It all started with Nashua in 1973, where I ‘cut my teeth’
in terms of clients, service delivery, sales and the importance of integrity.
It was also a great lesson in selling against the big names at that stage,
highlighting the importance of quality service delivery within our industry.
With office automation constantly evolving, and eventually converging, the market soon demanded an all-in-one solution (enter the copy, print, fax and eventually scanner). Over a short period of time, we watched Office Automation transmogrify from mechanic, to electro-mechanical to electric and digital, putting into our hands the opportunity to target a far bigger market, and forcing medium-sized business’ to follow suit and link up phone and computer with office automation, this also meant that we had to understand IT communications, it’s potential and it’s market penetration in it’s entirety.
After acquiring Nashua Cape Town in 1996, who’s registered
name was Random Logic, I went on to develop and grow the skills set required to
sell against the big role players in Cape Town. Again the need for quality
service delivery was becoming increasingly apparent and we decided that above
all else, we needed to be able to offer our customers a holistic service, one
that incorporated their IT in its entirety. If we could offer this through
integrating all aspects of the business and aligning it with their IT needs and
strategy, we would also be offering a service that promised integrity, honesty
and the highest quality service delivery, business to business, MD to MD.
It was also at this stage that my son
Marc joined forces with me, playing an integral role in the success of Nashua
Cape Town, and years later, B-Logic. He gained a wealth of invaluable
experience in both client management and sales, proving to be a vital member of
our team, and today boasts over 20 years’ experience in customer relations, and
client and sales management, as well as a strong business and entrepreneurial acumen.
Fast forward a few years to a serendipitous meeting of minds I had on the beach in Camps Bay with a group of young gentlemen from Stellenbosch, who had developed unique world-class back up software, and who would later go on to become, along with my assistance, the founders of ‘Lets back up”.
After my brief mentorship, we decided to change the company name Attix5, who’s software I started selling to local Cape Town business’ by accessing my pool of clients, with great success.
Attix5 eventually went international, was itself a resounding success and was eventually sold to its biggest distributor in the UK.
Shortly thereafter I was forced to sell Nashua Cape Town back to Nashua, and not long after this, another fortuitous engagement occurs when I meet Hank Albertze, ex Dimension Data, and B-Logic was born.
Together we saw the ever-growing gap in the market, with the medium-sized business market having grown substantially, but not being serviced by the big players, it dawned on us that there were really only 2 kinds of IT service providers at that point in time – big corporate and small garage operations, the first servicing the large corporate players, and the latter servicing the ‘mom-and-pop-shops’ so to speak, leaving the burgeoning midcorp market with no access to professional products and professional, cost-effective IT services and solutions, and we knew B-Logic could give them that, and that’s exactly what we did, and thanks to the extensive midcorp user database we had built up over the years, we knew exactly who to speak to.
Our mantra has always been to first and foremost understand our client, ask questions and gain insight on their business. Yes, we are in the sales industry, and we sell a quality service, but not without understanding what your business needs are, and how we can solve the various challenges for you, with a focus on client satisfaction. The main purpose of the business is not to simply make money, but to satisfy and retain customers, everything else then follows. We are nothing without our clients and our clients are nothing without the integrity of their IT systems, entrusted to us.
Yes there have absolutely been obstacles, initially we were effectively an unknown brand trying to take on the big guys, and it was initially far more labour -intensive than we anticipated, but all of these challenges had been overcome at Nashua once before, so we knew we could do it again and we did. The difference? As a business owner dealing with B-Logic, you deal with a business owner too, with a direct channel to our MD.
It has been an incredible journey and great success story thus far, so much so that 10 years later, we still have our very first employee and our very first client! Our client base has also grown steadily, with a vast majority of them on their 3rd contract renewal.
We are proud to be able to say we are one of the fastest growing ITSM companies in Cape Town, and we look forward to the next 10 years with Marc Moolman at the helm as MD.
