TT100 winners named

By Bontle Moeng, ITWeb trainee journalist

Johannesburg, 24 Nov 2005

Bell Equipment won the Minister`s Award for Overall Technology Excellence for large enterprises, and EDH won the Overall Technology Excellence award for small enterprises at the 2005 Technology Top 100 (TT100) awards ceremony held in Kempton Park last night.

[VIDEO]Bell Equipment manufactures heavy-duty hi-tech equipment for mining and quarrying, construction, forestry, sugarcane and rough terrain materials handling in 78 countries.

John du Toit, Bell Equipment group marketing director, said the company`s success is underpinned by IT innovation. "Our IT team has developed a technology called Fleetmatic. It fits within our dump truck range and allows customers to measure productivity activity information without being on site. The system is based on satellite technology that is beamed to a ground station in Australia," said Du Toit.

[VIDEO]EDH develops and designs 3D tracking radar systems. The technology is used in diverse markets, including military applications, and teaching and training for baseball. The company`s 3D Tennis Serve Speed Measurement System is used at Wimbledon.

"In SA we are removed from the markets and although we have great talent here, we are not that well equipped from an infrastructure point of view. We lack subcontractors and industries that can support our products to compete," said Henri Johnson, EDH founder and chairman.

Derek Hanekom, deputy minister of science and technology and guest speaker at the event, said South Africans are gifted with the ability to generate creative and workable new ideas.

[VIDEO]"The combination of these talents, and an equal amount of energy, has given our country a world-class industrial profile.

"There is still a lack of an equally robust base for transforming research outputs into viable products and services to develop a brisker rate in the development of successful new enterprises. The national research and development strategy identified this innovation gap as one of the major challenges facing the national system of innovation," said Hanekom.

"Our ongoing campaign to increase research and development investment as a percentage of GDP [gross domestic product] is rising steadily to the targeted 1% mark. It has risen from 0.76% to the present level of 0.81%. Although this is still low compared to the industrialised countries, it is definitely moving in the right direction. A sustainable and successful future depends on significant investment in research and development."

[VIDEO] Hanekom was impressed with the 150 entries received this year. "There has been an increase of black economic empowerment companies and academic institutions, with one-third of the entries coming from the Western Cape."

Notable IT companies among the winners were Prism and Altech.

Prism Holdings, which develops secure SIM card, bill payment and cryptographic technology, was named a joint winner of the Leader in Research and Development Award. CEO Alvin Els said Prism had been recognised for its investment in development of local intellectual property. "The challenge is to make sure your technology can be exploited internationally and also for South African companies to be aware that this kind of technology exists," said Els.

Altech was named joint winner of the Leaders in Portfolio Management Award. Its subsidiary UEC has developed Africa`s first personal video recorder recently launched by Multichoice. Altech said it will maintain sustainability in its business. "We will focus on intellectual capacity, development and building a portfolio for widespread products around leading edge technologies that we are pushing as part of the globalisation programme," said Wessie van der Westhuizen, Altech group executive of multimedia and IT.

All the winners

The TT100 awards, launched in 1991 by the South African Engineering Association, recognise innovation, technological excellence and sustainability in the country. The awards are endorsed by the Department of Science and Technology.

The 2005 category winners are:

2005 Adjudicators` Honorary Technology and Innovation Ambassador Award
The Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) builders

Leader in Innovation
Bell Equipment

Leaders in Research and Development Award
Prism
Anglo Technical Division

Leader in Marketing Award
Bell Equipment

Leader in Commercialisation
Nimue Skin Technology

Leader in Empowerment
BreatheTex Corporation

Leaders in Portfolio Management
Altech Holdings
South African Post Office

Leader in Design
Truck Engineering Services

Leader in Social Innovation
Timbali Technology Incubator

Most Promising Emerging Enterprise Achievers
Hot Platinum
Incubeta
Infoslips
Mimecast
Oxyrane
Simpill
Uninet

Most Noteworthy Emerging Enterprise Achievers
Blue Catalyst
Celllife
The Archimedes Foundation