Author: Editor

By Howard Feldman, Head of Marketing & People at Synthesis Now that it’s all over, I can share the story of someone who was very angry with me. So angry was he, that he took the time to write a very long email with a very impressive number of words; and an even more impressive number of legal references that I did not check for accuracy. The email was not addressed to me but rather to Broadcasting Complaints Commission and to the radio station, who apparently needed to take me to task and give me a very serious talking to.…

By Lindiwe Duma, IoT System & Device Communication Manager at Remote Metering Solutions We are witnessing positive changes in the South African workplace. Women are making big shifts into industries and roles that were once predominantly male. One such field is the utilities sector and in particular the technical aspects thereof. While further career growth opportunities for women is needed, I do applaud the efforts made in recent years. Women are adept at using soft skills and emotional intelligence to better understand their team members and interact with everyone on an individual level. Generally, women are also very calculating. They…

For all their benefits, virtual meetings are not without their challenges, some of which are beyond the control of meeting attendees. Most crucially, humans have no built-in tools to guide or build virtual relationships. Nor can they make connections or deductions without the plethora of non-verbal communication cues that are hidden from the camera. Since it is going to take a while to rewire thousands of years of relationship evolutions, let us consider the next most significant issue faced by virtual meetings – that of background noise. Background meeting noise Working from home brings with it dogs, children, neighbours, and…

The Springboks are still on top of the world, having beaten the British and Irish Lions in a hard-fought, gruelling test series. Now for the next big one: Rugby World Cup 2023 in France. Yes, there will in the meantime be the Rugby Championships and a number of other massive test matches against teams such as the All Blacks, who would dearly want to show that they actually deserve to be regarded as the top team in the world, but whatever the results, they will only have bragging rights if they come up tops in France 2023. So, with just…

Surafusion is set to scale and take on more clients. However, while a company’s client base should change, its reliability should not. As a company that provides data reconciliation and reporting for large retailers and their franchisees and vendors, reliability is paramount. Surafusion provides a modern, enterprise-class, fully web-based reconciliation platform to its clients. It wanted to ensure customer satisfaction, reliability, data security and compliance as it grows. It reached out to Synthesis Software Technologies, an innovative software development and consulting company, and it began its journey, ensuring its platform could manage all of the above and more as it…

Construction remains a male-dominated industry across the globe, and South Africa is certainly no exception. The fact that women comprise only 11 per cent of the country’s total construction workforce is largely driven by stereotypes which stigmatise the employment of women in the industry. This needs to change, according to Databuild CEO Morag Evans. “While it is true that a large portion of construction work is physically challenging, this does not mean that women can’t or don’t want to work in construction,” she says. “There is so much more to the industry than the loading and unloading of heavy building…

The line between employee rights and workplace safety is becoming increasingly blurred in a world where vax meets anti-vax The COVID-19 vaccine debate has never been hotter. Take it, say the medical professionals and the vaccine believers. No, say the vaccine debaters and naysayers, influenced by social media and complex healthcare concerns. It’s a debate that has broken up families and friendships, and is now posing a very real threat to the stability of the workplace. It’s also one that has slipped into a grey area where organisation and individual stand at an impasse as work from home becomes work…

By Howard Feldman, Head of Marketing & People at Synthesis I am certain I am not alone in wishing Jacob Zuma a full and speedy recovery. I am certain that many in the country do not wish to see him ill and suffering if it means not having the satisfaction of seeing him back in court on trial for corruption. In fact, I know that I would feel particularly disappointed if he were to see the end of his days before a judgement is delivered. This is on the assumption that Zuma’s illness is actually real. Which seems unlikely, given…

SilverBridge Holdings has replaced the manual- and-paper based process of onboarding new customers at Hollard Namibia with a digital environment across its intermediary and call centre channels to improve new business turnaround times and conversion rates at the largest privately-owned insurance group in the country. Its intermediary channel was reliant on a manual process of completing policy application forms. From a call centre perspective, Hollard agents used spreadsheets to complete new applications and then subsequently captured those on the Exergy policy administration system. “Having had a long-standing relationship with Hollard, we proposed digitally enabling both these critical channels to link…

The Covid-19 pandemic has irrevocably changed the way buildings are being designed, constructed and managed. Architects and building owners are turning to technology to deliver an enhanced user experience as occupants increasingly demand buildings that are not only intelligent and more energy efficient but also hygienically safe, especially in high-traffic commercial environments such as offices, hotels, shopping malls, airports and hospitals. “The creation of smart buildings can yield considerable value when it comes to monitoring occupancy rates and supporting a safe and healthy environment, but it must be remembered that digitally engineered buildings generate a substantially large quantity of data,”…