SS Telecoms is a South African based manufacturer of telephony solutions that cater to the diverse communication needs of enterprises in Africa, Europe, the United Kingdom and the Middle East. Robert Gush started the company 21 years ago as Sue Sound. Gush was a recording engineer in Cape Town, with a passion for digital music. He did not like the music that played on PABX (private automatic branch exchange) systems in those days and decided to create digital music on hold systems.
"We still sell them today," says Kevin Greig, their marketing and sales manager.Gush then got involved in telephone management systems. He developed a unit that could record call information, which enabled his clients to compare actual calls made against their bill every month.
"We supply the hardware to telephone management companies," says George Smalberger, managing director.
"The telephone management company writes their own software and we supply them with the hardware."
When cellphones came to South Africa, SS Telecoms saw another opportunity and developed Premicell units. This enables clients to make calls to cellular networks from their analogue phones at a lower cost.
The company evolved and now specialises in the engineering, production and distribution of telecommunication devices. "We have gone from a box-making company to a communications solutions company," says Greig. Smalberger adds that the total number of products they offer ranges in the hundreds.
The company's key strength is that they develop and manufacture their products locally. The products are tailor-made for the African market. According to Smalberger, the communication conditions, like bandwidth, differ from country to country, even city to city. "As far as we are concerned, the manufacturing of our products only ends when they are installed and working with our customers," says Greig.
According to Smalberger, not only do they keep enough stock to be able to complete delivery overnight, they can also make design changes. "If there is a design issue with the products that we supply, we can change it to suit our clients' needs."
SS Telecoms is proud that it won the Telkom mobile tender. "We will be supplying all of the routing equipment for 8.ta (Telkom) mobile," says Greig.
The company is also presently involved in the local manufacture and design of an IP PBX system, along with being awarded the distributorship of the Aastra range of SIP and DECT phones.
The company is planning to take their products into other markets and expand their business into Africa. "We will never stop evolving here at SS Telecoms," says Greig. Future products in development include VOIP gateways, SMS servers, converged voice and data routers.
SS Telecoms is a manufacturer of telephony solutions that cater to diverse communication needs. This article was commissioned by SS Telecoms. Visit www.sstelecoms.com or (+27) 12 664 4644, info@sstelecoms.com.
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