Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 23 | Page 12

NEWS Oracle accelerates Digital Transformation in South Africa R einforcing its commitment to South Africa, Oracle has announced the opening of an Innovation Hub in Johannesburg, a first for the company in Africa that will help drive the adoption of emerging technologies across the country’s corporates, public sector and academia. In line with South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP) 2030, Oracle’s Innovation Hub is aimed at furthering Digital Transformation in the country by raising awareness about the impact of emerging technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Bots and Machine Learning (ML) to help drive economic growth and support the delivery of innovative and transparent services to citizens and customers. The new hub will act as a platform for Oracle customers, partners and other stakeholders to better understand the potential of emerging technologies and co- create industry specific innovations with top Oracle experts. “There is now widespread recognition that a digital revolution is imperative for South Africa’s socio economic growth”, said Niral Patel, Managing Director and Technology Leader, Oracle South Africa. “As a leading cloud solutions company, we are focused on supporting South Africa’s public and private sector drive with latest digital technologies. “Oracle’s new innovation hub in Johannesburg will act as a catalyst to help drive awareness, experimentation and implementation of transformational initiatives that will be customised to address local challenges and create new opportunities.” Niral Patel, Managing Director and Technology Leader, Oracle South Africa ////////////////// Avaya showcased solutions at Cairo ICT A vaya has participated in the Cairo ICT 2018 conference where it presented cutting-edge technologies that enable impactful customer and employee experiences. The company demonstrated a number of industry-first platforms that bring together unified communications (UC) and contact centres (CC), enabling the seamless transition of communications between customer-facing employees and internal teams. Avaya also showcased the world’s first social network for chatbots, as well as several industry-specific use cases that highlight innovations in workflows, customer engagement and customer relationship management. Fadi Hani, Vice President for the Middle East, Africa and Turkey, Avaya, said: “The ICT market in Egypt is growing by leaps and bounds as the country continues to adopt 12 INTELLIGENTCIO smart, connected business solutions. At the same time, organisations are increasingly looking to deliver more rewarding and consistent customer experiences through the use of technology. employee productivity and engagement. Avaya’s strengths in this arena are built upon years of experience working with businesses of all sizes in Egypt to seize the opportunities of the connected world.” “These experiences are key to driving customer loyalty, while also boosting The technology conference took place at the Egypt International Exhibition Centre. www.intelligentcio.com