There’s hope for the independent telco, says Lucien Brink, Executive Head of Products and Services at Vodia’s South African partner, ICTGlobe

South Africa’s current woes, both real and imagined, appear to be coming in jumbo-packs of late. The uncertainties around the upcoming local elections, severe weather conditions, the Covid-19 pandemic and now civil unrest are all dealing body blows to the nation’s already struggling economy, says Lucien Brink, ICTGlobe.com Executive Head of Products and Services.

The independent telco is, however, hopeful. It is perhaps echoing the sentiments of many in the South African corporate world, which are that local businesses should always hope for the best, but they must remember preparedness wins the day.

“Being prepared is the best antidote for uncertainty,” says Mr Brink.

Mr. Brink believes cloud-based ICT products and services could offer a solution within the overall current climate of uncertainty. “No-one is suggesting things are as dire as they seemed 20-plus years ago, but if businesses are unsure exactly how things will pan out over the next couple of months, our advice is to invest in the cloud, not in physical equipment,” he says.

According to Mr. Brink, while ICTGlobe SME and enterprise clients are reassured by the company’s proven ability to deliver reliable voice and data services through double back-up generators, huge banks of batteries in offsite data centres and a host of other measures aimed at Eskom-proofing, clients are still concerned about other uncertain aspects of the current economic climate.

The physical, desk-bound PBX equipment of yesteryear makes little sense at the best of times and certainly no sense in these times, and Mr. Brink believes cloud-based PBX solutions, such as Vodia, give nervous corporate clients the advantage of month-to-month contracts, rather than large capital outlays. Hosted switchboard solutions from Vodia mean any enterprise-class firm or SME can benefit from corporate-quality unified communications platforms.

As a Tier 1 operator, ICTGlobe.com owns its telecoms network, meaning it has full control over roll-out and maintenance of this core asset. Operating its own interconnect and networking facilities means the firm can reliably offer voice calls at the country’s most affordable rates.

“Save capital for brighter times and use the cloud as an uncertainty buffer for now,” Mr. Brink says. Contact ICTGlobe to find out more.

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