Tech solutions executives on SA business' growing digital profile

Chief Executive Officer at technology consulting firm In2IT Saurabh Kumar and Enterprise Business Solution Head at the firm Parichay Joshi have become the latest experts to predict an increase in the popularity of digital transformation technologies amongst South African businesses.

Since digital technologies have begun to indiscriminately disrupt operations across various industries, South African executives have been caught in the dilemma between parting with the substantial investment required to bring about digital transformation or risking becoming obsolete in their operations.

In recent months, however, a number of executives operating in the country’s tech sector have observed that the willingness to invest in new technology is prevailing in the minds of most decision makers, although some technologies such as Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence appear to have gained more popularity than others such as blockchain.

In May, an interview with the two co-founders of Executive Solutions revealed that South African firms – particularly small and medium enterprises – have begun to embrace cloud-based solutions. Now, Saurabh Kumar and Parichay Joshi have offered more insights to reaffirm these claims.

“When we look at any large customer space, whether it be banking, telecoms or retail, we’re beginning to realise that those customers are going through a significant transition from a digital point of view,” explains Kumar. The banking sector in particular has been preparing rapidly for disruption, both in a digital and a regulatory sense.

Kumar adds, “As we speak about digital, it refers to artificial intelligence, robotic process automation, blockchain and the Internet of Things. Those technologies which are really trying to impact the life cycles for many organisations.”

Speaking on the role and progress of his own firm In2IT, Kumar adds, “now customers are looking at getting their house in order before embarking on a digital journey. That’s where companies like In2IT and SAP can collaborate and assist them. There’s been a slow off take of digital, especially in the customer environment. Typically customers have been slow in adopting digital and cloud technologies.”