South Africa: Potential growth area

The balance of power is shifting to emerging economies. Compared to stagnant Western markets, business growth and investment in the Middle-East, Africa and Russia (MEAR) continues unabated.

It’s a shift that’s amplified by technological advances. In under a decade, these seismic changes have levelled the playing field, opened the door to a global market and made rapid business growth a reality:

• The connected world where we can work, play and learn anytime, anywhere and with anyone.
• Virtualization made it easier to manage multiple servers and reduce physical computing power.
• Computing power has exponentially increased capacity and processing speeds so we can do much more for a lot less time and money.
• The cloud offers all the applications and storage businesses need minus the server infrastructure.

You’ll probably point out many other factors, but I picked these because they are particularly relevant to MEAR countries and their IT spending patterns. Specifically, they are backed up by Forrester research in 2012. This showed that over half of MEAR-based companies plan to invest more in mobility, analytics, security and collaboration.

Unlike more mature companies, their spending isn’t being eroded by having to maintain and support legacy systems. This frees up budgets to completely replace or expand their IT in ways that improve their competitiveness. The top three areas that Forrester highlighted from 2011 to 2012 were mobile apps (spending increase of 47%), business intelligence (44%) and collaboration tools (41%).

Further research was carried out by Canalys in February 2012 of its online channel community – resellers, systems integrators, service providers and distributors. The results showed a positive outlook across MEAR despite ongoing economic uncertainty. Over half emphasized a move from capital expenditure to operating expenditure, with the highest demand for IT services expected from small to midsize companies (with 100-499 employees). As a respondent said, “Companies working their way out of the crisis by expanding.”

As more companies seek new technologies to secure future growth, our partner network across MEAR needs to be ready to help them become the technology leaders of tomorrow.

*Forrester, 2012, Forrsights: Cautious Optimism in 2012 IT Spending Plans -- A BT Futures Report

*Canalys, 2012, Navigating through dramatic industry change

Tags: business intelligence, collaboration, Computing Power, EMEAR, Emerging Markets, mobility, security, The cloud, The connected world, virtualization

The land of opportunity

Without Cisco, the internet would be very different.

It’s unlikely that billions of people would be online; myself included. The web would be less robust, not as social and we probably wouldn’t be on the verge of The Internet of Everything – and the endless possibilities it will create.

We haven’t spent the last 27 years only building technology. By enabling businesses with the right tools and helping to connect 1.2 billion workers, we’ve stayed at the forefront of building entrepreneurial capacity worldwide. Our networks enable people to work better, and keep in touch anywhere and at any time. And now we’re playing our part in connecting an estimated 50 billion machines and devices by 2020*.

Against a backdrop of global recession, we’re supporting emerging economies and the next generation of entrepreneurs. In fact, across the Middle-East, Africa and Russia (MEAR) a staggering 37% of the population is under 15 years old – the consumers, business people and leaders of the near future – and 47% are living in urban environments. These are all statistics that I’m personally very excited about, as they provide massive opportunities.

As well as the sheer scale, the diversity, infrastructure challenges and newness of these markets mean that mobility and collaboration are absolutely key to business growth. So with that in mind our partner-led activity in MEAR is vital to our overall success – MEAR is simply an unmissable and untapped channel. And our network of 2,100 partners and 10,000 partner account managers across 84 countries are vital to catching this wave.

I want 2013 to be a fresh start for supporting our partner-led activities. We’ve proved we can transcend national, geographical and cultural boundaries to build strong relationships. That’s exactly what we need to do with our partners, starting now.

So please feel free to share your thoughts and comments on how we can work more productively together with our partners.

*The Internet of Things: How the Next Evolution of the Internet Is Changing Everything, Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), 2011

Tags: collaboration, Emerging Markets, Internet of Everything, IoE, mobility

The future of television may well include holographic, multisensory experiences worthy of science fiction. But many other visionary predictions are closer to the horizon, if not already upon us. These are creating exciting opportunities, while forcing all players in the television value chain to adapt quickly.

Recently, I met via Cisco^® TelePresence^® with more than 50 journalists from 11 countries—all in Central and Eastern Europe—to discuss the future of television and its impact on these mostly emerging markets. I participated with two of my colleagues: Kate Griffin, from the Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG) service provider practice; and Guillaume de Saint Marc, from Cisco’s service provider video technology group (SPVTG). The roundtable took place over two days and used a Cisco IBSG study, “The Future of Television: Sweeping Change at Breakneck Speed,” as a springboard for discussions that were lively and free-spirited. Read More »

Tags: advertising, Central Europe, Cisco, cloud, Eastern Europe, Emerging Markets, Fresco, future, IBSG, immersive, interactive, multiscreen, personalized, Service Provider, targeted, television, video, videoscape unity

By Jason Kohn, Contributing Columnist

As I scan the news feeds for new technology trends, I keep finding myself coming back to developing economies in Africa and Asia. As mobile network operators expand wireless services in these regions and mobile phone ownership grows, people continue to find new and amazing ways to use mobile networks to solve unique problems. Take healthcare.

In many rural and remote areas in Sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia, patients suffer from a multitude of healthcare challenges: lack of skilled physicians, lack of access to healthcare technologies, and lack of personalized healthcare information. But if there were ever a set of problems that mobile technology could address, this is it.

Read More »

Tags: africa, Asia, Emerging Markets, mHealth, mobile applications, wireless

By Jason Kohn, Contributing Columnist

When we think of cutting-edge technology, we tend to imagine likely applications in the most advanced markets. But today, mobile communication is leveling the playing field for innovation, to the point where we can find some of the most interesting technology innovations happening in the developing world.

The introduction of wireless connectivity into rural and low-income communities with unique needs is creating all sorts of fascinating new applications. Case in point: mobile micro-insurance.

Read More »

Tags: africa, Emerging Markets, microinsurance, MNO, mobile applications