BCX has unveiled its new brand as the merger between Telkom Business and Business Connexion nears completion, with BCX being spun out as an independent company operating as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Telkom.
Isaac Mophatlane, CEO of BCX, explains that this move fits Telkom’s strategy of having three separate operating companies. They are OpenServe as the wholesale business, BCX as the enterprise solution provider, and Telkom remaining as the consumer brand.
“The launch of BCX is truly the beginning of a new chapter of digitalisation for Africa,” says Isaac Mophatlane, CEO of BCX. “This new brand is the culmination of the vision my late brother and I had when we started Business Connexion more than 20 years ago.”
The launch of the new brand is the first of two significant milestones, Mophatlane says, with the second being the move into a new head office in Centurion.
All BCX employees fall under the purview of the new brand and all physical office spaces will reflect the new brand name. Additionally, all existing customer contracts will be covered by the new BCX entity.
“BCX now unites all our employees under one cohesive brand,” says Mophatlane. “To best serve our customers, it’s imperative that our employees are one united team and this new branding achieves that goal. We are retaining our roots but launching a new look and feel that brings us all together.”
There have been some integration issues, he adds, but what’s important is that the merger has resulted in the creation of a new culture. “We are not going with one culture or the other – it is a new BCX culture.
“In some areas, like our values, the two organisations were very similar.”
The three core values that the new company is building on are collaboration, service delivery and innovation.
The R1-billion funding from Telkom, announced in December 2016, is part of the transfer of Telkom Business to BCX, he explains. “Going forward we are a proper standalone company, not a business unit within a business.
“BCX has always been standalone, but Telkom Business was in the group. The funding was to facilitate the move of Telkom Business into BCX.”
Mophatlane says the merged organisation has already racked up some substantial successes. “We have had successes with two financial services customers, where we bid as the combined enterprise. It is encouraging to see that we are able to offer a broader, more comprehensive offering.”
To date, the merged organisations has proved to be more than the sum of its parts, he adds. “We have also been able to add scale,” Mophatlane says. “We are able to have one team servicing a client where before there would have been two; and we are also able to offer a more robust service level.
“There is no doubt about the fact that we are achieving scale, and we are bringing reputable services to the market.”
Digitalisation is becoming a top priority for businesses throughout Africa. It’s becoming clearer than ever that companies that do not invest in digital solutions will be left behind as the business landscape continues to evolve. BCX provides a clear roadmap for companies throughout Africa to embrace digitalisation and be prepared to serve both their current and future customers.
Jacques Loubser, chief: infrastructure solutions at BCX, says all of Telkom Business’s IT assets will be moved into the BCX entity.
“Telkom is still one of our business customers,” he adds. “We will also help to take the group on a journey into the digital age,” he says. “The goal is to make the group agile, and help it to deliver on customer needs.”
“I couldn’t be more thrilled about the launch of BCX,” says Sipho Maseko, Telkom Group CEO. “BCX will address the technology and telecommunications needs of South African companies, both within their domestic market and as they expand into Africa and beyond the continent. It will leverage the company’s expertise to further address the technology and telecommunications requirements of companies in South Africa and elsewhere in Africa.”
Moving forward, BCX is focusing on catering to customer needs and offering cutting edge solutions specifically for cloud computing, unified communications and collaboration, converged connectivity and business mobility, security, the internet of things, and big data analytics.