Service - The differentiating factor

Datatec SA`s chief operating officer Dave Lello has always been one to look ahead. When PCs turned the world upside down in the 1980s, he was there in the form of one of the founding members of Workgroup distribution.

"I started out as a programmer in Cobol, Basic, dBase and C. When the PC and networking wave hit the industry, I decided to get into the business immediately. It was a good time to do it and I made a lot of money. I won`t deny that," says Lello.

But he adds that the industry is changing. "I believe this is a very exciting time. As we enter 2000 the application of technology is becoming important again. We`ve gone full circle. PCs and networking have become a commodity. There is not much difference now in product and it`s time to move on."

That move takes the form of Datatec, which Lello believes is differentiated by its service and solution focus. "We have made a huge investment in services at Datatec. I see the new wave as almost like being a programmer again. You go into a business, sit down with them, ask questions, and try to understand their business and become part of it. That is what we do at Datatec.

"We believe in partnerships with our clients. We see ourselves as developers of products that change the way companies do business and help them to do it better. It really gets me excited to be able to help a company do better business, to become part of that business and add value through the software.

"We are especially focused on partnerships when it comes to our e-commerce portfolio. The reason for this is that we don`t know the company`s businesses as well as they do. We know the technology and that is what we bring to the table.

"All our partnerships work this way. We believe in transforming the existing business rather than to start a new business. Also the branding has been done already."

Lello highlights two of Datatec`s partnerships. One is with Destiny, a transaction business. "We want to make Destiny the courier of the Internet. Then we`ve also partnered with ABSA. We believe that on both our side and ABSA`s that this is a pure leap of faith. We believe in the future and that this is the way to go."

Going global

One of the company`s stated focus areas is "rapid globalisation of the business". Lello says that an offshore listing is important for Datatec if it wants to be a global player. But he does not see this adversely affecting the local business.

One of the benefits of being a global company is when it comes to the brain drain. "We find that many South Africans come back after they`ve worked overseas for a couple of years. So we now try to place our employees with Datatec internationally when they want to leave. We don`t want to lose contact with good people and when they do come back they are still part of our team."

Lello adds that one of the plans for Datatec SA is to develop more front-end deals. "We want to have teams to develop solutions for international companies, but do it here. That means a person can earn a good package here and extend the solution throughout the world." He adds that India has done this very successfully.

International brands

Datatec consolidated its principal business areas around the following international brands: Westcon, Logical, IT-IQ and Datasoft.

"Our drive worldwide for Westcon is the distribution for high-end networking products. We supply networking solutions from companies such as Cisco, Nortel, Lucent and 3Com. We believe that it helps that we are already global in this area." He adds that Datatec is expert at understanding the reseller market and the intimate details of every product.

The Logical area is the systems integration and services area. "Under this umbrella falls Scantec, Vircom, Datasecure and Logical Webservices." The Logical mission is to provide a complete, integrated service covering the supply, implementation, support and operation of network-based IT systems.

Datatec`s existing Logical brand is being extended to cover and assimilate all the companies within the group that provide integration, consulting services, network and software solutions as well as systems design.

The company says this allows Logical to offer a truly global service to its many international clients. Logical is already established on four continents and will develop further this year. The UK and SA services have already been consolidated under the Logical brand while France (Datalan), the US (BCS), Germany (Loginet) and Australia (CNI) will migrate to new branding later this year.

Datasoft encompasses the company`s software development initiatives and IT-IQ is the company`s training and technical education brand.

Summing-up his view for Datatec, Lello explains: "We are a young company. We are just having fun. We are competitive and are now playing in the global market. I don`t believe that we want to become dominant in one particular market. If we can demonstrate to a customer that we are different and that we can deliver, they will pick us."