Cape Town - Big data, analytics and sophisticated computer modelling may be the way of the future.

Their costs, however, make them business tools that can be expected to remain the exclusive preserve of major corporations that have the budgets to run super computers with massive processing systems needed for crunching the numbers.

In South Africa, this expectation is being turned on its head as innovative owners of established small and medium-sized businesses manoeuvre their entrepreneurial skills to exploiting sophisticated niche markets, according to Ethel Nyembe, head of small enterprise at Standard Bank.

It is smaller enterprises that have the agility, niche expertise and truly innovative spirit that are helping make a difference in the South African economy, she said.

Taking an example from The Growth Engines, a DSTV programme that Standard Bank sponsors, she said the relationships between major businesses and smaller suppliers are important.

How the two entities collaborate to their mutual benefit and use innovative approaches to solve issues an example is the availability and cost of super computer processing capacity - makes fascinating viewing [on the TV series]," she said. "It also serves as a source of inspiration to others who may be thinking about building a business around a very specific business demand.

A case study from The Growth Engines

A case in point is the innovative approach by a Johannesburg company, CrunchYard, that used its founders highly-specialised knowledge to create an avenue that opens the world of super computers to just about anyone who needs processing power.

The brainchild of CrunchYards electrical engineer, Dr Renier Dreyer, the SME has adopted a unique approach to democratising access to the world of supercomputing. Nothing could be more democratic than the internet, and it is this platform that CrunchYard has used to provide a service that allows sophisticated simulations to be run off the internet on a pay-for-use basis.

The service allows big businesses to test the viability and structural integrity of their projects - tasks which require enormous amounts of computing power.

See the rest here:

Fin24.com | Giving super computer power to ordinary entrepreneurs