Interview with Cian Salleh Matta How has COVID 19 changed the future for education sector? It is hard to say that it will change the future at this point, but what we do know is that it is currently affecting our approach to teaching; however, during this period educators globally have embraced new challenges and new approaches to learning which I feel will contribute to the development of learning coupled with pedagogic practice before COVID 19. Teachers and students have been able to adapt to change which shows resilience and hopefully this will help broaden and deepen their overall confidence. 2. What has been the biggest challenge for this sector in these times of crisis? Wellbeing, both student and staff wellbeing is a major concern. The rise in education technology has its benefits and downfall, but I feel face to face contact is something students are missing. From this experience we have learnt the value of planning and preparation, as the famous saying goes, “fail to plan, plan to fail”. 3. How has technology changed operations for all aspects of the education industry? Technology has its benefits and downfall, for example, technology is great for collecting data, increasing student autonomy, developing new skills, gamification, and provide instant feedback. There are many programs presently that we can use to elevate the challenges we are currently facing, imagine something like this happened back in the 90s, what would the approach have been? Technology should complement education, not replace what we currently have as there are many skills students need to acquire that do not require technology, it is all about creating a balance. 4. According to you, which area of education sector will witness maximum use of emerging technology in the next 5 years? As Sir Ken Robinson said “children starting school (2006) will be retiring in 2065, but we don’t know what the world will look like in 5 years’ time”, so my answer is a mixture of what he said as we have no idea what will happen in a year’s time, but to be balanced I would say that there is a rise in AI and it will be interesting to see how that changes the education sector and our approach learning. 5. As the crisis imposes immense setback for teachers to impart knowledge, how do you think their concerns and wellbeing can be addressed? There are many ways we can support teachers: create supports groups, increase regular checkups on staff, and create a positive environment where you are approachable. Schools have to be realistic with regards to meeting targets/outcomes and right now they need to focus on quality rather than quantity and wellbeing if they want to achieve their desired results. 6. How do you think attendees will benefit from Saudi Education Technology Summit? I think that a summit like this will help bring educators back together after isolation, rekindle a passion and drive, to know that they are not the only ones struggling or facing the same challenges. It will be a great opportunity for them to share ideas and learn from each other and strengthen our learning community again. Like Tweet Share Share Share

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ClassLink Eliminates Lost Instruction Time School systems worldwide use ClassLink’s Single sign-on platform to provide quick and consistent access to digital resources during remote and in-class learning. Students and teachers access their personalized digital resources from anywhere and on any device using just one username and password. Teachers and administrators use ClassLink Analytics to track student engagement with digital resources and quickly understand when students need support. Technology teams also use Classlink’s automated rostering and provisioning tools to save time and cut frustration. Read this case study to learn how GEMS International Private School eliminated lost instruction time using ClassLink. Like Tweet Share Share Share

Focus skills Available exclusively from Renaissance, Focus Skills™ are—simply put—the building blocks of student learning. Based on extensive research into how learning progresses in reading and mathematics, Focus Skills provide a roadmap for closing learning gaps as you move every student toward greater mastery. Focus Skills are: Critical: Focus Skills are fundamental to student understanding, involving concepts that students must master in order to advance to the next step. Impactful: Because Focus Skills are prerequisites for future learning, focusing instruction on these skills provides the greatest return in terms of student growth. Standards Based: Focus Skills are identified through a detailed study of your state’s standards of learning—and reflect your state’s grade-level expectations. Click on the curriculum’s below to learn more about how Renaissance Focus Skills can help your school. U.S Curriculum UK Curriculum Like Tweet Share Share Share

Kenya Whets Her Appetite For Chatbots To Enhance CX Kenya has recently shown a real interest in chatbot technology evidenced by the fact that most organisations increasingly see it as a fast and effective way of enhancing the Customer Experience (CX) and Customer Engagement – driving efficiencies across their business. This is according to Noah Amoke, Sales Executive for Kenya and Uganda at Infobip Africa, who says that the appetite for chatbots among enterprises in Kenya is largely driven by the realisation that they need to engage with customers on the platforms and channels of their choice, in a timeframe that today’s connected customers have come to expect “This means that companies are opening more channels to communicate with their customers, such as WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, web chat or email, and they want to offer a 24/7 consistent and standardised experience across all these channels. This can be done via a chatbot,” says Amoke. Amoke notes that customisable chatbots, that support NLP, is a huge requirement in a multilingual country such as Kenya, where different dialects and languages are spoken, depending on the region. “The increasing maturity of chatbot technology is also a driving factor for adoption. The current chatbots that are on the market have some limitations, especially in terms of understanding natural language. However, as more sophisticated chatbots become available, that offer with Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities, we expect to see much higher uptake.” Connected Kenya As Kenya is leading the continent in terms of smartphone penetration and Internet usage, the phone is key to most transactions and activities in the country. Kenya has a 91% penetration of mobile subscriptions, compared to Africa’s 80%. It is not surprising then that the country’s enterprises need to provide a mobile-first platform that allows their customers to communicate with them via chat apps, that are available 24/7, which greatly enhances customer service. “However, it’s not just about enhancing customer services. The appetite for chatbot solutions also stems from the fact that they can lower the operating costs of companies and provide efficiencies that call centre agents cannot,” says Amoke. He points out that chatbots can deal with multiple queries at a time, and call centres that deploy chatbots need less physical infrastructure, such as office space, meaning that they need to employ fewer agents and can spend less on salaries hence lowers the cost of operations. “It’s also about flexibility. A chatbot can be deployed over multiple communication channels, be it WhatsApp, SMS, Facebook Messenger, web chat or email, and the quality and consistency of the response – the entire experience – remains unchanged across the various channels,” says Amoke. Financial and telecoms uptake George Muhia, Pre-sales Engineer at Infobip Africa, says uptake of chatbot technology has been particularly strong among organisations in the financial services and telecoms sectors in Kenya, but that other industries, such as retail, healthcare, and education have also shown a healthy interest. “Chatbots can be deployed across any industry where a company wants to offer comprehensive customer support. Modern consumers want to ‘buy’ into experiences. Chatbots can assist organisations to deliver personalised experiences by making conversations relevant, interactive, and engaging,” he says. Muhia explains that companies that are seeking to deploy a chatbot solution should look for an enterprise vendor that offers a customisable chatbot platform, offers good customer support and provides a solution that is innovative, with intelligent elements such as NLP. “The key is that the solution is customisable, offers a programmable platform that can scale as the organisation requires, and can be fitted across any vertical. These days, chatbot solutions tend to be very robust and easy to use. Anyone can create a chatbot, without necessarily having IT or technical expertise, but it is best to team up with an experienced partner that can provide a flexible and scalable solution,” he concludes. Source: https://www.cio.co.ke/kenya-whets-her-appetite-for-chat-bots-to-enhance-cx/ Like Tweet Share Share Share

New Research by SmartMessage – How did Corona effect digital communication in the business world The Corona COVID-19 epidemic, which has become widespread all over the world, has deeply affected the business world. Especially highlighting the importance of digital transformation, the disease showed that digital channels are now a necessity to reach the masses. Companies have attempted to increase their intensity in digital communication in order to strengthen their relations with their customers. As a brand serving in omnichannel communication in the corporate world, we focused on the effect of the epidemic on digital message sending. Our research, based on e-mail and SMS channels includes more than 550 million deliveries in 71 sectors. Corona effect in digital messaging According to the data we have analyzed, there is a 70 percent monthly increase in e-mail and SMS channels used in digital communication compared to the pre-Corona period. It is seen that the increase for email is 85 percent and for the SMS channel is 62 percent. Digital communication increased in many different industries When analyzed sectorally, it is seen that there is an increase in digital message sending in almost three quarters of the total. E-commerce has been the sector with the highest growth. Especially consumers’ efforts to provide many services over the Internet instead of going out seem to have caused e-commerce brands to be more active in digital communication. Again, among the sectors where the deliveries increase the most, there are areas of energy distribution, insurance, law and financial consultancy. Increases have been observed even in sectors (such as real estate, event marketing) that are predicted to be most affected by the pandemic. The content was also driven by Corona It was observed that institutions were active in terms of empathizing with their masses, instilling confidence and sharing new conditions of service, especially with the effect of the epidemic. While online activity notifications such as directing consumers to digital channels and webinars came to the fore, the epidemic deeply affected the content planning of especially marketers and corporate communication professionals. You can take a closer look at our research with our infographic study: Source : https://www.smartmessage.com/new-research-how-did-corona-effect-digital-communication-in-the-business-world/ Like Tweet Share Share Share

Report from ArabNet -The Impact of the COVID 19 outbreak on the entrepreneurship ecosystem This report, developed by Wamda and Arabnet aims to identify the extent of the impact of COVID-19 on the region’s entrepreneurship sector and the measures that can be taken to alleviate the financial stress on startups. Only 12 Startupshave a runway of more than 12 months 25%of travel startups shut down 83% of respondents in Egyptreported an overall negative impact of the pandemic Half of the region’s startupshave also witnessed an impact to their latest funding round Close to 50%of startups that responded to the survey reported that they have a cash runway of less than 6 months Like Tweet Share Share Share

Infobip Launches Conversations – A Contact Centre Solution For Customer Service Infobip, a global cloud communications platform and Blue Turtle Technologies have successfully completed the rollout of a WhatsApp-based chat banking platform at one of South Africa’s Big Four banks. The platform which has been rolled out across nine African countries will ultimately improve and enrich customer engagement, cost efficiencies as well as streamlining the onboarding of clients for the financial institution. Introducing the conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) component over WhatsApp Business API chat app enables customers to seamlessly interact with a chatbot over a messaging channel that they know and trust. The chatbot can provide information about product queries and respond to FAQs, among others. Chatbots allow organisations to adopt an AI-first approach to more menial and mundane tasks, providing customers with self-service capabilities, while freeing up call centre agents. That way call centre agents can devote more time to strategic initiatives and deal with problems that create more value addition. Partner Synergy Shaun van Rooyen, Strategic Accounts and Partnerships Manager for Africa at Infobip, said there was a great degree of synergy between Infobip and Blue Turtle, which contributed to the successful completion of the chat banking project. “Teaming up with Blue Turtle played neatly into Infobip’s strategy to take WhatsApp Business API into the large enterprise market via partners that have the expertise and skills to deliver Infobip’s services into those organisations” he said. Best of breed Blue Turtle’s decision to choose Infobip as a partner was largely driven by the company’s WhatsApp Business API offering which is seen as the best of breed API wrapper available, as well as a huge cost differentiator. “They have a global and local footprint, which means they understand our market and what it’s like to do business here. Partnering with Infobip enabled us to offer chat banking over the most ubiquitous communication channel we have – WhatsApp,” says Byron Wolff, Product Manager for Digital at Blue Turtle. Wolff adds, the Big Four bank is taking a phased approach to rolling out services on the platform, at first only offering conversational AI over the WhatsApp chat app. However, more is to come as soon as the financial institution links the chatbot with advanced natural language processing to its core banking system, it will switch on many new features. “This will allow customers to do many more things, such as full banking transactions using natural language,” Wolff concluded. Source: https://techmetroafrica.com/2020/05/16/infobip-blue-turtle-rollout-whatsapp-based-chat-banking-platform-at-south-african-bank/ Like Tweet Share Share Share

Interview with Vimal Kumar What has been your personal takeaway from the experience of the COVID19 crisis in terms of its effect on business operations and re-strategizing the new way forward? The ability to quickly adapt in an uncertain environment is the first thing that comes to mind. The onset of the pandemic has forced us to be more agile, enable productivity from segregated workplaces and is accelerating our digital transformation. It was important in that we were already on a path to building the new Absa DX, as being in lockdown pressure tested the digital strategies that we had implemented. According to you what are the emerging technologies or innovations that you think will become crucial in the financial sector, keeping in mind the current global situation? Digital is transforming the way we in which banks operate. Artificial Intelligence; Big Data and Predictive analytics; Collaborating with Fintechs; Digital account opening, cloud computing, distributed ledger technology and onboarding; and onset of challenger banks; – these are just some of the new technologies that are coming our way, especially given the pandemic and how it has restricted face to face contact. How ready is the region in adapting to the change in operations and how are government bodies assisting in the implementation of the changes? Regulators have been very receptive to the changes that banks have been proposing to combat the effects of the pandemic. Reduced branch banking hours; implementation of payment holiday options; low touch/low contact payment models and working from home models have been established across our business. From a bank’s perspective, we have been ready with accelerating our Digital strategies and changing the ways in which we operate. AI and Robotics, Blockchain, Data Science, Digital Engagement and CRM, Financial Inclusions – Which area has noted most promising adaptation in terms of innovation and digital integration? Why?There isn’t really just one of these that has dominated the scene. In fact they all work well if they are used in collaboration. I would not want to rank order then as they are no firmly embedded in our go to strategy especially during these uncertain and challenging times. How would you think attendees will benefit by attending Africa Bank 4.0 Summit? I think that attendees would benefit from listening to how banks have reacted to the pandemic. It helps when you get insight from someone that you would normally not have access to. Like Tweet Share Share Share

Interview with Brighton Kithendu What has been your personal takeaway from the experience of the COVID19 crisis in terms of its effect on business operations and re-strategizing the new way forward? In times of extreme uncertainty, planning is limited and reacting is insufficient. Businesses that survive crisis are those that are structured in a very agile and nimble way with an adaptive culture. Businesses ought to cultivate an organisation-wide innovation culture and intrapreneurship spirit where everyone is considered as an innovation champion and capacitated to look at problems and processes through the lenses of how they can be improved. A sustainable business strategy is balanced by enterprise agility and cushioned by effective business continuity management Cultivate and budget for innovative experimentations with quick feedback loops and agile iterations- Build>measure> learn*repeat Digital Transformation for both back office operations that allow business to operate remotely but also digital channels that allow customers to transact on the go. According to you what are the emerging technologies or innovations that you think will become crucial in the financial sector, keeping in mind the current global situation? Open banking and democratisation of financial sector data Co-creation and open innovation Customer-centricity and enhanced customer experience (UX, CX, Design Thinking) Locking customers by giving solutions to touchpoints across their financial lifestyle Data-driven insights and decisions with enabled How ready is the region in adapting to the change in operations and how are government bodies assisting in the implementation of the changes? With African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) already in place since 2019, the market is opened up for more collaborative opportunities that would allow open banking, co-creation and shared regulatory policy frameworks. Existence of Regulatory sandboxes like CMA in Kenya allows innovations in fintech that interplay with evolution of supporting policy framework US-Kenya FTA being negotiated With significant growth of startups and fintechs in the region, two African countries; Tunisia and Senegal have already enacted Startup Acts to provide guidance on how startup business would operate. AI and Robotics, Blockchain, Data Science, Digital Engagement and CRM, Financial Inclusions – Which area has noted most promising adaptation in terms of innovation and digital integration? Why? Facial Recognition technology due to the need to enhance e-KYC and prevent fraud risk. Data Science, AI and Deep learning due to the growing need to unearth customer behaviours to provide enhanced customer experience and products those customers actually want. Blockchain looks promising especially with globalisation and cybercrime, opening up the need for smart contracts, non-repudiation for digital transaction among others. How would you think attendees will benefit by attending Africa Bank 4.0 Summit? This will be an opportunity to share learnings from different organisations on how the businesses can re-strategize during a crisis and innovate to remain sustainable. Covid-19 experience is unprecedented to African industries and this will bring together different players in BSFI to explore collaborative opportunities for co-creation including open banking. Networking. Like Tweet Share Share Share