Page 3 - EngineerIt January 2021

FROM THE EDITOR

What will 2021 bring?

o, we’re in 2021. Unlike at the beginning of normal will renew more frequently and we need to adapt
2020, in many editorial writings, people faster, as we were forced to do last year.
Spredicted a great year. 2020 would see an EngineerIT embraced the new normal, and we will
end to South Africa’s stagnation; the country would continue to do so. Towards the end of last year, we
be leaving the problems of the past behind and introduced an e-book of the magazine, a convenient way to
focus on going forward. We all know the scenario page through the publication on your computer, laptop,
that played out, so I am not going to dwell on it. tablet or cell phone; it’s an easy way to catch up on the
Remarkably, many of the commentators that latest technology when you have a few free minutes,
make these predictions at the beginning of a new wherever you may be. We now move with you all the time,
year have been quiet, even the prophets of doom wherever you go.
have not come out in force with their prophecies for For advertisers, the e-book offers many opportunities
a disastrous year. This uneasy silence can only to link back to their website with one click, and to have
mean that no one wants to venture any predictions podcasts and videos played in an instant. For readers it
just in case they are wrong. offers instant access. We still have the PDF version
There is a popular saying let bygones be available and there are still the e-newsletters on Tuesdays
bygones. But can we? We can learn from the past, and Thursdays to bring you up to date with what’s
take out the good things we did and do them even happening in the industry. Let’s do a podcast with you and
better this year. woo your clients, and more importantly your prospective
What for me stands out the most is the drive clients. It is a great way to get your message to the market
many people displayed in dealing with the and for our readers, a great listen!
lockdown and instead of bemoaning their lot,
moving ahead. Within days, they were running their Lightning speed ahead
companies remotely from home. Sure, it was not Looking ahead, we are aware of the sometimes slow
plain sailing, but they made it work and kept speed of access to our website and news stories. During
working on making it work better. The the past few months, we have tweaked it as much as
communications industry outdid itself by making possible but realised that we need to invest in better
more bandwidth available and upscaling its video technology. We are currently working on redesigning our
conferencing platforms. Cloud that was often still website with easier-to-read layouts and more importantly,
looked upon with scepticism took off at high speed. lightning speed access. I had a peek at the beta version
Sure, it was a big challenge but those who and the speed was amazing! We hope to bring this to your
accepted the challenge and moved ahead are very screen soon.
likely to excel and propel their businesses in 2021. Do I venture a prediction for 2021? If we build on what
Video conferencing, despite the tremendous we learned last year, embrace the virtuality in which we
advancement in technology during the past few must do things, we can make 2021 a great year, creating
years, was not taking off. It took the pandemic to our own new normal. Drop me an email with your thoughts.
make us use it and we quickly learned that it was
not as bad as we had always believed. Best wishes
Those who believe that after a few years, when
the vaccines have done their job and we have Hans van de Groenendaal
developed large herd immunity, we will return to Editor
normal with big events and face-to-face meetings Email: hansv@nowmedia.co.za
around the world, should think again. The new 082 781 4631

EngineerIT | December 2020 / January 2021 | 1