The Faranani DocTec stand at last year’s OpenText Summit.
Content management and effective governance are critical foundations for AI adoption, with unmanaged data posing an organisational risk and undermining AI progress.
This is according to Faranani DocTec, an OpenText Reseller Platinum Partner and Titanium Experience Partner of the upcoming OpenText Summit Africa 2026 in Johannesburg.
Ben van Niekerk, Cybersecurity Business Development Executive at Faranani DocTec, says: “As AI adoption increases in South Africa, organisations are facing a growing information management challenge. Many organisations have difficulty locating data, which compromises analysis and decision-making. Up to 80% of enterprise data is unstructured, and 70% of this can be considered ‘dark data’ – including ‘ROT’ (redundant, obsolete or trivial) data. In addition, 23% of unstructured data contains personally identifiable information. To ensure that AI has access to trusted, usable data, organisations have to take control of their organisational information and put proper security guardrails in place.”
“Successful AI depends on getting the basics right through efficient data discovery, classification and management, and good governance,” says Sam Selepe, Director: Business Development and Sales at Faranani DocTec. “South African enterprises are under real pressure to modernise, but many are doing that on top of years of fragmented systems and data scattered across departments. Add the cost of storing and managing data that no one uses, and governance often ends up last on the list instead of first. We’re seeing more organisations recognise that this has to change before AI can deliver any real value.”
At the OpenText Summit Africa 2026, Faranani DocTec will showcase how it is deploying OpenText solutions to solve real challenges in information governance, automation and digital enablement. Faranani DocTec has invested in building skills and capacity to help local enterprises take control of sprawling data estates and build solid foundations for AI.
“South Africa’s next wave of AI value won’t come from better algorithms – it will come from organisations that finally get their data house in order,” says Niël van der Merwe, Chief Executive Officer at Faranani DocTec. “Our work with OpenText gives us the tools to quickly bring structure to data fragmented over years, and to build the governance foundation that AI and automation depend on. The summit is an opportunity for South African organisations to see what that looks like in practice, and to start turning their data from a risk into an asset.”
Faranani DocTec will have business and technical specialists at its stand during the summit, ready to answer questions and run short, hands-on demonstrations.
Visitors with an interest in public sector digitisation should also make time for the session on managing complexity in large-scale digitisation projects, featuring Faranani DocTec Programme Manager Noedine Isaacs-Mpulo, who will share insights from Phetogo, the Department of Home Affairs’ civics records digitisation programme – one of South Africa’s largest public sector digitisation initiatives.
The OpenText Summit Africa 2026 will be held on Thursday, 3 September 2026 at The Canvas in Riversands, Johannesburg. Register here.
