HTML tags Tertius Zitzke, CEO, 4Sight Holdings. There’s this badass technology group, 4Sight Holdings, that’s on a mission to expand its empire all across Africa and beyond. Why, you may ask? Well, because the demand for digital transformation and fourth industrial revolution (4IR) technologies is skyrocketing in the enterprise market. It’s like the whole continent is primed and ready for this transformation, especially since they didn’t have all those previous investments in copper lines and whatnot. Now everything’s in the cloud, baby!
Tertius Zitzke, the big boss man at 4Sight Holdings, spilled the beans in an interview with Connecting Africa. He said that cloud adoption in Africa is killing it right now. South Africa was a little resistant at first because they already had a bunch of established businesses, but the rest of Africa is embracing it like nobody’s business. It’s super-duper impressive.
Now, let’s talk about what 4Sight actually does. They focus on a whole bunch of kick-ass technologies like information and operational technologies, production scheduling, robotic process automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) solutions, augmented and virtual reality solutions, cloud and business intelligence solutions, and the industrial internet of things (IOT). They’re covering all the bases, my friends.
They’ve got over 3,000 customers in 61 countries. That’s right, this isn’t just an African thing. They’re global, baby. They work with 750 cloud partners and have customers in Europe, the Middle East, and the US. And get this, they’re even expanding into Asia-Pacific. Their next target is Australia. They already work there, but they’re about to make a major investment. They’re not messing around.
In Africa, their biggest business is in the SADC region. They started off focusing more on English-speaking countries, but now they’re going into French-speaking Africa too. Places like Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi, and Malawi are killing it right now. That’s because the internet connections in that part of Africa are top-notch, which has really boosted their technology game.
But let’s talk about how they’re adapting to the times. When COVID hit, they couldn’t exactly fly engineers all over the place to get things done. So what did they do? They hopped on Microsoft Teams and used local guys to commission sites. Talk about thinking outside the box! Not only did that change their business model, but it also made them more cost-effective. It’s a win-win situation, my friends.
Now, you’re probably thinking, “Well, how’d they do during the pandemic?” Let me tell you, it was like an explosion of business. They had three years of double-digit growth in revenue. That’s no small feat, my friends. Tertius Zitzke, the CEO, said they were ready to serve the modern digital enterprise, and boy did they deliver.
Revenue for the first half of the year jumped by 37.1% to reach a whopping R451.3 million ($23.6 million). And get this, operating profit increased by 121.1% compared to last year. That’s some serious growth, my friends. And they owe it all to the digital transformation and cloud adoption happening across Africa. Companies are realizing the power of combining operational and information technologies with the business environment to embrace AI and boost productivity. It’s awesome.
But wait, there’s more! 4Sight Holdings has big plans for partnerships. They’re teaming up with major global technology companies to add value and additional capabilities to their partners’ solutions. They want to open up new markets and industries, and they’re making it happen. Their go-to-market strategy aims to generate 70% of their revenue from annuity-based deals and 30% from new sales. They’re all about creating “as a service” solutions and making a splash in the tech world.
So, what’s their vision for the future? Well, they’re calling it “Enterprise 5.0”. It’s all about automation, but not just the self-driving car kind. They believe in automating processes around people to boost productivity. They’ve got the whole package to make it happen, from focusing on people to customers, operations, finance, and product innovation requirements. It’s all about creating a modern digital enterprise, my friends.
That’s not all though. They’ve got some impressive partnerships going on. Microsoft, Sage, and PaySpace are just a few of the big names they’re working with. They even offer a software as a service version of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central application in 22 countries across Africa. It’s all about managing those relationships and building businesses in Africa. They’re making major bank from that, too. Almost 40% of their revenue is coming from these partnerships. Africa is a goldmine, but South Africa is still their biggest market.
Now, let’s talk about the challenges they faced. It wasn’t all smooth sailing for 4Sight Holdings. They had some serious boardroom drama back in 2019. The former CEO and five directors, including the chairman, all resigned within a month. Talk about a shake-up. And then their shares on the stock exchange were suspended because they couldn’t get their financial statements in on time. It was a mess.
But then Tertius Zitzke came in as the CEO, and he turned things around. He re-strategized and oversaw a major consolidation and rebranding of the company. They went from an investment holdings company to a total digitally transformed business. They’re all about bridging the gap between the business environment, information technology, and operational technologies. It’s all under one roof, baby.
And let’s not forget about the company culture. Zitzke worked hard to build a better culture and rebrand the company. They took over 25 companies with different logos and corporate identities and brought them all together under the 4Sight brand. It was a major undertaking, but they made it happen.
So there you have it, folks. 4Sight Holdings is on a mission to conquer Africa and beyond. They’ve got the technology, the partnerships, and the vision to make it happen. This is just the beginning for them. Keep an eye out because they’re going places.
