MIMO Internet Solutions is an Exmouth (Devon,Southwest England) based company specialising in creating quality web pages for small businesses. Our prices are competitive, and our sites are simple yet effective. With our help you can get your business an effective online presence.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is one of those magnificent concepts that swept the business world in the 1990's with the promise of forever changing the way businesses small and large interacted with their customer bases. In the short term, however, it proved to be an unwieldy process that was better in theory than in practice for a variety of reasons. First among these was that it was simply so difficult and expensive to track and keep the high volume of records needed accurately and constantly update them. In the last several years, however, newer software systems and advanced tracking features have vastly improved CRM capabilities and the real promise of CRM is becoming a reality. As the price of newer, more customizable Internet Solutions have hit the marketplace; competition has driven the prices down so that even relatively small businesses are reaping the benefits of some custom CRM programs. The South African ICT sector expected 2007 to be a lucrative year, and indications are that the year is living up to some of its promise.

Major players in the ICT sector said they expected greater regulator clarity, stronger growth for the providers, more services and products for the consumers, and fierce competition and price drops, they said. There will be lots of opportunities from the client and service provider perspective, said Internet Solutions CEO Angus McRoberts. "For the first time, clients will have many options." These developments will take place despite strong challenges which include slow deregulation and an acute skills shortage, speakers said.

Fierce competition Competition will be fierce competition in the corporate business side, with lots of services and products launched, said Neotel MD Ajay Pandey. However, increased uptake of services will compensate for any price erosion taking place as a result of competition, with the providers enjoying strong growth, he said. "As we move ahead, the battle on competition will be on speed, not infrastructure," he adds. MTN Internet Solutions Mike Brierley also expected good growth in the Internet Service Provider (ISP) market. Mobile data will be significant player, with MTN seeing 10-15% growth per month, Brierley said.

Projected price cuts will however have limited on revenues, as corporates are expected to trade their cost savings they receive as a result of the price cuts for more bandwidth, he added. Strange bed-fellows Speakers predicted a lot of mergers and acquisitions, with companies consolidating their holdings in order to become more competitive and new players entering the market. "Competitors will collaborate to meet customer needs one day, and then compete hand-over-first for business the day," said Microsoft SA CEO Mfungwa Serima.

Serima cited the partnership between Microsoft and Novel as an example of some of the strategic partnerships that may be formed. There will also be a lot of sharing of infrastructure and facilities, Pandey added. "Every month of delay is millions of rands lost," he said.