Solutions Archives - 麻豆原创 Africa News Center /africa/topics/solutions/ News & Information About 麻豆原创 Fri, 03 Jul 2026 08:59:12 +0000 en-ZA hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.2 Tshwane Introduces R237 Million Digital Procurement Platform for Better Governance /africa/2026/07/tshwane-introduces-r237-million-digital-procurement-platform-for-better-governance/ Fri, 03 Jul 2026 08:59:10 +0000 /africa/?p=148789 The City of Tshwane鈥檚 Multiparty Coalition Government has launched a new digital procurement platform, 麻豆原创 Ariba, in a move aimed at strengthening supply chain governance,...

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The City of Tshwane鈥檚 Multiparty Coalition Government has launched a new digital procurement platform, 麻豆原创 Ariba, in a move aimed at strengthening supply chain governance, improving transparency and reducing opportunities for irregular expenditure.

Deputy Executive Mayor and MMC for Finance, Councillor Eugene Modise, announced the rollout on Thursday alongside Executive Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya, members of the Mayoral Committee and senior municipal officials. He described the initiative as another milestone in the City鈥檚 drive to modernise public administration and improve financial governance.

鈥淓very rand entrusted to the municipality is managed responsibly, transparently and in the best interests of our residents,鈥 Modise said.

Modise said Tshwane鈥檚 procurement system had long relied on manual, paper-based processes and fragmented approval mechanisms that contributed to delays, inefficiencies and, in some instances, abuse.

He said previous audit findings and internal investigations had identified weaknesses in the City鈥檚 supply chain management, including poor record-keeping and inconsistent compliance. These shortcomings, he said, undermined public confidence, increased costs and slowed service delivery.

麻豆原创 Ariba is a fully integrated, cloud-based procurement and supply chain management platform that digitises supplier registration, sourcing, contract management and procurement transactions.

According to Modise, the platform will create a complete digital audit trail for every procurement transaction, ensuring supplier engagements and approval processes are fully traceable and subject to stronger oversight.

The implementation forms part of the City鈥檚 broader 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Upgrade Programme, one of Tshwane鈥檚 largest financial modernisation projects, with an investment of approximately R237 million.

Modise also used the occasion to reject what he described as inaccurate public commentary about Tshwane鈥檚 financial health, saying the municipality鈥檚 latest figures reflected sound financial management rather than financial distress.

He said the City collected approximately R43.93 billion in revenue during the 2025/26 financial year, representing 98% of the revenue projected in its Budget Funding Plan despite ongoing economic pressure on households and businesses.

Revenue collection in June exceeded expectations, with the City collecting more than R4.18 billion, surpassing the monthly funding target by more than R544 million and achieving 115% of its target. By June 26, before the financial year had officially ended, collections had already exceeded R3.6 billion.

Modise said that after paying employee salaries, the municipality maintained a positive cash balance of about R1.8 billion. He added that the  remained fully compliant with its Eskom debt repayment agreement while continuing to reduce its overall debt book.

Linking the City鈥檚 financial performance to the procurement reforms, Modise said sustainable financial management depends on robust governance systems rather than short-term interventions.

鈥淪trong financial management depends on strong systems,鈥 he said, noting that procurement represents one of the largest areas of municipal expenditure.

He said digital platforms such as 麻豆原创 Ariba reduce opportunities for irregular expenditure, improve compliance and oversight, and enable faster, data-driven decision-making through real-time reporting.

Modise said the reforms were intended to build 鈥渁 capable, transparent and financially sustainable municipality that earns the confidence of residents through responsible governance and measurable results.鈥

He added that the new procurement platform would also simplify doing business with the City by making procurement processes more efficient and accessible for legitimate suppliers.

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Wesizwe Platinum Advances 麻豆原创 S/4HANA ERP Implementation Post-Cyberattack /africa/2026/06/wesizwe-platinum-advances-sap-s-4hana-erp-implementation-post-cyberattack/ Fri, 26 Jun 2026 07:21:29 +0000 /africa/?p=148784 ERP System Nears Go-Live as Mine Enters Formal Workforce Restructuring Talks JSE-listed mining group Wesizwe Platinum  has provided an update to shareholders, detailing significant progress on...

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ERP System Nears Go-Live as Mine Enters Formal Workforce Restructuring Talks

JSE-listed mining group   has provided an update to shareholders, detailing significant progress on its 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system re-implementation .

The announcements, following a series of JSE News Service releases since March 2026, highlight the company鈥檚 strategic efforts to fortify its internal controls and address operational challenges.

麻豆原创 S/4HANA ERP Rebuild Nears Final Phase

Following the cyberattack in December 2024 that compromised its previous ERP system, the Wesizwe Board approved the implementation of a new 麻豆原创 S/4HANA system to replace the legacy software.

The primary objective of this project is to strengthen the company鈥檚 internal control environment and drive operational efficiency.

While the initial go-live target was set for early June 2026, the timeline was adjusted to prioritize the finalization of the Audited Annual Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2025 (AFS).

The company valued at more than R813 million noted that this step was critical to guarantee data accuracy and integrity within the new system before migration.

With the completion of the 2025 AFS, the re-implementation project has accelerated significantly.

Key milestones achieved include:

  • Core System Setup:听Full configuration of the core system has been finalized.
  • Data Standardization:听All master data has been comprehensively reviewed and standardized.
  • Balance Migration:听The migration of opening balances is currently in its final stages.

The project is now entering its decisive phase, with the migration to the live production environment imminent. This marks the transition to operational use and will enable user access across the platform.

Near-Term Priorities for ERP Stabilisation:

Management is focused on ensuring a seamless transition and rapid post-go-live stabilization. Priority activities include:

  • Targeted on-site user training and refresher programs.
  • Back-capturing and processing of transactions from January 2026 to date.
  • Integration of additional group entities into the new system.
  • Rollout of enhanced functionality, including asset, inventory, and maintenance management.

Wesizwe Platinum reiterated its commitment to executing a controlled implementation and will continue to update shareholders on material developments.

Bakubung Mine Commences Section 189 Consultation Process

In a separate development, Wesizwe Platinum confirmed on 04 June 2026 that it has initiated a consultation process in terms of Section 189(3), read with Section 189A of the Labour Relations Act, 66 of 1995, at its flagship Bakubung Platinum Mine in Ledig, North West Province.

The process stems from an ongoing review of the mine鈥檚 operational and economic position. The company is implementing a turnaround strategy aimed at preserving liquidity, protecting long-term viability, and repositioning the business toward a sustainable 3.5 Mtpa operational model.

Commitment to Transparent Engagement

Wesizwe emphasized that no final decision has been made regarding retrenchments. The Section 189 process serves as a formal, joint consensus-seeking consultation with recognized trade unions and elected employee representatives. Discussions will focus on the reasons for the proposed restructuring, alternatives to retrenchment, and measures to mitigate impact on employees.

鈥淲e recognize the sensitivity of this process and its potential impact on employees, families, host communities, and stakeholders,鈥 the company stated. 鈥淲e remain committed to engaging openly, responsibly, and constructively with all affected parties as the process unfolds.鈥

Temporary Operational Shutdown as Precautionary Measure

As a precautionary measure, and in alignment with its 鈥榋ero Harm to People and the Environment鈥 value, Bakubung Platinum Mine has instituted a temporary operational shutdown. This measure allows the company to monitor the situation and ensure the safety and security of employees before operations resume.

Wesizwe affirms that operations will recommence once the company is satisfied that it is safe and appropriate to do so. The company remains dedicated to managing this process lawfully, fairly, and responsibly while protecting the long-term sustainability of Bakubung Platinum Mine.

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鈥淎utonomous Does Not Mean Human-Free.鈥 Inside the RISE Roadmap for the Middle East and Africa /africa/2026/06/autonomous-does-not-mean-human-free-inside-the-rise-roadmap-for-the-middle-east-and-africa/ Thu, 25 Jun 2026 08:19:54 +0000 /africa/?p=148779 Pieter Van Der Merwe, Head of Cloud ERP, 麻豆原创 Business Suite for 麻豆原创 Middle East & South Africa, on why the road to the autonomous...

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, Head of Cloud ERP, 麻豆原创 Business Suite for 麻豆原创 Middle East & South Africa, on why the road to the autonomous enterprise still runs through clean core, trusted data, and the people who must live with the change.

Christian Klein gave Sapphire 2026 its most quotable line when he said no AI agent can compensate for a bad data landscape. For the Middle East and Africa markets that听Pieter Van Der Merwe听covers at 麻豆原创, that reads more like a starting gun. Van Der Merwe advises customers across the UAE, a region split between government-mandated agentic AI in the Gulf and parts of Africa still securing their first foundational cloud workloads, yet all staring down the same 2027 ECC deadline.

, he gave a working practitioner鈥檚 view of the market. He was candid about where RISE programs stall, why the first year is organizational change wearing a technology costume, and why prized customizations are often historical workarounds in disguise.

麻豆原创insider: 麻豆原创鈥檚 Africa messaging has intensified throughout 2026, and the autonomous enterprise framing surfaced early from MEA leadership. Is this a pivot, and why does the idea land here first?

Pieter Van Der Merwe: Africa has always been a growth market; what changed is the convergence of cloud ERP, business AI, data sovereignty and skills development. Some African enterprises carry less embedded legacy customization and can move faster. Others run highly customized environments built over years around payroll, procurement, and financial reporting.

The framing of a business that can sense, decide, and act with minimal human intervention resonates here for practical reasons, including resource constraints and the opportunity to leapfrog rather than replicate the mature-market journey. The opportunity is around clean cloud ERP, trusted data and embedded AI as the foundation for more agile, competitive organizations.

麻豆原创i: Africa and the UAE are in very different places. What does a realistic autonomous enterprise roadmap look like for these regions in 2026?

Van Der Merwe:听It starts with the unglamorous essentials such as modernizing the core and fixing the data foundation. Our CEO, Christian Klein, noted at Sapphire 2026 that no AI agent can compensate for a poor data landscape, so good data is the prerequisite for everything else.

The near-term value lies in the embedded AI scenarios that already live in RISE, such as finance automation, HR workflow and supply chain exception management. These are switched on inside existing 麻豆原创 Cloud environments. The agentic layer arrives as the foundations mature. The African and Middle Eastern organizations well-positioned in 2028 are the ones investing in that foundation now, even when the autonomous vision feels distant.

麻豆原创i:听When a customer commits to RISE, what do the first 12 months look like, and where does it diverge from expectations?

Van Der Merwe: The first 12 months are a business transformation program disguised as a technology migration. The technology, 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, infrastructure, and licensing are relatively straightforward. The depth of organizational change, such as how people work, how decisions are made, and how processes are structured, catches organizations off guard. Without governance and stakeholder engagement, even the best platform underdelivers.

The most common divergence is data readiness. Poor-quality, inconsistent master data surfaces early and erodes user trust, which is hard to recover from. The second is customization. Organizations underestimate how much of the current configuration is genuine business logic versus historical workaround, and that distinction is decisive for clean core. One welcome change post-Sapphire is that RISE customers get three Joule Assistants activated in their first year, giving a tangible AI experience during the foundational phase.

麻豆原创i: Post-Sapphire, are customers feeling more urgency on the 2027 ECC deadline, or using the AI vision as a reason to pause?

Van Der Merwe: The 2027 deadline is real. 麻豆原创 has made it clear that ECC customers who commit to migrating most of their landscape to 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP gain access to select AI scenarios in the interim, so there is a bridge. The best-placed customers when agentic capabilities mature are those already running clean-core 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, because that is the foundation the autonomous suite is built on. Waiting for the full vision before starting the foundation is the wrong sequence. If anything, the bigger risk is reorganizing priorities too ambitiously and trying to tackle everything at once.

麻豆原创i: Clean core is the prerequisite for everything 麻豆原创 promises, but in heavily customized landscapes, it can feel like undoing years of work. How do you win a buy-in?

Van Der Merwe: By reframing what those customizations represent. Some encode genuine differentiation, process logic that reflects how the business truly operates, and deserve to be preserved as extensions on  using clean-core methodology. But much of the customization in mature landscapes is a historical workaround, through integration patches and decisions made under time pressure decades ago.

The conversation must involve finance, operations, and process owners. The framing that works is forward-looking: what does clean core unlock, specifically the AI scenarios now in RISE, and what does it cost to keep maintaining the current complexity? As support deadlines approach, that calculation changes sharply. The people dimension matters too. Teams whose identity is built around managing customized systems need a new value proposition of supervising AI-augmented processes rather than wrestling with complexity.

麻豆原创i: The autonomous vision depends on trusted data and standardized processes. How prepared are organizations, and are some underestimating the foundational work?

Van Der Merwe: Both are genuinely hard, and neither is solved at contract signing. Data readiness is the most underestimated challenge. 麻豆原创鈥檚 platform response- 麻豆原创 Business Data Cloud (BDC), Knowledge Graph and the Reltio acquisition- is meaningful, but zero-copy sharing and semantic enrichment do not substitute for master data governance.

Process standardization is the other half. The autonomous suite is built around standardized, cloud-aligned processes, so organizations that customized for years face a real renegotiation. The most forward-thinking organizations treat it as an opportunity to redesign processes for the AI era, rather than replicate old ones in a new system.

麻豆原创i: Where do RISE programs most commonly stall, and what separates the customers who push through?

Van Der Merwe: The stall points cluster in three areas: data-readiness failures that force unplanned remediation; change-management breakdowns where the business disengages and IT drives alone; and integration complexity across mixed 麻豆原创 and non-麻豆原创 landscapes. Those who push through have the qualities of change leadership, such as engaged executive sponsorship, quick decision-making governance, and a willingness to standardize where standardization is available. The technology is mature and stable; the implementation process and organizational alignment are where programs succeed or fail.

麻豆原创i: Joule was positioned at Sapphire as 麻豆原创鈥檚 new front door. What does it mean for a customer mid-journey on RISE?

Van Der Merwe: Customers should be thinking about Joule now, even if full deployment is progressive. The positioning of Joule Work is a significant UX shift. For customers mid-journey, the practical question is which Joule capabilities are already available in their current RISE configuration and whether they are activating them, because the embedded scenarios and early assistant capabilities do not require a completed transformation. The broader Joule Work experience, across web, desktop, mobile and voice, moves to general availability in H2 2026. That timeline is closer than many realize.

麻豆原创i: 麻豆原创 has more than 295 AI-powered scenarios embedded across its applications. Which are getting real traction, and which are still promising on paper?

Van Der Merwe: The strongest traction is where AI is embedded directly into existing workflows, and the value is obvious: finance, HR, procurement, supply chain, and customer service, because they involve high-volume processes and measurable outcomes. Think faster financial close, guided buying and invoice processing in procurement, demand sensing and exception management in supply chain.

Where a use case stays more promising than practical, the problem lies with the customer environment. If data is fragmented, processes are inconsistent, or governance is immature, even strong AI struggles to deliver value at scale.

麻豆原创i: The autonomous enterprise means AI executing actions humans perform today. How are the most forward-thinking customers approaching the human side?

Van Der Merwe: Organizations must treat AI as a work redesign strategy, not a replacement strategy. Employees move from repetitive execution toward supervision, exception handling, judgment, and continuous improvement. People must understand why the organization is changing and what skills keep them valuable, or AI copilots become another layer nobody trusts or uses.

It also demands reskilling, like learning to work with AI, interpreting its recommendations, and escalating exceptions where accountability still rests with people. The most mature organizations build cross-functional teams across business, technology, operations, compliance and change. The principle is simple: autonomous does not mean human-free. It means people focus on higher-value work while intelligent systems handle the repetitive and predictable.

麻豆原创i: Have you seen the RISE-to-autonomous journey deliver something genuinely different from previous 麻豆原创 transformation cycles?

Van Der Merwe: The example of IBM migrating from 麻豆原创 ECC to 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP Private across 175 countries and more than 150,000 users in 18 months is instructive. The move contributed to over $4.5 billion in productivity savings. What is different in this cycle is the speed and scope. A transformation at that scale would once have taken far longer, and the AI tooling now applied to the migration itself, reducing effort by up to 35% on 麻豆原创鈥檚 own figures, is part of that story.

In advanced deployments, the qualitative shift is from static reporting to active intervention. What feels genuinely new is the convergence of data, AI and process in a single governed environment, delivering systems that learn and adapt in real time.

麻豆原创i: What is the one piece of advice you would give to a CIO or IT director in the Middle East and Africa navigating the 2027 deadline and autonomous vision?

Van Der Merwe: Do not treat these as separate issues. The 2027 deadline, the move to cloud ERP, and the autonomous enterprise are the same strategic decision: How ready your organization is for the next decade. The immediate priority is to modernize the core and fix the data foundation, because without it, AI stays trapped in isolated use cases. Then focus on business value: the processes where AI can protect revenue, improve cash flow, reduce risk, or unlock capacity. Do not modernize for technology鈥檚 sake.

Finally, bring people in early. This is as much a leadership, skills, and operating model shift as a technology one. My strongest advice is simple. Start now, start with the core, and build a roadmap that integrates migration, data, AI, and people into a single transformation agenda.

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Companies RISE to the Cloud as AI Moves into Core Business Operations /africa/2026/06/companies-rise-to-the-cloud-as-ai-moves-into-core-business-operations/ Wed, 24 Jun 2026 06:36:32 +0000 /africa/?p=148776 Organisations across industries are using cloud modernisation to build stronger digital foundations, unlock greater agility and embed artificial intelligence directly into business processes. Companies across...

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Organisations across industries are using cloud modernisation to build stronger digital foundations, unlock greater agility and embed artificial intelligence directly into business processes.

Companies across Europe are demonstrating how cloud transformation is creating the foundation for more intelligent, resilient and efficient business operations, with several organisations showcasing recent implementation progress at 麻豆原创 麻豆原创PHIRE, held in Madrid between 19 and 21 May.

, Managing Director for Southern Africa at 麻豆原创, says: 鈥淐loud transformation has become the foundation for the next phase of business innovation. By modernising core systems and moving to more scalable, secure and intelligent platforms, organisations can simplify complexity, strengthen resilience and create the conditions for AI to deliver measurable business value.鈥

Companies RISE to the cloud

is emerging as a leading force in AI-driven retail transformation, combining large-scale cloud adoption with hands-on co-innovation to shape the future of the industry together with 麻豆原创. Following its successful go-live in 2025, Salling Group now operates what is widely regarded as the largest private cloud deployment of globally.

This transformation has laid the digital foundation for embedding AI directly into core retail processes鈥攖urning ERP from a transactional backbone into an intelligent, real-time decision engine.

For Salling Group, technologies such as and 麻豆原创 Business AI are not incremental improvements, but a fundamental change in how the business operates. From forecasting and replenishment to store operations and reporting, AI is enabling faster decisions, reducing manual workloads, and helping employees focus on higher-value tasks.

Agents automate time-consuming procurement task

The Danish wholesaler has deployed artificial intelligence to automate one of the most time-consuming tasks in procurement: processing supplier order confirmations. The solution consists of multiple AI agents, each responsible for a clearly defined task, orchestrated into a single automated workflow built on 麻豆原创鈥檚 Business AI framework. The outcome is faster processing, improved data quality, and more accurate delivery information for customers.

With the coordinated AI agents in place, the company can now automatically identify delays, quantity changes, and price discrepancies 鈥 and respond significantly faster.

鈥淲e have previously tried both robotic process automation (RPA) and traditional automation approaches without really achieving the desired effect. The key difference this time is that we broke the task down into multiple independent AI agents, each responsible for a specific part of the process. Together, they now handle what previously required manual review,鈥 says , IT Director at 尝别尘惫颈驳丑-惭眉濒濒别谤.

The solution was implemented in close collaboration with , which was responsible for making the solution production-ready and fully integrated into 尝别尘惫颈驳丑-惭眉濒濒别谤鈥檚 麻豆原创 landscape.

鈥淏y distributing responsibilities across multiple AI agents, 尝别尘惫颈驳丑-惭眉濒濒别谤 has been able to automate a complex process without losing transparency or control. This has enabled a fast and secure transition from pilot to production and ensures a more robust solution that can easily be expanded as new requirements emerge,鈥 says , 麻豆原创 UX Manager at NTT DATA Business Solutions.

鈥淭his is the first AI agent solution we have put into production. The experience has given us the confidence to consider similar approaches across other areas, including invoice processing and order management,鈥 Frederik Aakerlund concludes.

Pillay adds: 鈥淭hese examples show how cloud modernisation and AI adoption are becoming inseparable. When organisations have a strong digital core, trusted data and scalable cloud infrastructure, they can move beyond experimentation and start embedding intelligence into the processes that matter most. That is where transformation begins to translate into real business impact.鈥

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Africa鈥檚 Election Cycle puts Service Delivery under the Spotlight /africa/2026/05/africas-election-cycle-puts-service-delivery-under-the-spotlight/ Thu, 21 May 2026 06:50:07 +0000 /africa/?p=148731 African governments face two powerful converging forces this year: a rapid acceleration in digital government initiatives, and one of the most intense election cycles in...

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African governments face two powerful converging forces this year: a rapid acceleration in digital government initiatives, and one of the most intense election cycles in the continent鈥檚 recent history.

At least 24 countries went to the polls in 2024. A further 17 held elections in 2025. And 2026 continues the trend, with landmark contests in Ethiopia, Zambia, Uganda, and South Africa鈥檚 municipal elections. What each of the countries holding elections in 2026 have in common is expressed public support at the highest levels of government for the role of technology to improve citizens鈥 lives.

Across the continent, governments are investing heavily in digital identity systems, e-government platforms, and AI-enabled public services. The result is a profound shift in how governments function and how citizens engage in the democratic process. In the most recent UN e-Government Development Index (EGDI), . Mauritius and South Africa joined an elite group of countries with a very high EGDI, a first for the continent.

This is significant because digital government is not just about digitising and modernising administrative tasks but equipping governments with the ability to respond faster, serve better, and build stronger, more participatory relationships with citizens. These capabilities are becoming increasingly important given that citizens judge governments not only on policy intent, but on visible delivery outcomes.

From ambition to Digital Public Infrastructure

The scale of investment into digital government initiatives indicates that governments today see digital capabilities as core national infrastructure. The World Bank鈥檚 Digital Economy for Africa (DE4A) initiative has already delivered around $9 billion in projects . Mobile technologies alone , with further network investment expected to reach $77 billion by 2030.

This investment is paying dividends as is evidenced by several fundamentally transformational initiatives. In Ethiopia, the Fayda digital identity programme already has  out of a target of more than 90 million citizens. South Africa鈥檚 ) aims to transform government Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) through the implementation of a Digital ID, Data Exchange, and the first government payment and service integration projects. From 2028, MyMzansi intends to scale the technologies to the broader public sector, including health, education and business services.

The World Bank-funded  is reported to be approximately 55% complete and already fast-tracking broadband access, public service digitisation and strengthening the foundations for a single-login digital identity experience. Kenya offers possibly the continent鈥檚 most mature evidence of digital governance impact with its eCitizen platform, which now provides .

For citizens across the continent, the impact is tangible through improved access to critical services, more targeted social protection systems, and greater financial inclusion. For governments, the dividend is improved fiscal control, higher transparency, and better ability to allocate scarce resources where they have the greatest public impact.

A structural shift in how governments operate

Governments are increasingly looking to integrate data, applications, and AI into unified environments that allow them to scale services, improve decision-making, and respond faster to change. The ability to connect budgets, programmes, and citizen data in real time represents a structural shift in how governments operate.

This is a critical shift given their role in shaping nearly every citizen outcome. Health systems depend on the efficient moving of medicines, people, funding and information. Public safety depends on coordination across departments, faster access to reliable data, while meeting sustainability goals requires better planning, stronger monitoring, and the ability to align policy, spending, and implementation. In each case, disconnected systems slow governments down and limit their impact, while connected systems improve their ability to act.

Here, foundational technologies such as ERP, cloud and AI are proving central to governments鈥 digitisation drives. ERP systems help governments unify core functions such as finance, procurement, human resources, grants, and programme management. Cloud environments provide the flexibility and resilience needed to scale digital services quickly and securely. AI adds another layer of value by helping public institutions analyse large volumes of data, identify patterns earlier, automate routine tasks, and support better policy and service decisions.

Bringing these technologies together creates a system where every decision informs the next to significantly improve citizen experiences, and which has the potential to contribute to better service delivery outcomes. Equally important, it creates the controls, auditability and resilience needed to operate in an era of cyber risk, fiscal constraint and elevated citizen expectations.

From digital ambition to measurable delivery

The success of digital government initiatives will ultimately be measured by their demonstrable ability to serve people better.

Trust grows when citizens can access services more easily, receive information more quickly, and engage government through more responsive channels. When public institutions can draw on integrated data and analytics, they are better positioned to identify service gaps, respond to emerging needs, and allocate resources more effectively. Technology, in this sense, becomes an enabler of a more capable and more accountable government.

Countries making the most significant progress are showing that digital transformation works best when it is tied to practical outcomes. Digital identity drives inclusion, AI supports better decision-making, and ERP and cloud modernise administration and improve financial controls. The opportunity now exists for governments to build on these foundations with platforms that are secure, compliant, designed to scale and are future-fit.

Public institutions need technology environments that can integrate data across functions, support mission-critical processes, and adapt quickly to changing citizen and policy needs. They need the ability to improve productivity, optimise service delivery, and enhance policy decisions without adding new layers of complexity.

Critically, digital government cannot succeed without resilience. Beyond day-to-day efficiency, governments require continuity, cyber preparedness, and the ability to scale services safely during spikes in demand, whether driven by elections, emergencies, or economic shocks. Platforms must therefore be engineered for reliability and recovery, not only functionality.

Africa鈥檚 digital government push is about capacity, and whether governments can use technology to become more agile, more connected, and more responsive. In a year shaped by elections across the continent, digital transformation has become a civic priority as well as an administrative one.

The governments that will stand out are those that move from 鈥渄igital projects鈥 to 鈥渄igital public infrastructure鈥: platforms that are trusted, secure, interoperable, and designed to deliver measurable outcomes at national scale.

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How South African Businesses can Unlock ROI from Investment into AI /africa/2026/01/how-south-african-businesses-can-unlock-roi-from-investment-into-ai/ Fri, 23 Jan 2026 07:51:42 +0000 /africa/?p=148571 Artificial intelligence has reached a tipping point. Globally, the AI market is expected to听surpass $1,8-trillion by 2030, with generative AI alone attracting nearly $34-billion in...

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Artificial intelligence has reached a tipping point. Globally, the AI market is expected to听, with generative AI alone attracting nearly $34-billion in private investment this year.

Companies across sectors are racing to embed AI into operations, but proving return on investment (ROI) remains a key hurdle.

While 84% of businesses investing in AI听, only a fraction have achieved sustained value at scale. For South African executives navigating budget constraints and talent shortages, the question is not 鈥渟hould we invest in AI?鈥 but 鈥渉ow can we prove it works?鈥

According to Dumi Moyo, marketing director for Africa at 麻豆原创, there鈥檚 good news: AI doesn鈥檛 have to be a leap of faith.

鈥淲ith the right strategy and the right tools, AI deployments deliver measurable ROI quickly across a range of business functions. One of the most effective ways to get there is by embedding AI directly into business applications, avoiding costly integrations and accelerating time-to-value.鈥

Embedded AI upends traditional implementations. Instead of requiring custom data pipelines, standalone platforms, and complex integrations, embedded AI delivers intelligence directly into the flow of work.

鈥淎 native approach means faster deployment, less disruption, and clearer outcomes,鈥 says Moyo. 鈥淔or example, 麻豆原创 has built more than 295 AI-powered scenarios into business applications that span supply chain, procurement, finance, customer experience and HR, empowering business users to complete navigational and transactional tasks up to 90% faster.鈥

Strategy for AI ROI

A recent study of 1600 businesses in eight countries听听found that businesses investing in AI expect on average a 16% ROI in 2025, nearly doubling to 31% in 2027.

Moyo says businesses typically have high expectations of the ROI they will receive from AI projects, with nearly half of global companies expecting AI initiatives to deliver positive ROI faster than other investments.

鈥淚t is critical that organisations align their AI projects with the key pillars of cost savings, decision time, risk and revenue. By prioritising embedded AI, companies can secure significant ROI while unlocking听 broader innovation benefits across the organisation.鈥

He shares insights into how AI initiatives built on four key pillars can show provable, measurable return-on-investment for organisations:

Pillar 1: Reduce manual effort and waste to drive cost savings

Cost reduction is often the first benefit that organisations receive from AI investments. 鈥淎I allows teams to redirect hours toward higher-value work by automating repetitive and rule-based tasks,鈥 says Moyo. 鈥溌槎乖 data shows that companies achieve up to 20% operational cost reduction in key functions like accounts payable and HR through effective AI deployments.鈥

In procurement functions, organisations are cutting administrative workload and improving sourcing outcomes by automating statements of work (SOWs) and supplier research, while in finance, AI accelerates reconciliations, optimises cash collections, and automates journal entries, thereby reducing close cycles and improving liquidity.

鈥淎 good approach here is to quantify the time saved across manual processes and to calculate the cost of labour hours that have been freed up and reinvested into more strategic work thanks to AI,鈥 says Moyo.

Pillar 2: Improve decision time for faster insight and action

AI tends to thrive when speed and accuracy matter most. By analysing large datasets, surfacing trends, and recommending next steps, AI shortens the gap between information and action.

鈥淒ata shows that embedded AI improves forecasting and demand planning in the supply chain, resulting in less downtime and a 25% productivity bump for planners,鈥 says Moyo.

Organisations are also using generative AI to accelerate their hiring processes and producing job descriptions and candidate rankings in real-time. Finance also benefits from AI-generated insights that help CFOs and analysts make faster, more confident decisions using cleaner data.

鈥淥rganisations should measure reductions in cycle times, from planning to resolution, and link them to improved responsiveness or reduced delays,鈥 says Moyo. 鈥淭his provides a clear path to ROI and its impact on core business performance.鈥

Pillar 3: Reduce risk through better controls and compliance

In a volatile business climate, organisations typically seek greater risk mitigation across their operations. According to Moyo, AI plays a growing role here.

鈥淎I embedded into core business processes can flag anomalies, detect fraud patterns, and monitor compliance thresholds in real time. AI agents are increasingly being used in risk reduction, for example by scanning procurement data for irregularities and highlighting non-compliant purchases.鈥

AI agents such as 麻豆原创鈥檚 Joule can also bolster procurement processes by suggesting suppliers with stronger reputations, and support finance teams by reducing bad debt write-offs through improved collection strategies. In HR, AI-driven insights reduce legal risk by providing bias-aware hiring recommendations and fairer performance reviews.

鈥淭o quantify the benefits that AI brings to risk reduction, companies should track aspects such as risk events avoided, compliance costs reduced, or error rates minimised,鈥 says Moyo.

Pillar 4: Grow revenue through personalisation and conversion

According to Moyo, organisations should look beyond back-office efficiency to maximise AI value. 鈥淎 smart AI strategy will consider front-end growth by prioritising customer experiences. For example, AI fuels personalisation by recommending products, predicting churn, and guiding service agents with next-best actions to enhance customer satisfaction and drive retention.鈥

Organisations that embed AI into their core business processes can connect sales, service and marketing data to build richer customer profiles, increase upsell success and reduce attrition. Organisations also accelerate their campaign rollouts through AI-powered content generation, while smart selling tools shorten deal cycles and increase the average basket size.

鈥淭his results in higher revenue per customer interaction, as well as more predictable sales pipelines,鈥 says Moyo. 鈥淗ere, ROI is readily quantified through tracking lead conversion rates, customer churn, and average order value.鈥

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麻豆原创 Accelerates Africa鈥檚 Cloud and AI Adoption /africa/2026/01/sap-accelerates-africas-cloud-and-ai-adoption/ Tue, 20 Jan 2026 04:48:02 +0000 /africa/?p=148553 SYSTEMS Applications and Products (麻豆原创) says digital platforms are becoming central to economic growth and improved public sector performance across Africa, as organisations confront supply...

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SYSTEMS Applications and Products (麻豆原创) says digital platforms are becoming central to economic growth and improved public sector performance across Africa, as organisations confront supply chain volatility, regulatory pressure and rising citizen expectations.

In an engagement with CAJ News Africa, 麻豆原创 Africa Market Development & Customer Officer outlined how the company鈥檚 technology portfolio is supporting enterprises, small businesses and governments to modernise operations and strengthen service delivery.

At the heart of this strategy is , which Meisel described as a critical enabler of transparency and resilience.

鈥溌槎乖 Business Network is the world鈥檚 largest B2B trading platform, connecting buyers, suppliers and logistics partners in real time and facilitating more than six trillion dollars in commerce annually,鈥 he said.

The platform provides end-to-end visibility across supply chains, enabling organisations to anticipate disruptions, improve procurement planning and reduce the administrative burden associated with complex supplier ecosystems.

Digitisation and automation, according to 麻豆原创, are essential for driving efficiency across industries such as manufacturing, retail, energy, healthcare and the public sector.

By standardising processes and creating a single source of truth, organisations can reduce costs while strengthening compliance and governance.

Access to a global ecosystem of vetted trading partners also supports adherence to environmental, social and governance requirements, which are increasingly shaping investment and regulatory decisions.

Meisel said 麻豆原创 is tailoring its platforms to address Africa鈥檚 unique operating conditions, including fragmented supply chains and uneven digital infrastructure.

鈥淥ur cloud-based, mobile-first solutions are designed to work in diverse environments, allowing organisations to remain compliant with local regulations while operating efficiently, even in low-connectivity areas,鈥 he said.

He added that 麻豆原创 continues to collaborate with governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and local partners to expand digital access and build sustainable technology capacity.

Small and medium-sized enterprises are another major focus for 麻豆原创鈥檚 growth strategy on the continent.

With scalable cloud solutions such as , Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can adopt enterprise-grade systems without heavy upfront investment.

These tools provide real-time insight into finance, supply chains and operations, helping smaller firms identify inefficiencies, respond faster to market changes and compete more effectively in a digital economy.

Data protection remains a foundational principle across 麻豆原创鈥檚 platforms.

鈥淪ecurity and data privacy are embedded into our solutions by design, supported by global standards and continuous monitoring to address emerging threats,鈥 Meisel said.

麻豆原创鈥檚 approach combines secure infrastructure with advanced tools that help customers manage risk, ensure regulatory compliance and protect sensitive business and citizen information.

Sustainability is also moving from a reporting obligation to a strategic priority. 麻豆原创鈥檚 ESG solutions integrate directly with core systems, enabling organisations to track emissions, monitor social impact and generate auditable reports aligned with regulatory frameworks.

By embedding sustainability metrics into daily operations, organisations can improve transparency while driving long-term value creation.

Looking ahead, 麻豆原创 sees artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced analytics transforming enterprise systems.

鈥淏y embedding AI across our portfolio, we are helping organisations shift from reactive operations to proactive, insight-driven decision-making,鈥 Meisel said.

He believes this evolution positions ERP as a strategic enabler of innovation and resilience.

This article first appeared in .

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In Search of a Clean Core /africa/2026/01/in-search-of-a-clean-core/ Fri, 16 Jan 2026 06:49:16 +0000 /africa/?p=148545 With an imminent end-of-support deadline, 麻豆原创 would like nothing better than for all its customers to move to S4. And fast. 麻豆原创 was founded in...

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With an imminent end-of-support deadline, 麻豆原创 would like nothing better than for all its customers to move to S4. And fast.

麻豆原创 was founded in 1972 by five former IBM employees. In a publicity shot from the time, they鈥檙e posed around a table in a nondescript office, all holding pens and hunched over a large blueprint. The hair is bouffant, the suits dark, and no one is smiling. These are clearly men who take their jobs very seriously.

As the story goes, Xerox wanted its systems migrated to IBM, and the latter firm put five engineers on the project, who all worked in Mannheim, Germany. The project ground to a halt for reasons unclear, but the five had seen the gap in the market, and left to form their company, which they called Systemanalyse und Programmentwicklung, or System Analysis and Programme Development. It has been a long haul since the 鈥70s, with the company constantly tinkering with its solutions while persuading many of the world鈥檚 largest firms that they can run their businesses better with its suite of solutions.

At the core of this suite is . This is an in-memory database, and听听is stored in RAM instead of disk. These databases can handle spikes in traffic, such as at telcos or听, and allow for real-time analytics. Customers can have the platform installed in their own server room, or in the public or private cloud, or both. And with each passing year, more features are added, such as GenAI assistant ; its sparkly icon now appears on seemingly every page of the platform. Joule, on which 麻豆原创 partnered with , can run queries on all kinds of data, produce forecasts, book meetings, and make graphs and charts on the fly.

There was still an impression in the market that 麻豆原创 was extremely expensive, very complicated, and not very pretty.

Garth Ridgway, NTT

All this work has borne fruit, and in March 2025, the company overtook Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk to become the EU鈥檚 most valuable company, with a market cap of 鈧313bn. It reported strong results for its third quarter in October 2025, seeing revenue rise by 7% to 鈧9.08bn. Cloud revenue saw growth of 22%. But there are challenges ahead, not least of which is convincing customers that it鈥檚 now past the time to migrate their workloads from the old system called ECC, which is usually run on-prem, to S4. The company would like nothing better than for all its customers to move to S4, but many are proving to be recalcitrant. Support for ECC, introduced in 2015, is meant to come to an end in 2027, but customers can buy extended support until 2030, which will cost them an extra 2% in addition to their annual maintenance costs. Many companies contend that the current systems seem to be working just fine, and many are also cognisant, and terrified, of the upheaval the听听is going to cause. To this, the company dangles the prospect of new features with S4, along with the constant refrain that support for the old systems is, at some point, going to grind to a halt.

An estimated 40% of 麻豆原创 customers in North America are yet to start migrating, according to a survey run by the Americas鈥 麻豆原创 User Group. About 60% of the 173 members are already live on S4, or are in the process of moving over, according to the research in November. Gartner said in March 2025 that most ECC customers had still not bought S4 licences. It said that in Q4 in 2024, 29% of 35 000 ECC customers had bought or subscribed to S4 licences.

Christian Hestermann, Gartner senior director and analyst for business applications, believes this is likely to remain the status quo. Speaking to听The Register, he said that since September 2023, the company鈥檚 messaging had been about AI and Joule. 鈥淭he message now is, ‘You have to have AI, or you’ll not be able to survive’. So far, that did not have a major influence. So none of those big events or big announcements has made a massive change up to now; the [migration] progress has remained fairly steady.”

No such third-party survey has been run in South Africa, and the company doesn鈥檛 make public either its customer numbers or how many have migrated.

I asked , CTO, 麻豆原创; , MD of 麻豆原创 South Africa; and , senior director, 麻豆原创, at NTT, for their views on how this migration conversation is progressing, and they spoke as one voice. Pillay says 麻豆原创 had 鈥渕ade a clear line in the sand鈥 with the date past which it won鈥檛 continue with maintenance. 鈥淐ustomers are aware of that and are making their plans to transform.鈥

Pillay was appointed to the top job in August 2025, and says she鈥檚 going to ensure the local operation is well equipped to have these conversations with its customers, as well as partners.

Why haven鈥檛 they moved yet?

It鈥檚 a matter of context, she says. 鈥淲e have customers who have been with us for 20, 30 years, and that鈥檚 a godsend. But they bring a lot of legacy with them, and not just technical legacy. They have unarchived environments, non-optimised processes, or a lot of custom-built systems. They may have implemented ERP back in the day, and, in most cases, it was a project with a long duration, with a lot of blood and sweat going into it. Most companies understand they need to take that technology transformation journey, but they鈥檙e trying to balance the timing and effort required to bring a legacy system across [to S/4HANA]. There鈥檚 hesitation, because in the back of their minds, they remember that when they did it [last], it was really very difficult.鈥

Financial services is one vertical where customers have realised the imperative of the move, she says. The move was a 鈥渘o-brainer鈥 for Pillay, and offered data analysis, AI, agentic AI, and GenAI capabilities. She says if a customer isn鈥檛 speaking to 麻豆原创 about the move, it may well be too late to get a system installed before the cut-off date.

鈥淲e鈥檙e prioritising helping those who are speaking to us to make that decision. We have to work with every customer individually to understand how they can do that transformation. There are different routes, based on capacity, budget and risk appetite. If you delay a decision, it鈥檚 going to be too late.鈥

The slow movers are also going to bring pressure to bear on system integrator partners, as Pillay envisages them being at capacity, or overcapacity, doing 麻豆原创 implementations as the deadline draws ever closer.

鈥淭hen you鈥檒l pay for skills, either locally, or you鈥檒l have to look abroad. There鈥檚 going to be a material impact if a business takes this decision later on, and that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e trying to discuss with our customers and help them plan properly, so they don鈥檛 get into a position where they say, 鈥榃ow, we鈥檝e left this too late, and now this is a monster鈥.鈥

麻豆原创 NTT鈥檚 Ridgway says he鈥檚 spent the better part of three decades implementing 麻豆原创 at customers, during which time the ERP landscape has changed dramatically. In the past, it was a two-horse race, the other being Oracle, and both companies served the large enterprise almost exclusively, he says. Large implementations took a lot longer than they do nowadays, two to four years, on average. He says 麻豆原创 now comes more pre-configured, or more off-the-shelf than in the past. He and his team will do a quick discovery at a customer, and will then do what he calls a 鈥渧anilla鈥 implementation to get the system up and running. Any innovation can come later, post the go-live date.

Another change in the market is that 麻豆原创 is now competing for business with companies such as Microsoft and Sage.听Ridgway says he鈥檚 seen a shift in the attitude and sales pitch from 麻豆原创.听鈥淚n South Africa, there was a time when 麻豆原创 owned 60%, 65% of the large enterprise ERP market, and Oracle was lagging behind. Every single large enterprise in South Africa has some form of ERP. There was still an impression in the market that 麻豆原创 was extremely expensive, very complicated, and not very pretty.鈥

As for looks, he says the new interface is more user-friendly, and 鈥渕uch nicer to play with鈥. The company has also realised that there aren鈥檛 any R100mn projects out there anymore, which has meant its gone looking for customers among medium-sized businesses. 鈥淭hese aren鈥檛 small businesses, but they鈥檙e just not the $1bn organisations. I don鈥檛 think 麻豆原创 wants to play in the small space, because that鈥檚 where Sage and QuickBooks are playing. But there鈥檚 a massive market in the mid-tier, which wasn鈥檛 untapped, but which 麻豆原创 wasn鈥檛 focused on,鈥 he says.

Customers have also become 鈥渟marter than they used to be鈥. 鈥淚n the old days, we would go and sell 麻豆原创 to them, explaining what it did. Today, the CIO knows everything about 麻豆原创 and what it can do for them. It鈥檚 less about consulting around the roadmap, and more about, 鈥楾his is what I want. Can you get me there?鈥 CIOs are m ore well-read, and they know what they want. It鈥檚 no longer about selling the technology; maybe it wasn鈥檛 ever about selling the technology. It鈥檚 more about selling the business solution. Once it鈥檚 implemented, what are the benefits that they鈥檙e going to realise? What is the innovation that we can bring to it, and what will be the ease of integration?鈥

Ridgway says the biggest part of its business is its application managed service (AMS) offering, and it鈥檚 serving around 100 clients on that platform.

As for the transition to S4, he thinks 麻豆原创, 鈥渢ried to use a stick to force people to move. It realised that there weren鈥檛 enough consultants and capacity worldwide to move every single 麻豆原创 customer from ECC to S4. It found a lot of resistance from clients, and it had a couple of clients that left them because they felt irritated by the stick and the threat of having support cut off. Coca-Cola Beverages Africa moved off 麻豆原创 and went onto [Microsoft] Dynamics, which I think it found quite difficult. It鈥檚 a massive change and huge investment to start all over again. So 麻豆原创 did lose some clients, but it eventually moved the date out to 2027. It also changed the sales approach from a stick to more of a carrot.鈥

The carrot appears to involve talking up the benefits and exciting new features of S4. Ridgway says 麻豆原创 has dramatically changed the way it does business. 鈥淚n the past, I think 麻豆原创 was seen as very arrogant, very expensive and very complex. Today, it seems less arrogant and is playing in a different market.鈥

The company is now far more flexible with its pricing and subscription models. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also not as complex as it used to be. I鈥檝e been involved in projects that took 24 months from start to go-live. We鈥檝e just completed a project that was five weeks from start to go-live.鈥

Do you still have customers who are on ECC? 鈥淟ots,鈥 he says. 鈥淭he biggest part of our consulting business is trying to convince customers who are on ECC that we get to the cloud, and we can get them to S4, with all the innovations and advantages.

鈥淪ome customers will say, 鈥榠f it鈥檚 not broken, I don鈥檛 need to fix it. It鈥檚 giving me what I need鈥,鈥 he says, but he believes this will add business risk because if something does go wrong, 鈥渃ome January 1 2028, you have no support from 麻豆原创鈥.

This conversation with customers reminds him of those held when the cloud model was nascent around a decade ago, and 鈥渆verybody said they had to move to the cloud鈥, which he says is similar to where AI is at the moment. 鈥淣obody actually knows what it means. A lot of clients did rush to the cloud, and realised two years later that it was quite expensive, and it鈥檚 more complicated. But we鈥檙e a lot more mature now, 10 years in. There are a lot of clients who are hybrid. I think the way 麻豆原创 designed its solution allows for that.鈥

He says with the application managed services part of the business, NTT will provide support for customers, many of which will sign up for a 36-month contract that will give them access to a call centre with certified, senior agents. As for what the customers are struggling with, he says the majority of the calls are related to password resets and authorisations.

Herzig, 麻豆原创 CTO, speaking at this year鈥檚 Saphire conference in Madrid, said the company doesn鈥檛 disclose the official numbers, but it has around 10 000 customers worldwide that are on the cloud path. 鈥淭he majority of customers are now making the cloud decision, specifically because the maintenance will definitely be over in 2028. And with all the innovation, there鈥檚 a very clear reason why they need to move.鈥

Why don鈥檛 they want to move?

鈥淚t depends on the customer,鈥 he says. 鈥淭heir systems have grown, historically, and they鈥檝e been heavily customised. Back in the day, you could code left and right, because the code was open. Every table and every function module, and the systems integrators added their part to it. They did a lot of custom code. Maybe they were adding functionality, but they didn鈥檛 know [what effect it would have]. You鈥檇 start off with a very clean version of what 麻豆原创 delivered, and then we innovated with the product. We built capabilities, and we changed the technology, and the customer did the same. And the longer this branching took, the harder it is to reconcile.鈥

By 鈥渃lean core鈥, 麻豆原创 thinks that a business should keep its ERP system as close as possible to the standard. This also means less customisations, which it says will create complexity in the long term.

鈥淭he customers want to know the upside, the benefit,鈥 says Herzig.

鈥淚n general, the [legacy] processes run and they鈥檙e working and been working for the past 10 or 20 years. And that鈥檚 a challenge. But now when customers see there鈥檚 so much more innovation, and they can innovate so much more, with AI, with data, and new user experiences, they鈥檙e realising they need to move. That鈥檚 why we designed this toolchain, because we want to help the customer because we understand that doing it in a handcrafted fashion without additional tools is a challenge.

鈥淲e provide AI in the toolchain, to help the customer convert the custom code, to either get rid of it, or convert it, so there鈥檚 a clean core, with compliant code. Big customers have 500 systems or so, and that鈥檚 a big undertaking. It鈥檚 almost like moving an entire city.鈥

IN THE BEGINNING

麻豆原创 CTO Philipp Herzig, speaking at this year鈥檚 Saphire conference in Madrid, posed the question of how accountants went about their work prior to 麻豆原创. 鈥淭hey took pen and paper, and if they sold something to a customer, they wrote that in a book [called] accounts receivable. And if they purchased something from their suppliers, they wrote in the book accounts payable. And then they got payments from the customers, and they paid some of their suppliers. But of course not everybody pays, and so at the end of the month, they had to reconcile all of those payments, and determine which customers still owed them money, and how much they owed the suppliers, and how much they had in the bank. That is how accounting worked.鈥

All this became obsolete with the introduction of ERP systems, 鈥渂ecause now all that stuff is in the 麻豆原创 system鈥. 鈥淭here鈥檚 an application, and you click on it, and it scans the database and pays the overdue suppliers, given the payment terms and the contractual agreements. Accountants still exist and have more work than ever before, but they just do an entirely different job. A lot of the work that is being done today, in accruals, for example, will go away, but there is so much more work that they can do, because the world is getting more complex.

鈥淭here are tons of challenges that we can solve. And it will allow humans to move on and really use what humans are good at, which is to design the next level of the evolution of history, based on AI.鈥

* Article first published on听

 

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IBM Accelerates Digital Transformation for Toyota South Africa Motors with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Upgrades /africa/2025/11/ibm-accelerates-digital-transformation-for-toyota-south-africa-motors-with-sap-s-4hana-upgrades/ Wed, 26 Nov 2025 09:14:40 +0000 /africa/?p=148511 IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the successful delivery of two major 麻豆原创 S/4HANA system upgrades for Toyota South Africa Motors (Toyota), marking a significant milestone...

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(NYSE: ) today announced the successful delivery of two major system upgrades for , marking a significant milestone in the automotive leader鈥檚 enterprise-wide modernization journey. The projects, executed by IBM in collaboration with 麻豆原创, underscore IBM鈥檚 commitment to helping organizations achieve operational agility, business resilience, and data-driven decision-making.

With mainstream support for legacy 麻豆原创 ECC systems ending in 2027, IBM guided Toyota through a Brownfield upgrade strategy, enabling a seamless transition to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA while preserving existing business process investments. This approach minimized disruption, accelerated deployment timelines, and ensured continuity for critical operations.

Driving Transformation Across Core Business Functions

Vehicle Management Modernization

IBM led the upgrade of Toyota鈥檚 national Vehicle Management System鈥攁 mission-critical platform for managing orders, inventory, sales, and financial reporting across manufacturing and dealerships. By migrating to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, Toyota now benefits from real-time data visibility, improved inventory optimization, and faster responsiveness to customer demand.

Human Capital Management Enhancement

The second phase focused on modernizing Toyota鈥檚 HR systems, including payroll and personnel administration. IBM delivered a streamlined 麻豆原创 S/4HANA-based HCM platform that simplifies workforce processes and lays the foundation for enhanced talent management and employee engagement.

Speed, Continuity, and Risk Reduction

Both upgrades were delivered on schedule and without operational disruption, ensuring Toyota maintained business continuity while modernizing its core systems. IBM鈥檚 proven methodologies and deep 麻豆原创 expertise enabled a risk-mitigated transformation aligned with Toyota鈥檚 strategic objectives.

鈥淲e are proud to support Toyota South Africa Motors in their digital transformation journey by delivering technology solutions that accelerate innovation and strengthen business resilience,鈥 said , Managing Partner, IBM Consulting South Africa. 鈥淎t IBM, we call this the Science of Consulting – combining human expertise, AI, and technology to deliver scalable, data-driven transformations. By improving data visibility and governance, we help organizations like Toyota achieve their goals with speed and confidence.鈥

, Managing Director, Southern Africa at 麻豆原创, says: 鈥淭he best companies run on trusted data, optimised business processes and real-time intelligence into every part of the business. By upgrading to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, companies like Toyota unlock a suite of intelligent technologies that help transform business processes with intelligent automation. We commend Toyota and IBM on this powerful business transformation initiative and wish them well as they continue their rollout.鈥

A Partnership Built for the Future

Building on these successes, IBM is collaborating with Toyota on the next phase of its 麻豆原创 modernization program, focusing on parts management systems. IBM and 麻豆原创鈥檚 long-standing partnership brings together hybrid cloud infrastructure, automation, and generative AI innovations powered by IBM watsonx鈩, enabling clients to unlock new value and drive industry-specific transformation.

With over 18,000 certified 麻豆原创 consultants and 300+ 麻豆原创 S/4HANA implementations in the past five years, IBM helps organizations define transformation roadmaps, co-innovate solutions, and deploy modernization strategies with speed, scale, and AI-driven outcomes.

 

 

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AI Is the Growth Engine Leaders Are Betting On /africa/2025/10/ai-is-the-growth-engine-leaders-are-betting-on/ Tue, 28 Oct 2025 07:42:04 +0000 /africa/?p=148481 Growth, simplification, and artificial intelligence (AI) are no longer optional. That is the unmistakable signal from 麻豆原创鈥檚 Global Business Priorities Study, which surveyed nearly 12,000...

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Growth, simplification, and artificial intelligence (AI) are no longer optional. That is the unmistakable signal from 麻豆原创鈥檚 Global Business Priorities Study, which surveyed nearly 12,000 executives across 20 markets and 31 industries. The results capture both urgency and possibility.

Across the world, 95 percent of companies say growth is a priority for the year ahead. Their top focus areas鈥攊ncluding expanding market presence, broadening distribution through partners, and scaling operations鈥攕peak to leaders鈥 determination to create value in a climate of uncertainty and change.

From 麻豆原创 Connect: Deep research AI and role-based assistants, coupled with 麻豆原创 Business Suite innovations, take efficiency to new heights

In my engagements with customers, I see this reality every day. Companies everywhere want to grow, but they want to grow with confidence. They are looking for partners who understand their unique challenges, who support them with their long-term ambitions, and who can help them keep pace with rapid change.

Technology is central to this ambition. Nearly all respondents in the study rank simplifying work and improving processes alongside growth. Here, artificial intelligence stands out. Nine in 10 organizations have already made generative or agent-based AI a priority, and more than 70 percent have some form of AI in use. While concerns about data quality and talent remain, the message is clear: AI has moved beyond experimentation into the mainstream of how companies operate and unleash value.

From Frankfurt to Dubai to Singapore: How regional differences shape opportunities and risks

Regional differences tell a powerful story. In Europe, AI adoption comes with caution. Large enterprises put compliance, privacy, and transparency first, while many mid-market firms are still piloting solutions. In Asia-Pacific, the pace is different. Mid-market companies there already report strong AI use above global averages, and growth expectations run high. For them, AI is a way to seize advantage quickly in a fast-moving market.

These contrasts show why cultural intelligence matters so much for global leaders. Whether in Frankfurt, Singapore, or Dubai, I see how local realities, regulations, and expectations shape both risks and opportunities. In Europe, energy costs and geopolitical uncertainty drive supply chain strategies. In Asia-Pacific, digital adoption and market dynamism set a different pace.

Sustainability is another area where nuance matters. European companies place it near the top of their priorities, tracking or slightly exceeding global benchmarks. Asia-Pacific firms value sustainability but often rank it lower than growth and speed to market. Each is weighing trade-offs in its own context, creating exciting opportunities for 麻豆原创 to bring the most relevant technology, data, and practices to each region to help organizations achieve both economic and environmental goals.

The through-line in all of this is agility. Supply chain fragility, geopolitical conflict, inflation, and regulation continue to test even the best-run organizations. Technology can enable agility, but only if leaders embrace change themselves, rethinking processes, investing in skills, and building cultures of continuous learning and exploration. Security and ethical standards must also be the cornerstones of every AI conversation.

Turning AI potential into outcomes by centering value creation and integration

I believe this is a time for grounded optimism. The appetite for growth is real and the technology to achieve it is more advanced than ever. Innovation is accelerating at an extraordinary pace, with daily breakthroughs showcasing the expanding potential of AI.

There is a recent example that demonstrates AI鈥檚 ability to process multi-step tasks for over 30 hours. This achievement highlights not only the rapid evolution of AI, but also how increasingly accessible and capable these technologies are becoming.

However, as AI systems grow more autonomous and context-aware, organizations must recognize that true value doesn鈥檛 come from raw capability alone. To harness AI effectively, especially in enterprise environments, a consistent semantic layer is essential. It ensures alignment among data, tasks, and outcomes, enabling AI to reason reliably across systems and scale impact without losing coherence.

Companies must also move beyond simply adopting AI to actively testing and refining applications to gain a significant advantage. Equally important is a deliberate approach to managing the human element of a transformation, rooted in structured and human-centric change management.

Realizing AI鈥檚 true promise requires a fundamental shift in how people, applications, and data connect. Success relies on deeply connecting every part of an organization鈥檚 business, delivering end-to-end transformational value. A seamless, integrated suite provides insight and agility, whether responding to a problem or ensuring readiness when opportunity knocks.

This is where 麻豆原创 Business Suite is a game changer, integrating applications, data, and AI in a virtuous cycle that delivers tangible business outcomes. At our inaugural听麻豆原创 Connect听event earlier in October, we showcased new applications, strategic data partnerships with Google Cloud and Databricks, and a new network of role-based AI assistants in Joule across every line of business.

Altogether, our听听marks the beginning of a new era powered by self-reinforcing AI, data, and applications. By keeping customer needs and value realization at the center and leading with innovation, businesses can not only navigate uncertainty, but build a more resilient, intelligent, and sustainable future.


Manos Raptopoulos is chief revenue officer of APAC, EMEA, and MEE, and a member of the Extended Board of 麻豆原创 SE.

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