Gijima - formerly GijimaAST - last nght celebrated five years in operation and the unveiling of its new brand identity.

Five years ago, Robert Gumede’s Gijima Technologies performed a reverse takeover of the ailing AST Technologies, resulting in the formation of the black-owned, controlled and managed GijimaAst.
In its maiden financial year as the merged entity, GijimaAst showed a profit of R38-million. Since then, it has more than doubled its turnover from R1,58-billion in June 2005 to R3,01-billion for the financial year ended 30 June 2009, with profits growing to R85,8-million from R41,6-million during the same period.
“As an organisation we realised that, in order to face the future and achieve our goals, one of the areas we needed to tackle was our brand," says Thoko Mnyango, Gijima’s managing executive: marketing, communication & transformation. "In November last year, the Board took the decision to evolve the company name and its associated brand identity, and to rejuvenate the current GijimaAst brand. I feel South African companies, and society in general, don’t celebrate their successes enough. Today, with the launch of our rebranding exercise, we have something to celebrate.
“In the last five years, GijimaAst has evolved its brand identity to reflect its resilience and dynamism as a company. With the new financial year in July, the organisation will drop the AST and be known simply as Gijima. This is not to say the company is neglecting the AST brand and its valuable role in shaping the company.  Rather, we are intent on simplifying, standardising and enhancing our brand positioning by moving away from a silo approach when going to market, to a holistic provider of technology solutions.
“The company will also continue to differentiate itself in the sector through the people it employs. People and warmth are reflected in the new logo, and we believe it can be successfully leveraged throughout our branding, marketing and communication efforts going forward. Focusing on the importance of our people within the organisation and the sector in which we operate, we have moved away from ‘Your Complete ICT Partner’ to a simplified pay-off line, ‘Technology People’, which epitomises our business,” explains Mnyango.
CEO Jonas Bogoshi emphasises that the dropping of AST signifies the successful road the company has travelled over the past five years. “We believe the evolved brand of Gijima, together with our proven performance sustainability, client-centric approach and competitive advantage, will take us forward. The landscape is changing with new market entrants, increased competition, buyers and suppliers holding more power, and the constant evolution of products, services and technology development.
“We need to work harder and smarter to differentiate ourselves and retain our leadership position. We need to become a high-performance centre of innovation and we need to reinvent ourselves continually, to remain relevant within a dynamic environment.
“We have industry-unique solutions that can be marketed globally, and we need to grow our business beyond the borders and our continent to tackle increased competition from international players,” explains Bogoshi.
“We are fortunate that we have a diverse and highly-skilled group of people working at Gijima, who are both committed employees and concerned citizens. We are all striving towards delivering an excellent and quality service to our clients, and creating a lasting legacy within the communities and the sector within which we operate, characterised by unity, common goals and achievable targets,” he says.