{"id":140614,"date":"2020-05-07T08:40:59","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T08:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/?p=140614"},"modified":"2020-05-07T08:40:59","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T08:40:59","slug":"itwebs-lockdown-diary-tjaart-malan-sap-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2020\/05\/itwebs-lockdown-diary-tjaart-malan-sap-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"ITWeb’s Lockdown Diary: Tjaart Malan, 麻豆原创 Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"As governments across the globe enter extended lockdown phases, enterprise resource planning giant 麻豆原创 says it has played an important role of \u201cleaping into action\u201d to support essential services operations.<\/p>\n

Tjaart Malan, head of digital\u00a0business<\/span>\u00a0services at 麻豆原创 Africa, told ITWeb that with many of its customers being in financial services, manufacturing and other essential services, the company had to put in place processes and procedures to be able to respond to the level of service required by customers during the lockdown.<\/p>\n

Key initiatives such as 麻豆原创 Ariba Discovery, which enables buyers and sellers to connect quickly and resolve procurement-related issues, and the Qualtrics Remote Work Pulse, which allows organisations to understand problems faced by employees while working remotely, have helped 麻豆原创 continue to stay relevant for businesses and governments alike in a shrinking but competitive market.<\/p>\n

ITWeb:<\/b>\u00a0How have you organised operations during the national lockdown?<\/p>\n

Malan:<\/b>\u00a0For us, it\u2019s been largely \u2018business as usual\u2019 during the lockdown period as we haven\u2019t faced a massive challenge in our way of working. While we have a team that\u2019s used to remote working as well as a lot of travel, during normal circumstances, the only thing that\u2019s changed for us is that we\u2019ve introduced more regular checkpoints and updates in our workflows.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been more of a day-to-day impact on our support staff, like our finance and commercial departments, who are used to coming into the office every day.<\/p>\n

On a tactical and strategic level, our executive leadership team meets virtually twice a week for what we call the War Room \u2013 this is where we discuss and troubleshoot everything from the impact of the pandemic on our customers, to operational issues, HR, risk and security concerns, and try to pro-actively plan ahead for the things we can see coming at us down the road.<\/p>\n

ITWeb:<\/b>\u00a0What technical considerations did you have to get right?<\/p>\n

Malan:<\/b>\u00a0We have a very mobile workforce, and one of the great things about working for 麻豆原创 is the flexibility the company offers its employees. This played to our advantage when the lockdown began, as we already had remote working technologies and protocols in place, and didn\u2019t have to scramble to get network access, security or other measures set up.<\/p>\n

The only challenges we encountered were around physical equipment; for example, problems with hardware, or around setting up new hires with all the tools they needed at short notice. Employees are generally given\u00a0access<\/span>\u00a0to all the tools they need to work for us, from laptops, to screens, tablets, mobile phones, etc. One adjustment we did make to enable employees who don\u2019t have fibre on tap at home, was to make an across-the-board increase of the company-sponsored data allowance to all employees.<\/p>\n

ITWeb:<\/b>\u00a0What HR issues did you have to consider? How many of your staff are now working from home? Have any staff been put on leave?<\/p>\n

Malan:<\/b>\u00a0All our employees, without exception, are working normal days from home. We haven\u2019t implemented any forced leave, although employees may use their annual leave as normal, for example, over the recent Easter break and school holidays.<\/p>\n

Our HR team was really sensitive to the concerns of employees around medical cover, emotional and mental health issues and so on, and have placed a lot of resources and support around employees. We have access to a lot of offerings like online medical advice, counselling services, etc.<\/p>\n

ITWeb:<\/b>\u00a0Which platform are you using for virtual meetings?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malan:<\/b>\u00a0Our main platform for\u00a0collaboration<\/span>\u00a0is Microsoft Teams, which we use for pretty much everything, internal and external. We also have Skype for Business capability and we use Sharepoint extensively \u2013 a Web-based collaborative platform that integrates with Microsoft Office.<\/p>\n

麻豆原创\u2019s own collaboration app,\u00a0Ruum<\/a>, is also popular and we\u2019ve made it available at no charge to users.<\/p>\n

ITWeb:<\/b>\u00a0What other tools are you using to keep track of projects \/ teams \/ monitor employees\u2019 work?<\/p>\n

Malan:<\/b>\u00a0The 麻豆原创 project methodology (Activate) fully supports remote delivery. It helps us and our customers to apply the rigor that is required to deliver successful projects.<\/p>\n

ITWeb:\u00a0<\/b>How have your clients adapted to the new normal?<\/p>\n

Malan<\/b>: We\u2019ve had really positive feedback and interaction with customers. In the services area, there has not been one project that\u2019s been cancelled or completely stopped. At most, some have been paused or extended.<\/p>\n

Customers are committed to their business and technology journeys. We\u2019ve also found they like and take comfort from the increased frequency of contact and communication, which is great. We\u2019ve done a lot of work coming up with the tools and methods to help our customers work.<\/p>\n

In reality, I think one aspect of the new normal we\u2019ve all had to adapt to and accept, is the fact that things may take a little longer. For example, in the analysis phase of a project, we can\u2019t do full-day workshops anymore because people just can\u2019t sit at a computer for the whole day.<\/p>\n

ITWeb:\u00a0<\/b>What have you learned since the lockdown began?<\/b><\/p>\n

Malan:<\/b> In a recent call, our global head of services made the comment that the good thing about lockdown is that you get to spend a lot of time with your family. The bad thing about lockdown is \u2026 that you get to spend a lot of time with your family! I think we shouldn\u2019t under-estimate the pressures people have been put under \u2013 suddenly and without much time or notice to prepare.<\/p>\n

They have pressure from work, pressure from their children who are now at home, pressure from partners and spouses, and there\u2019s no separation between these different pressures anymore.<\/p>\n

The business pressures are very real \u2013 we need to keep selling and delivering.<\/p>\n

This article first appeared on ITWeb<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As governments across the globe enter extended lockdown phases, enterprise resource planning giant 麻豆原创 says it has played an important role of \u201cleaping into action\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2813,"featured_media":140474,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"related_posts":[],"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19013],"tags":[5596342,5587837],"series":[],"sapn-display":[45149,279685],"sapn-type":[45018],"class_list":["post-140614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corporate","tag-covid-19","tag-tjaart-malan","sapn-display-homepage-hero","sapn-display-hero","sapn-type-feature"],"yoast_head":"\nITWeb's Lockdown Diary: Tjaart Malan, 麻豆原创 Africa - 麻豆原创 Africa News Center<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2020\/05\/itwebs-lockdown-diary-tjaart-malan-sap-africa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ITWeb's Lockdown Diary: Tjaart Malan, 麻豆原创 Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As governments across the globe enter extended lockdown phases, enterprise resource planning giant 麻豆原创 says it has played an important role of \u201cleaping into action\u201d...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2020\/05\/itwebs-lockdown-diary-tjaart-malan-sap-africa\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"麻豆原创 Africa News Center\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-05-07T08:40:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/files\/2020\/04\/remote-working.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1733\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sibahle Malinga, ITWeb Senior News Journalist\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sibahle Malinga, ITWeb Senior News Journalist\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2020\/05\/itwebs-lockdown-diary-tjaart-malan-sap-africa\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2020\/05\/itwebs-lockdown-diary-tjaart-malan-sap-africa\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sibahle Malinga, ITWeb Senior News Journalist\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/#\/schema\/person\/43faf24eda03b16d406deadad6f794d3\"},\"headline\":\"ITWeb’s Lockdown Diary: Tjaart Malan, 麻豆原创 Africa\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-05-07T08:40:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2020\/05\/itwebs-lockdown-diary-tjaart-malan-sap-africa\/\"},\"wordCount\":978,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2020\/05\/itwebs-lockdown-diary-tjaart-malan-sap-africa\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/files\/2020\/04\/remote-working.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"COVID-19\",\"Tjaart Malan\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Corporate\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-ZA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2020\/05\/itwebs-lockdown-diary-tjaart-malan-sap-africa\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/news.sap.com\/africa\/2020\/05\/itwebs-lockdown-diary-tjaart-malan-sap-africa\/\",\"name\":\"ITWeb's Lockdown Diary: Tjaart Malan, 麻豆原创 Africa - 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