Gijima is sizing up opportunities in the Internet of Things space

Unlisted technology firm Gijima, which is fully-owned by businessman Robert Gumede, is sizing up new growth opportunities in the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence to grow its business after completing a three-year turnaround programme at the end of the 2016 financial year. By Gugu Lourie

The Internet of Things (IoT) space is real and is getting more real every day.

As IoT expands and the US tech giant IBM is bringing real artificial intelligence applications such as Watson to South Africa, Gijima is positioning itself as close to the action possible.

In March, IBM opened its first cloud data centre in Africa in collaboration with Gijima and Vodacom.

Gijima is ready for opportunities likely to be created by IBM’s Watson, which delivers cloud-based guided analytics, data visualisation and predictive analytics that reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data.

“We are working with key accounts focusing on how we can make them IoT enabled and looking at opportunities for Watson,” said Eileen Wilton, CEO at Gijima, told Techfinancials.

“For us, we are in an investigation process with our clients. We are working on business plans with them to go that route (to be IoT enabled). We are working with key clients to understand how IoT can take their companies top places they haven’t gone to before.”

A new McKinsey Globa; Institute report: “The Internet of Things: Mapping the value beyond hype”, estimates that the IoT has potential economic impact of $3.9 trillion to $11 trillion a year by 2025.

IoT refers to the networking of physical objects through the use of embedded sensors, actuators, and other devices that can collect or transmit information about the objects.

The data amassed from these devices can then be analysed to optimise products, services, and operations.

Gijima is also looking at offering its customers a variety of cognitive computing solutions.

The firm has created a formal contract with IBM and Vodacom committing funds to build cognitive computing solutions driven by Watson’s artificial intelligence.

Wilton explains: “With our partnership with IBM we are moving more and more to the world where we can look at artificial intelligence tools like Watson and IBM’s other suites of cognitive computing.”

Gijima will be well-positioned to deploy relevant cognitive computing solutions to the market because it is the home of South Africa’s largest systems integration offerings. This enables Gijima to create partnerships with clients to ensure it understand their needs so it can offer innovative, integrated solutions.

Gijima appears interested in creating smart cities.

However, Wilton could not be drawn into disclosing where in South Africa his technology firm was creating digital citizens. She wasn’t prepared to disclose Gijima’s smart cities solutions.

The company was likely to play in areas of broadband, smart metering and eHealth services of the South African cities.