SupplyWorx Vol 15.4

Capacity  Resolve Supply Chain Infrastructure Solutions for Africa Trends  Tax What You Should Know In 2016

 Cloud Computing The Impact of Cloud

 Security Landscape 2016

Becoming information security organisations

 Cost Optimisation Strategy

Creating revenue-generating digital opportunities

 Are Workers Still Intoxicated?

Hangovers Exposed

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Supply Chain Infrastructure Solutions for Africa

His Excellency Terence McCulley, Ambassador of the United States of America in Côte d’Ivoire, at the inauguration ceremony of the new pharmaceutical Warehouse-in-a-Box™ in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire

The new Warehouse-in-a-Box™ in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, measures 4 095 m² and is pharmaceutical compliant.

Economic growth in Africa often brings increased pressure on supply chain infrastructure, creating challenging business conditions and difficulty in matching supply with demand.

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f we want to execute supply chain design effectively in Africa, we need creative and flexible solutions,” says Arno Haigh, Executive Director at Resolve Capacity, a division of supply chain specialists Resolve Solution Partners.

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The healthcare industry in particular is a focus, as many African countries have experienced a surge in volumes of medicine and healthcare products moving through their public health facilities, putting strain on existing infrastructure and affecting supply chain efficiencies.

Pharmaceutical warehouses are largely invisible to patients, but they are essential to ensuring that health commodities are available and importantly, compliant. Poorly constructed, maintained or managed storage facilities put products at risk of damage, diversion or expiry – all of which put health programmes and patient health in jeopardy.

“With warehouses already built or underway in Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda, we really are making strides in improving supply chain infrastructure in Africa, particularly in the healthcare industry,” says Haigh. “This is in addition to facilities already built in South Africa.”

To complement the supply chain infrastructure, Resolve Capacity also has a wide range of modular clinics and storage solutions that offer a unique balance to the typical challenges existing across the continent.

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“We broke ground in October 2014, and were pleased to hand the warehouse over to NPSP in January this year,” says Haigh. “This new warehouse will significantly enhance the pharmaceutical distribution network in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as storage capacity for the distribution of quality medicines.”

One of Resolve Capacity’s most recent projects is a Warehouse-in-a-Box™ in Abidjan, the capital of Côte d’Ivoire.

The contract was awarded in July 2014 to Imperial Health Sciences by SCMS (Supply Chain Management Systems), for which Resolve Capacity is a service provider, and was implemented in Côte d’Ivoire on behalf of New Public Health Pharmacy (NPSP), the organisation responsible for the distribution of pharmaceutical products for public health institutions operated by the country’s Ministry of Health.

Along with its partners Turnkey Infrastructure Solutions, Resolve Capacity implemented its unique modular infrastructure solution for this $5.8 million, 4 095 m² warehouse project, which includes administration facilities etc.

“We broke ground in October 2014, and were pleased to hand the warehouse over to NPSP in January this year,” says Haigh. “This new warehouse will significantly enhance the pharmaceutical distribution network in Côte d’Ivoire, as well as storage capacity for the distribution of quality medicines.”

The construction of the prefabricated warehouse is the result of joint funding by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Global Fund for the Fight Against Tuberculosis, AIDS and Malaria.

The new warehouse will allow for significantly increased pharmaceutical compliant storage capacity, and will help streamline the provision of HIV/AIDS-related and other health products. The number of people on antiretroviral therapy is increasing rapidly, which means an increased requirement for drugs and supplies for screening volume, clinical laboratory testing and support. Storage therefore needs to be increased at a national level, and this warehouse will allow the NPSP to better organise its storage system and distribution to ensure continuous availability of essential medicines.

Resolve’s Warehouse-in-a-Box™ design is unique, and enables the rapid commission and installation of a prefabricated warehouse with all the componentry required to deliver a total solution, packed and ready for delivery in 40ft containers. The solution addresses

a country’s chronic lack of supply chain infrastructure, limited storage space and lack of quality storage facilities.

Suitable for both urban and rural settings, the standards and operational benchmarks are aligned with international supply chain principles.

The design can deliver between 500 and 10 000 m² of pharmaceutical warehouse space, and long-term scalability is made possible through its modular design, which is readily adjustable to accommodate future growth demands.

“The materials we use in producing Warehouse-ina-Box™ facilities are up to 30% cheaper than traditional building methods, and the product boasts a 30 plusyear lifespan,” says Haigh. “We also place a high focus on sustainability – each one can be built to four-star green building standards, and they are designed with water, HVAC condensate and solar harvesting. They also feature water and waste treatment, as well as reduced cooling and energy costs due to their energy-efficient panel and door designs.”

Facility deployment in Africa is complicated by limitations in developing countries. “With Warehouse-in-aBox™, however, we can overcome these limitations,” he says.

“Our warehouses may fit in a box, but our thinking certainly doesn’t.”

Another project initiated last year was for USAID Mozambique – a $7.6-million pharmaceutical warehouse in Mozambique’s Nampula region in the north. “This traditional warehouse enhances the pharmaceutical distribution network in Mozambique, as well as storage capacity for the distribution of quality medicines,” explains Haigh.

Haigh and his team are excited about the projects Resolve Capacity is involved with. “We know that in addition to job creation and local business development during construction, our projects have a significant positive impact on distribution networks in their regions,” concludes Haigh. “We are also helping alleviate the supply chain infrastructure challenges our continent is facing, and moving the African economy forward through enabling growth and development.”

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by Yolandi Esterhuizen, Legislation Manager at Sage HR & Payroll

Tax Questions

Every Business Owner Should Ask In 2016

It’s tough out there. Entrepreneurs need to do more with less and keep an eye on changes in the tax legislation, as these could affect their payroll calculations and the tax they need to pay on behalf of their employees.

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inance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s recent budget speech admirably brought a sound outline for the country’s framework for the next year with some changes in tax legislation. Some of these legislative changes (as included in the amendment Acts and reiterated in the budget speech), such as employee contributions to retirement funds, will most probably have an impact on the company’s payroll systems.

Here are the five tax questions every small business owner should be asking their tax consultant this year

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1. What is happening with the Employment Tax Incentive (ETI)?

The 2016 Budget indicates that the ETI will be reviewed in the third quarter of 2016 with a view to extending its life for another year. It is still debatable whether ETI has been effective in addressing the crisis of youth unemployment.

If the legislation is to be renewed, it needs substantial changes to make it more effective and to encourage wider participation by businesses. Areas of difficulty in the current legislation include:  Putting the responsibility for minimum wage compliance into the ETI Act has compromised its simplicity and effectiveness.  The three-step formula used to calculate the monthly incentive, results in complicated and poorly understood ‘grossing-up’ calculations that the payroll must perform if a ‘partial month’ is worked.  If employers claim the monthly incentive in a month in which they are inadvertently not tax compliant, penalties and interest can be the result. This risk is too high in the opinion of some employers.

Generally, some employers are of the opinion that the administrative costs and risks outweigh the financial benefit of the incentive. I am hopeful that pragmatic changes to the ETI Act can address these challenges and improve its effectiveness as a way to boost youth employment rates.

2. Will there be any changes to employee contributions towards retirement funds?

Yes. From March 2016, any employee contributions towards a retirement fund (pension, provident and retirement annuity) are tax deductible, subject to a limit which must be applied by the employer. Previously, contributions towards a provident fund were not tax deductible.

The employee may contribute more than these limits, but he/she will only receive the tax benefit up to the statutory limit.

Any contributions made by the employee in excess of the limits will reduce the taxable value of any lump sum paid in future.

3. Am I obliged to register with SARS for skills development?

Yes. All employers registered with SARS for employees’ tax purposes in terms of the Fourth Schedule of the Income Tax Act, must register with SARS for skills development, irrespective of whether they are excluded from paying the levy by one of the following conditions:  any public service employer in the national or provincial sphere of government,  any national or provincial public entity, if 80% or more of its funding comes from government,  any religious or charitable institution,  any municipality in possession of a certificate of exemption,  any employer where the total annual remuneration for the next 12 months is not expected to exceed R500 000.

4. Has there been any change to the income replacement policies since 2015?

No. Since March 2015 premiums towards an income replacement policy were no longer tax deductible and this remains the same. It has not been affected by the changes to retirement fund contributions and how it should be treated on the payroll.

5. Are medical aid contributions still no longer tax deductible on the payroll for employees who are 65 years or older?

Yes. Since March 2014, medical aid was no longer tax deductible for employees who are 65 or older. If an employee contributes towards a medical aid, the employee will be entitled to a tax credit amount.

However, effective from March 2016, these individuals will also be allowed an additional medical tax credit on the payroll.

This value is calculated by allowing 33.3% of the value of the medical aid contributions which exceeded 3 times the normal medical tax credits.

Closing words I believe that the global economy is powered by SMEs. Economic stability, growth and employment are reliant on the success of SMEs.

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A Look at 2016

Security Landscape A couple of years ago, the security industry claimed the anti-virus industry was dead. This isn’t strictly true. On one side, pure anti-virus companies do not exist any longer, but instead of security companies limiting themselves to a single, traditional anti-virus product, they have expanded their offerings to become information security organisations.

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In order for the security industry to develop there are two things that must happen, he says: staying at the forefront of technology and doing everything possible to become an industry game-changer. Businesses must bear these two points in mind, and continually strive towards them if the industry is to thrive and stay ahead of the bad guys.

“In terms of what developments we can expect in the enterprise security sector this year we can expect a rise in machine learning,” says Blaeser. “Advances in deep learning will help security vendors better their malware detection rates, through the employment of real-time, predictive analysis. We might see a new class of security solutions develop to pre-empt zero-day attacks that have been so detrimental to organisations in the past.”

It is essential for organisations to establish best in class test environment management practices at an enterprise level.

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utz Blaeser, MD of Intact Security, says in this way, security companies are transforming to meet the security needs of the future, and adapt to the everchanging, increasingly sophisticated threat landscape. He cites an example as Bitdefender, a top security company that Intact distributes. “Bitdefender is now creating hardware that embeds its scanning technology to fend off emerging attacks on consumer-grade IoT devices.”

The market for this sort of technology is on the edge of maturity, so the need for security where the IoT is concerned is becoming more and more crucial every day.

“Gartner has forecast that 274.6 million wearable electronic devices will be sold globally this year, a whopping increase of 18.4% from last year,” he adds.

According to Blaeser, an additional area that has great potential for innovation is the enterprise security arena. “For many years cyber thieves have been eyeing enterprises as potential treasure troves of valuable data. For this reason, businesses need the maximum available protection, to ensure their data, and therefore their customers, are kept safe.”

This is an area where Bitdefender shines, says Blaeser.

“Bitdefender was recently named a Visionary in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms.”

He sees the increased adoption of open-source as another trend among CIOs this year. “CIOs are recognising that innovation is key to gaining a competitive advantage in this new landscape, and organisations of all types and sizes will look to open-source for innovation as well as critical business operations. In terms of security, open-source is being refined and tweaked all the time by dedicated teams, and is becoming increasingly proactive in its approach.”

Speaking of the IoT, Blaeser says security standards around this trend will continue to evolve. “As more organisations adopt IoT technologies, OEMs and device manufacturers will be compelled to define new IoT standards that ensure not only efficiency, but that security is built in to these devices from the ground up, not slapped on as an afterthought.”

2016 will also be the year of the single-platform security solution. “Companies are looking to save time and money, and will look to all-in-one offerings for their security needs.

We’ll see a rise in a unified management console to manage and control mobile, on-premise and virtualised endpoints in the business. Point solutions are on the way out, and administrators will see their role being streamlined.”

Finally, we will see managed security services providers (MSSPs) adopting integrated security. MSS is a multi-billion dollar market, and it is only going to grow, according to Blaeser. As a reaction to increasingly complex threats and adversaries, MSSPs will take security specialists on board to help better protect their customers, as well as manage security along the chain, from deployment and policy setting to security monitoring.

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Cloud-based communications have given businesses improved operational system capability, flexibility and simplicity in order to revolutionise the modern workplace.

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The cloud can also save money and time by helping manage the important parts of one’s business, from procurement to finance, inventory to human resources, so that one can optimise resource planning

Companies that have already moved their email and file storage to the cloud should now also consider moving their phone system to the cloud. Moving to the cloud is not just about adopting a new technology platform but transforming the way one does business.

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loud computing is making huge waves in the business world, consumer cloud services such as iCloud, Google Drive and Dropbox have changed the way people think about digital content and how to use it. Cloud is fast becoming the preferred choice.

Euphoria Telecom CEO George Golding says this is barely the beginning. “The rise of utility computing services, delivered over the Cloud, will continue to disrupt markets, spawn new business models and revolutionise informationsharing and business management for years to come.”

There is a workplace revolution with cloud technologies, they provide businesses innovative new ways to communicate, collaborate, interact, and work. More and more companies will be making cloud investments in the near future as they transition into full reliance on cloud technologies.

Cloud-based communications have given businesses improved operational system capability, flexibility and simplicity in order to revolutionise the modern workplace.

By giving companies of all sizes access to information technology that was previously affordable for only the largest of companies, the cloud has levelled the competitive playing field.

Analysts expect the Cloud computing market to reach US $40-billion in five years and they also predict that more than 75% of small businesses will have moved to the cloud by 2020.

Golding says the true power of the cloud lies in what the technology offers. “A business phone system in the cloud is designed for the way companies work today. It keeps employees connected to customers and teams wherever they are working, on whatever device they are using and however they are collaborating.”

Cloud-based phone systems can help save costs, streamline operations, improve productivity and scale your business. It not only allows companies to invest more back into their business, it also increases profits by saving costs.

“Using a cloud phone system for your business will help you generate more revenue by saving on capital expenses and making better use of your resources. Many businesses opt for cloud solutions when getting their company off the ground as it reduces the upfront investment for email, web and document hosting and even phone systems,” he explains.

Eliminate startup costs and deployment expenses by opting for cloud technologies, they are synonymous with lower software and tech maintenance requirements. They will help you avoid the costs and challenges associated with traditional on-premise deployment.

The cloud can also save money and time by helping manage the important parts of one’s business, from procurement to finance, inventory to human resources, so that one can optimise resource planning. The fact that cloud technologies offer solutions to address most core business challenges, it helps businesses make the most of their limited resources.

“Replacing on-premise telephony infrastructure with a cloud solution means your phone system can be managed entirely through the web, taking just minutes to deploy to your company.

As you scale, add or remove business lines with the same speed and ease as you did setting up your first line. Hosting your business phone in the cloud also means it can quickly adapt to any software updates or improvements, without needing to purchase new hardware,” he concludes.

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Cost Optimisation in the Age

of Digital Business

Why CIOs need a cost optimisation strategy that includes creating revenue-generating digital opportunities.

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f cutting costs is the first thing that comes to mind when you think about 'cost optimisation,'consider the example of an oil company. For successive quarters, the entire industry has suffered from a deluge of oil glut. Fortunately, the CIO took away an important lesson from the Great Recession (which began in 2007): Don’t start thinking about cost optimisation only when you’re told to cut the budget.

As worldwide markets were recovering, the CIO worked with the business to make a case for investing in analytics and forwardthinking capabilities such as visualisation and modeling. This has made its oil exploration efforts much more operationally efficient (which is critical in such a heavy-asset-intensive business). In challenging times, the company is already better equipped to weather the storm.

When the economy shows signs of sliding downward, “Simply cutting the IT budget and taking an approach of waiting until the economic environment is more favorable to make digital investments” isn’t a viable option for organisations that want to stay competitive, said Barbara Gomolski, managing vice president at Gartner. “That approach limits your ability to create revenue-generating opportunities when you probably need them the most.”

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The 4% challenge When you’re told budgets need to be cut, keep in mind that “IT costs represent only a small fraction - 4% - of business costs,” said Ms. Gomolski. “Cost optimisation in the age of digital business means looking beyond IT and including business costs in the initiative,” she stressed.

Your cost optimisation strategy should be holistic, and include three different types of activities, explained Kurt Potter, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner: 1. IT cost optimisation: Reduce IT costs while maximising business value 2. Business cost optimisation: Use IT to digitalise and optimise business processes 3. Digital business: Prepare for a digital future by digitalising physical assets, data and business processes The cycle of cost cutting Some economic indicators might seem uncomfortably familiar for IT leaders who weathered the Great Recession.

For example, noted Ken McGee, vice president and Gartner Fellow, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index and Shanghai Stock Exchange Composite Index were in decline prior to both 2008 and 2016.

Veterans of the Great Recession are no strangers to IT cost cutting and optimisation. Since then, many CIOs have squeezed out excess IT capacity to make their organisations vastly more

efficient, to the point where IT budgets are incredibly lean.

Mr. Potter noted, “The average change in CIOs’ year-over-year budgets for the five-year periods leading up to 2008 and 2016 were 2% and 0.004%, respectively.”

Now, CIOs need to be proactive about helping the rest of the organisation reduce costs. Business operations and nondifferentiating activities are good starting points. Also consider how IT capabilities, such as bimodal, can be applied in other parts of the organisation to help them operate more efficiently.

Ultimately, using more information technology (as in the example of the oil company), rather than simply focusing on ways to trim the budget, will be your best strategy to help the business run more efficiently.

CIOs as optimisation advisors The good news is that your business needs technology more than ever. Technology isn’t about just keeping the operational lights on anymore — it’s often about staking out new ways to generate revenue by attracting and keeping customers. To grow and transform — in sum, to remain competitive — the business needs to have a digital optimisation strategy. This is a value proposition that excites CEOs and boards of directors.

“CIOs should adopt the role of technology advisors and counselors, and recommend to CEOs and boards of directors that they spare revenue-creating systems from the proverbial axe,” said Mr. McGee, “because this time, things are different.”

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Hangovers Exposed

by Rhys Evans, Director at ALCO-Safe

Are Workers Still Intoxicated From The Night Before?

It has been a tough day. You make your way home, sit down in front of the TV, pop open a beer and unwind. You sit down for dinner and have another, and another. Before you know it, you have had too much. It’s been a rough day, and you need to let lose, you invite some friends over and before you know it, its 3 am, you are lying in bed and you can’t remember how you got there.

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he situation of how it starts may differ, but the end result is always the same – illness and fatigue. Importantly, there is a strong possibility that when you clock in for work later that morning, you have a hangover and alcohol is still in your system. This can have dire consequences.

One alcoholic beverage takes a full hour to make its way out of your system and includes one standard sized beer, 130ml glass of wine or one and a half tots of spirits. If a lot of alcohol is consumed, it can take many hours for it to work out of your system. By the time a person clocks in for work, there could still well be an excessive amount of alcohol in their system, impacting their ability to execute their work and possibly putting their colleagues in danger.

The effects of alcohol on the body are significant, particularly when feeling the ill effects of ‘the night before’. Your body hurts due to inflammation, your heart is put under strain as the effects of anxiety are heightened, endorphins crash and dehydration sets in, not to mention the effects on your stomach - your body loses its ability to absorb minerals and vitamins for a period of time. Your brain function lessens by up to half due to an overuse of dopamine takes place when intoxication sets in and the body goes into a state of orthodoxic hypotension, causing dizziness and nausea.

“The problem with a hangover is that you don’t realise you have one as a large percentage of the time you are still intoxicated when you wake up. The brain does not register the change between being sober and being intoxicated. If you wake up and don’t feel the after effects of the night before, it’s because you are still intoxicated and chances are that at around lunch time you will begin feeling fatigued and ill, your sugar levels begin dropping rapidly and the individual’s wellness begins deteriorating.

It is obvious that these effects on a worker operating a crane, forklift or heavy machinery could easily result in an accident, or even death. However, many employers miss the signs and after

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an incident occurs, claim to have taken the necessary preventive steps. Many employers do take the minimum precautions necessary to attempt preventing accidents, however, the impact of an incident happening is far greater on the company than the implementation of regular testing before and even possibly after a work day. If an incident occurs in a mine for example, the mine will be shut down for a period of time whilst an investigation occurs, as well as fines incurred, this is a costly procedure, employers would be better off testing more often as opposed to random testing procedures.

The Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) laws make provision for this. It states that no employer may legally allow an employee on site if they are or appear to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs. This includes tell tail signs such as smelling of alcohol or exhibiting symptoms of a hangover. In such a case, the employer is liable for more serious repercussions than the employee should an accident occur.

It is management’s function to ensure the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Policy is compiled and ratified. Importantly, they need to ensure that employees comply. The formulation of the Policy is a crucial process and requires input from all levels of management, and a fair amount of policy content will be decided upon from the results of past experience in dealing with the problem.

It is important to revise your alcohol policy regularly in regards to amendments made by the department of labour, often white collar workers think that they are exempt to the rules as most accidents that matter take place on construction sites or in mines.

This is not the case. It is a contradiction to the OHS act have intoxicated employees in the work place, even if you are an IT company. Those Friday drinks at the office are according to the OHS act not allowed in any workplace and should you trip and fall down the stairs and injure yourself or another employee, it is seen as gross negligence where management can be held legally liable for knowingly allowing such behaviour to take place on company premises. Furthermore if someone is killed criminal charges may be brought against those responsible.

Often the concept of working through a hangover is spoken of in jest between co-workers and friends, however, the reality is that you are working with a hangover and, you are likely still intoxicated. This should be the first thing you remember whilst driving to work the day after a heavy night. Technically, you are driving under the influence of alcohol. Next time you consider laughing a hangover off with your mates, consider the consequences of causing an accident where someone is injured or killed and the other driver notices the smell of alcohol on your breath. Besides the jail time could you live with the guilt?

One alcoholic beverage takes a full hour to make its way out of your system and includes one standard sized beer, 130ml glass of wine or one and a half tots of spirits. If a lot of alcohol is consumed, it can take many hours for it to work out of your system.

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Personality

It’s what makes our jewellery unique.

Where equal parts of craftsmanship, fine design and personality are intrinsically woven into every creation.

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WH E THER IT IS S OMETHIN G N EW, O R S O M ETHIN G R EM O DEL L ED. YOU IMAG IN E IT. WE’ L L M AKE IT.

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