Azzurri ops boss Du Toit to drive cross-skilling efficiencies

Former Datapoint man David Du Toit recruited by old colleague Vithaldas to implement cross-skilling strategy

Azzurri's new operations director David Du Toit has been tasked with skilling up the company's engineering and post-sales staff to drive efficiencies and profitability.

Du Toit (pictured) arrives at the firm following a two-year spell at South African systems integrator Tatis. Prior to that, he spent seven years at Datapoint, where he worked alongside Vim Vithaldas, who was appointed as chief executive of Azzurri last year. He replaces Steve Clark, who left earlier this summer to take the CEO post at Calyx Managed Services.

"David has the largest amount of people reporting into him [of any member of senior management], with the largest proportion of the company's cost base. I wanted a real safe pair of hands to make sure it is efficient," said Vithaldas.

The Azzurri boss outlined that one of the main priorities for the new man will be "the cross-skilling of our people" across the integrator's five defined business units: data; mobile; voice; IT; and services.

Du Toit claimed that the cross-pollination exercise was more geared towards ensuring the company could open up cross-selling opportunities and drive top-line growth without a big increase in the cost base, rather than simply an attempt to strip out overheads.

"The whole drive for me is going to be achieving economies by sharing skills across the company," he said. "In terms of the growth we are pushing for, we are trying to see if we can grow the skills base disproportionately [to the cost base]."

Vithaldas added: "If we can cross-skill our individuals, that enhances the individuals' capability and make them more rounded. From a customer perspective they are receiving a better from Azzurri and, ultimately, if we can get that right, it will mean more points on our gross margin."

Four months ago Vithaldas claimed he wanted to turn Azzurri into a "boring" business, with steady and predictable revenue streams. For its current fiscal year, which began on 1 July, he reiterated the priority of driving growth in the other four divisions faster than in the project-centric IT unit.

"Projects come and go and, hand on heart, I cannot tell you which projects we will be delivering in Q1 of next year," he said. "But [that is not the case] in the other four Centres of Excellence.