Growing individual empowerment will challenge African governments and businesses in 2014, but it could unleash great economic development and social advancement, forecasters said in a ScreenAfrica report.
Frank Rizzo is technology leader at KPMG Africa, a global network of professional services companies providing audit, tax and advisory services.
“The exponential growth in the volume and speed of access to information and communication has numerous effects,” Rizzo told ScreenAfrica. “It can generate new markets and challenge existing institutions.”
Here’s what you can expect from technology in Africa in 2014, Rizzo said in ScreenAfrica:
• “Big data initiatives creating better insight for public and private sector entities;
• The boundary between what is considered public and what is considered private for individuals becoming increasingly blurred;
• New social service models enabled by technology;
• The evolution of security initiatives and policing to focus on dealing with the increase of cyber threats and cyber crime;
• A transformation of communication due to increased mobility demands by consumers and the workforce.”
As demand grows for free and accessible Wi-Fi, African governments must solve congestion issues for mobile network operators and increase open access networks in public spaces, forecasters said.
“We are likely to see more Wi-Fi in malls, stadiums and public places,” said Michael Fletcher, sales director for Ruckus Wireless Sub-Saharan Africa. “While we have seen a large uptake from the hospitality and education sectors, we are likely to see more Wi-Fi in public places and hotels that will be forced to provide good quality Wi-Fi and in most cases, for free.”
Advances in technology have empowered people to demand transparency and participation in all aspects of decision making, forecasters said in ScreenAfrica.
Companies need to look at collaborative ways of operating that encourage both employees and consumers to be actively involved in the business or brand, a forecaster said. Expect to see a focus on social business software and a slow migration away from e-mail centricity.
Generating content that is readily available on all forms of mobile devices for a specific target audience is going to be a big trend in 2014, forecasters say.
“Images will outrank words for valuable data,” said Dawie Harmse, co-founder and head of technology at Maven Agency. “Less will become more and a big trend will be to simplify marketing messages in 2014, taking away the guesswork and leaving a solid impression on the consumer.”
Pushed by demand, the big data market will grow by 31.7 percent until it reaches $23.8 billion in 2016, International Data Corp. predicts.
As a result, interest in influence analysis will likely rise, said Martin Rennhackkamp, CIO at PBT Group.
“The biggest change I foresee is on the social media/social analytics front. Many organisations are doing, or are interested in doing sentiment analysis. It’s all good to analyze what is being said – and what the sentiment of that is – but we also need to consider the influence and context of the speaker/tweeter/poster,” Rennhackkamp said in ScreenAfrica.
Harmse agreed: “With all the data comes the remarketing of it and the opportunity to analyze and interpret it to best suit the business. As a result, customer relationship management and e-mail re-marketing should see a rise in popularity once more. Through in-depth analysis of the data, businesses can send the consumers on targeted journeys of communication that fit their interests and criteria.”
