Spescom CIO Viv Crone wins SAIEE Engineer of the Year award

The SAIEE, formed in 1909, has over 5 000 members who are professionally engaged in a range of engineering activities, including academic technology, manufacturing, electronics, telecommunications, measurement and control, mining, and power infrastructural services.

Crone, a member of the SAIEE for over 30 years, has served as a SAIEE Council member for over 15 years. His accomplishments on a professional level are considerable, having managed the development of a number of innovation firsts for Spescom, namely the first keypad prepayment meter, first VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) voice recorder and first integrated mobile voice recording system. More recently, as CIO of Spescom, he has managed the design, construction and commissioning of South Africa's first dedicated carrier neutral co-location facility - a neutral telecoms hub that will allow competitive interconnection of carrier networks to the betterment of the telecoms landscape in SA and Africa.

In 2007, he responded to a call from Nhlanhla Maphalala, chairman of the Bergville Community Builders in KwaZulu-Natal, to get industry and business to give something back into the community. Initiating a collaborative effort between the SAIEE, Wits School of Electrical Engineering, the BCB and Spescom, he created an outreach programme that focuses on improving the level of knowledge of science educators and high school learners in the region.

Explains Crone: "There is an extensive skills shortage in South Africa, especially at all levels in the technical fields. Quite simply, in many areas, the basic education system fails to provide sufficient education or stimulation of interest in engineering or technical areas of study. Should the contingency arise, in the rural areas of South African schools lack Internet communications or even access to computers. This, in conjunction with large classes, educators that have varying levels of knowledge and skill, mean that very many learners do not reach their potential. These challenges all contribute to a poor senior certificate pass rate, with very few of these learner graduates achieving science and mathematics qualifications at a sufficiently high level to pursue a technical career. The Bergville initiative is aimed at mitigating the impact of these harsh realities."

JSE-listed company operating in the ICT sector

Spescom is a JSE-listed company operating in the ICT sector. Founded in 1977, this South African company has developed and delivered a number of world first technologies, as so then as innovative products and services to both local and global markets. Spescom's core focus is to deliver integrated business communication solutions that enhance the way businesses communicate with their clients and leverages voice, video and data technologies through its five divisions: Spescom DataFusion; Spescom DataVoice; Spescom Telecommunications; Spescom Media IT, and recently created NewTelco South Africa - a carrier-neutral co-location service provider creating a telecoms interconnection hub for sub-Saharan Africa. The deep technical expertise and considerable industry know-how housed in these five divisions combine to deliver world-class solutions including integrated contact centre platforms and applications, a range of voice application technologies, also as telecommunications and broadcast solutions.

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