Telkom Business Integration Services and CS Holdings have announced an alliance to offer clients a complete solution with a single point of responsibility. The companies will give one another first right of refusal for any work defined within the scope of the agreement. This sales and marketing agreement for joint complementary proposals will benefit both parties concerned, ensuring that the respective companies can continue to concentrate on their core competencies, while providing customers with a "one-stop-shop" for a range of e-business integration services.
According to CS Holdings CEO Annette van der Laan: "This alliance is of great strategic importance to CS Holdings. Not only will it allow us to offer a more comprehensive and progressive service to our existing clients, but the new business potential is significant. The fact that Telkom chose CS Holdings above other major IT players in the SA market will certainly enhance our profile, and I believe we are now perfectly positioned to compete head-on with the first-tier IT players in the South African market."
CS Holdings was selected as the preferred partner due to its proven capabilities as a systems integrator, the cultural fit between the companies and the fact that the companies do not offer overlapping services to any significant degree. Furthermore, CS Holdings` alliances, consulting and implementation skills with respect to vendors such as SAP, JD Edwards, Microsoft and Cisco were of significant importance in Telkom`s decision.
This agreement will also mean that two of the four Cisco Gold Partners in SA have joined forces.
According to Rikus Matthyser, Executive Telkom Business Integration Services, Telkom brings to the party huge industrial-strength capabilities in the WAN, hosting, VOIP, ISP, eCommerce, security and structured cabling areas. "Each party will invest in its own core areas and rely on the other for capex and technological advances in non-core areas. The joint capabilities effectively make it very difficult for any other two players to emulate the offering represented by this alliance," he said.
CS Holdings provides business and IT solutions that enable sustainable competitive advantage for clients through reduced cost, managed risk, improved efficiency and added effectiveness. This is done by means of integrated solutions that incorporate the complete value chain of strategy formulation, best practice business processes, appropriate information technology and optimised people effectiveness.
"With the entry of Telkom Business Integration Services into the IT sphere, Telkom has focused on enhancing bandwidth with networked applications and IT services such as ISP, e-commerce and security certification. In working towards a whole product solution, Telkom always stated an intention to partner to provide whole product solutions to all of our customer segments. This agreement significantly extends the value proposition that Telkom can provide to end-users and finalises our search for a strategic IT services partner to complete our value proposition. Telkom will partner with other IT OEMs to enhance the CS Holdings/Telkom value proposition," Matthyser said.
"The alliance between Telkom and CS Holdings will add significantly to our service offerings and will also enhance business in the public, parastatal and private sectors," adds Van der Laan. Our initial strategy will be to develop joint offerings which will ensure optimum operational delivery for both parties, and more important, a single point of contact for the client."
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