Investment holdings company 4Sight is heading to Australia, in an expansion plan that will also see the JSE-listed group increase its footprint across Africa.
4Sight – which, through its subsidiaries, invests in technology and telecommunications – has had a strong showing in the past two consecutive years, and now plans to broaden returns through expansion into Africa and the Pacific region.
Ahead of this expansion, 4Sight has started transitioning its domicile from Mauritius to South Africa, including submitting the necessary statutory form(s) to the South African Companies and Intellectual Property Commission.
CEO Tertius Zitzke tells ITWeb in an interview that the company “is a lekker place to be” and is aiming to turn over a “billion rand” annually, and is augmenting this by searching for fresh opportunities in new markets, with Namibia and Australia being prime spots.
“We have always had a good relationship with Namibia. From there, we service African countries, with our channel partner delivering services to 650 partners. We are also a channel partner for Microsoft and Sage into the rest of Africa.
“We are busy with expansion plans into Australia – we call it 4Sight Pacific. All the legal stuff has been concluded already. We are not going there to start on an empty book; we want a good solid base and we will support that from here.
“We have over 100 engineers in 4Sight supporting the business, from industrial to chemical engineers. We see good growth and before the end of the year, we are going into the Pacific and the rest of Africa, where we service very well through our channel partner model.”
Trusted associate
Zitzke gave ITWeb insights into 4Sight’s business case that has enabled the group to turn itself around and position strategically in the growing fourth industrial revolution (4IR) environment.
He says 4Sight’s value proposition to the market is based on four clusters: operational technology, information technology, business environment and channel partners.
According to Zitzke, the company's channel strategy continues to positively impact performance, amid the rising demand for digital transformation expertise and solutions across multiple sectors.
“Everybody in the business right now had their own business for years and did well. We all sold into the 4Sight Group, with the strategy of delivering convergence of information technologies and operational technologies. We stuck with the strategy for two years and it’s delivering for us very well. We are the trusted advisor.”
In the latest reporting period, for the six months ending 30 June, 4Sight grew its recurring revenue from 53% to 62%, and Zitzke says the company is on track to achieve its goal of a minimum of 70% annuity revenue.
Zitzke says the set of results reflects 4Sight’s good run the past two years, which it intends to build on as it evolves.
Talent factory
To bolster the company’s position, Zitzke says 4Sight has initiated a project to “grow its own timber” by training young people in 4IR skills, and then employ them.
Like other ICT companies, Zitzke says, 4Sight is facing a significant skills challenge owing to a number of factors, among them emigration, but he says the company is closing the gap through its skills development programme.
“At the beginning of August, we started our centre of excellence in Durban. We are training 50 people there, and the official opening will be 1 September when I am down there. The guys have started learning already. We will have 50 super South African software engineers in the business environment.”
Zitzke previously lamented the brain drain of tech skills from SA, and is now hopeful the company’s R10 million 4IR skills programme will help.
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