Developer and manufacturer of information technologies IBM South Africa says that changes in the telecommunications market are driving the development of new technologies.
“The biggest change affecting the telecommunications industry is how to get more content to users. Doing this drives the development of different technologies. “The big trend in getting content to users is broadband and through broadband drive digital media-type solutions,” says IBM telecommunications executive Chad Baker.
Another significant change, which is driving down telecommunications costs for consumers, is the convergence of mobile and fixed-line companies, such as Telkom, Neotel, Vodacom and MTN.
“There has been quite a shift in terms of these companies’ business models, as every- one is trying to attract more users for their phones, which means costs are driven down and profits are being eaten away,” comments Baker.
He stresses that how these companies put their technology into the back-end, supporting systems, for example, billing systems, is fundamental, and that determining new streams of revenue is key to creating more profit. Getting new content to users in a quick turnaround time, in order to be the first to market, is also important in generating income for the telecommunications service providers.
Meanwhile, consolidation in the market has seen larger companies acquiring smaller businesses. “It is definitely a world trend and it will be interesting to see how it is going to affect South Africa,” says Baker.
He points out that Africa has seen sub- stantial acquisitive growth and that many local players are participating in the international market.
“Through consolidation and standardisa- tion, companies are attempting to improve the operational efficiency of new technologies and systems, which is important in lowering companies’ capital expenditure,” comments Baker.
Further, the current skills shortage in the telecommunications industry also poses a challenge for participants. Baker says that, because the market chan- ges so quickly, both in South Africa and abroad, there is a gap between finding the skills needed by the industry and the skills available to the industry.
However, Baker says that IBM South Africa does a lot to drive edu-cation and empowering activities to deal with the skills shortage challenge. He adds that IBM South Africa’s strategy to mitigate the skills shortage requires sourcing skilled labour abroad and complementing it with local skilled persons to ensure that the solutions provided to customers are given the appropriate support.
Baker says that IBM is positioning itself as a systems integrator that has the infrastructure, integration capabilities, and the middle- ware to help facilitate and take the new solu-tions or content produced by clients to market.
IBM South Africa communication and industrial sector information technology architect Terry Everett explains, “Two areas where IBM supports customers in dealing with these challenges are service delivery platforms (SDPs), and service orientated architecture (SOA).”
The SDP is used to build various channels simultaneously and, with the SOA, develops a billing system delivered as a service to other applications.
Everett says that if a client markets a new product, the client can reuse old components, instead of implementing new software and hardware to conduct, for example, the billing of the new product or service. “This shortens your time to market. The systems are already in place and reduce the amount of complexity you have to introduce,” explains Everett.
Finally, Everett predicts that the practice of using computing technology or resources in an environment- and energy-efficient way, green computing, is on the horizon for South Africa. He states that green computing is already an initiative in European countries and necessitates the development of a number of products, server hardware, provision hardware and management hardware.
He notes that customers have already started talking about creating greater efficiency when using computer applications, as well as greater efficiency when using computer applications, as well as greater efficiency with the delivery of products and services through these applications.
