Category: News

Vox  has concluded a deal that makes it the majority stakeholder in enterprise level cloud tech company, Everlytic.

“The addition of Everlytic completes our portfolio of products and solutions that allow customers to communicate via any delivery channel – email, fax and SMS.  They also add significant intellectual property (IP) in campaign management and success that we are keen to leverage,” Jacques du Toit, CEO of Vox.

Existing Everlytic customers will continue to receive the same high levels of service and can look forward to more innovative product features, as the product set continues to evolve, while Vox customers will be able to leverage the skills and expertise of the Everlytic team to extend and enhance their digital footprint.

“Vox provides us with wider geographic reach and additional channels to market,  which we believe will allow us to accelerate our growth plans,” says Walter Penfold, Managing Director of Everlytic.

The Vumela Fund, which is managed by FNB and Edge Growth, will retain the minority stake it acquired in Everlytic in 2013. Edge Growth’s Head of Investments for Vumela, Richard Rose, says, “We’re excited to continue backing this exceptional team and world class digital communications software. Vox is a natural fit for the business and will be a significant force in achieving our ambitious growth plans.”

Everlytic will operate as a standalone business division within Vox, retaining its highly skilled team of developers, creatives and marketers.

“The leadership team at Everlytic has created a specific culture in the business, and our intention is not to change this, but rather allow them to build on what is already a huge success,” adds Du Toit

Concludes Penfold, “Vox’s entrepreneurial spirit and innovative approach is something we identify with, and we look forward to being a key part of the company’s long term strategy.”

 

According to IDC Futurescape’s Worldwide Cloud 2015 predictions, by 2016, there will be an 11 percent shift of IT budget aware from traditional in-house IT delivery, toward various versions of cloud computing as a new delivery model. At the same time, 81 percent of medium businesses say that IT solutions must be scalable and align with business strategy and processes (Rightscale, 2015 State of the Cloud Report).

“Everyone is talking about a cloud and mobile first approach to business. What few small to medium businesses know, is that many business solutions are already cloud and mobility enabled.

Our most pressing challenge today, is about changing a customer mindset.  A mindset that says Cloud is cheap (and therefore inferior),” says Heath Huxtable, Executive Head of the Microsoft Consulting and Integration division at Vox.

But he is quick to point out, that just because many tools, products and services are cloud and mobility enabled, doesn’t necessarily mean that you need to move your entire business application stack to the cloud – not right now, anyway.  He believes that a hybrid approach to a business solutions strategy will offer organisations of all sizes scalability, flexibility and create a feeling of reduced business risk.

Says Huxtable, “There should be no ‘one size fits all’ approach to business solutions.  There are many combinations for businesses.  For example, you can have email in the cloud, ERP on premise and CRM as a hosted solution.

Understanding what the customer’s needs are, and contextualizing these across the changing industry landscape will become a critical component of the consulting layer for business solutions.”

“Businesses should stop seeing Cloud as the cheaper alternative to an on-premise business solutions strategy.  While it does lower the initial cost barrier to entry for smaller organisations, largely as a result of lower upfront infrastructure investment costs, it delivers the same enterprise grade functionality and comparative services.

The reality is that software vendors are going to start pricing licenses in such a way that it becomes almost prohibitive, to choose an on-premise exclusive model,” adds Huxtable.

Other mindset changes that businesses should be considering are the impact of social networks, not only in terms of their own businesses, but also on the functional enhancements that are already included in business application products and solutions.

ERP and CRM for example, have already adopted social listening tools, with an understanding that, today, most people will buy (or investigate) products based on a recommendation they have read or seen on a social network.  Social listening is changing how leads are generated and/ or followed up – and is delivering a layer of insight to businesses that was previously considered impossible.

“We firmly believe that any organisation that doesn’t tune itself into social listening, and the impact of social media, will lose out in the competitive race for business,” cautions Huxtable.

So how does the small to medium business tackle a fast changing business application landscape and make the right business decision?

Huxtable emphasizes the need to get the most out of cloud.

“Choose the best technology partner – one that not only understands the business challenges that need to be overcome through ERP, CRM, BI and collaboration deployments, but can offer you the best of both subscription based and on-premise solutions, and critically, consulting.

“We’ve established ourselves as one of the largest Microsoft Dynamics partners for the mid-market in southern Africa, and are proud to say that we have some of the most highly qualified, and best equipped consulting and integration specialist teams in the country.

We believe that a more inclusive view of your industry, business challenges and the technology solutions that provide a best fit, rather than a cookie cutter approach will always deliver the best returns on investment for our customers,” concludes Huxtable.

Vox  has signed a partnership agreement with UK-based Intuitive Business Intelligence (www.intuitivebi.com) in response to growing customer demand for Opentext RightFax dashboards. Leading telecoms operator, Vox Telecom, is the sole RightFax distributor for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Under the terms of the partnership, Vox is now able to provide its Rightfax and Rightfax Cloud customers with simple-to-understand graphical dashboards that provide powerful insights into their network fax server solutions. Powered by Intuitive, the ‘RightFax BI Dashboard’ provides users with instant access to a wide range of analytical functionality across multiple devices, including Android smartphones and tablets, delivering a holistic view of fax volumes, capacity, usage trends, costs and failure rates and reasons. Users can even analyse potential problem areas so that remedial action can be taken.

Craig Freer, Head of Cloud from Vox says, “RightFax customers have been asking us for a solution that provides an instant snapshot of how their system is operating, particularly in relation to faxing capacity. It is extremely important that bottlenecks when faxing out important documents, such as international payments, contracts and purchase orders, are identified and eliminated. Intuitive’s dashboard solution is the perfect fit. It provides users with invaluable insights whilst helping us to expand our footprint within the RightFax customer base.”

“We are delighted to have already won significant BI Dashboard orders from two major public sector customers”, adds Freer.

Vox is also investigating how Intuitive’s BI dashboards can be used with its other solutions to provide a range of key insights.

Roger Stocker, Sales Director from Intuitive Business Intelligence, says, “As the sole RightFax distributor for South Africa and with hundreds of RightFax customers, Vox is ideally positioned to roll-out the BI Dashboard. With plans to install BI dashboards into its other solutions, there are exciting opportunities ahead and we look forward to our partnership with Vox going from strength to strength.”

Freer adds, “Our partnership with Intuitive is a key strategic decision that will allow us to take full advantage of the growing demand for dashboard technologies in South Africa. As well as generating a brand new revenue stream from our existing customer base, we know that the BI Dashboard will entice many new customers to Vox, ensuring we remain several steps ahead of the competition.”

 

You’ve planned your holiday meticulously, your route is mapped, and everything packed. You’ve arranged for someone to water the plants, emptied the fridge, set the alarm and your house is locked up tighter than Pollsmoor prison.  It’s the festive season, and nothing can ruin your well-deserved December break.

While you’re sipping Mai-Thais on a beach somewhere, barefoot and blissfully oblivious, intruders pop in unannounced back home, and start helping themselves to your belongings – ticking off items on their personal Christmas shopping lists.

By the time armed response shows up, they’ve derailed your gate, busted the lock on the back door and cleared you out before you could order another cocktail.

Crime statistics spike exponentially during the festive season, especially property crimes such as house burglaries. These are opportunistic crimes, and when the cat’s away the proverbial mouse will play.

You can’t ignore the realities of crime during this time, and can’t stay home standing guard all the time, peeking through the curtains in paranoia – all you can do is take the best measures possible, and take control of your security.

So you have electric fencing, security beams outside and an alarm system all linked to armed response. While these are effective to a point, there are flaws with the system in that response is often delayed, often as a result of frequent false alarms.

Short of building a moat or placing nefarious booby traps around the perimeter, what can you do to decrease your security risk this festive season?

The first step is to get up to speed with how criminals think, know what they look out for and when you are vulnerable. When writing his book Home Invasion: Robbers Disclose What You Should Know, Professor Rudolph Zinn interviewed a group of convicted criminals to find out from the horse’s mouth how they target people.

His chats with these bad boys revealed pretty frightening bits of information. Burglars prefer high walls, with no visibility from the street. They pick a neighbourhood and go from house to house ringing doorbells until they find a house with nobody home. They love sliding doors, because it allows very easy entry.

Invariably, some or more of the factors a burglar favours will apply to you. If you don’t have a high wall, you’ll have a sliding door or multiple access points or live within easy access to main roads. You may have a perimeter alarm, but no dog and a sliding door, and nobody answered the intercom.

Security experts recommend changing your normal intercom system, to one of the new systems which connect a call to your mobile phone when the doorbell rings, so you can answer any time even when not at home.

Another popular option is CCTV surveillance, which firstly acts as a deterrent but also ups the chances of arrest if an attack has happened. Technology has advanced quite a bit, making it possible to monitor your property remotely, via a mobile device. Vox Telecom’s Guardian Eye Lite solution for example, allows you to monitor your property in real time, with live footage and push video accessed via an app on your phone.   The system even has two way audio communication, so you can listen and talk directly to intruders in your home. This means you can make an immediate decision on whether to alert armed response, negate a false alarm or let someone into your premises.

While there is always a possibility of your house being targeted, your best defence is to make sure your home is the least optimal option for criminals to gain access to.

Check that all your equipment is working properly, make sure someone collects your mail and visits your property regularly. If your house will be completely unattended the whole time, make sure you are in contact with your neighbours so they can alert you to any strange activity, and consider video surveillance which you can monitor while you are away.  The more barriers you have, the more likely it is they will choose somewhere else.

So before you leave your house unattended this festive season, consider your risks and find the security solution that will make your home the least appealing to the criminally inclined opportunist.

Vox has launched a first-to-market Uncapped Voice product aimed at reducing the telephony costs of small to medium businesses.

“We want to make telephony costs predictable, and cost effective for small to medium businesses, and an uncapped voice solution, with a fixed monthly fee, is undoubtedly the way to go,” says Henda Edwardes, Executive Head of Communications Services at Vox.

Uncapped Voice for business enables unlimited calls to mobile, national and local fixed line and select international destinations.

Adds Edwardes, “For too long, the discussion has just been about rates, and we want to rather focus on making this about value and quality.  Our Uncapped Voice will only be provided over uncontended last mile, to ensure superior voice quality for our customers.”

Three contract options have been created for the Uncapped Voice offering, starting at R1495 per month for five outbound channels, R4990 per month for 10 outbound channels and R8985 per month for 15 outbound channels.  Vox will match outbound channels, with the equivalent inbound channels.

Customers will be required to port to Vox, and thereby retain their existing fixed line number(s).  Porting can take between two and four weeks, depending on the incumbent provider.

To incentivise new customers to migrate their voice requirements to Vox Telecom, the company will be complementing the Uncapped Voice for business solution with a PBX for free for six months (on a minimum 24 month contract.)

Concludes Edwardes, “There is no longer the requirement to get bill shock at the end of each month, depending on the number of calls made or received.  Uncapped Voice will change how small to medium businesses not only consume, but also budget for fixed line telephony.”

 

Vox has launched Sitebuilder, a website development solution that enables end users and small businesses to create and maintain professional and fully responsive websites, with ease.

“Sitebuilder is the first of many new developments in our easy-to-use digital management solutions and provides users with an extraordinary degree of customisation, delivering maximum reliability, and minimising startup costs.  We’ve worked hard to make it easy for our customers to build their own websites,” says Riaan Gouws, Web Hosting and Backup Product Manager at Vox.

SMEs are an increasingly important, but underserviced market when it comes to digital communications tools, and in particular, website development.  Sitebuilder provides small business owners with the ability to manage, build and add features to their website, without having to depend on an external party.  This includes having advanced features on the site, and no requirement to constantly update the content management system (CMS), with monthly vulnerability and/ or monthly patches like on other platforms.

“Research tells us that experienced web development agencies in Gauteng easily charge R10 000 and upwards, to build a basic website, paired with additional monthly retainer fees for maintenance, leaving many small business owners, unable to enter the digital space,” adds Gouws.

Sitebuilder is a month-to-month service that includes web hosting, and is available in three packages (Sitebuilder Starter, Booster and Turbo), to ensure that there is a best fit solution for SMEs, not only in terms of number of pages, but also budgets.

Adds Gouws, “The reality is that brick and mortar storefronts are increasingly becoming digital storefronts, so the requirement to deliver a cost effective model becomes more critical for SMEs, with e-commerce capabilities, and an integrated AdWords element.  We’ve included these in Sitebuilder, as add-ons, and created a pricing structure, that makes these a viable addition to any small business’ digital strategy.”

Despite the ease of use, and pre-built templates for a DIY approach, a Do-it-for-me (DIFM) service is available across each of the three Sitebuilder packages, whereby Vox Telecom’s team of expert web developers, can build the website for you.

Concludes Gouws, “We’re hoping to disrupt the web development by delivering a cost effective solution, either as a DIY or DIFM model, and in so doing, lowering the barrier to entry, and reducing the risk for the growing small business market.”

Do-it-for-me plans start at R4 900 once off or R307 per month for a turnkey website built based on content supplied to the team of expert web developers at Vox.

Vox’s professional Voice on Hold Services allow you to make use of a professional voice over artist to greet your customers when they call your company, and to share promotional content and frequently asked questions with them, when you place them on hold.

Listen to a sample of our female voice artist: