Year of opportunity

AFTER NEARLY 30 years in the business of managing telecoms costs and processes, Unison sees 2010 as a year of growth, especially in the African market.

Despite the recession, 2009 was a good year for the company, as enterprises of all sizes paid closer attention to managing their telecoms costs. Unison MD Craig Young says the company signed a few major deals with the likes of MTN, Absa and FNB, totalling tens of millions of rands. The company now has around 1 800 clients and manages around two million extensions in South Africa. Across the rest of Africa, it has around 180 clients and 400 installations.

But Africa is expected to see significant growth this year as companies and telecoms players surge into the continent. All of which presents great opportunities for Unison. Young expects Unison to grow its African business by 40% to 50% this year, with yet more growth in 2011. However, doing business in the rest of Africa does present unique challenges for Unison, says Young. "We will find a mishmash of systems, systems that haven`t been supported, and a surprisingly big language barrier."

Also, he says, many companies operating in Africa have outsourced to Europe, so it takes longer to implement new systems. He finds a lots of companies across Africa outsource to companies in Eastern Europe, making it harder for Unison to get answers and information about systems quickly.  "It can take double the time and 40% more cost when you`re doing business in Africa," says Young. "But it`s worth it."

The company`s main line of business is to save companies time and money in telecoms cost management. Now, more than ever, companies are willing to give it a try.

Young says excessive telecoms costs occur in many areas - for example, private usage by staff can account for up to 30% of telecoms costs in a company. Internal communications can also run up a great deal of unnecessary expense. In a large company with many branches and thousands of staff members, poor management of telecoms costs can result in tens of millions of rands spent unnecessarily. In addition, corporate communications has become very complex, says Young.

Young notes that - despite intense competition among operators - corporate telecoms costs have risen dramatically in recent years, rather than going down. Much of this, he says, is due to increasing reliance on cellphones for communications. Strangely, Young says, many companies still treat landline calls as telecoms costs and calls from cellphones as an HR/payroll issue, so managing telecoms costs doesn`t extend to use of cellphones by staff. But it should, he says, if costs are to be controlled.

He doesn`t see telecoms costs dropping significantly in the near future either, so the best way to cut bills and improve efficiency is to manage calls better.  Unison aims to make it easier for smaller companies (and companies across Africa) to make use of its services, by focusing more on a software as a service (Saas) model. Besides the focus on Africa, Saas will be Unison`s 2010 mantra, Young says.