Convergence is not a new concept, but the extent to which it is enabling consumers to live connected lifestyles has caught many organisations by surprise, says FRANK RIZZO of KPMG. 

Even though consumers have access to a multitude of devices, ranging from smartphones to tablets, to book readers and ultra books, the trend is that all these devices are designed to empower users to get what they want, when they want it.

Gone are the days of ‘speeds and feeds’ when users wanted the fastest processors or the best graphics card. Today, users care about how the device enables them to digitally interact with one another and generate and consume content.

In many ways, consumer convergence has leapfrogged that of the business environment and is forcing organisations to re-evaluate their business models to adapt to the challenges of the always-connected world.

The converged lifestyle

KPMG recently published The Converged Lifestyle: Consumers and Convergence 5. In the report, the company examined consumer preferences and biases to identify the most critical trends for organisations that want to understand what the converged lifestyle is all about.

The converged lifestyle sees two key trends. Firstly, with users having all the devices they need to connect and interact with technology, they feel that their suppliers need to adapt and keep up with them. Secondly, we are seeing a shift in how work and personal lives of people are being separated again.

The business and personal split is becoming more clinical than in the past.

With the rise of social media, people are using different platforms to meet specific needs. Facebook is used as a personal tool where people interact with their friends. When it comes to LinkedIn, the environment is professional with networking and business interaction the order of the day.

Organisations that succeed in this space will be the ones that consumers trust. Traditional businesses have not quite made the leap, but there are certain industries that are moving fast to embrace this new world.

Banking on change

“Innovation’ and ‘fast-moving’ are not two terms generally associated with the current global banking industry. In South Africa, the local banking industry is embracing social media in an era of PayPal, eBay, and the like. They are coming up with new ways of engaging with their existing client base and targeting new clients.

There are many examples of how local banks are using social media platforms to interact with their customers. However, the use and application of social media data also raises a number of questions for banks that must be addressed before they can start taking advantage of this information.

Firstly, the validity of user-generated data from social media is notoriously difficult to confirm. Banks should consider the type of analysis they might need to verify the actual value of the data and whether it is representative of their customers’ actual lives, demands and feedback.

With social media being increasingly adopted in the banking industry, data from these platforms will increasingly become commoditised and will diminish in value over time. Banks will need to adjust and adapt their analysis mechanisms continuously to be able to extract information that will provide a competitive advantage.

Data challenges

Banks, like any other industry, are also faced with effectively managing the sheer volume of data. In addition, this means that the data could be used in such a way as to support almost every possible scenario.

Due to its open nature, social media can easily be corrupted. Outside data could be fed in to social media channels from competitors that could not only impact brand reputation, but can also lead organisations to distrust the data in the first place.

Finally, ownership of social media data is a critical question for many industries. Given that the data resides in the public domain, banks may well wonder whether they need to own the data to properly conduct and use their analysis.

The converged lifestyle has empowered consumers who are increasingly vocal about their preferences and demands. Businesses that are able to gauge and respond to this evolving consumer relationship will ultimately build stronger relationships and gain the critical trust of their customers.

* Follow Gadget on Twitter on @gadgetza

Malcolm Rabson

believes companies should rather look at properly integrating their current technology systems than rushing off and buying new and innovative products. 

According to research, the South African IT services market experienced healthy growth throughout 2010, growing 8% year-on-year, with the IDC expecting this market to exceed $5 billion in 2012. While the figures are evident that IT spend is on the increase, post the economic recession, software development experts Dariel Solutions shed some light on what businesses should really be focusing on from a technology services point of view in 2012.

Without a doubt IT spend is on the up, however companies should remain frugal and ensure that IT spend in 2012 is not only about investing in new and innovative technology products and services, but rather, we strongly believe that businesses should pay attention to (and thus spend a larger portion of their budgets on) integrating their existing technology systems. Through the integration of technology, businesses can gain a clear understanding of which technology platforms are in place, what gaps currently exist in these systems, what as a result needs to be done to close these gaps and determine the required technology for their business models. This not only can save businesses costs, but also streamlines and optimises processes, where information is better consolidated through the use of technology.

This can certainly be seen as a more viable and cost effective option when looking at technology investments for 2012 and considering all the talk around the possibility of another economic crisis, businesses still need to remain conscious around cost-saving and economic business management. While certainly businesses cannot wait for the market to pick up to invest in technology, as this can result in being ‘left behind’, decision makers should audit their business from a technology perspective, weigh up the innovative technologies coming through (there are many) and decide on the course of action for that competitive edge.

Dariel Solutions, recommend that businesses look at and pay attention to, the following technology trends that they feel will shape the year:

- Automated processes - 2012 will see more businesses turning to automated processes, as software becomes the electricity of an organisation. Such processes allow for the creation of a more efficient business, as well as save costs.

- Business Intelligence - in line with the trend of automated processes, 2012 will likely see more spend in areas such as Business Intelligence (BI), where businesses owners will be turning to data extracted from automated processes to make more strategic business decisions.

- The move towards everything as a service – although this was a prominent trend towards the end of 2011, it will remain a journey that the IT services industry takes throughout 2012. Yet it will be a technology concept that is evolutionary and not revolutionary as it is often projected. As technologies such as virtualisation and cloud computing continue to grow, so the industry will slowly start to migrate to everything becoming a service, however what will be important to take note of in 2012 will be the finer issues that arise as this concept sees growth, such as the impact it will have on business productivity.

2012 will be a cautionary year for business in terms of spend in general, but it should also be a year that businesses look to invest in the right technology, to ensure their strategies align with the results they want to achieve throughout the year and beyond – especially given the competitive market currently. It is for this reason that businesses should now – at the beginning of the New Year – re-look at current technology infrastructures. Smart companies will do just this. It’s not always about new, but rather the integration of new and old – and this is the key to achieving continuous success.

* Follow Gadget on Twitter on @gadgetza

At a conference in Amsterdam and a launch in South Africa last week, BlackBerry and Nokia respectively revealed that they would remain a formidable force in Africa, writes ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK.

Africa is an unlikely high-tech battleground for the future of the smartphone market.

While most Western markets are locked in a fight between Apple’s iPhone on the one side and a range of brands using the Android operating system (OS) on the other, the picture across the African continent is entirely different.

It is a market dominated by Nokia, but in which BlackBerry has become the aspirational phone of choice for the tiny elite at the top of the economic pile. In South Africa itself, BlackBerry has broken out into the mass market, to become the biggest smartphone brand and second biggest overall.

Yet, in Western markets, both of these brands were having their obituaries written at various times during 2011. Nokia had announced it was ditching its Symbian OS in favour of Microsoft’s Windows Phone, and BlackBerry’s entry into the tablet market, the PlayBook, was all but dead on arrival as it failed to meet user needs.

Now, the most unlikely pair of revivals are under way.  This week, Nokia released the first of its new Windows Phone-based devices in South Africa. Physically, the Lumia 800 looks almost exactly like the Nokia N9, which was released to wild acclaim late last-year, but which uses a once-off OS that Nokia does not intend to maintain.

The key difference, aside from a range of new colour options, lies in the way the devices are being sold: a Vodacom contract on the Lumia costs R279, compared to R299 for the N9, and includes 100MB of data per month for 24 months, compared to the N9’s three month data allowance. The pricing sends a clear message: Nokia wants customers to come on over.

The Windows Phone OS will initially be unfamiliar to most Nokia loyalists, but it will grow on them – especially when they discover a mobile version of Micosoft Office on the device, enabling a surprisingly extensive range of Word and Excel functions. If that’s not enough, the sharp, vibrantly bright screen uses a cutting edge screen technology called AMOLED. The phone is beautiful to the eyes and the touch.

Several Lumia models will follow, at various price points, along with a low-cost Nokia range called the Asha – Hindi for “hope”.

The hope is, of course, that it will give the massive Nokia user base throughout the developing world a reason to stay with the brand. The Lumia, on the other hand, is designed to give smartphone users a reason to go back to Nokia. Between the two, they signal the rebirth of the world’s most powerful phone brand outside North America.

A similar resurrection is under way at BlackBerry and its manufacturer, RIM, which has been entirely written off by American analysts. This week, RIM chose Europe to herald its comeback. New CEO Thorsten Heins delivered his debut address at DevCon Europe, BlackBerry’s developer conference in Amsterdam.

While he did not make dramatic announcements, he reminded the audience that BlackBerry was still the number one smartphone brand in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, South Africa, Nigeria, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates

He also led a string of RIM executives through demonstrations of the capabilities of the new OS, BlackBerry 10, which is expected to allow BlackBerry to compete with the functionality of Android and Apple phones for the first time. The most important of these demos, arguably, was of the PlayBook 2.0 tablet computer, which provides a foretaste of the BlackBerry 10 experience.

Not only does it repair the damage of the first PlayBook by including e-mail on the device, but it takes it to new levels by providing a rich range of messaging and contact options, along with performance improvements. The much-maligned Bridge, which previously was used to connect to a phone’s e-mail, now becomes a remote control tool between the two devices.

The PlayBook 2.0 will be released this month, and BlackBerry 10 phones will appear later in the year.

That may be just in time to catch the wave of South African BlackBerry users who began embracing the phone from late 2010, and who would otherwise be falling to the allure of Android and Windows Phone when their upgrades are due.

• Follow Arthur Goldstuck on Twitter on @art2gee,

The Advanced High Performance Light Aircraft

is a two-seat pusher prop airplane able to get up to speeds of 40kph, writes Tom Nevis.

South Africa’s Paramount defence and aerospace company has unveiled its latest air innovation, and it’s causing a buzz at home and abroad. The fururistic aircraft is billed as South Africa’s first fully home-built high-tech solution capable of multitasking roles currently handled by fixed wing aircraft, helicopters and UAVs.   “We call it the ‘ground breaking multi-role aviation platform’,” says Paramount Group Chairman Ivor Ichikowitz, “and its impact for South Africa and the continent at large is taking regional aviation to an entirely new level.”

The space-age aircraft is a brainchild of chairman Ichikowitz and is being developed jointly by Paramount and Aerosud, an established leader in the South African aviation industry.

The aircraft’s given name is the Advanced High Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft (Ahrlac), described more precisely by Ichikowitz as a ”low-cost aerial reconnaissance, surveillance and armed patrol system with specific support capability for a wide range of security and peacetime  operations”. Technically the Ahrlac is a tandem two-seat, pusher prop airplane with a twin boom empennage. The back seat is raised considerably with the large canopy giving both crew members panoramic visibility. It is powered by a 950hp Pratt & Whitney PT6a-66 turboprop engine delivering a top speed of 272 knots (around 400kph) loitering at around 70kph, more than 1100 nautical mile range and some 7.5 hours of endurance. The total payload capability, excluding fuel and crew is around 800kg.

It is described as “definitely affordable, cheaper than converted civilian aircraft and less expensive than a small helicopter”.

Construction of a first prototype is reportedly well advanced with wind-tunnel testing completed. A quarter size radio controlled model has made numerous flights. Eventual cost in the market place: probably between $6m to $10m. Aerosud is largely an engineering business whereas Paramount focuses on marketing and innovation.

“What’s happened in time,” says Ichikowitz, “is that Paramount has created an innovation capability with a market driven approach, whereas Aerosud is more technology focused. Now we’re bringing the two values together. The union is creating very positive stuff, great stuff. We’re excited about the future of the collaboration.”

That meeting of minds resulted in the Paramount-led joint development of Ahrlac and debuted South Africa’s first fully home-grown aircraft – from design to manufacture.

The Ahrlac mission definition is specific, although not exclusively so, to homeland security covering applications such as border security, coastal and maritime patrol, and the combating of piracy and drug trafficking.

Paseka Lesolang

Paseka has invented a flushless organic enhancement for standard toilets that can save 140 litres of water per day for an average four person household. It also removes the need for users to touch a flush handle, reducing the potential for contact with pathogens. A complementary digester converts waste to fertiliser.

As a dynamic young entrepreneur, Paseka has succeeded in making it to the final 50 or so applicants to the Unreasonable Institute project’s six week workshop in Boulder, Colorado USA out of over 300 applicants from 55 counties. Here he will be exposed to world class mentorship, networking, potential investors, technical assistance and legal and design consultants.

The catch is that the finalists have to raise the $10 000 attendance fee in small scale contributions from supporters in their home environments. At the moment, the most that any one person can sponsor Paseka for is $100. This is designed to demonstrate the finalists’ marketing abilities, because only the first 25 to reach the amount will get to attend.

If Paseka can get a hundred sponsors for $100 in the next couple of weeks or even more people donating just a few dollars, he will get a jump start to becoming a world class entrepreneur and be able to commercialise and market his invention. But it’s a race to be one of the 25 attendees to the high-intensity accelerator workshop.

Donations can be made for Paseka at https://marketplace.unreasonableinstitute.org/project/whc/ . The Unreasonable Institute is a non-profit organisation named after a quotation from George Bernard Shaw “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

Mentors range from high placed corporate executives such as Tony Prophet from HP, to Paul Polak, an entrepreneur who has helped 19 million farmers move out of poverty. The six week programme ends with a pitch from the attendees to hundreds of potential funders and supporters.

Pieter Uys

Today, Vodacom unveiled the completed Vodafone Site Solutions Innovation Centre, the first ever 6-star Green Star SA rated building in South Africa, at its head office in Midrand. The Green Building Council of South Africa rating validates the centre as the greenest building in Africa.

Speaking at the official launch of the building, Vodacom CEO, Pieter Uys highlighted the opportunity for companies to use their own sector technology and expertise to find solutions to meet critical social, environmental and governance challenges.

The Centre is a carbon neutral building that will house a team of 12 experts who will look at technological ways to reduce the company’s carbon footprint across the globe as well as reduce the cost of rolling out and maintaining cellular networks.

The concept started with an idea to create a centre to speed up the development of Vodafone’s sustainability goals to meet the group’s target of reducing global CO2 emissions by 50% by 2020, and to achieve a 20% carbon intensity reduction target for emerging markets by March 2015.

Vodafone chose to create this Innovation Centre in South Africa because it is, in many respects, both an emerging and developed economy. This particular location would help the group achieve its targets in a more consolidated and focused manner.

“Our objectives really address two core strategic deliverables; one being our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint and the other to reduce operational costs while increasing enterprise value across the company. We firmly believe that the Vodafone Site Solutions Innovation Centre will drive the delivery of these objectives, not only for Vodacom in South Africa, but also for the broader global group,” says Uys.

What makes this building so environmentally ahead of the curve are the following elements:

Recycling: Wherever possible, demolition material from the site has been reused or recycled.

Structure of building: The project reduced the amount of concrete used in the foundations and sub structure by 34%. 

Energy efficiency: Usage of the Solyndra photovoltaic panels reduced the wind load, absolute weight and ultimately the total amount of wood and structural material required for the roof.

Water efficiency: Efficient water fixtures and fittings have been installed resulting in significant savings in water consumption.

Indoor environmental quality: The mechanical air conditioning, heating and ventilation system is designed to deliver 2 500litres/second of fresh air to the office during normal operations, and 1 250 litres/second of fresh air in heating mode.

Emissions: The chiller uses Lithium Bromide as the refrigerant which has both a zero Ozone Depleting Potential (ODP) and a zero Greenhouse Warming Potential. All thermal insulants have an Ozone Depleting Potential (ODP) of zero.

As a proof point of its commitment to developing sustainable technology that remains at the forefront of the mobile industry, Vodafone and its local partner Vodacom, have already started making some significant inroads.

In November last year, they developed an environmentally focused hybrid cell tower that uses a combination of solar, wind and fuel cell technology. This cell tower was used to connect delegates at COP17 in Durban late last year.

A community power programme was also launched that showed how mobile operators can bridge the energy divide in communities without power, by oversupplying base stations in that area with renewable energy which can be diverted to critical points within the community.

The community power initiative could become a game changer for rural areas that have no access to power. As power is being supplied to the community high school, it also increases the quality of education in an area.

Both projects are a good example of how a sustainable approach can reduce both environmental impact and operational costs while increasing the tangible and intangible value of a company.

* Article courtesy of Gadget

* Follow Gadget on Twitter on @gadgetza

Thorsten Heins

A civilised “passing of the baton” at BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) may well presage a messy struggle to find the right buyer for the company.

The announcement of the appointment of Thorsten Heins as President and Chief Executive Officer was couched in deeply diplomatic terms, to ensure that it is characterised as planned succession, rather than the former co-CEOs bowing to massive pressure from investors, industry and media.

A formal statement from RIM began: “The Board of Directors of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) today announced that, acting on the recommendation of its Co-Chief Executive Officers to implement the succession plan they previously submitted to the Board, it has unanimously named Thorsten Heins as President and Chief Executive Officer.  Mr. Heins was also appointed to RIM’s Board. The Board acted after conducting its own due diligence. Both appointments are effective immediately.”

Former Co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, who have long resisted shareholder pressure for change, each own more than 5% of RIM’s shares, giving them a powerful hand in how the company is run. It also means that they are controlling the positioning of the transition tightly.

Lazaridis has been named Vice Chair of RIM’s Board and Chair of the Board’s new Innovation Committee, whileBalsillie remains a member of the Board. Barbara Stymiest, a member of RIM’s Board since 2007, has been named independent Board Chair.

As Vice Chair, said Lazaridis, he will work closely with Heins “to offer strategic counsel, provide a smooth transition and continue to promote the BlackBerry brand worldwide”.

Heins, for his part, said: “Mike created a whole new way of communicating and I look forward to continuing our close collaboration.”

Elaborating on the transition, Lazaridis, deliberately  avoided mention of the challenges facing RIM: “There comes a time in the growth of every successful company when the founders recognize the need to pass the baton to new leadership. Jim and I went to the Board and told them that we thought that time was now.  With BlackBerry 7 now out, PlayBook 2.0 shipping in February and BlackBerry 10 expected to ship later this year, the company is entering a new phase, and we felt it was time for a new leader to take it through that phase and beyond.  Jim, the Board and I all agreed that leader should be Thorsten Heins.”

Balsillie echoed these words: “I agree this is the right time to pass the baton to new leadership, and I have complete confidence in Thorsten, the management team and the company.”

He also took the opportunity to remind the market who calls the shots: “I remain a significant shareholder and a Director and, of course, they will have my full support.”

Meanwhile, Lazaridis intends to gain even greater control: “I am so confident in RIM’s future that I intend to purchase an additional $50 million of the company’s shares, as permitted, in the open market.”

That, of course, would be a clever move if the company is close to being sold. There is little doubt that any buyer would pay a premium over the current $8.5-billion market capitalisation, which is lower than the asset value of the company. Strong speculation emerged last week that RIM had tried to engage Samsung in acquisition talks, but that the latter wasn’t interested.

A more likely buyer would be one of the lesser phone brands that has struggled to get a look into the current global smartphone war, where the chief combatants seem to be Nokia, Samsung and Apple, with BlackBerry and HTC maintaining the high ground in some markets. The outsiders include Sony and LG, whose market shares have slumped in recent years. Even the emerging Chinese brands Huawei and ZTE, who are about to take on the developing world with cheap Android-based smartphones, understand the appeal of BlackBerry at the high end of these markets.

The buyer could also come from outside the phone market. Microsoft is often cited, as is Google – although the latter may not have the appetite for it after the lukewarm market reaction to its Motorola acquisition. Could BlackBerry’s e-mail and Messenger application be incorporated successfully into Windows or Android phones? That development challenge may be too costly for either organisation, even if the purchase price is right.

Then there may be candidates out of left field, who would be interested in the corporate user base BlackBerry has built up, and do not have an operating system legacy to defend. That could apply to any laptop maker, although most are already in the Android fold for their tablets.

The most likely purchaser, ultimately, would be a consortium of investors. Should that come to pass, it should also be expected that existing executive management would not be around for long, following the sale. The focus would be on turnaround, and then all bets would be off for the current BlackBerry roadmap.

However, it is likely that RIM would wish to sell to one of the market leaders in Western markets – if they have the luxury of that choice. Laziridis would prefer the market turn its attention away from that debate, saying he had decided to move to the Vice Chair role in order to return the public’s focus to what is most important, i.e. “the great company we have built, its iconic products, global brand and its talented employees.”

The announcement did not suggest a greater sense of urgency around the need for BlackBerry to respond more quickly to shifts in market demands. Quite the contrary: Heins endorsed current management style: “It is Mike and Jim’s continued unwillingness to sacrifice long-term value for short-term gain which has made RIM the great company that it is today.  I share that philosophy and am very excited about the company’s future.”

Heins joined RIM from Siemens Communications Group in 2007 as Senior Vice President for Hardware Engineering. He became Chief Operating Officer for Product and Sales in August 2011, and has thus been part of RIM’s transition from smartphone market leader to a company battling against declining market share.

However, in his sales role, he is keenly aware of the fact that the company’s demise has been severely exaggerated.

“We have a strong balance sheet with approximately $1.5 billion in cash at the end of the last quarter and negligible debt.  We reported revenue of $5.2 billion in our last quarter, up 24% from the prior quarter, and a 35% year-to-year increase in the BlackBerry subscriber base, which is now over 75 million.”

The near future is already mapped out for Heins, and he expressed no intention to change its current development path:

“Mike and Jim took a bold step 18 months ago when RIM purchased QNX to shepherd the transformation of the BlackBerry platform for the next decade. We are more confident than ever that was the right path.

“Going forward, we will continue to focus both on short-term and long-term growth, strategic planning, a customer- and market-based product approach, and flawless execution. We are in the process of recruiting a new Chief Marketing Officer to work closely with our product and sales teams to deliver the most compelling products and services.”

Nevertheless, it is inevitable that behind the scenes, the debates must be raging. Waiting for the end of 2012 for a new operating system, when the old one is clearly inadequate for the apps revolution, may be too much of a stretch for the market. However, Blackberry’s reputation for innovation and market responsiveness will, to some extent, also be riding on what the PlayBook 2.0 tablet can deliver when it is launched in the coming weeks.

RIM’s founders may have stepped aside, and they may well be hawking the company around, but the BlackBerry brand is not ready to go away.

Thorsten Heins biography (as supplied by RIM)

Thorsten Heins, 54, is a respected business leader with 27 years of broad experience and expertise in wireless networks and consumer electronics devices. Mr. Heins has a global reputation for his organizational and leadership skills and his ability to build successful organizations that deliver on their commitments. Prior to today’s announcement, Mr. Heins was one of RIM’s two Chief Operating Officers and, before that, Senior Vice President for the Handheld Business Unit.  He played key roles in the creation of RIM’s product portfolio. Mr. Heins came to RIM in December 2007 from the industrial conglomerate Siemens AG.  He joined Siemens in 1984 after graduating from the University of Hannover in his native Germany.  At Siemens, Mr. Heins rose through the ranks of R&D customer service, sales and product management positions.  After serving as Chief Executive Officer of various business divisions in the communication business, Mr. Heins moved to Chief Technology Officer and member of the Group Board of the Siemens Communications Group. He came to RIM after being impressed by the level of innovation displayed by founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie. Mr. Heins is married with a daughter and a son. Away from RIM, he is usually outdoors bicycling, motorcycling, skiing or hiking.

* Arthur Goldstuck is editor-in-chief of Gadget and managing director of tech research company World Wide Worx. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee

Paroshen Naidoo

When people have visibility of their household’s energy load with instant insight into the fluctuations in consumption when appliances are switched on and off, they are not only empowered but also inclined to change their habits to cut consumption.

This is according to Paroshen Naidoo from Utillabs, a Midrand-based company that has been nominated for an award in the 2011 Eskom eta Awards for its smart Utility Load Management System.

Naidoo says that a 10% reduction in consumption can be achieved in the residential sector purely through behavioural change. However, a lack of understanding of how and where to apply energy saving tactics in the home means a lot people aren’t motivated to try. Many studies across nine countries show that when people have real-time insight into their household’s consumptions levels, and can immediately see how usage drops when they unplug an appliance, they become more conscious of the impact of their energy usage behaviour. The studies also suggest that with real-time insight, consumers can cut back their consumption by between 9% and 12%.

Utillabs Utility Load Management System delivers the visibility to empower people to make the right changes, while providing municipalities with monitoring, analysis and communication tools that help to optimise efficiencies and processes, and enable them to deliver a better customer service.

“With our smart system, municipalities and their customers become active partners in managing the demand for power and in alleviating the burden on the national supply,” says Naidoo

One of the devices forming part of the end-to-end system is the Eddi (Electricity Demand Display Instrument). Eddi is a clever, plug-and-play device that monitors and accurately displays a household’s electricity consumption in real-time. It is non-invasive and fits into any three-pin plug socket.

Aside from delivering feedback on current energy usage, Eddi can be used to alert electricity consumers when the power supply in their area is constrained. An alert on the display will notify the customer of the load limit that has been set by the utility in order to maintain the stability of the electricity network and prevent a power outage.

Util Labs’ load limiting technology was first tested-out with great success during an Eskom-sponsored pilot in Gauteng in 2008. The company has since refined the device and built in other features to the system to enhance the user experience. The system now features a user-friendly online dashboard which offers customers tools to view current usage, check overall consumption, calculate their carbon footprint and more.

“This information represents a quick win for consumers. They don’t have to wait two months in order to see how much electricity they’ve used and how much they have managed to save,” says Naidoo, adding when consumers have an understanding of the energy demand of appliances, they are more likely to look for energy efficient versions when it comes time to buy new appliances.

The Utility Load Management System gives municipalities the capability to monitor the electricity network at all points in real-time. Using the system, municipalities have full visibility of the network and they are better equipped to manage the load, prevent outages and pinpoint the area and cause of power failures.

“At the moment, municipalities only have visibility to sub-station level. This means that there are often delays in rectifying problems and turning the power back on in affected areas. Our smart system brings the whole LV distribution network into the utility’s control room. The system delivers alarms and event information on the network in real time. The intelligent analysis of these alarms allows the utility to test the lines and quickly pinpoint and diagnose faults.

“With the system, municipalities can improve efficiencies in terms of outage management, cut-offs and non-payment, as well as communicate directly and cost-effectively with customers by sending messages to the Eddi device,” Naidoo explains.

Utillabs is working hard to get municipalities to buy into the fully locally-developed and manufactured system, which has been patented in South Africa, the USA and UK. Already, Ulil Labs is managing 14 000 customers in various municipalities. The goal is to get four million of South Africa’s electricity using households onto the system.

“With just 2.5 million people on the system, actively employing meaningful behavioural tactics to save power in their own homes, we could save one whole power station,” says Naidoo.

Meinhard Fourie

, an energy expert from Cape Town, was a runner-up in the Innovation category of Eskom’s 2011 eta Awards for a, energy-saving pool pump motor. 

There are approximately a million swimming pools in South Africa and this number is expected to grow at 3% per year. The size of pump motors installed ranges from 0.55kW to 1.1kW. Generally a swimming pool has to filter for 10 to 12 hours a day.  This translates to approximately 0.6GW of installed capacity in South Africa; enough to meet the electricity demand of 500 000 average households

As a result Meinhard started investigating the development of an energy efficient swimming pool pump motor some two years ago. Various prototypes were built and tested until a suitable solution was found to satisfy the South African market from both a cost and energy perspective.

Meinhard installed his pool pump on a pool and has achieved a saving of approximately 3kWh per day without compromising on run times. This will be especially beneficial to pool owners running chlorinators.  This is an extremely innovative approach to pumping solutions which has the potential to cost effectively meet a much broader application.

Dimension Data has announced that it has reached a revenue of $5.8 billion at the end of September. This is a 14.8% increase from the same period last year.

Dimension Data today announced a strong set of results for the year ended September 2011 with revenue increasing 14.8% to reach US$ 5.79 billion from US$ 4.74 billion in 2010, and double digit operating profit growth of 10.8%.

Dimension Data’s System’s Integration (SI) business, which makes up 78% of total revenue, continues to be the main thrust behind the Group’s success, recorded total revenues of US$ 4.5 billion and a 12.8% growth year-on-year with an operating profit of US$ 202.7 million – up 7% on FY10.  By region, Europe, Asia and Australia delivered good growth, while MEA was steady.  In the Americas, Canada, Mexico and Chile recorded excellent growth, with operating profit in the USA flat year on year.

In the Group’s other businesses, Internet Solutions (IS) grew revenue by 6.9%; Plessey lifted revenue by 22.9% and Express Data’s revenues expanded by 24.3%, with Merchants and Learning Solutions delivering strong contributions.

Internet Solutions grew operating profit by 9.1% at an operating margin of 12.6%, supported by an ongoing capital expenditure programme. Operating profit in Express Data declined by 5.6% for the year reflecting product margin pressures while Plessey’s operating profit improved substantially off a low base in FY2010.

Services revenues in the Group’s SI business were up 17.7%, supported by solid Managed Services and Professional Services.  While Managed Services was consistent throughout the period, Professional Services growth slowed in the second half, in line with lower Product growth.

Gross margin was 21.8%, slightly lower (0.4%) than 2010. This was mainly the result of lower Managed Services margins, while Product and Professional Services margins were stable.

Product revenues expanded 12.8%, with a weaker performance in the second half, in an environment where clients were holding back on major new technology projects.
Double Digit Growth

Commenting on the Group’s overall performance, Brett Dawson, Dimension Data’s CEO said, “Against the backdrop of a volatile global economy and tough trading conditions, this year’s double digit growth is an outstanding performance.  In addition, our growth in Managed Services was particularly pleasing.

“We have built a strong foundation from which to generate growth. That’s because we anticipated key market trends such as IP networking, Unified Communications, virtualisation and cloud, and moved early to provide our clients with the relevant solutions and services.”

This year, the Group also continued to build on its substantial Annual Services Contract Value, with growth of 13.0% over the previous year. “This gives us tremendous confidence knowing that we are providing value to our clients and that they trust our ability to deliver.  Over the next 12 months, we will accelerate our multi-vendor, multi-geography, and pro-active services, specifically Managed Services and IT Outsourcing,” explained Dawson.

Dimension Data continues to be perfectly positioned to meet clients’ network integration requirements. “The network remains the integral, mission critical platform not only for core business processes, but for all forms of IT and communications.  And as clients start to exploit new technologies such as data centre networking, performance optimisation, and wireless to enable their networks to act as a true platform for business, our portfolio of assessment services will help them determine their roadmaps and architectures.”

Riding the Cloud into 2012

In the next 12 months, the Group will focus on building its Cloud Solutions and Services portfolio and global cloud infrastructure and platform. “The Group’s acquisition of OpSource in July, and the formation of our Cloud Business Unit were critical steps in accelerating our cloud computing strategy. We are on track to go-to-market with our cloud value proposition which includes a world leading architecture and set of innovative solutions and services.

“There’s enormous value in what our heritage in systems integration brings to cloud, and I believe our expertise and skills are critical differentiators in the marketplace. The extension of our services expertise and capabilities, coupled with our ability to bring clients a cloud solution for every stage on their journey to cloud will prove a true game-changer for Dimension Data.”

* Article courtesy of Gadget.

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