Today, leading Chief Information Officers (CIOs) from a number of Africa’s biggest companies and international businesses operating in Africa mapped out the challenges and opportunities facing IT decision makers on the continent.
The high-level group of government and business decision makers convened in Johannesburg for GDS International’s inaugural Advisory Board Meeting, CIO Africa. In attendance were representatives from the Government of South Africa; mining giant Goldfields; paper, pulp and cellulose group Sappi; Nashua; ABSA bank; global electronics firm Ricoh International and Gartner, the world’s leading information technology research and analysis business.
Advisory Board Chairman and Executive Partner at Gartner Africa, George Ambler said: “The Johannesburg event is a timely forum as the global economy enters a period of recovery and decision makers are hard-pressed to consider strategies to work more efficiently and productively. “
The Advisory Board identified five key issues that will be top of the agenda for CIOs in 2011:
1) Corporate governance, risk and compliance 2) Access to connectivity 3) The role of IT in a recovering economy 4) Dealing with cost pressures and 5) The role of enterprise architecture in driving innovation across Africa.
Bradley Coward, Group CIO for SAPPI said: “The key question is how we can use IT to drive development and growth. It is important that we need to move from regarding IT purely as a cost issue to an integral driver of innovation. This year CIOs should place more emphasis on developing flexible infrastructure and delivering growth projects.”
Ambler expects that competing demands for business – limited budgets and sustained growth targets – will see the transformation of infrastructure in the coming years. “The technologies at front-of-mind for CIOs today are cloud computing, virtualisation and mobile technologies, when just a few years ago they prioritised business intelligence (BI) and enterprise applications. There is a real opportunity for Africa to leapfrog technologies by embracing these new developments and drive a digital revolution across the continent.”
In advance of the CIO Africa Summit in May 2011, the Advisory Board meeting is also an opportunity for businesses in Africa to address how they can harness IT to drive development and compete on a global level. GDS International, a global events company based in the UK brings together industry leaders for the Advisory Board meeting to debate the latest developments in a given sector. Advisory Board members are high-level, C-suite business and government decision makers with experience and insight to contribute to a lively debate and discussion.
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