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BUSINESS AND TRAINING
Breaking through
digital frontiers
By Marco Vieira and Ian Jansen van Rensburg
The immersion of technology into virtually every
aspect of our world is resulting in the convergence
of the physical (hardware), digital (applications and
software), and biological (human) domains of life.
Digital transformation, customer experience, and agility-
fueled innovation are becoming the overarching drivers
of business, regardless of product, service, or industry.
To achieve these, businesses need to adapt the way they
view IT, and the freedom that they need to build, control,
and manage their IT environment as the foundation upon
which to drive business success.
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION CREATING THE
EXCEPTIONAL
Ian Jansen van Rensburg, senior manager: systems
engineering at VMware sub-Saharan Africa, says, “Of
the three domains that are converging to spearhead
the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the physical and digital
elements are continually evolving at an exponential rate.
While people themselves remain relatively static, the way
we do business and the way we wish to be served by
business is spurred on by the evolution of technology.
“People are no longer satisfied with standard; people want
to be amazed through experience, technology, and real-time
service delivery. Businesses who weren’t born into the digital
age need to adapt to this new world and transform in order
to remain relevant and compete with those who were.”
Says Marco Vieira, country manager for Hybrid IT at
HPE, “Digital transformation is a long-standing buzzword
and many businesses are still unsure of what it means.
Essentially it boils down to leveraging IT to achieve the
business agility demanded by today’s market. Technology
should be applied to any previously manual process or
operation to enhance it, speed it up, and react quicker to
market conditions.
November 2018 Volume 24 I Number 9
“Digital technology enables businesses with the ability
to spin off a new project and act on an idea almost as
soon as it is conceptualised. This is what separates
the leaders from the competition. This is what creates
the exceptional.”
LOCAL VS INTERNATIONAL
Businesses born in the digital age are often assumed to
be international, and many are. However, South Africa is
hardly behind the curve as we evolve with our own digital
business concepts that are challenging the status quo
and disrupting traditional business methods.
Jansen van Rensburg says, “Businesses born in the
Internet age are not just an international phenomenon.
We have already seen the far-reaching consequences of
the Internet where a connected world has demonstrated
the eradication of traditional borders. An app used here
in South Africa will have the same look and feel as an
app used in the United States or Turkey, or anywhere else
in the world.
“South African enterprises know that digital
transformation is needed to be innovative, agile, and
retain competitiveness and relevance. We certainly don’t
lack the technology to enable this; however, what we do
still need, is the change of mindset from traditional to
digital in order for digital to succeed.”
According to Jansen van Rensburg, many businesses
still adopt a siloed approach to business problems and
challenges, saying that the focus on separate, individual
teams within businesses is still a very common practice
both locally and internationally, and a potential stumbling
block to achieving digital success.
“Businesses need to break down their silos, assess and
redefine their processes, and embrace a digital way of
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