The confluence of several disruptive factors 鈥� geopolitical conflict, rising inflation, economic uncertainty, increased regulatory pressure, and last, but by no means least, the impact of new technologies 鈥� will undoubtedly test leaders to the limit in the year to come.

Speaking with business leaders across the region, several common themes have emerged. From the urgent need to build greater resilience and reduce risk, to leveraging the power of AI and improving sustainability efforts while ensuring that investments drive value both now, and in the future – these are the interconnected trends that European business leaders will confront in 2024:

Trend 1: De-risking the enterprise

In an environment defined by volatility and geopolitical uncertainty, business leaders face increased risk across their operations. This is driving an acute need for operational and technological interventions to reduce risk and bring stability to the enterprise, while still safeguarding agility.

Europe’s regulatory landscape is becoming increasingly complex as policymakers try to keep pace with the disruptive impact of technology. The , for example, will establish strict rules and standards around the development and application of AI in business contexts. This includes guardrails for general purpose AI; a total ban on AI as it relates to citizens’ rights and democratic processes; and the right for consumers to launch complaints and demand meaningful explanations regarding decisions based on AI systems.

In addition, a wave of new regulations in trade and customs throughout the region will add compliance pressure on companies already reeling from ongoing challenges related to various elements of their supply chains. From 1 January this year, companies wishing to do business in Europe are subject to the EU Emissions Trading System that aims to establish Europe as the first climate-neutral continent; a truly admirable objective.

All this complexity requires extensive investment in sophisticated digital tools to provide greater visibility over the climate impact of the end-to-end supply chain, which brings me to my next point:

Trend 2: Supply chain resilience is not the same as agility

As if the continued ripple effects of the pandemic on global supply chains didn’t pose enough of a challenge over the last couple of years, business leaders have also had to contend with the ongoing geopolitical conflict. Be it re-routing of ships to avoid the Suez Canal, high-tech component shortages, or commodity price volatility on everything from food to energy – these factors, among others, create immense supply chain instability.

In response, forward-looking companies are seeking greater agility to respond to supply chain threats. A recent highlights the importance of technology in maximizing organizations’ chances at success with maintaining stable supply chains.

One of the key objectives of digital transformation within supply chains is the ability to improve end-to-end visibility. However, found that 43% of global organizations have limited to no visibility over the performance of their tier one suppliers 鈥� an astounding statistic.

Greater visibility over supply chain processes clearly also supports wider sustainability efforts. The same KPMG study found that only 5% of supply chain emissions stem from direct manufacturing; emissions from the broader supply chain are five to ten times greater.

Digital platforms can significantly improve enterprises’ ability to collect emission data and set appropriate targets for key suppliers to collectively drive improved sustainability outcomes throughout the supply chain.

In addition, organizations will increasingly leverage the power of AI to improve supply chain management, logistics, and procurement. In fact, half of supply chain organizations are expected to invest in applications that in the year ahead.

Trend 3: Unlocking AI’s true business value

On the topic of AI, the year ahead will undoubtedly see more companies leverage Generative AI and AI for business to drive innovation, efficiency, and productivity.

Unsurprisingly, that Trust, Risk and Security Management in AI Models will be one of the leading tech themes for the year ahead, built on advances in model monitoring, AI application security, and privacy.

However, European businesses may be more hesitant to unleash AI on their operations. found that business leaders in EMEA are far less convinced that their customers prefer to interact with AI models than their North American peers.

And considering the EU legislation already mentioned, European companies looking to incorporate AI in their business models or operating environments will need to build their use case with both compliance and privacy front and centre.

However, companies can unquestionably accelerate the value from their AI deployments by leveraging AI that is purpose built for business. Large cloud and software providers, like 麻豆原创, have invested significantly in building responsible AI into their core products. This means that customers can immediately benefit and unlock business value from their software investments.

2024 will be a pivotal year for many business leaders across EMEA 鈥� while daunting in many respects, also an incredibly exciting time to lead.

The post Business Leadership in an AI World in 2024 appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

The African ERP market is highly competitive with many vendors focusing their attention on cloud-based ERP offerings which offer customers flexible payment and deployment options with simplified and accelerated implementation times.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software provides the underlying platform for digital transformation enabling companies across the African continent to integrate key financial and operational business processes which leads to greater efficiency, speed, customer satisfaction and profit.

African businesses, as with other regions, are looking for easy to implement, mature, simplified ERP which results in a fast time to value.

2.听 What key business trends should CIOs be looking out for in the ERP space?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies are enabling greater levels of automation in the ERP space by speeding up and even replacing previous manual and time-consuming tasks.

An example of this is the scanning of supplier invoices which automatically creates the relevant documents in the ERP system.

Extending ERP access beyond the traditional 鈥渂ack office鈥� to mobile sales, service and warehouse users continues to gain traction and provides tangible business benefits.

Furthermore, smart devices and sensors on the factory floor for example, are able to integrate in with relevant ERP processes to improve productivity and optimise resources.

A business intelligence platform providing real-time reporting and analytical capabilities in order to make informed decisions should also be a serious consideration.

3.听 Is cloud ERP the future of ERP technology?

Very much so. Cloud ERP is especially attractive to small and midsize companies because it provides an operational investment option, faster deployment and allows them to focus on their core business while outsourcing IT functions to ERP vendors.

4.听 What do you see as key success factors for African enterprises when implementing ERP?

• Firstly, and probably most critical to the success of the project, is top-down commitment from the directors to the department heads and process owners. A steering committee should be established to keep these key stakeholders regularly informed as to the status of the project.
• The ERP vendor will include aspects of change management during the implementation process such as super-user testing and end user training but customers are strongly advised to drive their own change management program focusing on how the project will support the business to meet its current requirements and future objectives.
• Customers should be open to a phased approach around the implementation of an ERP solution. It is not feasible in terms of time, sound integration, and costs to address all requirements immediately. Prioritise the most important issues and 鈥渓ow hanging fruits鈥� with the aim of creating a core platform which will form the foundation for future projects and communicated in a roadmap document.
• A key consideration for those considering an ERP solution is cost transparency. Buried costs for hardware and hosting in complicated quotes can be a big headache for the owners so Seidor Africa has focused on comprehensive and complete offerings that are clear, avoid confusing tech jargon and also refer to the underlying infrastructure needed for a successful ERP system.

By way of example, with cloud implementations, cloud providers need to be reliable, and we need to work closely with them.

Through trial and error, we have carefully chosen the best and most reliable cloud providers who can offer customers a solid underlying infrastructure for their ERP system.

Seidor Africa has made our partnerships with infrastructure providers equally as important as the relationship with 麻豆原创 and our clients and this mitigates many potential problems.

5.听 What ERP technologies will be most sought next year?

Customers in 2023 and next year are more interested in business benefits than the supporting technology. What will be most important when evaluating ERP vendors:

• Automation and optimisation 鈥� business process automation (BPA) and Machine Learning (ML)
• Cloud and mobility 鈥� for flexible deployment and procurement options and the ability to extend the user base beyond traditional back-office users
• Extensibility and integration 鈥� the ability to extend functionality without bespoke development effort as well as integration capabilities with other systems
• Internet of Things (IoT) 鈥� whether the option exists to include data generated by smart assets and devices into the core ERP.

The short answer is an ERP solution with rapid return on investment, that is scalable, dependable, and already best of breed is what will be most sought in 2024.

Answers by Darren De Vries SADC Channel Partner Manager | Seidor

The post Five Key Questions on the State of ERP in Africa appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

What is the outlook for the enterprise IT market on the African continent in 2021?

Three fundamental shifts have taken place in 2020 that will drive evolution in the enterprise IT market in 2021. The first is the financial strain faced by so many businesses on the continent, the second is the rise of the work-from-anywhere generation, and the third is the rise of ecommerce as a necessity.

What the continuous financial strain leads to is corporate strategy 鈥� regardless of size or industry sector 鈥� that aims to drive resilience and profitability. In the enterprise IT context, this translates to tech modernization investments that brings transparency to the financial wellbeing of a company and allows decision makers to easily identify much-needed actions to drive positive change. The scope for analytics, predictive modeling and intelligent working solutions is vast.

The work-from-anywhere expectation of employees implies a continued investment in productivity tools that allow teams to connect and collaborate online. Not only would the adoption of the software platforms continue to rise but a set of new job niches open up for people and companies to provide masterclasses in using particular workplace productivity tools or to assist in scouting and planning the right combination of productivity tools that are best-fit for a particular team. This includes a rise in security strategy offerings to ensure companies are working with minimal risk of exposure to external parties.

Lastly, eCommerce as a necessity is a result of companies needing to drive revenue through alternate channels during lockdowns. Many who were new to digital strategies would have seen the light, with digital offering lower costs of sale as compared to brick and mortar stores. Further investment in both eCommerce and CRM platforms to improve customer journeys and online shopping experiences will be witnessed, with investment in logistics and warehouse management system modernization to accommodate this increase in demand following soon after.

What key technologies should CIOs across the continent look out for in the year ahead?

Most tech enthusiasts will continue to keep a close eye on 5G and the opportunities it opens for connectivity, for people and for things. AI will continue to stretch into more mainstream corporate applications, the same way we unknowingly train thousands of machine learning models daily as an individual, corporate applications of machine learning will continue to rise with no obvious disruption to work tasks. We can expect to witness growth in job functions such as business architecture, automation engineering and process optimization.

One major shift in technologies will be greater adoption of low-code and no-code platforms to build enterprise applications, from SMEs to large enterprises. The agility, ability to prototype rapidly and the time to value offered by these platforms makes this an obvious choice for corporates looking to drive cost efficiency across their businesses. The skill of programming will continue to have a place but there will be a shift to software architecture, reverse engineering and user-centric design over coding in the coming year.

听What predictions do you have for the African enterprise IT market and what should CIOs be paying attention to?

As part of a longer-term strategy to drive down exchange rate fluctuation as a key factor in corporate spending, along with the growth in tech sector start-up and scale-up investment through venture capital funds and the impending rise of additional mega-cities on the continent, Africa will begin creating more African solutions that solve global problems. The tech start-ups that are trying to solve an issue about proximity or lack of expert resources or removing friction in a process will gain traction but will have continental origins.

As a CIO, creating alliances with early stage businesses, whether to outsource the build of enterprise applications, or to funnels into a corporate growth strategy focused on investments 鈥� will be essential for long-term survival. New ventures offer an opportunity to drive competitive advantage, or to gain market penetration, or to provide a new essential service to other stakeholders in your current industry sector. These outcomes will feed new business models, operating models and revenue streams, making a current business a lot more diverse and arguably more bulletproof for future economic shocks. At the least, the insights gained from working with new ventures will drive internal mindset shifts that should spark more innovation internally.

Given the shift to remote working brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, how do you see this shaping up in 2021 and how can CIOs and CISOs improve the security posture of their organisations in Africa?

The ability and willingness of employees to work remotely will not fall away for the foreseeable future. Naturally, some roles cannot be performed remotely, but remote working for at least a known proportion of a business can be properly defined and the correct infrastructure put in place to drive team performance.

Further investment in workplace productivity, the software and skills for communication and collaboration, will continue to rise in 2021. If not already in place, companies should be looking to introduce enterprise architecture, information architecture and security architecture capacities to their teams 鈥� whether in-house or outsourced. With the next normal of working, new challenges will arise 鈥� from mobile device enrolment where there was never a need, to procurement systems and policies to accommodate self-service buying by staff needing home office equipment, software licenses or replacement devices, to ensuring data encryption is in place through secure communication channels when dealing with sensitive data.

At the least, companies should be educating the workforce on safe working practices and to highlight the risks associated with using public WIFI networks, social hacking, unattended devices, phishing and improper classification of documentation for internal, external or confidential usage. Then, following a maturity curve or security implementation roadmap to introduce more hard controls to reduce the risk of improper access to corporate systems and data would be needed.

What do you see as challenges for enterprises across different industry verticals in Africa in 2021?

African businesses and its investors will look at hedging for supply chain integrity. The lockdowns of 2020 caused major disruption to businesses worldwide and a general shift to identify and secure local, domestic or continental suppliers is underway. Across industry sectors, this would have varying levels of readiness to completely replace prior international suppliers. Some may have fixed contracts in mind or preferred suppliers internationally, based on pricing or quality. Supply diversification may not also make sense for all sectors.

Consumer behaviours also shapes sector evolution. For example, grocery consumers would favour both quality and price and would arguably suffer from a lack of variety in order to retain value for money. Understandably, this new consumer behaviour may be born from their direct outcome of national lockdowns impacting their disposable income. The knock-on effect to the retailer, consumer goods manufacturer, co-ops and farmers is reduced demand for some produce and increased demand for others. Within the telecommunication sector, the work-from-home era puts the majority of the workforce on home WIFI networks, shifting the spend from voice calls to VOIP calls via chat platforms.

Hard hit sectors, such as transportation, would look at innovative ways to drive additional revenue. One example is a shift to more pay-as-you-use models for vehicles, or all-you-can-use models for trains, buses, trams, planes or bicycles. The knock-on effect for the stakeholders in these value chains is immense. A survivalist approach, with a relevant business offering and a business model favourable to the consumer, will see a company through the next wave of transformation.

What emerging technologies will take off in 2021 and what will drive the adoption of those technologies in Africa?

Less of a technology and more of an approach is the adoption of sustainability as a corporate strategy pillar. More businesses are realizing the need for purpose-led corporate culture and are feeling the pressure to align business decisions with their purpose with an aim to build more ethical and sustainable businesses.

Technologies to support this, such as 麻豆原创鈥檚 Climate21 initiative that features a Carbon Footprint Analysis solution to assess your company鈥檚 ongoing contribution to climate change, will help drive the transparency needed to make the right changes for sustainable outcomes. Other solutions in the circular economy, health and safety, and waste management domains, drive these climate action outcomes even more. For this to be successful, leaders need to ensure that sustainability outcomes are measurable and that the discussion on progress is being represented in the boardroom across the continent.

Beyond sustainability, and to support a focus on cost efficiency and the retention of almost only the critical skills within a business, is the rise in Intelligent Robotic Process Automation. For companies to work smarter, they need to shift to working on exceptions and not trawling through lists of tasks. This means employees shift their work to focus on higher value-add tasks and the rate of productivity within a business should increase. For this to succeed, all representatives at the board level need to understand the benefits of automation and the journey to get there, to help identify opportunities across their respective business areas and to effectively communicate the impact and positive outcomes for the human contingent within the business.

What technologies will be most sought after in the year ahead?

Once people realise that 2021 will continue in much the same light as 2020 has, there鈥檒l be a renewed enthusiasm to work simpler and smarter. From a home worker perspective, hardware and software that adds simplicity to video and voice calls 鈥� from headsets, to presentation and video editing software, to smart desks and audio-visual and lighting equipment 鈥� will be on the hotlist. From a corporate perspective, audio-visual equipment to sustain team calls and remove the need for individual connections from within the office will be on the wish list, as well as team performance dashboards spanning different departments (such as 麻豆原创鈥檚 Digital Boardroom) to show a holistic view of the business with the ability to drilldown to detail or correlate data on demand. The transparency created by dashboards feeds a rise in relevance within decision making, which in turn feeds an automation strategy.

How should CIOs tackle the skills challenges the African technology sector is facing at the moment?

There is a comparative shortage of tech skills in Africa. To combat this, a long-term strategy should be adopted, whereby CIOs and other leaders are supporting growth opportunities for currently skilled and future tech specialists. Growth can take the form of formal funding for schooling and tertiary education but can also be demonstrated by creating opportunities to collaborate with the youth. For example, a corporate hackathon can include students or scholars, so they get familiar with the industry sector, business challenges represented in the hackathon, and the technologies used to help solve those challenges. Not only is there an opportunity for potential internship placements after the event, but there鈥檚 also the growth of awareness at a young age that can help recruit future techies. One organisation 鈥� AI in Africa 鈥� has been focused on giving high school aged girls exposure to AI concepts successfully through a similar model.

Work experience opportunities, in the form of tech academies, startup challenges, incubators or internships, designed to bring people in and get them collaborating with others of mixed expertise, will broaden their minds and appetite for learning and growth while growing their networks.

What CIOs can also do is share their stories with the world.

Follow Mervyn George on Twitter @mervynonline

The post What Emerging Technologies Will Take Off in 2021? appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.