Tag: cloud computing

At the start of 2020, the South African economy was already on the back foot. GDP shrank 1.4% quarter-on-quarter in Q4 of 2019, following a contraction of 0.8% in Q3. That was even before COVID-19 had arrived. The Moody’s, Fitch and S&P rating agency downgrades in March and April all signalled that the South African economy is in for a rough time over the next year at least.

At the core of our work and social lives, connectivity and online functions like email, e-commerce, apps, and instant messaging, seem to dominate everything we do in the modern world. Made even more apparent by the lockdown and its restrictions, few businesses can trade effectively without connectivity, and a reliable data network has become a must-have for all businesses, regardless of size or sector.

With proven business benefits for adopting cloud computing, the prediction of the global marketing intelligence firm, International Data Corporation (IDC) that 90 percent of businesses will use multiple cloud services and platforms by 2020, comes as no surprise.

Digital disruption has clearly hit the banking industry hard across the globe. The first decade of the 21st century initiated enormous change in the way financial institutions operate and this has only accelerated over the years leading up to the current 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR).

This year, open source will become even more fundamental to the success of companies as they transition to fully-fledged digitally-led businesses. In the coming months, proprietary software will lose relevance as local organisations start embracing the likes of the cloud and containers to deliver value and capitalise on growth opportunities.

The issue of digital disruption is currently at the forefront of business discussions across all industries, but is currently arguably most acutely being felt, and feared, in the Contact Centre industry. With Contact Centres at the forefront of both the interface between customers and the organisation and the cutting edge of new technology deployment, the imperative for Contact Centres to adapt to changing customer communication preferences is paramount.

In today’s world, clever tech and cloud computing enable many of us to work from anywhere. Can executive assistants do their job remotely too? We all know what the acronym WFH stands for but what about WFA? In an era of rapid technological change, working from home has quickly given way to working from anywhere – anywhere with an internet connection, that is.

For years, cost savings has topped the list of benefits offered by cloud computing. This is one of the factors that has resulted in the massive increase in the use of cloud services across the world, with analysts showing exponential growth among the biggest vendors every year.

As more businesses face the technical realities of digital transformation and advance towards 4IR, the customer experience is always front-of-mind – and it is little wonder the call centre has emerged as the frontline of technology-driven, fully automated service delivery.

Many people often confuse the similarities and differences surrounding both web hosting and cloud computing. While many believe that cloud and hosted services are the same, this is not the case. Yes, they are both hosted off-premise and can be accessed remotely through an internet connection, but that is where it begins and ends.