INDUSTRY OPINION
What is driving digital transformation in South Africa? The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in South Africa in March last year massively disrupted the market. Suddenly, people were forced to work remotely, with the emphasis falling squarely on being online and connected. But, while challenging, the rapid push for digital transformation has also unlocked new opportunities for companies across industry sectors. By Andreas Bartsch, Head of Innovation and Services at PBT Group.
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artsch says, “Online shopping, banking, education, and the like became normalised virtually overnight. And while working remotely is not a new thing as such, the scale at which it had to be done was. For instance, job interviews had to be managed remotely, with new employees having to be onboarded online as well. Client introductions took place online with no physical face-to-face engagement happening at all. And from a business perspective, the underlying application systems and data had to be accessible from anywhere, triggering many migrations into a cloud environment.” This has resulted in a different mindset required to adjust to the behavioural challenges associated with the ‘new normal’. For example, new skills
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associated with virtual meetings entailed everything from etiquette on whether to put a camera on, what calls could be recorded, and being mindful of the background, to name just a few. Technology adoption The dramatic changes that took place coincided with the availability of more sophisticated technologies like the cloud, 5G, edge computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT). All these started maturing while the pandemic was taking place. However, it also highlighted how technology has the potential to make everything possible. “From an organisational perspective, executives had to adjust as a matter of survival and then needed to consider both the medium and long-term impact that this shift would have on their
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operating environments. However, this also opened the door to new opportunities people did not consider before,” says Bartsch. For instance, automation has become a central theme to digital transformation. With the emphasis turning to artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), attention has shifted towards establishing smarter organisations driven by data. It also meant that those companies wanting to benefit the most from the changes happening, had to ensure that their data would allow the enablement of these technologies. Skills growth Furthermore, the push towards digital
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