We are fortunate at ATOMNIA to have some of the most skilled, insightful and experienced partners within our global network that, a network that stretches from Ireland to the Philippines, Belgium to South Africa.
In this two-part article we interviewed Anton Jacobsz, the CEO of Smart Hands Africa (SHA), a seasoned technology executive with more than three decades of experience building and scaling technology businesses across Africa, and ATOMNIA’s continent-wide distribution partner for OMNIA, our all-in-one connection, protection and detection solution.
Through SHA, Anton delivers next-generation, pan-African technology services and skills ecosystems that enable vendors, partners and customers to deploy and support technology solutions across the African continent, solutions that are driving Africa’s digital transformation. We ask him – what are the biggest challenges confronting African businesses seeking a digital future. Given the mistakes of more digitally advanced regions what should Africa steadfastly avoid? And finally, what will further enable and drive Africa’s digital transformation?
WHAT ARE THE KEY AFRICAN DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION CHALLENGES?
“Africa’s digital transformation is real, but it is not happening evenly. The biggest challenge is not ambition; it’s execution capacity.” Says Anton.
He continues by outlining the key challenges for successful execution:
Africa’s number one challenge is digital infrastructure – Many countries still face inconsistent connectivity, high data costs, unreliable power and limited local data centre capacity. GSMA reports that a major issue is the “usage gap”: many people live within mobile broadband coverage but are still not using mobile internet, often due to affordability, devices, skills or relevance. We deliver solutions that not only alleviate these issues but empower businesses and protect teams, data, reputations and futures – like OMNIA.
“Africa does not only need more technology.” Anton says. “Africa needs trusted, skilled and experienced execution. Skills platforms, like Smart Hands Africa, are playing an essential role, because successful execution across Africa depends on people on the ground – skilled, experienced people.”
Skills availability is essential to digital transformation – Africa does not only need more technology; it needs more trained people who can design, deploy, support and secure technology. This is one of the reasons Smart Hands Africa exists – to train people all over Africa, at the point of customer delivery, to not only deliver the very best service we can to our customers and our partners’ customers, but to ensure self-determination and high-quality careers for African people.
A key African challenge to beat is cybersecurity maturity – Many organisations are digitising faster than they are securing. This creates risk. You cannot build a digital economy on weak identity management, poor governance, untested networks and reactive security.
Statistics currently state that African businesses are under cyber attack 60% more than businesses in other developed regions – this speaks of a perceived lack of cybersecurity awareness, skills and solution deployment. This must be robustly addressed and is one of the reasons we partnered with ATOMNIA to distribute OMNIA their advanced yet affordable network and cybersecurity solution, which I believe is the most comprehensive security solution on the planet today.
Africa’s fragmented markets require an individual approach and local insights – Africa is not one market. Every country has different regulation, language, business culture, infrastructure maturity and procurement processes. So, whilst the challenge is similar across the continent, the solution is not a simple copy-and-paste. We only partner with technology and solution vendors who clearly understand this and cater to these differing needs.
In Southern Africa, and particularly in South Africa, I would say the key challenge is that many organisations have adopted cloud, SaaS, remote work and digital systems, but their operational security, skills base and service capacity have not kept pace. We, and our partners, are bridging these gaps.
FIND OUT MORE about how we work with Smart Hands Africa
HOW SHOULD AFRICA AVOID THE MISTAKES OF MORE DEVELOPED REGIONS DURING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION?
“Africa should avoid blindly copying the digital mistakes of more developed markets.” Anton explains. “Africa has the opportunity to leapfrog. But leapfrogging should not mean skipping governance, security or skills. It should mean learning from others and building better from the start.”
Passionate about helping African organisations bridge the gap between technology adoption and successful execution across multiple sectors, Anton is well aware of the mistakes made by the more developed regions of the worlds – and importantly, how African nations and businesses can avoid them.
Africa must digitise, but securely and with cybersecurity as a priority – Many developed markets rushed into cloud, SaaS and connected systems, and only later tried to fix identity, data privacy, ransomware exposure and third-party risk. And whilst talking about ‘securing’ there is also the ever-growing threat landscape – cybersecurity must be built in from the start. Identity, data protection, resilience, backup, monitoring and incident response are not luxuries – they are absolute necessities.
Africa must be a sovereign as possible and avoid is over-dependence on a small group of global platforms and hyperscalers – Big Tech have an important role, but Africa must avoid building a digital economy where all value, data and decision-making sit outside the continent.
Ignoring local skills development would only serve to deliver digital and data dependency – If technology is imported but skills are not developed locally, Africa remains dependent. That is not transformation; that is consumption.
Governments and enterprises must avoid isolated platforms, duplicated investment and weak standards – We must build digital systems that talk to each other and that can be integrated.
VISIT the Smart Hands Africa website
ARE BIG TECH GIANTS ABLE TO FULFIL AFRICAN NATIONS’ NEEDS?
“Big Tech bring scale, infrastructure, platforms, investment and global capability.” Says Anton, “But Big Tech alone cannot fulfil Africa’s needs.”
What is often lacking from Big Tech is local execution, local support, an understanding of African channel structures and a commercial flexibility that reflects this budgetary difference of African businesses than say US or European businesses. There also needs to be practical solutions for market and SME customers, with skills transfer programs that enable and up-skill customer IT teams.
“Africa needs more than platforms. It needs implementation, integration, support, training, monitoring and trust.”
That is where smaller, agile innovators like ATOMNIA are attractive. They move faster, adapt commercially, work through local partners and solve specific problems without forcing customers into massive enterprise models. OMNIA, for example, comes with low-to-no upfront costs, flexible contracts with zero lock-ins, comes with a PAYG payment options, a re-tech promise and expert management and support from specialists who up-skill customer teams as standard.
“The future is not Big Tech versus innovators. The future is an ecosystem: hyperscalers, OEMs, distributors, resellers, MSPs, local engineers and specialist platforms working together.”
We couldn’t have put it better ourselves! Smart Hands Africa will be one of the execution layers that helps make that ecosystem work across Africa, and ATOMNIA will be right there with them – that’s what partnerships are all about.
Having led some of Africa’s largest ICT distribution and channel organisations, coupled with his extensive experience in market expansion, partner ecosystem development, cybersecurity, cloud technologies and digital transformation in many African nations, ATOMNIA is entirely confident that Anton, and his team, will not only meet but beat these challenges.
We’ll find out more from Anton in part 2 of this blog.
If you’re an Africa-based business email info@smarthandsafrica.com
If you’re interested in finding out more about how OMNIA will help your business email everything@atomnia.com
