Fikile Sibiya is chief information officer of e4. She knows just how much pressure CIOs and IT leadership teams have been under over the past 18 months, with Covid-19 impacting them hard.
In this podcast interview with TechCentral (watch or listen to it below), Sibiya talks about how CIOs have helped steer their organisations through a time of great stress and uncertainty, and how they are beginning to emerge on the other side wiser but with the battle scars to show for it.
Can IT leaders ever really prepare for an event like Covid and the sudden need for their companies’ employees to work from home en masse? And what lessons have been learnt through it all?
Certainly, many may underestimate the strain that people in positions of IT leadership have been through in the last year and a half, Sibiya explains in the podcast. And South Africa’s unique problems – not least of them load shedding – has added to this.
Is a remote workforce, or even a hybrid workforce, sustainable in the longer term? How do companies manage productivity when their employees are working remotely? And equally, how do they ensure people don’t burn themselves out? Sibiya tackles all of these important questions – and more – in the podcast.
Security
The conversation also touches on the security aspects of working from home and the impact of the Protection of Personal Information Act.
Lastly, Sibiya talks about a passion of hers: fintech. She explains why fintech start-ups have seen enormous growth through the Covid lockdown and how technology holds huge promise for the unbanked and the so-called “township economy”.
If you’re in IT leadership, or even just interested in it, make sure you don’t miss the conversation.
Watch the video
Listen to the audio
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