Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management

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The evolving use of technology in the South African capital markets
(2014-01-21) Comninos, Alexis
Since the move from floor to electronic trading, technology has played an increasingly important role in the capital markets. Current economic and capital markets developments are driving changes in technology use with several implications for the industry. A series of semi-structured interviews was conducted with participants in the South African capital markets to explore the evolution of technology in the South African capital markets. Key findings are as follows: 1) There is a shifting focus in technology use from cost reduction to competitive advantage 2) Regulatory reforms resulting from the 2008/09 financial crisis are driving increasing use of technology 3) Algorithmic trading and Direct Market Access (DMA) are increasing, but care orders are still a significant part of most brokers’ business 4) High Frequency Trading (HFT) is a niche market and the JSE is pursuing initiatives to grow HFT in the South Africa markets 5) Participants’ views on the impacts of HFT on market quality are mixed 6) Risks of a technology related failure such as the US flash crash are somewhat less in the SA market, but need to be mitigated 7) The increasing use of analytics and big data technologies is potentially one of the next major trends in the capital markets
The relationship between IT Strategy and Business Strategy in the South African Resources Industry
(2014-01-14) Nxozi, Monelo
Alignment between IT and Business/Corporate strategies is an issue that is uppermost in the minds of CIOs and CEOs. Over the last few decades the emergence of the information age has increased the dependence on IT by businesses. Therefore strategic alignment between IT and Business has become a huge influence on competitive advantage and market positioning. There are only a few studies that deal with strategic alignment in the South African context, even more so in the resources industry. This study aims to contribute towards closing that knowledge gap. The objective was to explore the tensions that may exist between the IT and business strategies within the resources sector in South Africa, with respect to which drives the other, specifically whether IT strategy support or shape business strategy. The method of data collection was based on interviews with people who are involved in the process of strategy formulation, in IT and/or Business strategies, within the resources sector in South Africa. The key findings of this paper are that IT strategy indeed plays a critical role in supporting business strategy; and unlike in other industries, IT strategy in this industry is not suited to drive business strategy, but to support it.
The challenges of transition from a small information technology organisation to a medium sized enterprise
(2013-10-22) Singh, Keshvi
SME‟s play a key role in the creation of employment in South Africa and to a larger extent, economic growth of the country. However, as SMEs transition from small to medium sized enterprises, they experience numerous challenges. This paper reports on the findings of an investigation into the internal and external business challenges faced by SMEs in South Africa as they make this transition into medium sized enterprises. This was a qualitative study with data collected through structured interviews. Respondents were asked a series of open-ended questions and these responses were analysed, interpreted and discussed in the content. The findings indicate that when SMEs grow, the transition is not smooth and not all SMEs experience the same challenges: some may be unique to the type of industry or the circumstances under which the company was formed as well as factors such as access to finance, management, etc. There is no single or best way to overcome these challenges. SMEs should seek creative solutions to their challenges which will allow them to succeed and grow. Proactively addressing challenges can also prove to have long-term benefits for the company. This paper also provides some relevant recommendations to SME owners to overcome some of the constraints they might experience as they grow.
Factors affecting the adoption of unified communication services amongst SMEs in South Africa
(2013-10-10) Jankovich, Andrea
Unified communications is considered to hold much promise in the ICT space, with a specific focus on the many benefits it has to offer the organizations that choose to embrace it, such as the reduction in communication costs and improvement of productivity levels. In reality, and particularly for South African SMEs, unified communications has proven not only difficult to successfully adopt but even harder to implement. This study explores the factors affecting the adoption of unified communication services amongst the SMEs in South Africa. Indepth, semi-structured interviews were used to gather information from management and owners of SMEs operating across a variety of industries. The main findings were that SMEs are affected by both the internal and external factors when it came to their decision on whether or not to adopt unified communication services. In addition, successful implementation of this technology relies heavily upon psycho-sociological factors, with management and staff presenting equal reluctance in making the shift towards using new and improved technologies. Finally, it was also found that although ICT keeps evolving, humans continue to prefer more interactive channels of communication with one another.
Communication types and uses of enterprise microblogging in a global IT services organisation
(2013-10-08) Williamson, Cari Jeanne Hartley
The purpose of this research was to gain a better understanding of microblogging in the context of the enterprise, and how the use of an enterprise microblogging (EMB) platform can facilitate internal organisational communication The research establishes why, how and in what form employees post messages on an EMB platform, with particular reference to the way in which the platform is used by employees to shape internal communication within a global IT services organisation. The methodology deployed in this research is that of qualitative, genre analysis and from the results the communicative genres of EMB within a global IT services organisation are derived. The findings showed that EMB messages were mainly in the form of text only, their main purpose was to transfer knowledge between users and engage in conversations. The content shared was often: general-business-related information found both in the public domain and within the organisation; updates as to what employees were busy doing; and employees’ opinions and suggestions across a broad set of work related topics. The platform was used to update people, transfer knowledge, voice opinions, engage in pleasantries and praise, have conversations that led to the resolution of specific problems, provide news flashes, notify others of things to come and provide clarity on previously shared information. What becomes evident from the comparison of the results with other case studies in this field of research is that the content, purpose and form of posts were not unique, but the frequency of the emerging genres was diverse and appeared to be dependent on the context and culture of the organisation under study.
Drivers of customer equity in the South African IT hardware industry
(2013-10-04) King, Andrew John
Organisations increasingly require a firm understanding of what drives customers to do business with them and to continue doing business with them into the future. More importantly however is that organisations need to adopt an inward facing view or customer centric approach if they are to become or remain relevant in the hyper competitive consumer electronics market. As product differentiation becomes more difficult to achieve in mature markets organisations need to shift their focus from their self-stated drivers to the drivers and sub-drivers of importance as stated by their customers –customer equity drivers. Customer equity is a metric used by marketers to assign value to the intangible concept of their customers. This approach sums the lifetime values ofan organisation’s current and future customers in order to determine the value of the organisation. The purpose of the research is to evaluate the customer equity performance of South African Information Technology (IT) consumer notebook vendors. Specifically, thisresearch aims to determine thecustomer equity drivers and their relative importance and to evaluate theperformance of the South African IT vendors against these drivers. The existing approaches to customer equity were reviewed and the Driver modelwas selected as the appropriate model for evaluating the South African consumer notebook industry. A sample of 80 respondents who have purchased a consumer notebook within South Africa was used.Respondents completed an online questionnaire to collect data on the importanceand performance of IT vendorsrelative to customer equity. Statistical analysis wasconducted through CommonFactor Analysis. This resulted in a model that was interpreted to determine thedrivers of customer equity, their relative importance and the performance of IT vendors within South Africa. Recommendations were then made to vendors to improve theirperformance
Retention factors influencing South African IT professionals in the financial services sector
(2013-10-04) Shepperson, Glenda Lyn
The current Information Technology (IT) skills shortage in South Africa is critical, resulting in a war for talent, which organisations cannot afford to lose if they are to remain competitive. In order to secure their scarce resources they need to focus on the retention of their IT professional workforce. The primary aim and purpose of this research study was to identify the most important retention factors that IT professionals in the South African financial services sector perceived to influence their decision on whether to stay with an organisation or not. Data was collected by means of an online questionnaire from 259 IT professionals in the South African financial services sector. The data was analysed in conjunction with data from other similar studies in order to draw appropriate comparisons. This research has indicated that in the quest to retain their IT professionals, organisations needs to consider the tangible, as well as intangible aspects important to their employees. These include most importantly, the provision of work-life balance programmes and practices. The statistical analysis conducted as part of this study in order to determine which variables influencing the IT professionals‘ decisions to remain with an organisation could be grouped meaningfully into themes, resulted in the identification of the following six themes, listed in order of importance: Traditional employment provisions; Inspiring, supportive, learning culture; Constructive teamwork; Liberating, enabling and rewarding personal work experience; Freedom to determine personal and organisational destiny; and Adequate provision to enable optimal performance.
Benefits and Challenges of Service Oriented Architecture for IT Systems in South Africa
(2012-12-04) Allan, Brendan Gerrard
This research considers the value of Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) initiatives, which have high initial costs, but potential long-term benefits, in a climate of tightening IT budgets. The research investigates the benefits and challenges of SOA and how an understanding of SOA informs these benefits and challenges. An interpretivist approach to the research was adopted and a qualitative paradigm for gathering information was used. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with IT professionals who had experience of SOA. The key findings were:  The benefits of SOA are pertinent to organisations affected by the global economic downturn.  The challenges include organisational- and change-management issues and require the involvement of all role players in a business and not just IT personnel.  An in-depth understanding of SOA and careful planning are critical to anyone embarking on an SOA initiative. While the upfront costs are potentially high, organisations can manage these costs by implementing a SOA solution incrementally, not buying the entire software stack upfront, and planning and implementing in such a way as to encourage reuse. These cost-mitigation measures ensure that the initial costs of SOA are outweighed by multiple long-term benefits.
Evaluation of Information Technology Investment in Telecommunications Billing Systems in South Africa
(2012-10-04) Kunver, Sudhir Dinesh
Managers in firms across the country are faced with the challenge of making key decisions regarding the justification and/or approval of IT investment on hardware and software assets, along with the associated professional services and operational support services. The appraisal of IT investments are of increasing importance to managers as economic and competitive pressures force companies to focus on cost reduction. The purpose of this research is to assess current industry practices regarding the evaluation of Information Technology (IT) investments in South Africa, specifically investments in Telecommunications Billing Systems. The organisation and industry along with the characteristics of the particular information technology being considered affects the nature of the investment evaluation criteria adopted, the evaluation techniques used and the method used for post-implementation evaluation. The sample for the research consisted of stakeholders of the Evaluation of Investments in Telecommunications Billing Systems at key network operators in South Africa, specifically stakeholders who are responsible for influencing decision-making regarding Billing Systems and those who are responsible for architecting Billing Solutions for operators at vendors. This study has shown that, while industry acknowledges the importance of Billing Systems to operators, and believes in the need for investment evaluation of billing systems, the extent of adoption of available investment evaluation techniques has been restricted, due to awareness and perceived complexity of these techniques. Based on the interviews, the study has seen that although industry has adapted its existing evaluation techniques and criteria, it seeks improved methods for evaluating intangible benefits of IT investments. The study also found that the evaluation during and after implementation is not a common practice in the industry, with resource constraints and a lack of emphasis on the importance of these evaluations being the major reasons.
THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY-BASED PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP AT THE DEPARTMENT OF LABOUR
(2011-10-24) Pillay, Kesavel
The outcome of the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) implemented at the Department of Labour will be significant to assess the feasibility of future Information Technology based PPPs. The purpose of this research has been to interview the participants involved in the PPP in order to understand the benefits, measurable outcomes, issues, critical success factors and the possible future direction of IT based PPPs. The research findings have shown that there has been noticeable benefits and positive outcomes established thus far. In addition, several issues and critical success factors need to be addressed to improve the perception and future success of the PPP. The complexity and immaturity of PPP contracts make these difficult to evaluate through any quantitative study. The majority of the respondents of this study felt that a PPP was more viable than other forms of IT service offerings and indicated that IT based PPPs will increase in South Africa

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