Datacentrix is confident of the future as it has secured new three- to five-year contracts valued at around R500-million and extended a further R300-million in contracts.

CEO Ahmed Mahomed on Tuesday said the group was well positioned for the new financial year, as the revenue from the new and renewed agreements was starting to emerge, benefiting both the managed services and technology divisions.

“The recent contract wins and extensions bode well for the business,” he said, as the company announced that mining giant Exxaro was one of the companies that had extended its contract.

Exxaro extended a five-year outsourcing contract for the second time, allowing Datacentrix to continue managing the miner’s operations integration and enterprise services, as well as services relating to the company’s sites, network, servers and storage.

Another undisclosed company had renewed its contract with Datacentrix for the third time, with the renewals and new contracts possibly offsetting the exit of an undisclosed customer that had insourced its services, which had impacted the performance of the managed services unit for the financial year to February 28.

“One of the contributing factors to our success is skills investment, which has provided us with the capability to design, implement and manage complex technology solutions, resulting in better strategic business partnerships with our customers. Skilled staff is crucial to business success and, as such, Datacentrix will continue to recruit, develop and retain the right skills to deliver on the group strategy,” Mahomed said.

In line with this, Datacentrix planned to plug the gaps in its expertise and capabilities through acquisitions to complement its current offerings, create economies of scale in existing business areas and bring new solutions to market within the managed services and business solutions divisions.

This followed the company’s planned R85-million buy-out of Pinnacle’s wholly-owned outsourcing and data centre facilities business Infrasol.

“The acquisition will complement the group’s existing capabilities and contribute to the managed services division, improving efficiencies and achieving improved economies of scale,” he said.

The transaction, effective July 1, remained subject to approval by the Competition Commission and Datacentrix shareholders.