ICT veteran and former BCX CIO Jacques Loubser has been appointed as the State IT Agency's (SITA's) chief digital officer (CDO).
Loubser, whose career spans 22 years in top ICT companies, joined SITA in February to take up the role of CDO and lead the agency's digital transformation and fourth industrial revolution strategies.
According to Loubser, the role of the digital officer is part of the new journey that SITA is on, with a focus on ensuring it achieves the initiatives it has outlined.
From SITA's perspective, the idea is not to have this role running for the next 10 years, he states. "Any successful chief digital officer will eventually work themselves out of a job. The reason for that is that a primary function of a CDO is to get the organisation to align itself to deliver services using new digital technology."
SITA has defined different technologies that will enable its digital transformation strategy, ensure it operates within a virtual environment and create a digital workforce, and Loubser says he want to help it build that framework.
"It is within this framework that SITA can then execute their digital strategy and I will be part of crafting that for the teams. Within the various operating teams, they will go and execute what changes they need, and how they can transform the services and products delivered by SITA to government, which will also allow government to realise the benefits from a digital transformation perspective."
Following the departure from his previous organisation a year ago, Loubser says he took some time off to regroup and understand where he can make an impact.
"I want to be an active participant in the changes that South Africa needs to undergo instead of a passive critic. The opportunity at SITA allows me to do so and to really focus on what I'm interested in doing, and that is the digital strategy.
"I don't think there is a better place to work for right now, even considering the opportunities in the private sector, in terms of what I want to achieve and creating an impact in SA," he concludes.
Share