Our Directors

Wernher Friedrich

Wernher Friedrich has nearly 20 years experience in information communication technologies and has a MSc (soon to be PhD) in Computer Science. His research interests lie in the enhancement and application of computer methodologies for business domains. A primary niche focus area is in bringing business and IT environments together and architecting solutions for complex domains. In short he makes things work.

Looking at his background, he has been involved in financials (insurance and banking), health care, communications, policy drafting and implementation, software development, accounting and government. Positions where he has excelled in the past includes: Director of Infrastructure and strategy formulation, Head of software development and IT, Senior software developer and architect and Project manager.

Challenges are part of his drive and on a number of projects he has managed to bring projects back on track within allocated time frames and budget constraints. Wernher combines project management methodologies with TQCII (Time, Quality, Cost, Innovation and Impact) as a management tool. This provides an overview of a project and quickly indicates if projects are on track, it also supports staff performance reviews and sets a standard for expected performance from teams.

Wernher has lead teams made up of Developers, System and Business Analysts, Testers and Change Control Managers. Inter-departmental initiatives, staff recognition, and conflict resolution has been part of his activities as well as participation in task teams. He ensured technical input supported business directions, and that performance contracts met standards. Identification of skill shortages and development opportunities for resources as well as participation in performance board reviews has been part and parcel of his functions. He has effectively maintained positive relationships with local and international groups by meeting stakeholder engagement objectives, engaging, reporting, and participating in stakeholder forums, and promoted software development and its mandate to external stakeholders.

In an administrative capacity, he has managed resources by controlling and forecasting budgetary processes and focusing on cost reduction strategies. He has also managed and reviewed technology policies for economic and global best practice, ensured that required technology changes were implemented, and ensured policies were updated to address each client’s technological needs.

Robin Martin

With nearly 30 years of experience in application design and development, Robin Martin is able to contribute valuable industry-relevant expertise to any project.

In his formative years at Standard Bank, he completed a full time COBOL Programming course at Van Zyl & Pritchard and started developing an interest in desktop process automation. During his eight years learning the disciplines of a Mainframe System Engineer for Persetel, ABS and EDS, Robin furthered his passion for automation while developing productivity tools for the ISPF editor. An opportunity to move back into development placed him in the client-server world where he spent the next eight years focusing on Visual Basic 6 with MS SQL for the Nedbank Call Center.

In January 2007, Robin resigned to pursue a future as a contractor with Nedbank retaining his services in the MIS arena and commissioning two projects in C# with ASP .NET. During this time, Robin was able to further exercise his automation skills for AA Autobay reporting as well as developing an innovative, low-cost submission process to transmit detail from outlying branches.

Khulisa engaged Mr. Martin’s services for the first time in 2008 to fulfil the role of Lead Developer on the USAID PEPFAR Data Warehouse Project, requiring another steep learning curve as he moved into PHP, HTML and Javascript using a PostgreSQL back end. This project included the maintenance and enhancement of the online reporting system, addressing errors as well as data analysis and, of course, automation for tasks such as the merging of two databases.

In 2012, now skilled at adapting to different technologies, Robin switched to Java for the development of a web-based, Performance Information Management System (PIMS) for the Department of Science and Technology (DST), developing Java-based portlets to run under the Liferay portal. Concurrently with the DST project, he undertook the design and development of a database system for the CDC SAPPPA survey project.

Knowledge of his automation skills brought Mr Martin a recent contract from SBV to pilot an automated real-time settlement application driving the internet banking platforms of local banks.
He is currently using cloud-based services and ODK software for mobile device data collection.

In his spare time, Robin competes in club-level motorcycle road racing.