SA has a wealth of innovative and creative thinkers and the awards, sponsored by T-Systems and Awards and the CPSI Public Sector Innovation Awards. SA has a wealth of innovative and creative thinkers and the awards, sponsored by T-Systems and Standard Bank respectively, are designed to honour SA's leading innovators in the private and public sectors. Entries encompassed a range of innovations - from new business processes, technologies, products, methodologies and organisational structures through to new approaches to business, marketing and service delivery. They also came from organisations of all sizes operating in a range of industry sectors, including hi-tech, health, education and engineering.
"The variety and quality of entries suggests a growing recognition of the importance of innovation across a broad spectrum of SA society," says one of the adjudicators, the Da Vinci Institute's Elsbeth Dixon.
Here are the category winners:
GRAND PRIX WINNER & ECONOMIC ICT
INTELLECA
At last, a machine that understands when we talk about "porking the cor". Speech recognition software developed for UK or US accents and used in SA can't usually cope with our Seff Effricken English accent, but now an interpreter is at hand.
Intelleca Voice & Mobile has developed an SA English Acoustic Model that enables commercially developed software to recognise and respond to SA English. It is the first commercially deployed solution of its kind in the country.
This means all South Africans will be able to conduct business over the phone simply by speaking. "Without a model that is built on the foundation of local speech, speech recognition software cannot perform well enough to be used successfully in more sophisticated business voice applications," says director of speech sciences at Intelleca Etienne Barnard.
Intelleca's engine will provide the accuracy and quality to make voice applications work well in call centres and other service industries in SA.
"SA's call centre industry is maturing and is competing globally for business," says Intelleca MD Mike Renzon. "However, it is still not price-competitive when compared with markets such as India and the Philippines. Automating just 5%-15% of calls coming into a call centre would reduce our costs."
In SA the Airports Company SA, Discovery Health and Property24 use Intelleca's speech recognition software.
The acoustic model is the culmination of three years of work with US-based ScanSoft and the CSIR. Intelleca's speech engineers collected more than 3m utterances recorded by South Africans and manually integrated the voice patterns into the engine. "The result," says Renzon, "is an acoustic model that delivers greater accuracy and allows us to integrate seemingly natural speech recognition into complex applications like automated telephone directory services or automated call routing, rather than solutions that are limited to simple 'yes' or 'no' answers."
Afrikaans and Zulu language models are the next phases in the expansion of local speech recognition technology.
The development of local language technologies is important for two reasons, says CSIR researcher Marelie Davel. "A wealth of information can be provided over the phone to people who are not necessarily literate, or who have no access to the Internet."
- The Economic ICT award is sponsored by TBM.
ECONOMIC NON-ICT JOINT WINNER
BUMBO BABY SITTER
The Bumbo Baby Sitter - Safe and comfortable seating for babies
While caring for his infant grandson, mechanical engineer Johan Buitendach noticed that babies like to sit up and observe their surroundings - but they lack the physical co-ordination to do so. So he designed a seat that could comfortably hold and support an infant in any surroundings.
He started with a block of polystyrene and an exactor blade. Eight years later Buitendach has a comfortable baby seat for the next crop of grandchildren and a product that is sold in 33 countries.
The Bumbo Baby Sitter enables a baby of 2-12 months to sit unaided, without the encumbrance of straps, belts or clips.
The product has been approved by standards bodies around the world.
As Buitendach knows, taking an idea from concept to commercial reality is not a walk in the park. Fortunately for him, his experience of global trade fairs meant he was already familiar with the principles of design and manufacture, intellectual property protection and marketing. He owns and manages Jonibach Patterns & Toolmakers, which specialises in toolmaking for the motor industry. This established company was able to help fund the start-up - with a little help from the department of trade & industry's export arm for international trade fairs.
To find the correct formulation for the seat, Buitendach worked with AECI subsidiary Industrial Urethanes, a supplier to the automotive industry. Together they developed the ideal chemical composition for the seat. After patenting the product locally and abroad Buitendach began a global journey in which he visited six of the world's biggest mother & baby trade fairs in three years.
Agencies and distributors began to show an interest and he hired a colleague, Donald Pillai, to drive global sales. The company operated out of a factory in Pretoria, but Buitendach knew that to penetrate the US market he had to produce the seats in higher volumes at lower cost. He began manufacturing in China, but the Chinese manufacturer has struggled to produce the product in accordance with specifications, says Pillai. Meanwhile, Buitendach has geared the local factory to produce up to 10 000 units a day.
Buitendach is aware of the risks involved in relying on a one-product business. He has other inventions and possible products up his sleeve. The priority, though, is to develop the Bumbo markets and the networks that support them.
ECONOMIC NON-ICT JOINT WINNER
THE CONVERSION MODEL
An original tool for marketing research, the Conversion Model, was developed by University of Cape Town theologian Jan Hofmeyer when he set out to develop a theory of religious commitment and conversion.
What makes people convert to new beliefs or stick to the old? To measure the "switching" process he devised a new algorithm for classification which bypasses methods current in marketing research (such as factor, cluster and regression).
The model is now applied in marketing and media strategies worldwide.
"Why aren't satisfied customers always loyal?" asks Hofmeyer, who is CEO of The Customer Equity Company. "And why are dissatisfied customers sometimes loyal?"
The answer, he says, is commitment. Committed customers endure bad times. They set aside their dissatisfaction in the hope that things will improve. Commitment binds a customer to a brand, even when the brand lets them down. And when there is no commitment, even satisfied customers are at risk.
The model measures the strength of the relationship between customers and products or services. It is a psychological measure, not a behavioural one, he says. It is based on the recognition that commitment underpins loyalty, but that the two are not one and the same. "Marketers often mistake brand loyalty for commitment. Loyalty is what people do - the likelihood of repurchase based on past behaviour."
Commitment, on the other hand, is about how people feel - the likelihood of repurchase based on what's in the consumer's mind.
Just because people are loyal - buying the brand again and again - doesn't mean they are committed.
The model is used in 80 countries by 80% of the world's most valuable brands. Clients include IBM, Nokia, Philips, Hewlett-Packard, Coca-Cola and SA Breweries.
SOCIAL
AUGMENTATIVE & ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION
In touch - Communicating with people with speech difficulties
Almost 39% of SA children in schools for those with severe mental disabilities cannot speak and are unable to express themselves.
This figure is almost 200% higher than that of developed countries. The main reason is lack of communication intervention in children's early years.
Frustrated by the inability of teachers and therapists to reach these children, Erna Alant started The Centre for Augmentative & Alternative Communication (CAAC) in a small room in the department of communication pathology at the University of Pretoria in 1989.
The CAAC is the only one of its kind in Africa. It develops and promotes new ways to communicate with people who have severe difficulty in speaking. "The purpose is to provide them with some means of communication - be it through unaided systems, such as gestures, or aided systems, such as communication boards or technology - to allow them to make contact with those around them and participate in community activities," says Alant, who is the director of the centre.
In particular, she says, the CAAC has tried to find methods that use simple technology and suit poor people.
The CAAC has also developed five courses (from a postgraduate diploma to a PhD in AAC) that aim to build the profession in SA.
Over the past 14 years the CAAC has trained 4 000 adults and has reached more than 3 000 children. Local industry is being encouraged to develop AAC products.
INNOVATION FOR WOMEN
THIN FILM TECHNOLOGY
Carolyn Kellock - A product designed with women in mind
Ever tried to move a heavy piece of furniture, like a piano, over a wooden floor without breaking your back or scratching the floor? It's almost impossible.
Now Chemplast, a specialist industrial plastics firm based in Elandsfontein, Johannesburg, has developed a technical solution.
The technology is called thin-film fluoropolymer and plastic composite moulding technology (TFFT). It allows nonstick plastics like PTFE - or Teflon as it is commonly known - to bond to other forms of plastic. "Bonding PTFE on to anything is difficult and labour-intensive," says Chemplast technical marketing manager Carolyn Kellock. "Our innovation makes it possible to bond melt-flow polymers to the face of PTFE during injection moulding. Because only a thin layer of PTFE is used on the contact surface it becomes possible to produce products cost-effectively.
Chemplast's technology means that PTFE can be used economically in applications that exploit its properties, which include its corrosion resistance and low friction, its nonstick nature and its ability to act as an electrical barrier.
One of the first product applications developed using the technology is Smooth-Move, a floor slide which allows heavy furniture or appliances to slide easily over a variety of floor surfaces without damaging the floor or the furniture. "The slide itself is not a new concept," says Kellock, "but the method of producing it makes it superior."
The technology and its application were recognised by judges as the winners in a new category to reward the "Most Outstanding Innovation for Women" which is sponsored by the national department of science & technology. According to Dr Shaidah Asmall, director of the science, gender & disability unit within the department, women make up 52% of the population, but the traditional, unisex approach to product and service design often neglects women's needs.
The judges felt that the Chemplast technology, along with other inventions like the dishwasher, the ironing board and disposable nappies had the potential to enhance the lives of women.
"Private-sector companies would do well to incorporate the needs of women in their design of innovative products and services," says Asmall. "They should also be looking to involve more women in the innovation process because women work within their own paradigm of needs and represent half of the economically viable human resource of the country."
Chemplast has developed two types of slides: a carpet slide for moving appliances on hard surfaces such as tiles or wooden surfaces; and a composite PTFE slide for moving heavy appliances on carpet surfaces.
Chemplast is considering establishing a separate company to develop the technology commercially and has registered provisional patents for TFFT and the product applications.
MOST PROMISING NEW INNOVATION
HYBRID COKE
Sasol Carbo-Tar has developed a radically new form of carbon called Hybrid Coke.
Historically, cokes have been produced by the delayed coking, or carbonisation, from petroleum residues (left at the bottom of the barrel after Sasol produces white fuels from coal) or coal-tar pitch. The characteristics of these cokes sometimes limit the applications for which they are suitable.
Hybrid Coke is produced by the delayed coking of a mixture of both feedstocks. Through Sasol's technology the beneficial traits of both products are combined to produce a product which can reduce sulphur emissions by up to 80%. "The cokes that are typically being used have significantly higher sulphur contents," says Sasol principal carbon scientist John Clark.
"Performance is also improved in this application and it will reduce SA's reliance on imported carbons."
Hybrid Coke is used at present in the production of aluminium anodes and electrodes for the steel-making industries.
Hybrid Coke is a world first and was the result of eight years of laboratory and commercial trials by Sasol's R&D division and Sasol Carbo-Tar. It was developed to diversify market opportunities for Sasol Carbo-Tar and fits in well with its drive to satisfy a larger percentage of local market demand.
ENVIRONMENTAL
AQUASITE MANGANESE GREEN SAND
The arid and beautiful landscape of the northern Karoo is home to more than SA's astronomers. Beneath the dusty earth lies a pegmatite belt which stretches from Marydale to the rugged, mountainous area south of the Orange River in Namaqualand. Pegmatite is a coarse-grained granite resulting from the crystallisation of magma and is rich in rare elements such as uranium, tungsten and tantalum.
One SA company, African Pegmatite, has been operating in the area for around 25 years. It obtains organic and inorganic minerals and chemicals and from them produces a range of materials which are used in industry and agriculture.
One of these products is Aquasite Manganese Sintered Green Sand, which is an efficient and economical method of removing dissolved iron, manganese and hydrogen sulphide salts from raw water supplies, making the water safe for drinking.
The innovation has been used in areas of Limpopo and the Northern Cape, as well as commercially in the breweries of Namibia. It has achieved wide international acceptance, particularly in desert regions.
