All grown up

"You win some, you lose some." I like that phrase. It admits defeat without cover-up, but underneath lurks the unmoved resolve to do better next time.

It was the phrase used by Angus MacRobert, MD of Internet Solutions, on losing the Nedbank/Old Mutual outsourcing deal recently. This time, we bring news that IS has won the government ISP contract. It`s taken years and they`ve had to call in some big names. The win validates, to a large degree, the appointment of Dimension Data SA chairman Andile Ngcaba. It lifts IS and Didata out of the disappointment of recent losses, and then some.

Our cover story was written before the IS victory, so it goes into some detail about Didata`s recent trials and intriguing choices. But even with hindsight, it was a worthwhile investigation, one that gave us some understanding of what it`s like to have to be (among) the best all the time.

Not everybody will sympathise, of course, yet my feeling after listening to the comments going around is that even Didata`s competitors can live and let live. Competition is a fact of business life, and we are no less successful for acknowledging it.

This issue also features interesting companies like Face Technologies, which has had remarkable export successes, as has Prism; and Lenovo, the third-biggest PC maker in the world, which imports a new technological world order into the country. Do yourself a favour: have a look at the latest quarterly revenue and profit figures from Lenovo, Dell and HP, respectively, scattered about iWeek. It makes for compelling reading.

All of which proves that, like life, IT isn`t always that easy to rise above. But when you do, the taste can be very sweet.

We`re not just selling industry stories either. We also feature solid articles on Tshwane`s prepaid power vending, on Red-1, the first regional electricity distributor, Sars` SAP on SUSE Linux kick-off, single-view patient records and a lot more.

Enjoy the insights,