Entelect ends the year with a 25 per cent growth and announces a new CEO

The atmosphere was relaxed with many activities for staff to do at their own leisure, including water slides, volleyball, elephant experiences, game drives and massages. After presenting the internal R100K prizes and long-service awards, Entelect CEO
Dr Charles Pritchard outlined the year’s highlights.

The company’s highlights for 2014 include:

• Turnover and profitability are up by 25 per cent compared with last year.
• Staff has grown by 20 per cent to 208 employees – this figure excludes the additional 31 graduates joining in January 2015.
• Client numbers and the size of engagements continue to grow, with the top five biggest project clients being Discovery, Liberty, Silica, FNB and Deloitte.
• Successful launches of various internal systems that allow for more growth in the business.
• Maturation of the existing management structures and also the addition of new management roles: data solutions and service delivery.
• Delivery of successful projects in the newly formed Tech Accelerator initiative, with further innovations planned for 2015.
• Entelect’s Encentivize loyalty solution’s numbers increased and the programme now hosts 84,000 end users, with new clients including Diners Club, Old Mutual and Deloitte. Significant growth is expected in this division for 2015.
• Entelect’s MyActive events solutions hosted 96 events, which is a 43 percent jump compared with last year.
• In its annual survey Deloitte confirmed that Entelect is the best employer in Southern Africa in three categories, including the Best IT Company to Work For (all categories) – an excellent achievement considering the stature of the 160 companies that entered.
• Entelect CTO, Martin Naude, won an award as the world’s best loyalty practitioner.
• Entelect featured in the press, with Entelect-related articles appearing in leading magazines and newspapers.
• Staff seamlessly moved to new offices, which will better accomodate the company’s increasing staff.
• The Entelect Foundation has continued to grow, with 10 per cent of Entelect’s profits being committed to social upliftment projects every year. Successes include putting a number of children through school, weekly mentorship by staff volunteers, issuing study scholarships, assisting families financially, running a feeding scheme for unemployed people; sponsorship of a new graphic design centre at the Frances Vorwerg school for the disabled, and donating 45 percent of the shares of Entelect's contracting company to a community development education trust.
• The hosting of many more events by the company's social committee throughout the year, from braais and sports events to family days.

Before closing off the day’s proceedings, Pritchard congratulated the top 1Up contenders for their efforts in going beyond the call of duty for Entelect, with the winning employee announced as Warren Bonn. In closing, Pritchard made special mention of Managing Director Shashi Hansjee, announcing that Hansjee will be taking over as CEO. Pritchard praised Hansjee saying, “Shashi joined Entelect in 2005 as a software engineer and has had an illustrious career at Entelect since. In a short space of time he was leading big projects, was promoted to technical director and later managing director.” Pritchard noted, “Shashi was particularly successful in his role as MD because he is prepared to do operations and administrative work as well as set the direction for the business, and most importantly, he understands people. He has done a brilliant job in selecting and nurturing our current management team, and until recently, he made the time to see every single employee in regular performance reviews – something very few MDs of a company this size would and could do. Today, I can say with confidence that Shashi runs the ship, and will continue to run and steer the Entelect in the right direction.”

Pritchard continued, “It is for this reason that I am bidding farewell to my position as CEO and am officially handing over the reins to Shashi today! I will be staying on as chairman of the board, and of course will always be involved with Entelect and will continue to provide guidance and support to our management team.” Pritchard closed off by announcing that his next personal mission is to help people get closer to God and to further help the poor of South Africa. He explained, “In October last year, I was graced with a vision of Christ on the cross, which has had a profound effect on my life over the last year and literally has lit the fire in my heart to pursue this mission with God at its centre.” He affirmed, “I feel that the company’s success is purely as a result of God’s grace because of the way we conduct our business – with integrity and in true service of others, be it towards staff, clients or our extended communities – and is the reason why Entelect will continue to be successful in the future.”

Hansjee thanked Pritchard for his contributions and noted, “It’s great to see our founder using his time and resources to do good”. He added that this will be a seamless transition, and that Entelect’s strong management team will continue to drive the business forward. Hansjee says that Entelect will continue developing its presence as the place to be for South Africa’s top software talent, with further emphasis on showcasing Entelect’s technical capability. In addressing the staff, Hansjee said, “I am honoured and excited to continue to work with all of you to drive this great organisation towards the greatness I know we can achieve.”