{"id":853021,"date":"2026-03-06T08:02:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=853021"},"modified":"2026-03-06T08:02:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T06:02:22","slug":"business-talk-zohos-andrew-bourne-on-using-crm-and-ai-to-convert-data-into-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/853021\/business-talk-zohos-andrew-bourne-on-using-crm-and-ai-to-convert-data-into-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Talk \u2013 Zoho\u2019s Andrew Bourne on using CRM and AI to convert data into growth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>In this Business Talk with Michael Avery interview, Andrew Bourne, the Regional Head of Southern Africa at Zoho, discusses the evolution of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology through the growth of AI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bourne boasts over two decades of experience in sales, marketing, and technology, and has worked at Zoho for over six years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He was Zoho\u2019s first employee in Africa to hold the position of Business Development Manager, before being promoted to Regional Manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As the Regional Head of Southern Africa at Zoho, he focuses on business development and strategy, sales and marketing, and on helping the company establish its South African office by sourcing office space, negotiating fees and lease agreement terms, and liaising with contractors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Before joining Zoho, Bourne served as a Brand Ambassador and Marketing Assistant for Wadda Bar and as a Property Broker for Rawson Properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bourne was also a professional wakeboarder, being a member of the South African Wake Board Association (SAWBA) from 2004 until 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The interview<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In this Business Talk interview, Bourne reveals why businesses have historically been unable to use the large amounts of customer data they accumulate strategically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He explains how the role of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has evolved over the last five years, noting how it can now help businesses operate proactively rather than reactively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bourne then unpacks the operational issues SMBs are struggling with in 2026, and why data-driven decision-making remains a challenge for many of these businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also touches on the impact of AI and how it can be integrated into CRM to enable better results and support smaller businesses that would otherwise be at an operational and financial disadvantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Bourne concludes the interview by offering his advice to business leaders who feel overwhelmed by the new AI and CRM tools at their disposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Watch the interview with Andrew Bourne below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Business Talk - Andrew Bourne on turning customer data into growth with CRM and AI\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/psWTsVCxrPs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andrew Bourne is the Regional Head of Southern Africa at Zoho and has over two decades of experience working in sales, marketing, and technology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":853024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[24940,15578,11236,16626],"class_list":["post-853021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-andrew-bourne","tag-business-talk","tag-interview","tag-zoho"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853021","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=853021"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853021\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":853101,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/853021\/revisions\/853101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/853024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=853021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=853021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=853021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}