In Kenya, the official state agency responsible for social security chose 麻豆原创 to support its growth, enable the expansion of its services to a greater share of the population, maintain the highest standards of quality controls across its operations and enable new customer-centric innovation.

According to the National Social Security Fund of Kenya CEO Dr. Anthony Omerikwa, the lack of integration due to disparate systems across its 61 physical locations created internal challenges. “Initially, each of our 61 branches had their own system, with no integration between departments. We chose to implement an ERP system to bring consistency across all our operations and support our growth as we expand access to our services to a greater share of the population. In light of the challenges created by the pandemic, we also introduced new mobile money payment options to reduce customer travel to banks.”

The National Social Security Fund (NSSF) is a Kenyan government agency that is responsible for the collection, safekeeping, responsible investment and payment of retirement benefits members/employees in both the formal and informal sectors of the Kenyan economy.听The NSSF guarantees its members basic compensation in the case of permanent disability, basic assistance to needy dependants in case of death, and a monthly life pension upon retirement.

Following an external review conducted by KPMG and commissioned by the NSSF board, a number of gaps were revealed in the organisation’s audit controls. “As a vital part of Kenya鈥檚 social security for both the formal and informal sectors, we听needed to improve our governance, risk and compliance controls across our growing membership base and expanding national footprint. We opted for an 麻豆原创 deployment as it would be an extension of our existing system.鈥�

The NSSF currently serves five million members and receives KES15-billion in annual collections. The organisation had implemented an 麻豆原创 enterprise resource planning solution between 2012 and 2013, which included 麻豆原创 financial modules, supply chain modules, human capital management and payroll modules as well as integration to the broader state social security system.

Following the latest ERP implementation, the NSSF has gained real-time reporting capabilities across the organisation, with improved risk controls and greater alignment with its broader enterprise risk strategy. “We have also improved our ability to detect and prevent anomalies to reduce risk and prevent losses. Our overall financial performance has improved and our board audit committee has real-time access to the total performance of the organisation across all our operations.”

In 2020, the organisation partnered with Safaricom and Kenya Commercial Bank to enable customers on the NSSF Tenant Purchase Scheme (TPS) to make rent and service charge payments through M-PESA. “With this cashless payment solution, members no longer have to travel or queue at banks to make payments, reducing their health risks and delivering greater convenience to our customers.”

According to Dr. Omerikwa, the NSSF Strategic Plan required greater alignment with business operations to ensure ease of doing business with all stakeholders. “The new TPS payment process has reduced traffic into banking halls and NSSF offices, increased service efficiency and customer convenience, reduced turnaround time on service delivery and lowered our operational costs. In addition to payments, the service integration also provides NSSF with the functionality to reconcile tenant accounts and generate reports and statements. Overall it has been a hugely successful project that has enabled us to better serve our customers and meet our important mandate.”

Pedro Guerreiro, Managing Director for Central Africa at 麻豆原创, says the NSSF鈥檚 use of technology to improve the delivery of services to citizens bodes well for the organisation鈥檚 growth ambitions. 鈥淏y putting technology at the core of its operations and leveraging the latest solutions to improve quality controls, the NSSF is well on its way to building intelligent enterprise capabilities that will support the delivery of essential services to Kenya鈥檚 formal and informal sector for the benefit of all its citizens.鈥�

The post NSSF Innovation Strengthens Social Support to Kenyans appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

Pedro Guerreiro, Managing Director Central Africa at 麻豆原创 in this interview with Business Day鈥檚 Frank Eleanya speaks on the growth of adoption of cloud technology by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in West Africa and other parts of the continent. He refers to West Africa as the 鈥榣ighthouse鈥� when it comes to the adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP) which is cloud-based, and explains what it takes to win in a highly competitive market.

You are one of the biggest ERP providers, what is your experience playing in the market?

In terms of the biggest ERP providers in Africa, definitely. We are global leaders in ERP.

We provide an intelligent enterprise that goes beyond the core function of ERP. We have been in Africa since 1982. We have been investing since then in the region and the region has been investing in 麻豆原创. Our headquarters for the region are in South Africa. We have an office in West Africa, in Lagos. We have an office in East Africa in Nairobi. We have an office in Lusophone or Portuguese-speaking countries in Angola. I manage those three offices so I have a good perception of the ERP business in those regions. It is definitely growing. There is more and more demand for ERP. We do have customers both in government parastatals and the private sector.

We are the leading global ERP company. We are also very much focused on cloud business. In terms of experience in African markets, the customers start adopting the core processes 鈥� finance, payment, sales, and even capital management type of processes, depending on the size you might start very small. We have SME-specific solutions and very often organisations grow out of it into solutions for larger corporations. The ERP market is very active and we have a lot of demand. We have a lot of customers in both the SME space and large corporations that run their core operations through ERP. Many of them have been our customers for decades. So it is a healthy market for us. We are punching above and beyond, deploying the infrastructure as well as the capability to manage that infrastructure. We train our people to manage the many customers across industries.

Can you give us specific growth of ERP and cloud services in Africa?

Growth is high. Looking at the East African region, for instance, year-on-year is four digits growth and it is triple digits when it comes to year-to-date. West Africa has been my lighthouse when it comes to cloud adoption. Over the last 2-3 years West Africa has been leading other regions including East, Central Africa which includes the Lusophone countries. It is not surprising because they have a lot of SMEs so there is high adoption catering to specific needs of customers.

Most customers are afraid of things like security, which is a growing threat. Companies have to decide what they want to do. They can manage it on their own which requires ongoing training for their people and constant upgrades to their applications for cyber security. You need to keep them up to date with the best standards and globally these standards are changing daily. They are very dynamic. Alternatively, the company can put their trust in an 麻豆原创 data centre. We have German engineers that are trained specifically in cyber security and they are exposed to thousands of infrastructures. It is almost common sense 鈥� you want to focus your energy on your core business while we help you with the rest.

We have customers in other regions like the Angolan national oil company which contracted an agency to manage the business operations. The agency adopted our cloud infrastructure and implemented the ERP. They adopted the electronic signatures, they have our human capital management, all of these are on the cloud. The ERP is on the cloud. So there is high adoption. We are proud that West Africa is the lighthouse on the cloud but we see it growing across Africa.

What is driving the growth in West Africa, is its population or infrastructure or the quality of the products?

I might be wrong here, but I don鈥檛 think it is the population. I think as management understands the needs of their business, customers and their employees the more they come to understand best practices, it becomes more obvious to identify trends. And digital transformation is the motto. People that manage these companies want to learn more about digital transformation. Obviously, technologies like the internet are more widely available. So I think it is a combination of awareness of how to run a business within digital transformation trends and available products both from infrastructure when it comes to the internet or even from an 麻豆原创 perspective which is known as the intelligent enterprise. The software industry evolves, and 麻豆原创 strives to evolve faster. That is our goal to constantly deliver on the business needs of our customers.

Talk to us about having 80 percent mid-size companies access your products.

My career has spanned across Europe, the US, and Africa. If you go to the US, brands that you have barely heard about are embracing the cloud. But that is a different market. When you come to Africa, you have a growing economy or are even described as a fast-growing economy with large populations. Those economies are not driven only by the big brands or the conglomerates. They are part of the ecosystem but there is a lot that is happening in the mid-market. That mid-market doesn鈥檛 have the same resources, nor do they need the same licence models but business process-wise they still need to run finance, they still need to track capital management, balance sheet, and performance inflows. The needs are across the board. So what we do is understand the needs but also have specific products for businesses of different sizes. We have global products that are fit for specific markets and in specific geographies like Africa, we push more mid-market types of solutions and our partner ecosystem grows around those mid-market types of solutions. It is not coincidental that we have 80 percent of our user base as SMEs. It is the market that we operate in and we have adapted to the market that we operate in through our offers, with our channel, and the type of resources the market needs.

What are the challenges you faced getting the 80 percent SME users?

SME is a volume business but it is highly customer focused. You cannot think of volume in the abstract. You have to think about volume and know your customer and get to the level of satisfaction they are accustomed to. So it is not just volume sales, the customer downloads the software and doesn鈥檛 expect quality. The customer will move on in that case. Our solutions are ERP solutions and require some levels of patience and skills and some level of customer satisfaction to achieve customer retention, customer management. For us, the main priority is always to scale in quality. We will never be happy with the number of partners we have. We always need more partners. We always need to have partners motivated. So that the ecosystem is ready to serve our customers and then you can keep growing the customer base in numbers. In the end, when you talk about SMEs you need to have more happy customers.

How are you dealing with growing competition in the ERP market?

Honestly, it is all about quality and the value that you bring to your customers. At the end of the day, if you don鈥檛 do your job, the competition will fill the gap. Competition is good for everyone. It helps to grow the market and provide choice to customers. For us, we continue to focus on driving quality every day and helping our customers transform. That is how we win in the market. If your customers are satisfied they will reference you, they will tell others 鈥業 chose 麻豆原创 because of XYZ鈥�.

This article first appeared on .

The post Why SMEs鈥� Cloud Adoption in West Africa is Rising appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

Speaking from his more than 20 years鈥� experience at 麻豆原创 in Europe, America and Africa, he asserts that digital transformation makes business sense. He adds that integrating enterprise-wide processes leads to better performance outcomes.

麻豆原创 provides a suite of industry-specific enterprise application software to firms of all sizes, helping them to run at their best. For example, top utility firms in Europe and the United States (US), as well as a host of others in Africa, run on 麻豆原创. In fact, 99 of the 100 largest companies in the world are 麻豆原创 S/4HANA customers.

鈥淚t is easy to find role models that run on 麻豆原创 software,鈥� says Mr Guerreiro, adding that the firm鈥檚 solutions are easy to adopt and fast to implement.

Mr Guerreiro reveals that Sub-Saharan Africa firms 鈥� including state corporations 鈥� that have transformed into intelligent enterprises are unlocking technology鈥檚 enormous potential and reaping the benefits.

After adopting 麻豆原创鈥檚 latest technology, they are improving operational efficiency, saving costs, maximising revenues, enhancing transparency, sharpening talent management and delivering significant shareholder value. This is because full or end-to-end automation gives managers a real-time view of the entire business, enabling them to make informed decisions that enhance the business鈥檚 agility in a highly dynamic, challenging marketplace.

However, as Mr Guerreiro observes, whereas East African firms have widely adopted enterprise resource planning (ERP), few have invested in specific, best-of-breed technology strategies.

鈥淎wareness of the need for digital transformation is pretty good in the region, but the investments being made towards that objective still fall short in scope,鈥� he says.

He urges managers and business owners: 鈥淚f you are not embracing digital transformation, you are letting the opportunity for your colleagues, company and shareholders slip by, and you will be disadvantaged in the market. This was the case even before the pandemic but is even more critical now.鈥�

He says business leaders should think of what they can do in their firms to make them intelligent enterprises.

Mr Guerreiro, who has more than two decades鈥� experience at 麻豆原创, has seen what modern technology does for businesses. He says the feedback from users of 麻豆原创 business solutions is positive.

鈥淭hey see the technology鈥檚 benefits and impact on their bottom line and their top line,鈥� says Mr Guerreiro, adding that 麻豆原创 solutions 鈥渃an help you grow more resilient, more profitable, and more sustainable.鈥�

麻豆原创鈥檚 end-to-end processes, integrated into the 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform, run a variety of enterprises in the 25 industries the firm focuses on.

Some firms have gone a step further and use 麻豆原创 on the cloud, saving themselves the time and energy they would have spent to store information on-site as well as to maintain the infrastructure. Moving to the cloud is the next opportunity for African organisations to transform and thrive.

麻豆原创 also runs corporate social responsibility programmes that tap into its reservoir of ICT knowledge to empower future generations with the skills they need to drive in a digital economy.

Under the Africa Code Week (ACW) initiative and 麻豆原创 Skills for Africa, the technology firm offers free ICT training to young people. This broad initiative is aimed at developing ICT skills in Africa as part of 麻豆原创鈥檚 global commitment to promoting education and entrepreneurship.

So far, it has trained 4 million youth across Africa on basic programming as part of ACW. 鈥淭his training inspires the young people that ICT is fun and worth pursuing as a career,鈥� explains Mr Guerreiro.

The Young Professionals Program (YPP) in Africa, established in 2021, is targeted at young graduates who are either unemployed or underemployed. It has graduated more than 1,600 talents across 20 African countries (including North Africa).

Skills for Africa covers 20 countries through either YPP or Dual Study Program (or both) in Africa: South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Uganda, Tanzania, Angola, Mozambique, Rwanda, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Cote d’Ivoire, Senegal, Mali, Egypt

The training, Mr Guerreiro avers, is in line with 麻豆原创鈥檚 mission statement,听To help the world run betterand improve people鈥檚 lives.

The post 麻豆原创鈥檚 Vision for a Digitally Transformed Africa appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

“We are now faster in generating sales, order, stocking and pricing data, and can process purchase orders quicker,鈥� says Mike McCormick, Chief Information Officer at Vivo Energy. 鈥淭he time needed for our account reconciliation process has also been reduced from days to hours, and our end-to-end order process time has been sped up.”

However, achieving these gains required a large and far-reaching digital transformation program to replace outdated legacy systems that could not support Vivo Energy鈥檚 ambitious growth path and make use of intelligent technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT).

Legacy systems insufficient to support growth

“We had multiple internal departments all running disparate systems, which caused complications with data management, left us blind to deeper operational insights, and made the process of making data-driven decisions near-impossible,” explains McCormick. “We needed a powerful technology platform that would support the business as we deliver our vision of becoming Africa鈥檚 most respected energy business.”

Vivo Energy is a rapidly growing energy business that distributes and markets Shell and Engen-branded fuels and lubricants to retail and commercial customers in 23 countries across Africa. The company has a growing network of more than 2,400 service stations that sell more than ten billion litres of fuel every year, servicing around a million customers a day.

“Our legacy systems could not provide the much-needed insight and analysis that would support our growth,” says McCormick. “We made a decision to embark on a large and far-reaching digital transformation process on an extremely ambitious timeline of under two years.”

Vivo Energy chose 麻豆原创 S/4HANA as a replacement for its legacy systems. “With S/4HANA, we are not simply upgrading our technology. The solution is helping us transform our business to meet the needs of our rapidly expanding marketplace and customer base,” explains McCormick.

Partners help unlock the intelligent enterprise

Working closely with implementation partner IBM, McCormick and his team became one of the first energy companies of its size to deploy the full suite of S/4HANA applications alongside 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors, 麻豆原创 Cloud for Customer, and 麻豆原创 Integrated Business Planning in one integrated, end-to-end business platform. In addition to the implementation, IBM also provided robust server and storage infrastructure to support the business and systems integration.

The implementation was completed on time and within budget, with McCormick and IBM opting for a ‘big-bang’ approach involving more than 40 application components being enabled simultaneously.

“This was a large-scale business transformation program, not just a software implementation,” says Vinod Goyal, Associate Services Partner at IBM. “This has an impact on the entire organisation, across finance, logistics, supply chain, customer relationship management, HR, customers, partners and suppliers. Every part of the organisation is touched as part of this program.”

In addition to transforming core business processes, Vivo Energy, supported by partner AdaptIT, adopted intelligent technologies through the implementation of 麻豆原创 IoT to transform the way the business engages with service station owners and customers, while ensuring the highest fuel quality and uninterrupted flow of products to customers.

“Our IoT capabilities provide constant monitoring of tank gauges and pump conditions, with automatic monitoring of fuel volume and quality at our service stations,” explains McCormick. “A custom front-end gives us an aggregated visualisation of tank data combined with other site information, equipping our decision-making teams with deep operational insights and real-time data at a country and service station level.”

Following the implementation, Vivo Energy has unlocked a broad range of business benefits, including:

• in-depth monitoring of performance across every aspect of the business, enabling improved decision-making;
• automation of administrative tasks and workflows, helping reduce data input errors and enabling staff to focus on value-adding activities;
• the ability to leverage new technologies to ensure the highest fuel quality and optimised delivery of products to customers; and
• real-time distribution of data to regional decision-makers which enables data-driven decisions that reduce time-to-market and time-to-value.

According to Pedro Guerreiro, Managing Director for Central Africa at 麻豆原创, the implementation marks a quantum leap in Vivo Energy鈥檚 race to acquire intelligent enterprise capabilities. 鈥淒riven by an ambitious vision and supported by a superb implementation partner, Vivo Energy has completely transformed its daily operations and decision-making capabilities while establishing a powerful platform for further innovation and growth. With its industry-leading digital core powering its business processes, Vivo Energy is set to establish itself as an industry leader that seamlessly blends innovative technologies and optimised business processes to gain a healthy competitive edge over its peers.鈥�

The post Vivo Energy Fuels Expansion, Operational Excellence with Transformative Tech Deployment appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

If you won the lottery right now, would you quit your job? For Pedro Guerreiro, the Managing Director East, West & Lusophone Africa at 麻豆原创, the answer is 鈥渁bsolutely not!鈥� He adds, 鈥淗onestly, I like the kind of work that I do.鈥� He has been with 麻豆原创 for 23 years, steadily progressing and rising through the ranks. His favourite role was as Managing Director. A title he has held in Luanda, Angola; Lagos, Nigeria; and now, Nairobi. Pedro is a big advocate for work/life balance stating it is the key to success. 鈥淚 think we need to acknowledge that people have lives.鈥� That and keeping people on their toes while holding them to a higher standard. 鈥淚鈥檓 very demanding myself, so sometimes for me it is a challenge. I am not the kind of person who expects someone to be late.鈥� Who keeps him on his toes? 鈥淢y team. Or else they are
doing the wrong job!鈥� As a CEO, his philosophy is 鈥淚 work for you. You don鈥檛 work for me.鈥�

Founded in Germany in 1972 by five former IBM employees, 麻豆原创 was always destined for greatness. From accounting and payroll to their legendary ERP, the listed multinational has over 100,000 employees dotting the planet from Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, North America, and South America. One of these employees is Pedro and I assure you he is no cog on the wheel. He stands out. A surfer who marvels at the Ngong Hills and enjoys being with his wife and daughter, he was in Zanzibar not long ago, surfing waves on the outer parts of the reef. He maintains the best surfs were in Angola. Small wonder that when he was growing up, he wanted to be a surfer.

Below is our interview, condensed and edited for this publication.

What is an intelligent enterprise and why is that so important?

Intelligent enterprise is a fully integrated company in itself and outside of its boundaries. You have business processes from procurement, finance to maintenance, which is a normal thing in terms of what 麻豆原创 does every day on an ERP site. But it is actually way beyond that. You have an intelligent entreprise end-to-end with your suppliers and customers. Everything becomes so smooth, transparent and organised such that your business flows. The whole process is automated. It is all about process.
That is what 麻豆原创 is about.

You mentioned in our introduction that 麻豆原创 is in several African countries. Are their needs similar across the continent or do you find differences based on geography and the people?

I would say the needs are very similar, but the cultures are different. I find some markets easy to work with on an entrepreneurial basis. Let鈥檚 say a country like Angola. They have a very entrepreneurial spirit. It is almost easier to have a conversation on digital transformation. The willingness is there.

In Kenya, they want more business value and push a bit more for innovation than in a market like Angola.

Is intelligent enterprise only limited to larger organisations? Do you work with SMEs?

We are committed to all customers.

SMEs are the backbone of many countries in Africa. We have large customers and many of them are our clients. But 80 per cent of our business is actually SMEs in Africa. It is definitely a key space for us. We have different products within our SMEs portfolio.

What are some of the examples you have of customers embracing digital transformation in Africa?

We have worked with Dangote Cement. As they find opportunities to launch in different industries and ventures 鈥� they are a very entrepreneurial customer – they wanted S/4HANA which is more aligned to intelligent enterprise鈥檚 endto-end integration with suppliers and both internal and external customers. They implemented this last year. They are building the largest refinery in Africa, creating over 250,000 jobs. This entrepreneurial perspective was already built into 麻豆原创.

When it comes to agriculture especially in Central Africa, we are doing quite innovative projects in the form of a Rural Sourcing Platform (RSM) which integrates every single micro-producer into the value chain. They register on the platform which is then aggregated and taken to the market. With intelligent enterprise you have very open sources.

We also use this platform for our CSR projects. For example, in Ghana, we use it to collect plastics across the country for recycling.

You shrink when working with an SME and expand when working with conglomerates. How do you do this?

The implementation of software is mainly done through a partner ecosystem. When you have the conglomerates, they become partners for a very complex project. Smaller customers start with a smaller scope, or they can adopt some of our solutions such as 麻豆原创 Business ByDesign and 麻豆原创 Business One. The latter is a small solution that is very easy to implement. It covers the main process of the corporate side allowing SMEs to scale.

Talk to me about the Rise with 麻豆原创 initiative. What is it about?

We launched it early this year with our global CEO, Christian Klein. He had two things in mind:
鈥� Reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) for our customers
鈥� Accelerate innovation and business transformation

The Rise Initiative is about these two aspects. Either it gives value to the customer, or not. We do it on a case-by-case basis and we understand what makes sense for that specific customer. It transforms all 麻豆原创 contracts into a cloud subscription product, which is not owned software, but it incorporates infrastructure. It is part of our strategy to move into cloud as well as reduce TCO with the customers, as well as accelerating business transformation.

What role does cloud play in your strategy for Africa?

It plays a big role. In five years, all our contracts will be pretty much cloud based. Cloud in Africa definitely has the capacity for businesses to grow. It is where we focus our customers.

Our strategy is cloud focused. It makes sense for us to build cloud in Africa. Businesses can really focus on the their core business, but they don鈥檛 have to focus on the pain which is to support IT infrastructure. That allows them to run the core business. More importantly, we are restructuring contracts with the customers to help them move into the cloud. You want the best engineer on your platform. One who is constantly trained. The scale of savings is also something we want to bring to African customers. Cloud for Africa is definitely front and centre and absolutely core to our strategy.

What is the one accomplishment that made your career?

I鈥檝e been with 麻豆原创 for 23 years. I have been able to transform all the territories I led within Africa. We impact our customers, we impact on people growth and P&L, plus the CSR initiatives. There are many rewarding aspects that have shaped my career as I progressed. It also helped me build my own brand and move to the next challenge.

Do you ever get impatient with听Millennials who want it now!

When I started working for 麻豆原创 I thought I would work for two years. Back then there was this trend 鈥� do two听years on the job then freelance. The freelancers were making a lot of money consulting. I thought that would be my path, but it turned out very differently.

We happen to have quite a few Millennials because of our Academy. Candidates are selected very strictly, and we get very smart, bright young
people. Ideally, we send them to California for about six months and they would be trained wall-to-wall on the business, and they would be
incorporated into the company. There is always new stuff to do, working within 麻豆原创.

What do you think makes a good leader?

I think it is one who gives direction, and understand how to integrate everything. You need to manage downwards but also upwards. One
who creates a structure that is growing underneath them. They also need to be very direct, competent, have a lot of common sense. If possible, they need to have experience and be good at execution because that is how it is in our industry. If you don鈥檛 execute, the business does not flow, everything comes apart, you鈥檒l come apart. Driving the key agenda is a good thing for this type of business.

What have been the best parts of being a CEO, and what are the worst parts?

The best thing is owning all aspects of the business, impacting growth of your team, customers and business. It is that wall-to-wall thing that I like. Looking at the overall business and trying to pull people together, relentlessly. That is what really drives me. To be honest, the worst part 鈥� I don鈥檛 see any. If you manage to do it, and still manage your work/life balance, there is no worst part.

What has working with 麻豆原创 taught you about yourself over the last 23 years?

It gave me many rewarding experiences. I love the African culture and spending my time on the continent.

The post 麻豆原创 Through the Eyes of a Managing Director appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

At a virtual graduation ceremony attended by Constantin Zelenty, Deputy Head of Mission German Embassy Angola, Cathy Smith, Managing Director 麻豆原创 Africa, Pedro Guerreiro, Managing Director 麻豆原创 Central Africa as well as 麻豆原创 customer and partner representatives, 25 young talents from Portuguese-speaking African countries officially graduated following a three-months-long program aimed at equipping young talents with key skills based on the latest 麻豆原创 technologies.

Constantin Zelenty, Deputy Head of Mission, German Embassy Angola says: 鈥淚n order for Angolan companies to grow and succeed in our modern age, they need to harness the transformative power of digital technologies along with rightly skilled talent. We hope this may be the first of many groups of graduates who can apply their expertise in service of Angola鈥檚 ambitions for the modern digital economy.鈥�

The Young Professionals Program is an initiative offered under the umbrella of 麻豆原创 Skills for Africa, and has trained more than 1460 youths across the continent since its launch in 2012. Recently, the Young Professionals Program has significantly expanded its footprint. In 2021 alone, talents from Senegal, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and, with the latest cohort, Angola and Mozambique, have graduated.

The two- to three-month program uses a unique enablement plan that includes functional and technical knowledge of 麻豆原创 software, with a focus on 麻豆原创鈥檚 latest innovations. A soft skills component is included to ensure graduates can operate successfully within the organisations where they are placed and make an immediate positive impact. Candidates are typically unemployed or underemployed university graduates selected from the country where the program is offered, and graduate as 麻豆原创 Associate Consultants. This gives them a competitive edge in the job market, and ensures organisations using 麻豆原创 technologies have a steady stream of young talent to help drive their digital transformation efforts.

Pedro Guerreiro, Managing Director for Central Africa at 麻豆原创, says the graduates will play an invaluable role in supporting 麻豆原创 customers and partners as they implement their digital transformation strategies. 鈥淭he past 18 months has highlighted the importance of digital technologies to how well organisations can adapt to disruption and run successfully. As African organisations continue their efforts at building intelligent enterprise capabilities, they need access to expert digital skills. We congratulate the first-ever graduates from Lusophone Africa and look forward to seeing the impact they will have at our customer and partner businesses.鈥�

The cohort is part of of a collaboration between 麻豆原创 and the Deutsche Gesellschaft f眉r Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH with the aim to jointly create 450 jobs for highly-qualified personnel in the IT sector in ten African countries over the course of three years. The cooperation project is part of the Special Initiative on Training and Job Creation and the develoPPP program that GIZ implements on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Registration for the next 麻豆原创 Young Professionals Program for candidates from Nigeria and Ivory Coast are open with plans to host further cohorts throughout 2021. For more information and application links, please visit听

The post 麻豆原创 Young Professionals Program Extends Digital Skills Build To Lusophone Africa appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

The objective: end-to-end business transformation, with a focus on enabling all staff to operate effectively wherever they are, and improving internal efficiencies and visibility over the total performance of the business.

Oilserv, a leading provider of integrated engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) services in the oil and gas sector, chose听听for a step change in productivity and accelerated business performance.

The ICT Manager at Oilserv, Iheanyi Achereke, says: 鈥淲e wanted to move our IT workload to the cloud, with multi-region fail-overs and a disaster recovery strategy to ensure business continuity at all times. Core to this was our upgrade to 麻豆原创鈥檚 market-leading S4/HANA enterprise resource planning platform, which gave us full access to 麻豆原创鈥檚 powerful embedded analytics.鈥�

Oilserv provides a number of complementary solutions across the asset and program lifecycle within the onshore, offshore and subsea market segments of the oil and gas sector. The company was incorporated in 1992 and commenced operations in 1995.

Achereke says the business also needed a commercial project management tool that would help the business manage all customer projects in a single system. 鈥淲e were facing several challenges with our existing system, including an inability to manage all project activities, consolidate project dates and report revenue. In addition, we needed to better measure and manage risk, and improve our change management activities.鈥�

Oilserv worked with its implementation partners C2G Consulting to migrate the existing 麻豆原创 system to S/4HANA with hosting on Microsoft Azure.

In addition, 麻豆原创 Commercial Project Management was implemented to enhance the capabilities of project management teams.

Partner support was invaluable to the success of the project. According to Achereke, 95% of the migration and subsequent implementation was done remotely. 鈥淲e used the 麻豆原创 Activate methodology and collaborated closely with C2G Consulting and the 麻豆原创 team to ensure a seamless deployment. Daily stand-up sessions, regular town hall meetings and a focus on change management contributed to the overall success of the project.鈥�

Since the migration and implementation, Oilserv has enjoyed an improved multi-channel user experience enabled by the Fiori user interface. 鈥淎ccess to the embedded analytics in S/4HANA is empowering our executives with real-time reports and visibility over the total performance of the business,鈥� says Achereke. 鈥淪ince implementation, we have also enjoyed faster system response times and improved visibility over our business partners, including vendors and customers.鈥�

The enhanced project management capabilities enabled by听听Commercial Project Management (CPM) has further improved Oilserv鈥檚 issue and risk tracking, standardised its project structures, and empowered internal teams with real-time access to project data. 鈥淲e now use CPM at our weekly project management meetings at an executive level,鈥� adds Achereke.

Pedro Guerreiro, Regional Director for Central Africa at 麻豆原创, says Oilserv has taken bold steps toward becoming an intelligent enterprise with its migration to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA. 鈥淚n today鈥檚 data-driven economy, organisations need full visibility over the total performance of the business in real time to empower decision-makers. With its landmark migration to S/4HANA, Oilserv has transformed its ability to turn data into insight that can drive business performance while establishing a strong foundation for future innovation and growth.鈥�

The post Oilserv Leverages 麻豆原创 S/4HANA to Empower Data-driven Decision-making appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

With slowing economies across the continent, low consumer confidence and now a pandemic, SMEs are increasingly in search of tools that can help them build resilience against the ongoing disruption.

The Regional Director for Central Africa at 麻豆原创, Pedro Guerreiro, says some businesses were fortunate enough to have the tools and systems in place to enable remote work.听鈥淭his minimised the negative impact of the lockdown on their productivity and operations and enabled them to maintain business continuity more easily. However, some SMEs have out-of-date technology, while too many have not invested in technology at all. This leaves SMEs stranded and lacking the capacity to adapt to a very disruptive environment.鈥�

According to the World Bank,听听and more than half of all employment worldwide. However, African SMEs face perennial funding challenges, with the IFC estimating that听.

Cloud holds key to productivity

Guerreiro adds that SMEs that had adopted cloud services prior to the country lockdowns would have been in a better position to maintain business productivity and keep operations running.听鈥淚f you are stuck with outdated on-premise technology, however, the lockdown restrictions would have been devastating to your productivity, especially as employees were suddenly working remotely and without physical access to the office.鈥�

In South Africa, for example, which had one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, 70% of the country鈥檚 workforce has returned to work, but many companies are persisting with remote work.听鈥淭here is growing evidence that employees can maintain the same 鈥� or even higher 鈥� levels of productivity when working remotely as they do when they are at the office. One of the key enablers of this is their use of technology tools such as cloud-based enterprise resource planning solutions that enable them to orchestrate their business productivity regardless of where they are.鈥�

Enterprise tools for SMEs

While ERP solutions were traditionally leveraged by large organisations that had the skills and capital to successfully implement them, technology vendors have made a concerted effort over the past few years to extend these offerings to the SME market.听鈥淣early 80% of 麻豆原创鈥檚 customers globally are SMEs,鈥澨齭ays the Head of General Business for 麻豆原创 Africa, Amin Meqdadi.听鈥淎nd with an implementation period of as little as two weeks, the solutions that are available to SMEs can transform how they operate quickly enough for it to matter as they recover from a tough trading period due to Covid-19.鈥�

Meqdadi points to partners and resellers as key enablers of cloud adoption among SMEs.听鈥淎 strong partner ecosystem can help SMEs navigate some of the trickier aspects of cloud adoption and help build innovations that are tailored to the SME market. The pandemic is also forcing some change in how partners and resellers engage with SMEs.鈥�

Tech resellers are facing a step change in the market. 鈥淭hey have no choice but to expand their portfolio with what the SME market needs.听鈥淪ince the Covid-19 outbreak, what SMEs need most is the agility, cost-savings and productivity benefits of cloud solutions. While adopting and implementing cloud was generally seen as a nice-to-have or a goal for some time in the future, the very survival of many SMEs now depends on how well they adopt and leverage the many benefits of cloud technologies.鈥�

Meqdadi believes many resellers will need to reconsider their business models with urgency.听鈥淪MEs are looking for cost-efficient cloud solutions that can be implemented and deliver business results quickly. The growing adoption of born-in-the-cloud SME solutions such as 麻豆原创鈥檚 ByDesign and Business One also gives resellers access to a broader market, as these tools can be used by smaller businesses as well as more established enterprises.鈥�

New breed of partner

The Head of Channel for Africa at 麻豆原创, Lillian Serobatse, says the ongoing disruption has changed companies鈥� expectations of their technology partners.听鈥淭he new currency is lifetime value, in other words, how can my partner provide ongoing value to my organisation and help me make decisions over my technology that support the achievement of my business goals. It鈥檚 not enough to just sell a product or solution: channel partners are now tasked with helping customers extract the maximum amount of value over time from their technology investments.鈥�

Serobatse adds that these changing expectations have given rise to a new breed of partner organisation.听鈥淭he best value-added resellers and tech partners today develop extensive industry-specific expertise, take the time to really understand customer pain points and opportunities, and then co-develop tailored solutions alongside the larger vendors. This gives them access to very specific markets where their solutions can make an immediate and long-term positive impact.鈥�

Meqdadi believes the tools that SMEs need are already available to value-added resellers. 鈥淢any of these solutions arguably provide a panacea to the current challenges resellers and their customers face. Lightweight, native cloud applications such as 麻豆原创 ByDesign answer a customers鈥� urgent need to support a remote workforce without compromising compliance. Technology partners who don鈥檛 have an effective answer to the SME market need to act speedily. Their survival, and the survival of many SMEs, depend on it.鈥�

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The continent features . Its population is the most youthful, with . And the world鈥檚 largest free trade area in terms of participating countries, the African Continental Free Trade Area, is now active and .

With Africa鈥檚 fortunes continuing to improve, one region stands out as a possible example to the rest of the continent. As the world starts its slow recovery from a year of constant disruption and immense challenges, a closer look at the continued economic success story of the East African region could hold inspiration for how the rest of the continent drives economic growth.

One of the world鈥檚 fastest-growing regions

in the world are in East Africa: Ethiopa (2) and Rwanda (4). According to the Brookings Institute, East Africa鈥檚 share of the continent鈥檚 economic growth rose from less than 20% in 2018 .

In contrast, GDP growth in Southern Africa actually declined, thanks mostly to the decline in growth in South Africa. The impact of 2020鈥檚 events are predicted to worsen the situation, with an estimated 7.2% contraction in GDP expected in South Africa – the worst in nearly 90 years.

Despite the disruptive events of 2020, the African Development Bank found that East Africa is holding its ground as the continent鈥檚 fastest-growing region. This at a time when many countries – emerging and developed economies alike – face record declines in economic growth.

What are the region’s keys to success? Its attempts at building a vibrant services sector, its coordinated state-supported industrial growth efforts, and a renewed focus on education reform with an emphasis on fostering digital skills all hold valuable lessons for the rest of the continent.

Building a vibrant services sector

According to data by the African Development Bank, agriculture鈥檚 contribution to East Africa鈥檚 gross domestic product declined from 33.4% in the early 2000s to only 28.3% in 2018. Rising in its place is a vibrant and fast-growing services sector that contributes more than half (53.8%) of the region鈥檚 GDP.

This economic shift is creating new employment opportunities. Based on data by the International Labour Organisation, the number of employment opportunities in the region鈥檚 services sector is set to more than double between 2000 and 2020, while opportunities in the agriculture sector will grow at a slower pace.

Digital transformation is one of the main drivers of growth in the services sector. In fact, the World Bank estimates that connecting every African business, individual and government to digital technologies by 2030 .

Concerted industrial revival

In 2012, the East African Community (EAC), which covers Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, launched its 2012-2032 Industrialisation Policy. The strategy aims to create a market-driven, competitive and balanced industrial sector that draws on the advantages of the EAC region.

The aim is to grow the contribution of manufacturing to the region’s GDP from an estimated 8.9% currently to 25% by 2032.

However, the contribution of the industrial sector to regional GDP growth has stalled in all EAC countries with the exception of Tanzania. In , the East Africa Development Bank (EADB) noted insufficient investment in industrial transformation as a main reason for the decreasing contribution of industry to GDP growth.

According to the EADB, other countries wishing to drive greater industrialisation should improve regional infrastructure (such as roads, rail networks, energy and communications), establish special economic zones with compelling incentives, and greater investment in human capital development to ensure ready access to key skills.

Education reform for 21^st century skills

Since 2000, , with a vanishing gender gap that now sees nearly as many girls attend school as boys.

Human capital development is a core component of accelerating the development efforts of emerging economies. Data shows that significant and ongoing investment in human capital development has direct benefits to GDP growth, with the Gates Foundation finding that .

Kenya and Tanzania are notable for their efforts to drive education reform and expand access to schooling for more children. In Kenya, the number of people with primary education is , with the number of people who have completed secondary or tertiary education growing by 60% over the next decade.

In Tanzania, it is estimated that six out of seven people will have completed some form of education by 2030. However, there is much work still to be done: by 2030, .

Here, the private sector has an important role to play in supporting human capital development. Initiatives such as supplement government curricula by providing easy access to digital training and education tools and resources, driving greater awareness of 21st century skills among students and teachers alike. In addition, 麻豆原创 Skills for Africa provides tailored training to talented graduates to develop work-ready technical and soft skills that can immediately make an impact in the workplace.

I am a firm believer in Africa鈥檚 potential as a world-leading region for economic growth and innovation. Already, there are several pockets of excellence that the rest of the continent can learn from. It is our task to build on these successes and ensure we realise the dream of an African Century.

The post What East Africa can Teach the Rest of the Continent about Economic Growth appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

SMEs in the East African region are using digital transformation initiatives to increase their competitiveness and ensure they are set for growth despite challenging trading conditions.

According to Pedro Guerreiro, Managing Director: Central Africa at 麻豆原创, investments into new technologies will greatly assist SMEs in the region as they adapt to a very different operating environment. 鈥淎s one of the most important drivers for job creation and economic growth, the SME sector is vital to the region鈥檚 economic recovery. Technology will continue to play a determining role in how well the sector recovers from this year鈥檚 events, while also digitally-tooling organisations to out-perform their competitors in this new economy and enabling them to execute the business, operate, and thrive in the market.鈥�

In 2017, SMEs accounted for 98% of all businesses in Kenya and created 30% of all jobs annually. According to the International Trade Centre,听. However, the impact of the coronavirus pandemic should not be underestimated:听听found a 50% reduction in household and business spending, with direct consequences for the country鈥檚 SME sector.

鈥淪MEs will need to reduce inefficiencies and improve decision-making to ensure they continue to survive 鈥� and thrive 鈥� despite our current challenges,鈥� says Guerreiro. 鈥淚n an encouraging sign, a growing number of East African SMEs are leveraging technology to improve business decision-making and drive greater efficiency across their operations.鈥�

Gaining insight into total business performance

Guerreiro says gaining granular insight into the financial and overall performance of the business is essential to the growth and survival of SMEs. 鈥淏usiness leaders can no longer make educated guesses about the performance of the business. You need certainty over the total performance of the business at all times, not weeks or months after the fact.鈥�

For Kenyan candy manufacturer Mzuri Sweets, an over-reliance on spreadsheets and manual processing for reporting hampered the company鈥檚 growth efforts. The company employs 800 people and provides a range of confectionary goods to the Kenyan market.

After choosing 麻豆原创 Business One and working with 麻豆原创 implementation partner ACEteK, Mzuri Sweets now have a fully automated system that is accessible from web and mobile, enabling directors to make approvals from any location.

Ashika Modasia, Senior Accountant at Mzuri Sweets Ltd, says: 鈥溌槎乖� Business One has united our company into one platform, bringing visibility to our management and allowing us to focus on growth.鈥�

Stationery manufacturer Safari Stationers faced a similar issue. Its previous accounting system could not support the growth of a low margin, high volume business. Company management knew it needed a new system that could provide accurate monitoring and synchronise its operations.

Following the implementation of 麻豆原创 Business One, Safari Stationers can monitor credit more easily, set up sales parameters to ensure only the correct number of orders are taken, while accessing richly detailed reports that have improved decision-making across the business. General Manager Deepti Vara says: 鈥淚t鈥檚 been a smart and efficient journey with 麻豆原创 Business One, and we are excited for the future.鈥�

Automation pays off for Mauritian engineering firm

Guerreiro adds: 鈥淗aving systems and processes in place that automate back-office operations can also free up valuable internal resources, which can be deployed to high-value areas to support the SME鈥檚 growth.鈥�

This was certainly the case for Mauritian engineering services firm Sotramon Limit茅e. With access to only basic accounting information and relying on manual processes, the company could not rely on its existing systems to support adequate stock taking, analysis or up to date information about the business.

ACEteK supported the company鈥檚 digital transformation with an 麻豆原创 Business One implementation that sought to replace manual operations with automated processes that enabled easy access to up-to-date reports. Sotramon Chief Executive Officer Barbara Ah-Sue says: 鈥溌槎乖� Business One has changed my life. It has given my business independence, accessibility and versatility.鈥�

Guerreiro believes there is great potential for further investment into new technologies that could help SMEs unlock new market opportunities. 鈥淯ltimately SMEs should strive to become Intelligent Enterprises that apply advanced technologies within integrated, agile business processes to turn insight into action. As the sector expands its capabilities, SMEs will be better placed to sense opportunities, risks and trends, and take advantage of market opportunities.鈥�

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