Wesizwe Platinum : IT General Manager joins an IT experts' panel of discussion

20 September 2016

Wesizwe IT General Manager joins an IT experts' panel of discussion

'Taking advantage of converged ICT Ecosystems'. This was the topic of discussion at an event aimed at addressing burning issues in the ICT industry. The event was on the 23rd June 2016, at the Africa Pride, Melrose Arch Hotel and the Wesizwe General Manager for IT, Kobus Pienaar was part of the discussion that was organised by ITWeb Brainstorm Magazine. The intent is to share knowledge across industries on problems that different industries face and to suggest solutions to these problems from the panel of experts based on their experience and knowledge gathered over many years in the various industries.

'They invite a spread across multiple industries to get a multi-industry view on the topic, and I was invited to attend the discussion on 'Taking advantage of converged ICT Ecosystems'', said Kobus.

As a new company we do face challenges where our systems are concerned and this requires a strategy. 'We are building a new mine, so we don't have legacy, but we do have more challenges on people and processes rather than on technology, adds Kobus.

He went on to explain the terms of use of resources at Wesizwe and how that adds value into the company. 'We decided to use commercial off-the shelf software for everything and where we do need customised functionality, we engage the vendor to do the development for us. One of our targets is to is to beat the accepted value of a 3% cost of IT for running a mine and instead target 1%. At the moment we are down to 1.2% by using very stringent management and avoid where possible non-standardised processes', he said. He went on to further explain that a lot of the cost for these things comes from tinkering with them. 'We also don't allow people to bring systems with them from other companies.'

The benefit to Wesizwe and the company brand:

- Sharing real world solutions to problems in a group of senior industry leaders, is like getting a year's research done in a couple of hours

- It allows us to evaluate the maturity of new developments based on the experience of companies that have already done deployments, and assist in the process of fast

- -tracking decisions and avoid problems.

- It puts Wesizwe on the MAP from a technology perspective when one is invited to be part of a panel made up of people that are considered at the top of their field in both experience and knowledge

- It provides Wesizwe with positive media coverage when an event like this is published in a leading Technology magazine in the country, and at no cost to the company

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