OpenServe brochure – 2018

Openserve: Connecting

communities

Openserve:

The beating heart

of 02

connectivity in

South Africa WRIT TEN BY

L AUR A MULL AN PRODUCED BY

ARRON R A MPLING

03

w w w. o p e n s e r v e . c o . z a

Openserve is Telkom’s redesigned wholesale partner and is a division of the Telkom Group. It is South Africa’s largest telecommunications infrastructure provider with the biggest broadband network

W

hether you’re downloading a report for your business, browsing the internet, or streaming your favourite songs,

connectivity has become a key building block in our day-to-day lives.

Championing this technology-empowered, connected future, Openserve has laid down 04

approximately 150,000km of fibre optic cables and connected over 81,000 homes to fibre, making it the largest telecommunication company in South Africa.

Though you may not have noticed they were there, Chief Procurement and Contracts Officer, Benjamin van Zyl, believes that it’s often the companies behind the scenes, like Openserve, that are having a big impact in the country.

“Openserve is a division of the Telkom Group and it has been instrumental in enabling connectivity across South Africa and its borders,” explains van Zyl. “Our mission is to be the connectivity provider of choice and enable a data-driven ecosystem. For us, it’s been important to drive a performancebased culture where ‘doing what’s right’ for the

05

w w w. o p e n s e r v e . c o . z a

Our Vision & Mission: Bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world

4K/8K TV

Schools

Government

Banks

Safe City

Electronic

Build ubiquitous connectivity

Develop open, trusted cloud platforms

ICT Infrastructure Intelligent Devices

Create a better experience with broadband

Build an experiencecentric device ecosystem

About us: Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. With integrated solutions across four key domains – telecom networks, IT, smart devices, and cloud services – we are committed to bringing digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world.

Huawei’s end-to-end portfolio of products, solutions and services are both competitive and secure. Through open collaboration with ecosystem partners, we create lasting value for our customers, working to empower people, enrich home life, and inspire innovation in organizations of all shapes and sizes.

www.huawei.com/za

“ Openserve is a division of the Telkom Group and it has been instrumental in enabling connectivity across South Africa and its borders” 08

— Benjamin van Zyl, Chief Procurement & Contracts Officer

client, customer and the company takes precedence over anything else. I am proud to say that we have created a strong foundation to build on.”

As the largest fixed wholesale operator in South Africa, Openserve operates across global, enterprise, carrier and consumer market segments. This, of course, means that the company has multiple competitors.

Van Zyl says he welcomes the rivalry as it drives the firm to improve and compete with rigour and perhaps nowhere can this be seen better than Openserve’s approach to cost-efficiency.

“To survive in a world where the cost of infrastructure is expensive and the price the client is willing to pay is continuously coming down, cost optimisation has been weaved into our business strategy,” notes van Zyl. “Openserve has been very successful over the last few years in reducing costs through workforce optimisation, consolidating the supplier base, reducing the onerous specifications in our contracts and tightening our controls to avoid cost leakage and unnecessary spend.

“In all these initiatives, strategic sourcing and contract management play a key role, but it remains a cross-functional team effort to deliver the benefits. Our focus now is on improving our return on investment (ROI) by reducing the capital cost of the value chain in our Metro Ethernet and Fibre to the home (FTTH) deployment.”

INNOVATION FOR TOMORROW In today’s fast paced world, companies need to innovate and adapt to ever changing market needs. At CBi Telecom the development of new products and services are driven by technology trends, the evolution of customer requirements, changing advancements and new market applications.

09

www.cbitele.com Sales: +27 (0) 12 381 1668 Email: sales@cbitele.com

Click to watch: ‘How to set up Huawei B315LTE router’

10

In today’s supply chain sector,

would be in our network build environ-

improving visibility continues to rank as

ment, where we are busy creating a

one of the most necessary but

supplier interface portal to manage the

challenging tasks facing procurement

supplier build capacity per region and

professionals today.

ensure optimal work allocation.”

As a listed company, van Zyl believes

Understanding that today’s new

that improved visibility is “absolutely

technologies could be obsolete

critical” to driving efficiencies and

tomorrow, Openserve prides itself on

managing risk.

being agile and unafraid of change. As

“When I joined Openserve, I created a

such, it has spearheaded digital

control tower capability to create

transformation across the company to

visibility in our supply chain, do analytics

remain one step ahead of its competi-

and identify opportunities to drive

tors. Zeroing in on its network and IT

efficiencies,” he notes. “An example

platforms, van Zyl describes how the

BIO

Ben van Zyl has built his expertise as a procurement leader over a twenty-year career; spanning strategic sourcing, procurement and supply chain management for leading financial institutions such as Merrill Lynch, Absa and telecommunications organisations such as Telkom and Openserve. He is an expert in international outsourcing and has used this to ensure the sustainable success of the organisations he’s worked for. His experience covers many disciplines within the purchasing and contract management profession including outsourcing call centres, end-to-end supply chain, facilities management, real estate asset management, shared services, and system maintenance.

During outsourcing projects, van Zyl controls the process from business case development and supplier selection to SLAs, contract negotiations and negotiations with unions.

The results are significant cost savings coupled with excellent levels of

service. To consolidate his business strategies, van Zyl builds high-performance specialist teams who execute large and complex contracts to specification and within budget and deadline. He thrives in enterprise transformation environments where he translates business aims into a sourcing strategy that delivers the most cost-effective solutions. Van Zyl is currently Chief Procurement and Contracts Officer and he oversees the Supply Chain, Strategic Sourcing, Procurement operations, quality management, Supplier development and contract management for Openserve.

He holds a BCompt Degree from the University of South Africa and an MCISP Diploma from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

w w w. o p e n s e r v e . c o . z a

11

OPENSERVE

12

Services FTTH • FTTB • FTTX PLANNING • METRO ETHERNET • MSAN MICROWAVE VSAT • ITMB CIVIL CONSTRUCTION • TRENCHING • HAULING FLOATING • SPLICING • MAINTENANCE

AUGUST 2018

Construction & Plant Hire (Pty) Ltd Johannesburg, South Africa

Gioconb@global.co.za +27 11 943 1550

“ People see digitalisation as a threat as they translate it to job losses, but I see it as an opportunity where it can make our jobs easier, better, faster and more fulfilling” — Benjamin van Zyl, Chief Procurement & Contracts Officer

13

firm aims to create a ‘holistic’

optimise inventory and reduce

approach to digitisation.

working capital. On top of this, it has

“We have introduced digital

also created an innovative control

touchpoints that enable us to monitor

tower to improve supply chain

and secure our network,” he says.

visibility, conduct analytics and

“The Telkom Group is working with

improve efficiency in its supply chain.

SAP Ariba to digitalise the source to

With a next-generation fibre

settle process to free up resources

network, Openserve has provided a

from tactical work. We are also

gateway for communities to

exploring the use of robotics to

connect. However, the company

automate various processes.”

doesn’t underestimate the potential

The South African firm has also

of emerging technologies like

implemented a forecasting and

robotics, machine learning, artificial

planning tool to improve delivery,

intelligence (AI) and automation. w w w. o p e n s e r v e . c o . z a

14

S U P P LY C H A I N

15

“The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) clearly warns that the digital divide will only widen if developing markets don’t seize the opportunities that digitisation will bring. We are therefore excited, but also understand that we must get this right” — Alphonzo Samuels, CEO, Openserve

w w w. o p e n s e r v e . c o . z a

WE’LL GET IT DONE!!

•

Service Provider in All Telecommunications and Wireless Broadband Solutions.

•

Road Construction ,Earthworks Plant Hire & Building Material Supplier.

www.mthiyane.co.za

info@mthiyane.co.za

122 Platt Drive, Isipingo 4001

(031) 9026112

NEW LIFE TO YOUR NETWORK End-to-end solutions from microwave to optical transport technology

ALFOplus2 dual carrier microwave radio

LM-1 micro ROADM WSS-less 2 degree ROADM

www.siaemic.com

www.sm-optics.com

The company’s CEO, Alphonzo Samuels, highlights that making the region more connected and digitally-enabled is not only beneficial for Openserve, it could also help to revitalise the economy and improve the region’s quality of living.

“Enabling the fourth industrial revolution is something that developing markets absolutely need to get right,” he says. “The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) clearly warns that the digital divide will only widen if developing markets don’t seize the opportunities that digitisation will bring. We are therefore excited, but also understand that we must get this right. It’s a call to action that is founded on our desire to develop Africa.”

To remain agile and adaptive, Openserve has not only invested heavily in its network infrastructure

“ For us, it’s been important to drive a performance– based culture where ‘doing what’s right’ for the client, customer and the company takes precedence over anything else.

I am proud to say that we have built a strong foundation to build on” — Benjamin van Zyl, Chief Procurement & Contracts Officer

– it has also created long-lasting partnerships that have helped it meet the needs of today’s digital world.

w w w. o p e n s e r v e . c o . z a

17

In the past two years, the South African giant has joined forces with companies such as Huawei and Nokia to help provide a high-speed fibre packet and optical transport network.

“Under the leadership of our Chief Technology and Systems Officer, Hugo van Zyl, we are implementing an IP-enabled optical transport network – we call it POTN (for Packet and Optical Transport Network),” explains van Zyl. “The POTN establishes an IP enabled optical transmission capability that can scale to meet the demands of the fourth industrial revolution, catering for higher speeds, increased capacity requirements, lower latency requirements and 18

digitalisation of the network fabric.

“Fibre deployment remains a key future enabler for end-user connections, as well as small cells in

“To survive in a world where the cost of infrastructure is expensive and the price the client is willing to pay is continuously coming down, cost optimisation has been weaved into our business strategy” — Benjamin van Zyl, Chief Procurement & Contracts Officer

mobile networks. Huawei’s contribution is important, providing this state of the art technology in a dual-vendor scenario.

“We also have a long-standing relationship with Mthiyane Construction. They are part of a panel of sub-contractors doing build, maintenance and repair work in different layers of the network.

They are important as we need

19

experienced service providers in all parts of the country to build a high-quality network.”

Partnerships have also been integral to areas such as supply chain – with Bidvest Fleet, for example, supplying and maintaining over 4500 vehicles used by the company’s technicians. It’s clear that this rich ecosystem of industry partnerships has been integral, w w w. o p e n s e r v e . c o . z a

Smart Supply Chain Solutions

Create, Digitise, Connect, Secure Fibre and other networking technologies ensure that more and more African people and businesses are experiencing world-class connectivity.

Etion Connect (previously Tedaka Solutions) plays a pivotal role in ensuring that this growth can continue unhindered, thanks to an array of products and solutions which cater to the entire digital value chain.

From data centre to end user, we ensure that our customers can build a network that is efficient, reliable, and stable. With our help, installations are faster and more cost-effective, allowing these customers to rest easy in the knowledge that their return on investment (ROI) is secure.

The solutions provided by Etion Connect include: • Outside plant closures • Inside plant high density optical distribution frames • Plug and play solutions for harsh environments • Customer end user connectivity • Classroom and in-field training and education In the age of interconnectedness, it is imperative that organisations’ communication systems are stable and effectively connect the value chain.

Through its products, solutions, and services, Etion Connect allows organisations to achieve this stability and effective connections.

Etion Connect is a part of the Etion Group, which also includes Etion Create, Etion Digitise, and Etion Secure. While each of these units provide distinct services, they are all complementary and capable of providing technology to each other.

www.etion.co.za

2015

Year founded

10,000+ Approximate number of employees

21

helping to ensure that Openserve can

mix is seldom seen and I am excited about

continue to provide a connection,

the unique blend that will take this

wherever its customers are.

company forward.”

Celebrating the company’s collaborative

Openserve has embarked on a radical

approach, van Zyl is also keen to highlight

procurement function and embraced

the efforts of his team, citing their passion

technological innovation. To cement this

as critical to the company’s success.

new-found change, van Zyl outlines how

“What’s unique about Openserve is its people,” he says. “We have highly talented individuals with institutional knowledge as

the company has seen a cultural transformation as well as a digital one.

“Transformation always involves a

well as young talent with the zeal to take

change in human behaviour and people

risks and try innovative solutions. Such a

resist change when they cannot see its w w w. o p e n s e r v e . c o . z a

OPENSERVE

value,” he says. “People see digitalisation as a threat as they translate it to job losses, but I see it as an opportunity where it can make our jobs easier, better, faster and more fulfilling. However, you need to be willing to make this culture change as digital transformation involves new skill sets with millennials and baby boomers responding differently to this learning process. Unless our managers, employees and support staff embrace the change of digital transformation, it will fail.”

With this cultural change in motion, Openserve is not resting on its laurels. In fact, today it is now striving to become the largest open-access infrastructure 22

connectivity company in South Africa.

“We are clear that we want to transform into a Digital Service Provider (DSP) that is able to expose the network as a service through open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs),” explains van Zyl. “This is enabled through the ongoing virtualisation of hardware through NFV (Network Function Virtualisation) and managed through the concept of Software Defined Networks (SDN), truly digitalising our network.”

With a rigorous, digitally-enabled plan underway, the South African firm is preparing for the next chapter of its journey. But regardless of any changes, it seems Openserve will unwaveringly remain at the heart of connectivity in South Africa.

AUGUST 2018

FACT

0penserve has supplied over a million DSL connections, laid down over 147,000km of fibre optic cables and connected over 81,000 homes to fibre.

23

Telkom Park, Ground, 91 Oak Avenue, Highveld Park, Centurion, Centurion, Pretoria, 0157 www.openserve.co.za