JSE-listed Reunert is mulling the possibility of adding Nashua Mobile to its portfolio of converged offerings as Nashua Communications heads towards the cloud.
The group recently merged ECN, which it acquired last year, with Nashua Communications, and is pondering how to best extract more convergence synergies in the future.
The merger between ECN and Nashua Communications will take between 18 months and two years to bed down, says CEO David Rawlinson. He says the group aims to grow market share before looking at adding other entities, such as Nashua Mobile, to the mix.
Nashua Communications and Nashua ECN are expected to have a combined turnover of more than R1 billion a year, and 600 staff. The units were merged on 1 October as Reunert aims to offer converged communications to its customers.
Rawlinson says Reunert is focused on increasing the number of customers using its voice over IP business, and around half of its previous least-cost routing (LCR) users are now on its own network. He adds that about half of the business has been garnered from new customers.
Nashua ECN has been moving LCR clients from Nashua Mobile onto its voice over IP solution and is moving almost 3.5 million business call voice minutes a day.
Adding to the mix
Rawlinson says, at some stage, there will be a convergence of Reunert's telecommunications businesses, which will happen if the process makes sense. "Time will tell."
Nashua Communications has been transformed from being a provider of voice networks to a converged information technology solutions provider. Its acquisition of KSS Technologies for R19.8 million during the year will add to the converged service offering in the next year, it says.
Although Reunert was concerned about Nashua Mobile, the group is now seeing a "silver lining", because of an increased push towards data by mobile operators, says Rawlinson.
Reunert says the shift away from LCR helped Nashua Mobile's performance, which it described as satisfactory, despite the reduction in the interconnect rates and the loss of LCR customers.
Nashua Communications MD Andy Openshaw says merging the entities gives the new company both local area network and wide area network capabilities. He says Nashua's office automation unit has synergies with Nashua Communications.
Openshaw notes that, with the shift to cloud computing, it makes sense to add multi-function printers to the converged bundle. He says Nashua Communications will work closely with the office automation unit, and the group is taking convergence "one step at a time".
Nashua, which is Reunert's biggest contributor to revenue, turned over R7.2 billion in the year to September, a 4% gain, and reported R838.6 million in operating profit, a 6% improvement.
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