One company bucking the economic trend that the Covid-19 pandemic that wrought upon South Africa is Elenjical Solutions, a Sandton-based specialist capital markets and risk technology advisory.
The company, which has seen revenues double year-on-year for the past four years, is again forecasting a record turnover, despite the impact of the disease and the strict lockdowns.
“Even though a large swathe of economic activity was paralyzed in the second quarter our clients – mainly in the banking, insurance, asset management and stock markets – needed to maintain services, and that’s where we stepped in,” says Tinu Sabu Elenjical, the company’s MD. “With travel forbidden and access to consultants in other time zones such as India restricted, we were in the right place at the right time to support clients, especially those in Europe.
“We are in the right time zone, there is a good cultural and language fit between South Africans and Europeans, we are experts in the technology – and costs are lower in South Africa, so we are more cost effective too.”
Although there have been no redundancies, the company has not escaped completely unscathed from the crisis. Employees had to be repatriated quickly from international duties before the borders were closed, planned client projects were postponed or cancelled and new recruitment suspended.
At the height of the crisis, and with all 45 employees in lockdown at home, the company had to find a new way of working.
Normally clients expect consultants to be physically based in their offices, but with this not possible, flexibility was needed on both sides. Elenjical, which advises on the trading platform Murex, saw productivity rise during the crisis.
“The focus changed from being physically present and visible to clients, to one that was all about delivering more than was expected and helping clients maintain operations during this stressful and disruptive period. The company culture of supporting each other and clients has been incredible, and there was a huge increase in effort by everyone, for which I am very grateful,” says Elenjical.