South African companies that are committed to broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) need to step up their efforts around skills development and employment equity.

That’s the word from Michael Jacobus, chief executive officer at AL Indigo.

He says that most ICT companies have focused on the low hanging fruit of BBBEE in the form of corporate social investment and shareholding, neglecting equally important areas that need more concerted, longer term effort in the process.

“Many ICT groups have targeted areas of the BEE scorecard that are easier to address – such as corporate social investment, preferential procurement, and equity shareholding – and have neglected employment equity and skills development,” Jacobus says.

“The reason for this is that we have all focused on chasing BEE accreditation and have not paid enough attention to grassroots empowerment. But transformation at the lower levels of the industry is critical to sustainability and long-term growth.”

AL Indigo is currently accredited as a Level 4 contributor to BEE and is a 100%-black-owned company. The company has made significant progress on areas of BBBEE such as the demographic make-up of its management team, corporate social investment and preferential procurement.

But Jacobus says that it recognises that employment equity and skills development now need to take centre stage in its BBBEE strategy, especially as the company aims to increase its accredited rating in the years to come.

“Looking to the future, we want to step up our investments into training and skills development to create a sustainable pool of technology skills for the future as well as to help bring more people from previously disadvantaged communities into the ICT industry,” Jacobus adds.

In addition, government is getting impatient with slow progress in employment equity across most sectors. To avoid further regulation, the industry needs to accelerate transformation of the workplace; AL Indigo is embarking on a range of training and development programmes that address ICT skills at every level – from entry-level qualifications through to high-level technical training and management skills.

These programmes include bursary programmes for students, Learnership programmes, on-the-job-training for new entrants into the ICT job market, and support from staff that want to build their skills through formal educational programmes. The goal is to develop a strong base of entry- and mid-level skills, and grow them into the top managers and technicians of tomorrow.

“The major challenge that we face as we roll out our skills development and employment equity programme is retaining the skills because previously disadvantaged candidates with rare, high-level technology skills are in such high demand.

“But we have put a strategy in place to attract, develop and retain the people that we need to grow our business into the future. South Africa’s ICT industry as a whole needs a larger skills base to grow, so it is in the entire industry’s interest to grow the pool of professionals through skills development programmes,” Jacobus concludes.

South African companies that are committed to broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) need to step up their efforts around skills development and employment equity.

That’s the word from Michael Jacobus, chief executive officer at AL Indigo.

He says that most ICT companies have focused on the low hanging fruit of BBBEE in the form of corporate social investment and shareholding, neglecting equally important areas that need more concerted, longer term effort in the process.

“Many ICT groups have targeted areas of the BEE scorecard that are easier to address – such as corporate social investment, preferential procurement, and equity shareholding – and have neglected employment equity and skills development,” Jacobus says.

“The reason for this is that we have all focused on chasing BEE accreditation and have not paid enough attention to grassroots empowerment. But transformation at the lower levels of the industry is critical to sustainability and long-term growth.”

AL Indigo is currently accredited as a Level 4 contributor to BEE and is a 100%-black-owned company. The company has made significant progress on areas of BBBEE such as the demographic make-up of its management team, corporate social investment and preferential procurement.

But Jacobus says that it recognises that employment equity and skills development now need to take centre stage in its BBBEE strategy, especially as the company aims to increase its accredited rating in the years to come.

“Looking to the future, we want to step up our investments into training and skills development to create a sustainable pool of technology skills for the future as well as to help bring more people from previously disadvantaged communities into the ICT industry,” Jacobus adds.

In addition, government is getting impatient with slow progress in employment equity across most sectors. To avoid further regulation, the industry needs to accelerate transformation of the workplace; AL Indigo is embarking on a range of training and development programmes that address ICT skills at every level – from entry-level qualifications through to high-level technical training and management skills.

These programmes include bursary programmes for students, Learnership programmes, on-the-job-training for new entrants into the ICT job market, and support from staff that want to build their skills through formal educational programmes. The goal is to develop a strong base of entry- and mid-level skills, and grow them into the top managers and technicians of tomorrow.

“The major challenge that we face as we roll out our skills development and employment equity programme is retaining the skills because previously disadvantaged candidates with rare, high-level technology skills are in such high demand.

“But we have put a strategy in place to attract, develop and retain the people that we need to grow our business into the future. South Africa’s ICT industry as a whole needs a larger skills base to grow, so it is in the entire industry’s interest to grow the pool of professionals through skills development programmes” , Jacobus concludes.

African Legend (AL) Indigo is increasing its presence throughout Africa to provide infrastructure solutions and support to multinational and South African companies expanding into the continent.

The company, an IBM Business Partner with an established track record in the infrastructure services market, offers one of South Africa’s largest pool of infrastructure skills. It also boasts partnerships with the world’s leading IT vendors to provide its clients with turnkey infrastructure solutions that span storage, systems, software and services.

Says Dione le Roux, Infrastructure Services Manager at AL Indigo:  “During these difficult economic times, companies around the world need to drive more value from their ICT infrastructure without compromising on business service levels. AL Indigo is positioned as a business partner that helps its customers to achieve those very goals.

“Our world-class infrastructure and skills base positions AL Indigo to support enterprises with large ICT environments. By providing turnkey solutions that span all of the typical enterprise’s basic ICT infrastructure needs, we help customers to simplify the management of their IT environments, drive down their operating costs and increase their return on investment.

“Affordable and reliable ICT infrastructure is central to any enterprise’s competitiveness. However, infrastructure management has become a headache for most large companies because of the growing complexity of their heterogeneous environments, a shortage of ICT skills and an increasing regularity burden”, says Le Roux.

“Companies want to partner with service providers that can offer them a single point of contact for all their infrastructure needs,” adds Le Roux.

“As a partner, AL Indigo not only simplifies infrastructure management for its clients, but also helps them to optimise their infrastructure to achieve better results,” he continues.

AL Indigo focuses on the telecommunications, government, financial services, retail, oil & gas and manufacturing sectors, among others. Its clients include the likes of First Rand, Absa, MTN, Telkom, Vodacom, Sun International, Pick n Pay, Woolworths, Shoprite, Sasol, Engen, SARS, Standard Bank, Nedcor, SAPO, SITA, PGWC and Caltex.

AL Indigo supports clients through offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, and Lagos (Nigeria). The company works closely with partners in Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Mauritius, Swaziland, Kenya, Uganda and Namibia to deliver high-quality solutions to clients in those countries.

“Expanding our business into the rest of Africa from a strong base in South Africa is our strategic priority in the months to come,” says Le Roux. “ICT skills are in short supply in many parts of Africa, but are vital to the continent’s growth. AL Indigo wants to share its skills with the rest of the continent.”

The company employs over 200 people, including highly trained and accredited support engineers and sales teams, and strives to hold the highest level of partner accreditation from its vendor partners.

Some examples of the infrastructure services that AL Indigo offers include proactive systems management, security services, availability services and platform migrations.