TPG Africa geared for growth
Project and portfolio management specialist The Project Group (TPG) Africa is gearing up for expansion in 2014. The company aims to extend its operations in South Africa and Botswana, and grow its training business significantly.
TPG Africa offers products, consulting, training, resourcing and solutions around Microsoft’s Enterprise Project Management and SharePoint technologies. It develops add-on products for these Microsoft technologies, as well as offering bundled solutions, implementation services, support and training. Its resourcing arm provides specialist resources on a permanent or outsource basis. It also engages in value-added contracting, mentoring and coaching.
To date TPG Africa has made significant inroads into the mining, financial services, discrete manufacturing, process manufacturing, utilities, construction, government and professional services sectors.
As an organisation that is involved in helping organisations realise value from capital-intensive projects, says TPG Africa MD Dries van der Colff, it has not been impacted by reported slowdowns in the construction sector. “There is much more large projects activity in the mining and energy sectors than is generally known,” he comments.
The company has been engaged in large projects in Botswana in the past year and has established an office in the country. It will be exploring further opportunities in the mining and private sectors there in the new year.
Locally, the company has offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town, and it plans to extend its CT operations and make further inroads in Kwa-Zulu Natal.
Partly driving this geographic expansion will be the growth of its training business. The company is partnering with a global provider to offer internationally-accredited, simulation-based project management training for the first time in South Africa and expects to see this gain significant traction in the market.
“We’re planning to take skills development to the next level,” says TPG Africa CEO Pieter Meyer. “It’s not only simulation-based training, it’s also mentorship, coaching, practical workshops and class-room training. “
TPG also has a large footprint in implementation services, says Meyer. “We play a strong role as an integrator and implementer, as well as offering consultancy advice to our clients.”
“2013 has been a great year for us,” says van der Colff, “with the most comprehensive Microsoft Project Server implementation ever done in South Africa successfully delivered. We’re looking forward to building on that into 2014 and innovating further in the products and solutions we offer the market, here and into the rest of Africa.”
TPG Africa parent TPG The Project Group will be kicking off the year with a bang – the company is the Diamond Sponsor of the Microsoft Project Conference 2014, to be held in February in California. TPG will be using the event to showcase a range of the solutions and best practices the company delivers globally through its operating subsidiaries, including TPG Africa.