Spescom WINS ‘best managed company in the ICT sector’ award

Spescom Limited, a JSE-listed ICT company that provides integrated business communication solutions, has won two coveted awards – Best Managed Company in the ICT Sector and Best Practice in Taking South Africa to the World – from CRF SA which conducts annual research for its 2008 ‘South Africa’s Leading Managers’ title, the only leadership excellence compendium in South Africa.

CRF South Africa and ‘South Africa’s Leading Managers’ research a cross-section of participating companies’ leaders, or executive management teams, using a research questionnaire titled The Leadership Benchmark. The research spans financial performance, management style, markets and culture to identify the leading managers in the country each year. This information
is then published in the 2008/9 edition of SA’s Leading Managers, which will be published in early December 2008.

Says Jene Palmer, CEO of Spescom Limited: “This award is welcome recognition of the considerable effort we have made to refine the vision and focus of the organisation over the past two years. It’s a reflection of the dedication and leadership of Spescom’s managers and staff, but also of our confidence in the delivery of innovative new solutions that meet real
business needs in a fast changing communications realm.”

Says Samantha Crous, GM of CRF South Africa: “South Africa’s Leading Managers is a title that is in its fifth edition. It showcases high perfoming companies under sound, robust leadership – leadership that will take SA business into the future.”

To determine the Best Managed Company ranking by industry, the survey looked at the alignment of management strategy with operations and the success achieved as indicated by the company’s financial records. The Best Practice awards looked at companies’ commitment to different best practices.

Palmer, appointed as CEO at Spescom Limited in 2007, has guided the organisation through a number of challenges, successfully introducing a new cohesiveness within the company’s four divisions: Spescom DataVoice, which designs and develops proprietary solutions that
record, manage, re-create and analyse voice transactions; Spescom DataFusion, a business communication and customer interaction solutions specialist that provides world class contact centre and enterprise telephony solutions to medium and large organisations; Spescom Media IT, which provides the solutions, services and enabling technology that takes the broadcast industry from image capture through to transmission; and Spescom Telecommunications, which provides transport and access solutions for fixed line and mobile telecommunication network operators.

The company exited the US market in 2007 after reviewing its activities in that country and taking a decision to focus more on the core competences of voice, video and data. Palmer also instituted a restructuring of the company balance sheet, which enabled the conversion of short-term debt to long- term liabilities. ‘This removed some pressure, so the company was able to focus on its core business,’ says Palmer, “and this, in turn, enabled Spescom to
achieve some significant improvements in performance: during the first six months of the year, turnover increased year-on-year by 12%, while profitably grew by R5 million.”

On an international level, the company’s investment in its own technology has over the past 18 years led to recognition of its solutions as world-class. Spescom has delivered a number of world firsts. For example, in 1990 it launched Cashpower 2000, the world’s first keypad prepayment electricity meter, and eight years later introduced the globe’s first speaker verification system. Spescom was also behind the first VOIP recorder in 2000, and launched the first Cisco certified VOIP recorder two years later.

This year Spescom launched a world-first solution, Libra Mobile, which unifies mobile and fixed-line telephony recording, and also offers consumers a means to record conversations conducted on mobile phones.

The company’s presence in the United Kingdom and European markets is secured through a London-based office, and it also enjoys a share in the Middle East market.