Today’s digital economy has made possible a new breed of digitally driven, disruptive business models. Dyon Mhlanga, Managing Director at Red October Tech, an Ocean on 76 group subsidiary, says that new ecosystems underpinned by collaboration will be key to driving meaningful tech innovation in South Africa.
“To unlock value from fostering real and ongoing technological innovation is likely to rely on participating in an ecosystem of innovators, providers, evolving customer needs and supportive government policies,” notes Mhlanga.
He says that platform businesses have been instrumental in illustrating how best-of-breed solutions emerge to intelligently address the needs of large, traditional organisations such as banks and telcos, as well as SMEs and customers operating in the same environment. “The creation of tech ecosystems is the next logical step to ensure the growth and success of the IT market in South Africa. This is a design challenge which requires newer perspectives of leadership, strategy and organising to ensure success with the management systems that enable co-ordination and ongoing flourishing of tech ecosystems; something Red October Tech is committed to excelling at.”
Mhlanga adds that managing or orchestrating a tech ecosystem is a role which requires the synergistic organisation of ecosystem’s participants so that value is unlocked and distributed in such a way that the entire system benefits and grows. “Strategic cooperation needs to be fostered to allow for the creation of partnerships that realise the power of each other’s niche and specialist roles. The mastery required to organise players in such a business model system is key to making ecosystems flourish for the benefits of more flexible and responsive, and importantly co-producing new . These simply aren’t possible without the cross-pollination of multiple partners working off each other,” he says.
Technology firms’ heavy reliance on the activities of external partners such as application developers, hardware providers, and service providers will only become more of a hindrance to quick solution building that is required to meet and exceed market expectations predicts Mhlanga. Moreover this does not allow for working collaboratively to ensure sustainability. “To setup an ecosystem is to create a ‘one-stop-shop’ to offer customers, and indeed all stakeholders within a specific market, a complete end-to-end solution with attractive functional attributes and with shared value possibilities.”
Successfully managing a tech ecosystem not only involves creating opportunities for value, growth, and capability development amongst ecosystem partners. Mhlanga says it’s equally important to fostering long-term working relationships among partners in order to explore new solutions and capabilities development which lead to the benefits of improved synergy and complementary strategies among all partners.
“Ultimately, the development of more flexible business models that facilitate companies partnering to share risks and rewards, and to jointly create platforms and solutions at affordable prices for customers is the nirvana and will ensure a unique competitive advantage. Being a part of an ecosystem is an avenue for expanding tech offerings to a broader customer base. It’s an exciting digital future each partner and player can help build,” says Mhlanga. This in only made possible through the organising or an ecosystem.