Vodacom RBC 01 Nov 2015

The dream of every retail business is to be open for business throughout the day without facing the challenges associated with a 24 hour retail operation. The advent of digital makes this dream come true for most businesses; in fact many businesses are already living the dream.

For those that haven’t yet caught up, catchphrases such as cloud, big data, hosted services has them curious; the latest in these catchphrases being the digital economy. Experts say if you’re not in it, embracing it, driving it, you’re not doing business. Your customers aren’t communicating with you and you’re certainly not reaching them. Which brings us to a shift in business focus towards the customer. The client owns the relationship and if you as a business or government entity don’t realise that, you’re nowhere. This whole new way of interacting happens across social media, mobile devices and the internet. The cloud brings it all together. Well, ignore it at your peril.

But, you may ask, how do I get into this disruptive digital economy? The first step is finding a partner who can guide you and provide the tools that you need to play in this particular sandpit. Not only the technology, but the network that it runs on. And the cloud – which makes true mobility possible.

Note that we’re not just talking about large enterprise or public sector here, the same customer-oriented business focus applies equally to SMEs; because the cloud and mobility make it possible – and affordable – for any size of business to play in the digital economy. Access to an advisor to guide them on their digitalisation journey is particularly important to small business, equally so for large enterprise and public sector, who rely on good advice when it comes to setting up a solution that is a good fit.

Connectivity is key in the digital economy and king is the partner that can provide this. Since simple connectivity has evolved to omni-connectivity - be it WiFi, or mobile or satellite or whatever it may be, the experience should be seamless. Vodacom has global networks, underpinned by the bedrock – cellular, and as the Vodacom Business Chief Officer Vuyani Jarana says, fibre will enable the rise of smart infrastructure to facilitate broader Internet of Things adoption.

Naturally, no Vodacom publication would be complete without a glimpse into the Africa opportunity. Connecting companies with their customers, suppliers and colleagues with one another regardless of where they’re located.

Again, connectivity, mobility, data, the cloud, and most importantly security, come into their own. This is just the start of something BIG.

Gugu Mthembu