Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 33 | Page 10

NEWS Blue Prism sets foundation for South African firms to begin AI journey Ulwembu maximises quality and efficiencies with ISO certification U lwembu Business Services, a South African black-owned ICT services company, has achieved its International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 9001:2015 certification, ensuring that the organisation adheres to the quality management standard’s guidelines to optimise business efficiencies and enrich customer experience. According to ISO, the ISO 9001 standard, which is globally recognised, ‘sets out the requirements for a quality management system. It helps businesses and organisations to be more efficient and improve customer satisfaction.’ The 2015 version of ISO 9001 puts added emphasis on leadership engagement, looks at more effective supply chain management and business processes, and addresses company risks and opportunities in a structured way. B lue Prism, a global leader in the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) market, showcased its comprehensive Artificial Intelligence Digital Exchange (DX) at AI Expo Africa, setting in place the foundation for South African businesses to begin their journey into the era of AI. The DX can be likened to an ‘app store’ for AI products. “Our vision for connected-RPA is about giving the power of creativity to an organisation’s people, while maintaining control and connecting innovations together, so individual work 10 INTELLIGENTCIO adds up to a far more powerful whole,” said Alastair Bathgate, CEO and co- founder at Blue Prism. “With most South African organisations now at the start of their AI journey, they face a significant challenge in assessing the hundreds of AI technologies available and determining which of them are right for their organisation. At some point, they will need to ‘plumb’ the technology into the organisation’s systems – even to run a POC – but the IT department does not always have the bandwidth or resources to test or implement the myriad solutions on the market.” “Our compliance with ISO 9001:2015 ensures that Ulwembu limits wastage, lowers costs, has a strong focus on efficiency and productivity, and can provide consistent, measured outcomes,” said Ulwembu Managing Director Sibusiso Kunene. “Our successful achievement of the quality management standard – for the second year – provides local clients with the assurance that our management systems are continuously assessed and meet these stringent requirements. “The implementation of an ISO 9001 quality management system also helps to empower our staff through clear expectations, backed by the necessary tools, procedures and instructions, as well as process metrics for performance feedback. “As a consequence, our customers can reliably expect a superior level of service, first-rate reporting and communications, and dependable delivery from Ulwembu.” www.intelligentcio.com