IBM president, chairman and CEO Ginni Rometty this week praised South Africa’s business leaders for being at the forefront of using technology to transform their operations.

Speaking at an IBM CIO Leadership Exchange event in Johannesburg, Ms Rometty said the event “speaks of our conviction that Africa is not an average market and this is not an average time.

“I look on in envy. With the youngest population in the world and growing discretionary income, this is a wonderful market. There is a willingness and effort to transform industries.”

Michael Rhodin, senior vice president of IBM Software Solutions Group, said Africa represents one of the last growth opportunities in the world.

“As an emerging economy, we’re very focused on positioning ourselves. Although we sold our very first machine on the continent in 1911, we’ve recently been increasing our footprint dramatically. We’re now in 24 countries and we’ve recently opened a research centre in Kenya. The opportunities are what attracts us. We’ve been early investors in Africa.”

Mr Rhodin said new tools, analytics and social media promise to help businesses deliver value in a much more precise and successful manner. And no other continent has embraced these new techniques like Africa.

According to IBM, a key “mega-trend” of the second decade of the 21st century will be the ability of organisations to manipulate data using analytics to improve their efficiency. Any system, be it transportation, water resources or public safety, can benefit from this trend.

The major issue on the agenda of the company’s roadshow is how chief information officers can leverage “big data” by using the systems termed “analytics”.

Anesh Govender, head of operations finance at Santam, said the insurance company has used analytics to improve its claims processing.

“We have been enabled to zero in much more effectively on fraudulent claims as we now have much more data to work with,” he said.

Social media techniques can also be used by a business to enhance its speed to market and customer interaction.

McDonald’s South Africa is to roll out a method of communication using social networking (using IBM social business software). It is intended to achieve faster and more efficient communication between its 8,000 employees and 200-odd restaurants.

Source : abdas.org