Dear Partners

I am proud to introduce this first edition of the SBD Newsletter that we are distributing to our clients. Our intention is to create a platform to share industry insights and keep you informed of the strides that we are making in the industry.

The last year and a half has not been an easy period for most. Many businesses have either curtailed their operations by a significant margin, or ceased to operate. SBD has remained standing. It is in times like these that we need to acknowledge and thank our customer base for supporting us throughout the years. In turn we hope this newsletter provides you with value and insight about a truly home-grown local business that offers world class solutions.

Since 2020, our business has grown exponentially over the last three years, which necessitated an increase in our staff to ensure that we provide you quality service. We now boast a total staff compliment of 56, including highly competent technical staff that maintains our device fleet. We have navigated the digital landscape, proving that despite the challenges faced we are ready to adapt and provide services to meet the demand.

We will continue to push the boundaries to give our partners best-in-class technologies, complemented by the best care, service and support to make your lives easier.

I sincerely hope you will continue to walk the journey with us, as we continue to source the best technologies in office equipment.

Happy reading & Stay Safe,

Themba Ndhlovu

CEO

The service department at SBD Business Systems consists of a team of service consultants led by a service manager. These are the professionals behind the phone, each time you contact us. They are waiting to assist you with any queries that you may have. The team prides itself in providing fast and efficient service to SBD clients. In their own words: “We have been trained to provide basic technical first line support for minor issues remotely. Our aim as service, is to train and engage with end users in assisting them with the daily use of our printers and ensuring our service is pleasant and enables them to complete their daily tasks and their service delivery”. The service team welcomed two new members, Nonkanyiso Nkandi, who joined on the 15th of September 2020 and Vuyiswa Ngubane who joined the team on the 1st of February 2021.

Speaking to the news editor, Sne Mncwabe, currently leading the Service team had this to say: “Engaging with our end users daily has given us the opportunity to educate them on resolving minor errors on the devices, which has given them the confidence in applying the basic processes we teach them. Clients are not fussy; they just need service providers with patience in helping them understand the role they must play in the partnership.”

We have bid farewell to 2020, a year full of challenges largely brought about by Covid -19. Looking forward, we aspire to heal from the past and take a different direction leading to greener pastures in 2021. With more business flowing in, it is the service department’s responsibility and baby to nurture and ensure our existing clients are happy and always satisfied. With FM Audit software we can track and monitor parts and consumables remotely for our networked sites. We will continue to do this to improve our service to ensure that by the time an end user reports an error, we are already one step ahead of it. Our non-networked sites will have the pleasure of receiving courtesy calls from our friendly service consultants to track and monitor their devices manually.

SBD is proud to announce a new partnership with Thuthukani that will enable us to provide global leading cybersecurity. Our offerings will cover the entire IBM portfolio QRadar enterprise solution. It will also include End point Management with IBMMaaS360 the Agent X portfolio, which has most advanced security. Threats are tracked and quarantined by IBM Watson artificial intelligence, making sure that no threats access any information on a client’s network. This, together with the VMware server management, has enabled SBD to give our clients the guaranteed security from high level network to end point that access public AP’s.

This month we mark six months into our new COO’s arrival at SBD. Karabo Khunedi, joined SBD on 7 October 2020 in the capacity of Chief Operations Officer (COO). She joined the company as part of a deliberate strategy to increase the number of women in leadership positions in the company. Karabo has extensive experience in operations management, and joined the Executive Management Committee (EXCO) of the company to make a meaningful contribution to its growth and prosperity. A seasoned operations manager, Karabo is an approachable extrovert who thrives in a team environment. She works well with other people, and will help improve operational efficiencies that will improve our service delivery to clients. She is EXCO responsible for ensuring that SBD adheres to all commitments articulated in service level agreements with our clients.

Kwa Mashu Family & Child Welfare Society
SBD Business Systems decided to acknowledge late local community hero, Malcolm Daniel Chili from the KwaMashu Family and Child Welfare Society this April. In honour of his loving memory SBD donated a printer Photocopier Machine valued over R50 000 to this organisation to help them continue the great work they do for the less fortunate.

SBD made headlines in the in the latest issue of the Business Update. In the article, our CEO shared the company’s vision for the future, while also highlighted the challenges faced by emerging entrepreneurs in an industry dominated by a few, big players. In the words of the CEO, SBD sees itself gaining a decent market share, a distribution license, as well as a network of empowered associate partners in the industry in the next five years. These aspirations can only be achieved if we all continue making our individual contributions towards the attainment of company goals.

SBD had the pleasure to welcome a new board of directors last month, a move that is set to place the company of a solid path as a corporate citizen. The newly elected board members bring a wealth of experience to SBD, and will play a critical role in exercising oversight and ensuring accountability in the organization. We will introduce our board in the next edition of our newsletter. Be on the lookout for the next issue.

Take this quick survey to help us improve our offering and service to you.