Field notes
Every article, newest first
Compliance deadlines, cost changes and systems decisions, written for the person who has to act on them. 22 published so far.
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August 2026
- August 23, 2026Technology
Server storage costs are 6.5 times higher than last year
Enterprise SSD prices rose another 5% in July and sit about 6.5 times above Q3 2025. Your next hardware quote has not caught up yet.
- August 23, 2026Technology
Card-linked loyalty, and who ends up holding your data
Yoco has switched on loyalty with no app and no integration, and the customer history it builds accumulates inside your payment processor.
- August 23, 2026Technology
AI watermarks cannot tell writing from editing
Claude's text now carries a hidden watermark that survives light editing, and Anthropic says it cannot tell a document it wrote from one it merely tidied.
- August 23, 2026Cost & decisions
Fuel cost per job, before diesel rises on 2 September
CEF snapshots put diesel up roughly R2.75 to R3.10 a litre on 2 September, and repricing needs litres attached to jobs that almost nobody joins up.
- August 21, 2026Operations
Goods received notes and the R1bn Eskom never got
Eskom recorded diesel as received and paid for it. R1 billion of it has not arrived. Receipt is a database field, and somebody has to type it.
- August 21, 2026Cost & decisions
SARS record keeping when an old assessment reopens
A High Court ruling has confirmed SARS can reopen an assessment older than three years where it can show non-disclosure. The exposure is not the tax. It is how long it takes you to find the paperwork.
- August 20, 2026Technology
WhatsApp API replies stop being free on 1 October
Meta starts charging per delivered message for replies sent through the WhatsApp Business Platform. Your bill is set by how many messages one job takes.
- August 20, 2026Operations
You paid for the software. You may not own it.
If your developer disappeared tomorrow, what you own is what the contract says and what you can log in to. Those are two different lists.
- August 20, 2026Compliance
Automated decisions fail on data, not on the algorithm
A South African court struck down an automated eligibility system in January 2025. It fell on the inputs, which is a problem your business already has.
- August 19, 2026Technology
Quote to cash is where your working capital goes
The days between finishing work and issuing the invoice are an admin gap, not a funding gap, and financing them is the expensive way to fix it.
- August 19, 2026Cost & decisions
Electricity costs get a 10-year forecast you cannot use
NERSA would have to publish a decade of price certainty. Almost no operator can say what power costs them per site, so the forecast lands nowhere.
- August 18, 2026Cost & decisions
Absa's R8.8bn tech spend and its R200m software write-off
A bank spending R8.8 billion on technology still wrote software down to zero. The gap between those two numbers is where the money actually goes.
- August 18, 2026Compliance
Employment equity reporting fails on data, not intent
Reporting opens 1 September and this is the first cycle measured against sectoral targets. Most employers will struggle on data, not intent.
October 2025
September 2025
- September 26, 2025Technology
South Africa's Uneven Journey Into the AI Age
Artificial Intelligence may dominate global headlines, but in South Africa, most people remain only dimly aware of what it is or how it works.
- September 19, 2025Operations
AI for Real Estate Agents in South Africa
Leveraging agentic AI to handle administrative overhead, accelerate contract processing, and maintain responsiveness in competitive markets.
- September 26, 2025Cost & decisions
What Generative AI Actually Does for Your Bottom Line
Examining practical applications and tangible business impacts of generative AI across operations and revenue growth.
- September 26, 2025Cost & decisions
Your First AI Project: A Framework for Business Leaders
The potential of AI is clear. But for every success story, there's a project that fails to deliver. The difference often comes down to choosing the right first project.
- September 26, 2025Technology
Prompt Engineering: Turning Ideas into Reliable Results
You've seen what Generative AI can do. The next question is: "How do I get it to actually do what I want?"
- September 26, 2025Operations
Knowledge Bases: Teaching AI Your Business
Teaching AI systems company-specific knowledge through centralised data repositories to improve accuracy and business-ready responses.
- September 26, 2025Operations
Validating AI Outputs: A Practical Workplace Skill
Establishing systematic verification processes for AI-generated content to build organisational trust and mitigate accuracy risks.
- September 9, 2025Announcements
Proud Sponsor: Group 1 Auto Golf Day
Zorah's sponsorship of charity golf event supporting Drakenstein Hospice's palliative care services.