Oracle innovation hub
by SAVIOUS KWINIKA
JOHANNESBURG – THE first Innovation Hub that Oracle has opened in the continent is set to drive the adoption of emerging technologies across South Africa’s corporates, public sector and academia.
Oracle opened the facility in Johannesburg on Tuesday.
It is aimed at furthering digital transformation in South Africa by raising awareness about the impact of emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Bots and Machine Learning (ML) to help drive economic growth and support the delivery of innovative and transparent services to citizens and customers alike.
This is in line with South Africa’s National Development Plan (NDP) 2030.
Niral Patel, Managing Director and Technology Leader, Oracle South Africa, said there was now widespread recognition that a digital revolution was an imperative for South Africa’s socio economic growth.
“As a leading cloud solutions company, we are focused on supporting South Africa’s public and private sector drive impactful transformation with latest digital technologies,” Patel said.
“Oracle’s new innovation hub in Johannesburg will act as a catalyst to help drive awareness, experimentation and implementation of transformational initiatives that will be customised to address local challenges and create new opportunities.”
Market research company, Forrester, predicts that businesses that leverage AI, big data and IoT to uncover new business insights will outperform less informed peers by $1,2 trillion per annum by 2020.
Oracle research also shows an increasing interest in AI capabilities, with nearly a third (29 percent) of cloud users citing the inclusion of AI as a key requirement of cloud.
Derek Bose, Senior Applications Directors for South Africa and the Southern African regional cluster, said however, making AI easy to adopt was critical and a key challenge for organisations.
“The Oracle Innovation Hub will aim to address this challenge by engaging with key South African audiences by raising their awareness levels, helping drive an innovative approach and also supporting the skills development of next generation of African leaders,” Bose said.
The Innovation Hub is based at the company’s Johannesburg office and will relocate to the new Oracle building expected to be ready mid- 2019.
– CAJ News
