FUTURE TECHNOLOGY
Unemployment in our youth is at an all-time high , so selecting school leavers to join learnership programmes , to educate them more on what the field of IT can do for their careers is important .”
According to Strydom , a collaboration between the vendors in the IT industry to form joint programmes in this learnership spectrum could help and assist the skills shortage . “ Slowly we are seeing more schools offering IT related subjects and curriculums , but right now it ’ s not freely available to all , which needs to change ,” she said .
Matthew Campbell , Head , SME and FTTH , SEACOM , said for business as a whole there has been a large focus and change in strategy towards digitalisation . Campbell said it ’ s something that everyone has been speaking about , and the pandemic has certainly highlighted the fact that if you ’ re not a digitised company , you ’ re nowhere on the map . “ So , if channel businesses want to reach growth over the next couple of years and stay competitive with other digitalfirst enterprises , digitalisation is crucial ,” he said . “ And it ’ s not just about having a working website . Businesses won ’ t succeed at the level they want to if they ’ re still pushing paper . It ’ s about digitising business processes and finding the most efficient and innovative ways to operate .”
Matthew Campbell , Head , SME and FTTH , SEACOM
Campbell said it ’ s all about differentiation and offering value beyond what is expected . “ Many businesses aren ’ t positioning themselves for growth because they ’ re simply selling their product or service when many others can do the exact same thing . But businesses that provide a wider range of solutions that can go from end-to-end and solve real business challenges – those are the ones that gain more traction and ultimately set themselves up for future success ,” he said .
He added that with so many businesses adopting the hybrid work model , many are asking themselves : how do I secure my staff ’ s – and therefore the company ’ s – data from wherever they are working ? “ Fortunately , there ’ s a myriad of products out there that can be used to monitor a more distributed business network and keep operations secure and this is where the channel come in ,” he said . •
INTELLIGENT TECH CHANNELS Issue 47 37