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The post How 麻豆原创 is Driving Digital Transformation, Supporting SMMEs appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

, head of mid-market at 麻豆原创 MEA South, says SMEs are vital to the continent鈥檚 economy, but many face significant hurdles stifling their growth. 鈥淎frica is home to a vibrant and diverse SME sector that contributes half its GDP and the majority of employment. However, skills constraints and a lack of technology is constraining growth in this vital sector.鈥�

data indicates that SMEs account for 95% of all registered businesses in sub-Saharan Africa and contribute about half of the continent鈥檚 GDP. In South Africa, 91% of formal businesses are SMEs, providing 60% of all employment in the country.

According to the report, which was developed by 麻豆原创 and , more than a third of global SME leaders are prioritising growth through new customers, increased market share and greater revenue over the next two years. Factors such as improved innovation capacity and greater agility also ranked highly.

鈥淚nnovation is essential to business growth in the modern age, especially in light of the accelerating pace of change and ongoing disruption in global markets,鈥� says Beveridge. 鈥淪mall and medium enterprises are leveraging innovation to fulfil and deliver services more efficiently, boost their profitability, and grow their market footprint.

鈥淭here is also growing recognition of the role innovation can play in launching new services or business models, creating more personalised customer experiences, and preparing for the next wave of technologies, for example AI.鈥�

About a quarter of companies that formed part of the study said they are currently using AI and machine learning, with half saying they鈥檙e planning to adopt these technologies in the coming year.

Beveridge says having the right foundation is key to enjoying the immense productivity, efficiency and innovation gains offered by technologies such as AI. 鈥淪MEs that have adopted the cloud reported improved agility, optimised processes, reduced costs, and improvements to customer and employee experiences.鈥�

Cloud adoption also enhances sustainability efforts, with a separate report finding that SMEs that have adopted sustainability software solution reported reduced emissions, greater benchmarking capability, and improved data collection for ESG reporting.

Beveridge says growth-focused SMEs should build innovation strategies and business models that leverage technology and complement existing and future human capital needs.

鈥淪MEs can compete more effectively by investing in four focus areas, namely: defining clear goals and values for the business and mobilising employees in support of the goals; adopting relevant technologies to keep up with trends and competitors; engaging in continuous strategic workforce planning to ensure the business can grow with changes in the market; and fostering a culture of innovation that prizes adaptability and agility and encourages people to think of new ways to do business and deliver value to customers.鈥�

He adds that effective innovation within SMEs requires the entire organisation to mobilise behind new ways of thinking. 鈥淪MEs should encourage every employee regardless of their role to actively participate and share ideas for building a culture of innovation that permeates every layer of the organisation. SMEs should also leverage customer insights to ensure their innovation delivers to customer needs.鈥�

The post AI, Adaptability Top Priorities for SMEs appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

Makhosi Magongo, Corporate Communications Manager at the Sincephetelo MVA Fund (The Fund), says: 鈥淥ur Organisation鈥檚 reliance on outdated manual processes was hampering our ability to provide much-needed support to claimants. We sought a solution that would speed up the claims process, improve visibility over end-to-end claims processes, and provide a single source of the truth for all claims in our system. Despite not having had an ERP in place before, the implementation team鈥檚 focus on change management and outstanding support of our partners helped ensure we could build new capabilities and establish a firm foundation for our organisation.鈥�

The Fund has a mandate to provide compensation for certain loss or damage caused unlawfully by means of motor vehicles and to cooperate with stakeholders in preventing road accidents. The Fund was established by an Act of Parliament under the Motor Vehicle Accidents Act No. 13 of 1991 as the instrument by which the Government of Eswatini compensates road accidents victims who have suffered bodily injuries or loss of support following the death of breadwinners. The Sincephetelo MVA Fund employs more than 100 staff supporting the entire Eswatini public sector.

Cloud, best practices accelerate adoption

The Organisation had no formal ERP solution in place, instead relying on standard accounting software to support its claims processing and disbursements. 鈥淲e wanted an integrated ERP solution that could enhance our ability to deliver on our mandate and set out to develop an RFP to find a suitable solution and expert implementation partner to support our digital transformation initiative,鈥� says Magongo.

The Fund found the correct mix with experienced 麻豆原创 implementation partner Zimele Technologies. While The Fund initially wanted an on-premises solution, they took the bold step of embracing private cloud as this would better serve their business in the long term.

鈥淲e worked with the customer鈥檚 IT team to implement 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Private Cloud and used RISE with 麻豆原创 for a rapid implementation of several components, including finance, sourcing and procurement materials management, customer engagement and some Fiori reporting,鈥� says Nomvuyo Mnyaka, Delivery Head Executive at Zimele Technologies. 鈥淭o support the business鈥� core focus of claims management and cash disbursements, we implemented 麻豆原创 Fioneer products and integrated these to the core ERP platform.鈥�

The entire implementation will be completed on a very tight timeline, which depends on strong internal support and an aversion to costly and lengthy customisation. 鈥淐ustomer workshops and fit gap analyses were conducted in November, and the cloud environment was provisioned and set up end-December,鈥� says Mnyaka. 鈥淭he build and implementation from there was completed in under four months, with the final solution going live in mid-April, and currently testing and addressing any glitches before transition to support.鈥�

To avoid delays, the implementation team settled on standard processes and reporting capabilities, leveraging 麻豆原创鈥檚 extensive best-practice modules.

Executive support enables successful change

Another major factor contributing to the quick implementation was the extensive support the project enjoyed throughout the organisation. A change management team was appointed, and the project was supported from the executive level, with聽the Chief Operations Officer as the main project sponsor.

As a government entity, the Sincephetelo MVA Fund is subject to comply with a range of government regulations. Magongo says the new system had to include powerful records management capabilities. 鈥淐laims can last for as long as a claimant is alive, so documents relating to each claim have to be stored indefinitely. Our new solution provides us with the records management functionality we need, allowing us to have a clear audit trail to all claims and ensuring information can be tracked, stored, and filed with 100% accuracy.鈥�

Improved records management was especially important due to The Fund still supporting historic claims, hampering its ability to meet new claims as per its mandate. 鈥淭his deployment has allowed us to clear our backlog and spend funds more wisely, ensuring that we can deliver on our mandate. Our new reporting capabilities also give our management team real-time insights for decision-making, reducing our reliance on manual processes and helping us to confidently improve our operations,鈥� says Magongo.

Cameron Beveridge, Regional Director for Southern Africa at 麻豆原创, lauds the Sincephetelo MVA Fund鈥檚 vision supported by strong executive support. 鈥淭his bold and ground-breaking project in the public sector is a showcase for how cloud, best-practices and expert guidance combine with outstanding change management support to deliver true digital transformation. Equipped with the power of 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Private Cloud and supported by expert partners, the Sincephetelo MVA Fund has built a strong foundation that will enable it to deliver on its crucial mandate.鈥�

The post Eswatini鈥檚 Sincephetelo Motor Vehicle Accident Fund Transforms Capabilities with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Private Cloud appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

In today’s highly competitive retail environment, access to accurate real-time transaction and inventory data is critical to meeting customer demands. For one of South Africa’s leading retailers, a fast-tracked digital transformation of its transaction and reconciliation processes built on 麻豆原创 ECC has unlocked immense benefits and efficiency across the business.

鈥淲e have seen a huge increase in transaction volumes, with more than 30 billion transactions processed across our stores per year,鈥� says Elize de Klerk, IT Supply Senior System Manager at Pick n Pay. 鈥淗owever, our old system was no longer able to keep up with the growing demand, and we experienced delays in processing and reconciling transactions of up to a day. We chose to implement 麻豆原创 Customer Activity Repository to eliminate delays and streamline our reporting.鈥�

Pick聽n聽Pay is a leading South African retailer for high quality consumer goods including food, grocery and general merchandise products and operates under three brands 鈥� Pick聽n聽Pay, Boxer and TM 鈥� across numerous southern African countries. Pick n Pay operates a network of more than 2,000 stores in South Africa as well as an extended footprint into several African markets, including Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Eswatini and Lesotho.

The retailer has been a long-standing 麻豆原创 customer, leveraging 麻豆原创 technologies to support core business processes for more than two decades.

To ensure the business runs optimally and can continue to meet growing customer demand, Pick n Pay chose to implement 麻豆原创 Customer Activity Repository built on the powerful 麻豆原创 ECC platform. 鈥淲e needed more efficient and accurate inventory management as well as simplified financial and administrative reporting to ensure our decision makers have a real-time view over the business,鈥� says de Klerk. 鈥淲e chose to work with implementation partner Beyond Technologies to deliver a state-of-the-art solution.鈥�

Christian Bowker, Managing Partner at Beyond Technologies, says: 鈥淧ick n Pay had been a very successful 麻豆原创 customer for years, and the 麻豆原创 Customer Activity Repository solution was a perfect match for them. 麻豆原创 ECC was powerful enough to manage Pick n Pay鈥檚 billions of monthly translations and help them meet growing customer demands. They particularly appreciated Beyond鈥檚 retail accelerator and team of seasoned S/4HANA experts that brought value to Pick n Pay in a short space of time.鈥�

De Klerk says the support from Beyond Technologies was superb throughout the implementation process. 鈥淏eyond Technologies had the expertise to deliver the project on time and within budget, supported by an experienced team that offered great collaboration to deliver a highly successful programme.鈥�

Following the implementation, Pick n Pay has gained access to accurate, real-time data and analytics, which is particularly significant for its point-of-sale data transfer and audit (POSDTA) operations, including transaction processing and reconciliation. This has delivered considerable benefits for Pick n Pay’s ecommerce division by providing enhanced and up-to-date stock and inventory management capabilities.

鈥淪ince adopting 麻豆原创 Customer Activity Repository, we have fast-tracked the transaction reconciliation process, eliminated delays, and gained more accurate inventory oversight, especially for our ecommerce business,鈥� says de Klerk. 鈥淭hanks to the expert work of our implementation partners and the powerful capabilities of 麻豆原创 technologies, Pick n Pay now enjoys optimised, one-click administrative and financial reporting, allowing us to substantially increase our sales and profitability across our business.鈥�

Commenting on the project, Cameron Beveridge, Regional Director for Southern Africa at 麻豆原创, says: 鈥淧ick n Pay鈥檚 superb deployment of 麻豆原创 technologies and focus on driving efficiency and optimisation has delivered a ground-breaking project that will support its growth and success for years to come. Supported by the outstanding work of expert implementation partners at Beyond Technologies, Pick n Pay can confidently meet the growing demand from their customers and continue its proud tradition of innovation and leadership in the retail industry.鈥�

The post Pick n Pay Sparks Retail Revolution with Powerful 麻豆原创 Deployment appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

Rob Coombe, Group IT Manager at Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation, says the new technology platform will support the company’s business strategy by unlocking greater agility, cost-efficiency and innovation capability. “Our 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud public edition deployment drives greater efficiency across our business by allowing us to leverage best-practice standards that keep processes running smoothly while unlocking significant cost savings. The power and scalability of the platform can also support our business as we enter new product segments and markets, allowing us to quickly and efficiently bring new processes and business capabilities online.”

Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation is one of Eswatini’s largest companies, employing more than 4500 people and producing two-thirds of the country’s sugar and more than 35-million litres of ethanol per year. The company has a long history of leveraging 麻豆原创 solutions to power its business processes, and in 2014 became the first company in Southern Africa to commission more than 25 麻豆原创 modules.

“We sought a replacement for our 麻豆原创 ECC systems and did extensive research, even looking beyond the 麻豆原创 landscape,” explains Coombe. “We were impressed with 麻豆原创’s vision for the public cloud, and the quick and efficient execution of that vision. We identified 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud as the best fit for us, and opted for a Public Cloud deployment to support our end-to-end business processes while unlocking significant cost savings across our business.”

One of the contributing factors to the success of the deployment is Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation’s use of best-practice processes and templates. “麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public聽 Edition has benefited from immense development work that has helped it mature into a very attractive business proposition,” says Coombe. “There was nothing about our business needs that differentiated us to the point of needing more customisation. We adopted the standard processes offered by S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, leaving us free to spend time and resources on areas of the business where we do want to differentiate.”

Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation plays a vital role within local communities, providing housing and infrastructure to the more than 2500 families that are involved in sugar cane farming. The company also supports seven government-owned schools serving its communities and supports broader infrastructure around its farms and production facilities.

“Using our new 麻豆原创 capabilities, we can support every part of our business, from the production of sugar and ethanol to running estates and roads in our villages,” explains Coombe. “The modern architecture offered by 麻豆原创 allows us to spin new processes and capabilities up when needed, or scale down underutilised processes. This is helping us drive efficiencies across every facet of our business, unlocking significant value along the way.”

Innovation is a key part of Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation’s strategic business goals. To encourage his teams to seek opportunities for innovation, Coombe has instituted a ‘free Friday’ where IT teams are encouraged to explore the 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform and find novel solutions to common business problems. “After only a few weeks, we’ve seen incredible excitement among our employees over the possibilities offered by our new 麻豆原创 platform. It has brought new energy to the IT department that has spilled over to the rest of the business as users become more aware of what the platform offers.”

Cameron Beveridge, Regional Director for Southern Africa at 麻豆原创, lauds the excellent use of technology and best-practices to drive innovation and efficiency across Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation鈥檚 business. 鈥淭he world鈥檚 leading companies leverage technology to support ambitious business strategies, empowering every layer of the organisation with powerful new capabilities. With Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation鈥檚 outstanding utilisation of 麻豆原创鈥檚 latest S/4HANA Public Cloud platform, the business can confidently step into the next phase of its growth and innovation journey, knowing that critical business processes will be enhanced and supported for years to come.鈥�

The post Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation Hits Tech Sweet Spot with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition Deployment appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

that worldwide spending on public cloud services will grow 20.7% to reach $591.8-billion in 2023, outpacing the 18.8% growth forecast for 2022.

However, says Cameron Beveridge, Regional Director for Southern Africa at 麻豆原创, moving to cloud environments requires effective change management to ensure digital transformation initiatives reach their objectives. “There is palpable excitement around cloud services in African markets, but there are still questions around how to effectively migrate and how to orchestrate multiple cloud solutions once the migration is complete. And while it’s true that one of the main benefits of cloud services is the ability to fail quickly without incurring huge cost or time overruns, you really don’t want your cloud initiative to fail due to poor change management.”

Studies have highlighted the importance of effective change management to the success of digital transformation initiatives. McKinsey data indicates that worldwide. This is partly due to poor change management, of which are clear successes.

Methodology, Partners reduce perils of Cloud Migrations

Brent Flint, Head of Enterprise Applications at Dimension Data, believes part of the answer to effective change management during cloud transformation projects rests on an effective methodology. “Migrating core business processes from on-premise environments to the cloud requires a proven methodology to accelerate the transition and reduce associated risks. A repeatable methodology that incorporates automation to ensure aspects such as data integrity, for example, can ease data migration and speed up the time-to-value.”

麻豆原创 introduced RISE with 麻豆原创 in 2021 to help companies get started with 麻豆原创 cloud solutions, accelerate cloud adoption, and simplify the process of shifting core business processes to cloud environments. “Companies undertaking digital transformation initiatives that could benefit from RISE need to ensure their implementation partners are accredited and have the skills capacity to support the project throughout,” explains Flint.

Beveridge adds that companies that successfully leverage the insight, skills and experience of partner organisations can reduce risk and enhance the impact and business outcomes of their transformation efforts. “Companies are realising that cloud adoption is not a once-off event: it requires near-continuous refinement and evolution to deliver business value. This makes the role of expert partners, who have developed experience with specific use cases of cloud technologies and can guide organisations in their adoption of cloud solutions, critical to their success.”

Keys to cloud success

Understanding how and where the journey to the cloud should start remains among the biggest obstacles to the digital transformation efforts of African organisations.

Lauren Wortmann, Vice President: Applications at Dimension Data, says there’s still some resistance to the cloud among organisations limiting the success of cloud transformation projects. “Cloud adoption is a business-critical activity, but the optimal starting point is not always clear. Many organisations and their IT teams also acknowledge that the shift to cloud is coming, but there’s internal resistance due to fear about how it will affect the business and existing IT skills.”

Arguably the most important factor when developing a cloud strategy is defining a clear business case for cloud adoption. “Cloud is not just about cost efficiency,” says Wortmann. “It’s about modernising the business and its core processes, unlocking new opportunities, enhancing capabilities and achieving broader digital transformation. For this to be successful, there needs to be massive buy-in from the business at every layer, from the boardroom to the IT department and every end-user.”

The era of large on-premise deployments was typified by big winners and big losers, but the new era of cloud has changed the dynamic entirely. Flint explains: “In the old days, if you defined the scope of the project correctly upfront and quoted accurately, you could deliver a successful implementation that delivered new capabilities and was profitable to the technology provider and their implementation partner. The era of cloud requires a change of mindset. Today, tech vendors and partner organisations need to strive for near-continuous innovation, with KPIs around unlocking additional business value from existing technologies built into managed services contracts. It puts the onus on partners to unlock features and benefits from software, with the goal of ongoing value generation.”

Wortmann adds that companies should be smart when choosing how they start their cloud journey. “Aspects such as Human Capital Management are perfect starting points for cloud adoption, with solutions like 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors offering a high-value, low-risk way to test how cloud migration plays out in the organisation. Larger, more critical business processes such as core finance, sales and logistics carry high degrees of risk due to fears of disruption and business continuity in the event of downtime.”

Flint believes one of the keys to successful cloud adoption is simplification. “Organisations should work with their partners to understand their application landscape and identify opportunities for simplification. Reducing customisation can also keep things simple while driving costs down. Partners need to avoid customisation to limit technical debt and achieve quicker time to value. Adopting best-practice standards for core business processes opens the door to incremental innovation which can suit cloud-first companies better.”

Beveridge says this requires a change in mindset to how digital transformation initiatives are approached, both by customers and partners. “The most successful tech partners will be the ones that develop strong commercial models that meet customers’ expectations of what value digital transformation projects should deliver. However, there’s no blueprint for how this should work. Organisations should work closely with tech providers and implementation partners to develop strong business use cases and change management programmes to ensure each initiative delivers business value and unlocks new capabilities, efficiencies and opportunities for growth.”

The post Change Management Best Practice for Cloud Transformation Success appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

Blood transfusions are commonly used to provide blood or blood components to a patient who has either lost blood due to an accident or suffer from a medical condition that affects their blood.

Typically, blood is donated anonymously and then stored by hospitals or blood banks until needed. Due to the critical nature of the procedure, donated blood must be collected, stored, categorised, and transported using extremely high levels of safety and care.

Donors must be carefully screened for a variety of medical conditions and lifestyle aspects to ensure the blood is free of potential risks to the patient. Blood is tested according to national guidelines and stored according to blood type.

It is estimated that one in ten people entering hospital need some kind of blood transfusion as part of their treatment.

Data, traceability vital to safe transfusions

The key to successful, lifesaving blood transfusions is accurate documentation to ensure consistency and avoid any unnecessary risk. Due to the sensitive nature of blood, the way it is transported and stored is equally important, especially when the blood supply chain network covers a large geographic area where donated blood must travel thousands of kilometers.

Ultimately, hospitals and clinics seek the ability to track the journey from vein to vein in real time with accurate data and while maintaining the integrity of the value chain.

Here, blockchain technology holds huge potential. Blockchain encodes data in a secure and transparent way that can add visibility and security to the blood transfusion value chain. Blockchain could be a more effective way of storing the precise records that allow medical professionals to use donated blood with confidence during life-saving and other medical procedures.

Using blockchain, medical facilities can register vital data about every step in the blood transfusion value chain, from donation to testing to transport, storage and ultimately its use in a medical procedure.

Due to strict requirements for how blood is stored, technologies such as IoT can also play an important supporting role by tracking the temperature at which the blood is stored and recording that to the blockchain. As blood travels through the value chain, the data stored to the blockchain creates an audit trail that links the entire value chain from donor to recipient.

Advances expected from emerging tech

Other emerging technologies hold promise for greater efficiency and transparency in the blood transfusion value chain. Augmented reality could solve one of the key issues with blood donations by helping medical professionals find the vein more consistently and without the trial-and-error that most donors experience.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence also holds huge promise for driving improvements in the blood transfusion value chain, especially since so much data is already created and stored to ensure transfusions are safe and effective.

used machine learning to optimise the time between blood donation intervals to ensure donors don’t experience adverse outcomes. Using the model, the researchers could estimate the risk of adverse outcomes and how such risks may change with longer or shorter intervals. This data could then inform how often the donors could donate blood without suffering iron deficiency or other complications.

So-called digital footprinting using AI and machine learning could also help reduce errors when doctors order blood samples. Using RFID integrated to an AI platform, doctors could improve specimen identification and reduce specimen labelling errors while also ensuring accurate transport tracking.

Technology platforms unlock new capabilities

New advances in Laboratory Information Management Systems have also unlocked access to unprecedented levels of visibility and control over lab data and other associated processes. A Laboratory Information Management System is used to manage samples, lab users, instruments and other lab functions, as well as back-office operations such as invoicing.

For example, the 麻豆原创 Quality Management helps businesses implement and run quality control processes, and is designed to prevent defects, enable continuous process improvement, and establish sustained quality control programs. Global pharmaceutical companies use 麻豆原创 Quality Management as a primary Laboratory Information Management System to drive supply chain processes, maintain high levels of quality control during production processes, and support research and development.

When matched to a business transformation platform that enables the seamless integration of new technologies, there is virtually no limit to the powerful capabilities that laboratories can unlock. With an intelligent core in place and a quality management system to maintain the highest information standards, laboratories and other stakeholders can protect the integrity of the life-saving blood transfusion supply chain while enabling greater innovation.

The post Vein-to-vein-to-value: How Tech is Enhancing Life-saving Blood Transfusion Value Chain appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

That was the case for one of Africa鈥檚 leading systems integrators, sparking a first-of-its-kind implementation project that has achieved outstanding results.

“As a business we needed a radical simplification of our lead-to-cash value stream through a centralised solution for configuring, pricing and quoting, and chose 麻豆原创 CPQ,” says Julian Liebenberg, Chief of Cloud Platform Solutions at BCX.

BCX is one of Africa’s leading premier ICT solutions and service providers with the technology, capability and skills to deliver end-to-end digital solutions for large and medium enterprises. BCX is a digital transformation partner for enterprises and public sector organisations across various industries and sectors within South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Tanzania, the UK and Zambia.

The company is headquartered in Centurion and employs more than 2 000 engineers working from multiple locations.

Missed opportunities and inaccuracy

According to Liebenberg, the new flexible quoting tool had to address several challenges.

“Our use of multiple quoting tools across the business led to inconsistent quoting, and sometimes inaccurate billing. A lack of integration and automation also resulted in 聽missed opportunities and lost customers to due to delays. We implemented 麻豆原创 CPQ to enable our sales and pre-sales teams to configure and quote complex ICT solutions, with an integration to our CRM system allowing for greater automation in the quote process. We also integrated to our 麻豆原创 back-end for order processing.”

麻豆原创 CPQ is a cloud-based software-as-a-service offering specifically targeted to help sales teams perform complex product configurations and create and manage sales quotations.

The implementation was managed by the BCX 麻豆原创 Centre of Excellence, with expert guidance from 麻豆原创 Services. “The 麻豆原创 Services team assisted with knowledge transfer and skills, enabling our Centre of Excellence to build expertise with the CPQ solution and enabling us to provide the services to other companies in the Southern Africa region,” says Liebenberg .

Unlocking sales success and standardisation

Following the implementation, BCX is enjoying streamlined configuration, quoting and pricing, contributing to increased sales effectiveness and freeing up the sales team from manual processes. In addition, the new solution has improved the quote and order processing turnaround time with automated approvals, leading to increased revenue and a better customer experience.

“We have increased our win-rate across the various business units within BCX and more than halved the time it took us to go from qualified opportunity to solution design, from 52 days to less than 25 days,” says Liebenberg. 聽“This has helped us improve our customer experience and defend our existing customer base while also unlocking new opportunities for digital marketing and customer engagement.”

In addition, other benefits that have been unlocked since the implementation include:

• New opportunities for digital marketing and customer engagement
• Enhanced capabilities to crowdsource services for customers
• Increased operational efficiency in sales through automation and the shortening of sales cycles
• The use of AI to guide sales teams in combining products for improved customer solutions
• Improved configuring, pricing and quoting workflows and the streamlining of the remaining manual processes
• The elimination of quotation errors
• Consistent quoting from up-to-date catalogues and pricing information
• Increased productivity and a lower learning curve for sales teams and technical architects.

“We now have established selling, eligibility and compatibility rules that have enabled a unified quoting process for cross-product portfolio solutions and have achieved sales process harmonisation through gaining a 360-degree view over quotes and commercial subscriptions,” says Liebenberg.聽 “Overall the project was a resounding success with the added benefit that we can offer the solution to our own customers too.”

Cameron Beveridge, Regional Director for Southern Africa at 麻豆原创, adds: 鈥淢odern organisations need to be engaged in a process of continuous innovation to drive improvements and efficiency gains across the business. As one of the foremost technology services companies on the African continent, BCX plays a leading role in guiding enterprises in their digital transformation efforts. The success of this latest project bodes well for the region鈥檚 prospects, as BCX can transfer their knowledge and expertise to the benefit of other innovative companies.鈥�

The post BCX Ups the Sales Ante with Centralised 麻豆原创 Solution appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

Cameron Beveridge, Regional Director for Southern Africa at 麻豆原创, believes corporate leaders are having to balance traditional business objectives such as revenue and profit with the demands of the modern economy that include building a healthy company culture, playing a positive role in society and being a good corporate citizen.

“The lines are being redrawn around what employees, customers and broader society expect of a modern business, especially as it relates to a company’s role in building a more equitable and sustainable world. Present trends indicate that we are moving toward a situation where environmental sustainability, fair employment practices and societal value trump pure profitability.”

Businesses have traditionally focused on creating maximum value for shareholders, and short-term financial profitability continues to be vital to a company’s growth and success.

However, as the mounting costs and headline-grabbing impact of climate change starts affecting more people in developed and emerging economies, consumers are increasingly demanding that companies also make positive contributions to the environment and vulnerable communities.

Looking beyond quarterly results

Studies have found that , while another study revealed that two-thirds of consumers and 73% of Millennials globally .

“There is growing recognition that companies need to shift their focus from purely delivering quarterly results that drive the share price, to ensuring they minimise their impact on the environment and prioritise creating healthy company cultures, ensuring adequate worker pay, and act as exemplars or enablers of more sustainable business practices,” explains Beveridge. “If your positive quarterly financial results were achieved on the back of environmental devastation, for example, consumers today are more likely than ever to abandon you for a more equitable-minded competitor.”

There are solid economic reasons for building sustainability into a company’s business model. One study found that companies with positive Environmental, Societal and Governance records .

“Business leaders still need to produce solid bottom-line results and ensure the financial sustainability of the business,” says Beveridge. “This is forcing them into a delicate balancing act where the correct course of action is not always clear, adding pressure to decision-makers already besieged by the disruptive impact of the pandemic, a constrained global supply chain, and growing economic pressures. Even the World Economic Forum, highlighting the importance for the private sector to look beyond the bottom line, .”

The new talent battlefield

One of the most obvious examples of the new business balancing act is in workplace culture and employee engagement. During the early stages of the pandemic, businesses around the world shifted to remote models that saw millions of workers performing their day-to-day tasks away from the confines of corporate offices.

“The past two years have marked a greater shift in how we work than the two decades preceding it,” says Beveridge. “In the services industry, workers who previously completed their tasks within an office space under the watchful gaze of managers and HR specialists were suddenly asked to maintain high levels of productivity from home. Now that offices are reopening, many of these formerly office-bound employees now prefer to work remotely at least some of the time, creating new challenges in attracting, motivating and retaining top talent.”

The shift in how people view work came under the spotlight when millions of US workers shifted to more fulfilling or more accommodating jobs in a process dubbed the Great Resignation. “This shift in expectations of what people want from their jobs is forcing companies to rethink their company cultures, their salary packages, and the types of support they need to provide to employees to ensure high levels of productivity and retention.”

Research indicates that , while UN data points to . Work-related stress is also growing and is now , with only 1% of workers saying they’ve never experienced it.

“Business leaders are confronted with the task of balancing their teams’ productivity against the physical and mental wellbeing of each employee,” explains Beveridge.

“As a company providing technology tools and expertise that help companies run better and become more successful, we are in the enviable position to act as both an exemplar of sustainable business practices and an enabler of more sustainable business models,” says Beveridge. “The shift to remote work created a situation where many employees work longer hours than ever before, raising the chances of burnout and forcing companies to implement additional measures to support employees that are working under immense pressure.”

Beveridge advises that business leaders deploy technology tools to dispel uncertainty in their business models and their human capital management strategies. 鈥淐ompanies have an opportunity to be both an exemplar of more sustainable business and employment practices 鈥� for example by reimagining their business models to focus more on longer-term sustainability and value creation 鈥� as well as enablers, by providing tools that assist other companies in their sustainability efforts. As we enter an era of great uncertainty and ongoing volatility, business leaders will need to leverage the latest technologies to ensure they can manage this new balancing act.鈥�

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Hospitals are using technology to improve the patient experience, banks are changing how they engage with customers through digital channels, sales teams are discovering the benefits of real-time insights into orders and sales, and organisations across industries are powering their decision-making with data and analytics.

At a recent award ceremony recognising excellence in digital transformation among African enterprises, the extent to which organisations have embraced digital technologies to power their businesses became clear.

Market leaders such Capitec, Lenmed, and Discovery showed how technology could power innovation and operational excellence through the development of intelligent enterprise capabilities.

An intelligent enterprise integrates technology and business processes to deliver significant value to the business through improved supply chain management, better sales processes, more intelligent spend management, and a transformed talent management capability.

Simply put, an intelligent enterprise has access to accurate real-time data about every aspect of its business, helping it deal with complexity while unlocking greater scope of innovation and efficiency.

And as recent examples show, South African enterprises of various sizes are taking bold strides toward achieving intelligent enterprise capabilities 鈥� to the benefit of their customers, their employees and their long-term success.

Scaling banking service excellence

Capitec, one of South Africa’s largest and most innovative banks, faced the challenge of a rapidly growing customer base at a time when pandemic-enforced restrictions disrupted face to face customer operations.

Prior to its award-winning digital transformation project, Capitec grew from acquiring 94 000 customers a month to 160 000 customers a month. With many branches closed and customers avoiding branch visits in light of the dangers posed by COVID-19, Capitec realised its reliance on manual data capturing was hampering its ability to provide seamless customer experiences.

Powered by a dedicated project team that enjoyed full executive support, Capitec implemented a business transformation project that equipped its support services teams with improved data capturing, information analysis and business optimisation.

Capitec can now more easily ensure its support services teams meet their service level agreements and can deliver on the bank’s goal of making banking interactions easier and simpler for customers.

Technology healthcare amid pandemic

Arguably no industry has been under more pressure since the start of the pandemic than the healthcare sector. Hospitals in particular have had to run optimally and ensure no disruption to their operations while also dealing with the impact of COVID-19.

For private hospital group Lenmed, the acquisition of a new hospital in the midst of a global health crisis sparked an award-winning onboarding process to its core systems, in rapid time and with clear cost savings.

The group wanted to bring a new hospital it had acquired into its core 麻豆原创 system, but understandably couldn’t afford any delays or disruptions to the hospital’s processes.

Using extensive standardisation and templates to limit cost overruns, Lenmed brought the new hospital onboard in under twelve weeks and at a total cost saving of nearly 40%.

The onboarding is also a template for future acquisitions, enabling the group to confidently grow its footprint without the risk of unnecessary interruptions to its core operations.

Talent management transformed

The past 18 months have not only forced vast changes in the ways businesses interact with customers, but also how they attract, manage and retain their employees. When the country first entered into lockdown in March 2020, most businesses had to radically change how they engage with, motivate and empower their workforce.

In the highly competitive financial services sector, building greater employee experiences gives organisations an edge in attracting and retaining top talent. For Discovery, the quality of talent it attracts has played a vital role in the organisation鈥檚 success.

Discovery has a stated ambition to have the best people function in the industry, using a strategy that combines data, skills and technology to find, develop and retain its employees. To support and execute this strategy, the company initiated a project named SmartPeople that leverages 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors to create a standardised, transparent, objective and continuous approach to how Discovery executes its people strategy to drive positive business performance.

This includes recruitment management, which enables the company to track and report on the quality of hires, the types of applicants, where those applicants are from, and more. Using 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors gives Discovery full visibility over its talent force and pipeline and, since everything from recruitment to onboarding to offboarding is handled via SuccessFactors, the company is able to deliver a consistent and positive employee experience.

As companies continue to operate in an unstable and unpredictable business environment, the role of technology will only grow in importance. However, as these examples illustrate, organisations from all sectors 聽can supercharge their growth and success with the correct investment into intelligent technologies, full support from the C-suite and with clear business value always front and centre in their planning and execution.

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