Businesses in Africa are not just talking about digital transformation, they are increasingly deploying, implementing and applying the relevant technologies to make it happen.
This is according to Adriaan van Staden, senior sales manager at Genesys South Africa.
The Customer Experience solution and services specialist company recently hosted its key CX event, the G-Summit in Johannesburg.
Van Staden was impressed with the turnout, which he said was significantly more than two years ago, and believes it is indicative of growth in general awareness and interest in the Genesys brand and its activity in the market.
The company's CMO Merijn te Booij spoke of the relevance and influence of changed technology in 30 years' time and asked whether CS already reached that level and if it is time to 'let go of the old and introduce the new'.
Van Staden said multichannel and omnichannel platforms remain hot topics driving CX, and the company intends to leverage a combination of technologies in its interactions going forward and its engagement with resellers and the broader channel.
He added that based on feedback from the event and follow up queries, the company believes organisations on the continent are investing in new technologies and are ready to partner with Genesys to embark on their respective 'digital journeys'.
Some regions in Africa, like South Africa, have been described as generally apprehensive when it comes to investment in new technologies.
Does van Staden agree? "No, not really ... certainly what we've seen, not just in South Africa, but in Africa is huge adoption, especially in digital capability and advanced applications where wee've had huge success over the last few years in actively engaging the market. If you look at the enterprise customers, like big financial services, they are taking much longer to make big decisions when it comes to new technologies and adoption. But if you look at healthcare for example, there is a willingness to take it to market and there is huge growth."
He said that the digital transformation theme is taking root in Africa and customers are definitely considering strategy and capability over a period of time, to map out their strategies and leverage the benefits.
When it comes to driving the digital transformation agenda, there is change from a marketing spend point of view, with more parties involved and there is a definite change in terms of the conversation which has moved from being a purely IT focused discussion to one that centres on business development and application.
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