All Entries in the "Regular Columns" Category
How to live healthy as a senior during retirement age
Senior people are an important age group when it comes to buy life insurance. The reason behind this situation is simple: the older we get, the weaker our body becomes. In order to live longer and be as healthy we must take measures as earlier as possible in life. If we are already past the age [...]
A DIY cloud is no cloud at all
By Alexander Mehlhorn, CEO, Framework One There’s a great deal of pride and enjoyment that the geeks in an organisation get from building servers from scratch, creating server rooms, and architecting an infrastructure that they can boast about to their peers. And five years ago, this was an essential in-house skill. You could contract the [...]
What all employers should know about month-end loans
Many micro lenders employ shrewd marketing strategies to separate consumers from their wallets. A classic example is the predator loan that is rolled over from month to month. The consequences are the following: They make the consumer a slave to the lender; Consumers are not made aware of the cost of credit; The work performances [...]
What the Kings of Cloud have in common
By Jed Hewson, director of 1Stream If you were to ask a roomful of IT professionals what the cloud is, and whether businesses should move some (or all) of their processes to the cloud – you are likely to get a diverse range of answers. For me, cloud computing is simply using files, applications or [...]
SA Today: Grasping the B-BBEE nettle
How does a country make the transition from a society that has been defined by race for centuries to an open society with opportunities for all? Political emancipation – marked by our first democratic election – was an important first step. But the goal of economic inclusion remains as relevant in South Africa as it [...]
4 non -negotiable areas of focus for IT Managers
What your IT manager could be doing instead of managing a server room By Alexander Mehlhorn, CEO, Framework One We all recognise the stereotypical IT manager sitting behind a desk in the company dungeon, wearing a t-shirt sporting an obscure geek reference, and sighing into the phone as he tries to convince the marketing manager [...]
VoIP shifts into top gear as fibre premises bloom
BY ROB LITH, DIRECTOR, CONNECTION TELECOM A very exciting development currently playing out in the voice over IP (VoIP) arena is the sudden growth in fibre business premises. Having fibre-ready offices makes a company’s transition to VoIP infinitely easier, as the speed and other performance improvements remove much of the hassle factor of engineering VoIP [...]
Securitisation – the new buzzword – An Overview
After screening of the Special Assignment programme on SABC 3 on Thursday, the 30th of May, a number of consumers have contacted me to give more clarity about securitisation. The program probed the practice of credit providers (mainly banks) instituting legal action against consumers who had defaulted on their monthly obligations to the credit providers, [...]
The Disappearing Dream of Oil
There is light at the end of the tunnel for South Africa’s economic and unemployment crisis. But will the ANC extinguish it? When I read this excellent speech by James Lorimer MP, the DA Shadow Minister of Mineral Resources during the recent Parliamentary budget debate, I thought many more people should do so too. I [...]
Picking the right partners will help retailers expand reach
As South African e-commerce gains momentum, retailers can expand their reach significantly by adding online and mobile channels and picking the right technology and fulfillment partners for the journey. Digital participation curve According to a 2012 report by technology research company World Wide Worx (WWW), e-commerce growth is accelerating. The study predicts that the Internet [...]
Photographically Speaking: Shooting Indoors and in Low Light
Getting quality photographs indoors and in low light conditions can be a challenge. One option is to use the built in flash on your camera but this has a short distance where it is effective. Other drawbacks with the built in flash is that it creates harsh shadows and often will over expose parts of [...]
Retail customer marketing: you may be missing the point
By Ian Steyn, Executive: Products and Services at Innervation Grocery stores are not just grocery stores anymore. Most South African retailers have added some form of product line extension to their standard offering of household items and produce. Even corner cafés are selling electricity and airtime, whilst the larger chain stores now allow customers to [...]
CIOs have to say yes to CEOs
By Davide Hanan, MD of QlikView The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) trend is no longer a ‘trend’. It has happened. Recent predictions from Gartner claim that global PC shipments will decline this year as tablet shipments increase, and there is anecdotal evidence that the majority of employees have accessed company-sensitive information on their personal [...]
Choosing software that thinks like you do: the role of social business intelligence
By Davide Hanan, MD of QlikView SA One of the most important things all organisations need to remember is that a business is only as good as its people. So, how can you make sure you are getting the most out of your people? Well, it could equally be said that in any industry, even [...]
Openness will define the future of mobile transactions
By Bevan Ducasse, CEO of wiGroup If your smartphone is near you while you’re reading this – and I’ll be surprised if it isn’t – pick it up and take a moment to consider all the things it is to you. It’s a calendar, little black book of contacts, games console, music centre, camera, miniature [...]
Disability Cover
A disability event is like your ship disappearing below the surface of the ocean. At that point you need a lifeboat (temporary disability cover) to get you to your island (permanent disability cover) in order for life to go on. Unfortunately the current situation in the South African market is similar to that of the [...]
HICA 2013: Positive news for tourism
Change – and how we see our neighbours on the continent – were very much part of the second and final day of the Tourism Business Council’s Hotel Investment Conference Africa (HICA 2013 ). “My story about doing business on the continent has never been about anything but inspiration, has never been about anything else [...]
Arthur Gillis: What’s wrong in transformation?
Arthur Gillis, the CEO of the Protea Hospitality Group, likes to call it as it is, and there’s no doubt he did that at HICA 2013 (Hotel Investment Conference Africa) when he spoke as a panelist during the first open session of the day: ‘Straight talk from the top – the state of the regional [...]
KWV strikes gold in the United States
KWV has returned to the spotlight, this time in the US – one of the world’s biggest and most competitive wine markets – where the company collected some of the highest awards at the annual Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America (WSWA) Convention in Orlando, Florida.
This Tourism Week: #HICA13: Anticip-pation
So we’re all in Durban for the Tourism Business Council’s Hotel Investment Conference Africa – HICA 2013 – and by the time you read this we’ll be settling down to two days of talks and deliberations about the event’s chosen theme: ‘Shifting Gear – a focus on Southern Africa.’ And what can we expect this [...]
This Tourism Week: New rates management technology
New rates management technology to make everyone’s lives easier Imagine you’re the data capture chappy in a busy tour operator’s office and you get an alert from a large and well-known city-style hotel group that explains its latest STO rates, its BARs, its winter/summer/mothers/long-stay/combo/pay-stay/conference/wedding specials, and the difference in rates between tea and petit fours [...]
This Tourism Week. 2 May 2013
Airlines and tourism in Southern Africa. Cleared for takeoff? Read this article on line here If you look at the programme for HICA 2013, you’ll see that one of the panel discussions will be called ‘Hard talk between airlines, tour operators, and hoteliers.’ “What needs to be done to generate the required numbers of tourist [...]
Iron-clad security blocks sophisticated VoIP toll fraud
The right stuff Iron-clad security blocks sophisticated VoIP toll fraud BY ROB LITH, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR, CONNECTION TELECOM Among the last remaining arguments against the tidal wave of voice-over-IP is the claim that IP systems are susceptible to fraud. In reality, breaching VoIP security is a far more complex proposal than hacking a traditional analogue [...]
This Tourism Week. 25 April 2013
What’s a telescope got to do with technology in tourism? Read this article on line here Why should tourism care about a telescope called the SKA? Bandwidth. The SKA, of course, is the Square Kilometre Array: the world’s most powerful radio telescope which ten countries are planning to build in various locations in the Southern [...]
Photographically Speaking: Keys To Making A Good Portrait
What are one of the key differences between amateur photographers and professionals? Amateurs TAKE good photographs and professionals MAKE great photographs. A professional has the end result in mind before he/she even begins preparing to make the photograph. Today we are going to talk about some of the key ingredients to making a great portrait. [...]
“The DA’s untold story: Part 2.”
This week, the DA began distributing a pamphlet that shows Nelson Mandela and Helen Suzman embracing, under the caption: “We played our part in opposing apartheid”. The pamphlet is part of our “Know Your DA” campaign, which I launched last week in Alexandra with a speech on the DA’s “Untold Story”. Predictably, the [...]
Marketing South Africa: join the conversation
This Tourism Week 17 April 2013 This week: Marketing South Africa: join the conversation. Chapter three: QR Codes BirdLife South Africa: New conservation initiatives in the Garden Route (read this article below, or on line on the new Gartour site) Marketing South Africa chapter three: QR Codes. Today. Online at 5:00 p.m. SAST Join us [...]
This Tourism Week: Bringing back the institutional investors
Little over three weeks to HICA 2013 – Hospitality Investment Conference Africa, which is convened by the Tourism Business Council of South Africa (TBCSA) and the province of KwaZulu-Natal – and the line-up of speakers and panelists is enough to make your mouth water. One discussion that going to get special attention has to [...]
Why business to customer communication is broken – and how to fix it
By Lee Hartman, CEO of Connecto As a customer, do you know how many business relationships you have? Listing them can be an interesting exercise: The phone company, the supermarket, the doctor, the dentist, the garage, the bank, the gym, the place you buy your lunch… almost everybody can rack up at least 20 of [...]
Photographically Speaking: Why White Balance Is Important
Kevin Bradshaw – So what is it with all this talk about “White Balance” anyways? The easiest way to explain what White Balance is, is by explaining what happens if you don’t have it right! Have you ever taken indoor shots where the image has a yellowish or orange tint to the picture? That is [...]
Mobile Device Management is a must-have – even for SMEs
By Niven Perumal, Product Manager Vox Telecom The discussion around mobile device management has been going on for a number of years. Employees are bringing smartphones, tablets and other devices to work that are easier to carry around (and much easier to lose). Moreover, these devices are being increasingly used to access sensitive company information. [...]
Marketing South Africa: join the conversation
Join us for chapter two. Tomorrow, Wednesday. Online at 5:00 p.m. SAST Last week’s Google+ Hangout was kieff, despite the challenges of using new technology: half an hour after the broadcast ended, the YouTube video we’d made of it had already been viewed 250 times. Now we’ll be talking on line again tomorrow evening at [...]
- born in the crucible of competition June 5, 2013
- 21 – 29 JUNE 2013 – Plett Fringe Festival June 13, 2013
- 29 June 2013 – Jannie Moolman In Concert in Plettenbergbay June 13, 2013
- Pick n Pay Weekend Argus Rotary Knysna Cycle Tour 2013 June 10, 2013
- CELEBRATE Fathers’day at the ELEPHANT SANCTUARY June 5, 2013
- A homemade recipe for cough June 18, 2013
- The dragon fruit and its health benefits June 15, 2013
