Ubusha, in partnership with Microfocus and ITWeb, will be presenting a Public Sector Forum at the Sheraton Hotel on 12 October 2017. This event has been developed to address the increasing focus of the Auditor-General on IT-related security within and between government departments.
Ubusha has developed solutions for its clients that ensure good governance from the onset. This allows its clients to face the barrage of audit queries that need resolving and the general malaise within the compliance and governance environment. Those who attend this event will learn more about maintaining and receiving Green Audit Reports.
With this in mind ITWeb spent some time with Christiaan Swanepoel.
ITWeb: Could you tell us more about when Ubusha was started and what the main focus is currently?
Swanepoel: Ubusha has been serving the South African business community for over 15 years, with a strong focus primarily on identity and access governance solutions addressing compliance and security demands across public and private sectors.
ITWeb: Why did you choose to focus on government/public sector within your organisation?
Swanepoel: Ubusha's traditional business model spans both public and private sectors, where each is treated with equal importance. We have however, seen tremendous investment growth in ICT across the government/public sectors, where anywhere access to services are prompting a movement to add integrated cloud and Web-based systems into the current mix.
Ubusha has established a new division which now assists this sector in deploying and maturing integrated identity-based solutions, and securing access to internal and online systems, services and data.
ITWeb: What makes your service/solution a vital addition to your client's portfolio?
Swanepoel: Recent trends in online business, regulatory mandates, and access to services have been the driving forces behind securing access to sensitive information, data and intellectual property, the results of which have seen increases in the need for consumer and business protections in respect to sensitive data and the controls around access to that data.
Having developed strong long-term strategic relationships with its clients as trusted advisors and delivery partners, Ubusha has an excellent working knowledge of client environments, systems and requirements. Having this knowledge and access to client business and IT resources, allows us to anticipate client needs and cuts down on the time it would normally take to define and deliver bespoke and sustainable solutions.
ITWeb: Can you tell us about some of the clients you have or are working with? And what their experiences of your solution have been?
Swanepoel: We are in the fortunate position where, over a decade and a half, we have built up excellent working relationships with a client base that spans retail, insurance, banking and investment sectors, utilities, telecommunications, education, government and parastatals. It has been our privilege to have enjoyed multi-year engagements with each of these clients, which is testament to the fact that we must be doing something right for us to still be a partner of choice after 15 years.
ITWeb: What are government's biggest challenges currently and why would you say that?
Swanepoel: The biggest challenges for governments and public services in general is the pace of technological advancement and growing pressure for governments to modernise services, coupled with dwindling budgets, and a limited capacity to incorporate these advancements due to aging IT infrastructure, and inexperienced resources.
Other challenges faced include a growth in tech-savvy citizenry with an appetite for access to secure online services, and legislation that now mandates new controls around access to sensitive information and data, and compliance with stricter audit requirements and security controls.
Governments/Public services are in serious need of assistance to overcome these challenges.
ITWeb: How do you see the future of government user access control and governance in three to five years from now?
Swanepoel: We are regularly seeing audit findings going against government departments in respect to IT systems and services. In addition, there is a growing demand for public access to integrated government services through the Web, on both local and national levels.
These factors are providing the necessary impetus for change, with government business units and in-house IT joining forces with private sector partners and vendors to define long-term security strategies.
Here the focus is placed squarely on identity and access governance, identity management, and controls for securing access to data and information. Ubusha is uniquely placed to assist government on two fronts, as a trusted advisory partner and for solution delivery.
Share