Johannesburg, 17 Oct 2001
IT infrastructure and e-commerce services group, Datacentrix, has released positive interim results for the period ended 30 August 2001, with turnover increasing by 25 percent to R225 million.
Operational performance has increased by 24 percent to R19.4 million, with headline earnings per share growing by 20 percent to 8.4 cents. Cash on hand is R51 million with no interest bearing debt.
Executive chairman, Gary Morolo, explains that the organisation has shown such strong growth in the face of the local economic downturn because of its niche focus, partnership approach with both clients and technology partners and ability to execute.
Morolo maintains that Datacentrix is getting the lion`s share of project wins thanks to doing business directly with independent technology partners. "We are essentially capitalising on the current channel woes," he explains. "With our accreditations and strong balance sheet, we have managed to put ourselves onto a new competitive level and are being selected directly by manufacturers to partner in new infrastructure projects.
"In terms of partnerships, Datacentrix expects to benefit substantially from the proposed HP/Compaq merger as we enjoy strong relationships and growing business with both parties."
Additionally, the organisation`s empowerment strategy is well on track with the board-level appointments of both Morolo to executive chairman and Imogen Mkhize as non-executive director. Mkhize brings with her wealth of experience and expertise gleaned from a lengthy background in the information, communications and telecommunications sector.
Datacentrix has seen a large amount of repeat business during 2001, showing positive reinforcement of its decision to move towards a long-term, strategic partnership model. "The benefit of practising a contractual model of business is that income becomes more predictable," he says.
"Project sizes have also increased. Eighteen months ago we would have considered certain deals to be sizeable, but we are now playing on a much larger scale more frequently.
"In terms of maintaining our positive development this year, we have identified the enterprise storage market as a growth area for Datacentrix and are already exploring significant new business opportunities within this arena. We dominate the market for SAP R3 archiving with our Ixos product offering and we expect significant project wins within the next 6 months," Morolo concludes.
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