How Comair did digital transformation right

Loading player...
Comair CIO Avsharn Bachoo has a quiet determination about him and a leadership style that drives change and provides a clear path for his team to follow.
The focus of this episode is digital transformation. Where others seem only to be talking about it, Bachoo has enabled transformation at Comair, collapsing on-premises data centers, building a common cloud platform to dynamically spin up or down workloads to cater for customer requirements, and keeping the team invested in the change process.
Bachoo touches on making mistakes as a first mover and how that is managed in his context of risk management in a cloud architecture. “Get the applicable workloads into the cloud, then you can start optimising for performance; soon your cloud will outperform on-premises legacy.” But there are lessons to learn…
The transformation strategy was adopted to provide agility and enable responsiveness to customer needs, and Bachoo is quick to point out that unless the customer is central to the change there will be no benefit to them. “Customers are digital and mobile friendly, so our channels need to enable that,” he says.
Bachoo is clearly passionate about his team and company, giving great insight into the world of a CIO in the airline industry. He also reminds us that, when allowed, it’s safe to fly!
Enjoy the discussion!
6 Sep 2021 English South Africa Technology · Business

Other recent episodes

TCS | Piet le Roux on Sakeliga's fight with Icasa over BEE

Business group Sakeliga is taking Icasa to court over the 30% ownership rule for telecoms licensees, and its CEO, Piet le Roux, says the regulator has "clearly misunderstood" the law. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Le Roux tells Duncan McLeod why Sakeliga has asked the high court in…
13 Nov 19 min

W&W | AA’s Bobby Ramagwede on a car industry running out of road

AA CEO Bobby Ramagwede tells Watts & Wheels that South Africa’s car manufacturing industry could be decimated within five years. Is South Africa’s car manufacturing industry running out of road? Automobile Association (AA) CEO Bobby Ramagwede thinks it might be. In this episode of Watts & Wheels, he tells William…
12 Nov 30 min

TCS | Pick n Pay fights back in online grocery wars

Pick n Pay will keep Smart Shopper Pro, its new paid loyalty tier, at its R99/month launch price "for a very extended period", says Vince Viviers, executive: innovation and digital transformation at the retailer. If the price does change, customers will be told well in advance, "so that there are…
11 Nov 27 min

TCS | Nomvuyiso Batyi on the battle over Sim registration

South Africa’s mobile operators want tougher Sim registration, but not on the terms communications regulator Icasa has proposed. Draft amendments to Icasa’s numbering plan regulations, published for comment last month, would require a fingerprint or face check against home affairs records for every new Sim, reactivation and Sim swap. Subscribers…
9 Nov 33 min

TCS+ | Old Mutual's Celiwe Ross on leading people through AI

AI is the defining technology of our era. At one extreme, it fuels fears of job losses, robot wars and computers ruling over human beings. At the other, it holds out hope: curing diseases such as cancer, bolstering global food security and even freeing people from the need to work…
6 Nov 36 min