Viven Bhowani, new COO of NEC XON.

Systems integrator and ICT solutions company NEC XON has appointed Viven Bhowani as its new COO, to help strengthen the company’s market value in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Bhowani, formerly solutions director at system integrator iOCO, will oversee the organisation’s transition as it increasingly digitises services and explores growth into broader markets.

NEC XON is the combination of systems integrator XON and NEC Africa, the African business of global technology giant NEC Corporation.

It provides smart solutions such as renewable energy, safety and security products to companies operating in the energy, telecommunications, enterprise, retail, financial, mining, telecommunications and pharmaceutical sectors.

“Our vision is to relentlessly pursue innovative technologies to safely and securely overcome some of society’s greatest challenges,” says Carel Coetzee, CEO of NEC XON.

“Viven will help us achieve that goal, by uniting and projecting our strengthened value proposition, from across our group’s solutions portfolio, into broader Sub-Saharan, East and West African markets.”

African organisations are a key future global growth market for NEC XON as the company’s operations seek to more fully explore the opportunities for safe cities, cyber security, managed services, cyber defence services and cloud, adds Coetzee.

“Now, we are growing to the next level by taking our integrated value proposition from across our business units into our markets across SA, the 16 Sub-Saharan countries where we operate, and broadening our business interests in East and West Africa,” according to Coetzee.

In his new position, Bhowani says he will focus on digitally transforming NEC XON, by further leveraging the global expertise of the NEC Corporation, and deliver increasingly relevant and innovative solutions to clients.

“NEC XON has always been very customer-driven – the founders have nurtured great human assets with exceptionally strong technology expertise and a passion for innovation.

“Now, we want to harness their deep skills and enhance our efficiencies through digitalised operations to provide more business value to our clients. We also want to increasingly supplement our capabilities through the deep global skills and innovation available through our integration with NEC Group,” explains Bhowani.

Prior to working for iOCO, Bhowani led strategic digitalisation programmes as CTO of law firm Webber Wentzel, where he spearheaded the technology aspects of the firm’s modern head-office.

“Having been a customer myself when I was CTO at Webber Wentzel, I always try to take a customer-centric approach which, together with innovation, lies at the heart of digital transformation and the fourth industrial revolution,” concludes Bhowani.