T-Systems rides the cutting edge of the disruption wave on CliffCentral and CNBC Africa

Issued by Evolution PR for T-Systems
Johannesburg, 23 May 2017

'Disrupt with Mpumi Nhlapo' premiered on the online podcast radio CliffCentral.com in March.

Following the launch of what is calls a 'disruptive' contracting model - UnOutsourcing, T-Systems has now gone further and taken it's 'disruption' campaign to another level in partnerships with CliffCentral and CNBC Africa. A one hour in-depth interview show - 'Disrupt with Mpumi Nhlapo' premiered on the online podcast radio CliffCentral.com in March and the company will now extend its thought-provoking and stimulating dialogue with industry leaders on CNBC Africa (DSTV 410). The five-minute segment, titled 'Disruptors in Business', will be aired once a week on Business Tonight hosted by Nozipho Mbanjwa from 18 May 2017. It will showcase some of South Africa's most disruptive business innovators to a broad audience throughout Africa on a highly popular and long-running show.

"Digital transformation is continuously reshaping industries and business models, fuelled by trends like mobility, cloud computing, big data, analytics and the Internet of things (IOT). This means that enterprises today can no longer rely on their past successes and their traditional approach to business anymore, at the risk of becoming irrelevant and swept aside by new competition business models.

T-Systems has embraced disruption at every level and has even developed a completely new approach to information communication technology (ICT) partnerships, something it calls 'un-outsourcing', which offers its customers lower-risk, flexible partnerships and guaranteed cost-savings," says Mpumi Nhlapo, Head of Marketing and Portfolio Sales at T-Systems South Africa.

"We are taking bold steps to help organisations in South Africa with the rapid evolution toward new business models, facilitating their ability to create their own disruption and remain relevant in today's fast-paced digital world. We want the message of the importance of disruption to reach as many business leaders as possible, and to do this we needed to reach a wide audience. Our show on CliffCentral enables us to reach an audience that is already open to the concept of disruption. The segment on CNBC Africa enables us to reach a wider, potentially more traditional audience, driving the message even further," he adds.

Disrupt with Mpumi is a weekly live radio show that is broadcast online on CliffCentral for one hour every Tuesday from 9am to 10am. The show, as the name suggests, focuses on disruption across various industries. It offers a platform for in-depth discussion with industry leaders on disruptive business and emerging trends they have within their organisations. The aim of the show is to initiate conversations, discussions and interviews with high profile business people, including pioneers, game changers and avid disruptors, who are driving disruption in the local market.

The 'Disruptors in Business' segment, which will air on CNBC Africa's Business Tonight, takes the form of a series of pre-recorded interviews. The segment will showcase and celebrate the achievements of individuals, captains of industry and thought leaders who have achieved success through non-conformity to traditional approaches to their business or industry. Their unique approach has had a disruptive and innovative impact either on their own business or industry, or on the public. The segment will air once a week for six months beginning 18 May 2017 on the Business Tonight show at 7pm.

"Disruption is all about innovation, breaking ground, creating new markets and shaking up the existing market. Talking about disruption solely through traditional channels just does not make sense. Partnering first with CliffCentral, itself a disruptive media channel, and now CNBC Africa, will enable us to showcase some of South Africa's leading innovators and hopefully inspire more businesses to create disruption and drive local enterprise forward into the digital era," Nhlapo concludes.

Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom is one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies with around 151 million mobile customers, 30 million fixed-network lines and more than 17 million broadband lines (as of 31 December 2014). The group provides fixed network, mobile communications, Internet and IPTV products and services for consumers and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in more than 50 countries and has approximately 228 000 employees worldwide. The group generated revenues of EUR 62.7 billion in the 2014 financial year - more than 60% of it outside Germany.

T-Systems

Deutsche Telekom considers the European business customer segment a strategic growth area. Deutsche Telekom offers small, medium-sized and multinational companies ICT solutions for an increasingly complex digital world. In addition to services from the cloud, the range of services is centred around M2M and security solutions, complementary mobile communications and fixed network products, and solutions for virtual collaboration and IT platforms, all of which forms the basis for its customers' digital business models.

With approximately 47 800 employees worldwide, T-Systems generated revenue of around EUR 8,6 billion in the 2014 financial year.

Since the inception of T-Systems in South Africa in 1997, the company has cemented its position as one of the most successful T-Systems companies outside of Europe. A leading ICT outsourcing service provider locally, T-Systems offers end-to-end ICT solutions in both the ICT Operations and Systems Integration markets. Their extensive portfolio of services covers the vertical, horizontal, IT and TC space. T-Systems South Africa's head office is located in Midrand with another major office in Cape Town, and 20 further representative offices in locations throughout southern Africa.

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