services umbrella; and those that would engage us on a once-off basis.”

“

THE FIRST STEP IN ANY TELECOM CONSULTANCY ENGAGEMENT IS USUALLY ONE THAT INVOLVES THE ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT STATUS QUO.” GARTH DUNCAN, RENTWORKS

THE PROCESS

Rentworks will normally negotiate based on the savings the client stands to make”. Duncan says that the service that Rentworks provides will never be costed at more than the quantified savings over a period of12 months which is the length of the savings period.

telecoms spend they can make savings. There are some areas that are top on the list, call them the major leaks. In most companies the major leaks are call usage (use and abuse), excessive infrastructure, and redundant infrastructure. “If a company closes a number of branches but then forgets to cancel contracts on PABXs and phone lines on those branches, it could continue to pay for months without actually using the facility. This was seen a couple of years ago when one bank closed its branches and forgot to let Telkom know to cancel these contracts” says Duncan. Outliers like cell phone calls that go over the average business call duration are an example of use and abuse areas where companies can make additional savings. However, these are subjective, so they can’t actively be pursued. You don’t see the knock-on effect on the next invoice as you would if you cancelled two line rentals, for instance. The best way I see this working is to understand that the company needs to make a unilateral decision defining private call limits across the board. If limits are exceeded, the employee pays out of their own pocket.

THE HOLES

SUCCESS STORY

A company doesn’t have to always make more money to be more profitable. It sometimes just needs to reduce its costs which results in increasing the bottom line. A telecom audit will help companies identify where in their

One organization that is actively plugging its telecoms holes is the Automobile Association of South Africa. “For the AA, it started as an audit of the telecoms. After the first audit it became apparent that they needed a proper

Duncan says: “The first step in any telecom consultancy engagement is usually one that involves analysis of the current status quo. The initial analysis takes 4-6 weeks. We need access to the client’s Telkom’s EasyBill (electronic billing platform), alternative routing service providers, SLAs and any maintenance contracts. Once all the information is gathered, it is collated and a study is performed. A proposal is then prepared stating in which areas the savings can be made. There are instances when the client opts for the once off settlement arrangement. These once off customers can get a report that will show the where, what and how to make the savings and a lump sum is paid either upfront or over six months on an instalment plan.”

COSTING

“

Telephone Management System (TMS)” Duncan explains. ”Rentworks put the TMS in on an outsourced arrangement. I prepare the reports, assigning the costing to the various cost centres; perform the reconciliation between the Telkom account and the TMS. Using this process, we have managed to achieve 99 – 100% accuracy with the Telkom account on a monthly basis for each department”. This forms the basis of the maintenance and management contract with the AA. The initial engagement was one where we were engaged to perform an initial analysis of the telecommunications network in the organisation but it quickly spread out a lot more that Rentworks could offer as managed services. Now the AA has outsourced the whole telecommunications system to Rentworks.

ADVICE First of all, companies need to know what they have at the moment. They must be aware of what the expenditure is. The company must also be very clear about its drivers and motivators as well as have a proper plan for the actual business i.e. whether they will be opening branches, etc. After all this information is collected, it is all carefully studied for a better understanding of the business, where it is, where it’s going and how it wants to get there. Once all this put into perspective, Rentworks can then advise the company on what to do to get there. 

I PREPARE THE REPORTS THE COSTING TO THE COST CENTRES; PERFORM THE RECONCILIATION BETWEEN THE TELKOM ACCOUNT AND THE TMS. WE HAVE MANAGED TO ACHIEVE 99 – 100% ACCURACY WITH THE ACCOUNT ON A MONTHLY BASIS BY DEPARTMENT”. THIS, AS GARTH EXPLAINED, FORMS THE BASIS OF THE MAINTENANCE AND MANAGEMENT CONTRACT WITH THE AA.“

GARTH DUNCAN, RENTWORKS

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

“Substantial payback exists for telecommunications auditing functions.” META Group

RentWorks Telecoms Solutions allows you to gain a better understanding of your telecommunications infrastucture, reduce your current expenses and provide key information to assist with future technology investments. A consolidated view of your telecommunications also means you can allocate expenses to the appropriate cost pools or business units resulting in a greater ability to manage staff, telecommunication service providers and expense forecasting. Let RentWorks Telecoms Solutions assist in the management of your everchanging telecommunications network and ensure that you only pay for services you use at contractual rates established by agreed tariffs! Call us today – you’ve got nothing to lose and so much to gain!

100% RISK-FREE!

RentWorks Telecoms Solutions will analyse your systems, conduct a telecommunications audit and recommend a plan for improving efficiency and saving money – free of charge. In essence, if we don’t deliver a cost-saving recommendation – or you choose not to implement our recommendation – you pay us nothing. And because our services are offered on a performance-based structure, you only pay after you’ve saved by way of a negotiated fee or a flexible percentage rate of savings realised. Our confidence is your assurance!

Optimised Telecoms Solutions

RentWorks Africa (Pty) Limited Johannesburg: +27 11 549 9000 Tim Stuart: +27 82 455 8307

Garth Duncan: +27 82 902 6166 | www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012 www.rentworks.co.za

Telecoms Solutions Talk should be cheap!

Optimised Telecoms Solutions

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

“Telecom services account for one of the ﬁve largest expenses of most corporations, but these costs are among the most difﬁcult to manage.” Network World

Right now, your telecommunications environment... ...is too complex

and too expensive.

Research shows that odds are your telecommunication charges are your business’ ﬁfth biggest operating expense! What’s more, in light of their sheer volume and diversity, most organisations have little way of verifying the accuracy and actual necessity of these charges.

Which, in most cases means you’re paying up to 30% more than you should for telecommunication services, potentially costing hundreds of thousands rands every year. Naturally, without an auditing and optimisation plan in place, your company has no recourse for recapturing these losses.

Think about it, apart from local and long distance calls, you’re being charged for a wide area network, wireless facilities, line rentals, equipment, switches, maintenance and a host of other telephony equipment and enablement. It’s a complex environment and managing it and keeping an up-to-date inventory is even more so!

But help is a phone-call away! RentWorks Telecoms Solutions will solve your telecommunication expense management problem by streamlining and automating the entire telecommunication process and providing a platform for controlling your voice environment more efﬁciently. Offering you the opportunity to regain control of your expenses, chargeback to internal cost centres, implement best practices in your operating environment and, most importantly, save money.

This is how we help South African organisations realise massive savings in their telecommunication environment: First we review your current position by: • Performing a thorough telecommunication cost analysis and capacity inventory • Auditing equipment rental, line fees and leasing charges • Verifying billed rates against contract and tariff terms of local and long distance, cellular, pager and network services • Identifying mistakes, overcharges, miscellaneous surcharges and taxes.

Our 4-Step Approach

Due Diligence

Analysis

Recommendations

Implementation

Implementing a RentWorks telecoms solutions involves minimal setup and disruption time. We simply require copies of your existing contracts, invoices, and in some instances a letter authorising us to access expenditure detail on your behalf when dealing with telecoms vendors. Next, we begin our analysis with a view to recovering your money on past accounts and saving you money on future accounts with sustainable solutions.

We identify your existing infrastruture and measure your voice traffic profile. A site survey confirms the accuracy of the information on the invoices and a study of your equipment is completed to determine if there are potential cost savings and/or efficiencies to be realised. This does not cause any disruption to the workflow of your organisation and allows us to effectively project cost savings and efficiency gains. We will also benchmark your organisation against others in the industry.

Then we identify potential cost saving through: • Consolidation of services • Discontinuation of unused, duplicated and non-productive services • Optimisation of the user-line ratio to accepted industry standards • Successful integration of technology solutions • Migration of services to more cost-effective vendors • Identiﬁcation of telephone misuse and abuse.

Once the proposal has been accepted, we will report on the following: • Apportion of billings to cost-centres • Benchmarks against which to measure, enforce and report on improvements • Identiﬁcation and ﬁnancing of new technologies and services that will save you money • Contract negotiation assistance • Assistance with the development of a best practice voice policy and strategy.

“If your [organisation] is not rigorously auditing vendor invoices for accuracy, you may be missing a significant cost reduction opportunity.” Gartner

We then prepare a cost saving proposal outlining projected savings for your review. Our recommendations take into account all aspects of your operation as the lowest cost on paper may not always be the best solution for your business. We will work with you, to help you fully understand the telecoms solutions that exist and the impact these will have on your bottom line. Should approval of our recommendations be granted, RentWorks Telecoms Solutions will then prepare a project roll-out plan for your approval.

RentWorks has been serving and consulting to South African businesses since 1998 so we understand and recognise the technological complexities you face everyday. And while a refresh in telecommunications technologies and voice applications can save time and money, boost efﬁciency and customer service, as well as improve access to critical information, they also take time, effort and expertise to implement. RentWorks Telecoms Solutions will reduce the effort on every aspect of this implementation by sourcing, negotiating, appointing and managing telecommunication suppliers on your behalf. That way you can realise your telecommunication costsaving goals sooner; easily measure your progress into the future; and free up time to focus on your core-income generating business objectives.

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

COVER STORY CLOUD VOIP

GEORGE GOLDING, EUPHORIA TELECOM

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

THE

VOIP OF WISDOM IN EVERY CLOUD THERE’S A SILVER LINING. CLOUD-BASED PBXs PRESENT BOTH HUGE BENIFITS AND CHALLENGES. ORGANISATIONS NEED ALL THE INFORMATION THEY CAN GET TO MAKE THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY DECISIONS.

ecently, an increasing number of small businesses have adopted Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), joining the ranks with bigger businesses embracing the technology as a great way to cut costs and streamlinine the administration of phone systems – and the IT environment as a whole. Since you’re reading this It is safe to say you may be seriously contemplating going down the VoIP road – a road less travelled by most SMEs. If so, you might want to do your homework first. But then again, if you are like me, you don’t like doing your homework. The good news is you don’t have to. MSP Magazine caught up with George Golding, CEO of Cape Town-based Euphoria Telecom, an alternative communications provider, and he shares his wisdom in this Q&A.

VOIP telephony has been a popular costreduction choice for bigger corporations that wish to converge their voice and data communications. What are the major reasons that a similar enthusiasm has not traditionally been seen among SMEs?

The initial VoIP network providers focused on servicing large corporates. The costs of setting up and operating VoIP networks are significant. The initial providers could not afford to manage and support small business as they first needed to focus on returns on their capital outlay. Today these networks act as wholesalers, and resellers like Euphoria Telecoms are harnessing them to provide enough capacity for any kind of enterprise – including small and medium-sized ones. The other factor is also cost-related – purchasing and installing an onsite IP PBX is relatively

expensive. For a small business setup of +- 8 users it would cost +- R 30 000 to get going. However, renting PBX capacity in the cloud through a provider such as Euphoria circumvents that problem too.

Has the economic downturn spurred an increase in uptake of IP telephony among SMEs?

Yes, I believe any business service that can offer a significant cost saving and improve workflow is welcomed in the current economic climate. The cost of most major business services has been rising rapidly over the last few years, and telecommunications is the one area in which South African businesses are finally experiencing some relief. In a recent example, Euphoria Telecom installed a cloud PBX for Medway, a medical insurance firm, and reduced its total telecommunications bill by 50%. The company’s phone and fax and call centre requirements were formerly supported by multiple ageing, on-site systems. This included a nine year-old PBX in need of upgrade at great cost; a legacy call centre PABX; fax-to-e-mail server, cellular least-cost routing solutions; and some regional PBX systems. Each month, nine Telkom bills had to be reconciled and telephony costs were stifling the margin. VoIP delivers immediate, quantifiable advantages to Medway. Inter-branch calls are free. A single hosted PBX has replaced all on-site equipment, as well as its depreciation, maintenance and upgrades. The total telecommunications bill has been halved and complexity eliminated from its administration. Intelligent reports further inform strategic decisions and plans are under way for further reductions, specifically of the telephony costs of mobile agents.

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

COVER STORY CLOUD VOIP

•

• • •

•

You can centralise your sales centre. Take for example the exhaust and tyre fitment industry. At the moment customers call a local branch and may end up speaking to technical staff unable to capitalise on sales discussions or manage tough calls. A cloud PBX places a centralised call centre – which can transfer calls to branches free of charge if necessary – within every distributed retailer’s financial reach. Retailers can introduce a national 087 number and port their existing landline numbers (011, 021 etc.) to the system so that a single, central number can be used for marketing purposes. Another exciting area is the option of a distributed work force. As long as an employee has an Internet connection, he or she can access their network and field and transfer calls. Some of our clients have already taken advantage of this and given certain employees the option of working from home a few days of the week. It saves time, petrol and office space, making this a real cost-saving option and productivity enhancer. Conference rooms setup allows conferences for up 10 people with staff or external people from any location. One number access with dual ringing can reach you on your mobile and office number at the same time Faxes and voicemail are delivered to your email, so you do not have to dial in to listen to your messages or find the printed fax. Everything is in one place, where it can easily be printed, or forwarded to necessary personnel. Euphoria also offers a secure, powerful enterprise class API (application programming interface), allowing companies to integrate their existing CRM systems with their PBX. This bridges the gap entirely between the management of textual information and voice. Everything from call queues, recordings and reporting can be integrated into the company’s proprietary systems. Although our system runs on Linux we have wrapped the API to allow Microsoft C# Sharp programmers to program in a familiar and easy-to-use programming language.

As all configurations are done offsite, the ease of deployment is significant. If the local networks are set up well it can be a plug-and-play experience.

You have gone on record as a proponent of hosted PBX solutions as opposed to on-premise PBX installations

Yes, I have spoken many times of the multiple benefits of a cloud PBX. There are caveats to an on-site PBX that people should know about – over and above the high purchase costs as mentioned earlier. •

•

The obvious limitation is that of capacity. A physical on-site PBX has fixed extensions. Not knowing the rate at which the organisation grows, a CIO has only two options, either to purchase a high-capacity PBX at enormous cost while running the risk of wasting a portion of its full capacity; or to procure a smaller PBX and later having to invest in another one once its capacity is exhausted. Each new location or site would require the purchase of a

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

GEORGE GOLDING, EUPHORIA TELECOM

What sort of benefits, other than reduced costs, are there in IP telephony?

• • • • •

new on-site PBX. The associated cost of maintenance and configuration of on-site PBX solutions have to be borne in-house (as opposed to by the provider). The obsolescence of the on-site IP PBX and its eventual replacement is an inevitability. On-site PBX systems must be configured and their settings adjusted at a cost, while a cloud PBX offers this service included in one predictable monthly cost. An on-site PBX requires a physical space within the office network with cost implications, including insurance. Mobile SIP clients on smart phones cannot be used to make low-cost calls over a WiFi or 3G

The quality of VoIP calls is directly related to the network the calls take place on. What sort of network infrastructure prerequisites are supposed to be in place before a PBX solution is deployed?

The network your calls take place on is critical. There are providers using “grey routes”. These are sub-standard quality routes and the users will experience a lower call quality. Ensure your provider is offering platinum routes with Caller ID. There are other providers supplying VoIP over shared networks. If these are managed well it should not cause a problem, but I have seen quality issues as a result of using non-prioritised VoIP networks.

The most important aspect of a business’s local network is their dedicated Internet connection for voice. For connectivity, the options range from ADSL, 3G, WiMax, fibre, Wireless, Diginet and Broadlink.

What about quality of service?

The calling quality is related to the network you are using, as well as the quality of your internet connection. If you cater properly for the volume of calls your business requires the quality will be crystal-clear, even better than an analogue phone call. It is a digital signal. Euphoria offers a technology called ViBE which creates a VPN tunnel over the Internet to your cloud PBX. It has multiple benefits such as auto failover to a secondary connection, improved call quality, improved security, reduced latency, reduced jitter and +-70% reduction in network overhead, allowing for 30 simultaneous calls over a 4MB ADSL connection.

What sort of security features come with cloudhosted PBX systems?

It is important to enquire about security upfront. Security loopholes can cost a company tens of thousands in Rands in a few short hours. Of course we cannot speak for other providers – different providers provide different security mechanisms. For our part, we take every precaution. We guarantee security in our VoIP environment because we use multiple mechanisms to secure communications over the Internet – authorisation, authentication, 256bit encryption, virtual private networks, account credit limits and a secure proprietary cloud PBX.

How scalable are cloud-based PBX solutions?

On a technical level our cloud PBX is massively scalable – up and down. Euphoria caters for as few as 5 extensions with a Cloud PBX. If clients have requirements over 2000 extensions we could consider implementing a private cloud solution, however it must be stressed this is not necessary – it would depend on the client’s setup and circumstances.

How can a business quantify the sort of cost savings it can realize from deploying a cloud-based PBX?

Business can expect a saving of about 30% on the monthly telephone calls. Further taking into account the reduced infrastructure requirements such as the unnecessary Telkom lines, BRIs or PRIs – different analogue interfaces to a VoIP network – and call centre software licensing fees, we see the total monthly telephony costs reduced by +- 50% sometimes more. Businesses should also take into account the ICASA glide path to reduce the interconnect fees for telecom companies. In effect it means VoIP-to-cellular calls will by April 2012 cost about 85c per minute excluding VAT, and by April 2013, about 70c per minute excluding VAT – even less, possibly. VoIP is the future of telephony, and the sooner businesses make the shift the sooner they will begin to realise the benefits and savings.

What if a company moves offices to another province?

Cloud-based PBX solutions are 100% portable. You simply move the equipment, plug them in at your new office’s network and you’re back up-and-running. The only limitation you may

“

BUSINESSES SHOULD ALSO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE ICASA GLIDE PATH TO REDUCE THE INTERCONNECT FEES FOR TELECOM COMPANIES. IN EFFECT IT MEANS VOIP-TO-CELLULAR CALLS WILL BY APRIL 2012 COST ABOUT 85C PER MINUTE EXCLUDING VAT, AND BY APRIL 2013, ABOUT 70C PER MINUTE EXCLUDING VAT – EVEN LESS, POSSIBLY. VOIP IS THE FUTURE OF TELEPHONY, AND THE SOONER BUSINESSES MAKE THE SHIFT THE SOONER THEY WILL BEGIN TO REALISE THE BENEFITS AND SAVINGS.”

GEORGE GOLDING, E U P H O R I A T E L E C O M

experience is if you are using a geographic telephone number such as a 021 – legally you may not use an 021 number if your offices are based, for instance, in Johannesburg. If you opt for a 087 number you may use legally anywhere within South Africa.

What sort of capital outlay should clients project in terms of purchase of desk phone sets?

When opting for a cloud PBX the main capital outlay is for the actual IP phones. Average desk phones range from R550 to R900 per phone excluding VAT. Your reception phones range from R850 to 1500 excluding VAT. Euphoria offers a free high-quality soft-phone with G729a (an audio compression technology), which is used with a PC and headset. These are suitable for call centres, where each agent has a PC. If you’re hardware purchases of IP phones is over R 10 000. Euphoria Telecom offers 3, 4 and 5 year rental to purchase agreements trough their partnering bank SASFIN. This allows you to pay as little as R450 per month for a period of 3 years for your required hardware. Once-off-server configuration and setup costs range from R500 to R1000, and R 49 to R59 per extension ex VAT. The nice thing about purchasing IP phones is that they are future-proof and usable cross all SIP-enabled VoIP platforms. (The SIP protocol is the worldwide industry standard for transporting voice over the Internet.)

Access to the internet determines the delivery of this service. How do you help clients with connectivity and how do you build redundancy into the connectivity of choice? Is this left entirely up to the company to deal with? The internet connectivity is the most important aspect of using a cloud PBX. Your connection is the lifeblood of the system. We will assess the client’s location, available connectivity options and capacity requirements of the business. We will advise the client on the most reliable and cost-effective methods of connecting. We will offer ViBE technology which I mentioned earlier to improve quality, reliability and resilience where and when it is necessary. For more information visit www.euphoria.co.za 

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

INSIGHT MOTSWAKO

FROM

INPUT TO OUTPUT MANAGED DOCUMENT SERVICES ALLOW ORGANISATIONS TO CUT COSTS ON PAPER, INK AND PRINTER CATRIDGES. ORGANISATIONS HAVE CONTROL OF THE DOCUMENT CYCLE FROM INPUT ALL THE WAY TO OUTPUT DEVICE.

utenberg’s invention revolutionised the way nformation is transferred from one place to another, creating a whole new information economy. In today’s office, print is still the most critical mode of document portability and convenience, earning it a 10% to 20% share of the typical IT budget. With this prominence, it is beyond astounding to note that most IT departments still cannot accurately quantify their printing expenses. Let alone manage them. Enter Managed Document Services (MDS). Mark Swanepoel, Strategic Manager at Motswako Office Solutions (Pty) Ltd defines managed document services as an engagement where

an organisation manages your entire document flow from the input or output of documentation by the use of specialised hardware and software which is monitored and managed inhouse or remotely through the correct method of application. According to Mark, an open structured approach must be followed when implementing MDS, ensuring maximum returns for your organisation. “The key to this process is understanding how the client’s organisation works in order to make sure that we implement the correct solution going forward. Once a comprehensive understanding of the organisation is established we are able to begin the implementation process which will in the long run reduce costs, ensure efficient document flow,

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

monitor user usage, increase productivity and reduce the impact on the environment.” Over the last couple of years MDS has gained traction mostly propelled by most organisations’ efforts to reduce costs while also reducing the effects of print on the planet. Mark says Motswako Office Solutions has a large number of clients ranging from SME’s right all the way through to large corporates that have all had a taste of the MDS implementation. “With most of our clients, received feedback has been extremely positive: cost reduction is reflecting on a monthly basis; productivity levels have increased; and the carbon footprint is significantly decreasing. “

MDS DEFINITELY PLAYS A LARGE ROLE IN THE “GREEN OFFICE” APPROACH, AS IT HAS MANY FACTORS THAT ASSIST WITH REGARDS TO THE IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT. REDUCING PAPER USAGE, ELECTRONIC FILLING, REDUCED CALL OUTS THESE ARE JUST A FEW OF THE FACTORS THAT MAKE MDS VIABLE TOWARDS A “GREEN OFFICE”.

M A R K S WA N E P O E L , M O T S WA K O

M A R K S WA N E P O E L , M O T S WA K O There are a number of value adds that a solution like this (MDS) can have on an organisation from reduced monthly costs, monitoring of user usage, centralise costs per department, increase productivity, reduce environmental impact, electronic filling, remote device monitoring, automatic meter reading, dispatch of consumables without the client making a single call, reduction in paper usage to repairing of fault’s remotely and minimal downtime. All of these are made possible with the correct MDS implementation. Also worthy of note is the fact that MDS definitely plays a large role in the “Green Office” approach, as it has many factors that assist with regards to the impact on the environment. Reducing paper usage, electronic filling, reduced call outs. These are

just a few of the notables that make MDS viable towards a “Green Office”. You are probably thinking MDS is mostly geared for big corporations. Mark argues that this can’t be further from the truth. “MDS is definitely not geared for large corporations only. SMEs and any form of organisation can benefit from this solution due to its benefits in the long run. SMEs can ensure they reap the rewards by ensuring the correct solution is implemented into the organisation from day one.” Clients on a local and national level also enjoy full support services through Motswako’s full team of service engineers and a comprehensive call centre. “We pride ourselves in service and due to our outstanding client retention we have an estimated service turnaround time of 4 hours from the time the call is logged by the client. However, 99% of the time our clients service calls are attended to well within the estimated turnaround time. We will always go the extra mile for clients as we have done for our large corporate clients where we have on-site technicians that are able to attend to service calls immediately.” 

Motswako Office Solutions is a Black Empowered Office Automation company, previously known as Gestetner Mutswako. We were awarded Platinum Partner status in 2010, where after we started trading as Motswako Office Solutions. We are South Africa’s leading document management solutions provider, offering state of the art hardware as well as software solutions to any environment. Motswako, being part of an international company, supplies and maintains the highly acclaimed global Ricoh brand nationwide as well as in various African Countries, guaranteeing the best practices, research and development materials required, whilst ensuring our customers superior product and service offerings. We have recently broadened our reach geographically by opening our United Kingdom offices and will continue to explore opportunities across the globe. Motswako’s management team, with over a hundred years collective experience in this ever changing industry, ensures that our clients are provided with a comprehensive range of superior products, services and world class skills in order to conceptualize workable solutions that have been tried and tested over the decades. Motswako Office Solutions specialises in the delivery of cost consolidation surveys and can therefore make recommendations to effectively streamline the document production process within your business. Motswako’s philosophy is to address each client’s needs with a holistic and workable solution. Together with our financial partners, we are able to arrange in-house finance and offer tailor-made financial packages to suit each client’s pocket. Our clients inevitably become part of our extended Motswako family and we are passionate about efficient and friendly service long after the sale is done. Motswako Office Solutions has just launched its Information Communication Technology leg in the form of Motswako ICT, offering our clients the latest technology in digital communication hardware. The result is innovation and flexibility in solving problems, a dynamic diversity of solutions, and an ever widening range of clients. For more information go to www.motswako.co.za

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

OPINION CLOUD PBX

CLOUD PBX CHANGES FACE OF

TELECOMS MARKET

“T

hings change, sometimes very quickly and not always out in the open,” says Rob Lith, Director of Connection Telecom. “So it is with hosted or cloud PBX solutions.” Since BMI-TechKnowledge published the latest SA PBX market report (April 2011), there has been a marked growth of cloud solution models and vendors in this space, pointing to an increasing need to accommodate cloud in the next study. As the research firm begins gathering input from vendors and integrators in preparation for the 2012 report, industry consensus is that it will likely have a very different structure and outcomes.

EARLY SIGNS

Signs of these developments were already evident in the April report. In it, BMI-T observed that converged PBX (CBX) solutions, otherwise known as Voice-over-IP solutions, had moved beyond the early adopter phase and entered mainstream ICT budgets. • At the high end (more than 128 ports), CBX solutions had begun claiming the market, with unit shipments approaching digital shipments. • By comparison, within medium-sized companies (32 to 128 ports), CBX showed growing strength compared to analogue and digital platforms. CBX was the only category to grow amid a flattening of growth in overall shipments and a decline in digital PBX sales (recessionrelated). • However, digital shipments still outstripped CBX shipments by far in this segment.

HOW FAR CBX?

So how far have enterprise evolved in their CBX adoption? Is hosted an option? What forms of hosted solutions – public or private – are preferred, and what vendors will win? Again, the research offers clues to the future: • At the high end of the CBX market, Cisco had increased its lead considerably (from 40% in 2008 to 69% in 2010) at the expense of all the other vendors that are traditionally strong in the enterprise – Mitel, LG/ Marconi Ericsson, Siemens, Alcatel Lucent and 3Com. • Within the medium-sized segment, Mitel and NECPhilips were the big winners. THE VALUE OF HOSTED SOLUTIONS But hosted solutions are a growing threat to Cisco’s strength. In the poll, vendors reported perceiving cloud as a threat. Platforms like Telviva* offer a high level of local expertise

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

and support, cost-effectiveness, greater choice over system components than proprietary vendors can typically offer, managed service levels, and upgrade assurance. It is these factors that will probably lead to the inclusion of hosted solutions in the next report.

IMPLICATIONS OF INCLUDING CLOUD

In leaving out cloud, the study excludes perhaps 20% of volume shipments in the important CBX market. Indeed, it concedes that in its measurement of handsets, it has left out third-party vendors such as Polycom**. Other than the expected increase in the sample group of 14 PBX/CBX vendors and providers for next year’s study, the inclusion of cloud may also lead to a change in categories. Traditionally, the PBX market has been segmented into number of ports, but the flexibility of cloud solutions will mean the end of this classification. Additionally, the tradition of excluding PBX spend from total market spend in telecoms will also fall by the wayside, as PBX/CBXs are an integral part of telecoms spend.

NEW MEANING

In view of strong new market undercurrents, the accepted view of the PBX/CBX market in South Africa could change significantly in the next year. This is to be welcomed, as new realities inject new vigour into strategic planning in this industry. * Telviva is the Connection Telecom PBX platform ** Connection Telecom is a Polycom Field Verified Partner – Open Source Solutions. 

Connection Telecom

was founded in 2004 as a pioneering, independent provider of proven carrier-grade IP PBX solutions to Southern African businesses. The company’s team boasts more than 80 years in collective telecommunication experience. Connection Telecom offers solutions and services based on the Telviva family of enterprise PBXs and other products aimed at enterprise customers, smaller businesses and vertical industry applications. Feature-rich, managed and open (extensible), these solutions allow freedom of choice in handsets and add-ons, a low total cost of ownership and call cost savings of up to 40%. The company has offices in Cape Town and Pretoria. Its major clients include Engen Petroleum, FNB, Lewis, RMB Asset Management, UCS and Vox Telecom. For more information visit www.connection-telecom.com, www.duomarketing.co.za

ABOUT ROB LITH ICT industry heavyweight and Internet specialist Rob Lith has been involved in the industry for the last 20 years. Coming from a strong sales background and with a lifelong interest in technology, Rob has an in-depth knowledge of Internet markets, technology and products. He sees VoIP, location based services and presence as the â&#x20AC;?next waveâ&#x20AC;&#x153; of technological advancement. Rob started out in the retail sales business in London in 1978, returning to South Africa to join Compustat in 1989, soon moving up to Durban to head up its KZN branch. He found a like mind in Steve Davies, who became his long term collaborator. Rob extended his knowledge of the SA technology and Internet business at Internet Africa (which became UUNET, then WorldCom, then Verizon), before striking out on his own in 2003 to co-found Connection Telecom Connection Telecom Rob Lith Tel: 087 820 0260 Email: rob@connection-telecom.com Website: http://connection-telecom.com

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

HAVING THE RIGHT INFORMATION AT THE RIGHT TIME WILL MAKE ALL THE

DIFFERENCE.

MANAGED SERVICE PROVIDER (MSP) MAGAZINE THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO MANAGED IT SERVICES IN SOUTH AFRICA CONTACTS

EDITORIAL: editor@mspmagazine.co.za SALES & ADVERTISING: sales@mspmagazine.co.za TELEPHONE: +27 78 800 4487, +27 11 467 0226, +27 11 042 6395

INSIGHT HOSTED CALL CENTRES

“

VIRTUALIZED PLATFORMS DO HOLD A VERY CRITICAL ADVANTAGE; THEY CAN NOW FAILOVER WITHIN SECONDS FROM ONE DATA CENTER TO THE OTHER PROVIDING HIGH AVAILABILITY AS WELL AS SCALABILITY. WITH THIS IN MIND I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT IN THE NEXT TWO TO THREE YEARS, VIRTUAL CONTACT CENTERS WILL BE THE PREFERRED OPTION IN MANY COMPANIES, LARGE OR SMALL. “

L O N WA B O M A S E T I , M A L I T H A

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

ith the consumerism of IT, services are quickly becoming on-demand in nature. it is no wonder that the traditional IT model is greatly challenged. This is shown by the rate at which on-demand IT and Software-as-aservice services are being adopted. “It has become apparent in IT as well that you don’t have to build a reservoir to have access to water. Traditional systems adopted a model where all IT equipment and resources are kept on site. This is a costly exercise that involves huge amounts of capital expenditure on hardware, software, licenses, cooling, etc. On-demand services are largely based on a utilities model, which is opex based, similar to water and lights. I believe this is what attracts businesses to on-demand services” says Lonwabo Maseti, Managing Director of Malitha Communications. The on-demand model becomes even more attractive given the turbulent nature of world economies, especially in the recent past. Lonwabo highlights that with an unpredictable economy, risk management in most companies has become a critical element and undoubtedly one that must be given more attention. “Companies locked in long term contracts are affected the most when the economy fluctuates unpredictably or when the recession hits. “Imagine a contact center that has licensed 1000 agent seats on a 36 months contract. If the business loses half of the agent seats in the first year due to a recession, it can lay off the personnel but it will have to service the full license costs for the rest of the term. Remember that the 1000 agents are normally supported by servers, operating systems, database systems, etc which attract licenses as well”. Short term contracts on a utilities-based model eliminate this risk and provide a high level of flexibility and give SMEs more room for planning.

ON-DEMAND

CALL CENTERS The virtual workforce

The on demand call centre is a service that is virtual by design. You can have a contact center without having an office at all. Calls can be received queued and routed to an IP device over the internet or to a traditional circuit switched phone or mobile phone. With this, the benefits are endless. Agents can sit anywhere in the world and they can service their clients over an IP link. At any time a company can utilise the expert knowledge of agents all over the world, unrestricted by geographic location, driving up customer satisfaction and effectively the company’s bottom line.

This side up

Because this solution is mostly software, its deployment is unbelievably easy. “With our solutions, a tenant is created, configured and managed using only web based tools”, says the enthusiastic executive. “A new tenant can take as little as an hour to create, configure and be operational”.

Making sense out of it all

Have you ever tried to get water out of a rock? You’d have to be Moses to strike it lucky. Well, that is how difficult it is, in most cases, to get information out of legacy systems. With on-demand call center systems such as the contact portal, reporting is a breeze. The contact portal makes use of Microsoft Reporting and Analysis services. Each customer has their own standard historical reports that contain detailed statistics built from years of contact center experience. If these out-of-the-box reports are not sufficient, the analysis services provide an extensible list of customizable fields that a customer can use to build their own reports online. The best part of this is that all of these are web-based interfaces.

Counting the pennies

On-demand suggests that I use the service only when I need it. Traditionally, agent licenses are based on peak usage i.e. you license the total number of agents you can possibly have at any given time. Our on-demand services allow you to license agent seats per usage on fixed agent seats, we only

require that you inform us a month in advance if you’d like to increase or decrease the agent seats. This model simplifies billing and management otherwise a usage based model would benefit customers the most.

Size doesn’t matter

Big players lack agility. The current communication services require innovation and the ability to adapt with the frequent technological changes. SMEs benefit by having a close contact with technical teams enabling them to receive spontaneous attention on problems or issues with quick resolution. Big players tend to have lengthy, bureaucratic processes that can cripple a young SME business.

The silver lining

Ever heard of the phrase “In every cloud there is a silver lining”? As a platform for delivering on-demand services, the cloud and virtualization are key to the success of on demand services. The buzz says you don’t need to know where your services are, wrong. Companies need to know what cloud it is and what’s in the cloud. It can be a cumulonimbus or altostratus cloud. You need to know if you are likely to get sunshine, rain or a thunderstorm in your cloud solution. You don’t want to have the Amazon experience. Cloud computing is here to stay. Companies need to know about the cloud solution they seek to pursue. Virtualized platforms do hold a very critical advantage; they can now failover within seconds from one data center to the other providing high availability as well as scalability. With this in mind Lonwabo Maseti has no doubt that in the next two to three years, virtual contact centers will be the preferred option in many companies, large or small. That’s because a service like the Contact Portal offered by Malitha Communications enables SMEs to have an auto attendant and a fully functional contact center in no time. Within an hour and with just a few clicks, a small business can begin to reap the benefits that major players in the market enjoy. Talk about levelling the playing field. 

Malitha Communications provides hosted contact center services based on a flagship product from CosmoCom, a subsidiary of Enghouse, listed on the Toronto stock exchange(TSE). Our contact center product is called Contact Portal, offering features like the IVR, IVVR, ACD,multichannel interactions, intelligent routing, Dialer, recording, realtime and historical reports, call and screen recording, business continuity, CRM integration, central web based management,etc all at a price of an agent seat. MComm also offers premise based recording solutions for companies who have already invested on disjoint systems without recording. Our solutions record voice or video calls on a mirrored port as well as full computer recording for quality assurance purposes. For more details, please contact us at 087 825 0620

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

OPINION CLOUD TECHNOLOGY

JED HEWSON, 1STREAM

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

IN THE CLOUD,

BUT NOT IN THE DARK IS YOUR HOSTED TECHNOLOGY PROVIDER A TRUSTED ADVISOR OR A BOX DROPPER?

he case for cloud is now closed The business case for cloudbased call centres is irrefutable – it is almost always better to leave the procurement, configuration, operation, maintenance and updating of a complex technology platform up to the hosting provider. The host, after all, has the economies of scale to offer a fixed, reasonable monthly charge, the vendor relationships to procure the most cutting-edge technology, and the specialist skills to keep it in mint running condition. Then there are the cloud-specific advantages, such as the ability to provide just enough capacity for your business peaks and troughs, with flexible charges to match this “elastic” delivery. But not all providers are equal In practice, of course, not all hosted providers are equal, and the problems of using complex technology don’t go away by simply going the hosted route. In fact, customers will experience a world of difference in choosing between the following two types of providers: •

•

‘Box droppers’, that drop the minimal on-site equipment needed to operate the remote system (phones, PCs and Internet gateway), along with minimal instruction, and then retreat behind a shared-call service number; and Consultative providers that take the trouble to help ready the customer’s technology for cloud delivery (including line redundancy and quality of service), manage change (including training), and weave the

system into business processes and goals.

Major success factor

Choosing right can mean the difference between success and failure of your cloud implementation. It is as important as choosing the right solution and service delivery model, since it influences everything – basic set-up of the technology, operation, trouble-shooting, quality assurance and technology refreshes. By choosing a partner with a servicecentric, consultative approach, customers can be sure that core issues such as their call routing and queues are set up with the help of the experts, reports deliver the best possible analysis for their business type and goals, and their system functions with optimal quality and productivity. A proven, hosted call centre technology provider that wraps its technology in a solid service offering offers many other benefits, including: •

•

A single point of contact – the best call centre technology host providers can cite many cases in which they’ve arranged an end-to-end solution, from data lines to the solution itself, its assembly and integration into company systems, and project management. Optimal routing – providers with past experience can offer call routing configuration that ideally suits companies with your characteristics. Optimal reporting – experience can again mean the difference between

struggling to match hundreds of report templates against your needs and finding the correct few right away.

Good head-start

Having the right hosting partner will make a visible difference from the get-go. Setting up a call centre is a rare skill, and any company attempting to do so without solid support from their tech provider will, at best, spend months to iron out the issues. Multiple competitive issues might arise from this, such as loss of market agility and high cost. With the right support your learning curve can be shortened to weeks. Look for providers with the credentials that cite a full house of proven skills and the willingness to be operationally involved. 

1Stream is the leading provider of proven hosted call centre technology in South African. Their award-winning platform serves customers of all sizes. 1Stream provide pay-per-use access to worldclass technology. Customers profit from 1Stream’s secure and reliable functionality that is fast, easy, and affordable to deploy. Jed Hewson Tel: 087 351 5255 Cell: 082 679 4444 Email: jed.hewson@1stream.co.za For more information visit www.1stream.co.za, www.duomarketing.co.za

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

INSIGHT IT MANAGEMENT

THE BIG

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOUR SERVICE PROVIDER BEFORE YOU SIGN THE CONTRACT - ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS IN THE BEGINNING CAN SAVE YOU A LOT OF TROUBLE.

etaining effective managed services delivers remarkable benefits for prospective companies ranging from highly skilled expertise to scalability and availability. Outsourcing your IT operations to a Managed Service Provider (MSP) also gives you the benefit of freeing your hands to focus on and mind your business. But before you jump in at the next service provider sign, take some time to arm yourself with the right question to ask your potential providers. Doing this can save you a lot of trouble and money should the agreement go wrong.

Do you have proven experience and track record?

Especially for SMEs it is extremely important to choose an MSP that has a proven track record in providing services that are specific to your industry then your relationship is already starting off to a good footing. You must avoid providers that are learning on the fly at all costs. Continuing a relationship marred by disservice can be both very costly and traumatising for you.

Do you exhibit high scalability and adaptability?

It is apparent that no one solution will be a perfect match for two different organizations. A prospective MSP must be able to cater to your specific needs. With time as an organisation you have developed your products and have specific selling points driven by much specialised business processes. Any potential MSP must then be able to enhance and add value to these business processes. The MSP also must be able to grow with the organisation or at least must be able to grow the range of value adds they provide your organisation. Being stuck with a solution that is not scalable is like growing an oak tree in a flower pot – something is bound to break, and in this case it’s your organisation’s productivity.

Can I see your service catalog? A good tell-tell sign of the future of your organization’s relationship with the prospective is the focus exhibited in their service catalogue. If the service catalogue contains a very broad range of services the MSP is offering, you are probably considering an MSP that is more reactive than focused on what its core offering is. It always not a good idea to build a relationship with a provider that tries to cater for every segment of the market.

How accessible are the support resources? Success in any outsourcing effort greatly depends on people and on how well the people from the two partnering organizations can work together. It is important that your organization finds an MSP that has resources that have excellent technical know-how, are available as and when you need them, and have empathy towards your organization and its technology needs. You must find out how the MSP handles its call logging, escalation, resolution and reporting. You must also be very clear about how your account will be managed, and who your primary business and technical contacts will be.

Can I take a look at your contracts and SLAs? Essentially, the contract between your organization and the MSP is a legal document outlining the services to be provided, duration, cost, resources and other non-salient terms. The service level agreement, on the other hand, is a document that focuses more on the performance and service quality agreed on by the two parties. Always ask to see the MSPs contract and, if possible, ask a legal counsel to review the document. You must look out for important information such as obligations, and termination. Both the SLA and the Contract must be current and reflect commitments accurately. The SLA must also be a separate document that can be reviewed and amended without changing the contract. A common mistake amongst consumers of managed services is that of not thinking of the SLA document as a live and operational document. The SLA is not to be signed and filed away. Always ask for the possibility of regular reviews of the SLA during the term of the contract.

Is my data going to be safe with you?

You must be very clear about what security is in place at the

provider’s facility – both logical and physical. IF you are very concerned with security in an in-house setting, then your concerns must be doubled with an external service provider. Ask to go over the different security measures in place with the prospective MSP. Find out information about how the MSP keeps its infrastructure updated, how often security updates/ patches are done. You must also find out, if there is a breach, response strategy in place and in the event of loss, if there is insurance cover. This will reduce your risk and also keep your mind at peace.

Can I take a look at your data centre facilities? An MSP that runs a tight shift will most likely also treat its relationship with your organisation with an equal level of seriousness. Find out if any part of the operations is outsourced to another IT service provider. This is important to know so that when delays occur it is clear what the responsibilities and accountabilities are. Note-to-brain: If the prospective MSP refuses to give you an ‘all expenses paid round trip’ of its facilities, then they are hiding something. This should seriously get you thinking about whether you want to forge a long term relationship with a prospective that’s not being forthright with you. Remember, this is a possible partnership, and as such it must be built on full transparency and trust.

What migration services will be available to me? Is the MSP going to assist in migration of the data held on their platforms once the relationship comes to an end? After the initial go-live migration, will the MSP offer migration services should you require to bring in more information, and will this be at an additional cost?

What is the potential value add for my organization? So engaging an external IT service provider will reduce your organizations costs while increasing the value add by allowing it to access the provider’s talent pool. Well and good. But over and above the obvious, what other value adds does your organization stand to gain from the relationship. Make sure that you work all the angles and are able to get the most out of the relationship.

Does your business have longevity? Always check out the business health indicators like the MSPs long term viability, previous financial statements, cash flow, resource utilization, employee turnover, and profits. A reference of satisfied customers is also a good way of performing a litmus test on the promises the MSP is putting on the table. As you may well know, happy customers means return business and return business means sustained revenue generation. A business that has unhappy customers is likely not to last long. If the MSP has happy and satisfied customers that means it’s doing something right. If it keeps doing this then there is no reason why it shouldn’t stay in business for a long time to come. 

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

HIGHLIGHT NUMATA

GETTING AHEAD >>IT OUTSOURCING FOR SMEs T here’s never been a time more important for SME’s to stretch budgets and squeeze every bit of value possible than now, even from secondary, non-core business operations - like IT. Where large corporations have mastered economies of scale, amassed immense purchasing power and invested heavily in controls and standards, smaller companies have to turn to client service and innovation to stay in touch and keep up with the giants – even just to retain existing clients. Numata Business IT is currently ranked by MSPmentor as the #5 MSP in Africa for small-to-medium companies, offering end-to-end IT Support, Outsourcing, Management and Consulting that help you cut unmanaged IT spending by up to 30%, and build customer service capabilities through IT that help you rival corporate giants – without ever having to manage, staff or fund your own inhouse IT facility. Numata serves small-to-medium Companies with between 10 and 250 end-users on their networks. Many of our clients sign with us because they’ve had either a bad experience with another provider, or are simply fed up with unprofessional, slow-to-respond IT support or service from multiple vendors. Our clients are fast-growing, fast-moving companies who are great at what they do, but need some help with IT to keep them going. They are well-run companies who cannot afford to have an in-house IT facility or staff yet, but want the same class of IT service, as corporate companies have access to. Highly driven, entrepreneurial style companies with owners and executives who are extremely busy, and cannot get side-tracked by the technicalities or management of IT. Those are generally the clients we are best suited for.

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

OUR VALUE PROPOSITION – Helping You Make the Right Decision Succeeding in business - by aid of technology – takes an understanding of both business and IT. We would not likely succeed as an MSP with a team of super technicians that did not understand a thing about business, nor would we get far as business moguls, with absolutely no idea about technology. It’s the fusion of the two, which leads to either success or failure. Numata offers SME’s a balanced approach to technology, grounded in a deep foundation of business and financial principles first. That is why we select our clients very carefully. All of us – no matter how technically adept – understand the “real-world” economic realities, constraints and playing field of small-to-medium business, that our clients face every single day. It’s slightly different to the corporate world. We are great at helping clients make the right decisions about IT – technically, but also financially and strategically, under real-world economic conditions, not just in theory or utopia scenarios like many consultants do. Technology is a great enabler, but the reality is it can also become a trap for SME’s with limited knowledge, time and budgets. New technologies develop so fast these days that by the time you’ve tested, approved, bought and implemented one – two others have already replaced it. Our job is not only to help our clients find best value for IT spending, and guide them through the technology maze, but also concurrently gaze into the future on their behalf, and help them prepare for what technology might bring to their business tomorrow. If we fail, they fall behind, lose their advantage, and slowly start becoming uncompetitive and irrelevant – which we definitely don’t want, that’s why our success is their success. They rely on us, which is a big honour, but an even bigger responsibility - which we have great respect for.

CLIENT SATISFACTION – Unlocking Potential Working with clients in a variety of industries- regardless of size – enable us to keep a fairly tight finger on the pulse of the market, demand and any movement in different market sectors. Because we package our service as a product – with a detailed, tangible offering and expectation attached to it, our success relies not so much on how well we sell, but rather how well we manage what we sell. Feedback so far has been great. We have not lost a single Consequently, have you had to make strategic changes to the way you sell your service or how you implement it. We will always try to establish as

early as possible in any relationship – hopefully even before the relationship starts, where possible – what the real role of IT actually is, within the client’s business – related to that specific client’s business goals for the current and next term or business cycle. client in the last 7 years, which must be a good sign – we are extremely grateful for such loyal support. We find that by simply picking the right clients, and managing them really well, we can unlock more growth inside their own future demand for new and expanded services, than looking for new clients – almost like a “hidden” type of economy, inside the growth of our current clients. Their growth is our growth, completing a synergistic partnership. That’s why we have reversed our pricing model as well. We don’t make any profit, unless all client systems are running perfectly, meaning we only make money when you make money. This is what SME owners and executives want to hear. They don’t want to pay per hour for IT support or pie-in-the sky consulting, when their systems are already down and losing them tons of money. This is a thing of the past. They want performance based-service, on-demand, paying only for what they use, and no more - quick, professional, accurate – no complications, no excuses, no lengthy downtime.

CLIENT SATISFACTION – Service that Delivers Systems can do anything - yet PEOPLE ultimately make them work (or NOT). Apart from the benefits, proper thought should be given to the technology culture, inclination, limitations, and expectations of end-users in any organisation – way before any implementation can be successful. User demand, impact, adoption, orientation and training should be a priority – way before any implementation is even considered or planned. Few companies pay enough consideration to that today. Most simply make financial decisions on top level, then expect users to fit in last minute – perhaps a reason IT failures amount to billions each year in failed projects. It is end-users that drive service demand today. If we keep them happy (but also productive), they don’t complain to management, and the contract and relationship stays intact. Because our clients can cancel with us at any time – our reputation is always only as good as our last performance, and there are a line of eager providers at the door, waiting for us to put the wrong foot forward. Thankfully we have such a tight-knit team, eager and begging to take on more and more responsibility each and every day. I have no idea what we would have done without that – it’s something you cannot buy in any job market.

HIGHLIGHT NUMATA

Not all clients always need to reduce IT costs – as a first priority. Some actually need to build enhanced capabilities, to support the growth, expansion & longevity of their activities in the next business cycle. If the client is not absolutely clear on their goals – we have a problem, which technology is not likely to fix, and any amount of IT outsourcing, might actually be more harmful than good, only helping them work in the wrong direction faster, or sometimes even worse - NO direction in particular. To identify and rectify that, our people have experience in business – not just technology. When outsourcing IT to an external provider, that provider basically becomes part of your operations – and their staff, systems and processes (or lack thereof ) effectively become yours. Therefore you have to be careful who you “partner” with in IT – especially in something as crucial as the management of your information, and the technology in your business. Your Provider needs to “GET” your business - who you are, what you do, why it matters, WHEN it matters. Your IT provider needs to at least be compatible with the culture of your workforce, able to communicate with them, on their level of expertise, helping them embrace the right attitude towards IT inside your organisation, now and in the future. Changing IT providers, is a complex, expensive, dreaded event by most companies who have been so unfortunate to be stuck with the wrong match IT provider. Most companies would not want to go through that exercise more than once in a lifetime – after feeling the consequences. We help them take care of that, so they never need to change providers again. Each and every IT outsourcing interaction needs to compliment the role of IT in your business. If it’s not being measured like that, it’s not even worth doing - at all, IT spending might be one of the first areas companies turn to in hard times, to cut or save costs, yet we find that if we select our clients, and build relationships the right way from the start – with proper knowledge sharing we can get them to see how maintaining and investing appropriately in technology during hard times, can get them through it without quite as many sleepless nights. It’s only when you neglect IT spending during good times that cost predictability becomes a problem in hard times. If you deliberately make a conscious effort to manage the “unmanageable” so to speak – as well as you can – then IT spending will not be a threat to your survival in lean times.

SME MARKETS - DOING IT THE SMART WAY It’s becoming harder these days to distinguish some SME

companies, and make a black and white comparison with corporations – largely because in many instances, they are driven by, and have the same requirements as the modern giant multinationals. We have clients with a staff count of 5, that generates billions of Rand’s in turnover each year, then we have an “entrepreneurial” subsidiary of a multinational corporation, as a client. Regardless of the official definition of an SME company – we find that SME’s especially, are desperate these days for any way in which they can find to level the playing field with large corporations. Technology is a wonderful way for them to achieve that, if done smartly. In fact, it’s not easy to accomplish “equal ground” any other way – other than through customer service delivery, and internal productivity, two of the aspects on which IT has a huge baring for SME’s today, just to keep up with large competitors. In that respect – we have not lost a single client yet, in the last 7 years, which we are exceptionally grateful for, and want to use this opportunity to publically thank all our loyal clients, for making our dreams come true, and sharing them with us. Once again, the growth and success of our clients, have allowed us to prosper, without much effort – other than keeping them happy, which is only a pleasure.

MANAGING IT THROUGH ECONOMIC DOWNTURNS One of the realities of business, includes planning for “lean” periods. It would be naïve not to do so – as markets can’t always just rise. Fortunately, one of the perks of an annuitybased, performance-pay, service delivery based pricing model, is that we actually help our clients plan for the lean periods – generally meaning that if they are ok, we are ok during economic downturns. One of the benefits of unlimited IT support for a fixed monthly fee, which we offer our clients, is that you always have an idea of exactly how much you will pay – making it easy to forecast, budget and plan for, especially in difficult times.

BEST PRACTICES For many employees, the historic impression of IT, is that of complication, slow response, geek-speak and often, just downright confusion or frustration. Many clients still see IT and their business, as two separate silos. For many end-users, technology is that “barrier” placed there to purposely complicate their lives, an obstacle to overcome that keeps them from getting and doing more of what they want, like making money and spending time with clients, or on the golf course.

But actually, technology is just like any other part of your business. It can either help you work backwards really fast if the rest of your organisation is not managed correctly – or it can become a genuine accelerator when you manage all aspects smartly. We always attempt to take an educational approach to every IT activity we engage in with the client. The challenge is that there are so many variables with technology, that it is often hard for the client to know who they can trust or listen to – as every expert or consultant seems to have a different opinion of what the client should do or buy - or not.

GOING GREEN WITH IT

We try to get away from hardware as far as we possibly can, resorting to virtualisation and cloud offerings where possible. Most manufacturers are making an effort lately to get on board with greener technologies in any case. Because we are mainly an IT service company – and not a hardware reseller - we basically almost inherit the infrastructures of our new clients, and where possible we try to standardise and consolidate it. So going green, is not really problematic for us – but does, however, rely on the choices previously made by clients, before we took them on board.

just one or two years ago. Apart from all the new accreditations gained like Cisco Small Business Specialists, Microsoft Partners and a whole myriad of others – being rated by MSPmentor as Africa’s 5th Best MSP in the small-to-medium business market was an exceptionally special moment… and a great honour for us, much to our surprise. Ultimately, no accreditation or single event will separate us from any competitor, but rather the sustained, long-term, small and measureable improvements we make every single day, in a tightly-knit team of inspired people, working closely together, all enjoying what we do – that’s what makes us proud and effective, better than any single great achievement I could list here.  Numata Business IT (Pty) Ltd www.numata.co.za 0861 686 282

ACHIEVEMENTS

We’ve managed to steadily grow both the pool and quality of our clients, based on our simple philosophy of both technology and business, and are starting to compete with much larger MSP’s with double and even triple our staff count – winning new deals and opportunities on levels we could not even imagine possible

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

HIGHLIGHT SPACE AGE

ark Geschke and Mathias Tölken started Space Age Technologies while studying Engineering at Stellenbosch University way back in 1994. By 2000, they realised that the model of “ad hoc” support was by no means a win-win for either service provider or client and set about looking for a solution to this situation. The idea of charging a single fixed fee for all support and maintenance was the aim, but at the time, there was no template – no company that offered their services in this fashion. As part of his research, Mark visited CeBIT – the world’s largest computer expo – in Germany. The search did not reveal any companies that provided services in a fixed fee format, along with an ability to remotely monitor and manage the environment. As a result, Mark then set about building the architecture for what is now known as the SATAware Platform. This first iteration of SATAware made use of a separate application to monitor the server, but provided the link back to Space Age’s office, where the data was collated and displayed. By 2001, their first form of Managed Services was available – providing 24/7 peace of mind to Space Age’s clients. Over the past 10 years, our managed services have developed massively. We now have a dedicated Network Operations Centre (NOC), which operates 24/7, business hours Service Desk and a Professional Support Services team consisting of arguably the best skills in the SME space. Over time, as we discovered gaps in the managed services model, we made changes and added services and roles. We now feel that we have a highly integrated offering that, through well-defined processes and excellent people (some with 10 years and more experience with Space Age), is not only able to deliver consistent high quality, but is also highly scalable. MARKET BASE We have remained true to our original market focus of serving the small and medium business. Space Age operates from Stellenbosch – a location that has turned out to be very central for the greater Cape Town / Boland region that forms the geography of most of our target market. Our services and solution set are very well suited to companies of between 50 and 200 PCs, but we do also work very well with companies smaller, as well as larger than this range. Some of our clients also have their own internal IT support, and we work very well with these people – helping them to ensure their company derives the most from their IT. VALUE PROPOSITION Space Age Technologies is committed to providing its clients with “Relevant IT”. This is a term, and a mode of delivery, that we adopted just over a year ago and which forms the basis of how we engage and how we build solutions for our clients. We define “Relevant IT” as the set of solutions and services that a business needs at any point in time – as viewed by the client. We therefore do not push technology onto a client, but we rather work with them to find the right technology that helps them meet their own needs. Successfully providing truly Relevant IT is something that we have worked hard at for the past year and, to this end, we have created a job role and filled it with skilled

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

technical people to ensure this is done properly. Our clients love the extra level of focus we are placing on understanding how their business works and then matching IT to the needs of their business. Since this is part of a managed service, we are always in tune with the business needs as they change and can therefore evolve the solution as needed. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION Being a “Relationship-focussed” company, we spend a lot of effort in making sure we are in touch with our client’s needs and pains. In fact, we have two people performing this account management for each client – one that focuses on the business and one on the technical aspects. In addition, we regularly survey our clients for feedback on how we are doing. A survey is sent to the client after each project as well as after every request for support. These ratings are monitored daily by our Service Desk Manager, distributed to our Leadership Team and used in the individual technician’s performance reviews. Our current ratings are, in general, are very good. Our overall project satisfaction rating for this year is at 88%, and our “user experience rating” on support provided shows that over 80% of the respondents gave us an overall rating of 5/5. We set the bar internally very high because we realise that, in this very competitive industry, good service is essential. SERVICE DELIVERY Our projects all have a fixed price – this gives our client peace of mind that there will be no surprises at the end of the project. We have always prided ourselves in managing to deliver what the client wanted in the time required. However, to achieve that, we sometimes had to put in more overtime work, or more resources than we initially planned – which resulted in a cost to us. More recently we have implemented a leading project management approach which has enabled us to not only consistently deliver on time, but we can do so without it costing us any more than planned. In addition, one of the most important aspects when implementing a solution, is to make sure that what is delivered matches what the client expected to receive. Over the past 18 months we have developed and refined a Statement of Work document which clearly defines what will be implemented, and in a way that is understood by all. Thanks to this relatively small additional process, we have managed to reduce misalignment of expectations to almost zero. SALES In the past we relied almost entirely on word of mouth to source new business. This worked for us until the company had grown to 35 to 40 people. At that point, we found that additional marketing and sales was needed to continue driving the business forward. We turned to Gary Pica, the Managed Services sales guru, for inspiration and ideas. But we continue to research, adopt and trial ways to refine our sales engine. Being a complex sale and something that is often attributed to being a cost centre, sales is one area where we are currently spending a lot of effort.

M AT H I A S T O L K E N , C H R I S W E L H A M , M A R K G R E S C H K E , S PA C E A G E

PARADIGM SHIFT

FIXED RATE SUPPORT VIRTUAL CIO

Our aim has always been to provide “Enterprise Class IT services” to the SME market and we have, to a large extent, managed to deliver on that promise. Our clients appreciate the value we bring to their business – not only for the peace of mind we provide, but also thanks to the “Relevant IT” that we give them. In addition, almost all SMEs exhibit what we call “The Business – IT gap”, which we feel is a very real inhibitor to them extracting the value that IT can bring. IT can make such a big impact on these smaller companies, but they seldom have all the appropriate skills or knowledge in house. This gap is an area we have specifically targeted to

help our clients bridge, largely through a service we call a “virtual CIO” – a person who is able to identify, and meet, the business’s technology needs. Some service providers may say they do this already, but by building it into a managed service, with structure and deliverables, we believe we have taken this to another level. NAVIGATING THROUGH TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES Some industries have certainly been affected more than others by the state of the economy, but yes, almost all our clients are feeling the pinch in some way or another. Some of our services are aimed at reducing risk – eg, minimising business downtime due to a failure of critical IT systems.

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

HIGHLIGHT SPACE AGE

When a company is under financial pressure, their appetite for risk increases, if that will reduce cost. The result is that we have had one or two clients adjust their spending on risk mitigation. The need, however, for reliable support remains strong. Furthermore, many clients are opting to “sweat their assets” for longer. Equipment that used to be replaced every three to four years is being put to work for an extra one, and even two years.

THE CHALLENGES OF MANAGING BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS

We seek to build long term relationships built on trust, with all our clients. Building that trust is where we place a lot of effort and focus, but it really only can be done when the motives are genuine and you have the right people in place to do this. Our company culture is very much to provide solutions for clients with whom we will work closely over the long term. Our challenge with new clients is to break down the suspicion that companies so often seem to have for service providers. Initially, they see us as salespeople, but with time, they realise that we are true to what we say. But having said this, I would still advise companies to be circumspect when first interacting with a new service provider. The provider must prove themselves – trust is earned, and can only really come from the heart. That is where the company

Firstly, our “Relevant IT” drive over the past year has not only helped to focus us internally on providing what makes sense to the client’s business, but has also addressed a crucial gap that is almost a direct result of the managed service model of service delivery. The problem arises when most, if not all, services are delivered remotely. The benefit of this remote model is that service is delivered timeously, the right specialists can be involved as and when needed, and the environment can be monitored 24/7. The problem is that there is very little connection with the client and, in particular, with the client’s business. As a result, the service provider cannot easily be proactive in suggesting solutions to a client’s real, on the ground issues. These “issues” simply do not appear in a monitoring application’s dashboard. behind the sales consultant must provide the right direction and support.

GREEN TECHNOLOGIES

For at least the past 3 years, we have moved aggressively towards using virtualisation as much as possible. There are many benefits to this, but from a Green point of view, the reduction in the number of physical servers saves on electricity usage. For instance, in 2009 we saved a client R60 000 per year in direct electricity costs alone by virtualising several of their servers – and that was calculated using 2009 electricity tariffs. Additional electrical savings are achieved due to the lower cooling required. We also offer our clients an electronic waste removal service to ensure that any electronic equipment is disposed of appropriately. On a smaller scale, we recommend laptops

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

to replace workstations due to their lower overall power consumption.

OUR SUCCESSES

There are two aspects I would like to highlight. One addresses the business value aspect of what we do and the other is about the technology. “Relevant IT” is providing the right services and solutions to a client when they need them. In order to do this, we have a very close operational relationship with our client and the IT users. The way that this component is structured is crucial to its success, however. We have run this service for 2 years now, and currently are on version 2. We now feel we have the formula correct – but there is always room for improvement! On the technology side, the highlight must be our application of virtualisation technology. In our Professional Support Services (PSS) team, we have highly skilled specialists who are able to build and support solutions that compete with most enterprise systems, at a fraction of the cost. Using virtualisation we provide our clients with highly flexible solutions, disaster recovery at almost any level, power savings and cost reductions. When the time, need and connectivity is right (ie, when “Relevant”), virtualised solutions can very easily be moved to the Cloud for the additional benefits provided by this medium. 

Space Age Technologies 1st Floor, Block B De Wagenweg Office Park Stellentia Street Stellenbosch 7600 021 887 7292 083 261 6925 chris@sat.co.za Company directors Mark Geschke: Managing Director Chris Welham: Marketing Director Mathias Tölken: Sales and Customer Relationship Director Michael Pedro: Technical Services Director

Comprehensive services for the small and medium business At Space Age Technologies, we provide enterprise class IT services to small and medium businesses with their head office anywhere in the greater Cape Town region. Our fixed price Managed Services allow our clients to focus on their business, while we take care of their IT—ensuring it operates optimally, is stable and secure, 24x7. Coupled with this, our strategic consulting and constant overview of the network completes a comprehensive service offering that is unparalleled in the region.

Managed Service solutions to meet all needs SATAware

Through our SATAware Platform service, we implement the tools that enable our services, giving you more control over your IT platform, and granting you access to our expert resources for on-call remote assistance at reduced rates. Keep your finger on the pulse of your platform with our weekly and monthly reports, conveniently emailed directly to you.

Start to enjoy the benefits of having experts keep a watchful eye on your IT platform – 24x7, and keeping it secure through regular patches and updates to named software, with our SATAware Automation service.

SATAssist

Realise a key Managed Services benefit of predictable support costs with our SATAssist service options. SATAssist Remote provides fixed cost, proactive remote support and committed response times. In addition, our Service Desk staff will help your users with the common platform-related “How do I ?” questions, ensuring they are always productive.

Fix the cost of all remote and onsite support with our comprehensive SATAssist Onsite service. This provides maximum peace of mind: your IT platform will be monitored, maintained and supported by our Network Operations Centre (NOC), Service Desk and onsite technical teams, providing you with a stable and optimised environment for your business systems. In addition, as a value add to our clients, in the event of a disaster, we provide our services at no additional charge to restore your IT platform to an operational level.

SATAssure

SATAssure are our high value managed services which are coupled with the SATAssist services, through which clients are able to realise the benefits of our depth of expertise, specialist knowledge and insight into the value technology can bring to each different business scenario. By formalising processes for strategic and technical consulting and oversight, we ensure you receive maximum value from your partnership with Space Age Technologies.

The SATAssure Network Administrator role provides a skilled platform technician who is assigned responsibility for your site. Working in tandem with the Virtual CIO, this plays a pivotal operational role in making sure your network is maintained to international best practice standards, documentation updated and health and compliance aspects monitored. Critically, this role also aids the business IT contact / owner by identifying operational IT risks and forecasting any needed improvements. Our SATAssure Virtual CIO role represents the highest level of value provided to our clients. In conjunction with the designated IT owner in the business, to maintain good governance, this role provides strategic consulting, planning, budgeting and regular communication to ensure goals and roadmaps are adhered to, risks addressed and problems are resolved.

Comments from some of our clients:

―I have really been impressed with the support that we have been getting. Professional, knowledgeable and quick.‖

―Space Age is very attentive and have excellent support reaction times, I am impressed.‖

―Just a quick email to say thanks ever so much for getting the Proxy server sorted on Saturday evening. Your commitment is really appreciated!‖

―It not only meets my requirements, it EXCEEDS them – massive thanks!!!‖

―Yesterday, and this morning at about 3, I was reminded again why we use your company. Your support technician assisted me in fixing two bugs with the Intranet platform we are developing, and in the early hours of the morning the VPN went down because it got capped. The person at the service desk promptly assisted me to get it up again, and I could continue to work. Thank you for great support.“

Description of terms Small business These companies do not have their own internal IT resource. The IT role is usually fulfilled by the business owner, or one of the business executives. Since IT is not their primary role, nor their core skill, they take longer, don’t know the technologies in depth and their time would be better spent on core business activities, rather than on IT.

Primary Business Address 1st Floor, Block B De Wagenweg Office Park Stellentia Street Stellenbosch 7600 South Africa Phone: +27 (0)21 88 77 292 Fax: +27 (0)21 88 77 293

Branch office

The IT platform The IT platform is the lifeblood of any business’s IT system. Every action the IT users perform depends on it: email, accounting, documentation, Internet banking, printing. There is almost nothing that a business does these days that will not be affected by an IT platform that is not running optimally. In addition to enabling many of the business functions, the platform is also responsible for the safe and secure storage of all company data. Thus, it is not only the lifeblood of the business, but in many ways, it is also the heart.

Managed Services for IT platforms Space Age Technologies’ Managed Services proactively monitors, maintains and supports the platform – from the firewall, to the servers, to the workstations. We ensure it is stable, secure and running optimally. We therefore provide our clients with an IT platform that can be used as a business enabler, the peace of mind that it is being looked after, and the commu-

Service matrix

SATAware

SATAssist

SATAssure* Virtual CIO

Net Admin

Onsite

Remote

Phone: +27 (0)21 988 2323

Automation

Platform

6 Marlborough Street Windsor Park Cape Town 7570

Medium business Although medium businesses have internal IT support people, these IT resources have their hands full looking after the business systems, business processes, extracting reports and providing user support. They have precious little time, if any, available for management and support of the platform.

nication channels and processes that ensure our clients remain in control.

Remote Monitoring and Management Platform

E-mail: solutions@sat.co.za Web: www.spaceage.co.za

Automated reports

Professional Services at reduced rates

24x7 Server monitoring and notification

Change notification process for servers

Workstation optimisation

Software patches and fixes for named applications

Daily anti-virus pattern update verification

Daily backup verification

Remote support

Remote user assistance : "How do I ?"

Remote installation of deployed software

Support escalation (remote)

Onsite support

Support escalation (remote and onsite)

Restore from disaster

Impact assessment of managed services reports

Vendor co-ordination

IT platform documentation

Implementation of best practices and standards

Implementation of IT policies

IT strategy, planning and IT budget consulting

Risk identification and assessment

Capacity and growth planning

Project management

Regular IT platform feedback

Account management

*SATAssure services are available with the SATAssist service offerings, and are provided together, as each depends on the other.

ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT...

COLOCATION

...in the April/May 2012 issue of MSP MAGAZINE速

HIGHLIGHT MTN

THE QHUBEKA PROJECT

MORE THAN JUST

BUSINESS

TN Business is a South African Tier-1 Converged Communications Service Provider, and is also able to leverage off the MTN cellular network and provide outof-office connectivity through 3G, EDGE or HSDPA technology. As one of South Africa’s leading business solutions providers, MTN Business have a wide range of technologically advanced, innovative, secure and reliable products and business services that are designed specifically to help organisations including the likes of: • Internet and Email solutions • Network solutions • Data Centre services • Bulk messaging solutions • Calling and Messaging solutions • Security solutions

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

• • • •

Business applications Business connectivity Machine-2-Machine Enterprise Apps

Whether a business is looking to reduce their business’ operating expenditure or to improve their employees’ productivity and efficiencies, MTN Business is able to provide organisations with a scalable solution to meet their needs.

OUR MARKET

The MTN Business service offering is designed for organisations big and small operating throughout the African continent and the Middle East. MTN Business operates as a fully converged, one-stop service provider, and is able to offer organisations the largest range of mobile and Internet-based communications services.

OUR PREPOSITION

At MTN Business, our unique value proposition is based on designing a 360° communication solution and service offering to organisations, based on our knowledge and expertise. This is underpinned by our service excellence and focus on delivery that is based on being transparent with our customers at all time, as well as offering a reliable and scalable service.

A WELL-RECEIVED SERVICE Our service offering has been well received from both a market and customer perspective. There is a need in the market for reliable, redundant communication services and at MTN Business we understand this and as a result aim to meet our customers requirements though our business solutions that are tailored to meet their needs. MTN Business provides ICT solutions to some of the biggest worldwide organisations operating in Africa, including a range of multi-national financial organisations and public sector departments.

WE SERVE BEYOND CHALLENGES As MTN Business operates in Africa, it is often very difficult to supply fixed line connectivity in some areas, as they are remote. However, MTN Business has overcome this by using Satellite and it’s Mobile network. In addition, MTN has significantly invested in the undersea cables that are lighting up Africa. At MTN Business we offer converged IP and GSM solutions, where we see benefit in getting involved from the initial planning phase with a customer, and not just at the implementation stage.

NURTURING INFINITE POSSIBILITIES FOR ENTREPRENUERS The SME market makes up a larger portion of the current local business landscape and as such, forms a critical part of the overall MTN Business, business model. MTN Business has a wide range of products and solutions that are designed specifically to provide entrepreneurs the connectivity solutions they require in making their business a great success. MTN Business have experienced solid success in the SME market over the years, as through our years of experience across various business sectors, we are able to provide the SME with the right tools, technology, products and solutions to grow.

BEYOND THE ECONOMIC DOWNTURN The economic downturn certainly had an impact on many industries across various sectors. From a telecoms point of view, the industry was impacted whereby IT spend slowed down as businesses started to prepare for the worst. In a survey that MTN Business undertook in 2010, in an aim to ascertain what corporate SA and broader were thinking with regards to IT innovation, maintenance and the apparent business related benefits, half of businesses surveyed perceive the recession on the telecoms industry to be

detrimental, where although 28% at that time believed it is over, 22% felt that the industry will forever continue to feel the after effects. While certainly this industry felt the recession, it is encouraging to see not only the growth, innovation and development the telecoms space has seen over the past two years and the impact that this is having on SA’s broadband, but also the realisation from businesses that technology remains an important facet to the survival of a business. In fact, the recession played a key role in speeding up the adoption of cloud computing services in the business space, as moving applications into the cloud meant less overall Capex spend and also resulted in the reduced use of energy – which in essence meant that less carbon emissions where being emitted.

COMMUNICATION IS KEY As with any great working relationship, there are certainly aspects that need to be determined and discussed upfront with clients. At MTN Business, we value all our customer and supplier relationships and take them very seriously. We are therefore always 100% transparent with our customers and suppliers and always keep communicating our business plans, processes and any relevant changes to them. Often our challenge lies in communicating this message around brand transparency and delivery to our customers who may have had a bad experience in the past, and it is for this reason that we remain consistent in our communications and encourage customers to engage with us at every point – to ensure we can deliver upon their requirements and build solid relationships.

GOING GREEN Today, businesses can no longer afford to relegate environmental issues or pretend that the challenge posed by increased greenhouse gasses should be the sole preserve of NGO’s and governments. Being the leading telecoms provider in emerging markets, MTN is cognizant of the negative impact of climate change in the countries it operates in. Sustainability is not simply about compliance and ticking boxes, it’s about ensuring that we remain mindful and responsive to our customers’ needs. As such, MTN SA is making a concerted effort to ensure that all our business practices are aligned with a sustainable, cost-cutting model that will reduce the company’s carbon footprint. One such initiative is the Tri-Generation plant at the 14th Avenue Campus in Johannesburg which has been registered as a carbon credit project with the United Nations. The Tri generation plant is the first in Africa. The electricity plant is powered by methane gas and not only generates electricity but also uses the waste heat of the process to generate chilled water to meet the cooling needs of the MTN 14th Avenue campus, including the new Test and Data facility. Utilising the waste heat, results in increased energy efficiencies of up to 85%. February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

HIGHLIGHT MTN

Apart from the Tri-Generation and off-grid BTS initiatives, only two of several green initiatives, MTN Business, through its partnership with Wildlands are currently working with over 30 communities nationwide, supporting a network of thousands of ‘tree-preneurs’ and ‘green-preneurs’ through the Qhubeka project. Children are rewarded with a bicycle for every 100 trees they plant or 1500kg of rubble they collect, directly improving their environment and community, while facilitating mobility of the children. It is through this and other similar projects that MTN Business aims to address the various socio-economic challenges facing the multitude of disadvantaged communities in South Africa - One child, One tree and One bicycle at a time. Furthermore, through MTN Business’s strong focus on promoting the adoption of cloud computing technologies, the brand is also promoting a more sustainable approach to technology as such a concept requires less hardware and energy to run effectively.

MAKING SOCIAL INVESTMENT THE QHUBEKA PROJECT

Of the 16 million school children in South Africa, approximately 12 million walk to school. Of these, 500,000 walk more than two hours each way, spending four hours getting to school and back each day. MTN Business believes that alleviating this immense hardship is critical to these children’s development – from an educational, physical and emotional perspective. MTN Business has supported cycling for years, and so this premise, combined with its passion to build communities and drive greener environments, a partnership with the Wildlands Conservation Trust and Qhubeka was a natural fit. Qhubeka which means “move forward” is a corporate social investment project which aims to help rural communities move forward by providing bicycles to children who cannot afford them, in return for work done to improve their environment and communities such as planting/growing trees and recycling waste. This initiative promotes a cleaner and greener environment – 100 trees is equal to 1 bicycle. The MTN Business Qhubeka product offering consists of enterprise solutions that offer voice, data and ISP solutions. These products are customised according to the total spend of the individual or company and a portion of the discounted rate is contributed towards the Qhubeka initiative. The benefits that accrue to such communities from such

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

initiatives, not only include reducing the time it takes for children to walk to school by up to 75%, but it also allows the children to get to school on time without exhaustion or fatigue – allowing them to concentrate better and get the education they deserve. Additionally, through the introduction of the sport of cycling into these communities, and the boosting of local economies through the creation of whole new industries centred on Qhubeka bicycles, it also encourages cultural activities to support increasingly self-sustainable communities.

THE LAUNCH OF SERVER VIRTUALISATION

MTN Server Virtualisation offers the same features as a conventional hardware based server, without the need for physical hardware; space in a data centre or resources to maintain the servers; as well as a range of additional compelling features. The virtual server solution provides an organisation with a solution that is accessed via an MPLS network or the public Internet, and because there is no physical hardware present, it is, as the name implies, ‘virtual’ with services ‘in the cloud’. This approach provides customers with a value-added service that will not only meet individual business needs; save costs and make for easy implementation, but will also provide security and service flexibility, which will result in minimum downtime and higher availability. The launch of MTN UniPresence allows any cellular device to become an extension of an organisation’s Managed IP PBX, as it offers all the features and functionality of a traditional PABX system, however, it does not require desk phones anymore, as users can make and receive calls wherever they are – through one single number as though they are sitting at their workstations. MTN’s UniPresence lets customers seamlessly move between an organisation’s fixed-line to a mobile phone using one number for any communication device. 

MTN Business 3rd Floor, Building 2 Falcon View Place Constantia Park www.mtnbusiness.co.za

HIGHLIGHT NETSURIT

OUTSOURCED IT

MANAGEMENT

etsurit, formerly known as MQS, was started by young entrepreneurs, Rian and Orrin. In the early days they only sold computers and calculators to fellow students at RAU out of their flat. However, the business grew quickly and soon they registered for VAT and moved into office space in Marlboro. As the threat of the Y2K bug loomed in the late 90â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, MQS saw that businesses were being taken advantage of and grossly overcharged. This resulted in MQS changing direction, focusing on helping entrepreneurial minded businesses to invest in IT without breaking the bank. This change in focus called for a change in name and thus Netsurit was born, Network Support Insurance. Netsurit soon realised that offering support services

on a contract basis with Service Level Agreements was advantageous in the long term. Netsurit had started to build relationships with their clients and was always advising them as to what the best product and solution was, rather than just selling products. The difference is that Netsurit ensures that clients have the best product or solution for their needs. Netsurit believes that big dreams need guardians and champions; partners that will support, nurture and believe in their realisation. At Netsurit we live by our cause â&#x20AC;&#x153;Supporting the dreams of the doersâ&#x20AC;?. The cause simply states that whether you are a client or an employee we want to support you as much as possible, in order for you to reach your dream. Netsurit has a dream management program for employees, with dream facilitators, that encourages and motivates employees not only to dream, but also to strive for and realise them. The dream program truly ensures that Netsurit is a unique place to work for. Our area of expertise is in managed services and consulting for businesses that are and want to be aligned to ITIL and ISO principles. We partner with businesses that are interested in optimising their investments in IT. The Company specialises in providing managed services, focusing on the following elements: 1) Networking infrastructure services, 2) Hardware and software sales and support, 3) Employee training, 4) Website and database design, 5) New technology implementation

To this end, Netsurit manages client networks through Service Level Agreements (SLA’s). The SLA is the contractual agreement that governs pricing and defines the performance of the relationship between the parties, earning revenue in annuity. Netsurit is a Dell and Microsoft partner and thus endorses these brands to a large extent. As a Dell Preferred Partner, we have the available expertise to advise on the best solutions for your company. Microsoft plays a big role in our managed services and is our primary software provider for all systems and applications.

MARKET BASE

Netsurit provides managed services to companies where we could add value to their business in a measurable manner. Client Response Netsurit values client satisfaction and the opinion of clients. We do bimonthly client care surveys, with great results. One of the ad hoc comments we received were: “They never falter in their striving to provide excellent service and turnaround time. High levels of communication and friendly, knowledgeable staff, makes dealing with them an absolute pleasure” . “Netsurit’s team is highly efficient and dedicated to their clients and have gone the extra mile to meet our requirements on numerous occasions.” “Netsurit’s advanced remote support facility allows for immediate attention to your IT problems. Their support staff is well trained and will go out of their way to solve your problems. We would recommend any business to make use of their professional and hands on IT services.

SUCCESS RATE

We perform well within the managed service provider realm since we are quality and measured driven. Our services are differentiated by the metrics we provide to our client base on a regular basis. The economic downturn has kept us on our toes. We have implemented

measures to control and cut spending where it is unnecessary.

BUSINESS VALUES

Our advice to clients when dealing with a managed service provider like ourselves is to ensure that they are honest with the service provider and to build a relationship based on trust. SLA’s should be measurable and attainable by the service provider. It is important for the client that performance by the service provider is measurable. We as Netsurit live by the following values: Ethics, Integrity and Prudence At Netsurit we realise that our integrity is important when building relationships with clients; thus, we admit when we have made a mistake and do whatever we can to ensure that the mistake is corrected. Quality Driven Service Quality is a cornerstone of the organisation and is measured vigorously. Examples of metrics used include average call holding time, client satisfaction surveys, resolution time and response time. Client Obsession Clients are the centre of our business, since Netsurit is first and foremost a service based business. We have a team of account managers that are available to each client and are tasked to learn about their business and their struggles. Have Fun and be Positive We believe that employees who enjoy their work will be happy and have a positive outlook on life. It is important for us to create an environment where individuals can be themselves and have fun. Open and Robust Communication Communication is critical for the success of any business. We encourage our clients to be open and honest with us and we communicate openly with our clients. As mentioned earlier, it is important to us that we know what

the client expects and that the client understands how we will deliver. Staff and Client Loyalty At Netsurit we believe in being loyal to our clients and client information is regarded as confidential.

GOING GREEN

As a Managed Service Provider that is ITIL and ISO aligned, our support is remotely done 90-95% of the time, reducing out carbon footprint. Our carbon footprint is reduced significantly since our technicians travel a lot less. 

AWARDS

2011 Microsoft Small Business Specialist of the Year 2011 Top 100 Global Best Managed Service Providers (MSP) company in the world by MSP Mentor 2010 Microsoft South Africa’s Small Business Specialist 2010 Dream fellow award winner 2010 Floyd Consulting Dream Manager 2010 Top 100 Global Best Managed Service Providers (MSP) company in the world by MSP Mentor (only SA company) 2009 Microsoft South Africa’s Networking Infrastructure Solutions Competency Award 2008 Top SMME achiever – African ICT Achiever Awards 2008 Microsoft South Africa’s Citizenship Award 2007 Microsoft’s World Partner of the Year for “Competing to Win: Linux/LAMP”

TELEPHONE: +27 11 555 7000 EMAIL: info@netsurit.co.za WEBSITE: www.netsurit.co.za

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

HIGHLIGHT TECHTRON

THE TECHTRON TEAM

FOCUSED

SOLUTIONS T

BY NOT TRYING TO BE EVERYTHING TO EVERY CLIENT, MSPs CAN FOCUS ON BEING THE BEST IN WHAT THEY DO.

echtron Computers is a Cape Town based Technology business focussing on providing managed IT services and consultancy to support firms with their IT infrastructure, including desktop & laptop computers, servers, networking equipment and software.

Techtron offers an array of managed IT services that include unlimited hassle-free IT support contracts, remote network monitoring, managed firewall including hardware, Remote online backup, Cloud messaging services, and managed antivirus services by partnering with specific technology providers and making sure it has the best and well-trained and knowledgeable staff on its team. This winning combination allows the Cape Town based outfit to serve its client portfolio comprehensively. “We believe our level of service, knowledge and approach to our clients differentiate ourselves”, says

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

Steven Sher, co-founder of Techtron Computers. “We do not push products or try to sell a lot of hardware or software to our clients; instead we try to build long term relationships. We tend to have very focused service offerings only offering a very specific solution, which allows us to offer a very high level of service and support on those services.” One way Techtron Computers does this is by only offering its services through a monthly contract, thereby ensuring the company has full knowledge and control of the client’s IT environment and can offer the best possible service. Techtron Computers recently upgraded one of its clients’ servers to Microsoft Small Business Server 2011. The undertaking was very successful and left a lot of smiles on the faces of the folks at Dementia SA. Steven says “In Techtron, Dementia SA has a reliable IT partner who can service their needs, with no unexpected costs. Included with this is proactive monitoring and reporting”.

STEVEN SHER, TECHTRON COMPUTERS

up a ticket is automatically logged to be dealt with”. “When it comes to monitoring, a question we always encounter is one of bandwidth. However, bandwidth prices have dropped considerably in the last 12 months, and we are finding bandwidth much less of an issue, and believe the bandwidth is only going to get better and cheaper with time”. It is apparent that redundancy, however, is still a problem with few alternatives to ADSL. 3G is unreliable and still fairly expensive, and any type of guaranteed service such as ISDN, wireless links or fibre is very expensive for the SME market”. For organisations that might not be able to make outright investment in hardware and software, especially the smaller startups, Techtron has two options on the infrastructure/server side. Either the client owns all the hardware and software which Techtron then maintains, or alternatively Tehctron owns everything and bundle it together as a service to the client.

THE OUTLOOK

“We help Dementia SA be more efficient. For example, we implemented our firewall service and provided reporting to identify wasted time, which helped Dementia SA be more efficient and stop wasting bandwidth.” For a specialised organisation like dementia SA, engaging Techtron Computers to manage its IT infrastructure has proven to be one of the best strategic moves the organisation has made.

CONCERNS

A major concern for most companies is one of security. Allowing an outsider to constantly peek into your network raises hairs for most CIOs, IT managers and business managers alike. Techtron always recommends using common industry standards and best practices regarding security and remote access. There are plenty of cheap or free software options but very few can offer the peace of mind of the more mature well supported products. “I would encourage companies to ask their MSP what products and procedures they use to ensure their networks are secure. Don’t bury you head in the sand and hope nothing goes wrong. You need to ask the questions to your MSP and make sure you are happy with their answers” Steven continues. Allowing a company like Techtron to monitor your network also allows you to know of any attacks or security breaches as and when they occur. “The two main tools we use are Ncentral for monitoring and Bomgar for remote support. The Ncentral alerts are integrated into our Ticketing system (Autotask) so as soon as an issue is picked

The SME market hasn’t really exhibited much increase in managed services uptake. Most companies under 10 people are reluctant to move over to managed services but among mid-sized SMEs of between 20-70 users, there is a big shift to managed services, and the growth is expected to continue. On the other hand, bigger companies have been using managed IT services for years with fully outsourced IT departments. Managed IT service providers need to add value to their portfolios for the proposition to be more attractive to SMEs. It would be interesting to see if providers including VOIP, IP CCTV, and security services to the core services offered. This is a potential growth area. Another area, which Techtron has also identified, is the firewall and antivirus space, as well converting traditional applications to web-based services. With the cloud, South Africa is more likely to follow international trends which show strong growth in cloud services, but we are definitely lagging behind by probably 2 years. There has been a lot of growth in the datacentre area, and this is a direct result of the strong uptake on cloud services.

ADVICE

“I would advise companies to focus on their core business and rely on MSP’s to manage their IT for them” says Steven. “I would also encourage companies to calculate the total cost of IT for their business including lost productivity due to downtime. It is imperative when choosing an MSP you choose one that fits your organisation and you trust, a close working relationship with your MSP will ensure the best success” Steven says.  TECHTRON COMPUTERS 34 Roodebloem Road Woodstock Cape Town 7925 South Africa info@techtron.co.za 086 1113 848 (National) +2711 287 2219 (International)

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

OPINION FAX TECHNOLOGY

M AT T H E W B R I N E , V O X A M V I A

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

FAX: STILL AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE 21ST CENTURY BUSINESS

he fax, invented in the mid 19th century and raised into prominence in the late 1980s and early 1990s, is one of today’s most maligned and misunderstood technologies. You need only spend a few minutes looking at a twitter feed for the word “fax” to realise that many people consider fax to be boring, mundane and out of date. Those people are always surprised to hear how many faxes are still sent every day. “But there’s a good reason fax still plays an important role in business processes: Faxing is ubiquitous, readily traceable, cost effective and comparatively secure compared to email,” says Matthew Brine, VP of OpenText Fax and Document Distribution Group. While most people think of fax as an antiquated office machine that has long been replaced by other technology, the truth is that fax technology has evolved considerably over the last ten years. There are still fax machines and multifunction printer/scanner/faxes in existence, but many companies have implemented a fax server, an all-in-one fax appliance or a fax service. They have done this to reduce costs, streamline or automate their business processes and improve productivity. So what is a fax server? We define it as a software application that provides a central network resource that can be used to send and receive fax documents to and from anywhere on the LAN/WAN network or over the Internet. Unlike a standalone fax machine, a fax server application can be integrated with all kinds of business workflow processes that require sending and receiving documents in and out of an organisation. Modern fax technology gives organisations the flexibility not only to receive a document and distribute it to any user or application on the network, but also to send virtually any document from any application. The first application to consider is desktop or personal faxing, which allows a user to receive a fax either directly via a fax number dedicated to their inbox, or routed from a general fax number. There are many different ways to route faxes to the appropriate user: Based on information from the sending device, on the telephone line configuration, on barcodes or using OCR (optical character recognition) for names, reference

numbers or key words. Then there’s always plain old manual routing via email or a workflow application. Users can receive inbound faxes in their email inboxes, or directly into document management solutions such as OpenText Alchemy or Microsoft SharePoint. Desktop faxing also allows a user to send a fax from any application they are working on. This is as simple as printing and allows the user to include a cover sheet with notes, billing information and define when and how faxes are sent. More advanced fax technology allows for fax approval processes to ensure that outbound faxes are authorised and sent to the right recipient, as well as restrictions to ensure that data is not sent to the wrong fax number. Beyond desktop faxing, there is fax automation, used by many companies who regularly need to send large numbers of faxes such as purchase orders, invoice or remittance advice notes. Modern fax technology can determine if a document generated by an application such as IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP is to be faxed, emailed or printed and sent by mail. Automated faxing can result in thousands of pages of faxes being sent each day. Fax automation works for inbound faxes too: Invoices, for example, can be immediately included into an automated business process such as accounts payable or order processing. Over the years, fax technology has evolved so that fax servers can also provide certified document exchange an alternative delivery mechanism to fax. This technology allows the sender to distribute any document or file in a secure manner. Certified document exchange provides all the benefits of good fax technology such as extensive tracking, auditing and reporting. What is most interesting about fax in a business setting is that every fax contains data (content) and every fax is the start or end of a business process. This process may be automated or manual. For companies that still receive faxes on fax machines, the business process can only start when someone collects the fax. This may result in delayed actions or even

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

OPINION FAX TECHNOLOGY

“

WHILE MOST PEOPLE THINK OF FAX AS AN ANTIQUATED OFFICE MACHINE THAT HAS LONG BEEN REPLACED BY OTHER TECHNOLOGY, THE TRUTH IS THAT FAX TECHNOLOGY HAS EVOLVED CONSIDERABLY OVER THE LAST TEN YEARS. M AT T H E W B R I N E , V O X A M V I A

missing faxes. If the organisation receives some or all of their purchase orders by fax, manual faxing can mean fewer sales. Similarly, financial institutions that receive stock trades and banking instructions via fax may be liable if actions based upon those faxes are not acted upon in a timely manner. Companies that have gone the automated route have an advantage: Faxes can not only be automatically routed to the right person, they can be automatically integrated into the right workflow. Such companies automate documentcentric business processes by extracting data and adding intelligence to inbound documents. For example, using OCR technology, companies can extract information from a received fax and save it with the fax in a document repository or archive, making it easier to index and search. This becomes especially relevant when one is searching for faxes that were received and filed multiple years ago. Or companies might use the OCR data to automatically populate fields in a data record such as an ERP accounts payable data field. Structured business processes can then be triggered from this information. Outbound faxes generally come at the end of a business process. Rules can be put in place that do not allow an outbound fax that is part of a business process to be sent without human or automated approval. For example, purchase orders greater than a set limit may require internal authorisation before being sent. Also, because it is easy to miss-key a fax number on a fax machine or incorrectly address an email, an approval process may be instigated that only allows faxes to be sent to approved numbers or email addresses. Security is a big part of the reason for the durability of fax. When there is a need to send confidential data securely from Point A to Point B, fax may be the cheapest and easiest way to do it. Email, by contrast, is one of the most insecure forms of communication around and is most certainly not an appropriate way to transmit confidential information. This is one reason to be wary of fax-to-email services: While they are extremely convenient, they can’t offer the level of security that is needed if you are sending or receiving confidential data. In that case, a fax server is a better bet. Number portability is another issue with fax to email services. If you stop using a particular service, you will almost certainly lose your fax number: most fax service providers own the fax numbers that they offer, and either do not allow users to take the number with them if they switch to another provider, or charge a hefty fee for doing so. This may not seem like a big deal – you can always get another fax

| www.mspmagazine.co.za | February/March 2012

number – but your old number may very well be allocated to someone else. What happens then if someone sends a purchase order or other sensitive information to your old fax number? From a compliance perspective, the use of corporate controlled fax servers can ensure that all faxes sent and received are archived for document retention purposes. While this may not seem important today, it can become important down the road for discovery purposes if you are faced with some type of litigation. Fax servers also ensure that confidential faxes are not seen by unwanted eyes while lying in the output tray of a fax machine. Call centres, insurance companies, law firms, banks and healthcare organisations all use fax today when they need to transmit mission critical, time sensitive and confidential data. They use fax because it is secure, reliable, cost effective, ubiquitous, traceable and proven technology.  *Vox Amvia is an international OpenText partner.

Vox Amvia

is South Africa’s leading fax specialist, managing critical corporate documents for businesses. A range of complete solutions include automation, outsourcing, compliance and business process integration to manage the delivery, receipt and processing of critical documents. More than 90% of South Africa’s top 100 enterprises benefit from Vox Amvia solutions to ensure smooth business functionality. Vox Amvia’s solutions are built on the world-renowned RightFax brand which has four times more market share than its closest competitor and dominates the world market in critical document solutions. We have sold more RightFax infrastructure over the last 10 years than any other international Open Text partner, and have extensive experience in managing multi server national sites. Vox Amvia Craig Freer (Managing Director) Tel: 087 805 1739 Cell: 082 371 9637 Email: craigf@voxamvia.co.za For more information visit www.voxamvia.co.za, www.duomarketing.co.za

SUBSCRIBE TO WIN an iPad 2

Enter to win this exclusive iPad2 16GB WIFI. Subscribe to MSP Magazine TODAY by simply sending an email to subscribe@mspmagazine.co.za with your name and preferred delivery address.

MSP MAGAZINE |

February/March 2012 | www.mspmagazine.co.za |

advert.indd 1

2011/10/24 4:23 PM