Yvette Mulder – Solutions Development Manager at Alteram Solutions is a female force to be reckoned with. Having joined the company in 2014, Mulder is responsible for the development of solutions, applications and systems needed to operate the business successfully.  Mulder has added to the Alteram Solutions base of successful individuals that have made the company a force to be reckoned with. 

“There was no specific development environment at Alteram Solutions when I joined the company” explains Mulder.   She started doing research on contact centres and when the company got awarded the Department of Water and Sanitation contact centre project, she was primarily responsible for its development.  Mulder now has her own development team and Business Analysts that cover the whole system development life cycle.  For the last couple of years, Mulder has been focusing on software development related projects and tenders. 

“An important part of my presence in the company is to grow our employees and to share my skills and experience that I have obtained in my over 30 years’ experience in the industry – it is a vital component of our business and will only serve to grow the strength of our people and our business in the years to come.”

“I am not scared to really stretch myself, to learn new things, to experience new ways of doing business and to extend the boundaries of what we as a society have always been comfortable with – I want to reach, I want to teach, and I want to approach the entire industry with a new look and feel, while teaching my younger sprouts to grow within their professions”. 

A project that Mulder is currently involved in making smarter and more efficient is the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) contact centre project.  This project is made up of many work streams, challenging Mulder and her team to constantly find new ways to optimise the process.  “I am inspired by Alteram Solutions because I can contribute in growing the business as well as bring my skills and experience to what we do and deliver on a daily basis.  I get bored with routines, so I am constantly looking for new opportunities.  These are the things that give me natural energy and keep me going,” adds Mulder.

Mulder began her career as programme manager, but quickly climbed the corporate ladder acquiring programmer roles which allowed her to gain a wider perspective on how clients think, what their individual needs are and how different programmes work. She then branched into business analysis and project management obtaining a TOGAF (high level approach to design) certificate.

Looking at where she is now, Mulder has done development, system design, business analysis, project management and architecture projects from all domains. 

Outside of Alteram Solutions, Mulder is a mother of two daughters and tends to her mother.

During her free time, Mulder enjoys reading. She will also be completing her Cloud for Customer (C4C) certification this year which Alteram Solutions enrolled her for as part of its internal skills development programme.

Many South African CIO’s today are stuck. This is the view of Nick Truran, CEO of AgileIT, a lean consultancy which assists corporate IT shops to transition from legacy and vendor commitments to highly effective partners able to deliver on the business strategy.

“We call this mired state “CxO paralysis”,” Truran says, “and the causes are not easily unravelled especially given huge investments in technologies and vendor relationships that are not deriving intended value.

Pressure to deliver on these and address growing demands from the business for IT to lead in innovation and growth, makes the role of the CIO an exceptionally challenging one,” he added.

Of the 178 of South Africa's top public and private sector CIOs surveyed in the 2017/18 ITWeb CIO Survey, 56 % believe their roles are changing faster and more drastically than any other industry. The key drivers for this change are digital migration, competition and globalisation.

Furthermore, 80% of these CIOs cited their inability to move fast enough among their chief concerns, followed by lack of available skills, inadequate budget and compliance pressures. Similar findings were listed in Gartner’s 2018 CIO Agenda Report, with growth topping the list of business priorities reported by CIOs for 2018.

South Africa is no different with 87% of local CIO’s giving more focus on driving business growth and less on cutting cost.

“Using IT to drive business growth is not as simple as it sounds,” Truran says, “Technology is evolving at such a rate that only the most adept of organisations have managed to keep up. This is aggravated by the fact that most IT executives have only three to five year contracts.During these short contractual periods, they are employed to deliver on very specific needs that the organisation may have at that point in time. Chances are by the time the executive has managed to get to grips with the organisation and forged a plan to address the original requirement, its needs have changed and as such a new plan is required. It’s little wonder that IT executives are becoming overwhelmingly fatigued by the constant turbulence.

Furthermore, massive cost pressure from the business results in their being paralysed by circumstance and crippled by environmental factors,” he added.As a former IT executive of a large financial services business, Truran is well familiar with these challenges.

“This is why when I started my consultancy I determined that our approach, which we have termed the ADAPT execution framework, would offer an agile and flexible engagement framework and process that produces technology solutions, which align the client’s IT infrastructure with the strategy of the business.

Our approach is both designed to reinforce the foundations of the client’s IT infrastructure, while providing its IT team with the tools and the time to help the business innovate – often in parallel. AgileIT’s team of specialists will help clients to identify ‘cracks’ in the existing infrastructure, determine the future business ‘bricks’ that are required, and then draw on the correct ‘architecture’ knowledge to forge a corrective plan of action that will deliver the much-needed IT stability.

Thereafter, attention can be given to the business strategy and the transformation technology needed to support it,” he said. The result is a lean, cost conscious and highly effective IT landscape that has the agility to evolve as the business demands.

“Technology thus can be nimbly deployed to assist the business to address the rapid shifts that digital transformation brings, rather than becoming a reactionary resource that is playing continual catch up,” Truran concluded.

-- ends --

About AgileIT
AgileIT is a South African agile consulting firm providing strategy, execution and operational level IT consulting that drives a value-based experience. AgileIT sees technology departments as technology service providers to their respective businesses, and views its purpose as assisting these service providers to deliver agile and flexible technology solutions to drive business. We bring a range of specialist skills to assist clients in the development of their technology strategy. This includes defining a roadmap, facilitating its execution and evolution. AgileIT facilitates client operational optimisation, with a focus on driving down cost and driving up stability and efficiency.

Issued on behalf of: AgileIT
Client contact: Nick Truran
Cell No.: 083 362 2449
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Editorial Contact: Kerry Botha
Cell no: 083 263 0644
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

64% of employees agree blocking out noise increases their productivity.(1)

Today, work happens everywhere — in busy open-plan offices and contact centers, at home, even coffee shops. This flexibility is great for business and people, but with it comes a new challenge: noise. Distraction caused by noise reduces productivity and well-being and, in contact centers, detracts from a positive customer experience.

Studies show that it takes 23 minutes to recover from distraction(3) and over 58% of employees are distracted multiple times each day.(2) That represents a significant impact on your customers’ businesses you can easily help avert through proven noise reduction strategies and products.

Managing Noise: In the Contact Center

In the contact center, noise remains the biggest complaint among employees(4) and can negatively impact customer satisfaction.(3) But managing noise effectively can raise productivity,2 improve customer experiences(5) and impact the bottom line.(1) Plantronics creates technologies that manage noise to help contact centers be more effective and businesses be more successful.

Customer Service Representative (CSR) - Needs to handle urgent requests from customers quickly and efficiently. Key challenge: Hearing and being heard by customers.

Help Desk Support - Manages intense, often lengthy, customer calls. Key challenge: Wearing headset all day (comfort, battery issues).

Supervisor - Supports CSRs with call assistance and training. Key challenge: Background noise and audio quality on escalated calls.

High-Level Support - Guides and supports CSRs on most challenging calls. Key challenge: Mobility within office to help with urgent situations. 

How do you handle these challenges within your business? 

Contact Center Solutions

Plantronics engineers solutions that help people manage the noise around them so they can be more effective — no matter where they work. Together, we can help your customers reduce distractions caused by noise so their businesses can thrive.The all-day comfort and superior sound quality of our headsets empowers contact center workers to provide exceptional service. Explore how you can provide a better customer experience, and empower your staff with better products, newer technology, and smarter workplace design. The EncorePro series is a great option, delivering the all-new generation communications technology for customer service centers and offices, designed for the future, and built on experience. The EncorePro series is available in South Africa through authorized distributors. More information about solutions available in your local area are available at www.plantronics.com/za 

Plantronics is an audio pioneer and a global leader in the communications industry. We create intelligent and adaptive solutions that support our customers’ most important needs: experiencing and facilitating simple and clear communications while enjoying distraction-free environments.  Our solutions are used worldwide by consumers and businesses alike, and are an optimal choice for open office environments. From Unified Communications and customer service ecosystems, to data analytics and Bluetooth headsets, Plantronics delivers high-quality communications solutions that our customers count on today, while relentlessly innovating on behalf of their future. For more information visit www.plantronics.com/za 

1 Oxford Economics, “When the walls come down – the evolution of the workplace.” 2 Plantronics Noise in the Workplace Global Study, 2017. 3 The Cost of Interrupted Work: More Speed and Stress Study from the Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine, 2008. 4 Plantronics Persona Research, 2017. 1 Oxford Economics, “When the walls come down—the evolution of the workplace.” 5 Dimensional Research for ZenDesk, Customer Service and business results: A survey of customer service from mid-size companies, 2013.

As the pace of digital transformation increases, so does the frequency of high profile security incidents and information leaks. This often prompts complex and costly responses, as those who have suffered security breaches – and those who are trying to avoid them – seek ways to manage their exposures and comply with a plethora of industry standards, best practices and government regulations.

Joint silver sponsors at the 6th IT Leaders Africa Summit, SLVA and Ubusha will explore the mechanisms you could use to ensure a secure information-processing environment during their workshop presented by Kris Budnik, Managing Director for SLVA Information Security.

Attendees will hear how they can maximise existing capabilities and leverage the emerging wave of enterprise security technologies that tip the balance away from cyber-criminals and dishonest employees.

SLVA and Ubusha’s holistic response to minimising information security risks requires the ability to:

-Understand and manage who has access to information and systems within your environment and what they are able to do with such access

-Track and have the capability to influence the way that data is accessed, processed and shared within your environment

-Maintain oversight over that environment – ensuring that it remains reliable and free from vulnerabilities which may be exploited to bypass your access control and data governance policies  

Please note that the cut off date for applications to present a workshop at the IT Leaders Africa Summit is the 27th of February 2015.  

During these 60 minute educational workshops, leading industry vendors present their solutions and services in case study format to attending CIOs and IT Heads. Each session is limited to 15 delegates in order to encourage debate and discussion. The workshops are scheduled in advance as the topics are marketed to CIOs and business leaders during the build up to the Summit.  

For IT Leaders Africa Summit brochure advertising opportunities, contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.   The 6th IT Leaders Africa Summit takes place on 18 & 19 March 2015 at the Maslow Hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg.

Neotel, South Africa’s renowned converged communications and network operator have just confirmed that they will be sponsoring a panel discussion at the 6th IT Leaders Africa Summit, produced and hosted by Kinetic.

MD and CEO, Sunil Joshi will be taking part in this panel discussion on enterprise technology in Africa during an agenda track focussing on business connectivity alongside CIOs David Visser from Coca-Cola Southern Africa and Mike Davies from Royal Bafokeng Platinum. 

In this session, they will discuss 4G supporting the real time transmission of voice, data and video and whether the technology is sufficient to improve connectivity for unified communications in organisations. Other featured speakers on this track includes Hollard Group Services CTO, Anthony Hlungwane who will focus on the new social and mobile collaboration tools that connect people inside and outside the enterprise, in a way that provides real time communications and access to supporting systems.

Also hear case studies of the alternative strategies taking shape within organisations located in areas with limited bandwidth during a panel discussion with Chandima Miyanadeniya, CIO for Aon; Johan Pistorius, CIO for African Rainbow Minerals; Potlaki Maine, Executive Head IT for Sentech ; Nkosana Mbokane, General Manager of ICT for Perishable Products Export Control Board  and Rocky Gwewera, Group Head of Infrastructure Architecture for Sasol.

The IT Leaders Africa Summit is now in its 6th year, and has for the first time been produced in conjunction with an official advisory panel of industry experts.  This advisory panel includes Rob Sussman, Co-founder and joint CEO of Integr8; Hugo Timmerman, Head of IT Southern Africa for British American Tobacco and Tunde Coker, Managing Director for Rack Centre (A Jagal Group Company)

Dimension Data, established as a world leader in ICT solutions, who serves 73% of the Fortune 100 and 59% of the Fortune 500 companies will also be powering a panel discussion.  Grant Morgan, General Manager: Cloud for Dimension data will be joined by Fundile Ntuli, CIO for ubank; Peter Oeschger, ‎Group CIO for Finbond Mutual Bank and Heinrich Kukkuk, Group Information Technology Manager for Aveng Group in a discussion on the role of the CIO in the age of the cloud. 

This session will answer questions about where the CIO features in an age when decisions to use the cloud are being made by marketing and other functions both within and outside the organisation  

Join us to hear the experts at the 6th edition of IT Leaders Africa Summit on the 18-19 March 2015 at the Maslow hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg.   For the latest ITLA Summit news on speakers, industry providers and content, visit  www.itleaders.co.za  or contact Marcia van Jaarsveld on +27 21 180 7105 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.     

Shopify users in South Africa will be pleased to know that eSolutions, by DPD Laser, one of the premier sponsors at our eCommerce Confex, has launched the first free Shopify Shipping App specifically for the South African eCommerce logistics market. 

The app provides Shopify store owners the functionality to integrate seamlessly with one of DPD Laser's operating businesses, Dawn Wing. After signing up with eSolutions and receiving your Dawn Wing account number, the store owner will be able to download and install the free application directly from the Shopify application store and start shipping parcels. 

Shopify is an industry leading commerce platform that allows anyone to easily sell online, at their retail location, and everywhere in between. Shopify offers a professional online storefront, a payment solution to accept credit cards, a point of sale system to power retail sales and a card reader to process credit card transactions through a mobile phone. Shopify currently powers over 120,000 retailers in 150 different countries, including: Tesla Motors, Gatorade, Google, Wikipedia, LA Lakers, CrossFit, and many more. Shopify was founded in 2006 and it has received US$122 million in funding from OMERS Ventures, Insight Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, FirstMark Capital, Felicis Ventures, and Georgian Partners.  

Learn more about eSolutions, by DPD Laser and their new Shopify App at their stand at the eCommerce Africa Confex. Advisory panel members, Jaco Jonker, CEO of BidorBuy, and Paul Galatis, Director of Yuppiechef, will both be presenting keynotes during the 2-day conference sessions. Other speakers include Simdul Shagaya, CEO and Founder of Konga.com, Colin Fleming, eCommerce Executive of Massmart and Paul Casarin, Operations and Strategy of gumtree.co.za and eBay.

Join the experts on the 3rd and 4th February 2015 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre for Africa's biggest eCommerce event. There are a limited number of delegate spaces still available, register for a VIP conference pass here or a general expo pass by contacting Greg Johnson on  021 180 4700 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.

Website: www.ecommerce-africa.com

Anviz Global, an American-based, security company is looking to make a strong statement at IFSEC South Africa this month. Many at the company feel that IFSEC South Africa is an opportunity to promote the Anviz brand beyond the traditional market of South Africa. Company representatives see IFSECSA as the perfect opportunity to expand its consumer-base in the entire southern Africa region. Anviz, which specializes in biometric access control, RFID products, and surveillance devices, views this region as an unexploited opportunity. While the company is relatively new on the African continent, Anviz’s presence has been steadily increasing. Since striking its first deal with partners on the continent in 2012, Anviz has created a network of partners in a dozen countries. The company is preparing to expand that network into countries such Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, Botswana and several other states in the region.  

Anviz’s regional sales director for sub-Saharan Africa, Brian Fazio, believes, “there has been tremendous growth in several markets in southern Africa. Countries like Mozambique and Angola have been averaging significant economic growth for over a decade. There is huge potential in these countries. Anviz has already seen some success in South Africa. Now it’s time to expand into the other countries within the region. Rapid economic growth usually entails private and public sector construction within all three major economic fields. Anviz is looking to be a prominent provider of security devices to many of these types of installations”.  

Rita Zhang, the regional channel manager for Africa recognizes Anviz’s potential in this market. “Anviz has built the logistical capabilities to work in a market as large and diverse as South Africa. However, markets in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe present a different set of challenges that need to be addressed. We are looking forward to this opportunity. While we are pretty new to the region, our track-record of success in other developing regions such as South America and the Indian sub-continent, suggests that we are well-situated to handle these challenges.” Rita Zhang confidently adds.

Anviz offers a broad range of access control and time attendance products, ranging from biometrics, to surveillance, and RFID devices. For further information about Anviz, or its products, please visit www.anviz.com. Anviz employees will be representing the company at IFSEC South Africa between May 13-15, 2014 at booth J15, Hall 2

{pp}Misconceptions about Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems underlie consistent criticisms that they do not deliver on expectations, says Mike McGrath, Red Man Technologies’ strategy enablement executive.