ICL, the South African business solutions company providing the infrastructure for Absa`s free internet offering, announced that the number of subscribers for the service has now reached 136 621.
Chris Botha, Operations Director at ICL remarked that: "the response to the service has been beyond our wildest expectations."
"Clearly this kind of growth stretched our infrastructure and we did experience teething problems eliciting comment from the marketplace. These have been rectified and we are confident of being able to cope with the growth," he adds.
Santie Botha, Absa Group Executive Director agrees: "We had originally anticipated a total of 10 000 sign ons in the first month but achieved this on the first day! The unexpected demand has necessitated upgrading bandwidth twice since the launch of the service."
Chris Botha explained that there are two main drivers behind this kind of offering. "The intention is to stimulate internet usage in South Africa. Growth was being held back because there are numerous potential users that have just not been able to afford the cost of participation. By stimulating usage of this medium we hope to grow a sustainable base for business-to-consumer initiatives in the South African marketplace."
"International statistics have shown that the growth of dial-up subscription flattens out relatively quickly, but the service provided by Affinity and ICL rejuvenates the market and creates new growth for all ISPs. However, we do not expect a change in internet culture overnight."
The main aim of the service for Absa is to increase the base of potential internet banking customers - only a quarter of the two million internet users in the country currently bank online. It seems to be working, as statistics show that in one month, the number of Internet banking customers shot up from 153 000 (pre-launch) to 180 000 (01 March).
Santie Botha adds: "Regardless of whether people become Absa customers or not, we are committed to providing all South Africans with unlimited free internet access. We have put our brand and the reputation of our partners on-the-line, so to speak."
UK-based Affinity Internet, the third partner in the project provides and manages the backend service for the project. "Companies do not require the capital investment or ongoing cost which traditional ISPs incur when using this service - the only cost is the marketing expenditure, which is what makes it so attractive," concludes Affinity SA MD, Jerry Tindall.
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ICL is one of Europe`s leading e-Business services companies and employs more than 20,000 people in 40 countries. It designs, builds and operates innovative solutions for customers in the financial services, telecoms, retail, government, utilities and travel markets. ICL helps its customers to transform their businesses and make them more efficient and productive, by providing the IT services needed today together with the end-to-end e-Business services to be successful in the new economy. These services include new media design, consultancy and systems integration through to managed infrastructure services that underpin the `mission-critical` requirements of businesses. For the year ended 31 March 2000, the company`s revenues were lb2,774.6 million. Headquartered in London, ICL is wholly owned by Fujitsu Limited, a lb31 billion leader in Internet-based IT solutions for the global marketplace. ICL is the European-centred arm of Fujitsu`s global IT services strategy.
Absa
Absa Group Limited (Absa), listed on the Securities Exchange, is South Africa`s leading provider of banking and financial services, serving more than 6 million customers.
A complete range of retail and corporate financial services and products are provided through a combination of physical (789 outlets) and electronic channels. Building on an integrated infrastructure, Absa is making significant strides in the e-business arena to deliver value-added services to the customer.
Ranked independently as leaders in e-banking, accolades include:
1) a four-star international rating from Lafferty;
2) placed first for internet banking by BMI-T 2000 survey; and
3) placed second for internet banking by Webcheck Nov 1999 survey. Absa currently has more than 180 000 internet banking customers (about 32 percent of market share) and these numbers are growing at an exceptional rate of 90 percent a year.
As at September 2000, Absa had assets of R188 billion, a market capitalisation of R17,7 billion and a staff complement of 34 000. The Group`s largest shareholders are Sanlam (24,36%) and Universa (24,01%).