Customer experience
Efficient service and product launches
Security resilience
Improved customer experience
Accelerated digitalisation
Hybrid workplace
Effective governance and risk management
Customers are at the heart of our strategy. In crafting and implementing our strategic initiatives, we focused on customer impact, ensuring speed, simplicity and improving the self-service capability.
We introduced new products to add value for our customers. These products are, including the e-Marketplace various insurance policies, payment solutions and customerfacing process automation. The technology capabilities underpinning these products contribute to improving customer experience, service delivery, revenue enablement and cost efficiency.
The growing demand for digital channels, remote work and cost efficiencies have driven most organisations to consider automation and digitisation of their processes and offerings. In responding to this growing demand, we adopted a customercentric approach and prioritised the following strategic initiatives over the reporting period.
The operating support system initiative aims to replace the current solution to enable newer technology with a focus on software-defined network technology.
Business support systems are being transformed to improve customer experience and commercial imperatives. This also includes simplification and automation of business processes to drive higher efficiencies.
Significant effort was channelled into digitising customer channels, focusing on the web and app channels.
Further enhancements to property management include IoT deployment and new digital solutions to automate the processes.
e-Marketplace was developed and launched for small businesses to sell their products and services.
Telkom's analytics capability improved in mission-critical applications to enable actionable insights.
A multi-lingual transcription and translation platform under the brand of izwe.ai has been launched in partnership with Enlabeler. This collaboration is expected to create about 79 job opportunities over a period of two years and will showcase our use of AI and machine learning.
Technology became a mechanism to ensure that our workforce remains productive, while adhering to government-mandated COVID-19 protocols.
In enabling a hybrid workplace, we employed a mobilityfirst approach to provide end-user devices to allow for flexibility in line with the health protocols as well as meet the combined demands of both remote and office work. The use of collaboration tools intensified as new functionality became available. The automation of internal processes continued, including new enterprise resource planning deployments and digital HR initiatives.
By complying with these standards and guidelines, the Board assumes responsibility for policy and direction over matters relating to technology and information. The following business objectives underpin our governance framework:
In driving these objectives, IT governance structures are integrated with corporate governance to align IT governance objectives with corporate governance ambitions. We continued to review and align the Telkom IT policies, standards and risks with the changing business and threat landscape. There was a heightened drive for data governance, necessitated by the Protection of Personal Information Act. We emphasised defining risk and governance metrics to proactively manage risks and non-compliance.
In response to the ever-changing technology landscapes and potential threats, Telkom pursues a risk-based approach to information security. We improved our security posture and the maturity of our Security Programme. This is done in line with regulatory requirements, best practice guidelines and industry benchmarks.
Due to the rise in cyberattacks, it was necessary to increase our focus on strengthening identity and access management. We introduced additional security domains to align with the newer threat vectors. We also strengthened analytics to enable threat intelligence. Telkom retained its ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certification for information security management for the effectiveness and adequacy of its comprehensive information security management system.
We will continue to explore newer digital technologies such as AI, machine learning and IoT to enable further automation and efficiencies in order to improve customer experience and unlock opportunities. We will also continue with automation of governance processes.
Q&A with Mmaki Jantjies
As telecommunication organisations evolve in line with the growth demanded of our digital age, we believe Telkom's long-term investment in innovation and research and development will enable us to fulfil our ambition to become a market leader within the telecommunication sector. It is imperative for us to continue investing in our telecommunication infrastructure, driving innovation and meeting our customers' evolving needs. Telkom is committed to ensuring reliable connectivity. Sustainability is crucial to our open innovation process.
Our forward-looking perspective is to strengthen our Group's intellectual property while ensuring a future-fit workforce. We are strengthening key investments in emerging technology areas where we want to bolster our current research and development partnerships. We are also prioritising areas such as cybersecurity and AI.
As part of an ongoing programme to promote skills development and sustain innovation capabilities, we have partnered with various universities in key research and development areas of the telecommunications sector. This is also part of Telkom's initiatives to support the United Nations SDGs regarding quality education (SDG 4) and industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG 9) (refer to Telkom's contribution to the United Nations SDGs).
Through the FutureMakers Programme (page 85), we supported many start-ups in key technology areas. Some of these companies became key partners in our operations as we strengthened our commitment to growing South Africa's technology sector. We will continue to invest in scalable start-ups that can solve the most complex local challenges in providing access to edtech, healthtech and fintech. We remain committed to having an impact on investment. We continue to support start-up investments and partnerships in key verticals where our Group aims to grow and make an impact.
Employees play a crucial role in our innovation ecosystem by responding to the changing digital landscape and adapting to the innovation sought by customers. We want to cultivate customer-centric innovation to support business units and empower employees through a range of training programmes. We aim to foster an environment that enables innovative research and development while embracing agile working practices. We will invest in a Group-wide innovation management platform to support our business units' innovations.