Unisys has unveiled its South African Centre of Excellence, one of only six worldwide and the first on the continent. The centre will be available to partners and clients from next week.
"This is a place where clients can test-drive our technology," says Unisys marketing operations director Fred Hanhauser.
He adds that similar centres in the US and Europe have given customers the advantage of less risk in technology investment and a faster return on investment.
Mark Hill, local Microsoft MD agrees: "It is a dress rehearsal [for solution implementation]." Microsoft is one of the main partners involved in the centre.
Unisys stresses that the changing business world is putting more pressure on IT systems. "We are all up against very agile competition in the market," says Unisys Africa MD John Miller. "There is a distinct need for speed today." The Centre of Excellence will help to provide solutions without slowing down day-to-day business, he believes. "We can set up and test a project without interrupting normal business."
Unisys has a global network of Tech Centres, Performance Labs and Centres of Excellence. Although the South African centre is designated as the latter, Unisys Africa says it is more of a hybrid than anything else. "We need to be everything to everybody," says the centre marketing coordinator Monica Reed, "because Africa is a bit different." In the case of unexpected or unusual project problems, Unisys says it can network with various other centres until a solution is found.
The centre is expected to be utilised mostly for the development and testing of new solutions. It will also be used to showcase the technology of Unisys and its various partners, including Microsoft, EMC and Computer Associates.
Share
