THE AFRICAN COURIER. Reporting Africa and its Diaspora! The African Courier is an international magazine published in Germany to report on Africa and the Diaspora African experience. The first issue of the bimonthly magazine appeared on the newsstands on 15 February 1998. The African Courier is a communication forum for European-African political, economic and cultural exchanges, and a voice for Africa in Europe.
African enterprises are excelling in their efforts to establish Intelligent Enterprise capabilities and take advantage of the immense opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This was one of the key outcomes at the 2019 SAP Quality Awards, which were held in Johannesburg on Wednesday evening (21 August), and which recognised some of Africa’s most innovative public and private sector SAP customers.
According to Nazia Pillay, Head of Active Quality Management for Africa at SAP Africa, this year’s nominees represented one of the strongest fields yet in the awards’ 15-year history. “All entries underwent stringent assessment and were judged according to our ten principles of quality. The high standards on display point to a bright future for technology-driven organisations operating in Africa.”
The SAP Quality Awards were established in 2005 as a means of recognising companies that have excelled in their use of SAP technologies to achieve digital transformation against a number of key metrics. This year, a total of 19 organisations from West, East and Southern Africa were recognised for their outstanding results across a number of successful implementations.
SAP has supported thousands of innovative African enterprises since its first office on the continent was established in Johannesburg in 1982. Today, the company works with more than 1800 customers across Africa, collaborating with 500 partners in 20 countries to help local enterprises, governments, SMEs and NGOs build Intelligent Enterprise capabilities and claim the benefits of the 21st century digital economy.
“This year, we added a new category for outstanding projects using SAP SuccessFactors to recognise African enterprises’ efforts in the on-going global talent war,” said Pillay. “Judging by the quality of submissions in the new category, African enterprises are making great strides toward attracting and retaining the continent’s growing talent pool, one that is expected to be the world’s largest in the coming decades.”
Overall winners at this year’s awards include Ugandan electricity distributor Umeme, which walked away with Gold in the Fast Delivery category; Standard Bank South Africa, which took Gold in the Business Transformation category; the City of Cape Town, which took top honours for Innovation; and Discovery Group, which claimed Gold in the newly-introduced SuccessFactors category.
According to Cathy Smith, Managing Director at SAP Africa, the quality of entries points to a bright future for Africa’s public and private sectors. “The Fourth Industrial Revolution will create enormous opportunity – at the same time it brings immense challenges. Encouragingly, African public and private sector leaders are taking up the challenge and are deploying technology in innovative and ground-breaking ways to solve problems and future-proof their business strategies. We look forward to continuing our close collaboration with customers and partners in the years ahead.”
The full winners list consists of:
Fast Delivery:
* Umeme Limited (Gold)
* MWEB (Silver)
* Dangote (Silver)
* Mukwano (Bronze)
* Builders Warehouse (Finalist)
Business Transformation:
* Standard Bank SA Limited (Gold)
* RCL Foods (Silver)
* Rossing Uranium Limited (Bronze)
* Britehouse (Finalist)
* Delta State (Finalist)
* Rural Electrification Authority (Finalist)
Innovation:
* City of Cape Town (Gold)
* The Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation (Silver)
* Sodiam (Bronze)
* KCB Group (Finalist)
SuccessFactors (new):
* Discovery Group (Gold)
* AECI (Silver)
* Liberty Group (Bronze)
* PG Group (Finalist)
