South African IT firm Datacentrix is moving into the business of helping companies talk to their customers, launching a platform that pulls SMS, WhatsApp and other channels into one place.
The Johannesburg-based systems integrator announced its Communication Platform as a Service (CPaaS) offering on 24 June 2026, delivered through eNetworks, a wholly owned Datacentrix company and licensed internet service provider.
The platform lets organisations send and manage messaging across bulk SMS, WhatsApp bots, RCS (the upgraded successor to SMS), USSD, short codes and branded senders from a single environment. It also supports reverse-billed messaging, where the business, rather than the customer, pays for the data, aimed at reaching users across the economic spectrum.
Consolidating the channels
The pitch is consolidation. Companies often run customer messaging across multiple vendors and disconnected platforms, which Datacentrix argues creates costs, integration headaches, and compliance risks.
“Businesses can no longer afford communication silos or inconsistent customer engagement experiences,” said Jenna van Deventer, sales manager at eNetworks. CPaaS, she said, gives organisations “a single, scalable environment from which they can manage mission-critical communication securely, efficiently and in real time”.
Local interconnects, custom builds
Datacentrix is leaning on in-house development to differentiate the service, offering custom messaging workflows, bots, and integration with existing CRM, ERP, and IT service-management systems rather than relying solely on an off-the-shelf product.
The company says direct interconnects with mobile network operators keep latency low and delivery rates high while meeting regional rules, and that the platform can send messages across multiple countries from one interface. That puts it in the same enterprise-messaging territory as deals like Zamani Telecom’s A2P SMS monetisation, where carriers and integrators chase business traffic.
The launch fits a broader move by African integrators to climb from infrastructure into higher-value software and services, a shift also visible in the continent’s debate over cloud and data sovereignty. For Datacentrix, messaging is a way to turn its existing enterprise relationships into recurring platform revenue.
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