The e-Business Handbook Shining the sun on government
Written by ITWeb Informatica
With a full spectrum of experience and high-end skills, coupled with a strong vision for the future, New Dawn Prophesy Business Solutions Pty (Ltd) is shining the sun on organisations of all sizes, in private companies, corporates and especially in government.
RENEWED PURPOSE
Founded over a decade ago as an Oracle house focusing on the Oracle E-Business Suite, and having undergone streamlining and restructuring, New Dawn Prophesy Business Solutions today has a new sense of purpose providing Oracle, Juniper and Sun Microsystems solutions to the private and public sectors. “We have recently introduced an infrastructure portion to our business to focus on core infrastructure network solutions, and we are a Juniper and Sun Microsystems partner,” says company CEO Kgabo Hlahla.
And it is within government that New Dawn Prophesy Business Solutions is gaining a particularly strong footing thanks, according to Hlahla, to a full complement of well-honed skills and strengths ideally suited to delivery to government agencies.
| CHANGING STRUCTURE, TRUSTING IN THE FUTURE Like many successful organisations over the years, New Dawn Prophesy Business Solutions has adapted to change in a dynamic IT environment. In its original inception, New Dawn Holdings owned 100% of three distinct subsidiaries: ND Prophesy Business Solutions, ND Spectra (focusing on SAP implementations and best practice) and ND Technologies, which focuses on bespoke applications. Today, each company stands on its own feet, reporting to a board, as CEO Hlahla also does. 90% of the shares are privately held but, in a recent development, 10% of the shareholding was placed in a trust reserved for the future benefit of employees. |
AN IMPRESSIVE TRACK RECORD
Hlahla believes that New Dawn Prophesy Business Solutions is particularly adept at assessing government’s needs and finding the right solution for these needs. “Currently, you tend to find either Cisco or 3Com in government network environments, but we are introducing Juniper into the mix. With our Preferred Bidder Status with SITA, we are participating in a number of the SITA tenders supplying high-end servers.”
New Dawn Prophesy Business Solutions is responsible for the biggest Oracle implementation in government to date, for the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA). Hlahla explains: “The project is on a massive scale, considering the fact that SASSA is country wide, and currently paying about 14 million benneficiaries country wide. We went live in April, and are currently in the process of a bit of hand-holding until the requisite skills are fully transferred to SASSA.”
ACTIVE EMPOWERMENT
In the current global economic downturn, New Dawn Prophesy Business Solutions has adopted an arm’s length approach to appointments, and is selective about the skills it sub-contracts, with firm SLAs in place. However, certain positions remain in-house, as Hlahla explains: “For programme and project management, project administration and the like, we continue to skill our current staff. We work hard to maximise and optimise the existing skills and resources we have in these key positions.”
The company is vigorously committed to skills development. “We are continuing on the leadership and experiential trainee programme, taking on young graduates from tertiary institutions. After 18 to 24 months when they’re highly marketable, we keep those we can and allow and assist those that have outgrown our environment to pursue their dreams in other organizations of their choice” says Hlahla. Begun around three years ago, the programme has 10 individuals in the programme at the moment, and has recently recruited 10 more. “It is our contribution to the skills pool,” says Hlahla.
RISING TO CHALLENGES
In this environment, some of the biggest challenges include ever-changing client needs. “When you design an application, it is imperative to build-in flexibility and agility in order to be able to scale with the client,” says Hlahla. Change management is another key issue; as Hlahla points out, an organisation may offer the best solutions and expertise, but inadequate management of change during any implementation can spell project failure. “Our solutions are futuristic,” he says, “We don’t implement solutions today that will not be relevant tomorrow.”
A BRIGHT FUTURE
New Dawn Prophesy Business Solutions may be a R100-million-plus company now, but Hlahla is confident that not even the sky is the limit. “My aim is to grow revenue to 500 million in the next two years, and improve our profit margins enormously. We must be a half-a-billion rand company. However, we can’t achieve that through our Oracle business only – we must expand our infrastructure and our data centre business. For a long time we have been focusing on Oracle applications and we realise that clients need end-to-end solutions, and this will be another focus in the future: providing wall-to-wall solutions,” he says.Hlahla believes that this kind of business growth cannot be achieved solely through internal growth, and self-funding, mergers and acquisitions will need to take place. He is in no doubt that this will happen, as he concludes, and that the company’s vision will be realised:
“Simply put, we are the best. There are other emerging competitors, with our experience, skills and vision, we plan on being the solutions provider of choice for the private and public sectors, and government, long into the future.”
C O N T A C T
Kgabo HlahlaCEO: New Dawn Prophesy Business Solutions Pty (Ltd)
Tel: 012 644 0333
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: www.ndp.co.za