The software company joins as a partner – to be there at the very beginning of the growth of this new community.
Software AG, a 53-year-old enterprise software company and Germany’s second largest software vendor, has partnered with the CIO South Africa community to be among the first to help grow the new community. Through their suite of legacy technology, integration, business transformation, IoT, and analytics products, Software AG is dedicated to assisting organisations in becoming truly connected enterprises.
Software AG backs CIO
Why is Software AG throwing its weight behind the CIO South Africa community? The answer is simple, says Itayi Madonga, CTO/presales director at Software AG: “Our leaders have had a first-hand account of how CFO Enterprises, by way of the CFO SA, CHRO SA and recently CIO SA community, has managed to grow these communities from the ground up.
“The CIO community is a brilliant platform for sharing, CIOs and IT companies should participate in sharing ideas. We are not just a company concerned about selling products, but a company that is concerned about ideation,” he continues.
Regarding the importance of the partnership between Software AG and CIO SA, Itayi says, “We are a vendor – that’s very clear – however, we don’t promote the whole us (vendors) and them (customers) philosophy. We rather want to look at a community, an ecosystem in which everyone has a role to play. Our interaction with CIOs should not necessarily be about selling them our technologies, but more importantly, about sharing ideas. This is key for us, as we believe, together, we can shape the technology consumption future for South Africa.”
According to Itayi, what attracted Software AG to CIO SA is the way CIO SA engages on content with executives, providing a platform to exchange ideas. “[We like] the approach you have taken, starting with bringing a good understanding of digital transformation to the CFOs and then CHROs and now this convergence where these two players and CIOs can work together to drive digital transformation.”
“We don’t see this platform as a sales platform – we see it as an ideation platform,” he notes.
The evolving CIO
Itayi says that as the world is becoming more digitised, he has noticed that the role of the CIO has also increased in importance and significance. As far as its function is concerned, the traditional CIO is no more. “CIOs now wear multiple hats, they are now strategists and leaders, and no longer just technical people – they must play that role and are at the core of driving technology in any organisation,” he says.
“For example, the CIO is at the centre of informing the HR and marketing department how they can use technology to drive processes.”
CIOs, Itayi observes, must have a clear understanding of the business in its totality and are, in fact, the new collaboration champions in the business. They must facilitate that collaboration, coupled with getting the buy-in across the entire business, when new technology is introduced.
“Where the CIO is on top of their game, there will be little room for shadow IT, particularly in large organisations, where different business units go out to get their own siloed technologies,” he concludes.
