Entrepreneurship Zone: 05 September 2019: African businesses and entrepreneurs embracing digital transformation

[Bulls n Bears]

 <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> 

 

 

Our region has a rich legacy of entrepreneurship and innovation. What's so
exciting to me is seeing how Africa and the Middle East are building upon
this foundation to embrace the newest wave of change and digital
transformation.

 

We're in the midst of the most amazing technological evolution I have ever
witnessed. Digital transformation is forever changing the way we work and
live. From harnessing the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve the safety of
our roadways, to embracing cloud-based collaboration tools that break down
barriers in the competitive global economy, to using AI to preserve and
protect the planet and the culture we've created upon it, the potential is
endless and exciting.

 

At Microsoft, we don't celebrate technology for its own sake, but rather for
what our partners can accomplish with it. It's our mission to empower every
person and organisation on the planet to achieve more. This focus on our
customers and partners in Africa and the Middle East is what inspires us and
gives meaning to our work.

 

Partnering to embrace tech intensity

To succeed at computing becomes increasingly embedded in our world, every
institution and every organisation will need to have tech intensity. At the
end of the day, every company is a software company, every company is a
digital organisation.

 

Tech intensity is a simple formula, but it's critical when we think about
the opportunity ahead. Each person in our institutions and organisations,
whether in the public or private sector, will have to develop digital
capability on top of the technology we are adopting.

 

Seizing the huge opportunity created by new technology can seem daunting
when faced alone. The key is finding the right trusted partner for your
business. Microsoft is committed to helping our partners to achieve their
digital transformation outcomes: to empower their people, engage their
customers, transform products and optimise operations.

 

Harnessing the era of intelligent cloud and intelligent edge with Azure

For businesses in Africa to thrive in the fourth industrial revolution, they
must embrace explosive advances in cloud technology. Computing is being
embedded into the world. It's predicted that there will be an astounding 50
billion connected devices by 2030. Computing is becoming ubiquitous,
distributed and has the ability to adapt to a wide range of inputs such as
touch, speed, vision and gesture. This is what we mean by the intelligent
edge. The intelligent edge is fueled by the intelligent cloud, which is the
underpinning of successful digital transformation.

 

Not all clouds are created equal. What sets Microsoft Azure apart is the
partner approach we take with customers to drive success for their business,
meeting them where they are. We are building every layer - the database
layer, the runtime layer, the infrastructure layer - to meet the new,
real-world needs of our customers.

 

Geographically, Azure has more regions than any other cloud provider, with
54 data centre regions, including the Middle East and Africa. Digitally,
Azure offers more flexibility with our hybrid approach, offering a full
spectrum of infrastructure, platform and software capabilities for any sized
company.

 

Advances in the intelligent cloud are helping uplift almost every sector of
the economy. We see this reflected in Microsoft's recent partnership with
Standard Bank - the largest bank in Africa - where together we aim to
accelerate innovation and ultimately have a positive impact on the African
continent.

 

By creating a centre of excellence based on Microsoft technologies and
running on Azure, the bank's various business units can quickly create apps
and solutions in areas such as ATM management. At the end of the day, the
bank will be able to transform its processes, increase efficiencies and
completely change the way it operates. More importantly, partnerships like
these will help to spark financial services innovation in our region.

 

Joining the future of work with Teams

In addition to cloud technology creating industry shifting innovation, it is
unlocking exciting changes in the way we work and collaborate. Cloud powered
tools such as Microsoft Teams create a hub for teamwork that boost
productivity, innovation and collaboration.

 

FilmoRealty is one of the 500,000 organisations around the world using Teams
to transform their business. Nigeria-based FilmoRealty is a leading proptech
(property technology) and real estate service company. The company chose
Microsoft 365 for its cloud based, highly secure workplace tools to embrace
its new proptech business strategy.

 

FilmoRealty manages projects in eight states across Nigeria and needed a
reliable collaboration platform to facilitate virtual teamwork across their
many worksites. Today, the company uses Teams to boost efficiency and
agility in order to manage simultaneous projects, utilising chat, video
calls, coauthoring and integrated applications such as Forms checklists.

 

Because Teams runs on Microsoft Azure, they never have to worry about server
outages in one location halting workflow across the company. This also meant
that when FilmoRealty won a large international contract, they could easily
collaborate with clients across the world.

 

And at the same time the company is expanding its business, the virtual
collaboration Teams provides allows FilmoReality to stay lean. The company
intends on reducing administrative costs by 20 percent over the next year,
translating into savings it can pass to customers.

 

Partnership is the key to success

Across Africa and the Middle East, countries are poised to take hold of the
opportunities presented by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. During this
unprecedented time of disruption and opportunity, companies need to be able
to rely on a solid partner network more than ever before.

 

In much the same way as collaboration between individuals with different
skill sets can help to sharpen performance, so partnerships between
companies with different specialisations can foster true innovation.

 

Innovation is no longer a nice-to-have, but rather a business imperative,
and companies need strong partner networks if they are to
succeed.--Howwemadeitinafrica

 

 

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