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Altron Nexus MD reflects on first 100 days in office

Admire Moyo
By Admire Moyo, ITWeb's news editor.
Johannesburg, 14 Dec 2021
Kennedy Chinganya becomes MD of Altron Nexus.
Kennedy Chinganya becomes MD of Altron Nexus.

Infrastructure and systems integrator Altron Nexus – a subsidiary of JSE-listed Altron Group – continues to score lucrative public sector contracts.

So says Kennedy Chinganya, Altron Nexus managing director, in a wide-ranging e-mail interview with ITWeb after he completed his first 100 days at the helm of the company.

A 20-year ICT industry veteran, Chinganya was appointed MD of Altron Nexus on 1 September, replacing Mark Harris.

According to Chinganya, the company posted revenue in excess of R1 billion in its previous financial results.

One of the biggest contracts Altron Nexus has with the public sector is the multimillion-rand Gauteng Broadband Network (GBN) project.

The Department of e-Government in June said it set aside a sizeable amount to continue rollout and maintenance of the provincial broadband project. For the 2021/2022 financial year, the department earmarked R457 million for the GBN project.

The project is in line with the province’s e-government strategy, which aims to ensure the modernisation of government and delivery of services in a digital age. It also aims to improve linkages and integration among city region governments and their departments.

“Over and above our flagship project the Gauteng Broadband Network project, we also have other public sector customers across the country,” Chinganya says.

“These include Ethekwini Municipality with a mission-critical radio communication solution; we are also busy working on the Msunduzi Municipality with PABX [private automatic branch exchange] upgrade and maintenance.

“Given the unprecedented times we live in, we are also providing a solution in the Western Cape Govt-EMS – a computer-aided dispatch system used in the emergency medical services for ambulances.

“We won the Huawei Networking Partner of the year award at GTEX in Dubai, and also managed to implement, commission and sign off two core upgrades, which is part of our Gauteng Broadband Network project. This was a significant project for Altron Nexus and group at large.”

Strategy alignment

Talking about his first 100 days in office, Chinganya says the extended leadership “including myself need to lead ourselves first if we are to effectively lead our teams and set an example for them to follow”.

In order to enhance the extended management team’s leadership competencies, he notes Altron Nexus has started a leadership upskilling programme and the first session has already taken place.

“For staff as a collective to succeed and create a sustainable competitive differentiation in our organisation, we need to get everyone inspired and committed to the shared purpose.

“We have had a two-day strategy session themed ‘Alignment b4 Assignment’ with the extended management team, after which we shared the same messaging with all staff in our town hall. We have also managed to streamline our structure to ensure a fit for purpose organisation as we look forward into the new financial year.”

Within the first 100 days, the company also appointed a chief technology officer and an executive for service delivery, he adds.

Looking ahead to next year, Chinganya says the company’s strategy session looked at how it needed to align to ensure it is ready to be the best advisor to customers from an enterprise and smart solutions perspective.

“We have deliberately opted to go back to basics and focus on what we do best and build the right competencies around the offerings we would like to take to market in the new financial year.”

According to Chinganya, employees are the first target Altron Nexus needs to focus on going into the next financial year.

“We need to ensure we value our employees by empowering them to do their jobs well. From a customer standpoint, we would like to be focused on the offering we will be taking to market in both enterprise and smart solutions. Some of these offerings will include connectivity, unified communications, mission-critical communication, command and control with integrated command centres, as well as surveillance and analytics.”

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