The system was launched at the inaugural SA Innovation Week, sponsored by the Technology and Innovation Agency (TIA), held in Nasrec from 16–20 March 2026.

The launch marks a significant milestone in Diaz’s 10-year intellectual and entrepreneurial journey, during which he authored eight business books, beginning with The A-Game Business Blueprint.

These works collectively capture a comprehensive SME development framework built from globally tested methodologies and locally developed strategies tailored to African business realities.

“Over the past decade, I documented and refined practical frameworks to help SMEs grow sustainably,” says Diaz. “Initially, I believed these frameworks should be implemented at a national level. When that didn’t materialise, we made a decision to build the solution ourselves.”

Operating from Soweto, with virtual teams in Johannesburg and Cape Town, Diaz and his team have translated these frameworks into a fully integrated AI-powered digital platform, the A-Game Business Operating System, enabling SMEs to move from theory to real-time execution.

The platform is built on a decade-long body of work designed to address a long-standing gap in SME development: the disconnect between strategy and execution. Historically, SMEs have relied on static business plans, fragmented software tools, periodic consulting interventions, and manual tracking and reporting.

The A-Game Business Operating System consolidates these functions into a single unified platform that integrates business strategy and planning, marketing and sales execution, CRM and pipeline management, financial tracking and performance analytics, as well as operations, projects, team accountability, and AI-powered decision support.

The introduction of this BOS positions it as a direct challenger to established enterprise and mid-market software providers such as Sage, SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Unlike traditional enterprise systems, which are often cost-intensive, complex to implement, and fragmented across multiple modules, the A-Game BOS offers a significantly more streamlined alternative.

It delivers an estimated 80% reduction in software and implementation costs, replaces multiple tools within a single unified platform, embeds AI-driven insights into daily workflows, and enables faster onboarding and adoption for SME teams.

Early projections indicate that businesses using the system can reduce operational inefficiencies by 50% or more, save significant time through automation and integration, and gain real-time clarity on performance and growth drivers.

“Most systems tell you what happened,” Diaz explains. “This system shows you, daily, whether your actions are actually driving growth, and what to do next.”

Beyond software, the implications of the A-Game BOS extend into the broader SME coaching and consulting landscape.

By embedding structured guidance directly into the platform, the system challenges traditional advisory models. Advancements from organizations such as OpenAI and Microsoft are accelerating the shift toward AI-assisted decision-making, reducing dependence on manual consulting processes.

According to McKinsey & Company, a significant portion of knowledge-based work is expected to be automated or augmented by AI in the coming years. Diaz believes this shift will fundamentally reshape industries.

“We are moving from a world where knowledge is monetised, to one where execution is measured,” he says. “Professionals who adapt will scale. Those who don’t will be replaced by systems.”

The launch of the A-Game Business Operating System represents a strategic opportunity for African SMEs to leapfrog legacy systems and outdated business models. Rather than adopting complex, high-cost enterprise solutions, SMEs can now access a centralised business control centre, AI-guided execution frameworks, real-time performance visibility, and scalable systems that reduce dependency on founders.

“This is about giving SME owners clarity, control, and the ability to build self-managing businesses,” says Diaz. “It’s about turning effort into measurable progress, every single day.”

Customers can now use AWS Marketplace to easily discover, buy, and deploy AI agentic solutions, including  Sage’s AI-powered financial management solution for SMBs, Sage Intacct, using their AWS accounts, accelerating agent and agentic workflow development.

Sage Intacct helps finance teams reduce manual workloads, accelerate the close, and make faster, insight-driven decisions. Powered by Sage Copilot, it automates key processes like reconciliation and reporting, freeing teams to focus on strategic priorities. 

With built-in industry-specific capabilities that simplify complex workflows and improve data accuracy, Sage Intacct helps organizations boost efficiency, reduce risk, and deliver high performance across finance operations.

“Our deep relationship with AWS is built on years of collaboration to deliver meaningful innovation for SMBs. By bringing Sage Intacct to this new Marketplace category, we’re making it easier than ever for finance teams to access intelligent automation, accelerate growth, and stay focused on the work that truly drives performance. 

“It streamlines how customers tap into powerful financial capabilities and deploy AI powered solutions quickly and efficiently. Teams are already using Sage Intacct to reduce friction, increase speed, and deliver sharper insights and stronger outcomes, demonstrating what high-performance finance looks like in practice,” said Amaya Souarez, EVP, Cloud Services & Operations, Sage.

Sage Intacct delivers essential capabilities including multi-entity consolidation, AI-powered anomaly detection, close automation, budget to variance analysis, help search, cash flow forecasting, and seamless integration with operational systems. 

These features help finance teams improve control and compliance, surface issues before they escalate, and maintain a real-time view of performance across the organization.

With the availability of AI Agents and Tools in AWS Marketplace, customers can significantly accelerate their procurement process to drive AI innovation, reducing the time needed for vendor evaluations and complex negotiations. 

With centralized purchasing using AWS accounts, customers maintain visibility and control over licensing, payments, and access through AWS.

ERPs’ allow integration across several and different business processes of an organisation such as: sales, finance, purchasing, supply chain, customer service, human resources, marketing, inventory management, sales and operations planning, plant maintenance management etc.

Through the integration provided, the impact of business process activities in one part of the organisation is immediately reflected in the other, for example, when a company sells 5 phones from their warehouse, a number of things happen immediately within an ERP system

a) the warehouse stock is reduced by 5 phones,

b) the total value of assets in the warehouse is reduced by the value of the 5 phones,

c) 5 phones are recorded in the sales register,

d) an invoice is created, which automatically creates a receivable record in Finance awaiting payment receipt,

e) when payment is made, a receipt is issues which closes the sales transaction as finally completed). Other processes such as credit matching, bank reconciliation, and many more, also take place afterwards.

ERP systems, therefore, enable businesses streamline their operations, improve efficiency, and enhance collaboration across departments.

SAP ECC or SAP S/4 Hana software, is a very good example of an ERP system with a very strong global reputation for it’s robustness, flexibility, and versatility.

SAP is a recognized global leader in the ERP space, and offers a suite of modules and features that help businesses manage a very wide range of important business processes, while providing a real-time view of business operations and enabling data-driven decisions.

However, despite these immense benefits, businesses often grapple with unforeseen challenges during SAP implementation.

SAP is also often perceived as expensive, complex and lengthy duration to implement, and in some cases, organisations don’t realise value from their investments, making it dicey for executives to decide if SAP is the right ERP solution for their business or not.

Here are some key considerations executives must factor in, while trying to make this critical decision:

Your Vision and the Current Business Problems You are Trying to Solve – Are you trying to solve basic business problems such as being able to account financially for your business operations, or solving critical business control problems, or your business has expanded to the point where it has become difficult to manage multiple moving parts?

If you are just trying to solve simple business problems, such as financial accounting only, or enforcing some basic business controls, SAP may be an overkill in this case! If your business has however expanded and you are dealing with multiple moving parts that are becoming more and more difficult to control, then SAP is a good candidate to consider for the long haul.

Size of your Organisation – Do you have a multi country and / or multi geographical business structure, where the business is subject to varying legal and statutory requirements in the different jurisdictions you are operating (For example, some countries may require different Financial Reporting Structures / Standards different from the Company’s home country)? In addition, do you have a complex WM structure? If any of these questions are “YES” for your situation, then SAP may be a strong candidate to consider.

No of Active Business Process Areas – Aside from Finance Management, does your business actively operate across several business process areas such as Procurement, Warehouse / Inventory Management, Product Costing, Sales, Asset Maintenance, Projects, Transport Management, Production Planning, Customer Service, Human Resource Management etc where a significant part of your OPEX / CAPEX budget is spent? If this is a “strong YES” for your situation, then is well worth considering, otherwise, you may be good with an alternative ERP solution.

Complexity of sub business process break down and sub business process variants – Do your business processes break down into multiple subprocesses, and do those sub processes further break down into multiple variants, for example, in Procurement, do you have sub processes such as Procurement of raw materials, Procurement of Consumables, Procurement of Services, Procurement of spare parts, Procurement of chemicals and hazardous materials etc., and do you have further sub process variants such as Procurement of Raw Materials locally, Procurement of Raw Materials via Importation, Internal Procurement of Raw Materials, 3^rd party procurement of raw materials and more? If this is a YES for your situation, then you should definitely be thinking SAP as it gives you much more flexibility.

Type of operations performed at your organizational locations (e.g. Factory, Warehouse etc.) – Does your business operation involve sub contracting or contract manufacturing? Are you big on Service Procurement? Do you use 3rd Party Distribution Logistics parties (3PL) in your supply chain process? Do you use or require automation such as RFID etc.?

Do you run short, but costly and / or multi year Projects? Do you integrate Transport Management you’re your Sales and Procurement operations?

Do you need to manage international procurement and shipping and desire to track the associated customs and regulatory compliance requirements?

Do you have a dynamic credit management system where the credit rules differ depending on the type of customer?

If most of these questions are YES for your situation, then SAP is simply the way to go. SAP simply provides strong functionalities and integration across these areas!

Product Costing – Do you have multiple inputs that go into your product costing, and do you require a granular view of your cost breakdown per product you sell such as cost of power, cost of labour, cost of maintenance to understand how the cost rolls up? If this is a strong YES, then SAP is simply the way to go!

Conclusion

In general, If you’re a large organization with significant complexity, then SAP ERP would be a good fit as it provides more flexibility with standard business processes you can already adopt and just simply configure to your own specific needs.

However, if you’re a smaller organization with no immediate plans significant growth plans, then SAP ERP will not be the way to go. In this case others such as SAGE, MS Dynamics etc may be considered.

*Olubunmi Abegunde is the CEO of Thamani Consulting

Breakthroughs in generative AI will enable businesses of all sizes to dramatically improve productivity, create compelling new customer experiences and transform their business models.

Here are four trends that we can expect to see in the technology industry over the year to come:

1. Generative AI—handle with care

Generative AI platforms such as DALL·E and ChatGPT create content such as images, music, speech, code, video, or text by learning from and interpreting massive volumes of unstructured data. What makes the technology so exciting is how accessible it is. If you can speak or type in natural language, you can ‘prompt’ generative AI to help you with various knowledge worker tasks.

These range from summarising legal documents and highlighting important clauses to creating personalised landing pages for your website or testing and generating code.

Furthermore, generative AI is becoming more embedded in many of the daily tools and solutions businesses use, including e-commerce platforms, productivity apps, customer relationship management, and financial systems.

But the sheer power of the technology also means it needs to be used responsibly. Businesses must closely monitor issues such as transparency, copyright, data ethics, misinformation, and fairness. The importance of upskilling and reskilling people for a new world of work is also key.

In the words of Aaron Harris, Chief Technology Officer at Sage:

“When it comes to the impact generative AI will have on small and medium businesses (SMBs), 2024 will bring a sharper focus on developing trusted technology solutions for real customer challenges. Large Language Models (LLMs) and digital assistants will fundamentally reshape how people interact with software in their personal and professional lives. 

“However, this is only true if humans can trust the technology to do the job safely and competently. That is why, now more than ever, the people developing AI and the people using it need to work hand in hand to make sure AI lives up to its potential.”

2. Flexible work takes on new forms

How we think about workplace flexibility will evolve in 2024, four years after the COVID-19 pandemic. It has mostly been about where or how many and which hours you work.

The next step will see businesses experiment more widely with flexibility in other forms – including job design, entryways into new careers, and internal mobility once you are in a business.

This will allow us to create a more inclusive work environment for segments of the workforce such as young, single parents or people with disabilities.

It will also enable businesses to attract and retain happy and committed talent no matter what else 2024 brings.

The growing maturity of cloud platforms and digital collaboration models facilitates these new modes of working together in hybrid teams.

3. Autonomous finance lets finance departments focus on growth

This year, we can expect finance teams to double down on their investments in intelligent automation and AI. They will continue moving towards the autonomous finance ideal, where the software automatically conducts repetitive, manual tasks such as data entry, reconciliations, and exception management.

While the software executes these tasks faster and with fewer errors than humans could, CFOs and their teams will be able to focus their energies on growth and strategy.

They will also benefit from up-to-the-second visibility into business performance and the ability to use AI and machine learning algorithms to get actionable, predictive insights.

4. Sustainability reporting takes centre stage at SMBs

SMBs account for over 90% of all businesses worldwide, so they are key partners in the global drive towards net zero.

Many SMBs in South Africa know that sustainable business practices are not only the right thing to do. They also create business benefits such as attracting customers, increased financial efficiencies, and tax subsidies.

Large companies have the skills, funds, and systems to monitor and manage sustainability targets. SMBs, however, struggle to track and report on their progress despite their good intentions.

Sage research shows that 70% of South African SMEs prioritise sustainability, but only 4% report on their impact. Closing this gap will be a priority for regulators, government, corporates, and SMEs in 2024 and beyond.

Digitalisation drive speeds up

As the great strides we saw in the field of AI during 2023 show, the pace of technology change is accelerating rather than slowing down.

We’re moving faster towards automated, real-time operations, with digital technologies unlocking opportunities for every business to work smarter, deliver better customer experiences and grow more quickly. Digital transformation is an ongoing process that is only just beginning to unfold.

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Sage, the leader in accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs), has confirmed that its near-term greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

Sage said it is committed to a 50% reduction in Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions by 2030 against a 2019 baseline, in line with the goals of the Paris agreement of 2015. 

As of the issuing of this press release, there were only 3200 companies globally with approved science-based targets.

Fewer than 11% of those represented the software sector, making Sage an early responder in tech’s fight against climate change.

Sage has also made a commitment to set and achieve long-term net-zero targets, which are currently under review by SBTi.

The SBTi is a collaboration between Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and one of the We Means Business Coalition commitments. It defines and promotes best practice in science-based target setting, offers resources and guidance to reduce barriers to adoption, and independently assesses and approves companies’ targets.

The company is hoping to make progress against its target sets through four specific focus areas:

• Sustainable supply chain: To manage emissions across its value chain, Sage is requesting its suppliers disclose accurate and verified primary emissions data allocated to Sage via CDP, and engaging with suppliers with the highest emissions to secure reduction commitments from them. Sage is also asking its suppliers without Science-Based Targets (SBTs) to set one.
• Sustainable colleague behaviour: One of Sage’s goals is to empower its colleagues to be agents of change on its net-zero journey. The company is working on engagement plans to improve climate awareness amongst colleagues, such as launching a carbon literacy programme, to influence positive action.
• Sustainable products: In addition to educating colleagues, Sage is planning campaigns to make customers aware about the environmental impacts of technology usage – for example, the benefits of choosing to host products and services within efficient cloud environments. The company is also working to provide information and tools so businesses can measure, monitor and reduce the carbon impact of their work, with Sage Earth being a first step in that direction.
• Sustainable property: Lastly, Sage is looking to examine the impacts of its properties such as the energy and carbon performance of its workspaces, especially in a hybrid work environment. Currently, 45% of its global electricity consumption is sourced from renewable energy, a target the business plans to build upon. 

Reporting accurately and transparently on progress against targets is another area of focus for Sage’s sustainability team.

The company has aligned with the voluntary Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) 2016 Standards Core, which gives an overview of the information needed to understand the nature of the organisation, its material topics and related impacts, and how these are managed.

In this same spirit of transparency, Sage will also be releasing a Climate Report in late 2023 that details its response to the challenge of reaching global net-zero, giving stakeholders information about specific actions in its climate response plan.

This momentum is powered by Sage’s well-rounded Sustainability & Society team that has grown substantially in the past eighteen months.

Led by Executive Vice President Elisa Moscolin, who previously headed sustainability efforts at Vodafone and Santander, the team is comprised of climate scientists, reporting specialists, and supply chain experts, among other skillsets.

Elisa Moscolin said: “As a FTSE 100 corporation, we have an important role to play in driving sustainable business practices, but our ambition goes beyond our four walls: we are just as focused on empowering SMBs across the world to get to net-zero. With the right plans and people in place, I’m looking forward to making progress against our targets and sharing our successes and learnings to ignite sustainable change across our ecosystem.” 

Luiz Amaral, Chief Executive Officer of the Science Based Targets initiative, said: “Today, the Sage Group joins the growing list of companies with science-based targets consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C. “We now need more corporate actors to set ambitious targets like Sage Group.” 

• Announcement marks first-time availability of Sage Intacct on AWS in the US
• Expanded relationship means Sage Intacct on AWS is now available to customers in six countries across the globe

Sage – a leader in accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) – has expanded its relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS), focused on helping SMBs speed up their digital transformation and benefit from the latest technology.

The news marks first-time availability on AWS in the US for customers of award-winning accounting software Sage Intacct.

Sage Intacct customers now have the expanded flexibility to scale at pace, knowing they’re supported by the availability, reliability, and security delivered by AWS. In addition, AWS customers can now benefit from Sage Intacct on AWS to modernize their finance function, unlock efficiencies by automating finance processes, and save time by making decisions faster using real-time data and insights.

Sage Intacct has expanded regional availability on AWS to the US, after launching in the AWS US West (Oregon) Region.

This move enhances existing AWS availability in the AWS Canada (Central) Region, AWS Australia (Sydney) Region, and AWS Europe (Ireland) Region, which also supports Sage Intacct in South Africa. “Providing SMBs with the added flexibility of cloud access to Sage’s flagship products on AWS is crucial in helping them digitally transform and future-proof their businesses,” said Eduardo Rosini, the Executive Vice President of Partners & Alliances at Sage. “This relationship between Sage and AWS offers SMBs cutting-edge cloud innovation, real-time access to data analytics and insights, and a modern finance solution with secure and compliant data storage.”

Rachel Skaff, Managing Director, Americas Channel and Partner Sales, AWS, adds: “We’re thrilled to expand our relationship with Sage, helping small and mid-sized businesses accelerate their finance and digital transformation with access to Sage Intacct on AWS. Our secure, scalable, and reliable cloud infrastructure, combined with Sage’s powerful accounting software, will directly help SMBs modernize, and gain access to the latest cloud technology.”

Like customers who will benefit from the new platform in the US, Canadian not-for-profit, Hope’s Home, has been able to take advantage of Sage Intacct powered by AWS. CFO Sudesh Galhenage explained: “It was essential for us have our organization’s data held in a secure environment in Canada.  When we learned Sage was working with AWS in Canada, we felt confident moving ahead with our digital transformation initiative.”

With Sage Intacct powered by AWS, SMBs can:

Accelerate growth: Anytime, anywhere access helps SMBs work smarter so they can get business done when and where it suits them. With Sage Intacct on AWS, SMBs can benefit from the flexibility, scalability, and innovation capabilities that AWS provides to grow their businesses.

Unlock efficiency: With access to reports in seconds, SMBs can get all the insights and data needed to make smart decisions. This real-time visibility cuts down the need to check data accuracy, freeing up valuable time. SMBs can manage growing data volumes and different data types with ease, as core finance processes are automated.

Simplify security: Sage’s powerful accounting software can now leverage the security expertise of AWS. SMBs can keep data safe with rigorous security certifications and measures to prevent fraud.

AWS infrastructure supports Sage’s cloud strategy which aims to give customers access to the cloud, making it simpler for them to do business. Sage is dedicated to helping customers understand the benefits of hosting products such as Sage Intacct within efficient cloud environments and working with AWS directly supports this initiative.