MWEB Business is constantly adding new products to its bustling ICT portfolio, helping it to stay on the cutting edge of cost-effective, sophisticated converged technology that is easy to adopt and delivers a swift return on investment.

 

A TROUBLE-FRE SME RECIPE

 

Founded in 1998 as the Johannesburg-based business division of MWEB, MWEB Business is a one-stop business partner that helps small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) leverage converged and Web-based technologies for business gain.

 

HOSTED GIVES YOU THE MOST MWEB Business’s hosted Exchange offers all the features and benefits of Microsoft Exchange 2007 for an affordable monthly price. It enables group-wide communication and collaboration without the capital outlay or technical hassles of implementing, maintaining and supporting sophisticated software applications. EXTENDING THE BENEFITS MWEB Business has extended the business benefits of Exchange to smaller companies in a hosted environment, for r75 per user per month (excluding outlook licence fees). The offer includes email management, group calendars, company-wide address books and other shared contact information, as well as public folders, task lists and timelines, all of which can be accessed in real-time via the Internet, from anywhere, at any time. The solution comes standard with a 2gB mailbox per user – the biggest mailbox currently on the market. The solution is completely scalable and MWEB Business handles all maintenance, support and upgrades. MWEB hosts the service in its state-of-the-art data centre, equipped with redundant power, top-notch security, daily off-site backup and cooling systems. advanced security in the form of firewalls, authentication and encryption, as well as the built-in security in Microsoft Exchange 2007, means access is safe at all times. Even if a device is stolen, breaks, or customers experience an on-site disaster, users can still access important mails and share documents and calendars. SHARE AND SHARE ALIKE Hosted SharePoint is a Knowledge Management portal giving companies accessible online file sharing – much like an Intranet without the pain of in-house development, infrastructure procurement and maintenance overhead. authorised users simply log in with their username and password to access company files and documents, working together using advanced features like published documents, wikis, blogs and more. hosted CrM, another Microsoft hosted solution, gives companies advanced customer acquisition and retention tools, sales performance analysis and much more, without the up-front cost or headaches of ownership.

“We are far more than an Internet service provider [ISP],” explains Herman Jansen van Rensburg, head of product management and development, MWEB Business. “Our customers demand a great deal more than access, mail and Web hosting – they want low-cost, trouble-free technology that gives them quick returns, and they want all their information and communications technology [ICT] from one provider.

 

Fortunately, some sophisticated converged technologies exist today to help us satisfy that complex requirement, and we have access to the very best there is.”

 

IT HELPS TO BE BIG WHEN HELPING THE SMALL

 

Paradoxically, it is MWEB Business’s size that allows it to focus on the challenging needs of its SME customers, which operate within very narrow budget confines. Whereas lesser market players may find themselves restricted in their product choices by powerful vendors, this giant on the South African ICT landscape offers an unusually full catalogue. For example, MWEB Business offers all the access technologies of all the telcos in the country, and at times its hardware portfolio has overlaps – but it’s all in the service of customer and market needs.

 

“Frankly, it’s less about servicing the vendor relationship than about the customer, and less about pure product than astute solution assembly and service,” says Jansen van Rensburg.

 

“But vendors benefit from this as much as customers, because our approach resonates with SMEs, and they can be a tough market segment to crack. We are always looking for new and better solutions, more ideal combinations of infrastructure, additional access technologies and more efficient delivery methods.”

 

A NEW BREED

 

Jansen van Rensburg sets out to shed light on the company’s portfolio, which is that of a new breed of provider combining a licence to operate an electronic communications network (ECN) with telephony (Voice over IP, backed by inter-connect agreements), connectivity, IT hardware, software and services, hosted and cloud delivery, and e-commerce.

 

The MWEB Business portfolio of offerings includes the following:

 

• Connectivity: Analogue and ISDN dial-up, ADSL (single- and multi-site), 3G HSDPA (MTN and Vodacom), iBurst, WiFi, leased line, MetroConnect, virtual private networks and wireless link rental.

 

• Hosting: Domain services, website hosting, server hosting and digital certificates

 

• Messaging: Domain email addresses, Hosted Exchange, Hosted SharePoint services, Hosted CRM, Managed Internet Gateway, Faxmail, Mail Marshall, Mail Spooling and now Hosted BlackBerry Enterprise Server

 

• Voice: MTALK Webcall, MTALK PBX and MTALK Mobile

 

• e-Commerce: SafeShop payment gateway (MWEB Business switches all bookings of all South African airlines that offer e-commerce, but one)

 

• LAN services: Installation, maintenance and desktop support, access product support, data centre management, cabling

 

• Software services: Online backup

 

• Hardware: PCs, servers, networking, IP phones, PBXs, mobile phones and UPS.

 

The most recent additions to this portfolio include VOIP (2005), IT support and LAN services (2007) and PBXs (2008). “That completed our offering as a complete converged service provider,” says Jansen van Rensburg. “In the near future, we will introduce the final phase of our cloud computing initiative. Already Hosted Exchange and Hosted SharePoint Services are a reality; and we also offer Hosted CRM. We are adding products on an almost monthly basis.”

 

CHOICE AND CONVENIENCE

 

The whole point of a packed catalogue, of course, is customer choice. “SMEs can come to us for anything and everything ICT-related,” explains Jansen van Rensburg.

 

It is this flexibility and focus on converged services and solutions that will form the backbone of MWEB Business’s future growth strategy. “The difference between us and other vendors is that they sell their brand of, say, a VPN, whereas we are also partners for other providers. We have had significant success with our multi-VPN because customers see a lot of sense in being able to connect via one provider that manages all portions of the service, no matter which provider owns the network,” says Jansen van Rensburg.

 

“We are telco-independent and we provide one bill at month-end.” Another strategy that is sure to stand MWEB Business in very good stead is to continue its hosted, software-as-a-service and cloud computing offerings.

 

“We are doing extremely well with Hosted Exchange,” notes Jansen van Rensburg. “Why own the infrastructure and worry about maintenance, rollouts and upgrades when, for a minimal monthly amount, you can enjoy all the benefits of the technology?”

 

WHEN SMES GROW UP

 

Although MWEB Business categorises SMEs as companies with 10 to 500 users, it also knows that SMEs don’t stay small forever. “There have been instances where our customers have outgrown the SME mould,” says Jansen van Rensburg. “In such cases, we keep servicing them, if at all possible.” MWEB Business has more than 80 000 customers, including organisations such as Pick ‘n Pay, Makro, Incredible Connection and The Pro Shop.

 

Enterprises, however, are not what MWEB Business is geared towards, and Jansen van Rensburg makes it very clear that MWEB will not deviate from its extraordinary success within the SME market segment. “Naturally, the goal is to provide our customers with extensible and scalable solutions in the first place, solutions that can grow with them,” he points out. “Our main consideration is how to best add value at the outset.”

 

It is this approach that will allow MWEB to entrench itself within the highly sought-after SME sector well into the future. The company has found a way to answer the complex needs of this dynamic sector – something that few competitors have managed to do.

 

C O N T A C T

 

Selwyn Newman
General Manager - Sales
MWEB Business
Tel: +27 11 340 7250
fax: +27 11 388 1799
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: www.mwebbusiness.co.za