Wolfgang, first of all, how did a German become part of the SAOUG board?
I made the first contacts roughly 20 years ago. Back then, the reason I participated in the conferences of the African user groups was pure interest. At that time, I was active for Oracle user groups worldwide to support customers with localization problems of the Oracle E-Business Suite – including customers in Africa. About seven years ago I was asked if I wanted to work in the SAOUG.
What is exciting about the work in Africa for you?
I am always excited when I work with people who have a different cultural background. The people in Southern Africa are generally cheerful and open-minded. Evening events in an African user group are more casual, there is more communication compared to an event in Germany, for example. The reason for this is particularly the young generation who takes over more and more positions and therefore has a major impact in the IT field.
What are the daily challenges for IT companies?
One challenge for Oracle at the moment surely is the lack of acceptance for cloud computing. Partially, this is due to frequently occurring infrastructure outages and failures of the wiring system. Everything that does not work via mobile communications is not available at this time. For this reason, large companies, in particular, frequently have emergency power generators to keep operating the data processing center in case of a power failure. On top of that, Internet connection via international submarine cables is also a problem from my experience. There are performance problems because the demand for throughput increases faster than supply of capacity.
What does this mean for companies like Oracle then?
This results in some problems for Oracle. As soon as you enter the African continent, Internet connection quality is not as you are used to from other places. When the cloud hardware is not on the same continent, in the same country, then you have trouble to establish a connection.
What is the structure of the IT landscape in South Africa like?
Principally, there are no medium-sized companies as we are used to in Germany, but rather large or small companies. Oracle software is primarily utilized in large companies. These companies are governmental organizations, banks, and business groups. Production and manufacturing companies usually do not have Oracle software. Competitor SAP has a strong customer base in this sector. Because of its economic starting position, South Africa also manages its neighboring countries with IT infrastructure, including Botswana, Mauritius, or Angola.
How is the organization of the SAOUG members and what are user group meetings like?
When I compare the situation to Europe or Germany, SAOUG members are very much characterized by a consumption-oriented behavior. Finding speakers for a meeting is extremely difficult. Frequently, speakers are only from partner companies. Most meetings do not last for one or several days, but only a couple of hours. End users contribute relatively little. When you organize an event, it is received quite well. It is extremely hard for the user group because it has to deal with all contents and marketing for an event on its own. In addition, South Africa is characterized by large locations. Business activities are focused on Johannesburg, Cape Town, and rarely Durban. Furthermore, payment morale of the members for the conference contributions are problematic. Unfortunately, a certain casual behavior can also be found in this area. On top of that, there is excessive administration due to legal requirements.
Do tech companies from the west invest much in South Africa?
There are only very few European companies in South Africa. SAP has a significant market share in the ERP field. This is due to large companies using SAP such as the branches of BMW or Mercedes who also produce here, whereas US-American IT companies are relatively rare. Reasons for this are the economic situation in Southern Africa, particularly South Africa, and also the exchange rate.
How would you describe the IT landscape in South Africa in the next ten years?
There will be a much stronger focus on mobile devices and they will expand their market-dominating position in the IT field – much stronger than in Europe. Mobile payment via phone is already common practice and mobile payment systems have been on the market here for quite some time. The whole money transfer will move much faster and stronger to mobile devices compared to Germany.
- www.saoug.co.za
- Founded: January 1996
- ca. 300-400 members, many of them being companies
