trends Archives - 51��Africa News Center

What Can African IT Enterprises Expect in 2024?

Arun Shankar, Intelligent CIO Magazine — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 06:30:04 +0000

From the need for more sustainable alternatives to the way we do business to the incomparable impact of AI on every facet of our personal and professional lives, African executives face a challenging time ahead, says at 51��Africa.

What is in store for African enterprises in 2024? The global economy continues to be in a state of flux as geopolitical conflict, supply chain pressures, inflation, technology-led disruption and changing consumer needs put pressure on companies and decision-makers.

From the desperate need for more sustainable alternatives to the way we do business to the incomparable impact of AI on every facet of our personal and professional lives, business leaders face a challenging time ahead. By taking stock of emerging trends, however, business leaders may be better able to ride the waves of change and steer their companies through turbulent waters.

These are the key trends that African enterprises should take heed of in 2024:

AI adoption

received an astonishing amount of hype in 2023, and was a bolt of lightning that made every business and technology leader sit up and take notice. Today, it is not a matter of if businesses will adopt AI, but rather how quickly they can deploy and enjoy AI-driven benefits.

In 2024, business leaders will look beyond the hype and seek AI solutions that deliver real-life use cases and benefits. At an operational level, organisations may quickly realise that the quality of their AI outcomes depend largely on the quality of their data.

Technology providers will be indispensable in this conversation, thanks to the huge volumes of data and transactions running through their systems and broader business network. Business leaders will leverage the technology providers’ expertise to access the data they need, visualise it, and take decisive actions to drive successful outcomes.

Sustainability centre stage

As the world continues to warm and the consequences of climate change hit home for billions of people, will take centre stage in the business and technology world.

In 2024, the energy industry will shed its view of the customer as simply a commodity user in favour of the prosumer model. Industry leaders will aim to not only secure loyalty and create retail-like experiences, but encourage users to make active contributions to the stability and health of the grid.

This may involve keeping customers informed of how they can make the best, most sustainable decisions over energy use, or see consumers feed excess energy, for example from rooftop solar, into the grid to stabilise supply and contribute clean energy.

In addition, mounting pressure from regulators, consumers and investors will see organisations build more sustainable supply chains with lower carbon emissions and greater use of circular economy principles. This will require extensive innovation in data and analytics to provide business leaders with end-to-end visibility over their environmental impact across the broader supply chain.

Those companies that do succeed in leveraging technology to build truly eco-conscious supply chains will not only unlock new sources of innovation and revenue, but secure long-term profitability for years to come.

Procurement advances

In the rush for digitalisation, enterprises will continue to enhance their procurement processes, driving the need for more intuitive user interfaces. Procurement is evolving from a tactical to a strategic function to drive greater value throughout the organisation.

AI and analytics will be deployed to support procurement professionals as they seek ways to spend more time on value-adding tasks. In 2024, the demand for technologies that enable value-based procurement will increase, enhancing the organisation’s ability to leverage procurement to deliver value in other parts of the business, such as sustainability.

Resilient supply chains

Global supply chains are still under severe pressure, thanks to a combination of geopolitical disruption, inflation, environmental factors and the ongoing ripple effects of the pandemic. In 2024, expect a surge in supply chain technology investments as organisations seek greater visibility, agility and risk resilience.

In particular, AI holds huge promise for its ability to enhance organisations’ ability to sense, recognise and react to disruptions and opportunities in new and exciting ways. The key to unlocking AI’s benefits hinges on connected data and collaboration throughout the organisation.

Business leaders must lead the charge by ensuring AI is integrated with every layer of the supply chain network to achieve measurable business outcomes. This will unleash a new era of hyper-predictive and efficient logistics, revolutionising the way goods flow from factory floor to consumers.

This article first appeared on .

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AI, Sustainability and Supply Chain Resilience: What 2024 Holds in Store for African Enterprises

Tracy Bolton, Chief Operating Officer at 51��Africa — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 07:08:56 +0000

What is in store for African enterprises in 2024?

The global economy continues to be in a state of flux as geopolitical conflict, supply chain pressures, inflation, technology-led disruption and changing consumer needs put pressure on companies and decision-makers.

These are the key trends that African enterprises should take heed of in 2024:

Trend 1: AI adoption becomes grounded in business value

Generative AI received an astonishing amount of hype in 2023, and was a bolt of lightning that made every business and technology leader sit up and take notice. Today, it’s not a matter of if businesses will adopt AI, but rather how quickly they can deploy and enjoy AI-driven benefits.

Technology providers such as 51��will be indispensable in this conversation, thanks to the huge volumes of data and transactions running through their systems and broader business network. Business leaders will leverage the tech providers’ expertise to access the data they need, visualise it, and take decisive actions to drive successful outcomes.

Trend 2: Sustainability takes centre stage

As the world continues to warm and the consequences of climate change hit home for billions of people, sustainability will take centre stage in the business and technology world.

This may involve keeping customers informed of how they can make the best, most sustainable decisions over energy use, or see consumers feed excess energy – for example from rooftop solar – into the grid to stabilise supply and contribute clean energy.

In addition, mounting pressure from regulators, consumers and investors will see organisations build more sustainable supple chains with lower carbon emissions and greater use of circular economy principles. This will require extensive innovation in data and analytics to provide business leaders with end-to-end visibility over their environmental impact across the broader supply chain.

Trend 3: Procurement advances are powered by User Experience

Trend 4: Supply chains become more resilient

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51��Concur 2022 Predictions

51��News — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 11:22:14 +0000

After another difficult year impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, 51��Concur leaders are optimistic that 2022 will be one of innovation, recovery, and renewal.

In 2022, the global community will continue to see significant changes in nearly every sector. Here, our EMEA team of experts will share their predictions for the new year ahead.

While it still seems like there may be some challenging times ahead, often this helps us to create new ideas and set up new processes that can help improve and benefit the world well into the future.

Here are the predictions from our team for 2022:

Götz Reinhardt, Managing Director at 51��Concur MEE (Middle & Eastern Europe): Employees will have more choice and flexibility over their travel movements

“Many employees have become accustomed to flexible, remote working hours over the past year. When we can meet and talk with clients via Zoom and other virtual platforms, employees would arguably now be more reluctant to travel across the world to do so, as they can perform a conference call from the comfort of their own home or office space.

Post-pandemic travel is demanding that greater employee flexibility is afforded, to encourage them to take more sensible trips. Additionally, the growing number of SDBs (Supplier Direct Bookings) we are seeing highlights travellers’ desires for more freedom of choice and the flexibility to choose the travel supplier they feel most comfortable with from a health & safety standpoint.

As a result, we predict that in 2022, businesses will allow employees greater flexibility when it comes to asking them to travel. Travel communities have become emboldened for their greater good and not just that of the company. So, travel will need to be done on the employee’s schedule and they need to be allowed to decide which hotels or flights they would like to purchase. Additionally, businesses will also need to evaluate in more detail whether travelling so much is worth the cost and sustainability risks — especially if alternative arrangements can be made to help reduce this.

Overall, travellers’ personalisation will now need to be considered first and foremost over cost— as this will help improve compliance and the well-being and productivity of happier employees.”

Pierre-Emmanuel Tetaz, EMEA SVP and General Manager: Businesses will need to become more honest and transparent about their carbon footprint

“Last year the Covid-related travel drop resulted in a significant reduction of CO2 emissions which the world environment has benefitted from — and this helped businesses with improving their sustainability movements. In recent years, sustainability has taken a lead position in the hiring and retention of employees. Many job seekers are evaluating a potential company’s commitment to environmental and social sustainability as well as the benefits the company offers. Companies that can adapt quickly to this new trend are more likely to attract and retain top talents.

However, with governments across the globe also setting new CO2 emission goals and criteria to meet, sustainable movements are not only critical for an organisation’s success, but also a top board priority.

Therefore, with business travel expected to start increasing next year, businesses in 2022 will need to provide their employees with greater visibility and informed choices about their sustainability movements and inform them re: how much of an impact their travel will have before booking any trips.

Business travellers will need to be more aware than ever of the carbon footprint they are creating, and if they are not aware, then they are simply not informed enough to make proper and responsible travel decisions. Employee movements need to be justified with travel options being chosen that are the most eco-friendly. To do this, we expect many companies to turn to technology tools which can help them manage their budgets and carbon footprints accordingly and plan the most eco-friendly and efficient routes to travel by.”

Mark Cullen, Managing Director, EMEA South: Businesses will need to adapt technological processes to help solve regulation issues

��“I expect we will see companies embrace new corporate policies to help facilitate business travel while avoiding issues that could arise due to the complexity of today’s travel landscape. Unfortunately, there is no global standardisation when it comes to international travel –�� rules and regulations vary immensely by country. The policies will range from outright travel restrictions to ensuring employees have done their due diligence on what is required to travel to their destination before making arrangement and incurring expenses.

While corporate travel will continue to pick up in 2022 the landscape will remain complex, uneven, and confusing for both business and individual travellers; both will be in need of support and guidance to ensure they are aware and adhering to the various regulations to ensure smooth travel. ��We expect to see more organisations turn to technology providers to help address these complications.

Luckily, there are tools, resources, and vendors available today to provide the needed support. We are already seeing corporate leaders re-evaluate what they are doing today and considering how to re-engineer their organisations not only for the immediate future but for what may be waiting around the corner. To complement new policies and ways of managing business processes, we are seeing more interest from organisations in the broader eco-system and how new partnerships can add value and support�� – providers that are best of breed in niche areas such as ‘Duty of Care’. The beauty of the cloud is that it affords interoperability between providers, bringing unique sets of data together in new ways for companies and/or individuals to make better informed decisions.

In summary, COVID is not going away but we will continue to learn how to live with it and companies will continue to learn for themselves in 2022”

��Ryan Demaray, Managing Director SMB EMEA at 51��Concur: Virtual card payments will be used more to empower and manage employee spending

“Ever since the development of cashless payments accelerated, particularly in the hospitality and retail sectors, finance teams across the board are looking for new ways to manage individual and company budgets on the go.

With this in mind, we expect to see virtual cards used as a key solution in 2022 to help empower and manage employee spending. For B2B companies, where few payments are made face-to-face, this could potentially be game-changing.

Virtual cards offer significant benefits for travel managers and finance departments. They can be configured for spending limits, department codes, merchant category controls, and date specifications. They deliver this information to an organisation’s back-end accounting system in real time, making it easier to spot unusual activity, and because the numbers are unique for each transaction, it’s a more secure way to pay. Businesses can control how much is spent and what it’s spent on, so it’s easier to ensure compliance with the company��and expense policy. It’s also ideal for employees who don’t travel often, and for vendors who will be incurring expenses over a limited period for the company in question.

This solution will also help smaller businesses who don’t want to invest too much and would prefer a simple solution instead. With virtual cards, multiple employees can use different card details, without any extra costs – and they can easily access the card through a mobile app, where they can also upload receipts for claims. We expect to see this technology take off for businesses in the next year ahead.”

��Rob Harrison, MD EMEA North at 51��Concur: Additional challenges will arise around data privacy

“With the world slowing opening for business, and more people feeling confident about travelling, we can expect to see an increase around duty of care regulations for 2022 and the future. With individuals now expected to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test, or confirmation of their vaccine status, businesses will want to make sure that everyone is compliant and travelling with caution and care.

Having said this, while these regulations are still being adopted by many businesses and governments, there are still some concerns around the data privacy of these new procedures — which we expect to see as a key talking point in 2022.

For instance, the ‘vaccine passport’ will hold sensitive information on health data – which is crucial to keep secure. There are several challenges and additional obligations that will apply under GDPR and UK GDPR – including obtaining the correct consent to any transfer and providing the right privacy notice. Any privacy notice must be specific to the processing in question.

Therefore, for vaccine passports and other data and regulation requirements, businesses will need to be responsible for keeping on top of this with travelling employees. Therefore, we would advise that they work with trusted travel providers, who can take on the heavy workload of making sure their travel actions and documentations are compliant, so they can be confident they are travelling securely.”

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Five Things the Past 20 Years can Teach us About our Future Work Lives

51��News — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 08:06:39 +0000

Imagine this: The sound of people working is constantly punctuated by the screech-and-scratch of dot matrix printers and the beeping of fax machines. Mobile phones are only just becoming popular, and are not yet smart.

In fact, professionals are more likely to engage in a quick game of Snake than manage a full productivity suite via their AI-enabled smartphones. Conference calls involve groups huddled around a speaker in a boardroom, instead of teams having discussions in full high-definition via their company-issued laptops.

Sound far-fetched? This was the office of the early 2000s, a mere twenty years ago, when the world of work looked vastly different to the high-tech one we enjoy today.

Radical changes at work

According to Shiraz Khota, Sales Director at 51��SuccessFactors, the past twenty years of work hold valuable lessons for what we can expect from our future work lives.

“The proliferation of technologies and innovation, combined with the rise of the Experience Economy continue to radically change modern workplaces, with far-reaching consequences for organisations, their HR teams, and the talented employees they hope to attract and retain. While it is true that we live in a time of ongoing uncertainty, there are important insights we can gain from the past twenty years that could help organisations and professionals alike better plan for the immediate future.”

Many of the technologies we take for granted in our day-to-day work lives were developed over the past 10 to 20 years, including Skype in 2003, Gmail and Facebook in 2004, Twitter in 2006 and the iPhone, the world’s first true mainstream smartphone, in 2007.

“The pace of technological change is accelerating to the extent that, in a few years’ time, we may look back at today in much the same way as we now look back at the early 2000s,” says Khota. “As the pandemic continues to disrupt normal notions of work and team management, organisations are increasingly looking to technology to help them adapt to near-constant change in how they manage, support and motivate their most important asset: their employees.”

Predictions for the (near) future of work

So what can organisations – and their employees – expect from the near-future of work? According to Khota, the following four trends may be commonplace before the end of this decade:

Offices without borders

Perhaps an obvious one considering the pandemic-forced switch to remote and hybrid work models, but all indications are that the borders between work and life will continue to disappear.

“The digitisation of work processes is continuing at a rapid pace , with a key focus of enabling their workforce to operate remotely. The mass adoption of online collaboration and productivity tools means more people than ever are able to perform their work duties outside the confines of the office.”

According to the WEF, . “Managing a hybrid workforce effectively will require new processes and technologies to support those processes,” explains Khota.

“As the lines between personal and professional lives continue to be blurred, and increasing numbers of highly skilled workers operate from remote locations, organisations will be challenged to implement appropriate tools and technologies to support their workers while ensuring alignment with corporate culture.”

Greater diversity

With the rise of borderless offices also comes the concept of borderless talent pools. “Despite the halt on global business travel due to the pandemic, we continue to work and live in a global village, with organisations able to tap into a global talent pool of skills to fill key positions. High-performance teams are increasingly diverse – in fact, studies have shown that .”

Enabling greater diversity within organisational teams is also key to driving productivity and performance within the organisation. “Belonging – a key component of inclusion – and engagement at work are highly correlated,” says Khota. “Studies have found that , compared to only 20% of those that don’t feel they belong.”

In addition to implementing appropriate policies and processes to encourage greater diversity and inclusion at the workplace, organisations will need to invest in appropriate technologies to ensure they stay abreast of the multitude of expectations and needs of their diverse workforce.

Focus on experience

The concept of employee experience came to the fore in recent years, as the Experience Economy truly took hold of personal and professional lives around the world.

“Experience management is arguably one of the most powerful tools for building relationships with customers and employees of the past decade. As the digitisation of every aspect of our personal and professional lives continues unabated, being able to track, measure and make adjustments to that experience will be invaluable to businesses’ success.”

Modern employee experience management tools will become standard in our future workplaces – and for good reason, according to Khota. “Studies have shown that organisations that invest most heavily in employee experience are more than twice as likely to be on the Forbes list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies, and appear more than eleven times for often in Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work. In fact, companies that invest in employee experience are four times more profitable than those that don’t.”

As organisations become intelligent enterprises – defined as organisations that use intelligent technologies and a connected network to their advantage – their ability to combine operational and experience data increases. “The most successful and innovative companies of the future will blend operational and experience data to gain a comprehensive real-time view over the total performance of their business, and make the employee experience a key consideration in broader decision-making processes.”

In-house academies

According to a WEF report, there has been a four-fold increase in the numbers of individuals seeking opportunities for online learning, accompanied by a five-fold increase in employers providing online learning opportunities to their workers.

“As technology advances make increasing numbers of job roles obsolete, workers will need to be upskilled or reskilled and then deployed to new roles,” explains Khota. “Estimates are that even among job roles that won’t become obsolete in the near future, the skills needed to perform such roles will. In fact, 40% of core skills in such roles are likely to change in the next five years, and .”

To ensure they have access to the skills they need, organisations will increasingly need to invest in in-house skills development. “It is highly likely that we will see a rise in-house academies, where workers can develop skills needed within their organisations and gain valuable experience that can immediately be applied to the benefit of their employers.”

For employees, this will have the dual benefit of helping them grow within their current roles while also making them more employable to the broader industry in the longer term.

“In its recent Future of Jobs 2020 report, the World Economic Forum found that 94% of business leaders expect employees to pick up new skills on the job, a major increase from 65% in 2018,” says Khota. “To win in the new world of work, employers and employees will need to engage in continuous skills development to ensure a steady supply of work-ready skills.”

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Cloud as a Tool to Create Certainty

Pedro Guerreiro, Managing Director for Central Africa at SAP — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 07:09:04 +0000

The speed with which Africa’s business sector has changed over the past year has been nothing short of astonishing.

Business leaders across the continent have had their hands full, from enabling remote work on a previously unprecedented scale to adapting to disruptions in the global supply chain, enabling e-learning for millions of youth – not to mention ensuring business continuity in the midst of a once-in-a-generation crisis.

Some changes in behaviour – such as the growing adoption of online shopping, telemedicine and digital channels for engaging with service providers – are likely to outlive the pandemic. Other behaviours – such as in-person teaching and working from the office at least some of the time – are likely to return once it’s safe.

Organisations need the flexibility to adapt to these multi-faceted changes while also improving the accuracy of the decisions they make regarding which route to take.

Speed or certainty?

McKinsey believes and will continue to play a leading role in guiding how businesses should adapt to ongoing uncertainty. The argument is that, by prioritising speed, organisations could make rapid decisions, act on emerging opportunities more quickly, and so improve their chances at overcoming the immense challenges created by the twin forces of digital disruption and the global pandemic.

Speed is certainly important, but there is no competitive advantage in making poor decisions quickly. The prevailing disruption and continued volatility requires that business leaders make decisions with certainty.

To make good decisions, business leaders need accurate sources of data, and the tools to turn that data into insights that can guide decision-making in real time. The modern business environment is simply too complex and volatile to rely entirely on so-called intuitive decision-making. Good quality, accurate and complete data integrated to an intelligent suite of business applications gives decision-makers greater scope for decisions that shift the needle of the business.

For example, responding well to changing customer demands is nearly impossible without knowing what those demands are. Having access to customer experience management tools that can track customer expectations in real time and guide how the business responds to those expectations removes much of the trial and error of manual decision-making. Integrating the customer experience management tool with an automation layer further increases both the speed and accuracy of that response.

Hybrid work models raise the stakes

The impact of the pandemic means most organisations are operating on a fragmented basis. Teams are working from home, making in-person methods of employee engagement and performance management almost totally obsolete, at least for the moment.

Without new employee engagement tools that can effectively mobilise and support teams around common business objectives, organisations could see falling productivity and negative effects on aspects such as product development or customer experience.

New management tools can provide measurable insights into the employee experience, which can assist managers and leaders with making better decisions over the types of support they need to provide to their teams.

Advances in data and analytics also bring data-driven insights into the boardroom, with technology solutions that connect the top floor with the shop floor to give C-level executives granular insight into the total performance of the business.

To harness data and technology for greater certainty in decision-making, organisations need to put certain building blocks in place.

Tools to create certainty in decision-making

In order to achieve a single accurate view over the organisation and empower decision-makers with actionable insights, organisations need to build intelligent enterprise capabilities.

In simple terms, this means using the latest technologies to turn insight into action across every aspect of the business, in real time. Integrated business applications – such as enterprise resource planning and human capital management solutions – powered by next-generation technologies such as artificial intelligence help transform end-to-end business processes.

Experience management solutions give insight to the sentiment of customers, partners and employees, while business process intelligence and automation enable organisations to immediately act on insights and opportunities.

At the foundation of the intelligent enterprise is cloud, which gives organisations the ability to simplify and scale their systems landscape without sacrificing performance.

Cloud empowers businesses with the certainty of a quicker time-to-value, without the upfront capital outlays required of on-premise deployments.

With cloud-enabled intelligent enterprise capabilities, organisations can achieve the speed needed to stay ahead of competitors and other disruptors while maintaining the certainty of measured, data-driven decision-making.

And with new tools such as RISE with SAP, organisations can start building intelligent enterprise capabilities no matter what stage of their digital transformation journeys they find themselves.

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How to Genetically Sequence the Life Cycle of a Trend

51��News — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 04:53:07 +0000

Hindsight may be 20/20, but with artificial intelligence (AI)-fueled technology you just might be able to see into the future before anyone else. is a U.S.-based startup piloting a predictive trends platform designed to capture the fast-changing voice of the consumer.

“We’re genetically sequencing the life cycle of trends as they’re created and evolving. You can select any topic in the world and immediately have a full report documenting how saturated a trend is in the minds of consumers, globally and by region,” said Sourav Goswami, co-founder of NWO. “It’s like talking to a human expert who can tell you when, where, and why a trend is growing, declining, or about to reach an inflection point with impact on your business.”

Among the recent early signals Goswami held up as proof of NWO’s prescience were reports predicting the resurgence of , the financial impact of on sugar and cotton futures, and notably, in the fall of 2020, a firestorm of online and offline behaviors around guns and tactical weaponry that constituted an “” months before an angry mob stormed the U.S. Capitol.

The startup is working with beta customers in product innovation, marketing, and supply chain management at companies in the U.S. and Europe – and has plans to move into Asia and the Middle East. While initially targeting consumer brands, Goswami said NWO’s offering cuts across any industry, such as logistics and supply chain companies.

Predictive Insights from Unexpected Inflection Points

Operating like a search engine that filters data from keywords, NWO is deceptively simple. However, a proprietary algorithm translates time-shift lagging indicators into predictive insights. The system generates detailed trend reports in about 60 seconds, analyzing patterns from tremendous amounts of social media chatter, news, and search activity, as well as information from various databases, such as patents and filings from the Federal Drug Administration in the U.S. and its European counterpart, along with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

A Career Steeped in Science

Goswami’s career is equal parts business and finance, backed by a longtime interest in science. After stints in the financial sector, he started a couple of technology companies. He currently manages a private equity real estate investment firm. He launched NWO with co-founders Pulkit Jaiswal and Imogen Low after seeing the potential in using data to predict geopolitical trends.

“Whether the industry is consumer, real estate, finance, or any sector, everything related to managing downside risk is related to anticipating what could happen three or four steps ahead,” said Goswami. “What’s exciting is creating a level playing field for any organization to apply the same data-driven strategies as financial investors, identifying early signals to head off problems and uncover new opportunities.”

One NWO beta customer gained early insights to evaluate new opportunities for its milk substitute products. Data revealed that oat milk growth rates were quickly eclipsing almond milk in concert with rising local interest in oat milk ice cream.

“We not only identified an emerging oat milk ice cream trend, but also exactly where it was happening and why,” said Goswami. “Consumer interest was spiking in Boise, Idaho, and other unexpected cities because of high-tech workforce relocations to new hubs. The company could quickly reallocate supply chain resources for distribution to these new markets.”

Important Connections from SAP.iO

After participating in the data and analytics cohort, Goswami saw a natural alignment with the . The NWO co-founders also valued the go-to-market expertise 51��provided, along with introductions to customers.

“We’re a good fit with 51��because our data provides early intelligent demand signals, helping companies optimize end-to-end business processes,” said Jaiswal. “In addition, hearing directly from 51��customers helped us better understand their challenges. As a result, we tweaked our interface and user experience, including how we presented reports.”

Real-Time Research Decodes Demand Signals

Goswami saw NWO replacing teams of data scientists with immense processing power minus human error and, equally important, time lags. Humans step in at the last mile to prioritize the most effective decisions.

“Companies can’t wait weeks or even days for research. If nothing else, the pandemic uncovered systemic shortcomings, as retailers couldn’t react quickly and efficiently to a dynamic narrative that was causing huge product demand spikes and drops,” said Goswami. “Global information diffusion means organizations have to look at all the data, all the time, from all countries simultaneously.”

Business leaders operate amidst an interconnected swirl of lightning-fast micro trends; they can’t afford to base decisions on the backward glance. It’s time to replace hindsight with predictive data that translates the world’s swirling currents into decisions for a stronger future.

This story first appeared on the 51��Global News Center.

The post How to Genetically Sequence the Life Cycle of a Trend appeared first on 51��Africa News Center.

Trends for 2021: Better, More Sustainable Use of Technology Tools Likely to Feature High on Business Agenda

51��News — Fri, 15 Jan 2021 07:26:06 +0000

2020 was a year that defied predictions and expectations. While it may seem presumptuous to attempt to predict trends for the year ahead considering the ongoing unpredictability and volatility, the past few months have revealed some very important insights that are worth bearing in mind in the year ahead.

Experts and leaders from 51��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��Africa – Leadership with purpose

“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’s not enough for it to be an add-on or the domain of a single division or department. Instead, a company’s 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��– Driving down costs and improving remote��workforce management in SME sector

“Employees 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.”

“The 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��– Learning to live,��work��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’re heading into a future where every device will become intelligent.”

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

“Adoption 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.”

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

“The 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.”

“Organizations 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.”

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

“One of the most significant new technologies in 2021 is likely to be 5G and its planned rollout in South Africa’s major urban centres. The improved quality of service offered by 5G will drive innovation and enable new business models.”

“When 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.”

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2020 in Review – MD of Seidor South Africa Shares Nine Observations

Heinrich de Leeuw, MD: Seidor Africa — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 07:20:10 +0000

2020 has changed everything. Company goals and objectives were upended by COVID-19, and the tech industry has been forever shifted. All sectors have faced enormous challenges over the past year. It’s important to take some time to reflect on the impact that local and global events have had on our business, our industry and our customers.

While brick-and-mortar stores took a hit, the pandemic led to unparalleled growth of e-commerce businesses. South Africa saw an enormous surge in online activity during the national lockdown, with B2C and B2B organisations scrambling to meet the immediate needs of their customers. The implications will last well into the decade.

Nine key observations in our business in 2020 were:

WFH needs technology

Tens of thousands of people now work from home (WFH) and rapid digital transformation has meant that cloud technologies, tech infrastructure, cyber and data security, and mobile devices are more in demand than ever as people need to access business systems from anywhere.

Move to digital

Companies that don’t harness this global move to digital could lose their competitive advantage. It is an opportunity to grow revenue, attract new customers and drive the shift to online. The success of these initiatives will depend on access to digital channels and capabilities that are scalable, secure and stable enough to handle increased demand.

ERP is king

ERP systems are proving to be invaluable in today’s remote working world. Clients do not have to choose between buying a new delivery van or an ERP solution when both are critical to getting the business through these tough times. They can buy a premium tool without paying a premium cost.

Business efficiency a must

With more and more businesses looking towards digital transformation and joining the e-commerce movement, it makes sense to leverage technology that also allows for more business efficiency, security, compliance, scalability and better productivity.

No interruptions

The impact of the coronavirus on all areas of the economy has highlighted the need to transform traditional supply chain models, many of which suffered interruption.

The experience of many industries during lockdown demonstrated how important it is to be able to run uninterrupted operations and communicate with customers. This requires businesses of all sizes to become digitally integrated so as to drive efficiencies and build a more productive and data-led business. Cutting manual tasks and automating business-critical functions will help achieve business targets.

ERP is for SMEs too

With the appropriate use of ERP technology, solutions exist that enable business continuity for small and medium enterprise owners in a fragile economy. The current best formula for successful business is to be smarter, faster and automated. ERP��technology enables SME owners and directors to have a real-time dashboard of important data in the business, allowing them to make faster, optimal decisions and plan month-to-month based on real-time data.

Tech-led businesses as industry leaders

Although the full impact of COVID-19 on supply chains remains unknown, the economic and financial ramifications are being, and will continue to be, felt across global supply chains for some time to come. We have seen how the ongoing digital transformation of industries has accelerated as a result of the pandemic. Companies have been forced to innovate and optimise beyond the usual in order to navigate their unexpected vulnerabilities and we anticipate seeing tech-led businesses emerging as industry leaders.

Automation and information the key

Right now, supply chain leaders would be wise to quickly change how they do things if they want to overcome the challenges that arise from lack of visibility, collaboration and co-ordination. The need for more automation and information is an opportunity for all businesses. Companies still need human workers to manage the supply chain, but they also need to evolve their businesses into digitally intelligent organisations that are equipped to drive efficiencies throughout their business processes.

Digitally intelligent organisations the way forward

We do not know what lies ahead, but we can and should approach the new year applying the lessons we have learnt about sustaining business operations against a backdrop of continual change and disruption. The key to future-proofing lies in digital transformation and end-to-end information management.

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Beyond the Digital Frontier with SAP® Solutions

51��News — Thu, 25 Jun 2020 07:37:05 +0000

Insights to help you build the intelligent enterprise

Find out how the top tech trends are shaping big decisions across industries—and how you can leverage 51��solutions to respond to them.

Explore insights in Deloitte’s SAP-focused overview of the big enterprise technology trends— Beyond the Digital Frontier with 51��Solutions.

Discover innovative solutions that can help you address relentless disruption—so you can see beyond today’s digital developments and possibilities, and plan for what comes next. This special report projects AI, connectivity, security, the human experience, intelligent interfaces, and other important trends through the lens of 51��technology enablement—as a complement to Deloitte’s��Tech Trends 2019: Beyond the digital frontier��publication.

If activating the intelligent enterprise with 51��solutions is a priority for your organization, get started here—with a quick tour of emerging trends and insights that can help you navigate them with 51��offerings such as SAP^®��Ariba® solutions, the 51��S/4HANA^®��digital core ERP, SAP^®��SuccessFactors^®��HR solutions, the SAP^®��C/4HANA customer experience cloud site, and 51��Leonardo intelligent capabilities.

Interested in the broader Deloitte Tech Trends report? .

This article first appeared on .

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A Bold New World of Enterprise Transformation

Robin Brown, Siris Cloud Solutions — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 09:45:30 +0000

COVID-19 is a human tragedy that has transformed the world in an instant. Amidst the sadness of lives lost, some hope arises, as people and businesses start to reassess their work lives.

From the UK comes the story of the University of Sussex, that was rolling out a five year digital transformation plan. But when the coronavirus struck, this plan had to be ditched and the ‘varsity had to online nineteen thousand students and some three thousand staff. In three weeks.

Fortunately the groundwork had been laid, as the university had been planning on using hybrid cloud technology to expand beyond its physical confines in years to come. With the world in chaos, technology, strategy and optimistic forward transformation is what is restoring economies, smoothing societal woes and getting the world back to function. But focussing on the right things is crucial.

“Too many organizations are concentrating on finding a collaboration tool when the bigger issue is training people how to work with others in remote work situations,” Jack Gold, founder of J. Gold Associates advises, adding: “It’s as much (or more) about the ‘how to’ than ‘what tech I have to do it, and many don’t know how.’”

In an instant, enterprises must now understand that their cloud plans must change. To become agile, innovative and sustainable, organisations need to create more resilient business models, watch their budgets and effect rapid digital transformations. At this time we’re recommending that IT leaders heed Gartner’s sound advice, which is to: “Protect your organization from significant business disruption by improving infrastructure resiliency during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Public lockdowns put significant additional pressure on infrastructure because of the spikes in online traffic and transactions. Gartner advises: “Expand on-premises workload capacity by leveraging public cloud services, as the capacity of data centers is typically insufficient to support additional demand. Complement your public cloud provider with multi-cloud solutions to protect against resource shortages and the areas that are hit the hardest with traffic. An IT steering committee can enable I&O teams to develop pandemic service-related applications that support demand in affected areas.”

At this time, making the right IT choices means enterprises can now lean into innovating continuously off the back of previous customer-centric investments.

In our experience, the following ERP trends offer a proven path to transformation. These concepts can help companies become more customer-centric, future-fit and profitable — whatever happens.

Trend #1: Mobility

The obvious trend is towards mobility and remote working. Even once the current crisis ends, there will always be the potential for another, similar situation — and working remotely has other advantages. Virtual conferences can save on fuel and travel time, for example. The ability to access your desktop from anywhere in the world, securely and speedily, can improve efficiency.

Trend #2: Organizations Must Move to Compliance

Business ethics had already taken centre stage in 2020, with Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) legislation and King IV corporate governance guidelines dictating future ethics. These recommendations have been in the pipeline for several years now, but the pressure has mounted for increased compliance. We expect this to impact the entire supply chain and is likely to introduce complexities into operations. Your choice of ERP software must conform to these new standards.

Trend #3: Privacy Under Scrutiny

The world was already focussing on privacy before covid. Following on from the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which has been in effect since 2018, privacy and protection of information has come more sharply into focus, as the Protection of Personal Information (POPI) Act is slated to come into effect this year. To ensure your architecture is compliant during this moment of peak mobility, Enterprise Class ERP systems like 51��Business ByDesign are fully compliant with GDPR, and other major data protection regulations.

Trend #4: More Large Organizations Will Adopt Two-Tier ERP

As various as-a-Service options become available, businesses need to move at least part of their systems to the cloud. For large organizations, however, this can be highly complex, as different legacy systems need to be integrated, and a ‘simple’ migration is not possible. Certain core legacy systems still need to be housed in the on-premises data center, rather than the public cloud. The Hybrid approach addresses these requirements, with distinct advantages like off-site backup.These integrated, on-premises (legacy)/cloud systems are defined as: ‘Two Tier’. IaaS, PaaS and SaaS (and all the other XaaS) were transforming the world of business before the coronavirus, and will continue to do so now, but at a faster pace.

Trend #5: Digital Transformation is about Humans

Transforming your business isn’t just about installing ERP software and expecting everything to naturally fall into place. Employees are naturally resistant to change, so it’s important that this ‘last mile’ of digital transformation be handled correctly. Change management and training are key to ensuring the entire organisation gets on board and learns to take advantage of ERP.

Trend #6: Death to Spreadsheets – Analyse and Visualise

The dashboard has replaced the spreadsheet for decision-makers who want to keep on top of their business. Visualisation tools like 51��Analytics Cloud (SAC) provide a visual representation of a business’ health that turns data into insight — allowing faster decision making and better, more fine-grained control. The standard integration between SAC and 51��Business ByDesign, greatly simplifies and accelerates the creation of stories and dashboards.

Conclusion

Given what we already know about the bold new world we’re walking into, ERP remains an essential IT investment for enterprises successfully embracing digital disruption. The evolution of cloud ERP continues to provide opportunities for improving operations, increasing customer centricity and allowing business leaders to innovate like never before.

www.siris.co.za

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