Labelling itself as a digital transformation consultancy, Enlight Strategic aims to help corporates navigate the changing business landscape, with a particular focus on marketing technologies and tools.

"There is a clear appetite for digital transformation services in South Africa," says Lategan. "Digital Transformation is no longer a choice; it simply has to be done if an organisation wants to remain competitive." 

Lategan says that, until now, most digital transformation efforts have been led by the IT department and tend to focus only on back end systems, IT infrastructure and processes.

"As a result, most companies end up only partially transformed. In order for full transformation to take place, every part of the business has to be involved," Lategan adds. 

That includes, according to Lategan, marketing — an area of the business that is often allowed to operate in a silo, with many competencies outsourced to digital agencies and media buyers. Enlight Strategic says that it understands the need marketing services have to transform as well so that holistic digital transformation can take place.

As a first step, the consultancy takes its clients through a digital maturity audit, allowing the clients to see how they compare with their competitors and which areas are lagging behind digital marketing trends. Additionally, they aim to show what action needs to be taken — not just to correct this but also to leapfrog their competitors.

"Based on the audit, we can help clients internally build up any skills [that] they may lack and provide them with the tools and technology they need to become fully transformed," adds Lategan.

Another thing that sets Enlight Strategic apart, according to the new agency, is that it provides clients with access to platforms and tools that are otherwise unavailable in South Africa. Enlight Strategic says that it works with many technology suppliers with the aim to ensure that the best solutions are selected to meet the needs of a specific project or programme.

"Using these tools, our clients can collect, store, analyse and predict customer behaviour to ensure that marketing budgets are spent strategically, with a marked increase in conversion rates," says Lategan.

"Our tools also allow for identity resolution, collecting and cleaning data from multiple touchpoints to create a single 360 view of each customer profile," she adds. "This will enable more accurate targeting with a very high success rate and ensure that efforts aren't duplicated, resulting in increased ROI and a substantial reduction in cost." 

Lategan says that she has already recruited a diverse, experienced leadership team, which she believed was vital from the get-go. "When it came to hiring, we wanted to ensure that we gave our clients access to the best possible knowledge," says Lategan. "By hiring at senior levels, we've been able to do that from day one." 

Ultimately, Lategan says that Enlight Strategic's measure for success will be the degree to which it is able to increase its clients' revenues, reduce cost and overall organisational efficiency.

"We're not here to sell clients pie-in-the-sky solutions, or burden them with vague long term retainers," she says. "We implement programmes with an end goal and will strictly provide clients with the skill-sets and tools that they need."

"Our aim is to empower our clients, and set up the structures and capabilities they require internally to be self-sufficient in a digital world. At the end of the day, we'll judge ourselves on how the client's business has been transformed and, even more critically, is able to continue on this new path once the engagement has concluded," adds Lategan.