CASE STUDY
For Naidoo, revenue, margins and profits are key metrics to measure and project growth and value creation, which are considered in totality by the executive team. Growth of revenue on the prior period and current budget, together with a comparison against industry performance indicators, demonstrate the effectiveness of Datacentrix’ s business strategy and help identify target markets.
Datacentrix’ s management team considers risk in all elements of the operations, as, ultimately, risk identification is the key success factor. Competitive risk is high up on the risk register, and accelerates innovation and growth in the organisation’ s plans, keeping the discussions interactive with business.
Investing in human capital
Datacentrix’ s gross margins are important health indicators for assessing business growth and effectiveness of pricing strategies, technology and services mix. The non-tangible elements of customer satisfaction, customer and partner relationships, business excellence, credibility and value delivery are also core to Datacentrix’ s success.
Transforming to Chief Value Officers
CFOs and CROs need to consider themselves as Chief Value Officers of organisations, recommends Naidoo. This entails more than financial oversight and evaluating financial KPIs. It involves supporting top management in their efforts to achieve organisational resilience and supporting innovation and employee engagement.
Financial stability, risk management and sustainability are major factors that support long-term growth for Datacentrix.
Keeping Datacentrix’ s employees at the forefront of its guiding principles is key to maintaining the business’ s competitive edge. From a financial and risk perspective, employees create the processes; and they are empowered to execute on these processes and assess areas of continuous improvement.
Naturally, it makes sense to invest in the company’ s biggest asset – its people – in the form of wellness, training, digitisation tools and more. Creating and supporting an environment of continuous learning allows Datacentrix’ s employees to thrive and contributes to the business’ return on investment.
Datacentrix provides tools for monitoring productivity levels, staff turnover and staff tenure, which ultimately links to the growth of the business. Realistically, it is not possible to place a value on human capital, but it is possible to foster an environment that encourages collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement.
At the top of management’ s list of challenges are talent acquisition and retention. Finding individuals who embody both technical and analytical expertise, with practical application in the work environment, is not an easy task. In a highly skilled environment, the attraction and retention of staff are critical to maintaining a competitive edge. Linked to creating a pioneering work environment are worthy recognition programmes that encourage loyalty and boost productivity.
Digital transformation and AI integration are a close second on the list of business challenges. Datacentrix continues to adapt as the technology and business environments evolve. It is a dynamic arena, and the company is constantly driving its transformation into a services and solutions-oriented business.
Realising that risk is part of normal business operations and implementing a robust risk management plan have already shown results.
Risks around growth, culture and information management – both internally and externally – are realistic obstacles to a business’ s success. These are real conversations within the work environment at Datacentrix, as it assesses, manages and mitigates these risks.
The company recognises that that there is significant value in the expertise and innovation of its employees, combining knowledge and assessments to link this back to compensation, communication and training initiatives. Ultimately people want to work in rewarding environments where the culture is ethical and transparent.
“ While we aspire to create a dynamic, digitised environment for our workforce, and enhance financial processes and controls to create efficiencies, a further watchful eye in terms of governance is still required. The integration of AI into workflows is exciting and stressful at the same time; it necessitates the support from the right team to formalise the changes while maintaining agility and mitigating risks,” says Naidoo.
Solutions for sustainability
Datacentrix tracks its emissions and carbon footprints on two levels. The first addresses the business’ s internal consumption of fuel, diesel, flights, travel, and related activities. The second extends to the full lifecycle of the products the company sells, including energy consumption across networks, data centres and more.
Datacentrix collaborates closely with its vendors to track and manage these from source to end user,
52 INTELLIGENTCIO AFRICA www. intelligentcio. com