Technology and information governance
Risk and compliance
The Board is responsible for the Group's technology and information governance risk and compliance. The Board has delegated its responsibility for the implementation of IT governance to management who have adopted an IT governance framework, which we believe mitigates risk and ensures that the Company is agile enough to take advantage of growth opportunities.
The PwC IT General Controls review performed in February 2019 shows a high maturity of internal controls. We are constantly reviewing and revising our controls and procedures to ensure the maximum level of governance maturity is achieved and maintained. Stringent standards for information and infrastructure security controls have been reviewed and reinforced.
Threats from cybersecurity remain a key risk. We continuously drive prevention, detection and education programmes across the organisation and platforms to enhance vigilance at all levels. We proactively assess our risk of vulnerability and exposure on an ongoing basis. Substantial effort is spent with our audit partners and specialist third parties continuously updating and testing our systems to ensure that we have taken every precaution possible on an ongoing basis.
Our big data programme remains compliant to the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPI) and the European Union's General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Our systems change management procedures maintain constant quality and review controls to safeguard the delivery of customer-centric solutions which allow for scale, quality, availability and uptime.
Disaster recovery capabilities, processes and procedures remain a top priority within our business continuity plans. Multiple system improvements were implemented to further redundancy across switching platforms.
Finding and maintaining the adequate level of technical skills, specifically within the local South African market, remains a challenge. We continuously drive programmes to maintain competitiveness. We have revitalised our approach to attract, develop and retain top skills and talent and remain known for employing the best in class within our technology teams.
Scalability and performance
We have renewed investments into our technology platforms to sustain the increased volume requirements generated through the growth of our business. Critical objectives for the modernisation and digital transformation roadmap were set and achieved in line with this priority.
Delivering our strategy through technology
We maintain our strategic drive towards improving customer-centricity within our operating model, underpinned by partnership, collaboration, prioritisation and alignment according to the Group's RITE (Reach, Innovation, Trust and Efficiency) strategy.
Platform renewal, improvement, innovation and transformation remain key to our central mandate to deliver world-class, customer-centric business solutions across our national and international businesses with the primary goal being to enable the delivery of continuous growth.
Our objectives for agile transformation further ensures sustainable delivery methodologies within our strategically-aligned technology functions across the Group. This 'fail-fast-deliver-fast' approach accelerates our go to market strategies for new products and enables the Group to launch new revenue streams on enhanced technology platforms. Our technology function maintains an active, forward-planning approach to embracing change. Providing a future-fit delivery capability is a business imperative.
