Up Up & Away! Our 2022 in Review
Alex Sudheim
Once more we’ve soldiered steadfastly to the close of another year. To say it’s been a helter-skelter one – both in the republic and across the planet – would be the understatement of, well, the year. So we’ll spare you the platitudes and cut straight to the chase.
Going Global
Since the outset of the year, Voys has been embarked upon an exciting journey of international consolidation and evolution. Voys South Africa has dramatically strengthened ties with the Voys mothership in the Netherlands as we work toward building a unified global brand.
Yes, the unfortunate neologism “glocal” died around the time of the rinderpest. However, we consider it a tremendous asset to have the best of both worlds. Our blend of decades of international experience and expertise with a unique crew of highly specialised South African colleagues forms a wonderful, harmonious whole.
Our software design and development entities; our in-house NGO and the Voys trading divisions in the Netherlands, South Africa, Germany and Belgium are being combined under a single Voys brand. This close cohesion is rapidly leading toward a seamless organisation optimised for both the global and local marketplace.
To this end, Voys SA colleague Mélody Deunier-Lisene hopped over to the other hemisphere to help facilitate the logistics. Whilst there she represented at cutting-edge tech conference The Next Web in Amsterdam and met with some of the great tech minds of our generation. Her adventures were covered in this article on ITWeb.
Voys SA is also making leaps and bounds in another kind of integration. Having anticipated the customer demand for integration between CRM and VoIP for some time, we have built strategic international partnerships and internal technical capacity to lead the market in this crucial core competence. For the juicy details on this rapidly broadening new horizon, check out the article on ITWeb. We have also rolled out live demos which you’re welcome to book to obtain a more palpable sense of how it all works.
Mark my Words
Our expanding international horizons open exciting new vistas. Voys founder Mark Vletter is well-known in the Netherlands as an outspoken opinionista, business hippie and eccentric lunatic.
His writings and videos range widely from the latest tech breakthroughs to how to build a better company. His first book, Alleen Maar Bazen (Only Bosses), is a hit in his home country.
His articles include everything from our fraught standoff with Google to in-depth reviews of the groundbreaking Framework computer and Amazon’s revelatory book Working Backwards. Mark’s in-depth series of articles on Notion outline why Voys has adopted the smart software application as the organisation’s “second brain”.
The Newsvletter Has Landed
Although we publish a good deal of Mark’s musings on our blog and his YouTube channel, in keeping with Voys’ evolution into a bona-fide international organisation, for the first time we are making all of Mark’s content available in English via the brand-spanking new International Newsletter on our sweet new international website.
When you subscribe to the Newsvletter, you will not only receive Mark’s insights on a bi-monthly basis but will also gain exclusive access to The Voys Handbook, which allows you to look under the hood of how our organisation operates. Furthermore, subscribers will also receive an exclusive copy of Mark’s book, which is currently being translated into English.
Local is Lekker
On the South African front, Voys – and its colleagues – continues to grow, evolve and improve in tireless pursuit of our purpose of “establishing a new standard of excellence in customer service.” We’re most certainly not here to be any old business: we work hard toward adding value to South African society in everything we do.
In this respect we partner with innovative social entrepreneurship initiative Soete Swaan – you won’t find a tastier stroopwafel outside of the Netherlands – and Cape Town’s dedicated community upliftment project, The Amoyo Foundation. Through the agency of Voys NGO 48percent.org, we also work with Project Isizwe to help facilitate their vision of “Africa Uncapped”.
After a demanding year of putting in the hours and lifting the loads, the Voys team earned themselves a brief respite in the form of a weekend at Denneboom in Paarl. Our Secret Santa gave the real Santa a run for his money as we kicked back for a well-deserved break.
Last but not Least
Loadshedding might be bad news but the good news is you need not worry about finding a lump of coal in your stocking this Christmas: Eskom needs every last little bit. And remember, Freedom from Voys is the sure-fire way to keep the business phones ringing when the electrons stop pinging.
In other great news, Uncle Cyril has snuck a last-minute public holiday into our Xmas stocking. In lieu of Christmas Day falling on a Sunday, the good people of the R of SA have earned themselves another day to recover from festive indulgences as December 27 has been declared a public holiday.
We Have Liftoff!
Well alrighty then, we’ve been cleared for interstellar flight. Buckle up and enjoy the ride. We may even pass Santa’s sleigh along the way so you can high-five the old guy and finally get off his naughty list.
Have a fantastic Christmas with your nearest and dearest and a splendid slide into the new year.
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