Keith Jones was appointed Director of Strategic Business Development at Unison Communication in March this year.
Jones started his IT career working on mainframes and spent 13 years working abroad in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Belgium and Switzerland, mainly for large financial institutions.
In 1995, Jones returned to South Africa via South America, and in 1997, started Harvey Jones Systems in South Africa. Harvey Jones grew to be the leading Microsoft Business Intelligence business in Africa, and won numerous awards, both locally and internationally.
In 2008, Jones sold Harvey Jones to Avisen in the United Kingdom, and became a board member in the UK. Avisen was listed on the London Stock Exchange on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in 2009. Through several acquisitions and organic growth, the Avisen business intelligence brand, Inca, grew to be the largest IBM business intelligence partner in Europe, Middle East and Africa (AMEA), winning this IBM award for two consecutive years.
In 2010, Jones bought the South African business back from the UK and disposed of it locally. The Inca business was acquired by Datatec for £7.5 million. Jones has been involved in business intelligence for over 13 years, and has led, or been part of the teams that have led, both the Microsoft and IBM sectors. Jones has worked closely with many of the large IT businesses and corporates in South Africa during this time.
Says Jones: “Having worked in the business intelligence market for many years, I have seen how data, when collated and analysed effectively, can lead to enormous benefits for businesses. The IT sector has been changing at breakneck speed, as has the communications sector.
“Convergence is something in the past, and we are now trading in one massive, exciting market. If you pick up a newspaper or magazine focused on the tech world these days, or even the mainstream press, news of the mobile connected world, a new device or hosted service that has been launched, overshadows all other news. The iPad has arrived and changed the market, as the iPhone did, and now every vendor is jumping on the bandwagon.
“Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Skype and Google are all rapidly maturing as business platforms; how we are communicating and interacting is changing fundamentally. I am very excited to have the opportunity to join Unison, which is positioned at the forefront of managing and controlling the communications market. On top of all of this, South Africa is finally coming of age and joining the party from a connectivity point of view with the new undersea cables.
“All this means is that we are again doing business in turbulent times, and no longer have a firm grasp on our expenses, what we need to do to cope with future changes, how our employees are spending their time, and what the customer is doing. Managing, controlling and analysing enterprise communications information will put businesses back in the driving seat and allow them to spot changes early and either make allowances for them, or use the data as a competitive tool.
“The shifts will create opportunities for more agile businesses to enter the market as the customer and business community shift their behaviour. I am looking forward to a very exciting tenure at Unison, which is the leader in this sector. I really think it is positioned to leverage the changes coming in the market and increase its positioning and the value-added services it offers its customers.”
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