Tag: DigitalTransformation

There is a pattern emerging across boardrooms that is starting to look very familiar. Executives are excited about Artificial Intelligence (AI). Budgets are being allocated. Pilot projects are being launched. Early results are often promising. Yet, despite all this activity, very few organisations are seeing meaningful, enterprise-wide impact.

What is the biggest benefit of your customer portal? Is it the cost and efficiency savings you achieve by reducing reliance on call centre staff? Or perhaps it is the increase in customer satisfaction that comes from allowing customers to manage their accounts on their own terms, whenever it suits them?

Digitalisation has brought, and continues to bring, sweeping advancements in how companies go to market and how customers engage with brands. Agentic AI is now poised to disrupt even these developments. As a result, organisations are scrambling to invest in the "next big thing" because they fear being left behind. However, history shows that when speed becomes associated with winning, companies often blur the line between operational effectiveness and strategy.

Boards spend a great deal of time asking questions. They challenge strategy, review financial performance, interrogate financial statements and revisit decisions that made sense six months ago but may no longer make sense today. That is why one question stands out: "Why are executives and boards not doing the same when it comes to their cybersecurity?" My view is simple. As organisations become more digital, it becomes increasingly difficult to justify treating cyber resilience as something that sits outside regular business discussions.

In many organisations, the monthly reporting cycle still follows a familiar pattern. Finance teams close the books, extract data from multiple systems, reconcile discrepancies and consolidate figures across entities. They then check reports, make adjustments and eventually compile a board pack.

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are undeniably the lifeblood of South Africa's economy. They represent 91% of businesses in the formal sector and employ roughly 60% of the country's workforce. Yet, the entrepreneurial landscape remains notoriously harsh. More than 70% of South African SMEs fail between their first and fifth years.

Enterprise software used to be a decision within the IT lifecycle. However, it is no longer just that. Core platforms such as ERP systems, databases and virtualisation have become embedded in how organisations recognise revenue, control costs and satisfy regulators. These platforms are not back-office systems. They are financial infrastructure. Increasingly, they are dictating capital allocation in ways many CFOs did not sign up for.

While Bafana Bafana lost the opening game against Mexico, Lenovo’s technology underpinning the event was a big winner. The opening match of the World Cup did not go South Africa's way. As always, we lived in hope. Then we resigned ourselves to the inevitable. However, the one thing that worked seamlessly and proved to be a winner for fans of both Mexico and Bafana Bafana was the technology underpinning the tournament.

The Chief Marketing Officer role has transformed - but most organisations are still hiring as if it hasn’t. Artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones, social media, influencers and shifting customer expectations have transformed the way growth is achieved. Yet many organisations continue to misunderstand the evolution of the role.

Cyber risk is no longer a peripheral IT issue in African supply chains. Instead, it is becoming a core operational threat. According to the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), 70% of organisations report experiencing fraud or economic crime. Cyber-enabled fraud ranks among the fastest-growing categories globally, according to the ACCA Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey.