Business Connexion (BCX) has already had a significant impact on Telkom’s bottom line, and the current year will see a more consolidated approach from the two companies in the enterprise market.
Sipho Maseko, Telkom Group CEO, says “We are now at a stage with BCX where we want to grow beyond connectivity.
“We have been very thoughtful about how we can think of the full potential for this business and Telkom, in how we put it together and make it work.
To achieve this, the group wil reverse integrate Telkom Business into BCX. “So we will have one B2B business and brand that will be our go-to-market enterprise approach,” Maseko says.
The combined B2B business aims to have earlier and enhanced realisation of synergies.
“We want to avoid the creation of parallel organisations and cultural silos – so we will simplify how we work,” Maseko says.
The integration will happen quite quickly, he adds, in order to limit the period of uncertainty for staff members.
Strong vertical capabilities across industries is a focus for the integrated croup going forward.
“This will give us a headstart in terms of new market developments,” Maseko says. “Customers want one place to get all their solutions. And it is important for us to reshape market demand.
“BCX will be our premium end-to-end digital partner.”
The core priorities for this phase of integration include advancing the group’s unified communication plans, to lead in the Internet of Things, to offer BCX cloud solutions, to consolidate its vertical approach, and to drive big data analytics.
Success will be measured in new technology revenues, in synergies, and the emergence of an embedded entrepreneurial culture, Maseko says.
BCX contributed R132-million to Telkom’s bottom line for the past financial year, despite being part of the group for just seven months during the reporting period.
During the seven months, the company recorded a 17% revenue increase. Meanwhile, solution and service delivery increased by 11%
In addition, business from outside South Africa is doing well, with EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) seeing revenue increase by about 40%.