Managing Director, BCX, Mr. Ayo Adegboye, spoke with Emma Okonji on the importance of digitisation and convergence among businesses, as well as the value that the new brand identity of BCX would bring to its enlarged customer base. Excerpts:
Last week, you announced a new brand identity for Business Connexion, which is now trading as BCX. What led to the change of name?
We are currently undergoing transformation process in our line of business because Business Connexion, an end-end information technology (IT) solution company has been acquired by a telecoms giant from South Africa, Telkom. Before the acquisition, the acquired company was known as Business Connexion, but with the acquisition, Business Connexion now has a new brand identity called BCX.
So as a result of the acquisition, we are shifting our business plan from Business-to-Business (B2B), to Human-to-Human (H2H), the reason being that the acquisition has made us to shift business plan from the B2B approach of business, to the H2H approach of delivering our IT services to customers who are humans and we deal entirely with humans in our type of business.
The essence is to serve our human customers more than we had ever done in the past.
So the two giants are coming together to offer digital solution to the same customers. So today we are best described as Africa’s end-to-end digital solution provider.
What informed the acquisition?
The acquisition was necessitated by the need for convergence in today’s technology world. Before now, Telkom was a telecoms giant, offering services whose contents were developed by IT companies, and Business Connexion was a giant in IT services delivery. So the acquisition is in itself, a big form of convergence between telecoms and IT, and what this means is that we now have a single organisation with expertise in IT and telecoms, delivering converged services, using 21st Century technologies.
Has the acquisition in any way changed your business perspective and brand logo?
The acquisition has further strengthened our business perspective to serve our customers better and it has also changed our brand logo to a new logo that represents the visions of the two companies, and the aspiration of customers, which is ‘Looking Into The Future’.
How will the new BCX cope with market competition?
Before the two companies converged their services to create a new brand identity called BCX, both of them were giants in their respective fields. While Telkom is a global player in telecoms services delivery, Business Connexion was a global and major player in the delivery of information technology services (IT). So the convergence will make us stay stronger in business and be on top of our game to further drive competition. Before now we had always stayed ahead of our competitors and we will continue to stay ahead of our competitors because we offer services, using modern technologies.
Today the world is going digital and we have digitilised all our services, which makes us stay ahead of our competitors always, providing the best of customers satisfactory services.
In today’s business world, a service provider needs to go digital in order to offer the best of services that will enhance customer efficiency and profitability and that is our focus in BCX.
So what does the acquisition means to the BCX family and how will it address the concerns of its business growth?
With the acquisition, we are able to offer our expanded customer base with a lot more services. Again, the acquisition has further strengthened the enterprise business of Telkom, as it has now moved it to join the Business Connexion, thus making the new group, bigger, stronger and better in service offerings. So we have a wider solution offerings from the new brand BCX, and we are now Premium African Digital Solution Provider. Prior to the acquisition, the customers have more than one vendor that they call when they have issues, but with the acquisition, there has emerged one big player that customers can call upon at any time to lodge complaints complain when there are issues. So it removes the challenges of dealing with too many vendors.
The acquisition, no doubt, will increase the customer base of BCX. How will the new company effectively manage the enlarged business size?
The old Business Connexion has been offering the enterprise business solutions to customers, which was the core offering of he enterprise arm of Telkom. Although the deal is about acquisition but it looks more like a merger between the enterprise division of Telkom and the old Busuness Connexion. So coping with the expanded volume of customers will not be an issue for the new BCX, because the service offerings are the same. Both the enterprise division of Telkom and Business Connexion were selling the same products and services to the same customers, but with the acquisition, both companies will now come together to offer a much more robust services to the same customers.
Before the acquisition, Telkom had enterprise customers, which primarily, were the type of customers that Business Connexion was handling. So with the acquisition, BCX now has an expanded customer base, since BCX is now positioned to do the kind of enterprise business that Telkom enterprise division was offering. So with the new focus that the acquisition brings to the table, BCX is now positioned to shift from B2B to H2H, thereby bypassing the other form of business known as Business-to-Machine (B2C).
Is it convenient to say that the acquisition was necessitated by the fact that Business Connexion was not doing well in business, or that Telkom, saw potential strength in Business Connexion, and decided to acquire it?
I would rather say that Telkom saw potential strength in Business Connexion, hence they were willing to acquire it. Before the acquisition, Business Connexion was the major player in IT services delivery and Telkom saw that strength as a potential strength that can further boost its enterprise solution business, hence Telkom acquired Business Connexion and merged the enterprise solution business of Telkom to that of Business Connexion in order to have a stronger enterprise solution arm of the Telkom business. Before the acquisition, Business Connexion was listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and we were doing well and excellent business, and that was one of the interest points of Telkom to buy into Business Connexion. So they bought into our strength in order to further strengthen the enterprise solution service offerings of Telkom.
Remember that our strength lies in IT, while that of Telkom lies in telecommunications, and they needed to strengthen their enterprise arm of business from the stand point of IT, hence the acquisition. So what has changed in the acquisition is that the Telkom enterprise business moved into Business Connexion to increase capacity of doing business and the new brand name for Business Connexion changed to BCX, with a new brand logo to reflect our new strength and vision. So the bottom line is that Telkom wants to strengthen its enterprise business by leveraging on the capacity of Business Connexion and this resulted into a new brand identity for Business Connexion, which is now BCX. So that arm of business has been strengthened and BCX is now well over 20 billion Rand in market capitalisation, with over eight thousand employees globally and these are best-in-class employees. So BCX is now the latest and third subsidiary of the Telkom group.
What is the strength of BCX in data centre operation and management?
As a company, we have the largest number of data centres and our competitors are not in anyway near us. We play big in data centre operation management and our customers are very pleased with our services.
Could you expatiate more on the convergence and what it portends for the two giants that have decided to converge their enterprise businesses?
The scenario is simple. It is about having IT solutions that are running on mobile applications. The telecoms operators have the platform but the applications that run on the platform are provided by IT experts who we refer to as content developers or value added service providers. So the convergence we are talking about is the coming together of a core telecoms company, which is Telkom, and a core IT company, which is Business Connexion, to work together and offer a more robust and efficient service to the same set of customers that now have an extended customer base. In today’s world, technologies are converging and the essence is to provide seamless services that are digital and that will make the customer more efficient and remain relevant in business, even with the evolution of new technologies. So the new thinking in today’s world of business is about digitisation and convergence which cuts across businesses.
What is the value of the acquisition to customers?
The acquisition is a kind of integration that is opening up horizontal alignment in terms of our offerings. So the new BCX has more services offering for the customer. Before the acquisition, Telkom business is already selling in the Nigerian market, and what this means is that there is a combination of services from both giants to the same set of customers, thus increasing customer experience. So with the acquisition, we will be partnering some local telecoms service providers, to further boost customer experience.
Since technology solutions are fast evolving, what kind of technology solution should customers expect from the new BCX?
BCX plays a strong role in the deployment of Internet of Things (IoTs) technology, which is now the in thing that talks about connecting devices and people in the new age of technology. So technology is evolving, and today’s business is shifting to the cloud, which means that BCX will be exploring the cloud computing adoption among its customers and ensures that cloud computing technology adds value to its customer base. So BCX will invest more in cloud technology and digitisation of existing infrastructure that will further enhance businesses. So we will be doing more by helping customers automate and digitise their businesses.
What is the adoption rate of cloud technology solution by Nigerian businesses?
The adoption rate has been high, given the situation about three years ago when the adoption rate was very slow. People and businesses are beginning to realise the importance of cloud computing in driving business growth. Most financial institutions are beginning to adopt the cloud technology solutions because of its high rate of business turnover and the ease of doing business that it offers. So in the last one year, there has been tremendous increase in the adoption rate of cloud technology and we will be focusing on cloud technology among other emerging technologies.
Customer satisfaction in business is key. How will the new BCX offer services that will boost customer experience and satisfaction?
Customers are the reason why we are investing in solutions that will help them manage their businesses in more profitable ways. So BCX will continue to deploy all its solutions that are geared towards customer satisfaction. Boosting customer satisfaction can only get better, following the acquisition.
Today, businesses are scaling down as a result of economic recession in the country. How will this acquisition BCX remain relevant and sustainable?
The vision of BCX is to grow businesses even in times of economic recession and we will continue to support and sustain business that we offer our best-in-class digital solutions. BCX is always looking ahead of its competitors and coming out with technology solutions that will help business survive even in times of recession. So the convergence between these two giants will add value to the BCX business, going by our vision that is propelled by the value of our new logo, which is ‘Welcome to the Future’, and that is the new slogan for the new BCX.
Most times mergers and acquisitions fail after few years. What is the assurance that this acquisition will not go the same way like others?
Far be it from failure because this acquisition we are talking about is between two giants in the telecoms space and the information technology space. So it will only get bigger and stronger, offering the best of technology services that will boost business automation and digitisation. For example the acquisition was done 18 months ago and there have been training and interoperability of solutions and we see a much stronger bond between the two giants that have emerged into one big family. It has been successful so far and it will continue to be successful, given our vision and mission.
