{"id":655883,"date":"2023-01-13T08:49:28","date_gmt":"2023-01-13T06:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=655883"},"modified":"2023-01-13T08:49:28","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T06:49:28","slug":"mtns-partnership-with-microsoft-to-transform-south-african-sme-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/industry-news\/655883\/mtns-partnership-with-microsoft-to-transform-south-african-sme-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"MTN\u2019s partnership with Microsoft to transform South African SME sector"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MTN Group\u2019s new strategic alliance with Microsoft is set to have a major impact on the South African SME sector.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mtnbusiness.co.za\/en\/Pages\/default.aspx?utm_source=BroadMedia&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_campaign=January+2023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Click here to learn how the MTN Group and Microsoft partnership can help your SME.<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This sector continues to experience strong growth and has increasingly relied on technology to achieve this \u2013 particularly given how the pandemic changed the business landscape.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.xero.com\/za\/media-releases\/xero-releases-south-african-sme-report\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Research by Xero<\/strong><\/a><\/strong> has found that two-thirds of small business owners say technology became more critical to them since the pandemic began.<\/p>\n<p>This research also found that over half of all South African SMEs have adopted cloud technology in the last two years, and almost a third of all respondents said technology has helped them reach new customers or expand into new areas.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>Microsoft\u2019s SME solutions<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Microsoft is a key provider of market-leading, technology-based SME solutions &#8211; including Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, and its Microsoft Azure cloud service.<\/p>\n<p>These industry-leading solutions play a key role in many South African SMEs and the strategic alliance between MTN Group and Microsoft promises to expand both the reach and effectiveness of these solutions locally.<\/p>\n<p>This is thanks to MTN Group\u2019s position as a top telecommunications provider in South Africa \u2013 giving it access to new areas of the SME market that stand to benefit from Microsoft\u2019s ICT solutions.<\/p>\n<p>By combining this impressive reach with Microsoft\u2019s market-leading solutions, the strategic alliance serves as a big step forward for the South African SME sector.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\"><strong>Skills development<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The strategic alliance will also see Microsoft providing extensive training and skills development support to MTN Group\u2019s technical teams.<\/p>\n<p>This will allow these professionals to provide better service to all of MTN Group\u2019s SME clients.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, MTN Group and Microsoft have noted their intent to work together on joint projects \u2013 leveraging each party\u2019s strengths to provide superior solutions for their clients.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt MTN Business, we pride ourselves on guiding our clients to better outcomes through the provision of the best solutions and unrivalled technical expertise,\u201d said General Manager: SME and Indirect Channels at MTN Business, Songezo Masiso.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur partnership with Microsoft will help us to achieve all of this and much more, and this will ultimately bolster the South Africa economy through an improved SME sector.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If you are interested in equipping your SME with the best Microsoft business solutions, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mtnbusiness.co.za\/en\/Pages\/default.aspx?utm_source=BroadMedia&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_campaign=January+2023\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>click here to learn more.<\/strong><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South African SME sector continues to experience strong growth and has increasingly relied on technology to achieve this \u2013 particularly given how the pandemic changed the business landscape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":655885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10459],"tags":[1019],"class_list":["post-655883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-mtn-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655887,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655883\/revisions\/655887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}