March 2020 The fourth space - Business Solutions | SMEs ... · Internet of Things) IoT in Mining...

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March 2020

Come and experience a snapshot of your business future and turn your ideas into action, today!Multiple Technological

Innovations in the 21st Century

The value of next generation networks in the digital age

Leveraging the power of the Cloud

Fast Forward Series Calendar

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Fast Forward Opinion 5 Multiple Technological Innovations in the 21st Century (William Mzimba - Chief Officer Vodacom Business)

Fast Forward Opinion 6-7 The value of Next generation Networks (Fatima Hassim - Managing Executive: Mobile & Fixed)

Fast Forward Opinion 8-9 Leveraging the Power of the Cloud for business success (Kabelo Makwane - Managing Executive: Cloud, Hosting & Security)

Fast Forward Opinion 10-11 Digital Disruption in the financial space (Mariam Cassim - Chief Officer Vodacom Financial Services)

Fast Forward Calendar 12-13

Fast Forward Opinion 15 Testimonial (Reishina Boodhoo - CEO of RSVX Holdings)

Fast Forward Opinion 17 Digital transformation for SMEs (Brett StClair - CEO of Teraflow.ai)

Crosscall 19 Africa ripe for investment (Julien Fouriot - Sales Director for Africa at Crosscall)

Fast Forward Opinion 21 The Digital Workforce (Peter Malebye - Managing Executive Vodacom Internet of Things)

IoT in Mining 22-23 (Nkululeko Magadla - Vodacom Managing Executive )

Your Guide to Fast Forward your Business

With the Fourth Industrial revolution (4IR) upon us, all companies, from SMEs to large enterprises, are being challenged to embark on their connectivity and digital transformation journey. While this is not a simple endeavor, it is well worth it, as the opportunities the 4IR offers are vast.

Emerging technologies like IoT, Cloud, automation and next generation networks are positively impacting every industry and sphere of life. For example, they are transforming the digital workforce and ushering in new ways of working. Additionally, these technologies are enabling particular verticals such as retail and manufacturing to be more efficient and more productive than ever before. For the agricultural sector, it means that smallholding farmers can increase their crop yield and extend their reach into markets hitherto untapped for their produce.

For a growing population, and particularly in Africa, a young population at that, it means that food scarcity can be kept at bay more effectively as global population soars past the 8 billion mark.

In order to succeed, organisations both large and small have to not only stay connected, but also accelerate their digital transformation journey and the speed at which they can deliver services or products to their customers.

Underlying and enabling every emerging company’s digital transformation, and every emerging technology, from IoT to AI, is of course, connectivity. If data is the lifeblood of doing business in the 21st century, then connectivity is akin to its arteries and veins.

The reach and the impact of digital transformation isn’t constrained

only to businesses. For individuals, it means that digital classrooms, enabling students in remote areas to be taught and provided with the education they need to thrive in this new world. It furthermore offers the opportunity to foster greater citizenry engagement, and thus spur on improved service delivery.

On a macro level, effectively implementing digital technologies is a critical part of achieving the goals laid forth in government’s National Development Plan for 2030. Now a mere decade away, that date draws closer every day. The stated goals are as ambitious as they are relevant. They include empowering the impoverished, growing rural economies, and educating the youth. Each is part and parcel of growing South Africa’s economy. A tall order? Yes. Achievable? Most definitely.

Embracing this revolution is not just an opportunity, it is also a necessity.

The speed of change that SMEs and large enterprises have to contend with is only increasing. Individuals find themselves faced with the need to cultivate new digital skills in the face of automation. And the country deeply needs to grow its GDP by the required 5% to prosper.

Businesses in particular require a known and trusted partner on their journey, to help them avoid wasting time and begin reaping the benefits of the digital century right away. We look forward to being that partner with you and prospering, together.

Fast Forward Content

Foreword

Written by Shali Thilakan Chief Sales Officer

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More together

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As to the value of IoT, a primary example can be found in how tagging technology is being used by farmers to monitor and protect their livestock. Whether it is preventing theft, protecting livestock from being attacked by wild animals, or mitigating losses incurred from animals going missing, farmers now can manage their assets (livestock) from their smart devices. A simple analogy is the use of tribal land and how stock needs to be managed in a shared context. Few of us in urban contexts realise the complexity associated with that task.

Children, particularly those of school going age, will also benefit as the convergence of 5G and IoT enables our youth, particularly those in rural areas as eLearning is brought into home domains.

Specialist subjects are no longer confined to the hallowed halls of Ivy League Colleges, rather they are broadcast, interactively to the students across a planet, at the point of need. Streaming is seamless as cross-oceanic communications now link learners alike. Education, the pillar stone of all economic evolution, has become ubiquitous as knowledge is shared, grown and jobs crafted around regional drivers and demographics. Far from removing jobs from the economy,

a digitally enabled world creates opportunity. Class boundaries are removed and the value of each human being is increased as a learning economy becomes central to each Gross Domestic Product conversation and statistic.

On a personal level, these technologies will positively impact on how people interact with their homes as we respond to climate change. For example, homeowners in parts of the country dealing with water scarcity will be able to connect to smart irrigation systems that connect to the Cloud to determine the optimum time to water their gardens driving water savings; equally our power supplies will work with the interaction in our homes and modulate usage accordingly.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and technologies like IoT and 5G are here: they are real and changing the way we work, learn, play and live. Rather than fear imminent disruption, we should, with excitement, embrace the numerous potentials and opportunities for enhancing our lives that it portends. Vodacom is proud to be central to that dynamic.

William Mzimba, Chief Officer for Vodacom Business

The adage ‘Change is the only constant’ has been bandied about over time, but it has never been truer. The difference between years past and current times is that change, driven by the rapid pace of technological advancement, has become exponential.

More particularly, it is the convergence of a couple of technologies (namely the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G) that are driving this perfect storm of change. Far from being something to be feared, these two emerging technologies are harbingers of significant benefits for the country, and the continent as a whole.

While the natural tendency may be to resist the unfamiliar and view the revolution that is underway as something to fear, in fact there is good reason to do the opposite:

Together these technologies hold the exciting potential of improving the quality of life, for all. As to what these changes look like, the introduction of 5G will result in greater inter-connectivity. This in turn will not just usher in higher levels of efficiency both in how people work and live but will create new business opportunities previously unimagined - and result in entirely new income streams as well.

Greater business opportunity invariably brings about prosperity, and the prevailing hope is that as more people are included in the network economy, trading and participation drives improved incomes. This is part of the reason why the Vodacom Group recently launched Africa’s first commercial 5G service. As a purpose-led company, Vodacom deployed this high-speed connectivity capability in Lesotho where the mountainous topology has previously excluded a rural and distributed population.

Multiple Technological Innovations setting the stage for unprecedented progress in the 21st Century

Fast Forward Opinion

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The good news is that implementing an SD-WAN network doesn’t require the heavy investment that previous networks called for. Nor does it require a ‘rip-and-replace’ approach. Rather, next generation networks can be run alongside their traditional counterparts, so implementing SD-WAN doesn’t obviate investments that have already been made. It is worth noting that an SD-WAN network can be installed without any interruption to business continuity.

Furthermore, SD-WAN is flexible in that it finds application in a myriad of industries. From retail stores to mining, logistics, manufacturing, energy and financial services, each sector can benefit.

One piece of advice that I can offer SMEs and enterprises alike that are implementing SD-WAN is to guard against looking at their network in isolation. No less important are the services and solutions that providers like Vodacom Business can offer on top of the network implementation. At its heart, SD-WAN technology separates the software that controls where and how data moves across a network from the networking hardware that actually moves the data itself. The control software is then moved to a centralised location.

This separation provides crucial advantages including greater security, enhanced visibility and control over the network and the ability to make rapid changes to the network to meet an organisation’s evolving requirements.

Implementing next generation networks is just part of a bigger picture, impacting on the digital transformation journey of small, large and public enterprises. For the former, it plays a role in moving from physical or analogue business processes to digital ones. For large enterprises, next generation networks are a valuable part of automating their processes and increasing their efficiencies in a secure way.

For public enterprises, fostering the cultivation of a more engaged citizen is often the main benefit. For all three – SMEs, large enterprise and public enterprise – next generation networks like SD-WAN are an integral part of finding the new ways of doing business in a digital era.

Software Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN) is not solely a considerably long acronym, it is also a critical component of a company’s digital transformation journey and an integral part of how successfully companies cope with the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

For more information on our SD-WAN solutions visit www.vodacombusiness.co.za or talk to your account manager

Unfortunately, networks are the one component that are too often overlooked, as companies begin executing on the digital transformation strategies. Instead, Cloud, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) garner considerable attention in the 4IR conversation, and for good reason – each are compelling components.

However, networks – and next generation ones in particular - are the foundation for any digital transformation journey. Sufficiently preparing one’s network therefore is key to ensuring that the journey is successful.

Why though, should companies implement an SD-WAN network? The first reason is that the next generation network brings with it some compelling benefits of its own.

Firstly, it enables numerous branches dispersed across a region to utilize business-grade broadband. It further enables organisations to steer their broadband traffic, to specify which applications can access more bandwidth, and to prioritise how they use their connectivity. For example, mission critical applications can be allocated the most bandwidth to function optimally while limiting the amount of bandwidth available to non-essential functions, like social media or video streaming.

As it is a more effective way to connect dispersed branches, it also offers cost savings in the long run, and tends to be considerably easier and less costly to maintain. Additionally, it can be managed from a centralized source.


Written by Fatima Hassim Managing Executive: Mobile & Fixed

SD-WAN– The Value of Next Generation

Networks in the Digital Age

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Put simply, the 4IR poses an existential challenge for businesses to ensure that the manner in which they are doing business today not only survives, but also continues to thrive tomorrow. If they don’t, they may be disrupted by new entrants into their market who are able to bring competing services more quickly, cheaply and offer greater personalization for customers.

The common thread running through all three of the above points is that of customer-centricity. The first strategy that organisations need therefore is to put their customer at the centre of their world, to make customer service not just an imperative, but a prerogative.

Additionally, organisations need to prioritise connectivity. In a Cloud first world, connectivity becomes even more critical.

Without it, Cloud is akin to a destination that quite simply cannot be reached.

While connectivity used to be one of the biggest barriers in technology adoption and making technology pervasive, connectivity services in various forms, both mobile wireless and fixed including Fibre, Wi-Fi, 4G, and 5G now enable organisations to reach a global customer base with ever-increasing connectivity speeds.

Therefore, a key strategy for businesses to consider is how they are using the connectivity available to them to reach customers with the right service, at the right time, for the right price.

Even more importantly, organisations need to bear in mind the importance of driving continuous innovation in terms

How do businesses, whether small start-ups, medium or large enterprises thrive, remain relevant and increase their competitiveness in the digital era?

One answer to this perennial question is by understanding and then using the power of the Cloud.

More specifically, the Cloud has three important benefits that any organisation should be aware of.

Firstly, it enables businesses to get closer to its customers, so as to hyper-personalise their offerings, and in so doing, build business resilience.

Today’s customers want services that are highly personalised to their requirements and are instantly available. If you have the right data about your customers, then

of how they can offer the best, fastest and most hyper-personalised services. A practical application could entail using digital platforms to determine price elasticity for each of one’s customer segments.

A final thought: Organisations are advised to embrace being uncomfortable with the status quo. By constantly questioning whether one’s offering is still relevant and offers value to customers, businesses can ensure they not only survive, but thrive in the digital era.

you know what services to push to them through a digital platform - and Cloud is the enabler of such digital interactions.

Remaining customer centric requires organisations to have customer insights, and an agile way of accessing those insights on an ongoing basis.

Rather than having to build a costly environment of servers and storage, Cloud enables users to turn on or off their access as required, paying only for what they use. This means that no longer is a massive upfront investment required, and thus there is a level playing field for all organisations, regardless of their size, to optimise their understanding of the customer.

The second major role that Cloud has to play in the success of an organisation today is that it enables Software as a Service.

What’s important to note is that Software

as a Service (SaaS) has gone beyond just being a tool to spawning completely new kinds of services. The common thread between AirBNB, Uber and MyBooking.com for example, is that each used SaaS to disrupt established industries and greatly improve on the services offered.

The third important point that Cloud brings to the fore is that it has a pivotal role to play in enabling companies to handle the demands brought by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).

In a nutshell, this boils down to coping with the transformation that industries are experiencing, driven by automation and artificial intelligence. These emerging technologies are now mature and increasingly finding use across a variety of industries. Beyond building resilience, organisations need to sustain their relevance in a rapidly changing world.


Written by Kabelo Makwane Managing Executive: Cloud, Hosting & Security

Leveraging the powerof the Cloud for business success

For more information on leveraging our Cloud solutions for your business visit www.vodacombusiness.co.za or talk to your account manager

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Securing painless funding is not the only area where digital transformation has enabled us to think differently about what kind of financial services we can offer SMEs. We have further created a payment acquisition proposition for merchants that traverses online payments and digital payments, along with offering small businesses a physical point of sale machine.

Traditionally, at banks, these are separate processes with their own lengthy requirements for a merchant to wade through. However, by offering a digital-first strategy our aim has been to make it as simple as possible for business owners to be able to accept payments, whether that be online or via credit or debit card. In today’s environment, particularly locally, brick-and-

mortar shops sit alongside online stores and therefore the opportunity to simplify the process presented itself.

To this end, we’ve designed user-friendly digital interfaces that allow customers to sign up for these payment acquisition services themselves, while on our end, the aim is to speed up the approval processes to be far quicker than the five or six days that banks require to approve a merchant contract.

Securing loans and accepting payments are not the only challenges that budding companies face. Legal complexities of doing business remain a challenge for many. It is for this reason that we have included in our SME offerings affordable legal assistance.

One arena that is on the frontlines of digital disruption is financial services. It is a sector that digital transformation has opened the floodgates for new, innovative products and solutions to be brought to the fore. Additionally, it has also enabled agile companies who have a wealth of data at their fingerprints but aren’t traditional banks or insurance providers, to enter the market with better, cheaper and more convenient financial offerings.

Whether micro, small or medium-sized, digital disruption has meant that each require financial products that are more responsive to their immediate needs, without having to endure the cumbersome processes and weeks of waiting that is often required by traditional banks.

A prime example of how Vodacom has attempted to fill this gap is with the Vodacom Business Advance product, which enables businesses to apply online at Vodacombusiness.co.za/fundmybusiness for up to R1.5 million of funding in five minutes. This can be done without the hassle of extensive paperwork or long waiting periods. In the majority of cases, applicants will receive an instantaneous response to their application and money in their account within 24 hours.

Whether it’s a contracting issue, labour dispute or whether an SME needs to establish a contract with employees, the business can turn to a call centre for legal advice at reduced rates.

Additionally, we have endeavoured to make it easy for SMEs to bundle together a combination of the above propositions and pay for everything they need via one bill. The aim is to offer SMEs a one-stop-shop for all their financial services’ needs.

Vodacom is rightly associated with being on the forefront of connectivity and emerging technologies like IoT and next-generation networks. What isn’t as well known is that the company is developing products and capabilities across the key areas of financial services, including payments, insurance, lending, savings and investments.

However, we did not enter these arenas because of the profitability of the market, but rather to further enable businesses to have greater access to the resources they need in order to succeed. For example, micro-enterprises, in particular, don’t always have ready access to loans from banks who generally cater to a higher capital segment. Nonetheless, they still need easy access to an infusion of capital in order to grow their businesses.


Written by Mariam Cassim Chief Officer Vodacom Financial Services

Digital Disruptionin the financial space

Digital disruption and transformation are two forces in the 21st century that are undeniable for small, medium and large businesses alike.

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For more information on small business funding go to www.vodacombusiness.co.za

Fast ForwardSeries

season 2

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Introducing

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The sessions that Reishina attended gave her new insights into her own business which has led her to make changes.

“In my business, I can look around the room and I see tons of successful business people. But what I realized while I was there, is that there is so much that we still don’t know. I was able to get that information at the Fast Forward Series that literally led us to embark on a mission to run our business differently.”

Some of the key take outs that Reishina gained included adopting technology in her business, an understanding of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and some of the benefits it brings to business owners such as improved efficiency, an increase in profits and scale of business.

“I am not a ‘tech-guru’, but what the sessions showed me is that businesses aren’t embracing technology going forward. From the group itself, many people were traditional thinkers, and what Vodacom Business did was to show us the need to upscale people’s knowledge about technologies and its benefit in the marketplace.”

Reishina was also extremely impressed with some of the experts who conducted the workshops and sessions. So much so that, this was her favourite part of the experience.

“My favourite part of attending was the fact that these were experts training us, and the fact that it was free! For people with that kind of experience to train us would have cost us a fortune. We were all entrepreneurs in the room with limited time on our hands, but I can say the time I spent there was well worth it!”

“What Vodacom Business did was they hand-picked every strategic empowerment session for an entrepreneur. They really thought the Fast Forward Series through, understood everyone’s needs and still brought in a valuable technology aspect.”

Reishina’s only regret from attending the Fast Forward series was that she couldn’t attend more sessions and workshops. However, she would like to attend the full Fast Forward Season 2 and will be bringing her colleagues from RSVX Holdings with her.

“I wish I could have attended all the sessions. When I get the chance, I will be at every session and I will bring RSVX Holdings with me as it is very empowering and aligns with what we are trying to achieve as a business.”

Vodacom Business has just launched Fast Forward Series Season 2, the next series of industry events, interactive workshops and collaborative sessions, focused on driving growth and accelerating positive changes within the business landscape of South Africa. However, let’s rewind and look at what some of the attendees of the first Fast-Forward Series .

Reishina Boodhoo, CEO of RSVX Holdings, a women-led BEE Level 1 company that works collaboratively with entrepreneurs to achieve greater value from their business, attended the Fast Forward Season 1. Based in Johannesburg, Reishina first heard about the Fast Forward series from a Vodacom employee that told her about an amazing business learning opportunity.

Reishina attended the Fast Forward Series because she has heard that Vodacom Business is actively empowering entrepreneurs, which is aligned to her businesses vision of creating 100 000 entrepreneurs within South Africa.

“I felt like I needed to understand what the series was about as I cannot recommend something to others unless I have experienced it myself. I don’t have all the answers when it comes to business and when it comes to my work, so I try taking every opportunity to empower myself and hopefully others.”

While at the Fast Forward Series, Reishina attended two of the workshops. The Business Doctors and Google workshop, where she attests to have been blown away by the presentations.

“I found the workshops fabulous. Absolutely fabulous! I was sadly only able to attend two of the sessions and not the full series, but I felt it was very empowering from a business perspective which I will be taking forward.”

A Rewindof Fast-Forward Series Season 1

Thoughts from Reishina Boodhoo CEO of RSVX Holdings


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It’s in the cloud

There’s always a gap between what on-premises systems can do and what’s digitally possible. In the Cloud, that limitation disappears. “In the Cloud” just means your software and data reside in a data centre - a company that provides massive computing power and storage space. However, data centres worldwide are interconnected through the internet, giving you access to millions of online business apps and services as if they were all installed on your local computer or device.

It’s composable

Because the cloud is borderless, you can easily connect your apps and services together to share data with each other. So you’re able to compose them into groups of workflows that model your actual business processes. As the market changes, you can reorganise them to suit your needs without the huge cost you face with on-premises systems.

It thrives on automation

Online software often focuses heavily on workflow automation you can customise to your own way of working. Automation is the glue that holds digital businesses

together, doing away with manual handling that happens between value-adding activities. Whatever your business does can be done better by automating the process.

It lives on devices

Since 2007, when the first iPhone appeared, smart devices have driven change in business. Today, everyone has at least one. You can offer informative services, take orders, manage stock, track shipments, check your business finances and perform many other activities, all on a device. In fact, enabling customers, employees, suppliers and other stakeholders to carry your business with them on their device is a key goal of digital transformation.

A new mindset

Digital transformation starts with managers adopting a new way of thinking about management. Instead of focusing on how to organise people around work, you first need identify automation opportunities and save your staff for what they do best. With the sheer number of online Apps and services that promote better workflow, there’s no reason not to start today.

SMEs operate in a world that’s rapidly changing before their eyes. You read reports about artificial intelligence (AI) in business, robots in factories and warehouses, self-driving cars or trucks, smart shops, drone delivery, or mobile payments. You hear cryptic terms like cloud, IoT, deep learning, blockchain, cryptocurrency and neural networks. You’re told that these technologies are ushering in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a period when trade and industry will be completely transformed by the wide-ranging automation of business operations and administrative functions.

Finally, you’re warned that, as businesses, you must undertake a journey of digital transformation if you don’t want to be left behind. Let’s step back and look at what digital transformation means to SMEs right now.

What is digital transformation today?

For big organisations, digital transformation is a huge undertaking, but for SMEs, it’s less intimidating.

However, “going digital” is not as simple as using modern technologies in isolation for their own benefits, like having a company website or emailing a PDF contract. Rather, it means finding ways to replace the manual management of work flowing through your business with a computerised (or digital) representation of those processes.

So we’re no longer just converting physical documents and information to an easily distributed digital format; we’re actually digitizing the methods by which work is managed.Automated management is simply called “workflow”.

But what does a digitally transformed business look like?

Digitaltransformation for SMEs

Written by Brett StClair CEO of Teraflow.ai


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To Fast Forward your small business, register for a season 2 workshop on www.vodacombusiness.co.za

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Your little barista business is expanding, and you need the funds to take it to the next level.

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When your coffee shop When your coffee shop When your coffee shop When your coffee shop When your coffee shop When your coffee shop needs to go from regularneeds to go from regularneeds to go from regularneeds to go from regularneeds to go from regularneeds to go from regularto designerto designerto designerto designerto designerto designer

serves as a repository of information on investors and technical assistance providers on the continent.

Mobile technology is playing a significant role in enabling greater inclusion on the continent from providing banking services to the previously unbanked, to playing a role in healthcare and education.

Today, Africa is a mobile-first (and in some parts mobile-only) continent where innovations such as mobile money, telemedicine and e-learning are becoming commonplace.

Digital transformation has captured the imagination of businesses in Africa and Vodacom Business is increasingly seen as the digital partner of choice for various business segments. Vodacom Business is a key enabler of digitisation and is focused on delivering change through technology for customers and clients. It is a significant player in ensuring that the continent participates fully in the fourth industrial revolution.

Mobile land rush

With Africa’s working-age population

projected to increase to almost 1 billion by 2030, more needs to be done to capitalise on the potential that exists on the continent. All businesses have a responsibility to lead the continent of Africa towards the adoption of the Fourth Industrial revolution and the opportunities it offers.

For entrepreneurs in the field without easy access to laptops and desktop computers, mobile devices are a gateway not only to the Internet, but also to mobile money services and the cloud. Mobile has empowered all Africans to equip themselves for a digitally-led future that is arriving faster than many anticipated.

Mobile service providers and manufacturers have a responsibility to tailor their offerings and help Africans embrace a 4IR environment and an increasingly more connected world. Africa is in a prime position to use mobile technology to unlock its potential, but it needs to be bold and quick to capitalise on the technologies that enable it to do so.

Julien Fouriot, sales director for Africa at Crosscall, the French mobile phone manufacturers specialising in devices for outdoor environments.

Despite slowing economic growth globally, technological innovation is unlocking unparalleled opportunities for countries around the world. Nowhere is this more evident than in Africa where developing economies are in a prime position to harness the potential of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and leapfrog other more advanced nations.

As a result of sophisticated technology solutions becoming more affordable, Africa can now, more effectively address some of the key challenges facing the continent, including infrastructure development, education, and healthcare, amongst others. Enhanced bandwidth, the ubiquity of mobile devices, and the arrival of multinational data centres in South Africa allow for the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and augmented reality.

Positioned for growth

According to the African Development Bank, the continent’s general economic performance continues to improve. Gross domestic product (GDP) on the continent reached an estimated 3.5% last year, up from the 2.1% in 2016. GDP growth is projected to accelerate to 4.1% in 2020. African Development Bank says regional integration has been key to the continent’s growth.

Following the inaugural Africa Investment Forum in 2018, African Development Bank launched a digital platform to connect investors with investment opportunities across the continent. In addition to providing a live database of private and public private partnership projects, the platform

Written by Julien Fouriot Sales Director for Africa at Crosscall


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Africacontinues to be ripe for investment

To view our latest mobile deals for business visit www.vodacombusiness.co.za or talk to your account manager.

The rise of a digital workforce is compounded by young people who are digital natives that are now entering the workplace. Having grown up with the internet and technology, they have different expectations as compared with their Baby Boomer or Generation X counterparts. How companies employ and contract with these workers will need to change in this 4IR era because for them, work is not about an eight to five grind. Rather, younger workers report that feeling like they are making a meaningful contribution ranks as a high work priority.

There is no reason why organisations cannot use output as a metric for performance rather than time spent in the office. With the use of digital platforms, KPIs and worker output can be measured by the completion of set tasks and digitized in an online report.

Benefit bounty

There are a myriad of other ways in which the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and the tools it brings, can help transform the workplace. From digital platforms and virtual learning tools that can be used to train up employees and locating

workers in mines in the event of a cave-in, to using IoT to monitor cables so as to mitigate against cable theft, the solutions are boundless.

At Vodacom Business, we have been preparing for the impact of the Fourth Industrial Revolution for some time. At this point, we already have complete solutions to manage remote workforces, mobile ERP applications, products that digitize applying for leave and contract management. Additionally, we currently offer mobile invoicing so that SMEs can invoice customers from within an App.

In a broader context, embracing new ways of working in a 4IR world offers an opportunity for South Africa to accelerate economic growth and realise its potential of becoming a centre of excellence for the rest of the continent. Ultimately, it would enable the country to contribute to the global community as an innovation leader. However, realising this vision requires us to be bold and forward-thinking around what we do differently and how we approach work in this digital era.

As a new decade dawns, it has become clear that the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is upon us. Along with disrupting industries and compelling organisations to change how they do business, it’s also resulting in the rise of a digital workforce and generating new ways of working.

Today’s employees, particularly knowledge workers, can have access to all the data they need to do their job remotely and when on the move. Truly mobile working is encouraged by falling data prices and increasingly powerful smartphones. Both factors are making mobile devices increasingly effective channels for an emerging digital workforce to be more effective and more productive beyond the constraints of having to work from a centralized office.

Responding to the times

Furthermore, sporadic power cuts which greatly increases traffic delays, also add to the digital workforce momentum locally. It’s not practical to spend two to three hours in traffic getting to work, as this amounts to lost productivity that neither today’s businesses, nor the country, can afford.

As workforces become more dispersed and able to respond outside of the traditional centralised location or set times, we expect to see greater collaboration occur from anywhere, at any time. Thus, it comes as little surprise that there is a notable trend in the growth of collaborative tools.


Written by Peter Malebye Managing Executive:

Vodacom Internet of Things

The Digital Workforce and the New Ways of Working in the 4th Industrial Revolution

For more information please visit www.vodacombusiness.co.za or talk to your account manager.

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All deals subject to stock availability. This Back to Business digital voucher will be made available to you when you purchase any Vodacom Business deal during the month of March 2020. The digital voucher will be valid until 31 March 2020. After you have purchased a deal you will receive and SMS with a link to eziADS.media to redeem your voucher. You will receive an email within 24 hours confirming your claim with a link to your eziADS account along with instructions on how to use it. #Platinum Warranty offers a two-year on-site repair in major metropolitan areas (Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town). Call Centre Support 086 124 5001 For more information you can contact us on [email protected] or visit our website www.eziads.media. For full terms and conditions, visit www.vodacombusiness.co.za

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More Talk

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More specifically, our solution enables managers to view their system performance via real time dashboards, identify the real constraints limiting their system’s performance and view what steps can be taken to improve performance. Increasingly though, being reactive is not enough, mines also need to be able to be proactive. To this end, by having a digital twin of its operations, managers can predict what is likely to happen based on their actual operational capabilities.

Using technology in these ways is not just about improving productivity and efficiency, although it certainly does offer that. It gives leaders the ability to make better decisions that could result in saving lives. In mining, that, above all else, is paramount.

Addressing primary concerns

When new technologies are discussed, there is a persistent fear that arises that their introduction will result in job losses. In fact, imbedding technology into current operations is far more likely to have a positive impact on mining personnel.

From a safety perspective, there are areas in a mine where mining companies should not have people working. There are technologies coming in use now, such as remotely controlled mining vehicles that enable mines to remove workers from the most dangerous parts of that environment, while still producing what is required to turn to a profit. It should be noted that drones have created a need for human beings

that are well versed in using the technology. So too do remote control vehicles, in order to navigate the machine across unpredictable terrain. Being removed from harm will free up miners to instead be trained in those skills thereby enhancing their professional prospects.

Moving forward

It is true that no company can avoid or escape digitization, which is a pillar of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Nor can any industry escape from the pressing need to transform itself in order to remain relevant in this new decade and beyond. Vodacom Business has the experience and solutions to assist industries and companies alike.

Like a multitude of industries, the mining sector is being tasked with transforming itself so as to meet a number of challenges amidst the onset of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Most notable amongst these is the ongoing need to increase productivity and profitability, while improving safety records and addressing environmental concerns.

All four areas are of critical importance and in many instances need to be addressed simultaneously.

While the advancement of technology can be blamed for being a major driver of the disruption that the mining industry is experiencing, it too should be credited for producing the solutions to those very challenges.

A common ground

Vodacom has not been immune to the need to transform itself, and we have been actively transforming from a telecommunications company to a tech-focused and digital one.

Much like the mining industry in South Africa, we similarly have been operating for quite some time and understand the challenges that the need to adapt brings.

Furthermore, our 25 years’ worth of operations have enabled us to garner a significant amount of core capability insofar as technology is concerned.

In doing so, we have developed solutions that can assist the mining industry in

its transformation and in answering the problems that it faces. For example, mines often lack real time information on their operations, because they run on eight-hour cycles from the time an event occurs and is processed, to the time that corrective action can be taken. This is not ideal.

Real time solutions to real world problems

However, by imbedding some of our solutions, which leverage Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices and create a digital twin of mining operations, along with intelligent diagnostics and big data analytics, we are able to provide mines with a granular overview of their operations, and how these can be improved.


Written by Nkululeko Magadla Vodacom Managing Executive

IOT IN MINING – Harnessing Digital Transformation in

Mining to Unlock Greater Productivity

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The future is exciting. Ready?

For more information on our IoT Mining solutions visit www.vodacombusiness.co.za or talk to your account manager

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The Vodacom Business Experience Centre offers business customers an exclusive, tailor-made experience showcasing the latest enterprise mobility, cloud and IOT products and solutions.

Visitors have the opportunity to engage with Vodacom Business and industry experts to create bespoke business solutions through co-creation and emerging technologies. With access to virtual reality demonstrations (VR), virtual assistants and video conference boardrooms, the Vodacom Business Experience Centre invites you to reimagine the way you do business.

In the month of March The BEC will be hosting Season 2 of the Fast Forward Series.

Visit our pop-up Experience Centre in the Western Cape by registering for a Fast Forward session or contacting your account manager.









March 2020 The fourth space - Business Solutions | SMEs ... · Internet of Things) IoT in Mining...

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