The Chief Technological Advisor of SAP Africa, Simon Carpenter, has warned companies on the continent that they need to move with the times in terms of technological innovations else risk going out of business.
According to Carpenter, even companies on the Fortune 500 List are not immune to these challenges, opining that “52% of the Fortune 500 firms are gone due to disruptive technology and innovations”
Carpenter gave out the advice to companies at the annual SAP Innovation Day held at the Kempiski Hotel in Accra.
The world is moving towards technological solutions to most problems and Carpenter urged businesses and even governments to adopt this mantra.
“The world is fast moving towards technological solution to economic challenges. Ghana will soon deploy the 5G spectrum and that should be an economic game changer for the economy.”
According to him, technological advancements would streamline the work of business by 2020 and make many of the challenges of the past redundant.
“By 2020, information will be used to reinvent, digitize and eliminate 80% of business processes from a decade earlier”. Carpenter said.
Another dire warning was delivered to Ghanaian banks at the event by Darrel Orsmond, Head of Banking Industry at SAP.
According to Orsmond, most Ghanaian banks are vulnerable to hacking because they do not utilize cloud software to store their data.
SAP (Systems, Applications and Products) Africa is an enterprise application software company listed on the New York Stock Exchange which has branches in Ghana, other African countries and many other parts of the world. It develops enterprise application softwares which enable companies run their businesses more efficiently.