Case Study
IT Personality of the Year 2003
This year`s IT Personality of the Year awards recognised an up-and-coming face in the ICT industry, while the ICT Leader award went to an established name in the world of banking and IT. A seeker of justice: Dali MpofuBy Georgina GuedesJustice is a word that looms large in the lexicon of Dali Mpofu, this year`s IT Personality of the Year. A distinguished career in law has been followed by an equally bright career in ICT, where he has sought to right abiding wrongs in the industry."I consider myself to be an activist for economic justice," he says. "I see that rule carrying me well into the future. The problems of the past are going to be with us for many decades to come, so I see this as an extension of my previous role as a lawyer to bring about social justice. The challenges of the country now mean we have to put more emphasis on economic transformation, rather than just social reformation."Mpofu takes over the mantle of IT Personality of the Year - awarded by the Computer Society of South Africa in conjunction with the Meta Group and ITWeb - from Benjamin Mophatlane of the Business Connexion group.Mpofu`s career thus far has prepared him well for his self-appointed role as champion of black economic empowerment (BEE) in the ICT sector.Mpofu received his LLB from the University of the Witwatersrand in 1996 and practised law, worked for the ANC and served as an acting judge in the Labour Court prior to his appointment at the Altron Group.As group executive director of corporate affairs at Altron, his functions include group communications, incorporating equity and skills development, and other BEE initiatives, looking after stakeholder relationships and building and maintaining international relations with regard to exports, acquisitions and joint ventures.But Mpofu sees his responsibilities to South Africa as extending far beyond the borders of just one company.In 2003, he was appointed chairperson of the ICT BEE Charter Working Group, after having crusaded for some time for such a process to be put into place. "It started off as a personal vision, but when I unveiled it to the leadership of the Electronics Industry Federation, as well as to outside leaders, it was accepted, and I was glad," he says."I was one of the people who initiated the concept of designing the process we are now following, which has been very satisfying. At the beginning, it wasn`t clear, but now the evidence is that it is appearing to work, and has received support from the industry far beyond what I had hoped."Earlier this year, as a member of the management committee of the Black Business Council, Mpofu presented that organisation`s input on the BEE Bill at a two day meeting with the President. He says the presentation was "well received, sparking good debate".Being chairman of Altron`s transformation committee, and serving as a director at Rentech, Battery Technologies and ABB PowerTech, much of Mpofu`s so called "free time" is taken up with work issues. But he has recently developed a passion for golf. "I find that golf is the most relaxing couple of hours I can grab in a hectic schedule. I regard myself as a reasonable golfer who is more lucky than anything else."He does make a point of adding that after only three years of playing the game, last year he scored his first hole in one.Mpofu says he was honoured to be nominated for the IT Personality of the Year award, and he feels that, as he doesn`t have a technical background, it is an indication of the growing importance of good leadership in the ITC sector. Sweating out IT systems: Alewyn BurgerBy Paul VecchiattoSweat is a familiar word to Alewyn Burger, director of operations, payments and distribution at Standard Bank. It is applied in his business and personal lives, as well as with regard to the value he wants to extract from IT systems currently being used by the banks. And one can assume a fair amount of sweat has been worked up during the years that led to him receiving the first ICT Leader of the Year award, presented by the Computer Society of South Africa in conjunction with the Meta Group and ITWeb.Burger was one of the first people in South Africa to recognise the business value of IT and to successfully bridge the gap between technology and financial services.In more than two decades of involvement in IT in various financial organisations, Burger has consistently striven to obtain the most from any system and prove its worth. He first saw the value of this approach in the early eighties when working for the old United Building Society. There, he says, the systems were simple in implementation, but could handle a high volume of transactions and deliver the service required at the time."The decisions made then were extremely good. Applications were a lot simpler, but their early use was incredibly diverse," Burger says.Burger`s career has been marked by the successful completion of numerous projects that have kept the South African financial services industry at the forefront of innovation. This included the early implementation of automatic teller machines (ATMs), which made the country a world leader in the field.He was deeply involved in United`s merger with Volkskas (Absa I) and then with Senbank (Absa II), eventually ending up as group executive director and a member of Absa`s group executive committee in 1993."In many ways, my greatest achievement has been to head the merger of the diverse IT systems that were incorporated into Absa with the minimal disruption to the clients," he says.In 1998 he joined a private investment company called Frankin - owned by leading businessmen Mervyn King, Eric Ellerine and Nic Frangos - but the siren call of banking was too much and he soon moved on to Standard Bank as director operations, payments and distribution, a position he still holds.Burger has been an active participant in the electronic commerce market and the bank utility companies, being at various times chairman of Transwitch Services (TSS), Destiny Electronic Commerce and BDB Data Bureau and director of Bankserve, ACB, Saswitch, SBV, Unexcor and JBCB.He has played an active role in the international card industry, serving on numerous regional committees for both Visa and MasterCard, as well as Maestro, the debit card arm of MasterCard.The academic field has never been far from Burger`s attention, and apart from attaining a doctorate in mathematical statistics from Unisa, he has held numerous positions in university management over the years, including that of extraordinary professor of informatics at the University of Pretoria. Don`t look back: Cecil MachiBy Paul VecchiattoTwenty three years ago, when Cecil Machi worked as a labourer for Unilever, there seemed little chance he would one day own and manage his own successful IT firm, let alone be an IT Personality of the Year finalist."I had no idea then that I would head up my own company. The proudest moment of my life is when I started Imvo Technologies & Systems," he says.Machi`s guiding principle has been to "never look back", and to find role models that inspire him."Former President Nelson Mandela was a great inspiration. He did not worry about the past and looked to the future. If I consider where I came from and where I am now, it is almost amazing," he says.Starting his IT career as a data capturer for Unilever, Machi steadily climbed the corporate ladder, via jobs at the KwaZulu Finance Corporation, Digital Networks Systems and Dimension Data. When Choice Technologies became Didata`s empowerment wing, he moved over as an account manager. From there, Machi pursued his long-standing dream of owning his own company.Imvo, a focused ICT and management company with an emphasis on service, support and education, has made impressive inroads in the KwaZulu-Natal market. Banker with a tech image: Christo DavelBy Ivo VegterChristo Davel was "a bit thrown" at being nominated - let alone selected to be a finalist - in the IT Personality of the Year Awards for 2003. Yet, he shouldn`t have been. Though he`s a banker, his long-suffering startup online bank, 20twenty, made the news throughout the year for the noisy loyalty of its small group of supporters - eh, customers. And when Standard Chartered bought the operation on 1 August 2003, it signalled the long-awaited but unorthodox entry of a significant foreign player in the South African retail banking sector.Much of 20twenty`s fame came about because of the way it used technology. It is for this that Davel should take credit. "The only thing I and 20twenty have been able to achieve is demonstrable benefit by using technology smartly, and making it easier for customers to access financial services," he says. "The loyalty consumers have shown the 20twenty brand suggests people recognise this."He says that 20twenty didn`t plump for the state of the art. Simple technologies, such as calling-line identification, were used to great effect to identify customers to the private-banker-style agents that answer the phones.The curatorship was a trying time, not only from a brand perspective, but also because of retrictions on technology."It was tough, because we had no funds to do any enhancements. We needed to keep it alive on a shoestring. All credit to the team who did that: there was some ingenuity to keep it going and not expose customers to inconvenience and system weaknesses. Besides the days immediately after the curatorship was announced, customers have experienced little or no downtime," he says with well-deserved pride.For Davel`s small black-and-orange bank, the challenge will be to regain the initiative: to "keep on the front foot, and keep ahead". The taxman with a passion: Ken JarvisBy Iain ScottIn his 29 years in the ICT industry, South African Revenue Service (SARS) CIO Ken Jarvis has pulled off South Africa`s first large outsourcing deal, the country`s first large downsizing and the world`s first rollout of SAP in a mine.More recently, he has played a key role in transforming SARS into an efficient organisation able to save the country billions of rands.Yet Jarvis eschews publicity and is quick to divert praise to colleagues. "I surround myself with creative people who are able to think outside the box and do the job," he says.In just one year at SARS, Jarvis has transformed the SARS IT shop, until recently a bastion of white males, to the point where it has strong empowerment credentials.He is now establishing SARS call centres in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg to handle 40 000 calls each day. The SARS e-filing solution has also been a roaring success.The project Jarvis is most proud of is the "single view of customer", which goes live this month. In the past, if SARS owed someone a rebate, but that person owed value added tax, the information was not correlated. But a single view can do this and has the potential of saving SARS a lot of money.Jarvis is enthusiastic about his work. "I`ve discovered that doing something for the country is quite different from doing it for shareholders. It`s a different kind of motivation. I`m not at SARS to become a multimillionaire. But I`m experiencing a passion. The tax gap is publicly estimated at R30 billion per annum. If we can use technology to collect just 20 percent of that, that`s R6 billion. Some departments don`t even have that as a budget. Throw R6 billion into health or policing and see what can be done." Phil fits the bill: Phillip DuffBy Rodney WeidemannSyspro`s corporate adverts play on the similarity between CEO Phil Duff`s first name and that of Bill Gates. But Duff is no publicity seeker, averring that his nomination for IT Personality of the Year is simply because he is the public face of Syspro. He ascribes the company`s achievements to the entire team and an inclusive approach."We work as a unit at Syspro, off what I would term a flat hierarchy, which is anything but dictatorial. I am not what you`d call a CEO in the classic sense - I`m one of the gang."I`d have to say that the biggest achievement in my 25 years in the business is seeing Syspro become a global company. I am proud that we`ve reached a point where our products are installed in over 50 countries worldwide."Duff believes Syspro`s corporate re-branding was the company`s key achievement in 2003 - improving perceptions of the organisation, increased its commercial visibility and resulting in his nomination.He says the main reason he is still in the IT business after 25 years is because he wakes up each morning with an enthusiasm to tackle the things he didn`t manage the day before."I like to think that, as we were one of the first local IT companies to become a global organisation, we have at least inspired others to do the same."
02 November 2003
This year`s IT Personality of the Year awards recognised an up-and-coming face in the ICT industry, while the ICT Leader award went to an established name in the world of banking and IT.
A seeker of justice: Dali Mpofu
ITWeb Premium
Get 3 months of unlimited access
No credit card. No obligation.