Debis SA has branched out from its original outsourcing business after taking advantage of the additional technology and backing of new parent company Deutsche Telekom.
Debis SA now falls under the umbrella of T-Systems - an 11 billion euro company formed as a result of the Deutsche Telekom and Debis IT international merger.
CEO and chairman Wolfgang Jacobs, as well as his management and staff, retain their positions within the new T-Systems SA, and the change has not diluted empowerment partner African Renaissance Holdings` 25.1% stake in the company.
Jakob stresses the company will not become a telecommunications provider despite the Deutsche Telekom link. He says the company will instead focus on the convergence of telecommunications and IT, especially in the e-business arena.
Debis SA acquired e-volution in September last year and intends to use this as a platform for T-Systems to work from.
Last year, the company won a five-year, R1.2 billion outsourcing contract from Sanlam. At the time, Debis SA signed warranted agreements with Sanlam that it would not just maintain networks, but would generate at least five new ideas each quarter on how technology could be used to improve the Sanlam business.
T-Systems e-business developer and strategist Desmond Seeley says this kind of attitude is what separates T-Systems from its competitors.
"We will not just offer clients our outsourcing expertise and convergence technologies, we have `idea teams` working full time to come up with new and innovative ways of making companies more productive and wealthier," says Seeley.
"However, one of the biggest mistakes that our competitors make is to forget the basics. Companies have to start by making themselves cost-effective. Those costs can then be ploughed back into the business in the form of new and exciting e-business initiatives. T-Systems works from the bottom line up through the value chain."
Jakob believes T-Systems SA is now in position to offer a complete e-business transformation to local companies.
"SA`s GDP is based on large industrial companies with revenues based in the old economy. It is this old economy-driven marketplace that needs to adapt to the innovations of the new economy. Our job is to look for ways to enable them to catapult themselves into the e-space without negating their investment in legacy infrastructure."
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