TCS+

Super Group, the New York-listed parent of Betway and other online betting brands, has achieved significant gains in efficiency and productivity through its partnership with Workday, the cloud-based enterprise software company.

The company has deployed Workday’s software, and Neil Greybe, its human resources information systems manager, tells TechCentral’s TCS+ business technology show about how it has derived significant value from the investment – including in improved consistency, simplification, integration, prioritisation and change management.

Greybe is joined on this episode of TCS+ by Workday South Africa MD Kiv Moodley, who expands on the relationship between the two companies.

In the discussion, the two chat about:

• Greybe’s role at Super Group and the company’s focus areas;

• Workday’s presence in South Africa and its strategic priorities for this market;

• The vision and strategy for Workday, and how that ties in with the Changemakers theme of this series of TCS+ interviews with Workday and its clients;

• Greybe’s top priorities in his role at Super Group, and how these tie in with the role technology can play in supporting and growing the business;

• Super Group’s relationship with Workday and how the company uses the software in its day-to-day operations;

• The value that Super Group has derived from its investment in Workday; and

• Workday’s role as a “trusted adviser” to its clients, including Super Group.

Don’t miss a great discussion!

Openserve, South Africa’s biggest telecommunications infrastructure provider, has been through enormous changes in the nine years since it became a separate brand and a subsidiary of the Telkom Group in 2015.

In the latest podcast in a five-part series of interviews with Openserve executives, the company’s CEO, Althon Beukes, tells TechCentral’s TCS+ about these changes and what they have meant for the company and the broader market, including its internet service provider partners.

Beukes provides an overview of these changes, including the recent spinoff of Openserve into a separate subsidiary within Telkom.

In the interview, Beukes reflects on:

• The changing dynamics of the telecoms infrastructure market in South Africa;

• Why there’s been a slowdown in the roll-out of fibre-optic networks;

• How Openserve is performing considering the broader market context;

• How load shedding and load reduction have impacted Openserve, and the investments it has made to overcome the challenge;

• The shift away from legacy copper technologies and the big growth in next-generation services, and what’s driving that demand;

• The potential for industry consolidation – and why much depends on the outcome of the ongoing Competition Tribunal investigation into Vodacom’s acquisition of up to a 40% stake in Vumatel parent company Maziv;

• What Openserve would like to see flowing from the Competition Tribunal process; and

• Openserve’s future plans, including where it’s headed in the coming years.

Do not miss a fascinating discussion – and the rest of the interviews in the series.

Openserve chief digital and strategy officer Pushkar Gokhale is TechCentral’s guest in this episode of the TCS+ business technology show, where he unpacks the role of digital services on the Telkom subsidiary’s growth ambitions.

Gokhale, who has worked for various telecommunications operators around the world, came to South Africa more than a decade ago and liked the country so much he decided to make it his home.

In this interview – which forms part of a series of TCS+ interviews with Openserve executives – Pushkar chats about:

• His career history, and what brought him to South Africa – and to Telkom and Openserve;

• The highlights of his career so far, and why he is passionate about telecoms and the opportunities around digital services;

• His role at Openserve and what his daily work entails;

• How digital services, including Openserve’s new consumer app, are playing a role in the company’s core business as a wholesaler of infrastructure services;

• The digital transformation of Openserve’s operations – what was involved and how it is changing the way it does business; and

• How Openserve works with partners, both locally and globally.

Don’t miss an insightful interview about one of South Africa’s most important infrastructure providers.

In this episode of TechCentral’s business technology show TCS+, Africa Data Centres regional executive for South Africa Angus Hay discusses the significant upgrades taking place at the company’s Samrand facility in Gauteng.

Africa Data Centres is in the midst of a major upgrade cycle at the facility known as JHB 2.

The colocation facility, which is one of the few tier-4 data centres in Africa, was originally designed to handle 10MW of IT load. When the upgrades are completed in 2025, the facility will house an additional 20MW.

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In this informative discussion, Hay delves into:

- The drivers behind the upgrades at Samrand and how “hyperscalers” will benefit from them;

- The security standards at the facility and the implications for highly sensitive clients such as the financial sector;

- The energy redundancies that ensure continuous operations at the facility, even in the event of grid collapse;

- Innovations Africa Data Centres uses to manage the efficient use of energy at the facility; and

- Initiatives to minimise Africa Data Centres’ carbon footprint by investing in renewable energy sources.

Don’t miss this lively discussion in which Hay provides a behind-the-scenes peek into the inner workings of state-of-the-art data centres, the powerhouses of the modern internet.

In this first in a series of interviews with Openserve executives, TechCentral’s TCS+ speaks to the company’s chief commercial officer, Phila Dube, about its business model, how it works with partners and why it has embraced the concept of “open access”.

Openserve, which is a subsidiary of the Telkom Group, is South Africa’s biggest telecommunications infrastructure provider with more than 170 000km of national fibre footprint and fibre broadband connections into homes in all provinces across South Africa.

In this episode of TCS+, Dube unpacks:

• His role in Openserve, where he oversees the company’s market-facing activities such as business development, product lifecycle management, commercial economics, operations, and marketing and communications;

• The changes that Openserve has been through in the past 10 years, and what these mean for the market, including the company’s internet service provider partners;

• All the markets that the company is involved in, from home and business broadband to national long-distance links and subsea cables;

• The advantages and challenges associated with Openserve’s chosen go-to-market model of B2B2C, or business-to-business-to-consumer;

• Openserve’s plans to further expand and commercialise its network assets; and

• Why the company became a champion of the open-access model.

Don’t miss this opening interview in a fascinating series about one of South Africa’s most important infrastructure operators.

Identity theft is a massive and growing problem that requires smart risk mitigation strategies.

That is one of the key messages coming out of a TechCentral TCS+ interview with executives from CYBER1 Solutions and iiDENTIFii.

CYBER1 Solutions security architect Christiaan Swanepoel and iiDENTIFii co-founder and chief technology officer Marco Wagener unpack the subject in greater detail in the interview.

They discuss:

• The background to iiDENTIFii and its relationship with CYBER1 Solutions;

• The current trends in identity theft, and why this type of theft is a growing concern for businesses;

• How iiDENTIFii’s software can play a big role in fighting the scourge of identity theft;

• What companies are doing right and wrong in fighting the problem;

• How businesses can enhance their identity verification process to mitigate against the risk of identity theft;

• iiDENTIFii’s solutions, and how they integrate with existing corporate systems; and

• The role that cybersecurity tools can play in protecting personal identities;

Swanepoel and Wagener also share their insights into future trends in the identity verification market and how businesses can prepare themselves.

This is an important discussion for anyone involved in IT, but especially for those involved in cybersecurity – don’t miss it!

Customer relationship management software giant Salesforce recently showcased the power of its latest artificial intelligence and cloud-based solutions to customers, partners and associates at Salesforce World Tour Essentials Johannesburg, held at the Kyalami Convention Centre in Midrand.

In this episode of TechCentral’s business technology show, TCS+, Zuko Mdwaba, Salesforce area vice president/Africa executive and South Africa country leader, shares highlights from the event. He also provides insight into the company’s plans for South Africa and Africa.

More than 2 200 global and local leaders attended the Salesforce event in Johannesburg, demonstrating the huge interest in AI and digital transformation in South Africa, with organisations from across a range of sectors eager to learn more about new technologies that will allow them to leverage their data more fully and grow their businesses.

The Salesforce ecosystem of partners in the South African region has grown 34% year on year, but the most significant improvement is in the area of certifications, with an increase of 43% in the same period. These partners, Mdwaba explains in the TCS+ interview, are helping organisations across all sectors to raise employee productivity and transform with real-time insights and new levels of customer experience.

Mdwaba shares data from International Data Corp, which shows Salesforce and its partner ecosystem is being fuelled by AI- powered cloud solutions and will generate US$5.8-billion in net new business between 2022 and 2028.

In the interview, Mdwaba delves into:

• The economic impact that the Salesforce ecosystem is going to have on South Africa in the next few years.

• How the combination of CRM, cloud, data and trust is transforming organisations.

• How Salesforce is ramping up its skills development and talent programme in Africa to build the workforce that will help drive its aspirations for the continent.

Finally, he speaks about some of the infrastructural challenges on the continent and where the opportunities for technological innovation and business growth lie.

Don’t miss the interview!

Braintree’s Grant van der Westhuizen and Heath Huxtable tell TechCentral’s TCS+ business technology show about how to acquire software that solves present and future business needs.

This might sound simple, but software purchases are complex and expensive. For companies to get their money’s worth, properly diagnosing the problem a new piece of software ought to solve and ensuring that the solution is futureproof are key to extracting the most value from a purchase.

In this episode of TCS+, Huxtable – MD at Braintree – and Van der Westhuizen, the company’s business applications sales manager, tell TCS+ about important considerations companies should take into account when looking to solve business problems through software.

Huxtable and van der Westhuizen delve into:

• How customers don’t really know what they want because they tend to hyperfocus on solving pain points instead of looking at the bigger picture;

• Balancing short-term vs long-term thinking in purchasing decisions;

• The importance of unlocking value versus thinking of software as a grudge purchase;

• The flexibility provided by the Microsoft suite of business applications;

• How to balance personalised solutions with maintaining a consolidated view in multi-faceted business; and

• How to deal with resistance from employees in implementation projects, especially where artificial intelligence is involved.

Huxtable and Van der Westhuizen are passionate about using software to drive value creation in business, and their energy comes through vividly in this interview. Don’t miss the discussion!

A 2023 report by International Data Corporation (IDC) found that an astonishing 96% of CIOs in South Africa plan to modernise their ERP applications using cloud services. Yet actual implementation has stalled.

To discuss this, and what’s holding South African organisations back from cloud modernisation projects, TechCentral was joined on the TCS+ business technology show by executives from NTT Data (formerly Dimension Data) and SAP: NTT Data Middle East and Africa head of enterprise applications and cloud Brent Flint and SAP Africa head of partner ecosystem (MEA South) Nazia Pillay.

Reasons for slow uptake, Flint and Pillay explained, include a perception that the costs involved are exceptionally high and the dire shortage of the right IT skills to handle these types of projects.

In this episode of TCS+, Pillay and Flint unpack:

• The history of the relationship between SAP and NTT Data and how the two companies work together today;

• Why there is a pressing need for companies to modernise their ERP systems and move to cloud-based solutions;

• The benefits of and costs associated with moving to SAP S4/HANA Cloud – what the software offers that legacy ERP systems can’t, and the benefits organisations can expect when migrating;

• How best to deal with the critical IT skills shortage in South Africa, especially around these types of business application modernisation projects;

• The risks associated with business application modernisation and how NTT Data and SAP help their clients address those risks upfront and during project implementation;

• The role SAP S/4 HANA Cloud can play in modernising enterprise IT infrastructure and help organisations stay competitive;

• The best practices companies should be aware of in achieving a successful migration to S4/HANA Cloud; and

• What’s coming next from S4/HANA Cloud that companies should get excited about.

If you’re in any way involved in enterprise IT, you don’t want to miss this discussion.

The 2Africa submarine communications cable, which will be the longest such system in the world when it’s completed, is already helping one South African internet service provider find an alternative route for its data traffic between KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape.

2Africa’s eastern segment – known as 2Africa Gera – is largely complete, and traffic is already flowing across the section that connects Durban and Cape Town, thanks to a newly concluded agreement between 2Africa investor WIOCC Group and FirstNet Technology Services, an ISP in the First Technologies Group stable.

To discuss this development and unpack it in more detail, TechCentral invited WIOCC director of sales for South Africa Carlos De Almeida and FirstNet GM Sean van Niekerk onto the TCS+ business technology podcast.

In the show, De Almeida discusses the scale of the 180Tbit/s design capacity 2Africa cable, its state of readiness and WIOCC’s investment in the massive system, which, when completed, will stretch a staggering 45 000km and connect countries with a combined population of more than three billion people.

De Almeida and Van Niekerk discuss:

• Why FirstNet acquired capacity on 2Africa to carry network traffic between KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape – becoming the first company to do so;

• Why routing via a subsea cable, rather than using traditional terrestrial long-distance routes, should mean far fewer service interruptions for FirstNet customers;

• FirstNet’s focus as an ISP, and why it launched a brand called UrbanXConnect dedicated to the gaming community and their specific requirements around latency and network quality;

• The reliability, speeds and latencies possible on the 2Africa cable, and why this is critical for FirstNet; and

• Why, in WIOCC’s view, other ISPs could and should follow FirstNet’s lead in using the 2Africa cable for their national long-distance internet traffic.

Don’t miss a fascinating discussion about a pioneering agreement.