EDITOR ’ S NOTE
Welcome to the latest edition of Intelligent CIO Africa . A new IBM study conducted by the International Data Corporation ( IDC ), has revealed that 84 % of South African C-Suite are either pursuing or planning hybrid cloud strategies . According to the study , C-Suite executives in South Africa are prioritising the implementation of hybrid cloud strategies to benefit from flexibility , cost savings , testing and development , as well as Disaster Recovery . While the study highlights this growing shift towards the cloud a year on from the initial lockdown which saw businesses of all sizes across the country adopt remote work strategies – further adoption of hybrid cloud strategies are needed to help organisations transform their operations using technologies such as Artificial Intelligence ( AI ).
In this regard , we continue to cover articles in this edition of the magazine addressing the issue of hybrid cloud strategies and how organisations can overcome challenges and improve their chances of successful with cloud computing . Gracing the cover of this edition is Loren Meyer , Department Executive , Information Technology , Isuzu Motors South Africa , who explains why the company had to build local capabilities to deliver a consistently superior customer experience .
“ We wanted an integrated service solution with a single point of reference to create , update and track a customer enquiry . We chose to implement SAP Service Cloud , which helped us reduce the number of systems an agent has to use to resolve a call and enables our teams to resolve customer enquiries more quickly . “ The built-in analytics tool has empowered our managers to get a real-time view of each call to allow for personalisation according to each user ’ s preferences or role . From a sales point-of-view , SAP Sales Cloud has given us up-to-the-minute information about each customer as well as insights into their preferences ,” says Meyer . You can read more by turning to page 50 .
Elsewhere in the magazine , we look at SOC adoption in Africa , type of IT and cybersecurity skills needed and organisations that are using SOC services across the continent . You will find this feature on page 34 .
In addition , industry pundits share insights on the enterprise storage market and how the industry has transitioned to embrace cloud and multiple storage platforms . You can read more on the evolving enterprise storage market in Africa on page 46 .
As usual , we have all your favourite features , opinion , insight pieces and analysis articles from across the continent . You can also read daily news updates on our website at www . intelligentcio . com / africa /.
And kindly , don ’ t forget if you would like to get in touch please email me at manda @ lynchpinmedia . co . uk .
Once again , I would also like to wish you a great month ahead . Enjoy the read !
Manda Banda Editor
www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO AFRICA 7