Not so, says , MD: Southern Africa at 麻豆原创.

鈥淓RP is no longer just a system of record,鈥� she tells delegates to 麻豆原创 Connect taking place today in Kyalami.

鈥淲ith agentic AI, we can ensure it runs end-to-end business processes, creating autonomous ERP.鈥�

Today, AI supports 30% of tasks in the average business, according to an Oxford Economics study. And this is projected to rise to 48% in the next two years.

vice-president: customer advisory for EMEA at 麻豆原创, points out that around 40 000 of 麻豆原创鈥檚 customers have already adopted 麻豆原创 Business AI in their productive systems.

鈥淎nd we are learning from that,鈥� he says.

Nolla believes 麻豆原创 is well placed to help customers adopt AI, through its 麻豆原创 Autonomous Enterprise vision.

The key components of this vision are three-fold

鈥淵ou have the capability to bring teams long with one engagement layer 鈥� Joule.

鈥淭eams connect with embedded agents and AI in 麻豆原创 Autonomous Suite, using best practices and processes.

鈥淎nd customers have the ability to extend agents, maintaining context and reasoning, and ensuring governance with .鈥�

Nolla explains that is the engagement layer that connects experts in the business with the AI processes.

It has been available for some time and has been widely used to unify the AI experience. It has also been updated along the way, for instance with Joule Consultants that have more than 100 certifications.

A few weeks ago, 麻豆原创 announced additional evolutions. leveraging Harness-powered Joule and Joule Work to create spaces for specific tasks.

鈥淛oule is the engagement layer to bring the people along,鈥� Nolla summarises.

Adding the processes and best practices, 麻豆原创 Autonomous Suite embeds AI scenarios throughout the portfolio, from HR, customer service, supply chain, finance and industry solutions.

With hundreds of agents available, Joule Assistants help workers by bringing together the relevant agents to perform specific tasks.

鈥淭hink of it as a new team member helping staff accomplish their goals,鈥� Nolla says.

In addition, 麻豆原创 Industry AI is AI that already knows how specific industries operate, so the system can work with context.

鈥淏ut does AI have a true understanding of your business? Is it aligned to your KPIs, and does it have the governance in place?鈥� Nolla asks.

鈥溌槎乖� Business AI Platform brings these capabilities to the business.鈥�

With Joule Studio giving workers the ability to create new agents on the fly, the possibility of hundreds 鈥� even thousands 鈥� of agents within the business could become unwieldly.

鈥淪o governance is more important than ever,鈥� Nolla says. 鈥淭he AI Agent Hub gives IT the ability to connect and understand these agents. They can discover, manage and govern all the agents in one place.

鈥淭his gives the business power, control and trust.鈥�

Within the next few months, 麻豆原创 will also release enriched agentic AI tools and assistants to help with data management, configuration, development and testing to improve migration projects.

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, executive: group CIO for corporate functions at Standard Bank Group, explains that the finance organisation was at a crossroads back in 2022.

鈥淲e had to remediate for an end of life, end of support problem, and we also had a unique business problem we needed to solve for.鈥�

Since then, the organisation has successfully migrated group reporting and the ledgers, and has completed two successful month-ends, she says.

Padiachee points out that technology is changing at such a rapid pace it is hard for organisations to keep up.

鈥淎gentic artificial intelligence (AI) is impacting business, and it鈥檚 no longer around experimentation and productive use cases. We are looking at enterprise-scale cases for real business value.鈥�

The big challenges in this scenario she says, are the workforce, the data and cybersecurity.

But central to any change, she adds, is to retain a business agenda regardless of how hard it is.

鈥淭echnology is hard, but the hardest part of change is the soft side,鈥� Padiachee says.

In her particular project, it took months to get to the point of deciding to migrate to 麻豆原创 Rise. Having decided to go forward, the first order of priority was to bring the various teams together.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about you and your internal teams. There are a number of stakeholders. And it is a long journey, so you have to ensure you keep people calm during the turbulence.鈥�

Although there were not many role changes, Padiachee explains that there was a lot of rethinking about how work was executed. 鈥淲ith the new platforms, teams have the opportunity to solve things differently.鈥�

Padiachee鈥檚 team built a foundation upon which business processes could be optimised. 鈥淪o we partnered with the business to redesign the data processes. And reshaping the processes meant changing the governance and reporting.鈥�

Getting people to change old habits means reinforcing that they had the ability to be more agile and more efficient, layering more functionality with AI.

Padiachee had to balance complexity, with business, regulation and customers on one side, and a technology platform on the other.

鈥淭hese competing priorities were a challenge,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut I believe you have to understand where you are now and where you want to go.

鈥淚 am a great believer in architecture: that builds a roadmap about how you want to transform. You can unpack the roadmap and incrementally deliver against it.

鈥淢y vision, from a Standard Bank perspective, is that we have a roadmap and we are now layering on the next pieces of technology.鈥�

Innovation is key, and it鈥檚 important to allow teams to innovate, Padiachee adds. 鈥淭his keeps them inspired and motivated, and lets them hone their own skills.

鈥淏ut it needs to be in a controlled environment, partnering with vendors, keeping governance and guardrails in place, and safeguarding the data. This allows for agility.鈥�

Innovations then need to be brought back into the mainstream systems, again with guardrails, in a controlled and reviewed manner.

What was the main leadership learning that Padiachee has taken away from the migration?

鈥淧artnership was key for me,鈥� she says. 鈥淚t was important to build the right partnerships with all the stakeholders.鈥�

Leaders should also recognise that the project won鈥檛 always go to plan. 鈥淚t鈥檚 OK if the project is red,鈥� Padiachee says. 鈥淭his highlights issues and provides the focus to unpack and resolve those issues.鈥�

She advises that this environment allows teams to give constructive feedback. 鈥淎nd you can鈥檛 just stand aside and watch the project 鈥� sometimes you have to get your hands dirty to help solve a problem.鈥�

A key to the migration鈥檚 success was understanding the roles of IT and business.

鈥淲e led with a technology problem,鈥� Padiachee says. 鈥淭hat was the highest priority because we were facing end of life and support. We then partnered with business to optimise on that.鈥�

Dealing with rapid change needs to be built into any project, she adds. 鈥淗ave a clear strategy and roadmap, and review that roadmap every six months. Things change so quickly, you may need to pivot along the way.鈥�

Sponsorship is critical for project success, she points out. 鈥淚f you start this journey, you need to ensure you have sponsorship from the right executives.鈥�

A big migration goes beyond technology and business: if organisations don鈥檛 embed culture from the beginning, the project can stall.

鈥淲e laid out key roles for IT and business,鈥� Padiachee explains. 鈥淲e had to bring the entire finance team with us, so business took the lead.

鈥淵ou can deliver the best technology, but if you don鈥檛 have right culture you will fail. And you can鈥檛 bring people in at the end 鈥� they have to be on board from the onset.鈥�

Part of the change management was training, which is an continual process, and onboarding.

If it continues on the path of its current vision, Padiachee believes that Standard Bank will be a future-ready organisation, transformed, and running the best AI-enabled and autonomous finance technology.

She concludes with some key takeaways from her experience in migrating to Rise:

• Start with a business case and ensure solid back-up all the way to the board
• Be very clear what problem you need to solve. You can鈥檛 solve everything, so start small then build from there
• Sponsorship is important
• Build partnerships 鈥� and don鈥檛 be afraid to have the tough conversations
• Strong governance is important
• The role between technology and business is critical, with a solid view of what each does
• Ensure that, at end of the programme, you can go back to the business case and check that you did deliver.

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Companies are reviewing their ERP strategies as they balance digital transformation goals with tighter budgets, operational complexity and the need to demonstrate measurable business value, they say.

Andrew Strachan, director of sales at Spinnaker Support Southern Africa,  companies across Africa are reassessing ERP support strategies as decision-makers seek to modernise their environments while managing costs.

“Enterprise software decisions are not like other technology decisions,” said Strachan. 鈥淭imelines are longer, dependencies run deeper and the cost of reversing course 鈥� if reversing course is even possible 鈥� is often measured in years and very substantial sums.”

According to Strachan, the relationship between a major ERP vendor and its customers rests on more than product capability alone. “It is built on trust: trust in the roadmap, trust in the commercial model and trust that the terms you commit to today will not be materially redefined once your business is locked in.”

Gerhard Alberts, head of customer evolution at 麻豆原创 Africa, said trust is ultimately measured by business outcomes.

鈥淲hile customers rightly expect transparency and choice, the greater risk in today’s competitive environment is often the cost of inaction,” he said. “Ultimately, success is measured not by the technology deployed, but by the operational improvements, agility and competitive advantage it enables.鈥�

Alberts said the pace of technological change means companies must adopt relevant technologies to remain competitive, and that customers must be equipped with the most relevant tools to navigate a shifting market. “By not innovating, customers run the risk of attracting direct and potential costs in terms of system and infrastructure stability, security and compliance. This results in an inability to stay competitive across multiple markets due to a lack of agility.鈥�

Strachan said new platforms and regular vendor upgrade announcements are adding pressure on companies already facing constrained budgets, skills shortages, infrastructure complexity and currency pressures.

鈥淚n South Africa and across the African market, large technology decisions are made under intense scrutiny,” he said. “Boards and executive teams are balancing growth ambitions against currency pressure, constrained capital budgets, skills shortages, infrastructure complexity and the need to show clear business value from every major investment. In that context, organisations cannot afford to keep revisiting foundational ERP decisions every few years because the vendor鈥檚 commercial priorities have changed.鈥�

Migration is not modernisation

Courtney Hounsell, client experience manager at Microsoft managed partner Braintree, said AI is reshaping the role of ERP platforms while exposing the limitations of legacy systems. He said outdated ERP infrastructure is hindering AI adoption because many companies mistake cloud migration for digital modernisation.

鈥淢igration is not modernisation,” Hounsell said. “Unfortunately, many companies have merged the two, and the result is a gap that鈥檚 creating incoherence and a lack of visibility, constraining their ability to benefit from AI and its capabilities.”

He explained that cloud migration has been sold as digital modernisation, but this only changes the address of the system. Real modernisation, he said, changes architecture, data models, integration logic and the capacity to generate value. “Companies want their modernisation projects to actively reduce other costs, show long-term ROI and empower their staff with systems that work faster and smarter. So when migration and modernisation are confused, companies end up paying cloud prices for on-premises problems and arrive in the AI era without the foundations required to ensure AI can function effectively.”

Hounsell said the gap between technology investment and business outcomes is widening, leaving companies with limited AI capability and poor data visibility. He cited McKinsey’s “The State of AI in 2025” report, based on a survey of 2 000 executives in 105 countries, which found that 88% of companies have adopted AI in at least one business function.

He said on-premises ERP systems struggle to support AI because data must be extracted, cleaned and transferred before analysis.

鈥淥n-premises ERP systems are struggling uphill within the AI economy,” Hounsell said. “They hold their data in local databases, and to make this usable for AI, it has to be extracted, cleaned and pushed somewhere accessible. Without real-time data pipelines feeding into core systems, AI deployments remain siloed and limited.鈥�

Braintree said ERP modernisation also delivers financial benefits, citing the Forrester Total Economic Impact study of Dynamics 365 Business Central, which found that companies could achieve a 265% ROI, with productivity gains of 12.5% in operations, 15% in sales and 15.6% in finance.

The study also found that companies that modernised successfully avoided more than $30 000 a year in third-party consulting fees, while cloud ERP platforms reduce infrastructure costs and receive automatic updates, including new AI capabilities.

Braintree argued that choosing the right migration partner is as important as selecting the ERP platform itself.

Alberts added that technical debt continues to grow as companies rely on siloed data, ageing infrastructure and extensive custom code, while shortages of legacy skills compound the problem.

鈥淥ver time, doing nothing to save money becomes the most expensive system to maintain, together with the inability to adapt, which has the potential to result in the demise of some organisations,鈥� he said.

Arthur Goldstuck, CEO of World Wide Worx,  after 麻豆原创 Sapphire 2026 that 麻豆原创 CEO Christian Klein described ERP as the “brain” of every business in the age of agentic AI. Goldstuck quoted Klein: 鈥淔or over 15 years, we have been developing an ERP with incredibly deep process and data domain know-how. On top of that, all your governance requirements and customer-specific extensions are stored in the ERP. The ERP is the trusted system of execution running your company.鈥�

According to Garth Ridgway, senior director for 麻豆原创 at NTT DATA, misconceptions about implementation timelines, affordability and suitability for mid-market companies continue to delay modernisation.

“Many executives still assume ERP transformation requires years of disruption and significant upfront investment,” Ridgway said. “In reality, modern cloud ERP platforms have evolved considerably, enabling organisations to adopt best-practice processes more rapidly, scale according to business needs and realise value far sooner than was historically possible.”

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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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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:聽Full configuration of the core system has been finalized.
• Data Standardization:聽All master data has been comprehensively reviewed and standardized.
• Balance Migration:聽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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, 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聽Pieter Van Der Merwe聽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:聽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:聽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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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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For years, companies throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa have experimented with AI by testing chatbots, piloting analytics tools and exploring generative AI features. Some pilots have delivered incremental gains, while many others have stalled.

This year, AI can no longer be treated as experimentation at the edge of the business. It must become embedded at the core.

Embedded AI, intelligence that lives directly inside enterprise processes, is now one of the most powerful levers available to boards seeking profitability, productivity and long-term competitiveness. Embedded AI represents a profound shift from AI features to AI-native operations.

From AI features to AI-native operations

In the past, AI sat outside core systems, relegated to dashboards, standalone analytics tools or isolated pilots. Today, it is moving directly into transaction flows: inside enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain planning, finance, procurement, human resources and customer experience systems.

Embedded AI is context-aware, action-oriented and governed. It understands the role, process and underlying business data of tasks, triggers and automate processes, and operates within enterprise-grade security, compliance and data frameworks.

In practical terms, this means a chief financial officer can receive automated explanations for financial variances directly inside the closing process. A procurement leader can generate intelligent category recommendations within sourcing workflows, and a planner can optimise production schedules in real time without switching systems.

Business leaders are confronted with a range of unique regional pressures. Demographic shifts in Europe, combined with regulatory complexity, are placing demands for higher productivity on smaller workforces. In the Middle East, national AI strategies and diversification agendas require faster innovation cycles; while in Africa, youthful talent and digital acceleration present enormous opportunity, but only for companies that can scale efficiently and govern complexity.

The case for embedded AI as board-level issue

Boards are broadly asking the same questions: how do we protect margins; how do we increase throughput without increasing headcount? and how do we move from reactive decisions to predictive ones?

Embedded AI answers these questions, not as a technology initiative but as a shift in operating model. In 2023 and 2024, AI initiatives were built for experimentation. Last year and in the year ahead, the focus has shifted to unified AI platforms built on clean data foundations, and delivering measurable business outcomes.

There is one consistent lesson across our customer base: AI only works on a clean foundation.

Embedded AI requires harmonised processes, standardised ERP systems and high-quality data. That is why clean core strategies and unified AI infrastructures are so critical.

AI-native enterprises are consolidating scattered pilots into governed platforms. 麻豆原创鈥檚 ,  and  form a unified backbone where models, data, identity, security and extensibility operate together instead of in silos.

Without a unified approach, organisations face duplicated models, inconsistent decisions and uncontrolled risk exposure. With it, ERP becomes a strategic AI engine.

The measurable impact of embedded AI is already evident. In HR, embedded intelligence in  is enabling skills-based workforce planning directly within manager workflows, aligning talent decisions to strategic priorities. Across finance functions globally, AI-assisted explanations and reconciliation processes are reducing manual effort by up to 70% while improving transparency and auditability.

Board-level priorities

For boards and executive teams across southern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, three priorities stand out:

1. Treat embedded AI as part of core architecture, not as an optional feature.
2. Invest in clean data and standardised processes to unlock higher value automation.
3. Measure AI success in terms of profitability, cashflow protection, throughput and resilience, and not by pilot counts.

AI is now a core lever of competitive advantage, but only when paired with process redesign, data discipline and an empowered workforce. In 2026, the companies that lead will not be those experimenting at the margins. They will be those embedding intelligence into the heart of their business, turning ERP systems into engines of prediction, optimisation and growth.

At 麻豆原创, we are committed to supporting this journey: helping organisations across EMEA South build intelligent, resilient enterprises where embedded AI drives measurable business value, today and into the future.

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For ,聽a leading pan-African financial services group focused on emerging markets headquartered in South Africa, with a strong presence in 31聽countries,聽this transformation journey has accelerated over the past 18 months as the organisation expanded its focus beyond HR modernisation toward a broader cloud, data and AI-enabled human capital strategy.

, Group Human Capital: Chief Operating Officer at Sanlam, says the organisation鈥檚 approach balances immediate operational requirements with longer-term transformation objectives. 鈥淲e have adopted an ambidextrous strategy for our digital and data transformation journey, simultaneously exploiting operational excellence, proficiency and efficiency in our current landscape while exploring incremental innovation that enhances and elevates the user experience and driving our longer-term transformation journey 鈥� focused on leveraging intelligent, transformative technology to unlock business value.鈥�

A central focus throughout the implementation has been ensuring that transformation delivers tangible business value while also enabling the teams responsible for sustaining change. Sanlam is supported by a dedicated support structure for the programme that includes a technical centre of excellence team, programme management, change management, and business analysis capabilities.

鈥淭ransformation required us to approach change from multiple perspectives simultaneously. We always look at transformation through the lens of people, process and technology. One of the realities organisations face is that many people are not ready to embrace the pace of technological change, which makes change adoption and leadership sponsorship critically important.鈥� 

According to Bandyopadhyay, Sanlam鈥檚 broader transformation strategy spans several interconnected focus areas. 鈥淎 key priority being rebuilding our job architecture for relevance to the current and future workforce and more importantly to transition to a skills-based organisation. This will then unlock the opportunity for us to leverage 麻豆原创鈥檚 AI-enabled Talent Intelligence Hub which is the golden thread that links all talent practices to a skills currency.鈥�

The organisation has also prioritised the implementation of a cloud data solution, master data management and platform scalability as part of its effort to establish a more unified data core across the business. With multiple business entities operating across the group, standardising and scaling trusted workforce and operational data remains a significant strategic focus area.

, Group: Head of HC Tech and Talent Intelligence at Sanlam, says cloud adoption will continue to accelerate over the next two years. 鈥淲e are moving aggressively towards a cloud-first strategy, including payroll migration, data platform evolution, and broader business integration initiatives. Our focus is on how we build scalable platforms and data capabilities that position us for the future.鈥�

As part of this strategy, Sanlam is piloting -related capabilities and is progressing towards broader business data cloud initiatives planned over the coming years. The organisation is also exploring how 麻豆原创 Business Data Cloud, 麻豆原创 agents, and Joule capabilities can support orchestration, analytics, and employee-related workflows across the employee life cycle.

Alongside its platform modernisation efforts, Sanlam is re-evaluating core HR services and processes, including employee experience, employee relations, and document management, while strengthening its talent intelligence and people analytics capabilities to support better workforce planning and predictive decision-making. The Talent Intelligence function has matured significantly from reports and dashboards to trends, insights and predictive analytics. A key achievement has been the development of a solution to measure productivity across the various Sanlam business entities.

Intelligent automation is also playing an increasing role across areas such as service management, payments, compliance, and administrative HR functions, alongside the digitisation of compliance related scorecards like skills development to improve planning, monitoring and achievement of compliance targets. This has allowed Sanlam to service an increased customer base with a greater service offering at reduced costs.

Govindsamy says the transformation journey remains ongoing rather than a once-off implementation project. 鈥淭he next phase of our journey is focused on accelerating cloud propagation, strengthening analytics and data capabilities, and embedding intelligent automation more deeply into the business. Success depends not only on technology, but on sustained leadership sponsorship, adoption, and preparing the workforce for the future.鈥� 

, Managing Director for Southern Africa at 麻豆原创, says: 鈥淎s organisations modernise their workforce strategies, there is growing recognition that human capital transformation depends on more than digitising HR processes. It requires an integrated foundation that combines cloud, data, analytics and intelligent technologies to support better decision-making, stronger employee experiences, and greater organisational agility. Sanlam鈥檚 ongoing transformation journey reflects how forward-looking organisations are building scalable, future-ready HR environments that can evolve alongside changing business and workforce requirements.鈥�

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The Bellville Civic Centre in Africa now has a “digital twin,” a virtual copy that uses 1,200 sensors and a drone to watch everything in real-time. This smart system helps fix problems before they start, like finding leaky pipes or saving energy.聽It’s built for Cape Town’s exact needs, not just copied from Europe,聽and even helps with social issues and teaches people about upkeep. Now, this building can “talk” and help the city run better and save money.

What is a digital twin and how does it work?

A digital twin is a virtual model of a physical object or system, updated in real-time with sensor data. For Bellville Civic Centre, 1,200 sensors, a LiDAR drone, and a cloud physics engine created a digital replica, allowing real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance. This helps identify inefficiencies and potential issues proactively, optimizing building performance.

1. A Quiet Thursday That Changed Everything

The janitor鈥檚 clipboard still showed the same temperature columns, the electricians still argued about fluorescent tubes, and the leak in the basement still had to be fixed before the next council session. Yet, beneath this ordinary choreography, Bellville Civic Centre had quietly grown a second brain. Overnight, 1 200 credit-card-sized sensors, a spinning LiDAR drone, and a cloud physics engine 60脳 faster than real life stitched themselves into an invisible mesh. The concrete giant could now interrogate itself the way a doctor interrogates a heartbeat – asking, not just answering.

Inside the foyer, a Finnish suitcase snapped open. Out came matchbox fog-computing gateways, a stack of district-heating printouts from Helsinki, and – most convincing of all – signed data-sharing contracts with Nordic utilities that proved the jump from pilot to portfolio was already bankable. A projector threw the building鈥檚 new pulse onto the marble wall: cool blues for steady organs, warning reds for arrhythmias. One red vein leaked two-percent inefficiency from a chilled-water pump; another showed a third-floor zone that had spent three nights 0.4 掳C warmer than its set-point. A fire-exit sensor whispered that someone was forcing the door with three extra newtons – hinges beginning to seize.

In the old script those micro-clues would have become phone calls, Excel rows, and work orders already yellow with age. Now the digital twin ranks every intervention by life-cycle cost, authors its own weekly 鈥渕aintenance dance card,鈥� and beams it to handhelds. The deputy director tapped the red stairwell on the screen; instantly the model surfaced a 2024 actuator invoice, cross-checked the manufacturer鈥檚 mean-time-to-failure curve, and advised a swap before quarter-end. Predicted disruption: twelve minutes during a planned fire-system test. Likely downtime prevented: eleven hours. The Finns grinned; they had seen an Espoo courthouse cut annual energy use 18 % after only six months of the same ritual.

2. Built for Cape Town, Not Copy-Pasted from Europe

Espoo doesn鈥檛 stage blackouts; Cape Town does. Procurement here demands three quotes for anything above R2 000, and one depot may serve 250 scattered sites. So the architects tucked palm-sized, fan-less edge servers into electrical risers. When the fibre dies, these nodes keep a compressed, privacy-scrubbed clone of the twin alive, steering local loops: rooftop PV, battery UPS, smart-lighting relays. During outages, the conference wing stays lit on a 60 kWh buffer while corridors dim to 30 %, trimming 12 kW of peak without a human finger.

Sensor playlists are equally mixed. Some wings are 1970s concrete, others 1990s steel sheds, others brand-new mass-timber chasing net-zero. Thread, LoRaWAN and Wi-Sun radios chat in parallel; legacy breaker panels wear NFC tags that any TVET-college student can reflash in 90 seconds. Instead of marrying one vendor, the City hosts an 鈥淢-Bus to MQTT鈥� translator whose YAML recipes live on GitLab under Creative Commons. The only lock-in is curiosity.

Citizen privacy is engineered, not promised. Visitors renewing licences trigger anonymised heat-maps that forget faces after 900 seconds. Maintenance staff sign in with biometric fobs; an HVAC tech may raise a chiller set-point yet cannot unlock court archives. University researchers receive time-boxed API tokens that auto-expire without two-key renewal inside the firewall. The mantra is 鈥渟hare insights, not identities.鈥�

3. From Valves to Social Infrastructure – Ripple Effects No Spreadsheet Predicted

Borrowing from shipyards, the Finns gave every component a tamper-proof digital passport. Snap a photo of a corroded valve and the hash, signature, and timestamp lock into a private Ethereum fork. Smart contracts release micro-payment to the plumber only when AI vision confirms the fix. Early runs show disputed invoices down 35 % and warranty cycles shrinking from months to days. The building pays for proof, not promises.

Energy planning dives deeper than kilowatt dashboards. The twin ingests Time-of-Use tariffs, Eskom鈥檚 wind forecasts, and weather-service gust predictions to build a 72-hour optimiser. In a late-June rehearsal it slid 210 kWh from evening peak to pre-dawn, pre-cooling slabs and charging fleet EVs. Saved: R3 420 – one librarian鈥檚 annual salary when extrapolated across 70 facilities. Treasury is now modelling a green-bond tranche: a guaranteed 5 % energy cut could unlock R400 million for further retrofits.

Water joins the choreography. A 30 000-litre basement tank maps stratification layers, predicts Legionella risk, and diverts first-flush to sewer when rainfall tops 6 mm h鈦宦�. An ML model schedules irrigation only when evapotranspiration exceeds 3 mm and soil moisture drops below 22 %. Result: 46 % less potable water on landscaping, sparing 2.7 million litres – enough for seventeen households for a year.

Scaling is under way. Three libraries, two clinics, and the colossal Cape Town Civic Centre have already been LiDAR-scanned. The once-labyrinthine 麻豆原创 spreadsheet has collapsed into a lightning-fast graph database; planners can ask for 鈥渁ll coastal-zone boilers older than fifteen years that serve community halls with >30 % Saturday occupancy鈥� and receive a ranked replacement schedule linked to tender calendars.

Social infrastructure is next. Early-childhood centres with no in-house tech get a WhatsApp 鈥渕aintenance buddy鈥� that speaks isiXhosa voice notes. A caregiver photographs a flickering light; vision-recognition IDs the ballast and dispatches the nearest handyman. Where data is scarce, the bot reverts to one-cent USSD menus. Cape Town鈥檚 code is already tempting subtropical eThekwini and equatorial Singapore into south-south exchanges that outbid traditional donor loops.

4. A Living Curriculum for the City of Tomorrow

Every Thursday the disused records room becomes a 鈥淭win Lab.鈥� Failed circuit boards hang like hunting trophies, each annotated with failure mode and intern nickname. A live dashboard streams on the wall; if trainees trim another percentage point off weekly energy, the mayor tweets spinning wind-turbine GIFs. Maintenance is no longer an exile for the IT department – it is a badge for cleaners, clerks, councillors.

Occupants gamify stewardship. Guards hunt daylight sensors left in override, librarians chase dust alerts on HVAC grilles. Points buy canteen vouchers; the leaderboard hangs by the lift like a school sports chart. Behaviour bends faster than steel when feedback loops are witty and immediate.

If the roadmap hits 100 buildings by 2029, the City will have digitised 4.5 million square metres – Helsinki鈥檚 whole downtown. The next mayor will open one map and query every pump, lift, and luminaire in milliseconds. Finnish mentors now log into Cape Town servers to debug their own Espoo high-rises, admitting the student has become the server room. Between Bellville鈥檚 granite walls and Helsinki鈥檚 glass lecture halls pulses a new civic circulatory system whose language is open data, whose currency is kilowatts saved in real time, and whose winner is the resident breathing cooler air long before anyone knew the building had learned to speak.

What is a digital twin and how does it work at Bellville Civic Centre?

A digital twin is a virtual model of a physical object or system, updated in real-time with sensor data. For Bellville Civic Centre, 1,200 credit-card-sized sensors, a LiDAR drone, and a cloud physics engine were used to create a digital replica. This system allows for real-time monitoring and predictive maintenance, identifying inefficiencies and potential issues proactively to optimize building performance. It’s like giving the building a ‘second brain’ to interrogate itself and make smart decisions.

How is Bellville Civic Centre’s digital twin uniquely designed for Cape Town’s needs?

Unlike solutions simply copied from Europe, Bellville’s digital twin is specifically built for Cape Town’s environment, which includes factors like blackouts and specific procurement processes. It features palm-sized, fan-less edge servers that maintain a compressed, privacy-scrubbed clone of the twin during fiber outages, ensuring local operations like rooftop PV and smart-lighting relays continue. The system uses a diverse mix of sensor technologies (Thread, LoRaWAN, Wi-Sun) to accommodate various building types and avoids vendor lock-in by using an ‘M-Bus to MQTT’ translator with open-source YAML recipes.

How does the digital twin enhance maintenance and operational efficiency?

The digital twin significantly enhances maintenance by prioritizing interventions based on life-cycle cost, generating weekly ‘maintenance dance cards,’ and beaming them to handheld devices. For example, it can predict component failures, like a stairwell actuator, by cross-referencing invoices and manufacturer data, suggesting swaps to prevent downtime. This proactive approach has been shown to cut annual energy use significantly, as seen in similar implementations like an Espoo courthouse which reduced energy consumption by 18% in six months.

What are the ripple effects of the digital twin beyond building management?

The digital twin’s impact extends beyond basic building management to social infrastructure and financial benefits. It uses blockchain technology for tamper-proof digital passports for components, ensuring plumbers are paid only when AI vision confirms a fix, reducing disputed invoices. It also optimizes energy planning by integrating Time-of-Use tariffs, weather forecasts, and Eskom’s wind predictions to shift energy consumption and save costs. Furthermore, it optimizes water usage, reducing potable water for landscaping by scheduling irrigation based on precise environmental data. The system also supports social initiatives, such as a WhatsApp ‘maintenance buddy’ for early-childhood centers.

How does the digital twin project foster learning and community engagement?

The project includes a ‘Twin Lab’ where failed circuit boards are studied, and trainees are incentivized to reduce energy consumption, making maintenance a valued skill. Occupants are encouraged to ‘gamify stewardship’ by hunting for inefficiencies like overridden daylight sensors or dust alerts, with points leading to rewards like canteen vouchers. This approach fosters a culture of awareness and responsibility among building users and staff, effectively turning the building into a ‘living curriculum’ for the city’s future.

What is the future outlook and scalability of Bellville Civic Centre’s digital twin initiative?

The initiative is already scaling, with three libraries, two clinics, and the colossal Cape Town Civic Centre having been LiDAR-scanned. The goal is to digitize 100 buildings by 2029, covering 4.5 million square meters, equivalent to Helsinki’s entire downtown. This will allow city planners to query every pump, lift, and luminaire in milliseconds. The project has also garnered international interest, leading to ‘south-south exchanges’ with other cities like eThekwini and Singapore, demonstrating its potential as a global model for smart city development.

This article first appeared on .

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