30% Club dinner at T-Systems highlights focus on gender transformation in the workplace

Issued by Evolution PR for T-Systems
Johannesburg, 13 Mar 2017

Gert Schoonbee - MD at T-Systems South Africa.

T-Systems South Africa, a digital transformation specialist and leading provider of ICT solutions, recently hosted the third annual 30% Club Southern Africa members' dinner at its head office in Midrand.

The 30% Club is an international organisation comprising chairmen, CEOs and senior partners at leading private sector organisations, all of whom are committed to driving gender parity on boards. The 30% Club also focuses on developing and promoting gender diversity across business leadership.

A prestigious affair, the dinner was attended by prominent representatives from across South African business.

"T-Systems stands firmly behind equal opportunity creation for women in the workplace and we are proud to be an active member of the 30% Club of Southern Africa," says Gert Schoonbee, MD at T-Systems South Africa. "Inclusive transformation forms a vital part of our Nation Building Strategy and speaks directly to the core values held by T-Systems. We are committed to contributing to South Africa's growing diversity, which in turn will enable true digital transformation. We are delighted to have maintained our BBBEE Level 2 score on the new ICT codes, where our initiatives are integrated into our value chain to ensure sustainability and ultimately enable economic transformation in South Africa."

Schoonbee was joined on stage by Minister of Women in the Presidency, Susan Shabangu, keynote speaker Mardia Niehaus, Chair of the T-Systems South Africa board and Senior Vice President of Deutsche Telekom's International Carrier Sales and Solutions (ICSS) unit, and Colleen Larson, Managing Director of Business Engage, an organisation at the forefront of strategic thinking on gender mainstreaming in the private sector.

Minister of Women in the Presidency - Susan Shabangu (MP).

Schoonbee also took the opportunity to delve into the impact of the 4th Industrial revolution, where technology is moving up into organisations' business processes in ways and speeds which are disruptive and unpredictable. Schoonbee sees this technological disruption as an opportunity to create shared value for all stakeholders by generating economic value in a way that also produces value for society.

One real example is the rural T-Systems Customer Interaction Centre (CIC) in Hazyview, a key milestone in the T-Systems Nation Building journey. The rural CIC at Hazyview not only provides world class services at competitive prices, but gives ICT students in this rural community jobs where they can apply the new skills they have learned.

Schoonbee challenged business leaders to take gender transformation seriously, and to support initiatives such as the CIC in Hazyview which gives young people, particularly rural women the opportunity to gain skills and become employable in the modern ICT economy.

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 our 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.

30% Club

The 30% Club was founded with intention of improving gender parity on boards. In November 2010, with seven founding chairmen supporters, the 30% Club was officially launched in the UK. Today 30% Club is a global initiative, with chapters in the UK, US, HK, Ireland, Canada, Malaysia, Australia, the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC), Italy and Southern Africa. The Southern African chapter was launched in 2014 and membership has increased from 10 companies to 28 companies in the last year, with another 14 companies in the process of being brought on board.

For more information, please visit the 30% Club Web site https://30percentclub.org/.

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