Empowering the 'little guy' with big computing power

Pictured outside their UcomS office in the Innovation Centre at the Hub are Niel Mouton, Chief Operations Officer, Boitumelo Sebego, Helpdesk Administrator and Leon Botha, IT Manager.

Customised business management and communication systems provider, Universal Communication Services (Pty) Ltd (UcomS), has recently expanded their operations to The Innovation Hub from where they run their OctoCentre Distribution Hub.

This innovative, hosted services platform allows its SMME clients to obtain access to resources and computing services previously only accessible to corporate and government enterprises.

According to UcomS CEO, Benjamin Mouton, the OctoCentre Services™ (OCS) can provide computing services to individual entrepreneurs, SMMEs, SOHOs (small office - home offices) and even fortune 500 companies, without the businesses having to buy their own infrastructure. "How it works is that your business profile is placed on the OCS's infrastructure, enabling you to access and work on it from wherever you are in the world. As long as you have Internet access, that becomes your workstation - we create the ultimate mobile man!"

OCS clients are charged at bytes per second, which means that there is no capital investment in equipment. In addition to features such as the remotely controlled, centralised management of all systems and complete asset tracking and management capability, OCS also offers clients maximum security and protection of hardware, software and data with total reliability, 99,9% up-time and 24/7 availability - all of which can result in a 40% reduction in total cost of ownership and up to 30% per annum increase in return on investment.

According to Mouton, OCS puts the power back in the hands of SMMEs by enabling them to dictate the technology required, instead of the current norm of the technology dictating the business model. Clients can remotely manage their enterprises with complete confidence that OCS-services are provided securely with continuous back up to alternate locations. "We really concentrate on the security and privacy of client information. For us that is extremely important", says UcomS marketing director, Gerda Mouton.

UcomS has been in South Africa for two years. According to Mouton the company's expansion to the Hub is one of their biggest highlights to date. "We feel extremely comfortable here. The infrastructure support is world class and the benefit to everyone who's here is that they can now really punch above their fighting weight", he adds. "The Innovation Hub has become the major access point of the UcomS Operation in Africa facilitated entry into sub-Saharan Africa. It illustrates the way in which the Hub's regional and international links assists South African companies".

UcomS is also a partner in the NEPAD e-School programme, which aims to provide computers and Internet access to all schools in Africa by 2010. The company provides centrally controlled remote management systems from which to download curriculum content maintain the computer infrastructure. Gerda maintains that the use of technology in education and training is becoming a major focus in Africa. "The future of this continent will be built on education", she says.

Another aspect in this regard is the transition from the traditional computer services outsourcing to computing services in-sourcing. "Computing services and not merely box-dropping are the future of ICT". The 'box-dropping' phenomenon is widespread in Africa, where the lack of basic infrastructure poses the biggest challenge to a sustainable solution.

In addition to the NEPAD initiative, UcomS is also providing infrastructure support to the Khanya schools in the Western Cape and to the Oprah Winfrey Angel Network. "We believe the focus should be on sustainability and if we can permeate the community by using the schools as a nucleus, then that creates sustainability", says Gerda.

For more information on UcomS, contact Gerda Mouton on +27 12 346 1000.

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