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Originally posted on the SBC Facebook page. In a major modernisation of its broadcast technology, the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) has launched two new apps for its radio services, bringing audiences for Radyo Sesel and Paradise FM into the digital and social revolution. Available on iOS and Android mobile devices, the apps allow audiences to stream the stations live, catch up on popular content via podcasts seconds after the live transmission and to engage with the stations with opinions, news and participation in real-time. “With the new technology we are deploying, audiences will become co-creators of our broadcasts with us, bringing them into the very heart of our broadcast personality and services,” commented Bérard Duprès, CEO of Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation. “Audiences will be able to participate in the conversation of the day by sending through their voice-notes, photographs or text messages instantly to the station, where producers can curate and mix this feedback into the on-air broadcast in seconds. At Paradise FM and Radyo Sesel, there is tangible excitement around the possibilities for reaching the Seychellois diaspora globally and to engage with them in real-time. The teams are equally enthused on being able to engage better with our local audience, keeping them informed on issues and events and enabling a whole new set of information and content services, all in the palm of their hands. “We invite our listeners to embark on this digital journey together with us as we grow our skills and understanding of what it takes to be a truly modern broadcaster in the 21st Century,” says Mr Duprès. “Not only does the platform ensure a direct and immediate connection with our audience, it will allow us to preserve our radio programmes into a cloud archive that can be available over time to all citizens of the Seychelles as part of our audio cultural heritage,” notes Duprès, referring to other features of the platform. The CEO further noted that this was part of the Corporation’s on-going efforts to ensure that the benefits of the 4th Industrial Revolution were tangible to all Seychellois, Radio and TV audiences alike, following the recent roll-out of DTT. This innovation of SBC’s radio services has been made possible through partnership with a South Africa-based technology firm, immedia. SBC and immedia collaboration started a year ago in Windhoek, Namibia at SABA’s (Southern African Broadcasting Association) annual conference and AGM. “We are particularly proud that this globally revolutionary platform is an African product developed in Durban, South Africa,” comments Mr Phil Molefe, Executive Head of Strategy at immedia, the development team responsible for the Fabrik platform. Mr Molefe, previously Vice-Chairman of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association, Chairman of the National Film and Video Foundation of South Africa and past Editor-in-Chief of SABC Radio and Television News, is a broadcasting expert who sees the Fabrik platform as being transformative in Africa’s developing economies. “In my thirty years of broadcasting, I have never been more excited at the potential to invert the traditional “We transmit, you receive” model of broadcasting,” says an energised Molefe. The apps are now available live on Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store respectively and SBC invites its audience to come closer to Paradise and Sesel with these pocket companions.

Here are some new features that make it easier for operators to receive, search for and respond to messages from your Smashboard engagement dashboard. Some of the new features we've added include: An option allowing you to search for messages using an exact search term. A consolidated, historical view and message count for all sent and received messages associated with a particular app member. Messages are now automatically scrolled into view once selected. We've also improved the look and feel of your dashboard in the following ways: We've reworked the look and feel of the elements that display on the Trending section. We've added seconds to the clock that displays at the top of your Smashboard screen. The blue text we were using for the titles of selected side-menu items has been removed. And we fixed a bug preventing the 'Reply Message' option from showing when all engagements were clicked. How are you using Smashboard? What would you like to see in Smashboard? Let us know!

Some new features to the Campaigns functionality in Smashboard. New Features Added option to export messages to CSV Improvements Replaced action buttons with popup menu Winner Selection Reworked winners selection to pull message from elasticsearch Hidden previous winners title when there is no previous winner Bug Fixes Fixed the broken css for winner's selection modal Positioned the title of the previous winner below the unconfirmed winner Fixed the incorrect engagements count for each campaign

Phil Molefe addresses attendees of the Durban International Film Festival on embracing modern technology to stay relevant and produce better content.

It’s no longer appropriate to see customers as transient or meta-data or transactional. We have to be of service and of value to customers and we need to see them as a co-creator of products and services. We have to engage them with intimacy, service and value. Fabrik allows you to leverage the learned behaviour of digital tools and workflows (the entire social revolution) and accelerate your workplace transition with a quickened pace of human activity, focus and intimacy. It broadens accountability, builds compliance and increases transparency with your community and within your community. The previous era of technology reduced people to a “number”, to a “resource”, to a “demographic” – which is all well and good in aggregate but absolute disaster for Mrs Singh, Sowazi or Smith in specific. Today, we know we can do better. We know it in our hearts and souls even if we do not know exactly how. How can we do better when I have no voice to change? It’s time to empower your people to be able to be “of service” to your community without the layers of middlemen and friction that currently exist. For example, why do you need a call centre with minimum paid workers who have no connection to you or your brand? Outsourcing many functions and workflows in a business is fine, but you cannot outsource service. Instead of treating your customers anonymously like “everyone is the same”, how do you filter for trust, integrity etc. A Fabrik-powered community allows you to leverage the speed and intimacy of social but in your own private space. This means that your storytelling can be more conversational, real-time and intimate than it would normally be for the more manufactured and curated public social edge. This is a challenge that is hard for many communities because it means being a bit more expressive digitally in a broader space than would traditionally be the case (your team, your department). It’s harder because you can’t outsource your voice and you shouldn’t be “manufacturing” the content. Think of it as telemetry – and being a reliable and engaging transponder. Think of it as being of “service”. What amplifies the “SHARED CONTEXT” What adds to the “SHARED CONVERSATION” Around which goal are we “CHOREOGRAPHING”

Originally posted in the Sunday Tribune. To promote and support technological innovation, Innovate Durban, has launched a cloud-first app that allows key stakeholders and the public to collaborate, connect and celebrate in a private, secure space. Developed by a local tech company, immedia, the Innovate Durban app provides innovators with a platform on which to find and share information, said Aurelia Albert, chief executive of Innovate Durban, a non-profit company set up by the eThekwini Municipality and other key stakeholders. The app also facilitates direct engagement with Innovate Durban, fellow innovators and their partner ecosystem within private programme-related messaging groups or on public channels. The black MAMBA1! fully electronic vehicle created by a group of five students from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, including Calvin Vanwieringen and Mathew Darko from Ghana, in 2016, is just one of the technological innovations you can access if you download the Innovate Durban app. “This private cloud-first platform truly revolutionises the way in which people securely and confidentially communicate within their communities and collaborate with each other – allowing for relevant, real-time information to be shared without the spam, noise and data-harvesting practices we consistently encounter in other forms of communication,” said Albert. “Innovate Durban has partnered with immedia on a number of exciting and cutting-edge projects for many years and we feel that this platform created by immedia’s proudly-Durban team will really set it apart,” added Albert. Albert said the app would advance their mission to ensure that all projects and programmes create sustainable impact.

On 14 May 2018, our comments from a Deloitte Risk Advisory panel on Data Analytics on the place of analytics in driving business decision-making were published in a Deloitte.co.za blog post, republished here for your reading convenience: The practice of using data and analytics to deliver relevant and timely information to drive business decisions is still not pervasive enough in South Africa – why is this? Is it a lack of understanding of what is possible, weak leadership, poor data, legacy systems or simply a lack of strategy? Perhaps all of the above contribute. Perhaps leaders have become sceptical about investing in data and IT without experiencing the promised financial returns. Essentially, analytics professionals are simply not demonstrating tangible business value! Increasingly analytics, specifically Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, is discussed in numerous mainstream publications and platforms with stories relating to the remarkable achievements in the world of innovation and new business models such as those of Uber and Airbnb. It would be inspiring to have a South African example. While discussions around analytics have become pervasive in boardrooms, actions speak louder than words, and there is a lack of evidence of insights driving decisions in day-to-day business. At Deloitte Risk Advisory’s first Data Analytics gathering titled “Analytics in conversation”, we discussed and debated what it takes to become an insight driven organisation in South Africa. The objective of this new forum is for business leaders and analytics practitioners to unpack and debate the issues that we face locally around data and analytics in business. Deloitte Data Analytics will host future gatherings and leaders from all industries and areas of specialisation are welcome to join. The goal is to solve our challenges here in South Africa, while at the same time building a collaborative professional network of people with complementary expertise, experience and most importantly passion. The participants of the first Data Analytics gathering offered a number of reasons as to why we might be falling behind in South Africa: Fear: While analytics terminology is increasingly common, people are intimidated by their minimal knowledge. They lack an understanding of how the insights are derived and how the output can be utilised in their daily businesses. If something seems like magic then it is difficult to trust. In addition, there is a perception that sophisticated analytical solutions might replace jobs, which only adds to their apprehension. Communication and skills: Analytics is a team sport; it requires business, IT, data, mathematics, statistics and storytelling skills. In the absence of the context of the business problem, the technical skills to develop the data and analytics solution, as well as the adaptation of business processes to consume the output, the financial benefits of analytics will never be recognised. While there are often pockets of analytics excellence within an organisation, the output is not imbedded into a process where it can be used and acted upon in a timely manner. Analytics and operations currently are two separate functions, which means that business problems are not resolved with data and information. Culture: In our current economic environment in South Africa, people often feel vulnerable which can lead to resistance in experimenting with new ways of working. We gain comfort in operating in the “traditional business as usual” model rather than running the risk of an unsuccessful new initiative. This culture inhibits change and innovative thinking. Expectations: In our personal lives, we expect instant and relevant responses; if our social media does not update within seconds then we become disgruntled; if we receive an offer that is not relevant to us then we lose interest. We manage our exercise schedule by the instructions from our fitness device! However, in our professional lives, we are satisfied with manual and lengthy processes that deliver old and irrelevant information. Data and IT: Often the data and IT systems prohibit the timely delivery of insights. Poor quality data that is stored in silos across the organisation coupled with inadequate data management tools make the analytics process long and frustrating. Strategy and Leadership: The executives do not formulate and drive the analytics strategy; hence, there is a lack of focus, investment and commitment. The solutions to these challenges are multi-faceted but the Data Analytics discussion suggested four fundamentals that are required for change: Data needs to be treated as the lifeblood of the organisation. Employees at all levels require education around what analytics is, why it is important, how it can drive competitive advantage and most importantly how it benefits each employee. Analytics teams must demonstrate and deliver tangible value by solving relevant business issues. It is vital to empower cross-functional teams to collaborate and experiment. Executives must create the vision as to what is possible and then drive a strategy to become insights driven. The focus must be on investment, change management and people to make it happen. This will create communication, imagination and innovation. Analytics is an enabler to capturing institutional knowledge in a country that is short of skills. Analytics, in the right business environment, can track consumer sentiment, build customer loyalty, gain competitive advantages and make more effective business decisions. While Deloitte’s first Data Analytics forum raised more questions than answers, there was one overarching message – analytics is already part of business and those who it do properly will survive, compete and thrive. The Data Analytics forum is the beginning of a constructive discussion in the South African context around data and analytics that will help business start talking the same language across functional barriers of Business, IT, Finance and Analytics, to knowledge for the benefit of all employees, consumers and businesses. We need to become fanatical about developing solutions that are applicable, digestible and useable. Writer: Dr Tracy Dunbar Associate Director at Data Analytics Deloitte South Africa trdunbar@deloitte.co.za Contributors: Anice Hassim, Carl Wocke, Danny Saksenberg, Selene Shah and Phil Molefe.

Fabrik’s Head of Product, Anice Hassim, addresses attendees of the Association of Christian Media conference on ‘The Future of Modern Radio Engagement.’

From 6 to 9 May, Phil Molefe addresses delegates at the 13th World Media Economic Management Conference along the theme of “Media Management in the Age of Tech Giants”. In case you missed it, here is some of the coverage on Phil’s talk:

Radio has always been dependent on the studio phone lines to maintain a thin connection and narrow aperture to the outside world. To the extent that there was a return path, this was it. Things are better these days with social media allowing for an alternative and richer aperture but nothing beats the warmth and basic human connection of someone’s voice. Voice has always been radio’s resonance. It creates connection and belonging. It makes radio your companion. You aren’t just part of some anonymous beast — you are a part of the community. When the voice goes, some of radio’s magic goes. Our Fabrik media platform allows modern radio to completely transform their intimacy with their audience in the realtime and one of the major uses is to land Voice Notes and media into the studio at scale. Last night we had a brief outage on one of our Cloud Services and for the modern media platforms using our Fabrik platform; it was the equivalent of the phone lines going down. Except worse. The historically thin aperture of the studio lines and its analogue workflow meant that it is used in very specific ways e.g. current affairs shows and competitions. If the lines went down, you could repair for a little while around it and usually no one would worry. Modern cloud tools like Fabrik remove these limitations and create a constant stream of interaction in the realtime. Conversation and engagement is blended into all parts of the broadcast day and it is a rich and broad media mix of text, voice, images and video. The cloud service glitch last night for that brief period had an immediate dampening effect in our client studios. It is like the background chatter of the bazaar suddenly going silent. You don’t notice it until it’s not there.

Discover how easy it is to access the benefits of cloud and mobile in your customer or user base by using Fabrik to drive engagement. Sign up for this free industry session, or contact us to be invited to the next one.

Of all of the media types that have been disrupted by technology over the past decade or two, radio is unique in its ability to claim a relevance and even lead the way to the future. If only we would stop thinking of radio as frequency. Spectrum yes, but frequency no. What used to be an audio-only medium created a laser focus on radio’s secret weapon — personality. And even when personality became commoditised and proxied through automation and corporatisation of music choice and opinion, it still drew its power through human expression and passion. But if radio trusted its heart and allowed itself to blossom in the full spectrum of digital, then it may offer a very powerful and compelling alternative to television and the kind of pricing power that television attracts. It can do this, because it alone of all mediums, other than news channels, is completely realtime where the lag between what is being broadcast and its reception is near instantaneous. This gives radio a powerful role as facilitator and curator of the common voice of a community. With technology, it can now expand that signal away from just audio and enrich it with video, image, text, conversation and context. Being, in the main, highly regional or highly focused around a specific content community, radio is a high trust medium and, certainly in our audience behaviour, we are conditioned to consume it that way. As radio consumers, we trust its weather reports, the traffic updates and the sly dig at City Hall to reveal a context about navigating our reality that we thread dependence upon in our daily lives. Radio is currently a fabric that binds the lives of well over 30 million South Africans on a daily basis. As data access and accessibility broaden rapidly in the decade ahead, those South Africans will switch their consumption of radio from analogue FM to mobile. This transition is not really in doubt anymore, but it has been interesting to see the relative paralysis in embracing it. The role of radio as curator is important since one of the consequences of the digital disruption has been the difficulty for brands to transition to a position of trust in digital. Radio’s role as an influencer and endorser will be amplified by its trust quotient with the audience – that will set it apart from more sterile and remote media types. Few radio stations have fully, natively and completely embraced the full spectrum of digital. Primarily, trad media treated digital with suspicion and as a threat so that any engagement with it was shallow, grudging and inarticulate. This wasn’t helped by the fact that digital exacerbated a generational divide in media businesses where the overriding imperative became a drive to “juniorise” teams, not to allow a blending of opinions and tactics, but as a cost-cutting drive. In short, they threw out the experienced craftsmen and women and brought in workflow operators who were expected to do the OLD things only cheaper. Convergence increases nuance, it doesn’t reduce it. As digital drove convergence we needed more diverse, multidisciplinary teams to be able to shape and craft the new products. But now ubiquitous digital consumption devices provide a clear platform for a new richer, realtime, converged and curated media voice to emerge. And I believe it could be led by radio. Radio has personality, radio has a human voice at its core, the human voice being still the undisputed king of trust building. The current obsession with seeing radio only through the prism of an audio-first medium has to change. Because of this tunnel vision radio may miss the moment of opportunity digital offers it — to take its current massive scale and to make it even more realtime and smart, fully duplex, and to utilise data to engage and add value to audiences in an authentic, trusted yet profitable manner. This will make radio something of a media chameleon — having the ability to mimic the qualities of competing media types in the realtime as context allows. To the segment of the audience stuck in traffic, it may be the audio-only element broadcast into their car speakers. To the listener in the coffee shop, it may be a richer stream of text, opinion, conversation and polling. To the mom on the couch it may bloom full spectrum with video, social, analysis and meta-data all streaming, realtime and sharable. And radio can retain its personality and human essence throughout. Radio in effect, will be able to surf the continuum of engagement from very shallow to deeply immersed without losing the audience to competing media along the way. Folded into a network, future radio can be a powerful contributor to media content and the communal conversation going forward. But to achieve all this, radio is going to have to start converging their efforts — commercial, technical, creative and communal into a single coherent engagement model. immedia is experimenting with interesting results in this space and it has been rewarding to see the re-animation of old and young radio dogs when presented with tools that begin to offer glimmers of what this future might be.