TheFACTORY article in Intelligence Magazine

TheFACTORY Business Solutions Pieter Smits van Waesberghe, founder of TheFACTORY, dreamt up the business just two short years ago, and started the business working out of the Bandwidth Barn, for the unparalleled infrastructure, and competitive pricing that it offered the company. The company very quickly found themselves outgrowing the Bandwidth Barn and having to expand their operations. The business concept was initially one of bringing buyers and suppliers together in an online ‘virtual’ marketplace. This way of working was too early for the South African market and a more practical approach was chosen. It has grown incredibly quickly and today there are four key business units: BPO business processes outsourcing, the “e-marketplace”, SME-portal as application services provider and the “Technology Partnerships” for business application developments which is also doing big things. The “e-marketplace” utilizes the latest available technology on e- trading solutions, and also provides the functionality required to identify and optimizes critical information for client and supplier relationship management on every procurement relationship and subsequent project. This unique method of bringing buyers and sellers together is one of the cornerstone-concepts in the current success of company. The company is definitely taking advantage of current market conditions, to put themselves on the global map. They have just landed a significant UK-based client, due to the quality of their work, and the sophistication of the solution they have provided to this UK printing-industry company. This client and others, are set to become long-term clients, due to the fact that they can not find an equal solution anywhere else in the world, at the prices and timeframes currently being offered by TheFACTORY. As Smits van Waesberghe sees price-competitiveness as a key advantage in keeping TheFACTORY ahead of the competition, they also offer their “Technology Partnership” initiative to those technology partners that don’t have the internal resources and capacity to scope and pitch on the larger projects that come their way. In joint partnerships with TheFACTORY, they can offer their clients the most effective proprietary and open source software development solutions available on the market today. Says Smits van Waesberghe, “this partnership concept has seen us develop a one-of-a-kind webbased golf tee-off-time booking system, amongst other things” Says Smits van Waesberghe, “we are also looking forward to introducing non-proprietary IT platforms onto the African landscape in the same way that the Chinese market, is currently shying away from proprietary software, and beginning to open their arms to open source software solutions.” The company is a unique blend of technology consulting and best-practice business solutions, in which they get involved with their clients on all IT related aspects, releasing clients off sourcing the appropriated business solution for there organizations or projects. This has proven to be the value add for their growing client-base. Their view is that many overseas companies understand that South African companies can offer IT services at a much lower cost than they are currently paying. The main question is, “how is the process controlled and managed?” says Smits van Waesberghe. When it comes to outsourcing technology services to low cost countries, many IT managers are concerned about losing control and they need the comfort that technical and functional standards will be met. This is something that TheFACTORY is proud to offer its partners and clients. TheFACTORY also benefits its clients by lowering the overall cost of outsourcing by cutting operational costs, through simplification and automation, improving supplier performance, contract management and compliance, and sophistication of total customer solution. TheFACTORY are also the Technology Partners for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.

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