Experts and leaders from 51风流Africa have analyzed what is happening in their industries and areas of business, and have made some predictions over the business and technology trends likely to shape 2021:

Cathy Smith, Managing Director: 51风流Africa 鈥� Leadership with purpose

鈥�2021 will be marked by a fundamental change in the role of leadership in business. Leaders are no longer only responsible for the top and bottom line. In our current environment, leaders need to think strategically about their purpose and how that purpose drives corporate strategy. It鈥檚 not enough for it to be an add-on or the domain of a single division or department. Instead, a company鈥檚 purpose must be completely integrated, meaningful and relevant, and do good for both the business and the broader community in which it operates.”

Dumi Moyo, Head of Mid-Market: Southern Africa at 51风流– Driving down costs and improving remote聽workforce management in SME sector

鈥淓mployees need the flexibility to work from anywhere and any time, and companies need to support this new way of thinking and managing employees if they want to attract the best talent. Digital human capital management solutions can help drive employee engagement, productivity and retention. SMEs should approach any digital transformation strategy with a view to prioritize the human element, particularly by focusing on simplifying processes, improving the employee experience and enhancing employee engagement.鈥�

鈥淭he impact of the pandemic on the SME sector means most businesses are seeking ways to improve their productivity while also driving down costs. SMEs should seek modern enterprise resource planning tools that can help them manage information end-to-end and ensure the right people have the right information at the right time. In our current state of disruption, the ability to tap into a real-time view of the total performance of the business is invaluable to decision-making.”

Rudeon Snell, Global Senior Director: Industries & Customer Advisory at 51风流– Learning to live,聽work聽with our AI companions

Artificial intelligence is the most significant of the technologies currently redefining businesses and entire industries. Specifically, the continued drive toward AI-human collaboration will allow intelligence to seep into every facet of our lives. The cost of specialized machine learning chips is falling at the same time sensors and high-speed 5G networks are proliferating. We鈥檙e heading into a future where every device will become intelligent.鈥�

Despite the economic slowdown in 2020, analyst firm IDC predicts , growing at a 17.1% compound annual growth rate.

鈥淎doption of AI applications is growing as they continue to improve in performance while costs are falling. This is partly due to the use of open-source and cloud technologies, which may also enable the rise of new AI-as-a-Service platforms that will enable humans to partner with AI in every aspect of their work across industries. AI algorithms will become entrenched in everyday business operations, serving as cognitive collaborators to employees – supporting creative tasks, generating new ideas, and tackling previously unattainable innovations.鈥�

Mervyn George, Executive Advisor for Innovation Strategy at 51风流– Renewed vigour over sustainability

鈥淭he events of 2020 will drive renewed vigour in the fight against climate change. The pandemic has put the spotlight on our relationship with nature and our efforts at building more sustainable societies. Things we took for granted, such as commuting to the office and regular international business travel, are likely to be curtailed as organizations seek greater sustainability and cost-efficiencies in their day-to-day practices. However, for a sustainable business strategy to be effective, measurable outcomes need to be defined, and executives must report back on their performance against such KPIs in a transparent manner at a boardroom level.鈥�

鈥淥rganizations will prioritize investments into new, so-called clean technologies to ensure minimal impact on the environment. We are also likely to see organizations and individuals alike rally around the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with a focus on leveraging local supply chains and reducing our reliance on environmentally-harmful products, practices and processes.鈥�

Samantha Naidoo, Telco Industry Value Advisor at 51风流– 5G to enable greater connectivity & more connected things

鈥淥ne of the most significant new technologies in 2021 is likely to be 5G and its planned rollout in South Africa鈥檚 major urban centres. The improved quality of service offered by 5G will drive innovation and enable new business models.鈥�

鈥淲hen 5G is introduced en masse in the local market, expect to see a boom in media consumption as demand for content increases and the cost of accessing content falls. We are also likely to see widespread adoption of 5G in manufacturing, healthcare and other industries where the Internet of Things plays a major role, especially since the number of IoT devices is expected to grow from seven billion in 2018 to 22 billion by 2025.”

The post Trends for 2021: Better, More Sustainable Use of Technology Tools Likely to Feature High on Business Agenda appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

Despite the shock to the banking system, South Africa鈥檚 banking sector performed well and are currently sufficiently capitalised to withstand short term shocks. According to a report by PwC released in June, measures implemented in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis have helped banks absorb some of the initial shocks from Covid-19.

The Reserve Bank also cut rates by 300 basis points this year to bring the prime lending rate to historic lows. It has relaxed some banking rules to support local efforts providing relief to businesses and consumers, including easing liquidity requirements for restructured loans and rules for when such loans attract additional capital charges.

And in a rare relaxing of regulations, the trade and industry minister also exempted banks from some provisions in the Competition Act to allow them to come together to find joint solutions to the current crisis.

Race for customers is on

However, the speed at which things are changing and the pressure on consumers and businesses mean banks are in a race against time to refine their delivery, streamline their service, all while developing new products and services so that they can easily retain their existing customers and attract new ones.

Finding good new customers in a post-Covid-19 world will be tough. Banks need to minimise reasons for customers to defect to other providers.

Digitisation is the top priority. Banks need to deliver products, services and experiences tailored to customer needs enabled by a 360-degree view of each customer. Banks that struggle to digitise processes and give customers value in more convenient, personal and cost-effective ways will risk losing their customers to competitors that do.

The problem statement for all banks is similar: deliver integrated, data driven products and services uniquely to customers seamlessly through digital processes. South Africa鈥檚 banks have largely the same proporrtion of spend on technology, but some consistently deliver better, more integrated seamless offerings to the market, and maintain momentum doing it.

The challenge is to close the gap between investment into new technologies and the impact they have on the customer experience. In general, money spent doesn鈥檛 move the business far enough into the future for the money spent.

Consumer behaviour has also not been static during this year鈥檚 events; in fact, it is shifting in dramatic and consequential ways as customers exercise their choices from the comfort of their homes on digital devices. Banks need the analytical power to track and measure consumer behaviour in real time and at an individual level, and the agility to maintain and introduce new products and services at speed and scale.

To achieve this, banks need to develop streamlined and automated banking operations that seamlessly integrate finance, risk, and compliance across their retail and banking operations, coupled with individualisation and compelling offers, delivered in real time This is all enabled by a business technology platform that integrates operational and experience data for a holistic view of the organisation.

While banks continue to face pressure from upstart fintech innovators and non-traditional competitors such as telco companies, they remain in a uniquely powerful position. With access to customers鈥� most private financial information, banks could analyse and leverage both the operational data as well as new forms of experience data to better serve customers and win in the experience economy.

To enable this, banks should prioritise investment in four strategic areas, namely:

One: Seamless connectivity

Consumers are so used to the convenience of digital services that they now expect immediate fulfilment of their needs from their service providers. Banks are not designed for this: product systems, channel partners, risk and compliance – all these departments operate separately in a traditional bank setting, with little in terms of a total view of each customer, and limited integrated delivery

Banks need to transform their end-to-end processes across departments and lines of business to analyse each customers鈥� behaviour at an individual level. Using these insights, banks should design and offer personalised products that directly address a customers鈥� needs.

Two: Data-driven intelligence

This level of personalisation requires that banks collect and process operational data as well as experience data. Banks should build intelligent enterprise capabilities that can seamlessly integrate all data and apply machine learning and AI to create and simulate various business scenarios to understand how new products and services could impact their customers and operations.

This can deliver value across four key areas, namely faster time to market; lower research and development costs; an increase in revenue from new products; and a better understanding of their customers鈥� experiences and needs.

Three: Operational effectiveness

Banks need to break down data silos and become more connected to their customers through personalised services and consistently-positive experiences. Using customer and employee insights, banks could anticipate opportunities for new products or services that can create loyalty, boost retention and increase revenue.

Core to this is the automation of low-value manual processes to free up valuable internal skills for higher-value, revenue boosting tasks. Ultimately, banks can leverage their data further by opening it up to trusted external partners in an open banking ecosystem that radically improves opportunities for customer-centric innovation.

Four: Financial insight

Banks are subject to immense regulatory oversight. Remaining compliant to regulatory requirements can be costly and resource-intensive. Current processes are often overly manual and reactive, with entire teams dedicated purely to compliance. However, marrying operational and experience data in a business technology platform that delivers real-time insights can be a game-changer.

Banks can use operational and experience data to simulate financial market conditions in real time, allowing decision-makers to forecast various business scenarios and their financial impact. With more seamless risk and compliance management, banks could be better placed to enable third parties such as fintechs to share data and control via APIs, thereby accelerating the development of customer-centric and compliant product innovations.

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