With on-premises solutions set to remain a strong part of the mix in South Africa, partners and vendors both have an equal role to play in ensuring the success of digital strategies.
This was the view of Tuna Yemisci, regional sales director of Qlik, during a panel discussion titled “Navigating Data, Cloud and AI in South Africa: Challenges, Choices and Real Impact” on the African leg of the Qlik AI Reality Tour in Johannesburg.
“Start with your data and invest in fast, reliable, and future-proof software because the world is changing even faster than we realise,” Yemisci says. “Many of our customers have relied on Qlik for over a decade, underscoring the importance of building strategies that stand the test of time. We believe that hybrid approaches – combining cloud and on-premises solutions – are especially important in markets like South Africa where flexibility is key and organisations must be able to operate in a cloud-agnostic way.
“On the topic of Agentic AI – artificial intelligence that can make decisions, plan actions, and learn from its experience – vendors must be transparent in their roadmap. Customers should never be locked into solutions that they are not comfortable with and must have a future-proof roadmap ahead. At Qlik, we have also found that our long-term customers value stability, and our end-to-end offering resonates in the South African market.”
Overall, a number of strong discussion points came to light during the panel discussion including the following: businesses must take time to look at and understand their data; the foundations matter, with the premise ‘Garbage in equals garbage out’ still remaining relevant; and fast, reliable, future-proof investments are essential in an era of constant change.
Partnerships power digital transformation
During the discussion, participants explored how digital transformation can be accelerated through strong partnerships, effective cloud strategies, and the responsible adoption of AI. They agreed overall that digital transformation is not a solo effort, but instead requires collaboration and trust among partners – and a willingness to re-think established models.
According to Supriya Das, Redington vice-president – Data & AI, Middle East and Africa, one of the primary responsibilities of ICT partners locally is to help businesses to tackle “technology friction”.
“Technology has had a profound impact on our lives in recent years, with massive innovation,” Das says. “However, on the ground, we do see a gap between innovation and adoption meaning a disconnection between technology strategy and execution. Even with end-to-end offerings, if partners don’t work together, customers don’t see the full value. We therefore offer support for both large and niche partners, including financial and operational assistance, as required and we find that the use of cloud infrastructure adds measurable value.”
Closing the gap between strategy and execution
Ashlin Ramkhelawan, Accenture decision science manager, agrees with Das regarding the dangers of a disconnect between visionary strategies and complex execution.
“Strategies are naturally conceived at a very visionary level and Proof-of-Concepts (POC) are generally not difficult to build,” Ramkhelawan says. “The complexity starts to emerge and intensify when you start looking at the basics, including your data architecture and foundations, data quality, and governance. Too often, we see an over-investment in vision and an under-investment in the operating model that’s required to finance and sustain these strategies, data foundations, and talent. Vision and execution must advance together and not be seen as mutually exclusive entities.
“This brings to light the importance of clear KPIs that are monitored consistently and updated regularly, feedback loops, and embedding intelligence in operational workflows at the point of decision making – you want to ensure that your initiatives have measurable business value – and cloud and AI can assist in this regard.”
Edward Bothma, inTrade Africa Group chief product and technology officer, outlined that skills availability remains a key challenge in the digital transformation journey.
He believes that the adoption of data and AI has changed decision-making by forcing a “join between old and new wisdom”.
He explains: “My personal preference is to drive innovation, but I understand the requirement for discipline and making data the starting point – meaning the ‘old wisdom’ – in order to get the foundations right.
“Investment must include a strong focus on skills and not just infrastructure,” Bothma adds. “So, not only should supporting partners continue to develop themselves to ensure that they can keep up with the technology and specialise in the required software to be able to maximise their offering to their clients, but businesses in turn should also follow a disciplined approach to their data. Those that take advantage of the opportunity to rethink their models will be able to thrive.”