Businesses in East London may feel they are neglected by the providers of advanced technology services, but one company with a nationwide presence says it is able to meet the needs of clients wherever they may be in South Africa.
According to Business Connexion's Eastern Cape regional chief executive, Gert Cronj'e, the most advanced technology - including hardware platforms, applications and services - as used by top companies in Gauteng, are well within the reach of any company.
"Advances in technology, and particularly in connectivity, mean that we are capable of hosting hardware systems and applications for our local clients," he says.
In terms of managed services, Cronj'e explains that all responsibilities for the availability and reliability of IT and communications equipment rests with the service provider. It is delivered in terms of service level agreements, which designate performance, response times for repairs and other important criteria.
However, Cronj'e says companies looking to put the latest technology to work for them have to accept that it comes at a cost. There is another issue with which company owners and managers should get comfortable: the fact that the provision of such services is not necessarily dependent on co-location.
He explains: "Managed services works off the principle of economies of scale. This is achieved by grouping together resources (be they servers, storage devices, applications and people) so an element of sharing is introduced."
What this means, in effect, is that Business Connexion, which has world-class data centres located in Johannesburg, is able to effectively 'pipe' services to clients anywhere in the country, including East London and other areas of the Eastern Cape.
While the big companies in the region are serviced by international technology companies, he stresses that Business Connexion is actively working to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes with its managed services offerings. "We have people and offices in the Eastern Cape and certainly view this as a market in which we can help companies to benefit from the advantages that large corporates enjoy.
"We are confident of meeting the needs of more clients in East London; we have the capacity and the capability," he concludes.
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