TCS+

From the internet of things (IoT) to private 5G networks, MTN Group has a lot to offer public sector organisations, according to David Behr, CEO of MTN Converged Solutions.

Behr, a stalwart of the local ICT industry and a recent recruit to MTN, tells TechCentral’s TCS+ business technology show about the solutions that MTN Business offers its government clients, including smart government solutions, IoT (for example, for smart metering) and private 5G (which has strong applications in areas such as healthcare and education).

Although some government processes have been automated successfully and improved using technology, many areas of the public sector are still quite manual and paper-based, and modern technologies offer an opportunity to reduce administrative overheads and improve service quality for South African citizens, Behr explains in the interview.

In this episode of TCS+, Behr unpacks:

• The state of spending on ICT solutions in South Africa’s public sector, and where spending should be directed;

• What further role technology can play in improving government’s work and the effective management of government services;

• The role of private 5G networks in the public sector;

• The state of cybersecurity in government and what more can be done to protect public sector systems from attack; and

• The public sector opportunity in the rest of Africa.

If you work in the public sector, be sure not to miss this important conversation.

Data and identity governance should be a top-of-mind issue for business leaders in 2024.

CYBER1 Solutions MD Jayson O’Reilly and senior cybersecurity architect Christiaan Swanepoel share their insights on this important topic in this episode of TechCentral’s business technology show, TCS+.

They kick off the discussion with a definition of the topic, and why it’s critically important that companies get data and identity governance right in a world of significantly heightened cyber risk.

It’s by no means a new focus area – indeed, many organisations have been trying to solve this for years, decades even, showing just how difficult it is to get right.

O’Reilly and Swanepoel discuss how the threat landscape has evolved over time, and the risks organisations face if they overlook data governance protocols.

In this TCS+ episode, they also tackle these key questions:

• What are examples of the tangible consequences of disregarding data governance and the direct implications for personal security?

• Identity has been a focus for many organisations for the past 10 years or longer, so why does it remain a problem to be solved and what are the roadblocks in getting it done right?

• How does the mishandling of personal information compromise privacy?

• In what ways do emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and the internet of things complicate Identity governance efforts.

• What is the impact of legislation such as South Africa’s Protection of Personal Information Act and Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, and what’s next on the horizon from a regulatory perspective?

Don’t miss discussion on a topic of critical importance to modern, data-driven organisations.

About CYBER1 Solutions

CYBER1 Solutions is a cybersecurity specialist operating in Southern Africa, East and West Africa, Dubai, and Europe. Its solutions deliver information security; IT risk management; fraud detection; governance and compliance; and a full range of managed services. It also provides bespoke security services across the spectrum, with a portfolio that ranges from the formulation of its customers’ security strategies to the daily operation of end-point security solutions. To do this, it partners with world-leading security vendors to deliver cutting-edge technologies augmented by its wide range of professional services.

Its services enable organisations in every sector to prevent attacks by providing the visibility into vulnerabilities they need to detect compromises rapidly, respond to breaches and stop attacks before they become an issue. Visit www.c1-s.com for more.

Vinolia Singh, chief people officer at JSE-listed workplace solutions provider Adcorp, joins the second episode of a series of interviews about enterprise cloud software provider Workday.

In this TCS+ interview, grouped under the theme of “change makers”, Singh is joined by Kiv Moodley, MD of Workday South Africa, to unpack how the nature of work is changing, especially following the end of the Covid pandemic, but also as a new generation –with very different ideas about the nature of work – joins the workforce.

In the conversation, Singh unpacks several of the trends impacting the future – and nature – of work, and how these trends are affecting Adcorp, and how her role as chief people officer is evolving.

“The world of work has become boundaryless. We have to become more flexible,” she says of employers. “Companies need to become more innovation to acquire the skills they need.”

Singh and Moodley tackle key themes around this topic, including:

• How technology is enabling Adcorp’s business objectives;

• How Workday’s solutions have allowed Adcorp to deal with challenges such as the skills shortage in South Africa;

• The reception to these solutions among Adcorp employees; and

• How the technology has allowed Adcorp to adapt to a rapidly shifting environment.

Don’t miss this insightful interview on the future of work and the role of technology in managing change.

Protecting sensitive company information through data loss prevention (DLP) tools has become paramount for many organisations. But doing so without impacting employee productivity can be a big challenge.

In this episode of TCS+, Next DLP executives Chris Denbigh-White (chief security officer) and Fallon Steyn (regional sales manager, South Africa) are joined by their customer, LRMG, to discuss this crucial topic in greater detail.

LRMG’s information security officer, Nadia Veeran-Patel, unpacks how the company has used Next DLP’s technology to secure its data while ensuring workflows aren’t impacted and productivity isn’t affected.

In the episode, Veeran-Patel kicks off the discussion with an overview of LRMG’s areas of focus and why they decided to engage the services of Next DLP.

Denbigh-White and Steyn discuss the critical challenge of how best to harmonise user-satisfaction with securing sensitive company data, all without compromising operational efficiency. Steyn delves into a recently published piece on how Next DLP’s Reveal platform helps chief information security officers focus on their priority areas: visibility to risk, information governance and auditability.

The conversation rounds off with a discussion on the positive changes LRMG has seen since implementing its information rights management programme with Next DLP and how employees have responded to the changes.

If you’re in any way involved in securing your company’s data, don’t miss this important and insightful discussion.

South Africa has a new data consultancy. Called Calybre, it’s headed by CEO Alexa Bisschops and is positioned as “the best partner for any company’s data people”.

Bisschops joins TechCentral’s TCS+ show to chat about the launch of the company, its co-founders and their backgrounds, and why the company believes the market is ripe for the launch of a “next-generation consultancy”.

In the interview, Bisschops unpacks:

• The background to Calybre and its market positioning;

• What a next-generation consulting company does exactly, and what makes it different to traditional technology consulting firms;

• The plans for Calybre’s growth in 2024 and beyond;

• How Calybre works with technology companies;

• What a typical client engagement looks like;

• The impact of artificial intelligence in the consulting space; and

• Much more besides.

Don’t miss this insightful discussion about an exciting new player in the local – and global – data consultancy market.

TechCentral, the publisher of South Africa’s leading business technology podcasts, is thrilled to announce the launch of TCS Legends.

The new show will feature interviews with (and about) some of the leading figures who helped shape South Africa’s technology industry into what it is today.

As the show’s name implies, we’ll be interviewing leading figures who achieved great things in – and for – the tech sector in South Africa.

From PCs to IT services and software to telecoms, TCS Legends features some of the leading figures in the industry over the last 30 years.

With season 1 launching later in February, TCS Legends is a by-invitation-only, editorially driven tech show that builds on TechCentral’s credible, market-leading multimedia productions, including the TechCentral Show (TCS) and TCS+.

TCS Legends is powered by Mitel. For all your unified communications and customer experience needs, visit Mitel.com.

Big changes are coming to the way companies build and manage their network infrastructure.

This is a key discussion point in the latest episode of TechCentral’s TCS+ technology show, featuring subject matter experts from Dimension Data – soon to be NTT Data – and Cisco.

NTT’s 2022/2023 Global Network Report found that 70% of CEOs surveyed indicated that a lack of network maturity was negatively impacting business delivery. But what’s the solution?

To unpack that question in some detail, TCS+ spoke to four experts in the field:

• Prashil Gareeb, vice president of MNCS, Dimension Data;

• Paul Mende, director of managed networking product management, Dimension Data;

• Adesh Baboolal, acting client partner director: managed services, NTT South Africa; and

• Aadil Hassim, sales specialist for enterprise networking and software, Cisco South Africa.

Gareeb kicks off the discussion on the brand changes taking place at Dimension Data – including the renaming of the company – and what they mean for the business and its clients. He also unpacks the longstanding relationship between both Cisco and Dimension Data and Cisco and the NTT Group.

The panellists then unpack:

• Why many companies have failed to pay sufficient attention to networking. Why is it important to get networking right in the modern cloud era? And what role does this play in digital transformation initiatives?

• The advances in wireless networking compared to traditional cabled networks;

• How Dimension Data – soon, NTT Data – can help companies with their network modernisation efforts, including a look at what Dimension Data offers the market in terms of managed network services through the NTT Spektra solution;

• The relationship the Cisco and how the organisations are working together to solve customers’ problems;

• The advantages – and potential pitfalls – of a network modernisation project, including a look the security considerations; and

• The benefits of outsourcing network management.

Don’t miss this insightful discussion!

As South Africa experiences tough economic times, employers and workforces alike can benefit from solutions like telemedicine. In a nutshell, telemedicine is the remote diagnosis and treatment of patients by using ICT. This allows an individual to seek a doctor’s advice about non-emergency situations that don’t require an in-person visit.

In this episode of TechCentral’s TCS+, Guardian Eye AVA specialist Justine Pillay chats to host Brendan Haskins about this powerful new combination of technology and telemedicine that is set to shake up the way primary healthcare is handled in South Africa.

The solution by Guardian Eye, dubbed “AVA”, is an innovative asynchronous internet-of-things medical device and telemedicine platform that is set to bring positive change to the local healthcare industry.

According to Pillay, the AVA medical device, powered by IoT, is bridging a gap in the workplace by improving access to care, cutting costs and boosting efficiency in healthcare delivery for everyone involved. The offering is aimed at companies with more than 150 employees and is a first-to-market in Africa.

Collecting vital data

The AVA Guardian Eye link features remote monitoring of patients by gathering and saving all historical medical data and images, and other forms of communication, allowing healthcare providers to deliver care outside traditional in-person visits.

In addition, by using the "Higo Pro” connected e-health care product, AVA can be used to collect vital data from an employee who is feeling unwell. These vitals are then sent to an online healthcare professional to make an initial assessment – generally within a waiting period of only 30 minutes.

All medical exams are carried out by a nurse or a trained AVA “champion operator”, with data sent to a qualified doctor for a final diagnosis.

If warranted, the doctor will give the employee a prescription for medication and a sick note they can send to the HR department.

Benefits for all

In this way, AVA saves the employee time by reducing travel and waiting-room times. They can also save money by receiving this unlimited access to a healthcare provider as a work-sponsored benefit, rather than having to pay for their doctors when needed.

For employers, Guardian Eye’s AVA can keep digital healthcare records for all members of staff, and increase motivation and morale through the provision of a quality employer benefit. Productivity is also increased, and sick leave is reduced through the provision of onsite telemedicine.

Don’t miss a fascinating discussion.

As we approach 2024, KnowBe4’s content strategy vice president Anna Collard joins TechCentral’s TCS+ show to unpack reflections drawn from the world’s leading security events, as well as dialogues with industry leaders, academics and government representatives.

Joseph Byrne, principal solutions engineer at OneTrust, knows a lot about the topic of risk management.

He joins Duncan McLeod on TechCentral’s business technology podcast, TCS+, to unpack the topic in greater detail and to discuss what it means for South African organisations.

Byrne kicks off the discussion with an overview of OneTrust. Founded in 2016 by Kabir Barday, the privately held company has more than 12 000 customers around the world, including in South Africa.

In the interview, Byrne unpacks:

* The differences between third-party risk management and privacy risk.

* How organisations can go about evaluating and selecting third-party service providers and tools to minimise privacy risk.

* Which laws and regulations organisations should companies pay attention to. There are a lot of them, and organisations need to know which ones are important to them, says Byrne.

* How organisations can ensure that third-party relationships are properly documented and regularly reviewed and that they are compliant with privacy regulations.

* Whether there is scope for automation in this field.

* What should happen when things go wrong.

* The role of artificial intelligence in privacy risk management – is AI technology mature enough yet to be genuinely useful, and are new rules needed to deal with it?

Don’t miss an insightful conversation about a critical issue faced not only by South African organisations but companies around the world.