2020 African Business Excellence Awards

MEAMARKETS / African Business Excellence Awards 2020 19 , Tagit Tagit provides IT solutions and services that aimtomake strategy execution simpler. Offering IT advisory and strategic planning, project implementation andmanagement, Tagit’s clients are mainly in the financial services and IT industrywith some notable ones being the SouthAfrican Reserve Bank, ALUWANI Capital Partners, and the Public Investment Corporation. Tagit was founded by Joy Mabuza, who has more than 15 years’ experience in the IT and financial services industry. Here, she explains that the company’s mission is threefold, and details the steps taken to ensure it is achieved. “Our mission is to drive social and economic inclusion; enlarge the marketplace; and be a catalyst in driving Africa’s prosperity, by focusing on issues of education, skills development and employment,” Joy begins. “Daily we observe the plight of those that never received the same opportunities as some of us have. Working with the youth through mentorships, introducing them to the world of work, and sharing our experiences (i.e. do’s and don’ts) allows us an opportunity to give back and deliver on our mission.” When it comes to recruitment, the right fit with the firm is paramount to its success and Tagit hires individuals who are keen to better themselves and are innately always willing to learn. “We obviously want to impress our clients so we hire the very best where we place the staff member at a client,” explains Joy. “This essentially means understanding what the client is trying to achieve and ensuring that there individual is qualified to do the work. Most of our team members are helpful individuals who are keen to help clients solve their problems. “We encourage teamwork so individuals can support each other in accomplishing client goals. Senior staff are expected to mentor the junior staff.” Tagit supports young black graduates through an in-depth mentorship and skills development program. To this end it has partnered with: Wits University’s JCSE Institute, Rosebank College, DNA Dynamics College, University of KwaZulu Natal’s John Langa Libalele Institute (aka Fuze Institute). “Each year we take on graduates and provide them with work experience to either graduate or to have some working experience so they can be employable by either ourselves or other organisations.” When it comes to new projects, the firm applies an agile approach to ensure that it is on the correct path for its clients. “We follow best practices and industry standard project management methodologies,” says Joy. “Typically we identify the project sponsor and establish the business case with them. The point being to ensure Aug20694 that we are clear on what problems we are solving, and also, we are then able to tell once we meet our objectives. This helps with guidelines on scope and budget, which are necessary in our project planning.” The current Covid-19 pandemic saw the South African Government declare a State of National Disaster, which is currently easing down from level five (strict, with limited movement and no gatherings permitted) to level one (relaxed approach, with international movement to be allowed imminently). However, Joy and her team were more than prepared for what the country faced. “Our company is currently working from home however we have been prepared for this. In fact we have prepared our clients for this, as part of our bi-annual business continuity and disaster recovery planning. So essentially we invoked disaster recovery and were able to continue operations for ourselves and our clients, with limited disruption.” With regards to the future, Joy sees the firm being better positioned to achieve its objective of becoming the leading services provider in financial data projects and IT infrastructure. “Being specialists in project implementation services in the financial services area allows us to deliver the rest of the solutions that take a client from having no infrastructure, implement applications to enable them to operate and then mine their data for strategic insights. We will only become stronger as these technologies converge.” Contact: Joy Mabuza Company: Tagit Web Address: www.tagit.co.za Best Woman-Owned IT Services & Solutions Business 2020