A BLUEPRINT FOR Enterprise AI Journey In 2013 Telkom had significant challenges to address. It had declining financial performance, its mobile position was weak, it needed to pay a Competition Tribunal fine of R449m, and the share price had plummeted to R13 per share.
by Stefan Steffen, Lead Data Scientist, Telkom Group
BY 2018 Telkom had overcome many of these critical challenges, creating portfolio growth through the acquisition of BCX, developing more competitive wholesale and retail pricing structures, and delivering strong profit uplift through cost efficiencies. The share price had rocketed to reach R97 per share.
3RD QUARTER 2019
But the race is not won yet. Diversified growth is the critical next imperative to ensure that Telkom maintains its pace. Let’s look at how the Telkom group is developing its data-centric culture, investing in future skill and technologies, and becoming “AI-first” to deliver on its customer promises and business strategies.
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Externally, Telkom’s commitment to innovation, coding and data science skills in South Africa has been visionary, and its efforts to accelerate South African investment in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has been tireless. Telkom, the initial sponsor of the 4IRSA initiative, believes 4IR will have many significant opportunities for South Africa if there is enough investment. These include improved access to better services, which will be provided more efficiently across socio-economic and geographic barriers - increasing transparency, trust and social cohesion through direct communication. And to extend its impact in this area, Telkom’s information and communications technology subsidiary BCX invested more than a R100 million in the development of coding and data science skills in South Africa. The investment into WeThinkCode aimed to more
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Telkom’s commitment to innovation, coding and data science skills in South Africa has been visionary, and its efforts to accelerate South African investment in the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) has been tireless. - Stefan Steffen, Lead Data Scientist, Telkom Group
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than double the number of entry-level coders in the South African market , and the start of the Explore Data Science Academy would launch more than 300 aspiring data scientists into the industry through free yearlong data science internships, addressing the growing demand for big data analytics within the country.
Internally the Group CEO focused on creating capacity, establishing the Telkom Strategic Insights unit to deliver data management, data insight, and data science services and solutions to the Telkom group. The Insights unit is made up of strong data management, data engineering, and data science skills - leveraging coding and data science resources from the WeThinkCode and Explore Data Science Academy programs to increase capacity. Initially, the pent-up demand for business insight required significant focus on data visualisation and advanced analytics services.
