The Most Valuable Tech Titans | KORE | Romil Bahl

www.ciolook.com
BRINGING TRANSFORMATION IN BUSINESSES
THROUGH ADVANCED IOT SOLUTIONS
ROMIL BAHL
PRESIDENT & CEO
2019
TECH
TITANS
THE MOST
VALUABLE
November 2019

Assurance, Assistance
and Achievement
T
he world has witnessed many exceptional
technology transformations and modern
technologies have evolved and shaped
workplaces in many ways. The changes can be seen from
the adoption of tools like the internet and email for
communications, IoT in cloud computing and electronic
databases for record keeping to robots and artificial
intelligence for automation. These are illustration of
tech transformation and pervade every aspect of
businesses and the public space.
Constant emerging technologies are helping to decrease
business difficulties and eventually lead to a post
digitalized world for consumer, employee and the
respective business partner. Artificial intelligence (AI),
IoT, machine learning (ML), AR/VR are top technology
trends with technologies being adopted by many
different industries. Advances in technologies have
enabled companies to develop and implement smarter
tools and applications to boost the entire content work-
cycle as well as expanding a business from a company
perspective.
In this special edition 'The Most Valuable Tech Titans
2019', CIO Look emphasizes on some of the trustworthy
and leading tech solution providers who have immensely
contributed in this ever-evolving industry with their
exceptional solutions and services.
EDITOR’S NOTE

Here is the cover featuring KORE- a pioneer, leader, and trusted advisor in the deployment of
IoT solutions, empowers organizations of all sizes to improve operational and business results.
As an independent, expert IoT provider, KORE offers a unique perspective on the promise of
IoT. The company helps eliminate the need to identify, evaluate, contract, and manage multiple
network connectivity providers, equipment manufacturers, and professional services
organizations. KORE, with its partner ecosystem, delivers all of the components required for a
successful IoT implementation, as well as the proven expertise and guidance that
organizations need to maximize IoT investments and achieve transformative IoT business
performance.
Let's unveil such alike, inspiring interviews and stories of many such signiﬁcant organizations
in this special edition and spread a word about their contribution in making this world a better
place. Also, ﬂip through the CXO standpoints presented by some of the leading industry
experts to taste the glimpse of industrial revolutions.
Enjoy the read....
Rohit Chaturvedi

18
26
COVER STORY
30
32
38 42 46
Here is the featuring - acover KORE
pioneer, leader, and trusted advisor in
the deployment of IoT solutions,
empowers organizations of all sizes to
improve operational and business
results.
08

08 KORE: Bringing Transformation in
Businesses through Advanced
IoT Solutions
Infrastructure Transformation:
AI Moving Towards Transformation
of Industries
Mentor's Standpoint: Open
Source Trends to Watch for 2019
MgO Systems: Developing Faster,
Stronger, Safer And More
Sustainable Building Solutions
Editorial Talk: DevOps Bridging the Gap
between Dev & Ops
Reveal Group: Transforming
Businesses for Good
Salt Essential IT: Information and
Communication Technology (ICT)
Partner of Choice
Silverware: Making The Hospitality
Industry More Proﬁtable
Arviem AG: Impacting Supply-
Chains with Innovative Services18
22
26
30
32
36
38
42
46
C2XCEL: A Leading
Technology Consulting Provider

CONTENT
Senior Editor Alan Swann
Managing Editor Rohit Chaturvedi
Executive Editors Sourabh More
Alex Spellman
DESIGN
Visualizer Dave Bates
Art & Design Director Sanket Zirpe
Associate Designer Kushagra Gupta
SALES
Senior Sales Manager Kshitij S.
Customer Success Manager Jack Ryan
Sales Executives John, Kane, Saurabh
TECHNICAL
Technical Head Aditya K.
Technical Consultant Victor Collins
November, 2019
k.roy@ciolook.com
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rights reserved. The content
and images used in this
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Editor-in-Chief
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Bringing Transformation in Businesses
through Advanced IoT Solutions
KORE is a single-source provider,
bringing together highly complex
technologies and enabling
streamlined, scalable IoT solutions.
‘‘ ‘‘

Romil Bahl
President & CEO
The Most Valuable Tech Titans 2019

We enable your IoT
vision with seamless
execution and a
constant focus on
maximizing the
return on your IoT
investments.

oT applications continue to proliferate, as companies become
Iincreasingly aware of how this powerful technology can support
growth through digital transformation. Fundamentally, the ability to
connect increasingly intelligent devices of all types is enabling digital
transformation to happen all the way to the ‘edge’ of the enterprise. IoT
applications offer unprecedented opportunities to not only cut costs
and increase efficiencies but also to revolutionize business models and
introduce new, diversified revenue streams. KORE – a pioneer, leader,
and trusted advisor in the deployment of IoT solutions - empowers
organizations of all sizes to improve operational and business results.
End-to-End IoT Solutions
At KORE, the team supports and enables business transformations by
reducing the technical and organizational complexity of implementing
IoT solutions. The company's knowledge and experience, global reach,
purpose-built solutions, and agility are accelerating and impacting IoT
and business outcomes in a number of industries including fleet and
automotive, healthcare, manufacturing/industrial, logistics and supply
chain, retail, financial services, and agriculture.
As an independent, expert IoT provider, KORE offers a unique
perspective on the promise of IoT. It helps eliminate the need to identify,
evaluate, contract, and manage multiple network connectivity
providers, equipment manufacturers, and professional services
organizations. KORE, with its partner ecosystem, delivers all of the
components required for a successful IoT implementation, as well as the
proven expertise and guidance that organizations need to maximize IoT
investments and achieve transformative IoT business performance.
KORE enables a broad range of customer use cases across the major IoT
capabilities of location tracking, asset monitoring and field servicing
through a variety of products and services that include global, secure,
managed connectivity, innovative eSIM and other advanced
connectivity solutions, hardware and devices, location-based services,
and comprehensive certification and endpoint lifecycle management
services.
Encouraging New Ideas
As the President and Chief Executive Officer at KORE, Romil Bahl
leads an executive management team completely dedicated to realizing
the promise of IoT across industries. Under Romil’s guidance, the
company is continually expanding its offerings and influence. According
to Romil, “My management philosophy is anchored in transparency, and I
believe in transformative, strategy-led change, highlighted by creativity and
clarity of thought.” In terms of transparency, it’s extremely important to
provide employees and colleagues with organizational updates on a
regular basis and to share clear information on what’s required to move
the company forward. Likewise, he expects every member of his team to
raise issues and discuss roadblocks in a transparent manner so that the
team can collectively solve problems in a collaborative manner. This
kind of transparency helps to solidify trust and promotes accountability.
In regards to creativity, Romil believes that the best way to inspire
innovative thinking is to address challenges in open ideation sessions
COVERSTORY

with all members of the team regardless of title, and
create an environment that supports and is open to
diverse ways of thinking. According to him, it's the best
idea that wins, and his job is to ensure those best ideas
are identified and resourced for execution.
To channel the resulting innovation and promote clarity
of thought, he uses a method called ‘chaos to order’ that
involves analyzing creative ideas one at a time and
partnering them with a strategic process. This method
ensures that these ideas become actionable and
impactful.
Retaining Top Talent
The executive management is hugely passionate about
retaining and attracting top talent at KORE. They have
built a strong team with the right mix of skills that is
supported and driven by a high-performance culture.
KORE has become a magnet for global talent at many
locations across North America, Latin America, Europe,
and Asia-Pacific as a result of its leadership in the
market, and focus on performance and professional
development. The company is continuing to build even
greater momentum, as each new hire makes
organization a more desirable place to work.
Enabling Growth
The growth strategy at KORE is focused on three key
areas:
Ÿ Continuously improving its foundational offerings of
connectivity management, device management, and
location-based services.
Ÿ Expanding the breadth of IoT deployment and life
cycle management services.
Ÿ Evolving its IoT security, Data-as-a-Service, and data
analytics capabilities.
By delivering in the areas, which are paramount to the
company’s customers’ current and future IoT success.
The company believes it can effectively simplify the
complexity of IoT deployments and enable
organizations to maximize their returns on IoT
investments. According to the company “we deploy,
manage, and scale our customers’ IoT applications through
networks, services, and technology.”
With nearly 30 years of experience in consulting,
information technology, professional services, and IoT
in high-growth and turnaround environments, the
company has learned a few things about promoting
growth. These include insights on addressing complex
challenges in diverse market conditions and the best
ways to tap into emerging market segments while
energizing global teams and creating organizations
that are driven to innovate and excel.
Impacting Customers with Upgraded Solutions
KORE is one hundred percent focused on achieving
unprecedented results for its customers and
partners. The company is a global independent, by
which means that it is agnostic to devices and
hardware, to connectivity networks and carriers, to
all parts of the IoT ecosystem except its customers’
results. It recognizes that connectivity is essential to
IoT, and further, that what customers really need are
successful business outcomes and a return on their
IoT investment. This is why KORE has expanded well
beyond connectivity to provide the consultative,
strategic guidance needed for IoT success, while also
delivering a comprehensive set of products and
services that empower the customers to successfully
deploy, manage, and sustain IoT implementations. By
freeing up customers to focus on their core
competencies, they are empowered to access the
data-driven insights and business intelligence their
connected solutions deliver, and/or to grow their
businesses.
Expert Assistance
Common challenges include a lack of internal IoT
experience and insufficient resources to manage the
complex IoT ecosystem and multiple vendor
relationships with IoT solutions demand. There are
also complexities associated with the number of
network technologies across cellular, satellite, wifi
and unlicensed spectrum, unfamiliar logistics
management and coordination processes, and the
frustration and lost revenue associated with delayed
time-to-market releases. These factors are driving a
disappointing failure rate of IoT pilot or proof-of-
concept engagements.
KORE assists its customers, to tackle these
challenges by helping them look around the corner to
see what challenges are coming and stop guessing at
solutions. The company guides customers through
the complexity of their environments, the number of
tasks they need to implement to successfully deploy
their IoT solutions, and the myriad of IoT market
choices they have to make by serving as an
independent, single-source provider for its
customers. KORE leverages its decades of IoT

As a pioneer in the
space, KORE
understands and can
help you navigate the
vast IoT ecosystem.

expertise and unparalleled portfolio of connected products and
services to accelerate solution deployment and provide a
foundation for scalability and growth.
Aligning Success with Customer-Centric Approach
KORE entered the market almost two decades ago as an M2M and
IoT MVNO, serving customers with global, secure, managed
connectivity. Growing from just one carrier partner to more than
20 of the world’s major carriers – including its own, independent
core network – KORE now serves over 6,200 customers and
supports more than 9 million active connections around the world.
KORE is certainly proud of its growth in the IoT connectivity space.
However, it considers that model as “KORE 2.0.” The next era, as
mentioned before is evolving the company from an IoT connectivity
provider to a truly global IoT solutions provider. The company
realizes that the customers need more than connectivity to
succeed in IoT, and have responded to these needs by expanding its
portfolio in alignment with its three-pronged growth strategy.
The biggest lesson KORE has learned from its pioneering role in the
IoT market is that success is about simplifying the customer’s
adoption of IoT. It is necessary to stop asking customers to ﬁgure
out how to put all the building blocks of a solution together
themselves, and instead focus them on the most important parts of
their own business. This customer-centric approach is the result of
evaluation and investment across almost every aspect of the
business, from the product offerings to support services, and
everything in between.
Future of IoT
According to the company, the most signiﬁcant innovations will
come in the areas of advanced connectivity, including eSIM and
iSIM leadership, application management and data-as-a-service
(DaaS), security management, as well as reporting and analytics. As
more and more companies are able to move their IoT programs
from proof-of-concept to full-scale deployment, there will be
additional resources and learnings available to build the
momentum for this promising area of business transformation. And
KORE will be at the forefront.

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Arviem AGImpacting Supply-Chains with Innovative Services
loud computing and software programs have significantly improved product tracking,
Cwith real-time updates on the movement of goods globally. It allows business firms to
adjust production schedules and inventory levels on a real-time basis. Such systems
are being used for diverse management functions like inventory management or
transportation management and they are ensuring the elimination of blind spots and
inefficiencies. One such cloud-based platform is Arviem AG. The company solves the
challenges of obtaining visible and intelligent trade by offering real-time end-to-end cargo
monitoring services.
Arviem provides visibility and insights into the flow of goods and finances within the supply
chain, enabling supply chain, logistics, security, and finance professionals to have a real-time,
holistic overview of the movement of their assets. The company is offering a full, carefree
service to customers that allow them to track all their global shipments, regardless of the
transportation mode or the logistics service provider, on one single platform.
Below is their story,
Seeing the inefficiencies in global supply chains, the arising security issues after 9/11 and
the lack of visibility and control supply chain professionals had over the movement of goods
globally, Arviem realized that with the emerging new technologies it is possible to improve
the status quo and bring transparency into how supply chains operate. The company aspires
to become a ‘one-stop-shop’ for services when it comes to optimizing various aspects of the
supply chain, whether it is about inventory management, working capital, carbon footprint,
or demurrage and logistics costs.
Arviem offers’ IoT enabled supply chain visibility services by monitoring the location and
condition of goods in transit in real-time with sophisticated sensor devices. Besides real-
time event notifications and alerts, supply chain professionals can also rely on Arviem’s
“We provide traceability
from ‘doors closing
to doors opening.”
| November 2019 |
18

19
Stefan Reidy
CEO & Founder
Arviem AG
| November 2019 |

cargo monitoring platform to manage their goods in
transit. While the company’s IoT based services help
clients to digitalize parts of their supply chain without
the need for investigating into new technologies,
hardware or staff, Arviem’s scalable, pay-per-use service
offers a possibility of a quick ROI by reducing costs and
enhancing efficiency. With this service, customers can
monitor their shipments with ease, reap the benefits of
the gathered data while Arviem takes care of all the rest.
The company sets itself apart from the competition by
being the only provider of supply chain visibility as a
hassle-free service. It aims at implementing supply chain
visibility and cargo monitoring services as easy as
possible. The company makes sure that the customer has
the right amount of monitoring devices at the right time
and the right location of the shipment, from the start till
the shipment has reached its destination. Additionally,
having the collected cargo monitoring data in the core of
Arviem’s new service offering, the company has already
developed new services that rely on the data hidden in
supply chains.
To demonstrate, the company’s carbon footprint
reporting and emissions monitoring solution reveals
where carbon emissions are concentrated in the clients’
supply chain. Clients can leverage the collected data
when making key business decisions with regards to the
supply chain; such as, how to reduce energy use and how
to lower the carbon footprint of logistics operations.
With the aggregated data, supply chain and logistics
managers can develop less intensive supply models to
reduce the energy consumption of the supply chain and
lower the company’s carbon footprint.
Stefan Reidy is the CEO and Founder of Arviem, he is a
supply chain enthusiast, and a visionary. Stefan has over
20 years of experience with innovative technologies &
business models in the supply chain, which he gathered
both by working for corporations and in the startup
environment. Before founding Arviem, he was
responsible for IBM’s Secure Trade Lane Solution,
developing innovative solutions to improve security in
international trade. Stefan’s passion and industry
expertise have been important for Arviem’s
development ever since. He often shares his knowledge
with university students professionals periodically at
various events.
Arviem’s goal is to provide visibility and insights into the
flow of goods and finances within the supply chain,
enabling supply chain, logistics, security, and finance
professionals to have a real-time, holistic overview of the
movement of their cargo. By having access to data and
insights, clients are enabled to make educated decisions
to optimize their physical and financial supply chain,
eliminating blind spots and inefficiencies. The company’s
vision is to maximize the value of the insights it can
generate from the collected data and help their clients to
bring their supply chain to the next level.
Thanks to Arviem’s services, clients know where their
cargo is located in any given moment, the environmental
conditions it is exposed to and if it’s security has been
breached. If disruptions arise (cargo experiences shocks,
unfavorable temperature or humidity conditions, an
intrusion or door opening or unexpected transshipment
is detected) clients are noted immediately so they can
take corrective action. Arviem’s monitoring platform
provides an overview of all shipments in an easy to use,
visual, user-friendly management dashboard, making it
possible to access any information of the cargo’s journey
at fingertips.
Another innovative service leveraging the power of
cargo monitoring data that Arviem has developed is
focusing on optimizing the working capital management
of organizations. The company enables the optimization
of the financial and physical supply chains by making
goods in transit financeable through monitoring the
location and condition of the cargo in real-time. The
company provides traceability from ‘doors closing to
doors opening’ serving as an independent verifier for
regulatory purposes as well for real-risk mitigation.
| November 2019 |
20

AI
n the recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has
Itransformed various industries and helped to perform
better and achieve success in their respective arena. An
ideal amalgamation of human intelligence and machines has
proven that it can create wonders in the businesses. This
attachment of human intellect with the machine assists
businesses, to automate their day-to-day activities, to
understand customer behaviors, to decrease work
expendituresandtocreateoccurrencesonanindividuallevel.
Therefore, business individuals need to keep a close eye on the
latest developments occurring in AI industry. This information
can be vital as they can utilize AI in areas where it can create
profitforthem.
TherearevariousindustriesthatarealreadyutilizingAIintheir
respective business functions and are getting benefited.
Following are some of the leading industries that have utilized
AIasaninstrumenttooptimizetheiroperations:
1.Healthcare
Healthcare sector has shown a positive response to assimilate
AI in its field. That is the reason; Healthcare has received
enormous funding to develop and execute AI. The modern day
machine intelligence is assisting healthcare sector to examine
medicaldataextractedfromX-rays,CTscansandvariousother
tests.
Segregation of this information is important as doctors go
through the patient’s history to check and diagnose illness.
Healthcareexpertsaredependentontheiryearsofexperience
andprefabricatedalgorithmstoacknowledgethesymptomsof
an illness. However, sometimes they overlook and make
mistakes unconsciously. A BBC report titled ‘AI Early Diagnosis
CouldSaveHeartandCancerPatient’statedthat
Moving Towards
Transformation of Industries
| November 2019 |
22

nearly 20% of experienced doctors make mistakes while
diagnosing patient's illness. Therefore, this arduous as
wellasdauntingtaskiscertainlymadeeasierbyAI.
There are famous examples of utilization of AI in
healthcare sector. The Babylon AI doctor app avails
speech recognition to interact with patients cross-
examines carefully against its database and provides
necessary treatment. Another interesting healthcare AI,
Molly by Sense.ly -virtual nurse app- links patients to
scientific recommendations and help, with the
assistance of proprietary categorization engine pays
attention to the patients and replies appropriate
response to them. Microsoft’s Hanover project utilizes
machine comprehension with natural language
processing to forecast productive cancer drug
compatibletothepatient.
2.AutomobileandLogistics
Automobile industry is witnessing crucial shifts such as
autonomous driving, connectivity, electrification and
divided mobility. It is anticipated that the automobile
industry will experience rise in economic growth by
shifting from conventional to disruptive technologies
andunconventionalbusinessmodels.
On October 14 2015, Tesla announced that it is going to
launch an autopilot car i.e. a car with self-driving
capability. The car is expected to drive itself from coast-
to-coast with the help of autonomous navigation. Other
car makers are aiming to implant AI services like
Amazon’s Alexa. This will authorize passengers to self-
command car technologies with the help of natural
languagevoiceorders.
German premium car maker Mercedes-Benz has
deployedvoicecommandpersonalassistantinCESshow
2018 held in Las Vegas. Its arch business rival BMW
followedthefootstepsanddecidedtoadoptAlexaandits
assimilation into its handpicked BMW and mini
automobiles. KIA Motors has also proclaimed that it is
thinkingaboutassimilatingGoogleassistantinitscars.
It is the need of the hour for any business to perform
better in its services and increase profit as much as
possible. It is expected that machine learning (ML) will
empower systems to an extent that they will
comprehend the data and utilize it to increase their
performance. This is where AI comes into the picture.
The association between AI and ML can create wonders
inlogistics,wheretimeisaparamountentity.
The logistics sector gathers extensive data from diverse
sources such as websites, smartphones and various
telematicstools.Predictiveanalyticsnotonlyrearranges
delivery schedule but also predicts subsequent orders
which gives logistics sector an advantage to utilize its
resourceseffectively.
| November 2019 |
23
Infrastructure Transformation

Interestingly, AI does not stop there. It assists in semi-
autonomous driver assistance, autonomous fleets for
ride sharing, engine overseer and forecasting
maintenanceforautomobiles.
Also, AI has been assisting logistics sector to construct
supply chains beforehand with the help of advanced
systems. This computer assistance in automobiles
delivers goods in the efficient manner which is essential
for the success of a logistics company. The forecasting
helps logistics to avoid disastrous calamities such as
difficult weather situations, traffic delays and many
unexpectedoccurrences.
3.MarketingandAdvertising
Marketing sector has changed drastically over the years.
Customers anticipate for a personal experience and it is
theneedofthehourformarketingsectortochangeitself
and adjust accordingly. They are required to leave the
conventional methods of marketing and concentrate on
enhancing their communication, execute demands as
well as aspiration. This adaptation of AI is vital for
marketing sector as reluctance to implement this new
technologycanleadtolossofbusinessforthecompany.
AI assists marketers to find and forecast customer
attitudes. This precious information allows marketers to
carry out impactful keywords and communicate with
consumers on a more personal level. Moreover, chatbots
also help to execute this communication in a less
expensive,effectiveandinapersistentway.
Ontopofit,AIgeneratesideaswhicharesubdividedinto
manysubideas.Thiswaytheriskofcateringasoleideais
eliminatedandvariousideascanbecateredaccordingto
customers and their preferences. Brands have started to
acclimatizeonthisusefultechnologyandarefocusingon
selectedcustomers.StartupshavealsobeguntoapplyAI
with the help of AI automated personalization and
compellingvideocontent.
4.VirtualAssistant
A Virtual Assistant can help you to handle smart home
devices. This feature will allow you to administer door
locks, lights, appliances and many smart home devices.
There are Virtual Assistants available in the market,
which show the capacity to function as an intercom. A
user needs to place Virtual Assistants in every room to
communicate with others. Amazon Echo’s ‘Drop In’
feature enables users to interact with each other from
differentrooms.
UserscanalsoutilizeVirtualAssistantstoshutdownand
start TV sets on compatible television models. In
addition, a Virtual Assistant in the kitchen can also be
utilizedtohandlekitchenmachines.
VirtualAssistantssuchasAmazonEchoaswellasGoogle
Home incorporates ‘Routines'’ attributes which allow
these Virtual Assistants to carry out many tasks on a
single command given by the user. This means a user can
create a 'Routine' command which will instruct the
Virtual Assistant to start multiple tasks it supposed to
execute.
Industries are constantly trying to update themselves by
adapting new technologies. AI is transforming industries
and helping them to grow their businesses. It is going to
advance into more sectors. It will help human beings to
operate risky tasks, decode universal issues and take
careofvarioushumantasks.Wecandefinitelyanticipate
afuturewhereAIwillbethenewnormal.
| November 2019 |
24

C2XCELA Leading Technology
Consulting Provider
Jim McNeese
Owner & CEO
C2XCEL
| November 2019 |
26

he telecom industry has come
Ta long way where its evolution
has disrupted advanced IT and
networking systems. These
advanced technologies have
enhanced the capacity of data
storage and required strong
networking systems making them
more reliable and secure.
Headquartered in Allen, Texas,
C2XCEL is a professional
technology advisory firm, providing
strategic technology solutions for
small and mid-sized businesses and
enterprise-level companies. As an
advisor, they seek to increase
operational and financial efficiency
using time-tested techniques.
Having years of diverse experience,
C2XCEL is able to create cutting-
edge recommendations that will
transform client's network
infrastructure. C2XCEL customizes
a no-cost, comprehensive solution
designed to fulfill immediate needs
while considering future technology
requirements.
The organization's goal is to
eliminate the obstacles and
frustrations involved with the
creation and implementation of a
solid infrastructure foundation. This
partnership creates a result-
oriented environment where the
best solutions are born and
executed. C2XCEL acts as a
technology compass – setting
client's on course for success and
efficiency.
Having over 50 collective years of
technology experience, the team at
C2XCEL has worked with many
different sized clients, with varying
technology needs. As well, they
have worked with different
technology service providers.
Together, these experiences have
educated the C2XCEL team that no
customer and no service provider
are alike; in fact, their experience
has proven that no two projects are
the same, even if the same service
providers and the same services are
involved.
C2XCEL has created a proprietary
process called ACT, which Analyze,
Consult and Transform the
technology environment. Using this
process C2XCEL works with their
customer to create a comprehensive
inventory of active services. This
allows them to understand what is
active and billing and analyze the
environment. From there they will
consult with the customer to
determine if the current technology
provides an ideal environment, and
what changes are necessary to
attain their ideal environment. The
company will then work with
multiple services providers to create
solutions to fulfill the needs, and
often times lower the cost, while
increasing bandwidth and network
infrastructure. C2XCEL then works
with the customer to narrow the
service provider options to only
those that best fit the requirements
and works with those service
providers to produce contract
language and pricing so the client is
able to make an intelligent selection.
At that point, C2XCEL transforms
the technology landscape for the
customer by project managing each
component of the order to ensure it
installs and functions as expected.
Technology is in a constant state of
growth and evolution; therefore, it
is necessary that C2XCEL remain
vigilant to the changes. This allows
them to offer the very best
technology solutions, which will
help the client maintain an up-to-
date landscape. Currently 5G and
SDWAN are driving platforms in
technology. SDWAN (Software
Defined Wide-Area Network) has
proven cost effective for most
customers and allows them to utilize
all data connections without having
to designate connections as primary,
secondary, tertiary, etc. SDWAN is
several years into production, but
5G is very new and the benefits
unknown to most people. C2XCEL is
able to explain 5G, or any
technology platform and whether it
is a good fit for the customer, based
upon their needs.
One vital part of the C2XCEL team
is project management. After many
years in the industry, Jim is one of
the few in his field who understands
the importance of having a project
management team. Having
dedicated employees monitoring
each project, beginning at contract
execution through turn-up of the
ordered services, C2XCEL has
removed the requirement for
customers to chase status of a
project with the services provider.
This allows the customer to focus on
their business, while C2XCEL works
with the services provider.
As an unbiased technology advisor,
with access to over 250 services
providers, C2XCEL provides the
best of the best to their customers.
As your advocate, our goal is to eliminate
the obstacles and frustrations involved
with the creation and implementation of
a solid infrastructure foundation.
C2XCEL
| November 2019 |
27

Their solutions are strategic and tailored for each
project. Their team becomes one with the
customer throughout the life of the account
becoming an invaluable asset when the services
provider's contacts move-on.
About the Leader
With over 20 years of experience in technology,
Jim McNeese, owner and CEO of C2XCEL, is
able to guide customers through the myriad of
service providers and their respective service
options. He works within the customer's
technology requirements to develop strategic
solutions that will evolve with the organization.
Jim's 10-years of service in the U.S. Army
enhanced his ability to see 'the big picture' in any
situation, which means every customer can rest
assured C2XCEL will explore all available
technology avenues to achieve the goals.
Along with Jim's industry knowledge, his desire
to establish a team that supports and builds upon
his skills to create a dream team for each
business opportunity. This team acts as the
catalyst to inspire and incite augmentation of the
technological landscape and becomes an
extension to each customer's team.
Testimonials:
"C2XCEL is a professional organization who provide
value-added services immediately. They have
literally become an extension of my IT staff –
providing rock-solid solutions for all of my data
communication & Telecom needs. The cost savings
they have provided to our global Law Firm allow us
to invest in other avenues of technology. I look
forward to many more years of our partnership with
C2XCEL. Thank you for everything!"
“C2XCEL has proven to be a valued partner and
facilitator as we execute a highly aggressive growth
strategy. Opening 50-60 locations each year, we've
found C2XCEL to be a strong force behind our WAN,
redundant integration, and hosted voice program.
With new locations consisting of new construction
and retroﬁtting existing structures, C2XCEL has, and
continues to provide management of circuit orders
and installations. Their oversite allows us to focus on
our business, yet remain on schedule with our store
openings. This has been a great advantage to us, and
should certainly be an advantage to any
organization, regardless of size.”
https://c2xcel.com
| November 2019 |
28

Obsidian Systems is an established
supplier of Open Source software
solutions. The company was started in
1995 as a services provider targeting
businesses and organizations looking to
integrate and leverage off Linux
infrastructure. Obsidian Systems has
expanded its knowledge base in
partnership with subsidiaries Cape Town
based Autumn Leaf and GuruHut.
The expansion of skills is now a
formidable team with Java™ expertise
aligning our Enterprise Open Source
solution for retail,supporting technology
and consulting services across enterprise-
ready open source infrastructure,big data,
collaboration and agile IT strategies for
your business. Obsidian Systems and its
subsidiaries strive to bring three legs to
the South African market: the first being
vendor-certified products,the second
bein g local skills providing consulting,
development and support and the third
being vendor-certified training and
certification. With these three elements,
any organization can trust the enterprise
open source solution provided.
ollowing several mergers and acquisition this
Fyear, 2019 will see open source investments
starting to pay even more dividends. Given how it
has become the driving force behind much of the
world’s cloud-based systems, companies need to keep a
close eye on the open source trends that could impact
their strategies for the months to come.
With deals such as Microsoft and Github as well IBM
and Red Hat, this open source-driven environment will
see organizations in a position to take the best aspects
of these businesses and come up with something truly
great. Thanks to the growth of the Internet of Things
(IoT) and the resultant explosion in data points,
companies understand that they need the resources of
cloud-based systems to extract the most relevant
insights.
The days of relying exclusively on proprietary solutions
to do this are long gone. Open standards have become
part of the approach many organizations take towards
implementing technology innovation. And those that
have not done so yet, will soon follow as they seek to
find relevance in an increasingly digital (and connected)
world.
This will also likely impact the cost of solutions. Using
open standards is resulting in products being developed
faster as data is analyzed in virtually real-time.
Understand what customers want and providing the
customization to do so, have become integral to the
operating environment today. And the secret to this
must be the open source foundation on which this is
built.
Local changes
The imminent arrival of several international data
centers in South Africa (two from Microsoft and one
from Amazon Web Services) will have a significant
positive impact on the local market. This not only shows
those skeptical of the cloud that investments are being
made, but, more importantly, South Africa is viewed as
a platform for growth into the rest of the continent
when it comes to the cloud (and open source).
The evolving landscape is seeing business requirements
also shifting. Next year will see a veritable land rush for
position in the cloud environment. More C-suite
decision-makers are open to going, well, open, and
vendors and service providers are clamoring for market
position.
Providing even more impetus for this is the recent
launch of what many consider to be South Africa’s first
truly digital bank. Focusing on ‘behavioral’ banking, all
its systems are cloud-based highlighting the security,
availability, and redundancy of going this route.
Moreover, it is built on open standards all but giving the
death knell to those who think proprietary is still the
preferred method of doing business.
Next year will be an intriguing one to see where the
cloud and the open standards approach will be heading.
Strap in and enjoy the ride.
About Obsidian Systems
Mentor’s Standpoint
| November 2019 |
31

Developing Faster, STRONGER, SAFER and
MORE SUSTAINABLE Building Solutions
MgO Systems
Todd McKay
Founder
| November 2019 |
32

For too long, the buildings in which
we live, work, heal, and play have been built to
minimum standards, a ecting safety, quality,
health and sustainability. It’s time for change.
“ “
that destroy homes, buildings and lives every day, yet
the construction industry maintains its dedication to
the same disaster-prone materials. MgO Systems Ltd.
exists to change this narrative by building faster,
stronger, safer and more sustainably.
MgO Systems Ltd. recognizes that traditional materials
for constructing walls, roofs, and floors demonstrate
unacceptable performance when it comes to the
devestaing effects of force, fire, water, mold and
insects. Thus, they’ve developed, and now manufacture,
technologically-advanced building solutions for various
construction applications such as commercial,
residential, education, hospitality, healthcare, etc.
The company’s proprietary building technologies,
developed around patented magnesium oxide-based
construction materials, are used in the design and
manufacturing of the C3 Engineered Wall Systems.
These systems provide clients with greater structural
performance, superior fire rating with no toxic off-
gassing, resistance to mold, mildew and insect,
increases insulation efficiencies and enhances acoustic
performance. The utilization of digital component
technology affords custom design integration and
precise off-site manufacturing to provide an all-in-one
solution that is both cost-effective and quick to build.
MgO Systems is, at its roots, a technology company.
Striving to push environmental responsibility with its
In 2010, the McKay family home burned to the
ground in a matter of minutes due to an electrical
fire that started in the garage. Fortunately, it was
during the daytime, and everyone escaped with their
lives, albeit with little more than the clothes on their
backs. For Todd McKay, MgO’s founder and former
general contractor and electrician, this event would
solidify into a single mission: to build stronger, safer
buildings. This mission led to the creation of MgO
Systems Ltd.
In the last hundred years, technology has driven every
industry in the world forward except for construction.
The production of commonly used materials, such as
Portland cement, has some of the highest carbon
footprints on the planet. The time to build is lengthy
and continually changing, costing clients millions in
project delays and change orders. Traditional
construction materials are built to minimum standards
that are frankly, unsafe and unreliable. Thirty years ago,
you had seventeen minutes to escape from a house fire;
today, that has been drastically reduced to just three
minutes! In 2013, 100,000 people throughout southern
Alberta were uprooted from their homes due to
catastrophic flooding. In the 2016 the forest fire that
devastated Fort McMurray claimed 4400 homes that
were either totally destroyed or contaminated beyond
repair. Just last year, 88 people were killed in the
California fires and 10,000 buildings destroyed. Fires
and floods are only two events in a long list of disasters
Mgo Systems
| November 2019 |
33

sustainable North American made building products
developed inhouse by its own Ph.D. Chemist, Dr. Doug
Brown and his team of scientists.
Each member of the management team has been
personally selected by Todd for their unique set of skills
and experience to build his vision into reality. MgO
Systems curates a family-style culture harnessed
around integrity and a passion for technology,
innovation and creating meaningful change.
MgO’s goal is to disrupt the traditional construction
industry and to create safer, greener standards for
building. Its primary strategy to achieve this is to
continue gaining market share with new projects and
by educating people through conferences and forums
that focus on innovation, green technologies and
construction such as the International Builder’s Show
and Greenbuild. They also have a MgO Insiders mailing
list for anyone and everyone who wants to stay in the
know. Insiders receive only relevant information:
upcoming presentations or conferences, bi-monthly
blogs and company press releases. The aim is to better
inform people about the current state of the
construction industry and to open their minds to new
technologies and better materials.
Todd has over 30 years of diverse construction
experience as both a contractor and business owner.
It's his vision and dream for truly building better has led
the company to where it is today. Change is constant,
and with the right mindset and committmentfor a
better way, MgO Systems is well on its way to becoming
industry leaders.
| November 2019 |
34

&between
F
or centuries, humans have had a propensity to pit
two or more teams with distinctive functionalities
against each other – even when they are on the same
team. This dynamic can be witnessed even in traditional
business enterprises, between software developers and
operational staffers.
The rivalry between Dev and Ops has been prevalent for
decades causing one of the most prominent challenges for
organizations to manage their IT capabilities. Overcoming
from this rift and identifying each other as partners rather
than rivals, can be crucial for a business to attain success.
But due to opposing priorities, a friction gets created
when they are combined, making it even harder for dev
and ops to communicate in an efficient manner.
Conflict between Development and Operations
Although there isn’t any doubt concerning the various
technical as well as business advantages that an
organization can reap upon combining Dev and Ops, but
they comprise of entirely unique goals, metrics, and
approaches.
Development primarily lays focus on producing new
systems and applications and ensures that customers get
to use the same as fast as possible. On the contrary,
operations look from a different aspect altogether;
wherein they primarily focus on ensuring a speedy and
bug-free stable system.
Additionally, both dev and ops strive towards achieving a
similar goal of making their customers feel happy and
satisfied, yet they utilize completely contradicting
approaches to reach that purpose. On one hand,
development aspires to impress its customers with their
new enhancements. Whereas on the other hand, the
operational team wants its customer base to use a stable
and tested system – free from bugs and operability
inconveniences.
The Battle Scenario – Before and After the Advent of
DevOps
Before DevOps came onto the scene, both Development
and Operations worked in an isolated manner. The only
time they crossed-paths were during the release phase.
The development team, already notified about the release
date, intended to interject some new and additional
features before the time of release. Whereas the
operational team knew from beforehand whether the
current release version had any new or additional features
interjected. This way, before deploying the release to the
customer’s site, the Ops team performed rigorous testing
to be satisfied with its stability and operability and only
then permitted its deployment.
The arrival of DevOps and its rise in adoption led to a
paradigm shift from this culture. Developers now no
longer need to wait for a release date to bring-forward
new and enhanced features. Instead, they have the
capability to release new features on a regular basis by
Bridging Gapthe
| November 2019 |
36

as staging or production, so as to react and prevent any
issues from cropping up and spreading, respectively.
Ÿ Operations need to be much more flexible in their
approach in accepting regular or frequent changes.
Ÿ Operations should facilitate an effective and healthy
collaboration with the Development team.
From the Development Perspective
Ÿ Sound engagement needs to be performed to assess
the quality metrics that Ops emphasizes on, to track
customer production systems and quality.
Ÿ Dev need to be more involved with the testing of their
own code in the production phase instead of leaving
out from the field after writing the system or
application code.
Ÿ Developers should facilitate an effective and healthy
collaboration with the Operations team.
Hence, it can be safely exclaimed that both Dev and Ops
team need to change substantially in their functioning and
outlook to successfully adopt the DevOps methodology.
Adapting to DevOps culture is by no means a silver bullet,
as it brings with itself a considerable amount of changes.
But upon successful communication between developers
and operators, an organization will be able to reap
significant advantages through the same. The battle
between Dev and Ops may continue for years, but DevOps
has the distinct capability to bridge the gap between
the two.
using the concept of Continuous Integration and Delivery.
This has prompted developers to emphasize that the
operation team must manage this regular flow of new
features imperatively before it gets deployed to the
customer’s site. But this approach gave rise to a new
problem, as Ops have to deal with a pipeline of releases at
a regular interval due to this. They now need to be
extremely attentive and careful about the quality testing
of the systems as the deployed builds on the customer site
may or may not be entirely free from bugs.
The Resolution
The most feasible and obvious solution to this opposing
friction is the synchronization between Dev and Ops,
popularly termed as DevOps. Coined by Patrick Debois,
known as “the father of DevOps,” DevOps is an
operational philosophy that helps to bridge the gap
between Development and Operations by emphasizing
upon integration, collaboration, and communication.
It is the most salient methodology through which an
organization can check and assure a balance between
development and quality. In order to reach an equilibrium
point in this resolution, both Dev and Ops need to
embrace the DevOps methodologies by modifying their
outlook and their way of working, as follows:
From the Operations Perspective
Ÿ Extensive monitoring of all running environments such
| November 2019 |
37
Editorial Talk

Ian Crouch
CEO & Co-founder
| November 2019 |
38

REVEAL GROUP
Transforming Businesses for Good
ith a mission to help clients accelerate their
Wtransformation programs by applying best-
of-breed technologies, Reveal Group was
founded back in 2005. The group's focus on enabling
operational excellence and workforce optimization
eventually led it to Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
in 2014. Reveal Group's early RPA engagements
convinced them of the need to establish partnership
with cutting-edge technologies to enable scalability and
sustainability. While RPA is often bandied about as easy
to implement in small settings, implementing a program
at scale requires fit-for-purpose infrastructure as well
as experienced management and strong governance
standards. Helping clients achieve this foundation from
the outset enables future scalability and self-
sufficiency, the hallmark of Reveal Group's business
model today.
The Specialists in Robotic Process Automation
Reveal Group specializes in RPA and Intelligent
Automation (IA) technologies. The firm's business
model is predicated on helping clients achieve
operational excellence through automation. A critical
tenet of this approach is enabling clients to develop
their own internal capabilities to drive ongoing benefits
sustainably and independently. Blue Prism is Reveal
Group's technology change agent of choice, since
forming a strong partnership in 2014. Despite Reveal
Group's modest size (100 employees) in comparison
with some of the firms also competing in the space, it is
consistently ranked as as one of Blue Prism's largest,
most successful global partners, working with clients
around the world.
Core Values
Reveal Group is driven by core values that guide their
business, developments and partnerships. As the
organization continues to grow and evolve, these three
values remain constant.
Ÿ Innovation: Reveal Group encourages bold,
imaginative and dynamic ideas, relentlessly
challenging itself to bring clients breakthrough
results. They value taking risks, inspiring creativity,
and learning from its outcomes.
Ÿ Collaboration: The Reveal Group team empower
each other to make change and unleash new
potential in an environment built on openness and
trust. It has fostered a vibrant, trusting, and sociable
culture, where doors and learning are always open.
It is a critical tenant of the organizations success to
share and collaborate in order to achieve the
ultimate outcomes for clients.
Ÿ Integrity: Honesty, openness and respect are
fundamental to Reveal Group's success and integral
to the way it operates. The passion for the work it
does and pride in its outcomes solidifies the
importance Reveal Group places on its clients.
Ÿ Excellence: Their reputation for delivering world-
class outcomes inspires us them be the best. Reveal
Group set standards high so they can exceed
expectations and strive for the best results for their
clients.
The Farsighted Leader
Before founding Reveal Group in 2005, Ian Crouch,
CEO and co-founder of the organization served at the
most senior levels of the financial services industry and
Reveal Group
| November 2019 |
39

is responsible for growing Reveal Group into the
leading specialist consultancy it is today. Crouch served
as the CIO at National Australia Bank and as the Vice
President of EDS, A.T. Kearney, Booz Allen, and
Hamilton. The experience gained at these organizations
highlighted a gap in the market, one that over the past
decade he has worked to fill with Reveal Group.
Strategizing for Success Amidst Volatile Technological
Changes
Reveal Group has made a conscious decision to
leverage RPA as a gateway technology to enable clients
on the journies to optimize business operations and
eventual digital transformation. The firm's strong
technical and architecture chops combined with its
approach of enabling clients to build and run their own
automation environments helps yield effective baseline
automation programs. Horses For Sources (HfS)
Research has seen many automation programs stalled
by perpetual POCs, lack of internal talent cultivation,
limited governance, weak change management, poor
demand management, and minimal benefits tracking.
Reveal Group knows that mitigating these pitfalls
requires enterprises to establish and run robust
automation operating models; otherwise, the programs
will wither once the implementation partner leaves.
Reveal Group brings the benefit of its pure-play
experience with RPA, including an array of accelerators
in its cache of internal IP, and post-departure health
check capabilities to get enterprises on the right track
and keep them there. While Reveal Group has built its
reputation as a Blue Prism specialist, as it expands its
geographic footprint, it will increasingly encounter
clients with other or multi-vendor RPA environments.
Reveal has already inked partnerships with TrustPortal
and UiPath to support a wholistic approach to the RPA
space for clients going forward.
What's in Store?
Reveal Group's plans for 2019 and beyond include
relocating its headquarters to New York with a
continued operational focus on expanding its practices
across North American, Australia and beyond. The firm
will also expand on its stature as a certified Blue Prism
partner, as well as building out it's UiPath practice in
line with the renowned Robotic Operating Model it
already offers.
Reveal Group is your
Intelligent Automation
specialist. Clients look to us
to achieve sustainable and
scalable business results
through Automation.
“
“
| November 2019 |
40

Salt Essential IT
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Partner of Choice
C
loud Computing paradigm has given the opportunity and capability to the
entrepreneurs to achieve their business goal. It represents an opportunity for all
businesses to save their time and budget with resources focused on innovation.
Hence just like salt, cloud technology is an essential ingredient to your business
transformation. Salt Essential IT provides collaboration, connectivity, & support
services to the businesses and paves the way with innovative new technologies and IT
solutions in the markets. The company has been serving thousands of organizations
since 1998 with personalized solutions delivered by internationally certified subject
matter experts.
Changing technology can be daunting and expensive if not supported by experts. Also,
the company’s experts ensure that consumers benefit from the perfect solutions to
drive their business’ growth and digital transformation. Salt Essential IT enables the
business to operate better, generate revenue, and boost with happy employees by its
solutions. The company is known to make the impossible, possible for the customers,
and ’Salties’ are very proud to be a part of the Salt family.
Empowering Customers
Salt is one of Africa’s select award-winning Microsoft Direct Cloud Solution Providers,
supporting customers ranging from small and medium business to enterprise. The
company’s mission is to empower each other, it’s customers, and it’s economy. The
company delivers expert solutions and services in data-centers and hybrid/cloud
solutions that allow its customers to be disruptors in their respective industries. As
their core focus is understanding its customers’ business. Apart from its competition
customers can buy a license, or a computer, from thousands of other IT Companies. The
company believes in the empowerment of each employee to take on the challenge of
delivering quality services that will impact the customer experience in an efficient,
productive, and collaborative manner. Customers get guaranteed up-times and access
to email while ensuring security and compliance.
Salt will involve the vendor for architecture support and confirmation and where
needed to engage with a third party to ensure a successful consumption of products
and solutions once procured by our customers. By putting the customer first, the
company is an ICT partner of choice. The company’s biggest challenge lies in vendor
support, which it manages through good relationship management to ensure its
| November 2019 |
42

Sonja
Coetzer
Chief Operations Manager
Salt Essential IT
| November 2019 |
43

customer is always top of mind for the channel. The
company is tackling one customer at a time through
short workshops to teach them about the power of the
technology they have procured to drive collaboration,
productivity, and disruption. At Salt, it only provides the
very best AntiVirus available in the world to its
customers. The company continually strives to do its
work in new & better ways, bringing new and better
technology to the customers.
Securable and Reliable
Salt’s focus is on understanding the customers’ business
and their ICT needs to manage & securely achieve core
business goals. With solutions such as Security eXchange
Point, or SXP, ensures its customers’ employees are
always connected to their cloud services reliably and
Just like Salt is
an essential ingredient in
every dish, technology
is an essential ingredient
to business transformation.
““
| November 2019 |
44

securely, from any location or device. SXP provides
systems and tools to ensure their company and their
employees’ data is secure. Its Information eXchange
Point provides a secure and productive environment for
the customers. Employees and stakeholders get access
to the latest Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc, as well as the
very secure and stable Windows Enterprise, for a
fraction of the cost of the traditional licensing vehicle.
Documents are secure as only certain people are
allowed to edit or share the documents. Secure to
Secure Site Connectivity (S2SC) is groundbreaking
technology allowing securely connect the branches to
the concerned Head Office, and all offices to the world
wide web. Disaster Recovery (DR) is the process of
getting crucial data duplicated, in a safe, secured, and
easily accessible place. Online Backup Service (OBS)
allows protecting your critical data securely so that
customers can concentrate on the key focus of the
business.
Driving Down Costs
Salt closely works with its clients to understand their
business needs, goals, and objectives and accordingly
formulate and design an ICT environment that drives
down cost yet increase productivity and yield. Through
the company’s various Software as a Service offering, it
can deliver Email eXchange Point that allows the
customers to be connected from anywhere at half the
cost. The company also allows its customers to be
disruptors in their respective industries while driving
down the cost of ownership of their Information and
Communication Technology (ICT). Its solutions are
known to save businesses up to 50% on IT costs. Its
Exchange Online plan offers a secure corporate email for
a low cost.
Time Matters
Salt Essential IT understands that it has embraced the
fourth industrial revolution digital marketing approach,
focussing its time and efforts mostly on reaching its
customers through easily accessible mediums, such as
social media and internet-based platforms. The
company’s Desktop eXchange Point enables our
customers to work from anywhere at any time, making
work always accessible. Pro Plus even share the
documents and have multiple people work on the same
document at the same time from different places that
saves time.
Salt’s sleeping server replicates data real-time between
data center’s and if hardware fails or disaster strikes, the
sleeping server which wakes up and keeps the
employees working. By accessing the right skills to solve
the customer’s problems, they don’t waste time trying to
figure out how to solve the problem. Customers only pay
for a portion of that person’s time, and the resource is
shared, making that usually unaffordable and
unattainable skill accessible to all.
Overall Impact
Salt’s vision is to positively impact everyone and
everything connected to it. The company believes in the
empowerment of each employee to take on the
challenge of delivering quality services that will impact
the customer experience in an efficient, productive, and
collaborative manner. The company’s goal is to empower
all companies in all the industries to take on their
delivery challenges and Impact each client through
digital transformation. The company strives to make a
positive impact on each other and the customers in all it
says and does.
As Salt is a hybrid-cloud based service and solution
house, it affords the much-needed agility to cope with
the ever-changing technology that its customers require
to be industry disruptors meeting the needs of their
clients. The company’s goal is to challenge the status quo
and in doing so, change lives for the better, by embracing
and sharing better technology.
Passionate and Motivational Leader
To evolve IT leaders need a clear vision embarking on the
journey to the cloud. Those who stay ahead of the cloud
trend will be able to control and shape this transition.
Sonja Coetzer, Chief Operations Manager, at SALT says,
"I am honored to work with such a brilliant, forward-thinking
team who embraces a Cloud-first model, delivering smart yet
effective and inclusive solutions to our clients". She is a
living example of how choosing the right technology tool
can bring a huge amount of delivery excellence to any job
and shares this passion with customers, staff, interns,
and students alike. Having worked all over SADC, she
has been able to reach thousands of people and helped
them grow personally and professionally by introducing
and exposing them to her world full of technological
pearls.
Sonja fell into IT over 20 years ago and had her first
exposure to the love of her life when she met Windows
3.1. She grasped the infinite power ICT products and
solutions could offer to change lives for the better, and
of course like any other marriage, for the worse. Sonja is
passionate about IT and in particular, Microsoft and will
take every moment and opportunity to apply it to her
everyday life and customers’ environment.
| November 2019 |
45

SILVERWARE
Making The Hospitality Industry
More Proﬁtable
We bring more
to the table,
so you can
bring more
to yours.
“
—Nick Thalas,
Founder & CEO
“
| November 2019 |
46

Along with other sectors, technology has also
played a crucial role in the hospitality industry.
Through technology, businesses in the
hospitality industry are able to provide personalized
and enriching experiences. Not only this, technology
has also enabled businesses to reduce their costs,
enhance operational efficiencies, and improve services
and customer experiences.
With a mission to improve the profitability of
businesses by relentlessly delivering the most
innovative and beneficial technologies in the hospitality
industry, Silverware was incepted.
Silverware’s Founder & CEO, Nick Thalas, is a software
engineer by trade. At a very young age, he was inspired
by how software was able to create efficiencies across
all industries. As a software consultant, he was
contracted by a semi-private golf & country club to
source a point-of-sale solution. After researching the
available solutions on the market, Nick presented a few
options to the operation: one of which included him
developing a custom developed point-of-sale solution.
The golf club decided to take Nick up on his offer and
within a few months, the first version of Silverware POS
was launched.
Nick Thalas has been heavily involved in the company’s
expansion since day one. His attention to detail and
relentless attempt to drive efficiencies to better the
guest experience is infectious. Silverware is widely
recognized as the first company to build a graphical
Windows-based POS solution and was one of the first
to launch a mobile cloud solution. Nick has been
instrumental in changing the way the industry thinks
about technology within the hospitality space and
continues to push the limits. Combining industry
leading technology, a great team at Silverware, and
integrating with like-minded organizations has helped
spring the company forward.
Trusted by the most notable brands around the globe,
Silverware is a leading developer of advanced
hospitality technology. The company’s technology
enhances every aspect of the guest experience, from
when the first customer walks in, until the last one
walks out.
Silverware’s hybrid-cloud point of sale solution is the
most scalable and user-friendly on the market. Its
solution provides the efficiency and security needed by
the most sophisticated establishments in the industry.
Silverware combines a white-gloved implementation
process along with industry-leading technology to
ensure that it is helping its customers create an
elevated guest experience. Pushing the limit of
technology has been at the forefront of Silverware's
growth.
Silverware’s customer-focused solutions are installed in
thousands of table and quick service restaurants, some
of the most recognizable hotels & resorts, bars &
nightclubs, private member facilities, assisted living
communities, corporate/institutional cafeterias,
stadiums, and casinos around the globe.
Silverware reaches its potential customers by utilizing
social media platforms, articles and advertisements in
industry magazines, exhibiting at tradeshows, and
more. By doing this, the company is able to share its
technologies and showcase its incredible list of
customers. Silverware is a ‘people first’ organization and
this is clearly displayed through its marketing
initiatives. This approach allows Silverware to share
content and connect with its customers on a deeper
level. Silverware also releases a bi-monthly newsletter
that highlights what is new with the Silverware Family,
software updates, news from its partners, upcoming
events, and more.
Now, the company is focused on being the go-to
hospitality provider who is synonymous with elevating
the guests experience. Silverware loves being that
silent partner who is unrecognizable to the general
population but is enabling their favorite F&B outlets to
bring more to the table. By continuously launching new
technologies, and integrating with like-minded
organizations, Silverware is poised to continue helping
its customers expand.
It understands what beneficial and innovative
technologies people need to better their businesses.
The company stands behind a strong team, with service
to match its customers expectation and they can always
count on Silverware. Pushing the limit to create
efficiencies is what it does.
Testimonials
“Silverware Enables me to check real time sales of any given
product at any given time” – Dave Sidhu, Owner and
Operator, Mas Playas Restaurant Group
“Silverware’s various integrations and reporting capabilities
allow us to focus on what we do best – thoroughly delight
each guest.” – Nick Kroeger, Manager of Business
Systems, Oliver and Bonacini Hospitality
“Accor has 5,000 + hotels worldwide. The point of sale
system is a critical piece in supporting our operations.” –
Ted Chuckmala, Executive Director of Technology,
Accor Hotels
Silverware
| November 2019 |
47

The Most Valuable Tech Titans | KORE | Romil Bahl

The Most Valuable Tech Titans | KORE | Romil Bahl

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