Income generated from Casey Business Solutions will make up more than 50% of the profits of Casey, the JSE-listed black empowerment IT group, within the next two years, said CEO Mahomed Cassim.
Cassim said Casey - originally better-known as a hardware distributor - has, over the last 12 months, radically restructured the company in a move that will see it focus increasingly less on hardware and more on software and services.
"The sale of hardware, including our Casey range of PCs and laptops, will be secondary, and complementary, to our focus and implementation of e-commerce-centric business solutions."
Cassim said 1999 was an "introspective year" for the group, adding that the groundwork laid is expected to bear fruits for the company in the medium term. "During 1999 we instituted significant strategic changes to de-focus from low-margin pursuits and to leverage off high-growth market areas. This restructuring included the formation of Casey Business Solutions (CBS), a new company which is to focus on software development and services, with a particular emphasis on business-to-business e-commerce enablement technology."
All other divisions, except for Casey Electronics - the group`s hardware arm - have been absorbed into CBS. This includes Casey Onsite services and Casey Software development.
The group`s main thrust will be via CBS, which essentially embodies the "business philosophy of the realigned group".
The company said it had also sold its dial-up ISP division, CaseyNet, which had been making a loss.
Through CBS, the group is now only focusing on web-site development and web hosting, a pursuit which, according to Cassim, will produce solid annuity-based income. CBS has already concluded a number of contracts which will generate income for the next 24 months.
"Following a downturn in the industry last year brought about by the Y2K fall-out, we have detected a surge in interest from the SMME market this year for web development and hosting - and this is a drive that is expected to gather steam as more and more smaller to medium sized players realise the importance of harnessing the benefits of e-commerce."
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