Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 38 | Page 7

EDITOR’S NOTE H ello and welcome to the latest edition of Intelligent CIO Africa. In this issue, we look at how Nedbank Insurance, part of the Nedbank Group that employs over 31,000 people across South Africa, has utilised Machine Learning (ML) and Design Thinking to help speed up its email process. The company covers clients’ life and other insurance needs and receives thousands of emails about claims, policies, address changes, complaints, queries and potential new clients. Many of the emails have attachments that must be categorised correctly to simplify processing for back-end teams. There are also unpredictable peaks when, for example, heavy storms cause inboxes to be bombarded. Following various methods to analyse email and attachment data, Synthesis built predictive ML models with natural language processing algorithms to understand the intent of the email. The new system has significantly reduced email processing time, on average from 720 seconds to 28 seconds, meaning that Nedbank Insurance’s clients can now have a much better experience. Meanwhile, we look at the way in which technology can be used to enhance the www.intelligentcio.com customer experience as part of one of our features. Research from Elingo has shown that, while the type of industry will greatly influence customer experience (CX), ultimately it is a matter of choice and first contact resolution. You can read the findings of this research as part of the feature, while Mo Areff, Business Unit Lead for Customer Engagement at Altron Karabina, tells us how customer engagement can be done differently this year. Our other feature is focused on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and how many organisations are using it to their advantage. Patrick Ashton, a Managing Executive at SilverBridge Holdings, looks at how AI is being used in the banking sector and how it is difficult to modernise processes or to understand how best to introduce new technologies into back-end systems. Meanwhile, Mylo Portas, Head of Retail at Peak, says that those who are taking the retail market by storm are using the technology to find new ways of driving sales and improving the experience of their increasingly expectant customers. Once considered an integral part of any organisational strategy, the public cloud may no longer be the darling of South African decision-makers, with companies now refocusing on a hybrid approach when it comes to their data. A global study conducted by Nutanix found that 84% of respondents in South Africa (compared to 73% globally and 71% across EMEA) are either moving public apps back to on- premise environments or planning to do so. With this in mind, we asked industry leaders what the benefits are of using an on-premise data centre in ‘Editor’s Question’, which you can find from page 26. Elsewhere, we take a look at the latest technology projects that have been happening in Ethiopia as part of ‘Country Focus’, while Simbo Ntshinka, Managing Director and Partner at ITEC Tiyende provides an insight into his career and managerial style in ‘Get to Know’. I hope you enjoy the read, and remember, if you would like to contribute towards future issues, you can get in touch by emailing paul@lynchpinmedia.co.uk Paul Rogers Editor INTELLIGENTCIO 7