In this episode of ITWeb TV, Jalusi Tech MD Thandiwe Shema details her start as a tech entrepreneur, reaching a target of employing 80% women in tech roles, adding more solutions to their product suite and how her company is helping small businesses innovate and plug in their digital gaps.
With two new solutions – a customer relationship management (CRM) offering and an agritech tool – set to go live early next year, local player Jalusi Tech is looking to grow its staff complement.
So said Thandiwe Shema, entrepreneur and MD of Jalusi Tech, in an interview with ITWeb TV,during which she revealed how the company is helping entrepreneurs and small business owners with their digital needs and managing its own growth ambitions.
Being a woman entrepreneur in the tech space, Shema said she wants to have more than 80% of her company’s staff be made up of women developers and technicians, especially because of the struggles of breaking into the market.
“For women in tech, there are challenges to break into certain industries and convincing clients that you can do same that a big company does. I’ve also seen some of the challenges for female graduates looking to get into the tech space.
“I want to break the stereotypes that exist about women in tech…I want to employ women and youth, to show they are able to operate in this market.”
Founded four years ago, Jalusi Tech helps small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) move their businesses within the digital tools space, offering hosting services (e-mail), cyber security, IT support, Microsoft solutions, as well as unlimited phone services.
According to Shema, the new CRM portal will allow SMMEs to run their businesses, including invoicing, procurement and legal documents. Meanwhile, the agritech portal will help farmers improve their operations.
“It [CRM] will help to professionalise SMMEs’ business. When we refer to ‘professionalising’ for SMMEs, we mean moving them from using their personal e-mails for work. We teach them how to use Microsoft as a project management tool within their business, etc.”
While data shows women make up nearly half of SA’s working-age population, only 13% of formal businesses are women-owned.
Thandiwe Shema, MD of Jalusi Tech. (Photograph by Lesley Moyo)
With several years’ experience in the insurance industry, Shema was introduced to the world of entrepreneurship after losing her job. A friend invited her to shadow him in his business, which ignited the spark to start her own company.
Before Jalusi Tech, she embarked on two business ventures that didn’t take off, which she describes as her “initiation” phase.
“I had a look at the market and what entrepreneurs were struggling with and that led me to establish a company called Jalusi Corporation. It focused on helping small companies develop and this is where I identified the innovation challenges that entrepreneurs face with running a business.
“I noticed that a lot of entrepreneurs are behind in the tech space and don’t have the necessary tools for their businesses, so this is what led to establishing Jalusi Tech.
“We started creating services and products that assist entrepreneurs to innovate within their businesses. This is an exciting time, because we’re getting our products out there and they’re reaching the national market, and we hope to grow internationally.”
Shema told ITWeb TV that her company also has ambitions to get into the data centre space, becoming the first black women-owned business in SA to own a data centre.
“What we’re busy with now is trying to buy land. Hopefully, we’ll be successful with the land purchase in the next two months, and we’ll be able to proceed with building our 2 000 square metre data centre.
“This will allow us to attract a lot more entrepreneurs, whether they are emerging or medium-sized, so that their data can reside locally.
“If you look at South Africa, I think there’s still a lot of education that is needed about the importance of data protection, especially for emerging businesses. For Jalusi, we want to educate businesses about the importance of data storage and protection thereof.”
South Africa is the largest data centre market on the continent, as hyperscalers and data centre operators continue to establish cloud regions, according to a report by Grand View Research.
The country is considered a ‘sweet spot’ for operators due to several factors, including the growing cloud market and digital economy. It is also the largest and most digitally-developed nation on the African continent.
The Southern African nation has seen digital infrastructure companies − including Africa Data Centres, Open Access Data Centres, Teraco (Digital Realty), Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, Equinix and Vantage Data Centres – launch their data centres in SA.
