SYSPRO sponsors symposium on tools, technologies for empowering a smarter world

SYSPRO was well represented as the main sponsor of the most recent industry symposium presented by the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University's (NMMU) Department of Computing Sciences, at The Plantation in Port Elizabeth.

The main objective of the symposium was to provide an opportunity for academics, IT professionals, and business people to connect and exchange knowledge and ideas. This third annual symposium focused specifically on the field of ubiquitous computing and how it can assist organisations to make more effective use of these tools and technologies. Ubiquitous or pervasive computing is a new genre of computing where computing intelligence is integrated unobtrusively and invisibly into all aspects of our everyday environment, thereby empowering our world and making it operate smarter and more efficiently.

The symposium was opened by Prof Piet Naude, NMMU Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic. He emphasised the value of an event of this nature, and spoke very positively about the networking potential of such an occasion, which encourages academia and industry to freely share ideas.

The event also hosted an array of prominent speakers from the industry. Topics presented included: mobility - changing interaction in Africa; using mobile instant messaging applications for empowering people; social networking for supporting business agility; and crowd sourcing tools for Africa. Kevin Dherman - SYSPRO Product Development Manager, concluded the symposium with a talk on mobility and the implications for business.

Dherman explained how recent studies have shown that the average consumer now has more than two devices that can connect to the Internet: “These devices run on various different platforms and support various different technologies, including touch. In today's world, consumers require the ability to access their mission-critical information from any device anywhere in the world on any platform.”

Prof Jean Greyling, Head of Department at NMMU Department of Computing Sciences, commended SYSPRO on helping to make an event of this nature possible: “The greatest value of this exercise is that industry professionals, academics and post-graduate students alike all gain from such a gathering,” said Greyling. “I would also like to further commend SYSPRO on the impressive and cutting-edge research being conducted within the organisation. I hope to find a way in which our two research entities (from SYSPRO and the department) may collaborate in the future.”