AfriGIS year-end letter 2018

There are many opportunities to stray from a difficult path, resolve and focus are needed to make the hard decisions.

South Africa is not featuring, as it did last year this time, on the front page of international magazines for the wrong reasons. I would like to believe that our leadership is busy in the engine room, working and fixing a significant set of challenges. From the looks of it, they are (by and large) employing the best minds to do such and that is commendable. The year has been challenging in a number of ways and we look forward to the solidification of government post elections next year.

Looking around, many developed (and developing) countries themselves are also feeling the pinch and navigating unchartered waters.

Reading a recent newspaper article about Tencent, the Chinese tech giant, the word lackadaisical was used to describe the organisation. I had to look it up and it means “lacking enthusiasm and determination; carelessly lazy”.

At AfriGIS our journey this year has also been an interesting one, but describing us as lackadaisical, does not come to mind.

We believe our focus on answering “Where?” for South Africa and the globe is correct; and by carefully applying the set of resources available at our disposal, we are keeping that focus. It is not an easy journey as the economic environment pushes boundaries around profitability and investment. The organisation itself has its own dose of healthy competition and friction around what needs priority (what should be done vs what could be done). It is this passion which pushes us forward and drives us to believe in better.

Joining our passionate team this year was Mr Thabo Seopa, as non-executive director. Thabo brings with him a wealth of experience, wisdom and insight and a solid grounding in the commercialisation of answers. We are excited about his contributions and how it will shape the company in future.

On the execution side, you can rest assured. Having completed a major hardware upgrade and migration, which included a full DR site in Cape Town, we are well prepared for current and future requirements. A saying that a legacy system is a system that worked well rings true in certain contexts in our business. We are maturing and we are supporting millions of transactions per week at above 99.9% uptime in various environments around the globe.

Highlights of the past year in the AfriGIS context, quoted from our social media streams press office include:

• AfriGIS celebrates 21 years of answering WHERE, a significant milestone and privilege.
  
• Ten learners have been selected for our 6th annual AfriGIS Learnership Programme, in proud partnership with MICT Seta and CTU Training.
  
• A record number of employees celebrating their 10- and 20-year service at AfriGIS.
  
• We are constantly finding new ways to leverage enhanced data and location-based technology, to provide industry leaders with innovative solutions. We expanded on our solutions in the Regulatory, Risk, Land Management and Customer Value Management (CVM) environments, specifically the application and treatment of address data, verified to a physical location.
  
• The launch of our new AfriGIS website in May 2018 – www.afrigis.co.za.
  
• Four successful Data and Spatial Workshops, showcasing and delivering world class datasets and solutions to our clients was hosted throughout the year.
  
• Some of the conferences and workshops we attended, exhibited or participated at include: Mastering Business Analytics with SAP Solutions, SAFARI into the Credit Industry workshops, SABS & ISO standards meetings, ICA & SASDI Joint Workshop, the Public Transport Knowledge Seminar hosted by the Gautrain Management Agency in partnership with GIBS. A highlight on the calendar was the inaugural United Nations World Geospatial Information Congress hosted in China.
  
• We continued our active participation and collaboration with International and South African organisations to provide our clients with the most relevant and recent developments in the South African (SABS) and International (ISO) Address Standards context.
  
• Our flagship address platform, AfriGIS Search, which is compliant with national and international address standards now contains more than 50 million address combinations.
  
• Hosting our 2018 Address Breakfast where we engaged with industry leaders and experts around the Global and South African Address context. Definitely a pleasure and privilege in terms of the year’s highlights. We look forward to continued debate, closer industry interaction and solving the challenges together.

Speaking of the future:

The fabric of our society is woven from strong, diverse strands. We as South Africans have a unique ability to overcome adversity as reflected, once again in the events that unfolded this year. The southernmost tip of Africa has deep footsteps to yet tread on the future of our continent and planet and as AfriGIS we are excited to be part of that journey.

The innovative nature and can-do attitude of our fellow countrymen and -women will no doubt be tested in the months and years to come; the hope remains that we make the right choices and apply the many resources at our disposal to achieve a better life for all.

We have what it takes, we need to own it, believe it and apply ourselves diligently to the task at hand.

At AfriGIS we bring the greatest minds to the greatest maps and we will answer “Where?”, be it for the IoT, Municipal revenue management, Elections, bringing services to the poor, examining behavioural trends or delivering your Christmas parcel.

In conclusion:

We would like to thank our clients, partners and contributors for your unwavering support even in difficult economic conditions.

Team AfriGIS and your loved ones; thank you for your hard work and the loyalty you have showed throughout a challenging year. Without you the AfriGIS puzzle is incomplete.

We remain committed and passionate in our quest to believe in better in order to make our beautiful country and the world a better place for all.

We look forward to answering your WHERE questions through the Art of Insights in 2019.

We thank our Heavenly Father for continued grace and guidance this year. We commit our interactions and endeavours planned for 2019 to You.

May you experience and enjoy a blessed festive season!

Regards,
Magnus