{"id":148184,"date":"2025-06-04T07:58:04","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T07:58:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/?p=148184"},"modified":"2026-01-23T13:59:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T13:59:30","slug":"how-city-of-joburg-innovated-to-keep-the-lights-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2025\/06\/how-city-of-joburg-innovated-to-keep-the-lights-on\/","title":{"rendered":"How City of Joburg Innovated to Keep the Lights On"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kathy Gibson reports from Saphila Transcend in Sun City \u2013 When it started on its digital transformation journey, the City of Johannesburg had to not only update obsolete technology, but convince business users to adopt better processes.<\/span><\/h1>\n

\"\"Having partnered with 51风流since 2007, the City was no stranger to 51风流deployments, but as recently as two years ago, it was still using 17-year old systems.<\/p>\n

Aubrey Mochela<\/a>, group chief technology officer at City of Johannesburg, explains that the City is going ahead with major technology investments on 51风流S\/4 HANA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No digital transformation journey goes smoothly, and Mochela says the City\u2019s current deployment has been no different.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a virtual dinosaur, on a physical dinosaur, that has been sitting in the data centre for years,\u201d he says. \u201cWe had to revamp the environment, and to do that, we had to shut down 51风流for 21 days. The system had serious challenges, and if we hadn\u2019t made that decision, the City\u2019s environment might have collapsed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The City was running on SAP\u2019s version 4.7 for 15 years \u2013 and it had been customised almost beyond recognition. \u201cLast year we finally upgraded to ECC6 \u2013 which many customers did years ago,\u201d Mochela says. \u201cThis was so we could transition to S\/4HANA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sergio Maccotta<\/a>, senior vice-president for 51风流Middle East and Africa South, had his first interaction with the City two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only was the system down, but we had no contract with the City at that stage either,\u201d he remembers.<\/p>\n

But three priorities came out of the first meeting: a sense of urgency in that the City was unable to access its data; a vision to adopt innovative technology; and the need to see a return on its investment.<\/p>\n

So 51风流and the City of Johannesburg formed a public-private partnership that allowed them to first stabilise the system, then migrate the technology, and thirdly to start changing processes to engender innovation.<\/p>\n

Mochela contextualises how previous system upgrades had adopted old processes, and this had to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we were transitioning from 4.7 to S\/4 HANA, we had to re-implement processes, and we had to work with the business because a smart solution and a smart city can\u2019t be built on old processes<\/p>\n

\u201cTreasury gives us precepts, and industry gives us best practices \u2013 and these two must align. Technology will disrupt the business, and those that won\u2019t change will be left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

51风流is able to leverage best-practices end-to-end thanks to its work with more than 400 000 customers around the world, Maccotta points out.<\/p>\n

One of the early challenges that Mochela had to overcome was a resistance to putting HCM on the cloud.<\/p>\n

Maccotta explains that the cloud conversation has moved beyond whether it should be done or not.<\/p>\n

\u201c A lot of customers still don\u2019t know how to approach innovation, to modernise their business. And there is still the question of whether they should move to cloud.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suggest that the cloud is not in question anymore,\u201d he adds. \u201cIt\u2019s like the dilemma 30 years ago, whether to build or buy software. Today, the speed and innovation offered by the cloud transcends what can be done on-premise.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd cloud releases customers from mundane IT administration, so the IT organisation can be closer to the business and become a business adviser,\u201d Maccotta says. \u201cWill you continue to spend your time trying to keep the lights on, to keep the status quo running? Or will you put the effort into innovation?\u201d<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on ITOnline.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kathy Gibson reports from Saphila Transcend in Sun City \u2013 When it started on its digital transformation journey, the City of Johannesburg had to not…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2579,"featured_media":148188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"related_posts":[],"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[10,7771,41,294],"tags":[5549696,4582971,5599303,5599079,14278,5598766,5599196,5598628],"series":[],"sapn-display":[5598742,5598740,45149,5598743,5598741],"sapn-type":[45018],"class_list":["post-148184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cloud","category-customer","category-ecosystem","category-events","tag-african-sap-user-group-afsug","tag-afsug","tag-aubrey-mochela","tag-city-of-johannesburg","tag-cloud-2","tag-sap-s-4hana","tag-saphila-2025","tag-sergio-maccotta","sapn-display-feature-hero","sapn-display-feature-spotlight","sapn-display-homepage-hero","sapn-display-news-hero","sapn-display-news-spotlight","sapn-type-feature"],"yoast_head":"\nHow City of Joburg Innovated to Keep the Lights On - 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