According to Shamit Govind, who heads up KPMG South Africa’s new Emerging Tech Unit, many technologies in Sub-Saharan Africa have been driven to date by large enterprise resource planning (ERP) companies. However, he believes that with the rise of niche emerging technologies, such as fi ntechs and agritechs, there is opportunity for more creative thinking around problem-solving. ‘In the past, you would need to take a traditional ERP approach, but at KPMG we believe those norms are no longer valid,’ he says. ‘We’re therefore taking a non-traditional approach that doesn’t look at all-encompassing or enterprise-wide problems facing businesses, but rather identifi es unique issues that our clients are facing in specific areas, which we can help them to turn into value-creation.’

Govind says this approach is based on KPMG’s future view, and will focus on matching technologies to challenges. ‘It’s a far more accelerated and iterative process than the way in which companies currently assess and roll out new technologies, which just takes too long,’ he says. Solutions that the unit is focusing on include advanced analytics and automation, cloud transformation and internet of things (IoT), among others.

Govind believes that while other large consulting fi rms are still following more traditional models, KPMG can differentiate itself through the creation of this unit that is focusing specifi cally on how to apply emerging technologies into specifi c aspects of clients’ businesses.

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