AL Indigo addresses market need for services in infrastructure arena

African Legend Indigo (AL Indigo), a member of the African Legend Technologies Group, has established a new business division, namely Infrastructure Services.

This new division is set to address the market need for professional IT services in the infrastructure arena, which, according to two separate international studies, has been identified as one of the fastest growing segments in the IT market.

The IT Spending and Trends report produced by eMarketer in December 2004 stated that spend on IT services internationally is predicted to increase by 11.7% in 2005. This figure is even higher in Africa, with expected growth of 13.3% over the next year.

The figures provided by eMarketer are further supported in a report released by IDC in November 2004. According to IDC, during 2004 spend on IT services took the lion`s share of the IT spend pie with 41.6% being allocated to IT services, while 37.7% was spent on hardware and the remaining 20.7% allocated to packaged software.

"When one considers that during 2004 US$1.44 billion was spent internationally on IT services and this figure is expected to be US$1.54 billion for 2005, it translates into an area of phenomenal growth for companies in a position to provide the necessary support services," comments Ed Gassner, CEO for AL Indigo.

AL indigo is not new to the IT services arena as the company has successfully assisted a wide variety of its customers with their service requirements, and very successfully too. EDS, an international outsourcer providing a broad portfolio of business and technology solutions, is a case in point.

"From an IT services point of view, AL Indigo is the ideal partner to have on board as a result of their committed approach to providing exactly what we require," says Eugene Pretorius, head of ITO at EDS. "This is a relationship that works well and AL Indigo`s added value to service means that we are able to add value for our customers."

"It makes sense for AL Indigo to take this route," adds Gassner, "the market wants it, we have over 23 trained, certified and highly experienced engineers in our Unix, Linux and Microsoft maintenance and support division, and given the competitive nature of the IT market, we have identified that this is one way that AL Indigo will successfully manage to differentiate itself through a high value-add service approach to the infrastructure business."

The existing infrastructure product sales division, with many years of Sun hardware and Veritas product experience will be integrated into this business unit. The product portfolio will be expanded to assist in the delivery of a complete infrastructure solution for customers. The business unit is currently rated as a Sun Microsystems Data Centre certified reseller, Fujitsu Siemens Intel Services Partner and Veritas Elite Partner.

To boost AL Indigo`s business plans of expansion into Africa, Infrastructure Services will not only address the service needs of the local IT market, but the rest of sub-Saharan Africa too. The sub-Saharan region to a large degree lacks the necessary skills in the IT services arena and AL Indigo believes it can play a vital role in developing expertise in the region and also to assist large multinationals expand into the African territories.

"I believe that AL Indigo is well positioned to make its presence felt and we have every intention of making it a successful aspect of our business, a mindset that I believe will benefit us and our customers," concludes Gassner.