Businesses are increasingly starting to implement solutions based on tangible benefits, rather than industry trends.
So says Carl Townsend, services director at business applications and software vendor K2. "With new technology trends emerging rapidly, the challenge for businesses is determining which one to jump on," he says.
However, there is a positive shift under way as companies convert the latest technology waves, such as cloud, mobility and BYOD, into real business benefits.
"With the cloud, for example, companies are starting to understand its value-add and business reasons for doing it. They are beginning to see that the elasticity offered by the cloud model means organisations can take on computing projects that would have been completely beyond the capabilities of their in-house IT resources," explains Townsend.
The same principle applies to mobility, he notes, as companies are no longer adopting it because everyone else is doing it, but rather because it makes business sense.
Another positive shift, says Townsend, sees software vendors talking directly to businesses and customers and helping them understand the benefits of technology, instead of focusing on the technical aspects. This is occurring as customers become more informed and are start to ask very specifically for what they want, he adds.
What's more, many African companies are owned by multinationals, which also simplifies technology decisions, says Townsend. "You have, for example, Vodafone owning Vodacom, Absa being owned by Barclays. So although it's an African company you are dealing with, a lot of the work that we put in there has to form part of our global strategies. Therefore, apart from cultural considerations, the language and business goals are the same," he states.
In SA, businesses also tend to solve problems pragmatically. These positive shifts, notes Townsend, point to the IT industry catching up to its global counterparts. "It's not just isolated cases in different IT sectors; it's becoming a trend across the entire industry," he remarks.
Townsend adds: "Over the years, we've seen companies just leave it to IT departments to go and pick whatever technologies were available without really understanding what value these technologies will add to the organisation, or architects just picking up opinions from Gartner reports to make decisions based on these.
"Today it's all boiling down to delivery and commitment; we have moved into a space where the technology solutions offered don't just sit on the customer's shelf, but add real value to their business," he concludes.
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