Author: Editor
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…
Digital software specialist demonstrates the fine art of digital e-commerce for Latitudes Online. Africa-focused online art website Latitudes Online has over the past year-and-a-half secured a firm foothold in the online art space. Now, thanks to the expertise of Syncrony Digital, Latitudes has successfully entered the world of online art sales and auctions. Syncrony describes the new website as a one-of-a-kind evolution of the standard Magento 2 platform designed to provide art-centric product visualisations and enable online art sales. ‘Selling art online is hard,’ says Howard Rybko, CEO of Syncrony Digital. ‘Shipping is the major headache because artworks vary so…
By Ralph Berndt, Sales and Marketing Director at Syrex South African organisations have been looking at deploying hybrid or multi-cloud environments as one of the ways to digitally transform operations and provide an enabling environment for their distributed workforce to remain productive. And even though more employees are returning to the office, a mindset shift has occurred with cloud-based systems here to stay. However, ensuring the relevant data gets migrated securely and stays protected in this new landscape form part of the new strategic imperatives that must be in place. Central to embracing a hybrid or multi-cloud operating model, is…
Are your employees working longer hours and taking on more work now that they’re working from home? There are two risks inherent in the work from home (WFH) era and they are two sides of the same coin – lack of productivity and excessive productivity. Many people fall into the latter category, working long hours into the night without proper compensation, and well outside the boundaries of their employment contracts. As Nicol Myburgh, Head: HCM Business Unit as CRS Technologies points out, this is a very fine line that companies need to walk very carefully. “There are certain rights and…