Author: Editor
The pandemic has exacerbated addition and many employees are struggling The pandemic lockdowns of 2020 were tough and tight, with the government clamping down on smoking and drinking. As a result, many people turned to other forms of substance abuse as a way of coping. Now, after a more than a year of remote working, employees are returning to the office with additional issues that were either not there before the pandemic, or made worse by it. According to Nicol Myburgh, Head: HCM Business Unit at CRS Technologies, this puts the company in a tough position. “From a legal perspective,…
By Jake Shepherd, Synthesis Founder & Director Adapted from his talk: What AI Teaches Us About Being Human There are few books that alter the way you see the world after you’ve read them. Homo Deus is one of these books and in it the author Yuval Harari examines humanity’s future. In it he offers a vision of tomorrow that at first seems incomprehensible, but soon looks undeniable: humanity as we know it will lose its dominance. We are in the process of creating a totally new form of life. Artificial life. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the potential future it…
Leader in information-driven transformation, Decision Inc. takes a look back at 2021 and how one of the most challenging years in recent history shaped the stratospheric growth and expansion of the company. For Allan Saffy, Managing Executive at Decision Inc. South Africa, the year was an important milestone, one that saw Decision Inc. refine its vision and strategy and gain significant ground in fractured economic times. “We managed to deliver the best year end results in the history of the company in June 2021 – our financial year end,” he explains. “We then shifted our strategy in the second half…
By Howard Rybko, CEO at Syncrony Digital Switch Off My Cookies! This was the gist of the tense, urgent message left for me by the IT Manager of one of our large corporate clients. Somehow, she had become embroiled in a debate with her company’s legal department, who had decided that having a cookie policy was too much of a bother. Or less kindly, cookies carried too much risk for the technophobes who likely had no inclination to find out what a cookie was. What is a Website Cookie? Cookies are tiny files that hold small amounts of data that…
By Kim Furman, Synthesis Marketing Manager Covid is many horrific things, but it is also an accelerator of progress. Perhaps we would have got to the same place eventually, but it would have taken years. Compare this to the mere weeks it took us to globally adapt to remote work. According to Accenture research, our changed behaviour brought on by Covid will remain long after the pandemic has passed with 95% of consumers making significant and enduring changes in their behaviour. The companies, including retailers and banks, that will excel in 2022 will rapidly move in the direction of this…
By Andrew Jackson, IT Manager at DAC Systems While many people may feel that a job is simply a job, at DAC Systems it is so much more than that. While I cannot speak on behalf of every employee at the organisation, working at DAC is about creating a career for yourself in a fast-paced industry sector. It is also about building close connections with co-workers who become friends and support you in all areas of your life. One of my favourite things about working at DAC is that leadership expect employees to be innovative and grow their knowledge of…
Much of the business focus over the past two years have been on minimising the disruption caused by the global pandemic. Today, employees access mission-critical data, systems, and applications regardless of their geographic location. But to do so effectively requires high-performance systems that provide the longevity companies need to future-proof operations. And it is in this environment where the Mac excels. Mac delivers 20-30% in business savings “There is a perception with decision-makers that Mac is more expensive, but the realities of lockdown and a distributed workforce necessitate a focus on systems that provide reliability, security, and user-friendliness beyond what…
By Patrick Ashton at SilverBridge Holdings The accessibility of sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms, enabled by the high-performance capabilities of cloud-based data centres, mean insurers can more readily embrace a culture of innovation when it comes to their traditional approaches to business processes. Of course, the rising number of insurtechs, and evolving customer demands, have contributed to the creation of a disruptive environment that can capitalise on digitally-driven solutions. Whether through partnering with insurtechs or looking at more effective ways of modernising their existing processes and systems, insurers are well-positioned to capitalise on global changes in…
By Michael Shapiro, Synthesis Managing Director The word of the year in 1999 was “Y2K.”In 2007 it was “subprime.” And then in 2016 it was “Brexit.” 2017 saw the emergence of “Fake news,” and in 2019 it was “Climate emergency.” And then the world changed. In 2020 the word of the year was “Pandemic” and this year, 2021, according to the Oxford English dictionary the word of the year is “Vax.” The Collin English Dictionary took a slightly different angle. Their word of the year was NFT. The abbreviation for non-fungible tokens, or as Collins defines it: “unique digital certificate, registered in a blockchain, that is used to…
Following a tumultuous two years, the upcoming holiday shopping season will be a crucial one for local retailers trying to regain some much-needed momentum. But customers are still managing their budgets very carefully to mitigate against the current economic uncertainty. This has contributed to 61% of consumers globally joining a loyalty programme to get discounts for their holiday shopping. South African retailers must capitalise on this trend and ensure their loyalty strategies are ready if they are to maximise the opportunities to be had for the expected shopping spike during December. “Even though saving money has always been important for…