The Hack2Build Africa event was held in May and saw eight partner teams from South Africa and West Africa spend seven days building compelling solution prototypes using 麻豆原创 Build, a low-code app development and automation platform. A team of 麻豆原创 solution architects and product management experts provided technical support to ensure the success of the partner solutions.

麻豆原创 Africa Chief Operating Officer Tracy Bolton says: “Innovation lies at the heart of everything we do at 麻豆原创. It is only through collaboration with our valued partner ecosystem that we can revitalise and revolutionise the way we support the digital transformation aspirations of organisations across the continent.”

Winning innovation enhances procurement planning

Bayajula Services’ winning concept is a cloud-based automated procurement planning solution that enables organisations to plan and manage their procurement spend, allowing integration with strategic sourcing and operational procurement systems. The solution is built on the 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform using 麻豆原创 Build.

鈥淲e are thrilled to be recognised by 麻豆原创 as the leading solution in the recent Hack2Build Event and look forward to adding transparency across critical procurement processes in Africa,鈥� says Busisiwe Sibanyoni, Executive Director at Bayajula.

Runners-up included EPI-USE Africa for its case management tool, and EY Nigeria for a business partner authentication solution.

Tshepo Mahloko, Head of 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab: Africa at 麻豆原创, notes the potential of low-code solutions to accelerate innovation. “Low-code solutions such as 麻豆原创 Build provide easy, intuitive ways of developing new applications without the need for extensive coding proficiency. This can accelerate time-to-value, enhance ROI, reduce total cost of development through the rapid development of minimum viable products, and unify development experiences for application and process innovation.”

Partners leverage Build for innovation

A previous Hack2Build event held in February saw 20 partner organisations from 11 countries in EMEA South participate in a two-day Demo Jam to build solution prototypes using 麻豆原创 Build.

The winner of this event was Merlynn, who developed a prototype Digital Fraud Review Panel which aims to prevent payment fraud within procurement and payment systems. Merlynn’s Decisioning Digital Twin Technology enables organisations to deploy a digital team of fraud experts within their 麻豆原创 payment system to enhance existing controls.

The Digital Fraud Review Panel acts as a second set of eyes that monitors payment activity in real-time, identifies potential fraud and stops the payment before money flows out of the organisation, all integrated into 麻豆原创 via API. Merlynn鈥檚 Digital Fraud review panel solution is now listed on the 麻豆原创 Store.

Mahloko says the Hack2Build events serve as a powerful platform for African partner organisations to showcase their capabilities, harness the potential of the 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform, and drive innovation throughout the region. “The 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab will continue to work in close collaboration with our valued partners to support the development of their solutions and take their innovations to market.”

The 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab is hosting a Hack2Build event for African partner organisations in Q4 of 2023 and will provide an opportunity for partners to turn their innovative solution ideas into real customer solutions. For more information, please visit

The post 麻豆原创 Showcases Low-code No-code Innovation at Africa Hack2Build appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

The post Get Ready to Innovate with Hack2Build! appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

The 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab Africa hosts hackathons and Partner Innovation Days, where teams engage with new technologies and creative problem solving. Recently the Co-Innovation Lab demoed a Smart City app, which combines 麻豆原创听听and 麻豆原创 backend tools, including Workflow Management, to streamline service requests in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Tell us first about the Co-Innovation Lab and what you鈥檙e working on.

Tshepo Mahloko:听I鈥檓 responsible for the Co-Innovation lab in Africa, and we are one of about 14 labs globally. We work with partners to help them build solutions on our platforms. Typically, we enable them on the 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform for instance to build side-by-side extensions for some of our business systems like S/4HANA. Sometimes the partner may have an application of their own which they would like to integrate with 麻豆原创 business systems, we help with this as well amongst other things.

We provide this assistance at the moment through an offering we call #Hack2Build, which is a rapid prototyping initiative to drive early-stage inspiration, use case exploration and technology adoption for 麻豆原创 partners. In the seven days of #Hack2Build partners have an opportunity to try out their ideas and put their 麻豆原创 knowledge into practise by applying a combination of technologies to solve business challenges and develop innovative solutions supported by 麻豆原创 experts.

The whole aim is not just about having a winner for the event, what follows is what we call the build phase, where we engage with them one-on-one to help them take their prototypes to actual solutions. In the future, we hope to host a Hack2Build event focused on low-code no-code with 麻豆原创 AppGyver.

What were your roles in the Smart City demo?

Phillip Phiri:听For this project I was mostly behind the scenes, getting the integration with BTP working and also with our business rules and Workflow Management. We鈥檙e trying to get as many 麻豆原创 backend services to work with it, just to showcase how you can have a full stack app, but also sticking with the low-code/no-code theme, so we picked out a few tools within BTP that would go well with 麻豆原创 AppGyver.

Seatile Vinolia Nakedi:听I am the intern of the whole group and basically I touch on everything that the guys allow me to work on which is great, some of it strictly development as well. On the end to end solution with AppGyver, I worked with Philip in terms of the business rules and Workflow. I played with AppGyver a little bit also and enjoyed it, lots of drag-and-drop, nothing too hectic.

Sikhumbuzo Dlamini:听I鈥檓 a full stack developer, so covering basically everything from front- to backend, mostly working with 麻豆原创-related technologies.

Tell us about Partner Innovation Day and the Smart City App.

Tshepo Mahloko:听Partner Innovation Day is an opportunity for partners to hear from 麻豆原创 on the latest updates with regards to our technology platform and partner support offerings that can help them innovate with 麻豆原创. Each Partner Innovation day has a technology focus, which in this case was low-code/no-code development with 麻豆原创 AppGyver. We also built a demo to demonstrate the practical use of the technology.

In this case we wanted to demonstrate that low-code/no-code is real and that you can build a really compelling application that integrates into an 麻豆原创 backend. We decided to go with a smart city use case because we felt that there are endless requirements for citizen applications within a city/municipal context, which makes it a good fit for rapid application development.

As a city, you respond to natural disasters, service requests, pandemics, and you have such a huge audience of citizens that often times requires a very close engagement through various platforms. Being able to put an application together and deploy it in a place where citizens can access it very quickly is what AppGyver promises to do.

Through this app, citizens can log service requests and get the latest update on issues logged anytime of the day, whether it鈥檚 a burst water pipe, a pothole or streetlights that are out. With the intelligence built on 麻豆原创 BTP we were able to implement some automation that allows for immediate feedback for the citizen. Most of the cities would already have some sort of backend used to handle tickets, so we decided to use AppGyver for the citizen app frontend because it鈥檚 very quick to develop these type of solutions on the platform and get them in the hands of the citizens, whether they are on native or web. That鈥檚 the beautiful thing about AppGyver.

How was it working with 麻豆原创 AppGyver alongside 麻豆原创 backend tools?

Phillip Phiri:听We really wanted to stick to the whole theme of low-code/no-code. We quickly learned that from AppGyver, we can call APIs and that was a great sign that we can get something working over here, as long as we can send data from AppGyver. Whatever payload we were getting from AppGyver, we could work with that data, format and change it.

Tshepo Mahloko:听One thing we realized is when you take a picture with AppGyver, it uses your phone camera鈥檚 full might, so the file comes as a high-definition image and converting it to Base64 results in a huge payload. We were thinking about how we could reduce it, but thought it might be too complex for AppGyver and that we may need to write custom code on BTP.

Sikhumbuzo quickly looked it up and found the compress picture flow function, and within a few minutes we plugged it into our flow and we were compressing pictures. I was totally impressed by that. From the time we found the solution, to having it implemented and working in our app was about five minutes. That鈥檚 truly incredible.

Phillip Phiri:听When I saw it in action, that鈥檚 when I became a believer. You could very quickly come up with an idea, drag a few components onto a screen and boom, here鈥檚 an app, and it鈥檚 fully functional. Having built mobile apps before, typically you鈥檙e looking at a week just to get your layout right, getting the button to listen to events, and doing debugging.

The value in this is huge 鈥� even in a day, you can already have an app out there. You can show it to somebody important and focus on the really important bits like core functionality and the value given to your customer or users.

What鈥檚 most exciting for the partners using 麻豆原创 AppGyver moving forward?

Phillip Phiri:听I see this really fitting in well, especially for our hackathons. What I envision with AppGyver with the partners is that they鈥檒l have a little more freedom to build their apps and then take advantage of that value add, which is that business logic behind the scenes that they鈥檙e really there for.

Tshepo Mahloko:听I agree with Phillip on this, it will be a big hit for our Hackathons. A lot of the intelligent technologies that one might want to leverage for their solutions are available through APIs. From what I鈥檝e seen with this demo that we built, it鈥檚 very easy to integrate and call those APIs, and get feedback with AppGyver. At the end of the day, one can focus on building the value around their solution rather than trying to hack through code just to invoke APIs from different systems and coordinate that logic.

For more information on听#Hack2Build听and to see upcoming events, visit:听

鈥�

This article originally appeared on the AppGyver Blog on听

The post Building No-Code Smart Cities in Africa with 麻豆原创 AppGyver and 麻豆原创 Backend Services appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

There he learned that innovation was all about remaining curious, never giving up your creativity and starting where you are.听 鈥淩egardless of the resources you have available to you, it鈥檚 important to just start,鈥� he says.

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For Mahloko and his friends, it started with having to make kites and cars from any material they found lying around their communities in order to be able to play as children.

He later developed a love for computers at an early age when his mother brought one home with her from work. Mahloko learned to use the system himself, spending countless hours studying the manual. He always knew that technology was important for his future, but even more so for the future of his community.听 This passion is what fueled his curiosity for all things tech.

Mahloko would go on to build a software point-of-sale system with a friend to help his local town鈥檚 Spaza shops run better, something they very much needed to help ensure success with their business.

Shortly after that, he landed a job at 麻豆原创, working with partners on new innovations to improve people鈥檚 — and animals鈥� — lives. Mahloko led 麻豆原创鈥檚 participation in the initiative, which helped reduce elephant poaching to zero in the areas the technology was used.听 He continues to work with our partners to help them build innovative solutions on the 麻豆原创 platform, doing so through a 鈥渉ack to build鈥� initiative that aims to bring these solutions to market very quickly.

From Mahloko’s perspective, Africa has a great opportunity to leapfrog when it comes to innovation because it is a country that doesn鈥檛 have many legacy systems.

鈥淲hen you鈥檙e aiming to solve a problem, but you don鈥檛 have much to work with from the beginning, you tend to go back to the fundamentals,鈥� he said. 鈥淭his forces people to think outside the box and I think that works in Africa鈥檚 favor. It鈥檚 where we get our creative and innovative edge, and I love being a part of this space.鈥�

Read more stories from the 麻豆原创 Pioneers series.

Jackie Montesinos Suarez is head of Communications for 麻豆原创 North America.

This article first appeared on the 麻豆原创 News Center.

The post A Curious and Creative Innovation Journey appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

Growing up in South Africa, he began to hone his skills as an innovator from a young age, experimenting with ways to pair technological prowess with an unwavering passion for social good. He ultimately found early success applying his abilities by leading grassroots initiatives that employed technology to help alleviate poverty within his community.

These formative experiences helped mold his abilities as a problem solver while further reinforcing his ability to lead within a highly competitive field. So I invited him on the podcast to share his story, which began with the African way of innovation and how it led him to the global company 麻豆原创.

About Co-Innovation Lab for 麻豆原创

Have you ever wondered how many liters of water it takes to create one liter of mineral water? Or what happens when you have to stop a sugar mill because there is a shortage in the delivery of sugar cane? Can a repair centre safely retread a particular truck tire without impacting the tire warranty?

The 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab provisions and delivers co-innovation services and project environments from currently 16 locations worldwide. Each location uniquely reflects regional nuances while offering the same degree of professionalism and co-innovation experience.

The post 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab, Africa – Tshepo Mahloko Shares His Innovation Journey appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

Profession: 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab, Africa

Location: Johannesburg, South Africa

Solution: Smart City App for Partner Innovation Day

With the upcoming release of 麻豆原创 AppGyver, partners and developers around the globe are discovering new opportunities with #nocode in AppGyver. The 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab Africa hosts hackathons and Partner Innovation Days, where teams engage with new technologies and creative problem solving. Recently the Co-Innovation Lab demoed a Smart City app, which combines AppGyver and 麻豆原创 backend tools to streamline service requests in Johannesburg, South Africa.

&#虫1蹿539;听Tell us first about the Co-Innovation Lab and what you鈥檙e working on.

Tshepo Mahloko:听I鈥檓 responsible for the Co-Innovation lab in Africa, and we are one of about 14 labs globally. We work with partners to help them build solutions on our platforms. Typically, we enable them on the 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (BTP) for instance to build side-by-side extensions for some of our business systems like S/4HANA. Sometimes the partner may have an application of their own which they would like to integrate with 麻豆原创 business systems, we help with this as well amongst other things.

We provide this assistance at the moment through an offering we call #Hack2Build, which is a rapid prototyping initiative to drive early-stage inspiration, use case exploration and technology adoption for 麻豆原创 partners. In the seven days of #Hack2Build partners have an opportunity to try out their ideas and put their 麻豆原创 knowledge into practise by applying a combination of technologies to solve business challenges and develop innovative solutions supported by 麻豆原创 experts.

The whole aim is not just about having a winner for the event, what follows is what we call the build phase, where we engage with them one-on-one to help them take their prototypes to actual solutions. In the future, we hope to host a Hack2Build event focused on low-code no-code with 麻豆原创 AppGyver.

&#虫1蹿539;听What were your roles in the Smart City demo?

Phillip Phiri:听For this project I was mostly behind the scenes, getting the integration with BTP working and also with our business rules and workflow. We鈥檙e trying to get as many 麻豆原创 backend services to work with it, just to showcase how you can have a full stack app, but also sticking with the low-code/no-code theme, so we picked out a few tools within BTP that would go well with AppGyver.

Seatile Vinolia Nakedi:听I am the intern of the whole group and basically I touch on everything that the guys allow me to work on which is great, some of it strictly development as well. On the end to end solution with AppGyver, I worked with Philip in terms of the business rules and workflow. I played with AppGyver a little bit also and enjoyed it, lots of drag-and-drop, nothing too hectic.

Sikhumbuzo Dlamini:听I鈥檓 a full stack developer, so covering basically everything from front- to backend, mostly working with 麻豆原创-related technologies.

&#虫1蹿539;听Tell us about Partner Innovation Day and the Smart City App.

Tshepo Mahloko:听Partner Innovation Day is an opportunity for partners to hear from 麻豆原创 on the latest updates with regards to our technology platform and partner support offerings that can help them innovate with 麻豆原创. Each Partner Innovation day has a technology focus, which in this case was low-code/no-code development with 麻豆原创 AppGyver. We also built a demo to demonstrate the practical use of the technology.

In this case we wanted to demonstrate that low-code/no-code is real and that you can build a really compelling application that integrates into an 麻豆原创 backend. We decided to go with a smart city use case because we felt that there are endless requirements for citizen applications within a city/municipal context, which makes it a good fit for rapid application development.

As a city, you respond to natural disasters, service requests, pandemics, and you have such a huge audience of citizens that often times requires a very close engagement through various platforms. Being able to put an application together and deploy it in a place where citizens can access it very quickly is what AppGyver promises to do.

Through this app, citizens can log service requests and get the latest update on issues logged anytime of the day, whether it鈥檚 a burst water pipe, a pothole or streetlights that are out. With the intelligence built on 麻豆原创 BTP we were able to implement some automation that allows for immediate feedback for the citizen. Most of the cities would already have some sort of backend used to handle tickets, so we decided to use AppGyver for the citizen app frontend because it鈥檚 very quick to develop these type of solutions on the platform and get them in the hands of the citizens, whether they are on native or web. That鈥檚 the beautiful thing about AppGyver.

&#虫1蹿539;听How was it working with AppGyver alongside 麻豆原创 services?

Phillip Phiri:听We really wanted to stick to the whole theme of low-code/no-code. We quickly learned that from AppGyver, we can call APIs and that was a great sign that we can get something working over here, as long as we can send data from AppGyver. Whatever payload we were getting from AppGyver, we could work with that data, format and change it.

Tshepo Mahloko:听One thing we realized is when you take a picture with AppGyver, it uses your phone camera鈥檚 full might, so the file comes as a high-definition image and converting it to Base64 results in a huge payload. We were thinking about how we could reduce it, but thought it might be too complex for AppGyver and that we may need to write custom code on BTP.

Sikhumbuzo quickly looked it up and found the compress picture flow function, and within a few minutes we plugged it into our flow and we were compressing pictures. I was totally impressed by that. From the time we found the solution, to having it implemented and working in our app was about five minutes. That鈥檚 truly incredible.

Phillip Phiri:听When I saw it in action, that鈥檚 when I became a believer. You could very quickly come up with an idea, drag a few components onto a screen and boom, here鈥檚 an app, and it鈥檚 fully functional. Having built mobile apps before, typically you鈥檙e looking at a week just to get your layout right, getting the button to listen to events, and doing debugging.

The value in this is huge 鈥� even in a day, you can already have an app out there. You can show it to somebody important and focus on the really important bits like core functionality and the value given to your customer or users.

&#虫1蹿539;听What鈥檚 most exciting for the partners using AppGyver moving forward?

Phillip Phiri:听I see this really fitting in well, especially for our hackathons. What I envision with AppGyver with the partners is that they鈥檒l have a little more freedom to build their apps and then take advantage of that value add, which is that business logic behind the scenes that they鈥檙e really there for.

Tshepo Mahloko:听I agree with Phillip on this, it will be a big hit for our Hackathons. A lot of the intelligent technologies that one might want to leverage for their solutions are available through APIs. From what I鈥檝e seen with this demo that we built, it鈥檚 very easy to integrate and call those APIs, and get feedback with AppGyver. At the end of the day, one can focus on building the value around their solution rather than trying to hack through code just to invoke APIs from different systems and coordinate that logic.

&#虫1蹿449;听For more information on听#Hack2Build听and to see upcoming events, visit听

This article first appeared on .

The post Creators of the Week: Building Smart Cities in Africa with No-Code & 麻豆原创 appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

Companies struggle to innovate at the speed the market demands. Limited resources, developer scarcity, and evolving business requirements adds to this problem.

Low-Code/No-Code can be a key enabler for accelerated development and to help address this challenge.

鈥淏y 2024, low-code application development will be responsible for more than 65% of application development activity鈥� 听 听 听– Gartner, 2020

AppGyver is 麻豆原创鈥檚 go-to platform for low-code/no-code application development, empowering 鈥榗itizen developers鈥� and application users to build the apps they need.

麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Labs and Partner Innovation Lifecycle Services would like to invite you to a Partner Innovation day, where we will introduce AppGyver across the following topics:

• AppGyver overview and demo
• Using AppGyver to extend 麻豆原创 business applications like S/4HANA, SuccessFactors, and Ariba
• Integration with 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform components /developments
• Support & Go to Market options

Date: 24 August 2021

Event type: Virtual

Registration: 听

The post #PartnerInnovationDay: Innovate for the Digital Enterprise with AppGyver appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

In the fight to protect Africa鈥檚 endangered wildlife, powerful tech such as cloud computing, drones, and machine learning can play a critical role in enhancing conservation efforts, and in combatting poaching and the resultant illicit trade.

In one on-going collaboration between 麻豆原创鈥檚 Co-Innovation Lab and the nonprofit Elephants, Rhinos & People, or ERP (see erp.ngo), strides made to combat poaching of elephants and rhinos could become a blueprint for conservation efforts across the continent.

According to Rudi de Louw, Head of the Co-Innovation Lab at 麻豆原创 Africa, advances in technology and new ways of collaborating are paving the way for the development of innovative solutions to protect Africa鈥檚 wildlife. 鈥楬aving powerful technology means nothing if you can鈥檛 achieve accuracy and consistency in the data and outcomes it produces. We undertook an extensive and on-going co-innovation project with ERP focusing on technical feasibility, product development and refinement. The outcomes are exciting and potentially game-changing – especially, in this case, for an elephant and rhino population that remains under threat.鈥�

There are an estimated 30,000 rhinos remaining in the wild today, a significant decrease – largely due to poaching and habitat destruction – from the half million that roamed Africa and Asia at the start of the 20th century. Rhino poaching reached crisis levels in the last decade, with instances in South Africa increasing more than 9,000% from 13 in 2007 to 1,215 in 2014. Encouragingly, the latest reported figures show a sharp decline in rhino poaching activity, .

Elephants have also been targeted. After a single poaching incident in 2014 – the first in South Africa in a decade – elephant poaching activity spiked, with 71 reported cases in 2018. The latest official figures show a decrease of more than half for 2019. Across Africa, thousands of elephants have been brutally slaughtered in recent years, with almost entire populations being wiped out in certain African countries.

People, tech enhance conservation efforts听

The nonprofit Elephants, Rhinos & People was founded to preserve and protect Southern Africa鈥檚 wild elephants and rhinos through a strategy that is based on alleviating poverty in rural areas surrounding the threatened creatures. It forms part of the structure of , a largely employee-owned group of companies, non-profits and impact investment organisations with a strong global presence that also includes , the world鈥檚 largest independent 麻豆原创 HCM and Payroll specialist.

Since 2017, ERP.ngo has piloted an anti-poaching strategy that has completely eliminated poaching of megafauna in the areas it monitors. David Allen, ERP Air Force project lead at ERP, and a senior 麻豆原创 practitioner in EPI-USE, says the deployment of new technologies has been a core element of the initiative’s success. 鈥楩ollowing a year-long testing and innovation process in partnership with the Co-Innovation Lab, we have made major strides in refining our machine vision, machine learning and response capabilities.鈥�

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was initially used to monitor the movement of elephants but was quickly deployed to provide a layer of intelligence to how teams responded to alerts. 鈥楾his way a guard could make an informed decision over whether there鈥檚 need for an anti-poaching team or, in the case of a fire, a fire team without first having to travel out to the affected area. We gradually expanded this layer of intelligence to other areas,鈥� says Allen.

Tech at the heart of conservation efforts

Allen says one of the first priorities for the project was to address occasional instabilities in their prototype IT environment. 鈥楾he Co-Innovation Lab team helped us migrate to 麻豆原创 Cloud Platform, and 麻豆原创 is providing three years鈥� cloud hosting to support the production process.鈥�

Siddharth Taparia, SVP and Head of Experience Marketing at 麻豆原创, who led the team, says the project marked a world-first for the organization. 鈥榃hile we have supported non-profit organizations by providing our on-premises solutions before, this was the first time we supported a partner in the Cloud and illustrates how the brave new world of cloud is transforming businesses of all sizes.鈥�

Following the migration, ERP and the Co-Innovation Lab started working on technical feasibility tests for some of their more ambitious ideas, many of which have over time proven invaluable to the success of conservation efforts. One of these ambitious ideas, according to De Louw, involves extensive development of machine learning algorithms to enable the team to improve its response, data capturing and processing capabilities.

鈥楢 network of different cameras within the reserve trigger whenever movement is detected. Machine vision is used to track movement while machine learning algorithms help distinguish between threats and non-threats. This has required us to feed our algorithms vast amounts of data to train them to distinguish between animals, people and other movement.

This accuracy is important: as soon as rangers receive too many alerts – especially if they prove to be false – trust in the system starts eroding. 鈥榃e need to reduce false-positives to ensure rangers are only alerted when something requires their attention. This is simpler to accomplish with the on-the-ground cameras, but our UAV-mounted cameras require significant further training and development. A rhino seen from ground level is fairly easy to distinguish from an elephant or person, but as soon as you take an aerial view, animals tend to fade into the landscape. As our data set grows and we refine our machine learning algorithm, these types of inaccuracies will be resolved over time.鈥�

Community partnership model for success

Technology, however, is only one part of solving the problem of poaching. According to Allen, without the support of local communities most conservation efforts are doomed to failure. 鈥楾he poaching trade is immensely profitable. A single rhino horn can fetch more than R5-million on the global black market. For local communities where the average income is as little as R3,000 per month, promises of more money could be life changing. Poachers exploit this, promising a small share of the profit in exchange for protection from authorities.鈥�

Este Smith, Managing Director of ERP says they have introduced several initiatives to involve local communities in conservation efforts, which bring them a direct socio- economic benefit for their efforts. 鈥極ur Ashoka accredited PEACE (Planning, Education, Agriculture, Cooperatives and Environment) Model is used to provide a holistic, replicable and sustainable poverty alleviation strategy in these remote communities living either adjacent to, or within conservation areas. P.E.A.C.E. Centers are cooperatively-run hubs within local and district municipalities that provide communities with centralised access to education, improved service delivery and agricultural initiatives ranging from permaculture gardens to commercial operations. By enabling residents to unlock and utilise local resources in a sustainable manner, we help pave a way for them to move out of poverty and toward prosperity.鈥�

Through their #BIKES4ERP initiative, ERP has donated more than two hundred bicycles, to aid community member movement and help children who live far from the nearest school get to class more easily. A 鈥檚tudy-to-own鈥� contract was set with each child to empower them to attain an education – if they attend school for a number of years, ownership of the bicycle will transfer to them. #BIKES4ERP has had a positive effect on the academic achievements of the recipients, ensuring that they are able to get to school more easily 鈥� saving precious time and effort, and based upon records kept to date the pass rate of the schools where the bikes are deployed grew from below 50% to more than 85% in 2019.

Through our听We Code program, which is held in partnership with local high schools, we are also providing coding training to local youth,鈥� says Smith. 鈥楾he course allows young people to learn coding in a way that is exciting and relevant to them, for example through programming drones, which builds important digital skills while also enhancing the relevance of other subjects such as math and science.鈥�

According to Smith, the We Code program also potentially holds direct benefits for ERP. 鈥極ne of the main constraints to scaling our conservation model is the lack of drone pilots. By investing in local youth skills development, we could also create the next generation of drone pilots to support similar conservation efforts across the country – and later, in other parts of Africa.

Smith explains that in the wake of the economic devastation caused by the novel coronavirus-related government shutdown, ERP has funded and mobilized a multi-location logistics effort to feed indigent people in communities adjacent to its land-based projects.听 In the month of May, several hundred thousand meals will be distributed to 9 locations near conservation areas that ERP is either leasing, negotiating to lease, or simply safeguarding with drone technology. The feeding program will soon be extended to cover an area Zimbabwe, where ERP is currently exploring conservation land deals.

ERP will eventually deploy its technology model to other conservation areas in South and Southern Africa. 鈥榃e are already working on opportunities to scale our solution to reach other reserves. Through a range of community initiatives, we hope to mobilise local communities to support conservation efforts while also unlocking greater skills development and economic opportunities in the process. With our partners at the Co-Innovation Lab, we will also continue to refine the technology underpinning our efforts to protect some of our continent鈥檚 most majestic endangered animals.鈥�

The post Co-innovation Paves the Way for Protection of Africa鈥檚 Endangered Wildlife appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.

鈥淗ealthcare providers are under increasing pressure to deliver improved patient experiences and streamline their operations with mounting financial constraints,鈥� says Johann Joubert, CEO at Converge Solutions. 鈥淭he answer to affordable, improved patient care is not always more staff, controls or administrative processes, but greater adoption of technology that aids automates and simplifies, allowing more effective use of available resources. Modern healthcare organisations simply cannot function optimally without applying technology as a key enabler of their operations. In light of this, we co-developed an innovative, modern 麻豆原创 IS-H and Cerner i.s.h.med offering to create a fit-for-purpose solution for the African healthcare market.鈥�

Converge Solutions is an 麻豆原创 partner organisation that develops innovative solutions for African organisations in the healthcare and financial services industries. The healthcare solution was developed partly through a co-innovation exercise held in collaboration with the 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab, a global network of 麻豆原创 product and innovation labs found in 16 locations worldwide, including Johannesburg. The 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab creates a platform for local 麻豆原创 partners and customers to minimise the risk associated with large-scale innovation projects built on 麻豆原创 technologies and solutions.

According to Rudi de Louw, Head of the 麻豆原创 Co-Innovation Lab at 麻豆原创 Africa, the healthcare solution developed by Converge fills a very clear gap in the local healthcare industry鈥檚 digital transformation efforts. 鈥淲orking with Johann and his team, we identified a clear opportunity to offer a fit-for-purpose solution for the African healthcare market, with an initial focus on South African organisations. Thanks to the scalability of the solution through 麻豆原创鈥檚 infrastructure, and the Converge team鈥檚 expert knowledge of the African healthcare industry, it comes as no surprise to see Converge鈥檚 enhanced versions of the solution already being adopted by healthcare organisations in other African markets.鈥�

The most recent client that implemented Converge鈥檚 麻豆原创 solution, is Fresenius Medical Care, as a key building block in enabling their World Class Patient Experience vision. The solution is centrally deployed in a private cloud environment, and used across Fresenius鈥� 67 clinics in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Swaziland.

Joubert says healthcare is an inherently complex industry, and private healthcare in particular. 鈥淚n the South African private healthcare context, doctors are not employed by the hospital and outpatient services are independent legal entities, with the hospital acting in many ways, as a real estate business that rents space to different healthcare professionals in addition to the hospital鈥檚 own services. During the course of their stay, one patient may interact with multiple external healthcare professionals and/or entities, who deliver independent yet interrelated services to the patient.鈥�

He adds that patients also have a range of benefit structures from different medical aid schemes, with different pricing mechanism, which adds layers of complexity. 鈥淭he key is to deploy a solution that simplifies all of this complexity, allowing a single view of the patient, with high levels of automation and sophistication, freeing up healthcare professionals to spend more time with the patient. There are a range of offerings in the market that are very simple to deploy and simple to use, but without the sophistication to address all of these elements effectively, forcing hospitals to throw people towards a system deficiency. Our solution doesn鈥檛 ignore these complexities, it simplifies them, with an appropriate level of control, flexibility and ease of use.鈥�

According to government data, South Africa has 80 medical schemes with more than 8 million beneficiaries. Submitting medical aid claims and checking the eligibility of patient benefits for certain procedures or care can be a time-consuming administrative burden without the appropriate solutions in place. 鈥淲e integrate to Medikredit, a switching company for medical aid claims that has enabled real-time eligibility checking, amongst other rich functionality. Healthcare organisations using our solution can quickly check that patient benefits are still intact and that the medical aid will cover the costs. Once the service is billed, the claim can be submitted to the medical aid scheme immediately and with minimal rejections since the eligibility of the claim was performed beforehand. This integrated approach ensures a dramatically lower claim rejection rate.鈥�

Joubert adds that a large part of the co-innovation project focused on reducing the operational complexity inherent within healthcare organisations. 鈥淲e made use of best practices, but also ensured the system is localised to serve the specific operational needs of African private sector hospitals. This was achieved through more than a decade of working side by side with healthcare entities to understand their pains and architect solutions, along with an active inclusion of industry thought leaders through the system enhancement process. We also extended the standard 麻豆原创 solution by integrating our own solutions to augment what is already offered, including Patient Myth (a digital patient survey and intervention platform), Impi (a clinical incident management platform), Virtual Forms (a form digitalisation platform) and Triton (an advanced acuity based nursing planning and optimisation solution).鈥�

鈥淲e have partnered and/or integrated with a number of other leading entities including, but not limited to, Cerner, Elsevier and Medikredit,鈥� says Joubert. 鈥淲e are constantly evaluating and integrating other products and partners into our ecosystem to ensure that healthcare providers can source all IT related products and services from one point of accountability. Our solutions offer simplification and predictability, extending to timeline, budget, appropriate levels of sophistication and standardised levels of care, to cover all permutations of healthcare in Africa.鈥�

The post 麻豆原创 and Converge Solutions Co-Innovation Project Delivers Powerful Healthcare Solution for African Hospitals appeared first on 麻豆原创 Africa News Center.