Comparex Holdings has announced its strategy for turning e-commerce into the largest contributor to group revenue and profit. The group`s attention is now focused on transforming its own enterprise to match the dynamic responsiveness required in the field of e-commerce.
The company`s strategy will build on the experience and skills accumulated by the group since its entry into Internet-based e-commerce in 1996, and in essence, involves wrapping itself around any enterprise`s e-business offering, to provide the client company with value-added services such as personalisation and customer relationship management.
"Each of the companies within Comparex e-commerce has amassed significant experience and expertise in its area of specialisation, giving the group considerable resource and revenue on which to build its e-commerce strategy," says Rian du Plessis, CEO of Comparex.
According to Du Plessis, resources within Comparex will be expanded aggressively through strategic acquisitions, partnerships and joint ventures. "Existing service businesses within Comparex and PQ Africa will also be repositioned to strengthen their focus on e-commerce," he adds.
The focus of Comparex` strategy will be on providing the technology infrastructure required for e-commerce and business-to-business products and services. Specialist companies ECnet, Mosaic and Perago will provide this enabling infrastructure and QEDI the infrastructure for managing services hubs. Nanoteq and SACA will supply security and trust services.
"The key is that our focus will always be on defined markets," explains Stephen Carlin, executive director, e-commerce Comparex Holdings.
As Carlin elaborates: "Our role in the marketplace is to manage multiple channel access, taking e-commerce to people [who don`t have] Internet access or credit cards. We`re also giving merchants the reach they wouldn`t normally have, through enabling the technology infrastructure.
"Our aim is to provide the core electronic facilities and services that enable e-commerce," he says. "Most enterprises in the digital economy will have to provide multiple electronic routes to market, including access via the Internet, cellphones, kiosks or via TV.
"Furthermore, these enterprises will need to provide electronic access to multiple business applications - for example electronic retailing and procurement."
Building on this focus, the group is actively working with partners and industry stakeholders to create electronic marketplaces in a number of vertical sectors - for example financial services, healthcare, business-to-business retail, agriculture and petro-chemical. In SA, the group already has a well-established presence in the medical and agricultural sectors.
Internationally, focus will stretch across a number of these vertical markets, specifically the healthcare and financial services markets.
All of this expansion has taken its toll on the group`s resources, however, as Carlin confirms. "There is a definite shortage of staff in both the business and IT sectors."
According to Carlin, e-commerce revenues will increasingly be earned from recurring sources, such as transaction fees, switching fees, certificate renewals, connectivity fees and others, while once-off sources of revenue will include software licence fees, consulting, training, Web development and systems integration.
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