Author: Editor

By Rodney Ellis, Synthesis Service Manager With Black Friday around the corner, most if not all, e-commerce and retailers will have that feeling of anxiousness and dread in the weeks leading up to the day asking: “Will the site or systems stay up? Will it perform under the additional load?” and “If it goes down how fast can we recover?” Where to Start? Now that we know what potentially can go wrong and it will go wrong at some point, what can be done to avoid this from affecting customer experience and, at the end of the day, sales and…

By Hennie Moodie, New Business Lead at Remote Metering Solutions Now, more than ever, attention in South Africa has shifted to how best generate electricity at affordable rates and how to optimise utility management during these uncertain times. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) recently approved several electricity generation licences for floating power ships, could this become a viable alternative for the future? As the name suggests, a power ship is a special purpose ship on which a power plant is installed that can provide developing countries with ready-to-go infrastructure that plugs into the national grid when required.…

By Louise du Plessis, Strategic Product Manager at Trinity IoT Extraordinary events over the past five years have created the ideal environment to enable large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) projects in South Africa. First, the rapid adoption of the cloud due to COVID-19 has accelerated digital transformation across all business sectors since 2019. Second, the increasing availability of fibre and 5G connectivity across the country add further impetus to the changing technology landscape. Third, the recent arrival of AWS in South Africa, means businesses can capitalise on even more on-demand cloud computing resources. Regulatory concerns relating to data sovereignty and…

Celebrating 27 years in business, Trinity IoT is focused on empowering South African organisations with the ability to turn their live data into real world business value. Through the Trinity Connect Platform, organisations can manage their entire device and SIM estate using an integrated interface. And by introducing the rules engine capabilities of Connect into the environment, companies can automate business operations using their incoming asset data. “We saw the massive potential of GSM for businesses when the first telcos launched in the country in 1994. Our initial focus was on importing and reselling machine-to-machine devices for businesses who were…

It has taken the ANC light years to learn nothing By Howard Feldman, Head of Marketing & People at Synthesis In thirteen years, one can achieve a lot. It is possible to conceive, incubate, and then grow a full human child and then raise them to become a teenager. It is possible to launch a communication platform in 2008, call it WhatsApp and then sell it to Facebook for a ridiculous amount of money. Or around the same time one could create one of the largest property companies in the world and call it Airbnb. Or if someone wanted to…

South Africa’s construction industry has a pivotal role to play in helping the country meet its 2050 goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to net zero, says Databuild CEO Morag Evans, but this requires immediate and decisive action around the implementation of sustainable building practices. Globally, the construction and building industries account for around 39 per cent of carbon emissions, according to the World Green Building Council, while a United National Environment Programme report reveals that construction industry emissions reached their highest levels in 2019. Under the international Paris Agreement on climate change, to which South Africa is a signatory,…

Do your employees fully understand the processes behind payroll? Payroll, for many people, remains a mystery. The processes and calculations that sit behind the monthly amount that lands in the bank account are vague and complicated. Many employees find navigating the maze of benefits, healthcare and pension payments to be overwhelming and often don’t really understand why they’ve been paid more or less each month. Which is why, says General Manager of CRS, Ian McAlister, it’s invaluable to provide people with visibility into their payroll and payments. “The figure on the payslip is calculated using multiple factors that include the…

By Leandré Roux, Synthesis Senior Developer Having gone through the design and redesign of multiple Internet Banking systems over the years, I have noticed a few reoccurring themes. Most of our clients seem to deal with the same pains when modernising their platforms. Below I highlight the lessons, pitfalls, and successes that I have learned while building banking platforms. Putting lipstick on the pig How often is modernisation simply the act of applying a new lick of paint to an aging, underperforming system? I wager more often than we want to admit. Modernization should go hand in hand with innovation.…

In the US, consumers hold 3.8 billion memberships in customer loyalty programmes. Closer to home, the average number of loyalty programmes which South Africans belong to has increased to almost nine following the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Clearly, loyalty programmes provide a compelling value proposition, but how should consumers go about selecting ‘the right one’ for their needs? “Judging by some of the local research done, the most successful programmes are the ones where members get rewarded by not having to change their buying habits, for instance swiping a card and just going about their business. That being…

Syncrony a long-time Web partner for ATKV Syncrony Digital, one of South Africa’s premier Magento Ecommerce and Umbraco CMS developers, has been working with the Afrikaans Language and Culture Association (ATKV) since 2014. Syncrony works hard to ensure the ATKV’s 13 multi-lingual Web sites are continually updated with the latest content and most relevant technologies to provide a consistent and user-friendly browsing experience, especially on smartphones. Syncrony is responsible for all content across the ATKV Web site portfolio. This includes updating the tariff cards on resort pages, updating promotional content, keeping galleries and images up to date, ensuring all links…