South African roadshow on digital transformation in the app economy goes to Kenya

Delivering innovative, quality applications fast holds the key to digital transformation in the age of the application economy. Gary Lawrence, MD of CA Southern Africa says there's a revolution taking place in the relationship between customers and businesses that is founded on the increasing promise that technology offers.

"The application economy has arrived, and every company, to survive and thrive, will need to embrace software. There is clear evidence that businesses of all sizes and in all markets, have to embrace the application economy and place software development and delivery at the centre of their business strategy. How organisations adopt the acceleration of technology will define their performance in application economy."

He notes that the rise of the application economy means IT capabilities and specifically, the creation of an excellent software delivery engine has now become one of-if not the- definitive competitive differentiators.

"Historically IT has been viewed by the business world as a cost centre and not a revenue generator. The last 15 years has transformed this view. Simply put, many organisations' software development processes have not been designed to cope with today's intense demands for continuous delivery; zero defects to meet user performance expectations; and the consistency of interactions via one channel."

Andrea Lodolo, CTO, CA Southern Africa, emphasises that we all live in an application economy. "Retail, banking, education, government, entertainment - everything is driven by a connected, mobile, application-based world, where customers are far more likely to experience brand and interact with an enterprise through a software application than a live person.

"This represents immense opportunity for African businesses. But making a successful digital transformation journey involves many components - from reviewing software development life cycle (SDLC) to establishing how DevOps can improve traditional siloed views on who owns what and how continuous delivery of quality applications and consequently, competitive advantage, can be achieved.

"The application economy allows companies to redefine their businesses - Africa is no stranger to this fact. The continent's up-take of mobile solutions, which has enabled it to leapfrog to the latest communications technologies, is an example of this principle in action.

"All that's needed is access to the right technology where a stable, secured and managed IT platform - backed by the right vision - is the game changer," concludes Lodolo.

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