Datacentrix has been recognised as Agrimark’s Supplier of the Year for Information Management in 2023.
A subsidiary of the KAL Group, Agrimark has served farmers, families and friends for more than 100 years, providing a trusted, one-stop shopping destination for a range of quality agricultural and lifestyle products across more than 160 outlets in South Africa and Namibia. The recent event marked Agrimark’s 12th annual Supplier of the Year Awards ceremony.
For 2023, the Agrimark awards acknowledged 32 suppliers – of its total active database of 5,400 partners – across product-specific categories, with winners recognised for excellence across criteria including integrity, customer focus, value proposition and efficiency.
According to Charl Graham, Agrimark’s group manager: information management, the company works with approximately 100 suppliers on the Information Management side, with around 20 of these partners considered as being strategic to the business, with a direct effect on its success.
“The information management division measures its suppliers on a monthly basis, based on several parameters. These include ease of doing business, which looks more at the administrative side of the partnership, what the supplier has done over the month to build on the long-term relationship with Agrimark, and their responsiveness,” states Graham.
“In addition, we look at innovation, as Agrimark relies heavily on its partners to bring fresh thinking and ideas to the table in their areas of expertise, as well as the business’s ethics.”
The category winners of the Agrimark annual Supplier of the Year Awards are the suppliers with the top aggregate scores over the period.
“IM also puts together a type of ‘Magic Quadrant’ for its suppliers, measuring them on performance on one axis and the type of work each one completes on the other. Datacentrix steadily remains within the top right quadrant of our graph, as a company that not only performs consistently but also one that we will continue to partner with wherever there are opportunities.
“With Datacentrix, we have the assurance that our branch managers can open their stores every day without giving a second thought to connectivity, availability, access to the right systems, or anything else ICT-related; it just works,” Graham continues. “The company has implemented an excellent architecture and refresh strategy for Agrimark, allowing for a technology lifespan of around eight years between our primary and secondary data centre environments.
“We have built a solid, trust-based relationship with Datacentrix, and know that we have their unwavering support.”
Francois de Kock, Datacentrix senior account manager: Cape Region at Datacentrix, says: “Datacentrix provides the organisation with its enterprise architecture design, supply, maintenance and support services, and we have enjoyed an open, honest partnership with Agrimark over a number of years.
“Datacentrix prides itself on its customer-centric approach and ethical business practice, as well as focusing on delivering the highest service levels possible, and building strong, long-term partnerships. It is an honour to have been recognised by Agrimark for these qualities that are critical to Datacentrix as an organisation.”