ICA
FR
A
AL
I O N E L S
G
E
R ANN
CH
A F RIC
DRIVING AFRICAN
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
TO UNLEASH
Digital businesses require more
than just innovative technology
and services to be competitive;
they need a workforce capable of
extracting value out of the data,
systems and processes at their
disposal. Kate Mollett, Regional
Manager for Africa at Veeam, says
this also extends to the partner
ecosystem where an over-reliance
on technology can negatively
impact the investment employees
make in employee training.
THE POWER OF DATA
W
hile Machine Learning
and automation
provide great
opportunities for
enhancing business processes, organisations
still need to invest in skills development.
In South Africa, the government has
placed a huge emphasis on harnessing the
talent required to equip the country for
the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This is
critical in the channel as partners, resellers
and distributors are working together in a
close-knit ecosystem reliant on expertise
and collaboration.
Underpinning this need to develop human
talent is the ability to leverage access to data
for greater business insights to identify areas
for growth. Part of these insights include
the opportunity to use existing partner and
customer relationships to be repositioned as
a trusted advisor instead of being seen purely
as a technology supplier.
To do this effectively requires a willingness
for partners to work closer with their vendors
and build their knowledge around products
and services. For their part, vendors must
understand how their partners’ businesses
are changing and work with them to help
differentiate themselves, and not just sell
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products. And the key ingredient for this
is having a skilled workforce capable of
unlocking this potential.
According to the 2019 Veeam Cloud
Data Management Report, it is essential
for organisations to get the right digital
foundation in place to manage their
data better and safeguard their future.
This means businesses must be united
internally, with IT and the organisation
working collaboratively to address cultural
and skills challenges.
Those that have successfully embraced
these more sophisticated data management
In South Africa, the
government has placed
a huge emphasis on
harnessing the talent
required to equip the
country for the Fourth
Industrial Revolution.