People of Vox: Spotlight on Nicolene Gates
At Vox, we believe our employees are the beating heart of our company, with merit and value built into all our available positions. In this edition of People of Vox, we meet Nicolene Gates, who works in the Procurement Department as a Team Leader. Nicolene’s journey within Vox is a practical, inspiring example of steady progression, care for her colleagues and the everyday importance of operational excellence.
Procurement is the company area which makes sure that departments can work effectively: from enabling the provision of desktops and Wi‑Fi routers to licences, capital equipment and conference‑room screens. At Vox, that responsibility sits with a small, focused team that’s co-led by Nicolene Gates, who joined the business in 2014.
“People in Procurement are the buyers of the company,” Nicolene explains. “If you need anything at Vox, Procurement needs to raise the purchase order. We buy everything needed for operations, including stock, capital items and licences. We make it official!”
Procurement at Vox operates as the central purchasing hub: internal staff raise requests, sometimes supported by quotes from Procurement, and the team manages the approvals and supplier interaction. For larger purchases, engineers or project teams will submit CapEx requests with quotes and line‑manager sign‑off; Procurement then processes the order.
Nicolene’s path into Procurement was practical and familiar to many South Africans: she took temporary work, showed up reliably and was in the right place when a permanent role became available.
We find out more about what Nicolene loves doing, both at Vox and at home, and why she’s described by as her line manager as being: ‘This quiet superstar sitting in the shadows simply getting things done!’
A Compact Team with Wide Responsibility
Nicolene’s early jobs after school included waitressing and telesales. She says these roles taught her practical discipline: getting used to long hours, how to meet customers, and dealing with issues efficiently.
“Waitressing was great!” she says. “I enjoyed meeting a lot of different people. It taught me to be present and attentive, and I still find that incredibly useful today in my procurement career.”
In 2013, Nicolene was able to work for Vox for a short while as a temp, and to her delight, a permanent post opened up in 2014, when she was then able to join the team on a full-time basis.
“I started out doing all the requisitions and purchase order loading,” she recalls, “and ultimately become one of two co-team leaders. Now I check what the team loads, I review contracts, margins, quotes, suppliers, GL accounts; everything on an order, really, before I approve it.”
Together with her co-team leader, Kaylen Pillay, Nicolene leads a small team with six people reporting to her. Despite its small size, the team covers a surprising extent of activity.
“We don’t just order laptops,” says Nicolene. “We order PBX licences, VC systems, Wi‑Fi routers, consumables for Stores, stationery, and sometimes the larger CapEx requests when engineers need tools or installations. We work very closely with Vox’s Stores department, and if there’s faulty stock, we coordinate returns, warranties and replacements.”
The Magic of Exceeding Expectations
Nicolene’s working day is disciplined. She starts by checking emails, noting: “I hate leaving something unread!” and then reviews reports and assigns tickets. Her team loads orders and she reviews and approves them. She creates item codes where needed, cancels incorrect orders, follows up on faulty stock, and sources quotes.
“Sometimes licences have expired and it’s urgent,” she says. “The ticket comes in and we must renew it that day. It takes a few hours to load an order and get approvals, so I try to move things quickly. I just hate it when someone has to wait because of a long process.”
That urgency is where Nicolene’s satisfaction comes from. She enjoys the ‘magic’ of solving problems fast: turning a ticket into a fully authorised purchase order and getting the supplier to act. “I love it when people expect us to get something done and we are able to deliver quickly,” she says. “It feels great to help and to exceed expectations!”
In turn, Nicolene also finds working at Vox a largely pleasurable experience, and she believes that Vox’s employees are the company’s greatest asset, with respectful, helpful colleagues, and leaders who care about both customers and staff members.
“People are respectful at every level,” she says. “Vox cares about its customers and the employees who serve them. The cross‑department effort that gets a product to a customer is huge, and ultimately, it’s the people who make it work.”
From the Golf Course to Call of Duty
At home in Pretoria, Nicolene lives with her partner and three daughters. Her eldest daughter completed matric recently; the others are in Grade 7 and Grade 3, and her family life has a large bearing on Nicolene’s down-time interests. She enjoys planning birthday outings and events for the family and hopes that one day they will all be able to go on a holiday to Mauritius.
“My colleagues might be surprised to know that I also love cleaning!” she smiles. “I really enjoy rearranging rooms, as well as watching cleaning videos on TikTok! I also enjoy spending leisure time with my partner, and I join him when he plays golf, and sometimes during video games on the family’s PlayStation.
“As far as golf is concerned, I enjoy driving the golf cart and time out on the beautiful, tranquil golf course, even if myself am not playing. As for the video games, I’m joining in games of Call of Duty, which I find quite challenging but overall a fun family activity!”
Aspirations: Knowing the Business Inside Out
Nicolene is quick to praise her current team and her line manager, Lizette: “I have the best team and the best boss! I wouldn’t be here without them,” she says. “One of my favourite workplace memories is an unexpected baby shower that was organised by my colleagues in the Procurement and Creditors Departments, when I had my youngest daughter in 2017.
“We were still at the office before COVID, and it was such a lovely surprise – just underscoring how the team supports each other through our professional and personal milestones.”
Looking ahead within Vox, Nicolene aspires to one day achieving the breadth of knowledge that her own manager demonstrates: “Lizette knows everything about every product and what to ask when something new comes along, and I would like to get to this point also – to know the company well enough to answer questions, anticipate what’s needed and help teams make the right decisions.”
This innate curiosity and desire to learn fit naturally within the Procurement Division’s role as a hub for information, because suppliers, contracts, product specs and financial approvals all require a sharp understanding.
Although the Procurements division goes through busy periods, Nicolene’s approach to avoid being overwhelmed is practical. She explains: “Do the work you can today in a steady manner, follow up tomorrow and keep a close eye on tickets while dealing with urgent items swiftly. My advice to anyone is to be organised, pay attention to detail and don’t hesitate to take action where you can help.”
Procurement rarely appears in the spotlight, but Nicolene’s story shows why it should: Procurement provides the processes that keep Vox operational and responsive.
Nicolene’s enthusiasm for getting things done fast, her attention to detail and her pride in the team speaks to a department that values precision and people in equal measure. “I love assisting people,” she says. “I will always help if I can, and I love the fact that when we deliver quickly, people notice.”
Nicolene embodies the quieter side of customer service: making sure Vox has what it needs so that everyone else can do their jobs well.
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