Cisco Systems has moved its Pretoria office to The Innovation Hub with a view to designing solutions specifically for Africa and the developing world.
Vaughan Baptiste, Cisco's public sector account manager, says many technology solutions are based on global best practices, which are not necessarily relevant to the developing world. The company wants to transform such solutions to make them more Africa-oriented.
"One of the key reasons for Cisco's involvement with the Hub is its proximity to the CSIR and the University of Pretoria. This enables us to collaborate with players from academia, research, government and the technology industry, which means that we have four different fields coming together to build technology solutions that are contextual to Africa," he says.
"There are a number of technology areas for which we do not have Africa-specific solutions, but thanks to such joint efforts and the innovation they bring, I believe we will soon see relevant solutions springing from collaboration of this nature," he adds.
According to Hub CEO, Dr Neville Comins, the Hub is about developing intellectual property, and exposing tenants and residents to cutting-edge technology and the opportunity to interact with global companies and their cutting-edge facilities.
"We are keen to see continuous growth in the country's knowledge base, and agree with Cisco's view of treating the Hub as a place where local development can take place," says Comins.
"This is particularly important when one looks at the strange mix that constitutes the local market, namely that we are effectively serving technology solutions into the Third World from a base that is very much First World."
Comins says the Hub provides a perfect Beta site, allowing players to be exposed to the latest technologies that they can bend and break first, before taking them out into the rest of the world.
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More information is available at www.theinnovationhub.com and http://www.cisco.com/global/za/.