South Africans who do business in the electrotechnical sector find themselves in a puzzling situation. On the one hand, business is tough. South African companies are facing increased competition, particularly in Africa. This is not only from China and India, but also from Europe, Australia, Brazil and the USA. Research has confirmed that there is a definite “wait and see” attitude among buyers, and decisions are taking a great deal longer.
On the other hand, there are still many opportunities in the energy and telecommunications infrastructure markets, and some projects are less at risk of being delayed. These include smaller to medium sized projects and those that involve “niche” technologies. This is exactly the space in which many South African electrotechnical companies excel.
Also, South African companies are well positioned to generate innovations, fuelled by a process of transition from a closed economy to entering world markets with a competitive spirit. Local challenges include having to find cost effective and creative ways to enter world markets with unique South African products. This country has a distinct competitive advantage in the area of embedded software design and development of custom turnkey solutions. We can provide an embedded design service for OEMs and customers who have their own design and development capability. Our engineers can offer both cost and time-competitive solutions for customers based anywhere in the world.
South Africa is known for developing niche applications for specific vertically-integrated industries e.g. the mining sector, the financial sector, the government sector and the mobile communications industry. High-level skills in these industries are in-sourced for systems development, system integration, maintenance and support, and are a showcase for South Africa's software development capabilities.
Testing and piloting systems and applications are growing businesses in South Africa, with the diversity of the local market, first world know-how in business and a developing country environment making it an ideal test lab for innovations. There are certainly many opportunities for companies willing to think “outside the box”.
Most companies are certified to a minimum ISO 9000. Over recent years South African companies have also been working hard to adopt internationally accepted best practice models such as CMMI, to ensure that our products and services are of the highest quality. The “Joburg Centre for Software Engineering”, or JCSE, located at Wits University, has entered into a formal partnership with the internationally renowned Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in the USA to drive process improvement initiatives in the South African ICT sector. It is one of just two accredited organisations in Africa to offer CMMI certification.
Unfortunately the competencies and competitive advantages of the South African electrotechnical sector are largely unknown. This is partly because the local sector has for many years been highly fragmented and companies have tended to market their products and services individually instead of using the synergies of banding together under a common banner.
The South African Electrotechnical Export Council (SAEEC) promotes exports from South Africa of products and services in the fields of electrical engineering, electronics, information technology, telecommunications and related business services. We provide a value-added and cost-effective service by researching potential markets, identifying opportunities, influencing trade issue policies and providing operational and logistic support to exporters.
