South Africa’s top financial services organisations rarely hold a conversation today that doesn’t include the topics of digitalisation, data science, cloud and hybrid data centres, endpoints, security, integration and robotic process automation.
That’s according to Nkosi Kumalo, managing executive of the EXA Business Unit for BCX, who was speaking during a recent TechCentral webinar hosted by BCX and Cisco on robotic process automation (RPA) and enabling it using SD-WAN and Wi-Fi 6 technologies.
“Customers expect rapid access to personalised services at a reasonable cost. But that’s a tough nut for organisations to crack. The challenges they face include legislation, borderless networks, public infrastructure, security, remote work, data sources and potentially a lack of skilled resources,” Kumalo says.
Contact Nkosi Kumalo to explore the value that your organisation can gain
RPA offloads the manual drudgery in providing network, application and security services, but simultaneously enhances visibility, insights and the ability to act. That gives financial services firms more time for strategic business imperatives, makes them more competitive and maximises operational efficiencies.
Watch the webinar below
Swift and accurate
Software RPA supports administrative tasks in real time. It enables businesses to deal with complex environments, swiftly and accurately. Combined with reliable, high-speed connectivity such as Wi-Fi 6 and SD-WAN, it ensures they can improve application performance, make unprecedented data volumes available at speed, and better secure the holistic environment from data through infrastructure to users.
“The solution of consulting services based on Cisco’s end-to-end technology is the foundation that enables a united fabric to transform digital financial services. It harnesses the power of AI and machine learning to gain insights and automate performance and security.”
Improving and integrating infrastructure, providing essential visibility, layered intelligence to extract relevant insights, and the ability to automate at speed all eliminate key challenges. They allow financial services businesses to deliver new customer experiences, optimise operational performance and hone efficiencies, while meeting legislative requirements.
Full-stack observability
“Wi-Fi 6, SD-WAN and RPA in unison and underscored by managed services deliver superior results,” said Conrad Steyn, chief technology officer and head of engineering at Cisco sub-Saharan Africa, in the webinar. “Applications and data are the heart of any digitalised business and they must deliver exceptional user experiences and services. The unity of RPA, Wi-Fi 6 and SD-WAN elevate the organisational knowledge base into the digital layer and provide full stack observability.”
Cisco’s global platform enables dynamic allocation to match workload demands, network availability and data centre resources. The business has agents deployed worldwide across public data centres, using AI and ML to allocate resources that optimise performance and security dynamically.
“Application security is critical,” said Steyn, “which is why applications, traffic and resources are encrypted end to end.”
Cisco applies RPA to cybersecurity via its Zero Trust model that first establishes trust by delivering visibility into users, devices, applications, workloads and more. It then enforces trust via secure access to networks, applications, resources and communities. Lastly, it continues to reinforce trust by continuously verifying those attributes.
Road map to resilience
“As BCX, a Cisco Gold Partner, we build on the technology by consulting with clients to develop roadmaps to resilient, standards-based and compliant environments,” said Kumalo. “We support that with our strong network practice, support and managed services, to capably support and offload the client burden.”
“Full-stack observability takes customers beyond monitoring the individual elements,” adds Steyn. “It provides observability, insights and actions across all the data, applications and devices, in the private and public cloud, as well as data centres, for a holistic view across the engagement flow.”
RPA engagements in South African firms typically begin with understanding the security and other ramifications of offloading workloads to the bots. Clients understand the reputational implications if they do not remedy the challenges of traditional approaches. Sourcing skills and talent to support their RPA journey in support of digital transformation is a key element to minimising exposure. Finally, developing the transformation road map must consider each organisation’s unique environment in the context of its strategic and business objectives.
Contact Nkosi Kumalo to explore the value that your organisation can gain.
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