[Johannesburg, 8 November 2012] -

IT solution provider, Datacentrix has expanded its monitoring and operations services contract with Strate, the licensed Central Securities Depository (CSD) for the electronic settlement of financial instruments in South Africa and one of the organisation's key clients, to include specialised IBM mainframe support services.

According to Abrie Peens, Datacentrix's IBM business unit manager, Datacentrix has invested heavily in its multimillion-rand monitoring and control centre to ensure that clients, like Strate, can leverage its significant execution capabilities and, as such, mitigate the associated technology risks within a complex environment.

"Through our new contract, Strate has access to highly specialised expertise at Datacentrix, in the form of our IBM mainframe team, which numbers among the top skills in the country. Our monitoring and control centre also allows for centralised monitoring and technical support, where accountability resides with Datacentrix, to help improve availability, while increasing efficiencies and, ultimately, business competitiveness."

Strate's core purpose is to mitigate risk, bring efficiencies to the South African financial markets and improve its profile as an investment destination. The organisation handles the settlement of a number of securities, including equities and bonds for the JSE Limited, as well as a range of derivative products such as warrants, exchange traded funds (ETFs), retail notes, tracker funds and money market securities.

Says Peens: "As a company that already operates within the high-risk financial sector, Strate needs the reassurance of knowing that its technology environment is risk-free, something that can easily be achieved though Datacentrix's monitoring and control centre."

Datacentrix

Since listing on the JSE Stock Exchange in 1998, Datacentrix has become one of South Africa's leading empowered services-led solution integrators. The company's focus is the provision of infrastructure and business solutions, including cloud computing, high-end storage and security, as well as outsourcing and other related IT services, to the country's public and private sectors. Datacentrix is currently one of the most highly skilled and certified business partners for a number of leading international and local vendors.

For more information, please visit www.datacentrix.co.za.

Strate

Strate is South Africa's authorised Central Securities Depository providing electronic settlement for securities including equities, bonds, money markets and derivative products such as warrants, exchange traded funds (ETFs), retail notes and tracker funds for the likes of Africa's largest stock exchange, the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE), and equities for the Namibian Stock Exchange. It provides services to Issuers for their Investors in terms of the Companies Act (2008) and Securities Services Act (SSA) (2004).



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