At recent Schoolscape exhibitions held in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban, Samsung showcased its wide range of B2B education solutions tailored to meet the evolving needs of educators and students in the digital age. Among the featured products were the Samsung WAD Interactive Display, Smart Signage, Monitors, Tablets, and the latest Galaxy S25 smartphones. These products are designed to facilitate interactive and engaging learning environments, allowing educators to deliver dynamic lesson plans while keeping students actively involved.

As the world increasingly embraces digital learning, the integration of cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) has made it essential for students to manage digital tools and navigate digital learning environments. Samsung’s education solutions provide schools with the necessary tools to foster these skills, helping students prepare for a future driven by technology. Samsung’s interactive displays, such as the Samsung WAD, are particularly critical for creating a connected classroom ecosystem, enabling seamless collaboration and enriching educational outcomes by linking ideas, concepts, and materials more effectively.

Vincent Mahlangu, responsible for B2B Sales at Samsung Electronics, delivered an address at the Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban exhibitions, where he emphasised the impact of Samsung’s hardware and software solutions in the classroom to the school principals in attendance. He highlighted how products like the Samsung tablets, equipped with Samsung’s Knox security platform, offer an added layer of protection for both students and schools. “In the event a tablet is lost, Knox ensures all information is protected and traceable, providing peace of mind to both the students and the school,” Mahlangu explained. Samsung’s focus on security complements its overall mission to provide schools with reliable, durable, and secure products that elevate the teaching and learning experience.

Samsung is committed to providing products that not only meet the immediate needs of the classroom but also support long-term learning goals. With Samsung’s range of digital solutions, schools can easily build an immersive, future-ready learning environment that keeps pace with the latest innovations in education technology.

For more information on Samsung’s B2B education solutions and to explore the full range of products available, visit Samsung’s website.

The partnership saw the launch of a state-of-the-art customer centre, which began operations on 01 February 2025. Designed specifically for resellers, the facility focuses on serving the top 300 ICT suppliers (small businesses) and 100 retail independent companies, offering a range of products including home appliances, televisions, and monitors. The customer centre acts as a key resource for B2B clients, driving increased access to Samsung’s offerings and fostering deeper, more impactful relationships with its reseller network.

“We’re excited to partner with Concentrix on this new venture, which will give B2B clients in South Africa the opportunity to directly engage with our products and services in a focused, tailored environment,” said Mike van Lier, Vice President of Consumer Electronics at Samsung South Africa. “This partnership not only allows us to expand our reach within the reseller community but also reinforces our commitment to providing top-notch, innovative solutions to businesses across the region.”

Concentrix, renowned for delivering technology-driven, intelligence-fuelled business solutions, will play a critical role in managing operations at the centre. With a proven track record in driving success for global brands, Concentrix is well-positioned to ensure a seamless experience for Samsung’s B2B resellers.

“We are thrilled to work with Samsung on this dynamic initiative. By providing resellers with greater access to Samsung’s products and solutions, we’re helping to create a more streamlined and efficient process for the B2B sector. This partnership will not only enhance the reseller experience but also foster long-lasting relationships that will benefit all stakeholders involved,” said Brandon Aitken at Concentrix.

The customer centre’s focus on resellers ensures that Samsung can offer specialised support and identify potential issues early in the process, guaranteeing a smooth and responsive experience. This strategic partnership is expected to significantly enhance Samsung’s ability to provide consistent, ongoing support to its B2B clients and further expand its footprint in the market.

The opening of the B2B customer centre marks another milestone in Samsung’s long-standing commitment to innovation, client-centric solutions, and strengthening partnerships across various business sectors. For more information, contact adminsam@concentrix.com.

For more information on Samsung products, visit https://www.samsung.com/za/business/ 

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – 28 August 2019 – The softest, most comfortable mattresses and a power shower, no longer break the top of the list of hotel guest requirements. They’re expected. The fact is, intelligent tech in hotel design is quickly altering customer’s perceptions of hospitality. While the fundamentals of exceptional hospitality will always remain true, with more and more visitors searching for truly distinct and personalised hotel experiences, the hospitality industry has turned to technology to offer guests greater control over their stay in the hotel.

Digital Natives Are Here to Stay

Today, millennials account for 30% of all hotel guests and that figure is set to rise to 75% by 2020. They have grown up in a mobile-first world, as a dominant tribe of digital natives and expect to be able to use their mobile devices and applications to do anything from shopping to meetings, to tracking their home security. Also, they travel in a BYOD [Bring Your Own Device] culture with various devices and expect digital characteristics and applications that are essential to their stay, while likewise expecting to readily verify their information and communicate with their hotel immediately via an app rather than an email, mobile, or web browser.

A New Generation of Hotel Managers

Some hoteliers have expressed worries about applications and tech depersonalising the hotel experience. However, hoteliers who adapt to a first tech approach are improving guest satisfaction faster than ever. Technology offers guests a return to proper hospitality in this environment, giving them a higher level of control over their on-site, in-room experiences, enhancing their stay and delivering previously impossible, highly personalised experiences.

Welcome to Positive ROI

In an increasingly crowded and competitive industry, hotels groups across the world are embracing and experimenting with smart tech in hotels to deliver innovative and ground-breaking experiences. For example, Samsung South Africa in partnership with HTI Consulting hosted key hotel partners at its Samsung offices in Johannesburg for key industry leaders from organisations, including the Hilton Hotel Group, AHA Group, Legacy Group and the Hospitality Property Fund.

Samsung showcased innovative products designed to enhance customer touchpoints across the hospitality sector from business to leisure. These include the ground-breaking QLED TV range, Hospitality Display Range, Samsung Fl!p and QLED curved monitors – products suited to an industry that continues to raise the bar in terms of customer experiences.

“Innovative business solutions require powerful business technology. We’re pleased that our products have received an overwhelmingly enthusiastic reaction from an industry, intent on taking customer satisfaction levels to unprecedented heights”, says Reggie Nxumalo, B2B Director at Samsung South Africa. “Utilising smart tech in hotel design is opening doors to increased revenue, unlocking new income streams, reducing waste and improving sustainability”

Sources

• http://occa-design.com/hotel-technology-5-ways-were-embracing-smart-tech-in-hotel-design/
• https://www.cordonbleu.edu/news/digital-disruption-in-the-hotel-industry/en

These days, businesses such as restaurants, cafes and shops are placing more and more focus on creating aesthetically consistent interiors. Samsung’s 360 Cassette, the world’s first circular-designed air conditioner, offers powerful, even airflow and boasts a design that blends seamlessly with a variety of environments, allowing proprietors to create sophisticated and beautiful interiors that resonate with customers.

Now, to make it even easier to integrate the device in a way that suits its surrounding décor, Samsung has created customizable design panels that may be applied directly to the 360 Cassette to complement each business’s individual aesthetic.

Turkey’s Zübeyde Hanım Educational Institution was the first to attach one of the stylish designs to its 360 Cassette, opting for a design panel that displayed its school symbol. Subsequent design panels have been applied in locations spanning several fields, including a suburban cafe in Korea.

A Design to Suit Every Interior

Recently, Korean café A Twosome Place customized its 360 Cassette air conditioner with an aesthetic-amplifying design panel

The 360 Cassette’s design panels allow users to customize the air conditioner’s aesthetic to match their store’s interior. To help users find the perfect pattern to suit their style, Samsung created a diverse collection of designs tailored to match any decor. Choices include a range of colors, woods and branded designs.

A Rounded Approach to Air Conditioning

Whereas traditional air conditioners may yield uncomfortable drafts and uneven airflow, the 360 Cassette’s ‘rounded’ approach allows it to provide optimum efficiency and comfort.

The 360 Cassette’s circular design is responsible for the comfortable atmosphere the appliance provides, preventing its breeze from directly contacting the skin and evenly distributing air without traditional air conditioners’ ‘blind spots.’ This design was made possible by discarding with the blades that traditionally control wind direction and instead inserting a Booster Fan, which guides air to provide even, horizontal airflow that feels pleasant in any spot.

By paying equal attention to function and design, the 360 Cassette offers businesses a versatile and efficient air conditioning solution that both looks and feels great.

The two companies have successfully integrated Samsung’s visual display technologies with HARMAN’s audio, lighting and control solutions to create an engaging, multi-sensory experience in entertainment, transportation, retail, hospitality, corporate, education and government environments, among others.

Integrated Technology

Highlights of this synergetic partnership include the incorporation of motion sensors, drape controls and thermostats, and HARMAN’s voice-enabled cognitive room solution, which transforms a hotel room into a fully-connected environment that offers guests an upgraded in-room experience.

Entertainment Technology

Likewise, a theatre that utilises a combination of Samsung’s cinema screen and HARMAN’s JBL speakers and Lexicon immersion processor allows moviegoers to enjoy the latest blockbusters in an exciting new way. As the world’s first High Dynamic Range LED theatre display, the cinema screen delivers unprecedented picture quality and brings movies and other on-screen contents to life with higher vibrancy and accuracy.

“By bringing the leading technologies of Samsung and HARMAN together, we strive to build a more synergistic future to redefine what’s possible in the enterprise environment, by elevating user experiences and offering more powerful and integrated solutions to our partners as the needs of the market evolve,” says Mike van Lier, Director: Consumer Electronics, Samsung South Africa.

Signage Technology

He further explains that Samsung’s next-generation signage technologies, including two that were deployed in collaboration with HARMAN, aim to improve efficiency in customer engagement and operation across all verticals.

Conferencing Technology

HARMAN’s AMX Acendo Core and Acendo Vibe work well with its touch-screen displays to create a boardroom  space solution that allows for highly efficient remote video conferencing, demonstrating how corporate interactions in the boardroom can be enhanced through Samsung’s SMART LED Signage equipped with HARMAN’s AV Control System.

“Our collaborations with Samsung position us well in an economy where businesses are increasing spend to create more memorable experiences for their customers and to increase productivity from their employees,” said Mohit Parasher, EVP of HARMAN and President of HARMAN Professional Solutions. “Combining audio, video, lighting and controllers into one solution is where the combined synergies of HARMAN and Samsung become very compelling as together, we define the next generation experience.”

Connectivity and user experiences driven by the Internet of Things (IoT) and mobility – the key trends to keep an eye on for Samsung Electronics South Africa in 2016. Organisations that are prepared to utilise technologies that leverage relationships and engagement are well placed to remain competitive in a challenging economy. The Business-to-Business (B2B) market is in a strong position to evolve alongside the changing demands of clients and provide the applications they will need to succeed.

“Mobile device penetration continues to rise and solutions that are capable of enhancing the mobile experience will be successful,” says Mike van Lier: Director of Enterprise Business Division (EBD) at Samsung South Africa. “The IoT has become more than just a phrase, it is now a way of doing business. The reliance on connectivity has increased year-on-year and this trend is likely to continue this year.”

It is important to note that, IoT is not just for the smartphone and tablet. Any smart technology, which includes white goods and printers, can be tailored and transformed to provide integrated data – making life easier for both businesses and consumers. ¹According to statistics, more than 50 billion appliances globally will be connected to the internet by 2020 with an economic value of nearly $US 2 billion. Africa has already adopted the technology with a total of 128 million people, 52% of the global market, connected to one another in the mobile and machine to machine spaces (M2M).

“A study by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers’ states, 57% of South Africa’s internet traffic comes from mobile devices. This ranks the country higher than many other developing countries on the mobile traffic scale. The smartphone population penetration is around 47% with 23 million active smartphone users2,” adds van Lier. “As a result, both retail and enterprise are in a unique position to take advantage of the technology and embrace deeper development and engagement.”

The connected retail space isn’t new, but the futuristic view is rapidly becoming a daily reality. As an example, consumers in Japan are already talking to lifelike robots instead of shop assistants. In South Africa, e-commerce is improving in both functionality and adoption – which offers an opportunity for businesses to improve their engagement with consumers. Nevertheless, foot traffic remains alive and well and this means that retailers must still invest in signage and messaging that is relevant and visible.

“Retailers need to merge the physical and digital to create inspirational and relevant shopping spaces,” says van Lier. “Consumers don’t just buy anymore; they want to experience and engage with a brand and product.

Samsung has invested in innovations that deliver targeted advertising solutions that form a part of every touchpoint in the shopping experience. Virtual fitting rooms, mirror displays and mall signage are all great ways of capturing consumers’ attention in a cluttered environment.”

Of course, connectivity is as important within the enterprise space and this year is likely to herald a shift in innovation and development. Office infrastructures are evolving to support the mobile employee and wireless technology is core to this process. IoT allows for the operational integration of connected devices to the right technology in order to allow communication to be effective.

“Truly efficient business settings depend on a reliable and fast network to meet the expanding demand for bandwidth,” says van Lier. “In order to support IoT and enterprise mobility, solutions such as Samsung’s WLAN platform assure improved end-user experiences with faster connectivity.”

Finally, the tedious processes of the past are about to be replaced by connected devices printing directly from anywhere and on any platform. “Cloud printing is just one of the ways in which offices will become smarter and more convenient,” concludes van Lier. “The applications are endless and the potential for streamlining business processes, improving productivity and saving on costs is already proven. IoT is here, what the organisation needs to do now is reevaluate the way it has been doing business. Trends contributing to a connected world are real and to stand out they have to implement solutions that map back to their strategic goals for long term success.”