Tjaart Malan, head of digital聽business聽services at 麻豆原创 Africa, told ITWeb that with many of its customers being in financial services, manufacturing and other essential services, the company had to put in place processes and procedures to be able to respond to the level of service required by customers during the lockdown.

Key initiatives such as 麻豆原创 Ariba Discovery, which enables buyers and sellers to connect quickly and resolve procurement-related issues, and the Qualtrics Remote Work Pulse, which allows organisations to understand problems faced by employees while working remotely, have helped 麻豆原创 continue to stay relevant for businesses and governments alike in a shrinking but competitive market.

ITWeb:聽How have you organised operations during the national lockdown?

Malan:聽For us, it鈥檚 been largely 鈥榖usiness as usual鈥� during the lockdown period as we haven鈥檛 faced a massive challenge in our way of working. While we have a team that鈥檚 used to remote working as well as a lot of travel, during normal circumstances, the only thing that鈥檚 changed for us is that we鈥檝e introduced more regular checkpoints and updates in our workflows.

There鈥檚 been more of a day-to-day impact on our support staff, like our finance and commercial departments, who are used to coming into the office every day.

On a tactical and strategic level, our executive leadership team meets virtually twice a week for what we call the War Room 鈥� this is where we discuss and troubleshoot everything from the impact of the pandemic on our customers, to operational issues, HR, risk and security concerns, and try to pro-actively plan ahead for the things we can see coming at us down the road.

ITWeb:聽What technical considerations did you have to get right?

Malan:聽We have a very mobile workforce, and one of the great things about working for 麻豆原创 is the flexibility the company offers its employees. This played to our advantage when the lockdown began, as we already had remote working technologies and protocols in place, and didn鈥檛 have to scramble to get network access, security or other measures set up.

The only challenges we encountered were around physical equipment; for example, problems with hardware, or around setting up new hires with all the tools they needed at short notice. Employees are generally given聽access聽to all the tools they need to work for us, from laptops, to screens, tablets, mobile phones, etc. One adjustment we did make to enable employees who don鈥檛 have fibre on tap at home, was to make an across-the-board increase of the company-sponsored data allowance to all employees.

ITWeb:聽What HR issues did you have to consider? How many of your staff are now working from home? Have any staff been put on leave?

Malan:聽All our employees, without exception, are working normal days from home. We haven鈥檛 implemented any forced leave, although employees may use their annual leave as normal, for example, over the recent Easter break and school holidays.

Our HR team was really sensitive to the concerns of employees around medical cover, emotional and mental health issues and so on, and have placed a lot of resources and support around employees. We have access to a lot of offerings like online medical advice, counselling services, etc.

ITWeb:聽Which platform are you using for virtual meetings?

Malan:聽Our main platform for聽collaboration聽is Microsoft Teams, which we use for pretty much everything, internal and external. We also have Skype for Business capability and we use Sharepoint extensively 鈥� a Web-based collaborative platform that integrates with Microsoft Office.

麻豆原创鈥檚 own collaboration app,聽, is also popular and we鈥檝e made it available at no charge to users.

ITWeb:聽What other tools are you using to keep track of projects / teams / monitor employees鈥� work?

Malan:聽The 麻豆原创 project methodology (Activate) fully supports remote delivery. It helps us and our customers to apply the rigor that is required to deliver successful projects.

滨罢奥别产:听How have your clients adapted to the new normal?

Malan: We鈥檝e had really positive feedback and interaction with customers. In the services area, there has not been one project that鈥檚 been cancelled or completely stopped. At most, some have been paused or extended.

Customers are committed to their business and technology journeys. We鈥檝e also found they like and take comfort from the increased frequency of contact and communication, which is great. We鈥檝e done a lot of work coming up with the tools and methods to help our customers work.

In reality, I think one aspect of the new normal we鈥檝e all had to adapt to and accept, is the fact that things may take a little longer. For example, in the analysis phase of a project, we can鈥檛 do full-day workshops anymore because people just can鈥檛 sit at a computer for the whole day.

滨罢奥别产:听What have you learned since the lockdown began?

Malan: In a recent call, our global head of services made the comment that the good thing about lockdown is that you get to spend a lot of time with your family. The bad thing about lockdown is 鈥� that you get to spend a lot of time with your family! I think we shouldn鈥檛 under-estimate the pressures people have been put under 鈥� suddenly and without much time or notice to prepare.

They have pressure from work, pressure from their children who are now at home, pressure from partners and spouses, and there鈥檚 no separation between these different pressures anymore.

The business pressures are very real 鈥� we need to keep selling and delivering.

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The new centre is based at the 麻豆原创 Office Park in Woodmead, Johannesburg. It is aimed at inspiring C-level executives, decision-makers and influencers from all industries to turn innovation into business value.

The first such centre was launched at the company鈥檚 global headquarters in Walldorf in June 2019, followed by centres in Tokyo, Copenhagen, Den Bosch and New York. The company says it plans to introduce more facilities across the globe this year.

Tjaart Malan, head of digital business services at 麻豆原创 Africa, who officially opened the centre, said the German-based software giant has developed the facilities as a physical innovation space to help clients redefine their business stories, while enabling them to transform their customer聽value proposition using an agile approach.

鈥淭he 麻豆原创 Experience Centre gives customers an opportunity to experience how the latest 麻豆原创 technologies, including blockchain, Internet of things and artificial intelligence, can transform their business models and improve customer experience.

鈥淭he dedicated, state-of-the-art innovation space is intentionally designed for creating, showcasing and demonstrating innovations, using the end-to-end 麻豆原创 technology portfolio.鈥�

The centre encompasses several main rooms where 麻豆原创鈥檚 local and global consultants provide organisations with the tools, services and prototypes that help them realise their digital ambitions, including product design and development, intelligent asset management, design thinking, user interface design and change management.

The intelligent asset management demo area is developed to show how 麻豆原创 can implement intelligent enterprise software in the different industry sectors, using data that is generated and captured from the demo case itself. It showcases a number of 麻豆原创 cloud platform technologies.

Cathy Smith, 麻豆原创 Africa MD, said the experience centre is a showcase for how African organisations of all sizes will rise to the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution.

鈥淏y engaging in a richly interactive physical innovation space, African organisations can accelerate their business transformation efforts in an immersive setting that makes their digital ambitions a reality,鈥� said Smith.

鈥淲e welcome all our partners and customers to use the centre as a space for unbridled innovation as we enter a new decade of challenge and opportunity.鈥�

The intelligent theme park area illustrates an end-to-end business process focusing on intelligent solutions that connect the organisation鈥檚 physical and digital operations.

This area helps large organisations such as train stations, airports, mining firms and retailers experience the power of intelligent customer engagement and digital asset management.

Joachim von Goetz, global head of experience centre strategy at 麻豆原创, said they combine 40 years of knowledge and best practices with the latest insights from the experience economy aimed to help deliver quality customer experience.

鈥淐ustomers can experience relevant showcases and demos tailored to their specific business, industry or market. Taking customers on a journey of ‘meet, inspire and engage’, the experience centre caters for individual customer visits and can be tailored to their needs. This makes the experience deeply personal and highly relevant.”

The playback of the various digital solutions takes place on the 聽large LCD screens in the auditorium. Engagements with international consultants, online demos and workshops around specific innovation challenges and opportunities also take place here.

鈥淔rom Cape Town to Kinshasa, Lagos to Nairobi, African organisations are using technology to unlock the continent鈥檚 immense potential. By creating a physical hub for highly relevant and tailored discussions, it is our hope that this new centre accelerates digital transformation across the continent,鈥� concluded Smith.

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