Lightedge opens IT centre in Cape Town

Lightedge, a national IT distributor and technology services company, opened a R35 million IT centre in Cape Town on 26 September, providing customers with integrated service delivery from hardware to software to IT support all under one roof.

The six-storey building at 8 Paardeneiland Road is nearly four times bigger than Lightedge`s old office. Measuring 5 300 square meters, it is one of Cape Town`s biggest IT buildings with about R20 million invested in its expansion and renovation.

This new space will see all Lightedge`s practice areas organised into formal divisions. Each of these divisions, comprising corporate and dealer sales, software development, workshops, SLA and IT refurbishment will act as separate revenue driving centres for the company.

"Lightedge`s business is becoming increasingly service-related, moving away from the traditional hardware distribution model to full-service technology provision," says Grant Poulton, Lightedge`s managing director.

Lightedge moved into the area in 1998 with 23 personnel. "We have grown to over 136 staff members, with expansion only being stunted by Lightedge`s physical restrictions," says Poulton. This increase in staff numbers reflects the financial growth of the company.

The reasons for this growth lie in Lightedge`s strong customer and supplier relationships, excellent product quality and relentless focus on delivery. The quality components used in each product, together with Lightedge`s stringent testing of each item-range before it is offered to customers, ensures the business of a return rate of less than 1%.

During the next six months, Lightedge plans to grow its capacity to 200 staff members with more software developers, sales staff, administrative staff and management appointments. Other plans include solidifying the training centre, which is currently only used internally, to offer customers Microsoft courses by certified training officers.