Newly-appointed Institute of Information Technology Professionals SA (IITPSA) president Wellington Matope's immediate goal is to steer the institute towards becoming a statutory body.
Matope, who previously occupied the VP post at the IITPSA, was appointed president last week, replacing Rabelani Dadaga, with Vunani Limited IT executive Ulandi Exner and ICT veteran Adrian Schofield being appointed vice presidents.
The institute - formerly known as Computer Society South Africa (CSSA) - is a professional body that engages with commerce, industry and government in order to influence policy formulation on behalf of its own members and other stakeholders.
"I feel honoured by an organisation that I joined purely because of life-changing experiences I have enjoyed over the years. I come from a very humble background and to be at the forefront of an organisation like IITPSA is a huge opportunity to give back to the industry that is so rewarding when you put your heart and soul into it. I am very humbled and excited about the future of IITPSA. I would also like to thank Rabelani Dagada for a sterling job during his term of office."
Forging ahead
In an exclusive interview with ITWeb, Matope revealed that he wants to continue with the legacy Dagada initiated.
"The IITPSA is a very principled organisation with strong values and culture. We are one of the few organisations that changes leadership peacefully so often and yet manages to retain almost all the past presidents active in our day-to-day operations," Matope said.
"There is, therefore, a lot of consistency in what we do because our goals are for the membership and the industry, not for one individual, the president stated."
Under Dagada's leadership, said Matope, the IITPSA became an institute from a society; established a foundation; and became a recognised professional body.
"We also think IITPSA should be a statutory body and we are currently pursuing that. What we need to do now is take these major developments to the industry and add value to all the IT practitioners."
Matope also revealed that one of his portfolios when he was a VP was CIO visits with his executive council colleague Gail Sturgess, with the intention to solicit industry expectations. "Gail and I have consolidated the feedback and we are giving it back at the different CIO forums and to individual CIOs.
"Based on feedback from the industry, we have also started re-structuring our offerings to different enterprises and there will be a press release soon," he added.
Industry voice
"I would like us to be the industry voice that informs, educates, inspires and enables. To do that, I will continue working with CIOs, members, executive council, management committee, and all our strategic stakeholders to take the organisation to the next level and become more relevant to the industry.
"We have also noted that we have not marketed ourselves well in the past. Some people only knew the CSSA as an old white men's club and not many people know how diverse the organisation is now. You are also going to see us stepping up our marketing to the public and our own membership.
He pointed out that the institute's executive council member, Moira de Roche, is busy putting together an exciting, "outside-of-the-box" marketing plan that will see the body exploring new marketing channels.
The IITPSA is currently finalising its agreement with Talent Align on talent management and it is set to become the authoritative voice on people development in IT, he explained.
"As you may know, although we have an oversupply of resources at the bottom of the IT industry pyramid, we have a serious resource shortage from middle to top management. Are we going to just watch that serious problem and wish it away? No, watch the press."
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