The Andy Hadfield Blog

Best steak restaurant in Johannesburg [crowdsourced]

2012-02-03T10:35:00.001+02:00

Hand picked human results for "best steak restaurant in johannesburg"!

From time to time, I use my awesome (thank you guys and gals) Twitter and Facebook communities to crowdsource information. There are certain questions which Google just can't answer these days. These lists are useful, so I think they deserve a place on the blog. I'll keep them updated where necessary, but enjoy.

Best Steak Restaurant in Johannesburg (in order of votes from most to least)

Turn n Tender
Grillhouse Rosebank
Butcher Shop Mandela Square
Local Grill
Wombles
Attic
Meat Company
Pigalle Sandton
Baron on Main
Bellinis
BullRun
Karoo Cattle and Land
Botega

Best sushi restaurant in Johannesburg [crowdsourced]

2012-02-03T10:31:00.001+02:00

Hand picked human results for "best sushi restaurant in johannesburg"!

From time to time, I use my awesome (thank you guys and gals) Twitter and Facebook communities to crowdsource information. There are certain questions which Google just can't answer these days. These lists are useful, so I think they deserve a place on the blog. I'll keep them updated where necessary, but enjoy.

Best Sushi Restaurant in Johannesburg (in no particular order)

Japa
Koos the Sushi Boer, Rivonia
Adega Bryanston
Koi at The Firs, Rosebank
Kong Roast, Lonehill
KOI at 24 Central, Fredman Drive
Life Grand Cafe, Hyde Park Mall
YO Sushi
Fishmonger Illovo
Hokkaido in Norwood
Willoughbies in Hyde Park
Yamato, Rivonia
Sakura Sushi, Cresta
Rainbow Sushi, Grant Ave, Norwood
Lucky Moo in Athol Square
Tataki, Longpoint Fourways
Midori
Tsunami, Rosebank Mall
Bite in Greenside

Mindbullets: All tech and no jobs! (Dateline: 2017)

2012-02-03T10:22:00.000+02:00

A FutureWorld Mindbullet to keep ya thinking...

There is a real fear about where this is all going. We crave automation - but we forget about how many jobs the "manual business process" provides. Without jobs and with the empowering nature of instant, always on social media - protest movements can only increase. Perhaps the Occupy movement is just the first of many...

Great signs for tech? Or warning signs for humanity?

A personal letter from ABSA about 22seven... Wait for ABSA Online, Andy! Please!

2012-01-27T16:34:00.001+02:00

WOW. I'm not even an ABSA client and they hunted me down on LinkedIn to send me this personalised email (probably just the "Dear Andy" bit, hence don't feel bad talking about it) about 22seven, the new PFM startup in South Africa. ABSA are being extremely aggressive about this. And in some ways I can understand why. Otherwise, there are some big ouch'es in this one. Knee jerk if anything.

--- snip ---

Hi Andy,

Given the activity and conversation on social media sites around the 22seven launch yesterday, we have prepared the following information for you, that deals with security concerns associated with the sharing of one’s sensitive personal information.

There is also a formal statement that one can link to – available here.

The security of our customers’ financial and personal information is of paramount importance to us. We place a strong focus on ensuring that our customers are in complete control of their finances, and that there is no unauthorised access to their accounts. This is achieved in a number ways, including:

- A two-phase logon system
- Virtual keypad PIN input
- SMS alerts of Internet Banking logon activity
- One-time verification passwords
- Free antivirus software
- A personalised welcome message: Absa’s SurePhrase
- Verisign Security Certificates to verify the encryption of the website
- Multiple firewalls to restrict access
- Advanced Encryption Software
- Website timeout and automatic logout
- 3-password failure resulting in account suspension
- Regular phishing awareness communications on absa.co.za , online banking and via other media channels

Absa cautions its customers to never share their sensitive personal information (including PINs, passwords, and one-time passwords) with anybody. This applies to all mediums including phishing emails, spoof sites, phone calls, and SMSes.

South African consumers are regularly targeted by phishing attacks; and it is important to remember than by sharing one’s sensitive personal information with anyone may result in one’s account being accessed without their authorisation.

Personal Financial Management (PFM) tools are an essential aspect of the modern online transactional service, with this in mind Absa will within the next few months be unveiling its new online banking service, Absa Online, to our customers. The service, which has been in development for the past 12 months, will provide our customers with a unique online financial management experience. It will enable one to consolidate information from various institutions, budget more effectively, create a visual dashboard view of one’s personal finances and much more.

This rich array of personal financial management services will be integrated within the secure environment of Absa Online, removing any of the security concerns present in third party PFM tools.

This week Absa Online was released in a pilot phase to all 37 000 Absa staff members.

Absa Online features a fresh design, in line with modern Web trends. It also utilises a simpler and more intuitive navigational layout – to enhance the customer experience. It paves the way for us to offer customers a richer array of transactional and non-transactional services in the future.

Aside from the current functionality including payments, registering beneficiaries, opening new accounts and applying for loans, viewing archived statements and transaction histories, and much more, Absa Online also offers the following new services:

* Pay multiple beneficiaries – to make payments quicker and save you time you can now pay all your beneficiaries from a single view and at the same time.

* Capture information to complete your statement of assets and liabilities – the statement will be pre-populated with the account information that is linked to your Absa Online service. You can also manually capture any other assets and liabilities not held with Absa to create a comprehensive visual display.

* Manage your Rewards – your existing Absa Rewards account information will be displayed, and you will be able to redeem Rewards in various formats online.

* Set your own savings goals – Absa Online will allow you to create and track your progress for goals on a specific savings or investment accounts – such as “wedding dress for daughter”, or “deposit for a new car”.

* Secure Messaging system – this direct communication system will allow the customer to communicate with the bank in a secure environment.

Kind regards,
****

--- snip ---

Couple of issues here.

I understand banks are worried about this (major disintermediation threat and major phishing channel)
But to punt ABSA Online like this, aggressively, in the face of the launch of a competitor - well guys, ABSA Online had better be awesome. The only PFM (Personal Financial Management) tools I see here are the savings goals, elements of the "statement of assest and liabilities" (but then who the hell understands that language).
Oh boy, I get pay multiple beneficiaries, send secure messaging and the ability to manage my rewards?

Nice try. I don't want to be knee jerk and nasty myself - but this doesn't pass the smell test. You can't trumpet a launch if it's just catch up functionality to a bank like FNB - and it's certainly not PFM functionality.

Banks have a vested interest to stop this trend, even though it's been around for YEARS in the US/UK.

Firstly, they'd rather switch accounts than aggregate them. Pulling other banks accounts in means there is less of an incentive to switch into their walled garden - in fact this breaks down the very concept of walled garden.

Secondly, banks don't want to share the pie (which business does I suppose).

Thirdly, if any bank that is being aggressive about the 22seven launch goes and launches their own aggregation service (like ABSA say they will above, bolded) - well then... Hello Pot. This is the Kettle. You're Black.

Keep following this story. Fascinating.

POLL: Would you give your banking details to 22seven?

2012-01-27T15:57:00.001+02:00

Fascinating debate going on, so pushed out a public poll to my Facebook/Twitter community. Here are the results as of Friday 27 January 4pm.

The QUESTION: Would you give your bank login details to 22seven, the new all-accounts-in-one-place money manager from the old 20/20 Bank team? It helps analyze your finances and attempts to save you money and improve financial health (like Mint.com)...

The results in numbers are:

YES (24 votes)
Yes, if my bank's fraud policies still apply (20 votes)
NO (33 votes)
If it was through my own bank's API (1 vote)
Of course, it's the way of the future (1 vote)

Still signs of an immature PFM industry. Account aggregation is very common place amoung technology empowered first world nations. Nonetheless, this is a debate we MUST have. Keep it going...

Most popular posts on AndyHadfield.com for 2011...

2012-01-24T19:03:00.000+02:00

I thought it would be interesting to take a quick dive into my Google Analytics and see which posts resonated with y'all in 2011. Here are the results...

10th PLACE. Cell C launches new 42mbps network... Cool event. Cool to see 40mbps even though we were underneath the base tower. The Storify embed hasn't ported to this blog template, just hit Storify and search for Andy Hadfield, you'll find it.
9th PLACE. HTC launches new range of Smartphones. Cool phones. Especially the ChaCha with its one click post-to-Facebook button.
8th PLACE. Windows Phone 7 review. I really liked this phone. And now with Microsoft and Nokia getting into bed, I think we're going to see a lot more of the Metro interface in the world of mobile.
7th PLACE. Symbian S60 Guitar Tuner. Power of SEO. Old post, app doesn't even exist.
6th PLACE. Jump Shopping's Top 20 eCommerce websites. Some surprises, but good to see that eCommerce is ticking along in a country where only 10% of our population have access to the web.
5th PLACE. How many South Africans are there on Facebook? Old post again. SEO. Damn, and probably just SEO'd it more now! Just under 5 million is the current stat. Growing quick. More than 60% over the age of 30 as well...
4th PLACE. Mobile Stats for South Africa. A great infographic produced by Nielson. Worth a look.
3rd PLACE. Futureworld's Social Media Masterclass. And extremely successful full day corporate workshop that I held with various SA blue chips through the FutureWorld group. The culture and customer behaviour of social media, not the platforms. This is still available, click SPEAKING in the nav bar to enquire or read some more.
2nd PLACE. The New FNB website. Old post again, but worth looking at for a jump down memory lane. Helluva project that I worked on with a massive team at FNB. Proud.
AND IN 1st PLACE. Outsurance, broken brand promises. This was a helluva event and an interesting debate. It centers around the problem insurance companies have with customer touch points. Contact exists at sale (usually brilliant and efficient) and at claim (usually a nightmare if anything goes slightly outside of process). This event caused me to leave Outsurance. Worth a read.

Good fun, enjoy the recap...

MindBullet: Nanotech dominates manufacturing as Invisible Economy booms

2012-01-06T12:09:00.001+02:00

DATELINE: 19 February 2019

The most interesting thing about Nanotech (forget for a moment that it is by very definition - awesome) is how it will effect "business as usual". Especially with regards to inventory management and supply chains. What happens to our world when the gap between production and consumption becomes non existent? Think about who loses out... Manufacture, Wholesale, Retail... Are you in any of those businesses?

MindBullets are a fantastic series of articles from the FutureWorld group. Essentially they're news broadcasts from the future, showing us examples of just how quickly our world is changing, and where it might take us. Explore furtherMindBullets or read more about the FutureWorld Group (of which Andy Hadfield is a member).

ZA Tech Show Episode 192 - Outlook 2012

2012-01-06T11:56:00.001+02:00

In this, the third of our annual ZA Tech Show holiday specials, we take a look at the year ahead and make some predictions for 2012. Your holiday crew of Andy Hadfield, Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard and Simon Dingle are onboard for a run-through of some of what’s to come…

Click here to download/stream the audio or video for the show...

ZA Tech Show Episode 191 - Picks of the Year 2011

2012-01-06T11:51:00.001+02:00

As 2011 draws to a close our ZA Tech Show holiday crew of Andy Hadfield, Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard and Simon Dingle run through TechCentral’s ‘International newsmakers of the year’ and pick our top technology products and news stories from the annum.

Click here to download/stream the video and audio for the show...

ZA Tech Show Episode 190 - The Geek Gift Guide

2012-01-06T11:47:00.001+02:00

Wondering what to get your geek(s) this festive season? Our special ZA Tech Show holiday crew of Andy Hadfield, Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard and Simon Dingle have some suggestions for you. In this, the first of our 2011 holiday specials, we discuss branded notebooks, gaming gifts, gadgets and other great must-haves for this year...

Download the audio or video for this show here...

ZA Tech Show Episode 189 - Fingerprints

2012-01-06T11:41:00.000+02:00

As the 2011 festive season gets underway, Andy Hadfield, Ben Kelly, Brett Haggard and Simon Dingle gather at ZA Tech Show HQ to discuss;

Intel’s “ultrabooks” – supposedly big next year.
HP open-sourcing WebOS.
Mobile app development and HTML 5.
Windows 8 and Windows Phone.
DStv is launching a new satellite.
Local loop unbundling.
iCloud’s backup fail.
Absa’s NFC trial.
Mac App store reaches 100 million downloads while Android tops 10 billion.
The Video Game Awards.

Our technology picks of the week:

Andy Hadfield: Mi-Fone.
Ben Kelly: Picks on Matthew Reilly.
Brett Haggard: Picks the iNoxCase and Tweetdeck for sucking.
Simon Dingle: Mario Kart 7.

Click here to download the video or audio of the show!

The Mi-Fone A300 review (and what it means for Africa)

2011-12-14T10:23:00.001+02:00

The greatest trick Steve Jobs ever pulled was getting us to use his phone as the benchmark for all phones. They make a good benchmark of course: best experience, best industrial design and best ecosystem. Best for the First World (and the First World pockets that exist in the Third World) perhaps? But best for Africa? Well now, there’s a debate...

I’ve been extremely excited to see the explosion in cheap Smartphones and African ecosystem plays that have occurred over the last year. Our continent is host to 1 billion Africans. Can you imagine how powerful we could be once we connect those billion people to a device that can pretty much replace a computer for most social and business related tasks?

Into the fray hops one of the first “for Africa” mobile ecosystem plays that I’ve seen: Mi-Fone. Ignoring the hyphens and urban hip use of the F for now (SEO obviously isn’t important just yet), I wanted to share some thoughts after playing with their top of the range device for a week.

The Mi-Fone A300 (also referred to as Mi-300 on the site) retails for about R1400, putting it near the top of the “cheap smartphone” category. But give it a year or two and I think we’re going to be seeing similar devices in the R500 to R700 range. Mi-Fone already has two other models in the R800 range, but they’re not Android.

Some quick hits:

CONS

The touch screen is a little unresponsive, you really to give it a good swipe to get it going. This is probably a result of a slightly underpowered CPU (necessary when creating cheap smartphones). It’s not a massive detractor, you’ll get used to it, especially if you haven’t experience premium touch screens.
It’s small. And small touch devices have small touch keyboards. Too small for my evidently chubby fingers. In portrait mode, the A300 was almost impossible to type consistently on. Again, I’m sure there’s an element of “getting used to it” – but I didn’t.
Camera quality is crap. So what, I suppose…
The Android Marketplace sucks. First of all, being an Android 2.2 device, there are already tons of applications that aren’t compatible. Secondly, that store is a mess. Do a search for Angry Birds (but of course!) and you’ll get 5753 results. Yech.
It charges really slowly. Like REALLY slowly.
The aux jack on my unit didn’t seem to work. This may be because it wasn’t a standard aux jack (I didn’t plug in the earphones that came in the package). These days, if it ain’t standard, I ain’t using it. What happens when I want to replace the earphones and you don’t have a distribution outlet? On the other hand, it may just have been faulty. I’ll find out for you!
Android is known to be data heavy, and it remains to be seen how prepaid markets react to this extra cost. Blackberry kicks ass in South Africa simply because it’s the most cost effective data solution.

PROS

It’s vanilla Android! YES! No more clumsy Touch Wiz’s and Sense’s and other “we can only differentiate on the UX” attempts. Plain Android as Google intended it. And for all its teething pains, vanilla Android is awesome. I’m so glad Mi-Fone just left the interface alone and concentrated on other elements of the ecosystem.
It comes preloaded with Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, an FM Radio, localised News, GPS, Google Talk, Gmail and more. Out the box, this is one super connected device. Especially when you’re distributing into markets that aren’t familiar with the app store approach yet.
It comes with a Blackberry-style scroll pad, which is pretty cool if you’re porting over or just have some good ‘ol BBenvy.
It feels really solid. Nice build quality. Love the brown colour. Most smartphones these days are black/gray with a button or two. The brown colour gives it some funk. I guess we have to remember that the old adage of “cheap Chinese products” isn’t true anymore. The iPhone is produced in China after all!

INTERESTING STUFF

And here’s where it gets really interesting. From what I can gather in the press releases, Mi-Fone hasn’t stopped with the device. Their intention is to own the entire stack (from device to content). In the African context, this makes a whole lot of sense. Considering how fragmented the mobile world is getting, localisation has never been more important.

The Mi-Fone A300 comes prepackaged with a bunch of music (due to their partnership with Spinlet and some media houses / record labels). This bodes well for the future – as long as the range of tracks can be kept relevant.

They’re also launching an African App Store in the future. Ag nee, another App Store you may say… and I’d have to agree with you. MTN has one. Vodacom has one. Samsung has one. Other manufacturers and network providers are launching one. I think it’s getting to the stage where your App Store is most likely going to be directly linked to the device you have. Still, if they can give me 1000 African-relevant apps instead of 599 000 pieces of crap (the Apple App Store now has 600 000+ apps)… They’ll win.

Also preloaded on the device was some political satire. Rip offs of Julius Malema’s “Kill the Boer” and a skit of Jacob Zuma. I don’t really know how to feel about this. Political satire is dangerous – but I guess if you’re going for the hip, urban African vibe, this might be a way to go. Might. Kudos for having the balls to do this…

The attempt to own all the verticals is in its early days, but the approach is spot on and exciting.

I really hope Mi-Fone pushes the boundaries past music, hip parties and aspirational lifestyle positioning. That stuff is important, but the target verticals for African domination go much further. Think: retail, eCommerce, mobile wallets, integrated banking, transaction facilitation (take what NFC can do for payments and make it work it a more practical sense), small business empowerment, bill payment etc.

Now we’re talking!

COMPETITORS

I didn’t realize when I started playing with the A300 how quickly the $100 smartphone market has exploded. After chatting with my Twitter community it looks like the A300 is going to face some stiff competition from the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Y, HTC Wildfire and more importantly, the Huawei Ideos.

Bring it on. To put a device like this in the hands of 1 billion Africans for around R300-R500, I’ll put up with any number of quirks.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Some further information about Mi-Fone as extracted from their press release. They get a big HAHA for their CMO’s “frowning at a low end device is like frowning at the poor”. Melodramatic word baiting at its best.

:)

Mi-Fone

The company has already differentiated itself from other low-cost handset manufacturers with its focus on music, local talent and soon to be launched “Mi-Apps Java” store. This will be instrumental in linking the acquisition of local music in capturing revenue streams, which are often lost to piracy.

Mi-Fone has now partnered with Stereotype Records and mobile store Spinlet, bringing music downloads to all their devices. It will encourage the purchasing and discovery of music, while offering seamless integration and storage of the users’ music library on their mobile device.

"Music crosses every cultural boundary in Africa and year on year we have seen an ever-increasing demand for the Mi-Fone brand in the twelve countries we're in," founder and CEO Alpesh Patel said.

Additionally, Mi-Fone has partnered with Opera Software to have the Opera Mini web browser installed on all devices.

"The unique thing about our relationship with Opera is that it's license-free... because they've noticed the good work that we've been doing," Chief Marketing Officer, Nicolas Regisford said.

More affluent people might turn their noses up at the brand, but Regisford has a message for them too.

"Frowning upon a low-end device is like frowning upon the poor. The poor people in the continent will be connecting to the internet via low-cost, data-enabled handsets – so frown at your peril” he said.

Mi-Fone has developed strategic partnerships with several respected African countries; distributors and GSM carriers to ensure countrywide distribution and cost efficiencies are passed on to the end consumer. Mi-Fone handsets can be purchased from approved distributors and operator channels in countries such as Senegal, Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Tanzania and now also South Africa.

With only three short years in business and forecasts smashed, Mi-Fone promises to further take the African market by storm with partnerships with some of the continent’s most admired consumer brands.

Mi-Fone’s commitment, determination and raw passion to bring handsets to the masses is proving successful in the time-old David versus Goliath battle. As the first African Handset Manufacturer, they develop and tailor-make communication solutions for Africa.

S'camto Groundbreakers REWIND. Full documentary.

2011-12-02T10:11:00.001+02:00

The producers (Born Free Media) of S'camto Groundbreakers REWIND kindly gave me permission to post this documentary to YouTube. There were plenty of people that missed the 2 screenings on SABC 1 and wanted to catch the show. Here's your chance...

It was a really touching story as we travelled to Reserve B, a rural village in Bergville, KZN. Met some amazing people. Make sure you check out the live blog coverage of the Bergville trip here as well...

Enjoy the 48 min documentary...

Director: Mickey Madoda Dube
Producer: Carolyn Carew
Production Company: Born Free Media

ZA Tech Show Episode 187 - Fisticuffs!

2011-12-02T10:01:00.001+02:00

With a jam-packed studio, heated discussions are par for the course on this week’s show. Join Andy Hadfield, Brett Haggard, Simon Dingle and Stafford Masie for a discussion surrounding:

Microsoft Kinect hacking.
Siri and the future of interfaces.
The “Apple way” versus Microsoft’s open path.
Mobile ecosystems.
NFC and banking.
The iPhone 4s being delayed in SA.
MWEB’s ‘Naked ADSL’ initiaitve.
Social network marketing.
The future of enterprise tech.

Our technology picks of the week:

Andy Hadfield: 7 Billion iPad app.
Brett Haggard: Lenovo Thinkpad tablet and Lemon app.
Stafford Masie: Twine.
Simon Dingle: Genius Scan.

Download the ZA Tech Show audio or video...

ZA Tech Show Episode 184 - The Small Things

2011-12-02T09:56:00.001+02:00

It’s a full house in the ZA Tech Show studio this week with Aki Anastasiou, Andy Hadfield, Samantha Beckbessinger and Simon Dingle gathering around the table to discuss:

Vodacom’s 20GB price announcement.
The broadband bungle.
The coming of Windows Phone.
Banks and technology.
Kindle hits retail in SA.
Microsoft Kinect hacks.
Is Siri really a threat to Google?

Our technology picks of the week:

Samantha Beckbessinger: Isitold.com.
Andy Hadfield: What does the internet think?
Aki Anastasiou: Instapaper.
Simon Dingle: Samsung Note.

Download or stream the audio/video by clicking here...

Finweek and Aurik: R2.5 million in Gauteng Entrepreneurship Bursaries

2011-11-30T14:31:00.001+02:00

This is well worth a look ladies and gents. Aurik and Marc Ashton from Finweek have been involved with the Mzansi Gold Investor Network project and I have immense respect for both of them. From what I've heard, the deadlines have been extended past 6 December 2011 for another week.

This is for Gauteng entrepreneurs only. Opportunities like this don't come along often. JUMP.

I've pulled out the important details here:

--- snip ---

Announcement

Finweek, in conjunction with business acceleration experts Aurik, is looking for 10 South African entrepreneurs in Gau- teng who are going to set the world alight in 2012. We have 10 entrepreneur- ship bursaries aimed at taking promising businesses to a new level and positioning your business to double its revenue over the next two years.

What are we looking for?

The business must be registered as either a closed corporation or private company.
The business should also be in the early stage of the business life cycle, trading for a mini- mum of two and a maximum of seven years.
The lead entrepreneur and/or other members of the executive team should have been involved in the industry/sector in which the business is operating for at least five years.
The business should have a minimum turnover of at least R150 000 a month. You will be asked to provide financial statements to support your application.
The campaign is open to all business sectors but you must be able to demonstrate that the business is well positioned within a strong growth sector of the South African economy.
The business must be located in Gauteng and you must be prepared to travel to the Aurik Head Office (Rosebank, Johannesburg) on a regular basis to attend the Aurik Acceleration sessions.
The lead entrepreneur will be required to undergo an online entrepreneurial assessment as part of the selection process.
All winners must be prepared to conclude a 24-month Acceleration Agreement with Aurik and to effect a co-payment of R1 000 pm over the 24-month period.

How to get a business noticed

If you know of a deserving entrepreneur and would like to nominate him/her for this competition then visit http://www.aurik.co.za/accelerators-campaign-nomination/
Alternatively, if you would like to nominate yourself, visit the website and complete your details and the relevant documentation will be sent to you.
Entries close at midnight on 6 December 2011. (I think this has been extended - Andy)
A shortlist of 20 will be released, with the 10 finalists being announced in January 2012.
After that, it’s a case of following @finweek on Twitter, checking out the Finweek magazine and visiting www.fintalk.co.za to find out what our finalists are up to.
There’s also a very exciting crowd-sourcing element which will be brought in as part of the second phase of the competition. This makes it one of the most innovative entrepreneurship initiatives out there.

Office 365 in the cloud - free trial for South Africans...

2011-11-30T14:02:00.001+02:00

The cloud, the cloud, the cloud... Some interesting movements here, especially from Microsoft because of their dominant base of corporate and home users. Google Docs going to get a run for their money here?

I like the fact that they're targetting SME's... but the eternal African "but" is bandwidth. Even Google Docs can feel a bit slow if you're not pounding a 4mb/s ADSL line. Microsoft has had notoriously "rich" internet applications.

Will have to try it see...

--- snip ---

Microsoft launches Office 365 cloud trial in South Africa
Office 365 combines Office, SharePoint, Exchange and Lync online at predictable subscription

JOHANNESBURG — 30 November 2011 — Microsoft today announced the public trial of Microsoft Office 365 in South Africa, the company’s next-generation cloud productivity service for businesses of all sizes.

Office 365 is Microsoft's business productivity platform, hosted in Microsoft’s data centres. The trial will allow South African businesses and users to try Office 365 for free for up to six months, until the service is officially launched here in the first half of 2012.

Microsoft Office applications are at the heart of Office 365. Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Outlook and other Office applications connect to Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint and Lync to deliver a world-class solution for communication and collaboration. However, no existing Microsoft infrastructure is necessary to use Office 365.

“Office 365 is the best of everything we know about productivity, all in a single cloud service. We have had a huge amount of support from our local partners and customers to bring cloud computing to the region,” said Melanie Botha, Microsoft South Africa’s marketing and operations director.

“Recent research from Springboard, an analyst firm owned by Forrester, said that 67 percent of organisations in the Middle East and Africa are either currently using or planning cloud initiatives, and we anticipate Office 365 to be a great success here.”

SME sector the early target
Botha expects the early adopters of the service in South Africa to be the SME sector, which will benefit from access to the same business productivity solutions used by major enterprises.

With Office 365, people can come together from virtually anywhere and work together more easily, meeting face-to-face online, sharing work in real time, and accessing email and calendars on virtually any device. Smaller companies can create and maintain a custom website, manage data and stay in control of sensitive information — even with no IT expertise.

“Small companies can now take advantage of the best technologies the largest companies use, but on a scalable pay-as-you-go basis, with solutions that are easy to get and use. Now small companies can cater to their technology needs without big infrastructure investments, and get access to several technology tools they didn’t have before,” said Botha.

With Office 365, moving to the cloud doesn’t require people to change the way they work because it’s based on the familiar productivity tools people know and trust. Employees get new ways to work together with ease, on virtually any device or mobile phone, using familiar applications, such as Office, that they already know and love. Business owners get the reliability, security and IT controls they need in the cloud.

About Office 365
With Office 365, professionals and small businesses can be up and running with Office Web Apps, Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and an external website in just 15 minutes, for a matter of rands per user, per month.

Office 365 for enterprises has an array of choices for midsize and large businesses, as well as government organisations, starting from approximately R20 per user, per month for basic email.

Office 365 for enterprises also includes the option to purchase Microsoft Office Professional Plus desktop software on a pay-as-you-go basis, for the first time ever. For approximately R200 per user, per month, organisations can get Office Professional Plus, along with email, voicemail, enterprise social networking, instant messaging, Web portals, extranets, videoconferencing, webconferencing, 24/7 phone support, on-premises licenses and more.

Availability
Customers who get started with the Office 365 trial can confidently use the service knowing that, when Office 365 goes to commercial availability next year in South Africa, they can subscribe and continue using the accounts they’ve set up during the trial period. Today, people can start the Office 365 public trial and learn more about the service at www.office365.co.za

MindBullet: Put your best foot forward (20 November 2014)

2011-11-18T08:36:00.001+02:00

Wired, digital shoes. YES! This one of the easier future scenarios to defend. It leads on from the "Internet of Things" trend - objects being connected to the Internet, not just people. Wired shoes present some amazing opportunities for cool technology:

Measuring health
Rewarding walking
Route mapping for hikes
Time estimates for walking routes
Auto check in for locations (ha!)
Finding lost friends in a club (ha ha!)

MindBullets are a fantastic series of articles from the FutureWorld group. Essentially they're news broadcasts from the future, showing us examples of just how quickly our world is changing, and where it might take us. Explore further MindBullets or read more about the FutureWorld Group (of which Andy Hadfield is a member).

Business Intelligence in the Conversation Economy (SAP Workshops)

2011-11-15T16:58:00.001+02:00

Was honoured to speak at and facilitate another set of workshops for SAP South Africa and their User Groups (AFSUG). These sessions follow the World Cafe approach - I'm particularly fond of it. Very open, very flowing and usually sets the right environment for creativity and discussion.

As usual, Manti Grobler from SAP has outdone herself by covering the event on Storify. There are some GEMS of information locked in here, so make sure you read it all and keep scrolling to you reach the thank you paragraph. Storify remains one of the most incredible tools for covering the backchannel and content of events.

Click here to visit the coverage of the SAP / AFSUG World Cafe on Business Intelligence in the Conversation Economy.

Real Time Wine wins Tech4Africa Samsung Ignite...

2011-11-01T14:23:00.000+02:00

Warning, shameless self promotion :) But we're stoked. Development ho!

Real Time Wine wins Samsung Ignite

Real Time Wine has been named as the winner of Samsung Ignite, an initiative that forms part of the 2011 Tech4Africa conference, which recognises start-ups that have developed revolutionary technological innovations that hold the potential to make a serious impact in the market.

Real Time Wine was chosen at the close of the first day of this year’s Tech4Africa conference in Bryanston, Johannesburg following presentations by eight shortlisted companies to a judging panel and conference delegates. The initiative, made possible through a partnership between Samsung Apps and Tech4Africa, was introduced this year to showcase and foster local technology development and mirrors the conference goal of promoting and inspiring the local industry.

“The Samsung Ignite platform aims to give start-ups great exposure and we were certainly very happy with the ideas and creativity that came out of this year’s platform,” says Paulo Ferreira, Head of Mobile Product and Business Solutions at Samsung. “A very big congratulations to our winner Real Time Wine who certainly demonstrated the true South African entrepreneurship flair.”

Real Time Wine won the judges’ approval for its idea of offering a mobile platform aimed at the supermarket wine-buying audience that enables them to discover, review, engage with and buy wine using smartphone apps, game mechanics and barcode scanning

“I’m both honoured and surprised to have won as this was a concept pitch, which shows that one doesn’t need a completed product in order to attract interest if your presentation and concept are top notch,” says Andy Hadfield, originator of the idea. “If nothing else it shows that a lone hustler can get an idea into the market.

“What really excites me about having won is that this gives me more ammunition for when looking for angel investors.”

Hadfield commended Tech4Africa and Samsung Ignite for creating a platform that enables innovators to build a bridge between developers and funders.

Plot My Ride was named as first runner-up for its social networking service for the cycling community that allows the ability to capture, display, save and share a cyclist’s riding activity. Second runner-up position went to SnapBill, an automated billing system that enables users to easily sell their services online.

The remaining five shortlisted contestants include 10Layer, FeedbackRocket.com, iSign.pro, Mobiflock, and LessFuss.

The judging panel comprised members from the venture capital, startup and angel funding community.

“It’s very gratifying to be able to contribute to the industry through initiatives such as this,” comments Gareth Knight, Tech4Africa Founder and Managing Director. “Having walked the path of developing a technology-driven business before, I can empathise with the many hundreds of developers and innovators out there trying to get that one big break. We believe the conference and Tech4Africa Ignite can help the industry improve and create awareness and buzz about the amazing ideas being developed in Africa.”

Aside from the title of 2011 Samsung Ignite Winner, Real Time Wine won R50 000 in prize money and the benefit of the expected exposure and profiling through the Tech4Africa website and in media covering the event.

The 8 selected startups included:

10Layer - www.10layer.com
Feedback Rocket - www.feedbackrocket.com/
iSign.pro - https://isign.pro/
Lessfuss - http://lessfuss.co.za/
Mobiflock - www.mobiflock.com/
Plot my Ride - www.plotmyride.com
Real Time Wine - www.realtimewine.co.za/
SnapBill - www.snapbill.com

About Tech4Africa

Tech4Africa runs from 27-28 October 2011 at The Forum in Bryanston, Johannesburg. The event is targeted at business professionals and technologists from businesses of all sizes, from entrepreneurs and start-up owners through to professionals working at large organisations.

Web: http://tech4africa.com/

Mzansi Gold Launch Event (Entrepreneurs & Funding)

2011-10-31T15:59:00.001+02:00

A couple of months back, Colette Symanovitz, Marc Ashton and myself got together to see what could be done to continue to uplift our entrepreneur sector. There are already a couple of successful programmes, incubators and industry leaders (too often their stories aren't told) - and yet still we see funding gaps, bad business plans, bad pitches and a sea of entrepreneurs forced into service industries. Don't get me wrong, service industries are necessary in the business "mix", and they're not all that bad - but they're certainly not "make money while you sleep" approaches. Different strokes for different folks.

Or even worse? Entrepreneurs forced into survivalist entrepreneurship - the bane of big thinking.

South Africa is a magnificent country with resilient, social people. Perhaps there is a way we can help.

Cue the launch of Mzansi Gold - Connecting Angel Investors to High Potential Entrepreneurs. The strap line is first goal - but definitely not the journey. We really want to dig in and find out what our startup industry looks like, across all sectors, not just tech. Perhaps we'll find (as we sometimes suspect) that funding isn't the answer. Better business plans and better pitches are what's needed. Perhaps we'll find those gem businesses who require Angel level funding (between R500k and R10 mil) to ignite. Who knows.

All I know is that the space is starting to get a vibe. From the activity in Silicon Cape (tech sector) to the launch of our first official funding vehicle and network for Angels (Angel Hub) - there's a buzz about entrepreneurship again that's getting me excited.

I'll never forget the project back in my first startup (gAL, student community portal) that gives me tingles to this day. Not because it made a lot of money, but because it made an impact on lives. We created South Africa's first bursary database for students, containing details, specifications and application procedures for over 6000 tertiary education bursaries. I think it's still live today, albeit on the unfortunately neglected gAL property (new owners, ages ago, don't ask). Anyway, THAT was impact. THAT changed lives. And all we really did was collect information together and tell a story.

Colette, Marc and myself are looking for those areas of impact in local entrepreneurship.

Last Saturday we held our launch event in Johannesburg - a collection of top notch speakers who outlined the landscape that South African entrepreneurs face today. The fact that 150 people rocked up in spite of having to miss a Currie Cup Final and the Kings of Leon concert, bodes well for the future of the movement.

The content was outstanding - I highly suggest you browse through the Storify Widget below (it uses infinite scrolling - so keep going down!) to get an idea of the important points of discussion. Thanks again to our sponsors (Microsoft BizSpark and Enablis). This doesn't happen without you.

Enjoy the content, and keep an eye on the site for further news and events about the angel / entrepreneur landscape in South Africa.

ZA Tech Show Episode 182 - Heatwaves & Thongs

2011-10-31T15:09:00.001+02:00

For the first time on air together, with drinks and not babysat by Brett Haggard or Simon Dingle - the Sam/Andy/Nic combo unleashes the fury.

Samantha Beckbessinger is your host this week, joined in studio by Andy Hadfield and Nic Callegari to discuss;

Motorola RAZR, the Galaxy Nexus and Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
A new study reaffirming that your phone will not give you cancer.
TVs and second screens.
Roy Padayachie, former Minister of Communications, being reassigned.
Korea Telecom looking to buy a stake in Telkom.
Shooter season 2011 in gaming: Battlefield 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and other new titles.
Rumours around Google Reader, Buzz, and a potential Yahoo! buy?
MC Hammer’s new search engine, WireDoo.

Our technology picks this week:

Andy Hadfield: Tech4Africa’s Ignite Innovation Awards, GetGlue and Take This Lollipop.
Nic Callegari: Guzzle.co.za and the new DC Comics app for iPad.
Sam Beckbessinger: A video of a 1 year old using an iPad.

Download this ZA Tech Episode in audio or video...

ZA Tech Show Episode 181 - Oneiric Tech Aficonados

2011-10-31T14:59:00.000+02:00

Virtual assistants, wine and patent wars all feature on our show this week. Andy Hadfield, Craig Wilson and Simon Dingle discuss:

The death of Dennis Ritchie.
Apple’s iPhone 4S sales record.
Facebook and Google Plus.
Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
Mobile user interfaces.
Online backup.

Our technology picks this week:

Craig Wilson: Zovo online backup.
Andy Hadfield: The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Simon Dingle: Philips Fidelio S8550 docking speakers.

Download this ZA Tech Show episode in audio or video...

Discovery Invest Leadership Summit. Content Summary and Big Thinking.

2011-10-17T16:09:00.000+02:00

I tried to do something slightly different for this year's Discovery Invest Leadership Summit. Truth be told, the way conferences are covered on Twitter is starting to grate my carrot. It's not that the tweetors are ill-intentioned, it's just that I don't think there's much value for the receiving audience if 100 people at a conference are repeating the same 100 character (# tags take up space too!) quotes and 1 liners. That's not conference coverage in my humble opinion. Or not efficient coverage at least.

The little experiment was:

Use Google+ as a platform
Instead of tweeting, rather take opinionated, Andy-filtered notes and post the long form version out.
See if I could aggregate any useful info FROM Twitter.

Results:

Google+ is still bloody quiet in SA. But I can totally see the case the US pundits have for using it as a blogging/communications platform. It really handles social content objects well. It's a framework for BETTER conversation.
I'll post them below. I think it worked out pretty well.
Didn't work out. Didn't find huge value in the Twitter stream besides a confirmation of certain quotes. Perhaps it's different to follow it from outside the venue. Let me know in the comments. Also, I wanted to use Storify to aggregate content - but Storify and the Motorola Xoom tablet I was testing at the time didn't really see eye to eye. Sad face emoticon.

Here are the notes from the 3 speakers who really stood out for me. Lessons, thoughts, quotes, facts and big thinking...

Ricardo Semler. Discovery Invest Leadership Summit.
Notes and thoughts from the Keynote

Our interpretation of the world and of the actions we think we need to take is a bit off. Funny times where we go through hell in airport security, yet its easier to unleash a puff of anthrax in Times Square. Perception and interpretation of safety is off.

Business is more about marginal change than dramatic change. Dramatic change comes from outside your business, outside your industry. It's why we poach staff and pivot business so often. Desperate to get away from marginal change.

92.9% of companies don't exist for more than 20 years.

Are we sure that a 'career' should be: learning to read budgets, making powerpoints and facilitating meetings? Typical definitions of business success are crumbling.

The business plan: extrapolation of wishful thinking, where all the good stuff happens in the second half of the plan.

Semler's company disbanded their corporate HQ. Allows offices to pop up in a location - when needed. Some are temporary, some not. Concept of coming to work at one place is breaking.

Intuition is not trusted enough in business. We've become too scientific. We're doing business like the IBM machine that beat Kasparov at chess. We should be looking for intuition in staff hires. Its one of the only people differentiators left...

Breaking paradigms. How about setting your own salary? Its possible with ultra transparency. Tell your staff what everyone makes. Tell them what the benchmarks are. Tell them how much money the company makes. Then ask them what they want to make. Basically, salary jealousy occurs because we don't have enough inputs. Would be interesting to se how this plays out in SA with BEE demands that inevitably lead to salary mismatches.

We spend 23% of our life studying. 35% of our life retired and the rest working. Ouch. Now think about this: Plot your available income, available time and health on a line graph, with the next 60 years as the x axis. It tells us a lot. When you have the money, you don't have the time. When you have the time, you don't have the money - and health over 60 years just tends towards death.

1 day a week is worth roughly 20% of your salary. What if a company gave you 1 day a week back at say... a 10% discount on your salary. So now you have some time to do the things you want to do when you're retired, except now you have the money and the health!

We need to give ourselves options. There is always a better way. We need dramatic change.

Dan Ariely. Discovery Invest Leadership Summit
Thoughts and notes from his Keynote

Irrational behavior and how to combat it.

Humans have a funny ability to all believe very strongly in the wrong thing. They also aren't as aware of their preferences as they think they are.

Organ donations. Some countries donate a lot, some very little. Is this about generosity? Is it about marketing? Actually its about the enrollment form. Low donor countries have a form that says: tick the box if you want to join donor programme. High donor countries have a form that says: tick the box if you DON'T want to join the donor programme. Opt in vs opt out. When we don't understand a choice, or don't pay attention to a choice - we often just do nothing. Wonder what the CPA regulations are on how you ask this +Paul Jacobson ?

Path of least resistance is so attractive because its what will happen if you do nothing...

Retail study. Jam. A shelf with 6 jams vs 24 jams. 24 is more interesting and will always be chosen as a stock preference. But. 30% of people shown 6 jams actually bought. 3% of people shown 24 jams actually bought. Too much choice causes humans to shut down. Interesting challenges for retailers - and the exact problem we're trying ti solve with www.realtimewine.co.za

eCommerce study. Economist subscription prices:
Web 59 dollars
Print 125 dollars
Web and Print 125 dollars

When given 3 choices, majority choose expensive combo option - perception of comparative value. When given just the first and last option, majority choose the cheaper option. Presentation of choices can manipulate the chooser.

How do you break this?! Or take advantage of it as a business?

* Link positive experiences with negative required behaviors.

* Keep the problem small (eg. Global warming - the problem is just too big). Toyota Prius a good example of transferrance. Buy a Prius, you're doing something about global warming.

* Set temptation barriers. Eg. An alarm clock where the snooze button is linked to your bank account, and donates a Rand to your most hated politician every time you hit it.

Interesting. Semler says go for intuition. Ariely says challenge your intuition - we're wrong too often!

Read his book: Predictably Irrational.

Chris Anderson. Discovery Invest Leadership Summit
Notes and thoughts from his Keynote

Free. The future of a radical price.

Cross subsidisation. Give away one product to get people to buy another. The original "through free to fee" model. Razorblades, Jello, Blogs, Google services - all good examples.

When items become abundant (usually because of things like Moore's Law), we need to change the way we treat them. We must waste on a grand scale. Use it to drive innovation. Use it to get these items into the hands of more people.

Scientists created HTTP / TCP IP, the transport protocols for data. We, the people, created the web. We filled it. And most of it's free.

Time it takes for price to fall by 50%: Processing power 18 months. Storage 16 months. Bandwidth 12 months.

In a competitive market, price falls to the marginal cost. Joseph Bertrand. 1883.

The Internet is the first truly competitive market. Global scale. Same platform. Competing for our money, time and reputation. Low barrier to entry. Almost 0 cost of delivery another copy of a digital product.

Freemium. Where the minority subsidize the majority. All good, but it requires scale. Gotta have a lot of traffic if only 1% of your users actually hand over cash.

The 3 biggest tech trends of today.
* The App Economy
* The Cloud
* The End of Physical Media

Odd thing about the "cloud" - the cheaper local storage gets, the less you need it. Because all the storage you need is in the cloud.

Games are a great indicator of behavior and pricing psychology:
* people will pay to save time
* people will pay to lower risk
* people will pay for more of things they love
* people will pay for status
* people will pay if you make them (when they're hooked)

Local (South African) startup in the cloud/freemium space to watch: PeoplePlus

Real Time Wine makes it into Samsung Ignite / Tech4Africa Top 8 Startups

2011-10-17T15:34:00.000+02:00

Super awesome news... if I may indulge in a little bit of horn tootin'. My fledgling startup (Real Time Wine) is going to pitched at Tech4Africa 2011 to a bunch of (hopefully) interesting people. Aside from another opportunity for pitch practice and feedback, should be a great way to try and finally close off an angel round I've been working at for the last 6 months or so. Angel rounds are hard. I'll take all the help I can get.

What should be particularly interesting about this pitch, will be what kind of feedback Real Time Wine gets in comparison to the other 7 startups. Essentially, we're still in a content pilot phase, whereas the other startups are much further down the development lifecycle. It's the very reason we're trying to raise seed capital - develop the rich set of app functionality that the wine industry could benefit from. In case you didn't know, dev is bloody expensive these days!

Look forward to it, and look forward to meeting the other 7 startups - so much we can learn from each other. Hope you're coming to Tech4Africa. If you are, come say howsit. If you're a developer, definitely come say howsit - I want to marry you.

Here's the rest of the press release.

Top 8 Samsung Ignite start-ups announced

Eight local technology start-ups have been offered a unique opportunity to pitch their business ideas to delegates, potential investors and media at this year's Tech4Africa conference, taking place at The Forum in Bryanston, Johannesburg on 27 and 28 October.

This platform has been created by virtue of Samsung Apps Ignite, an initiative that aims to showcase and foster local technology development, and which has been made possible by Samsung Apps store, in association with Tech4Africa.

"We are extremely excited about such a platform from which local technology innovators can showcase there ideas to a broad audience, potential investors and technology entrepreneurs who have walked this path before," says Gareth Knight, Tech4Africa Founder and Managing Director. "Tech4Africa’s primary aim is to promote and inspire local mobile and web innovators, entrepreneurs and developers by inviting global leaders in the sector to share their knowledge and insight with an audience from across the continent."

“The Samsung Apps Ignite programme is an integral part of the overall vision that it is hoped will provide the spark that the eight start-ups need to take the next step in their development.”

The 8 selected startups include:

10Layer: the most feature-complete, competent and customisable open source content management system for serious publishers and media houses.

FeedbackRocket.com: which offers an innovative online solution to obtain useful, insightful and honest feedback.

iSign.pro: that allows users to get legally-binding contracts signed in minutes - legally, cheaper, greener and stored forever, with automatic reminders before renewal/expiry.

Lessfuss: is an affordable South African personal assistant service that helps you save time and get things done for as little as R30/task.

Mobiflock: is a product range that consists of a parental control service, a personal smart phone tracker, and a corporate smart phone manager.

Plot my Ride: is a social networking service for the cycling community that offers an easy and real-time means of capturing, displaying, saving and sharing a cyclist’s riding activity.

Real Time Wine: captures the supermarket wine-buying audience and empowers them to discover, review, engage with and buy wine using smart phone apps, game mechanics & barcode scanning.

SnapBill: is an automated billing system that allows users to easily sell their services online.

“We are very passionate about the African market and encouraged by the innovations emerging from the continent, so it’s a natural fit for us to partner with Tech4Africa to present this stage for innovators to showcase their products,” says Brett Loubser, B2C Apps Development Lead at Samsung. “We intend using this partnership to help create a wider network of local developers, reward African innovation in the mobile tech and app space and promote the Samsung Apps Store as an alternative channel for smartphone developers.

“A key outcome of our participation as the Ignite partner is to engage South African developers and therefore we have made available a number of discounted tickets to facilitate their involvement at this year’s conference.”

The Samsung Apps Ignite participants will each be afforded five minutes to showcase their products in the main auditorium at the end of the first day of the conference. A panel of judges has been gathered to adjudicate and the winning startup will be announced on the second day of the event, and be given the opportunity to present their start-up to the entire Tech4Africa audience. The winner will also receive the latest Samsung mobile devices and valuable exposure and profiling through the Tech4Africa website. More details are available at www.tech4africa.com.