Addressing public sector challenges

Addressing public sector challenges

Interview with Iron Mountain Head of Public Sector, Neo Mothala

In 1936, Herman Knaust established Iron Mountain in the USA. Over eight decades later Iron Mountain now stores and protects information assets in 60 countries, with more than 225 000 customers in 95% of Fortune 1000 companies. Iron Mountain’s expansive real estate network totals more than 85 million square feet across over 1 400 facilities. The global leader in storage and information management services is spread across the world, with facilities in South Africa, North America, and the EMEA and APAC regions. Iron Mountain entered the African market in 2016, after the acquisition of Docufile South Africa. Here Iron Mountain’s Head of Public Sector, Neo Mothala, takes us through their public sector solution, plans for 2023 and more.

WHAT SERVICES DOES IRON MOUNTAIN PROVIDE?

We are the global leader in innovative storage and information management services, storing and protecting billions of valued assets, including critical business information and highly sensitive data. Through a range of services including digital transformation, secure records storage, information management and secure records and IT assets destruction, we help businesses bring light to their dark data, enabling customers to unlock value and intelligence from their stored digital and physical assets at speed and with security, while helping them meet their environmental goals.

IN WHICH SECTORS DO YOU PREDOMINANTLY OPERATE?

Iron Mountain operates in 60 countries with 225 000+ customers in 95% of Fortune 1000 companies. Our customers are from all sectors; we have a large number of public sector customers globally, as well as financial services, healthcare and logistics businesses.

PLEASE UNPACK IRON MOUNTAIN’S PUBLIC SECTOR SOLUTION

The Iron Mountain Public Sector solution for secure offsite document management and storage of records is tailored to assist our customers in freeing up office space and reducing their real estate costs.

Public sector employees can focus on their core roles and responsibilities and trust Iron Mountain with their records management.

Our Digital Transformation solutions are designed to enable public sector customers to become “paper-lite” by removing physical records from their processes and ensuring quick and easy accessibility to their information; thus transforming into an agile and digitally mature environment that addresses the changing operational needs.

The Information Governance Advisory Services help our customers stay compliant with up to date record retention policies and operational procedures as well as staff training. We help our customers modernise their data management strategy to improve compliance, reduce risk, and reduce costs. Finally, with our Secure Destruction Services we protect our customer’s brand and reduce risk by destroying records, and media in a compliant, safe, sustainable, and cost-effective way.

WHAT ARE YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES AS HEAD OF PUBLIC SECTOR FOR IRON MOUNTAIN?

My role as Head of Public Sector is to build a deep understanding of our customer’s challenges and ambitions. Iron Mountain works globally with governments and public sector organisations to improve citizen outcomes and we can bring this experience and know how to help address the changing environment in South Africa. As strategic partners to our public sector customers we have a proven track record of delivering improved productivity and efficiencies.

WHAT HAVE BEEN SOME OF YOUR MOST MEMORABLE MILESTONES AS HEAD OF PUBLIC SECTOR?

I joined Iron Mountain this year, and I am really proud to have become part of the global Public Sector team, transforming organisations such as the UK’s NHS, government departments all over the world, local authorities and other essential public sector services. As a global entity we take pride in ensuring that we are a part of the South African government’s digital transformation plans when it comes to public sector records.

WHAT SETS IRON MOUNTAIN APART FROM THE COMPETITION?

For over 70 years, Iron Mountain has built an unrivalled reputation of offering secure and compliant information management solutions. We put our customers at the heart of everything we do and are proud to be our customers’ strategic partner, guiding and supporting organisations in protecting their information assets, improving efficiencies and processes and unlocking the value of data.

As a Level 1 B-BBEE organisation, diversity and inclusion are our key values and we uphold these values throughout our business - from resource development, to the diversity of our leadership teams, as well as the overall supply chain.

HOW CLOSELY DO YOU WORK WITH THE IRON MOUNTAIN GLOBAL COMMUNITY?

This is one of my favourite things about Iron Mountain: how diverse our team is because of our global nature! We work closely with colleagues from all around the world on regional strategy and sharing best practices from different markets. For instance, my colleagues would share key challenges faced by public organisations in North America, EMEA and APAC regions, where we could identify common themes in our markets and ensure our public sector solutions are shaped to help resolve the pressing information asset issues and unlock the value of the data.

WHAT EXCITING PLANS DO YOU HAVE FOR 2023?

Our public sector team is growing and we are working to address the challenges faced by the public sector in SA. In 2023, we are planning to grow our scanning facilities and launch our Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM) solutions in order to meet our customers’ ambitions and help them achieve the right outcomes for citizens, by increasing efficiencies and reducing the risk of managing physical and digital data.

CONTACT DETAILS

Tel: 086 147 6668Web: ironmountain.com/za