Deloitte SA Blog

Payment technology in South Africa goes mobile

Fri, 25 May 2012 07:15:34 +0000

Hot on the heels of the FNB Geo Payments application addition launched in the second half of May 2012; Mixit officially launched their own “geo payment” capability. But what do geo payments mean for the man in the street and more importantly, what does this technology mean for businesses that were only just getting to grips with NFC?

Geo payments are defined as payments based on the proximity of “authorised” devices. Geo payments make use of GPS to check how close two devices are to each other; if the two devices are within range (typically set at 500m) the application then authenticates the transaction. FNB launched their geo payments edition to their BlackBerry, Android and Apple versions of their banking application yesterday.

The beauty of geo payments in their current form is that – unlike with NFC payments – you don’t need a reader and a NFC enabled cellphone to complete the transaction. Further to that the paying party also does not need to have a credit card; only a bank account that has the eWallet functionality enabled.

Mixit’s geo payment application – Gust – was launched on May 7 2012.

Gust works when two devices are close to each other. The merchant can then request a payment from the mobile phone user. Unlike other payment systems which use geo-fencing logic, Gust does not need a GPS device or even a GSM connection. Gust rather takes the route of simply using wi-fi, your name and your photo to make a payment with devices on the same wifi network, discovering each other using that basic information. With all communication occurring over the wifi network, the payment process is very fast.

The developer of Gust– TrustFabric CEO Joe Botha says, “The idea with the Gust project was to design a really quick and reliable mobile payment experience without NFC.”

As of writing, Stellenbosch is the only town in South Africa where the Gust payment application is running, and has been doing so for the small group of testers since early April of 2012. Stellenbosch was the perfect test case as it is the only town in South Africa to also offer free wifi to all.

Both these advancements have made the intentions clear that NFC is not going to be the mobile payment option of choice – at least not in South Africa as they are not as restrictive with their barriers to entry as neither the merchant, nor the payer need to have NFC chips or readers.

Mobile payment advances such as these are huge advances for society moving more and more towards being truly cashless. Merchants as a result will become less of a target for crime as there will be virtually no cash on the premises.

Big business and merchants will need to aggressively prepare for the early adopters of this new technology as they will be demanding it the second it becomes slightly more commercially available to the mass market.

Are geo-payments going to take the world by storm or are they going to fade away in to obscurity? We would love to hear your thoughts.

For more information on geo-payments, please contact Reinhard Arndt on rarndt@deloitte.co.za

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Deloitte South Africa 2012/2013 Quick Tax Guide

Thu, 24 May 2012 11:37:26 +0000

The Deloitte South Africa Tax Services Line has formulated a 2012/2013 “Quick Tax Guide” for individuals and businesses. The guide is based on the Budget Proposals tabled in Parliament by the Minister of Finance on the 22^ndFebruary 2012. These proposals are, however, subject to approval by Parliament. The information contained in this guide is for general guidance only and is not intended as a substitute for specific advice in considering the tax effects of particular transactions. Whilst every care has been taken in the compilation of the information contained herein, no liability is accepted for the consequence of any inaccuracies contained in this guide.

Click Here to download the Deloitte “Quick Tax Guide”

If you have any questions or require additional information you may contact the Deloitte Tax Services Line Leader, Nazrien Kader at nkader@deloitte.co.za or +27 11 209 6030. Additional contact information relating to South African regional offices are provided in the guide.

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Avoid tax calculation errors and duplication by applying risk intelligence to your spreadsheets

Wed, 23 May 2012 05:16:33 +0000

Avoid the Downward Spiral

Any decent software application today progresses through the SDLC, well known to anyone in the IT industry as the Software Development Life Cycle. The SDLC is the cycle of an application involving many role players generally beginning with the Analysis phase, moving through Design and Implementation, onto Testing and ending with Evaluation before heading back to Analysis.

For more information on how to adopt a risk intelligent approach to spreadsheets, contact Clinton Eidelman at ceidelman@deloitte.co.za

Spreadsheets are also a form of software application but rarely follow the SDLC and often a spreadsheet user is simultaneously owner, developer, programmer, tester, and end user. While programmers are trained in structural analysis and programming methods — most spreadsheet users are not and while most applications have application level-security — spreadsheets frequently do not. With no intrinsic audit trail, spreadsheets can be modified at anytime, with no history of these modifications. Spreadsheet applications can be an incubator for compounding issues leading to a downward spiral of misinformation.

Some of the key advantages of spreadsheets such as the ability to create quickly, share and modify the content also pose the greatest risks. Spreadsheets are standalone files and practically devoid of system-wide controls. Employees can create, access, manipulate and distribute spreadsheet data and consequently these employees can easily make a critical error while entering this data or configuring formulas. Seemingly innocuous errors such as a bracket in the wrong place or an incorrectly structured nested IF statement could have disastrous financial consequences.

A Risk Intelligent approach to the most effective and streamlined spreadsheets has direct benefits for financial reporting and tax processes. A Tax Manager should ask the following questions:

During the tax reporting process am I harnessing the power of Pivot Tables, Pivot Charts, Slicers, Goal Seek and Sparklines in addition to the many other advanced reporting features within Microsoft Excel?
Am I following the best approach when consolidating spreadsheets from different branches/companies or are there ways to automate the process and reduce errors?
How many versions of a spreadsheet-based tax work paper/schedule exist and where are these versions located (email, network share, hard drives, web-based repositories)? Which is the correct or most-recent version?
Are the formulas and calculations in my spreadsheet 100% accurate?
Are the links to the underlying supporting tax schedules accurate?
Do these update in real-time into my spreadsheet, or rather via copy and paste?
Who can see or modify data in the spreadsheet? Should they have this level of access?
Does adequate documentation exist that describes how complex tax spreadsheets in my department obtain and process their data?

Tax managers should consider conducting a review of all spreadsheets that lead to or contain tax information. Such a review should include steps that:

Identify the population of spreadsheets for review and document a structured inventory with key information
Rank each spreadsheet based on key criteria
Remediate and automate selected spreadsheets incorporating spreadsheet design best practices
Review the spreadsheet control environment and implement policies and procedures accordingly

Nearly every corporate tax department relies heavily on spreadsheets for computations such as tax accounting, statutory due date tracking, tax return workpapers to support book/tax accounting differences, R&D and transfer pricing.

Spreadsheet dependant processes, which often lack adequate controls, pose significant risks for companies. A relatively low cost, low effort spreadsheet review can mitigate these risks by improving the spreadsheets underpinning these processes and in turn lead to a more productive tax function.

For more information on how to adopt a risk intelligent approach to spreadsheets, contact Clinton Eidelman at ceidelman@deloitte.co.za

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How to apply tax data analytics to identify and maximise tax savings

Tue, 22 May 2012 06:00:06 +0000

Tax Data Analytics – Transforming data into value

In the face of a challenging economy, tax authorities are turning to analytics to make more informed decisions, provide better taxpayer service, higher operational efficiency, and increase collections and compliance. This focus on the use of analytics by tax authorities for risk profiling and analysing taxpayer financial data during an audit means that taxpayers are also being forced to use analytics to stay ahead of the curve, in order to identify tax exposures before they are detected by revenue authorities.

For more information on how to apply tax data analytics effectively within your organisation, contact Adrian Adams at adams@deloitte.co.za or Clinton Eidelman at ceidelman@deloitte.co.za

From a company’s perspective, tax information is increasingly important to management’s ability to plan and forecast. Using data analytics for tax (Tax Data Analytics) allows this information to be used effectively in support of the tax planning and forecasting. In addition, applying data analytics solutions to solve tax issues creates huge potential for companies to identify and maximise tax saving opportunities, by analyzing an organisation’s tax and transaction data. Tax Data Analytics allows companies to ensure tax compliance by using data analytics tools to review and process 100% of the company’s tax and transaction data records. In the past, when faced with large amounts of data to be processed to determine tax compliance, the only feasible and cost effective solutions available to companies were to use samples of the data set, or conduct policy reviews. These approaches are not ideal since all tax and transaction data were not reviewed, and there was still risk and uncertainty about whether the company was 100% compliant.

Benefits from using Tax Data analytics

Applying data analytics to tax problems, allows these issues to be resolved far more efficiently, at lower cost and more accurately than using manual methods. Tax Data Analytics solutions include reports, dashboards, metrics, Key Performance Indicators and data models which are used to provide a complete picture of a company’s tax position.

Tax Data Analytics can be applied to achieve the following business benefits:

Typically, companies across all industries with large amounts of transaction and management data, as well as ones with diverse operations, structures and supply chains are ideal candidates for using analytics solutions to find tax savings.

Conclusion

Tax Data Analytics leverages a company’s tax and transaction data assets to improve tax planning and forecasting, find tax savings, reduce costs, release working capital and enhance compliance. Exploiting the data assets of organisations increases compliance, reduces tax risks, generates shareholder value and improves bottom line performance. The future presents many challenges for organisations, including addressing issues with fewer resources, therefore, data driven insights into smarter growth strategies and risk management could prove vital to its success and competitive advantage.

For more information on how to apply tax data analytics effectively within your organisation, contact Adrian Adams at adams@deloitte.co.za or Clinton Eidelman at ceidelman@deloitte.co.za

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Three reasons why businesses need a complete social mindshift

Mon, 21 May 2012 10:39:46 +0000

by Jonathan Houston of Deloitte Consulting

There are a load of businesses and people out there still grappling with terms like “social media marketing”. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The truth is that there are a lot of organisations out there that still don’t know how how to sell themselves to other businesses.

In my mind there is a drastic shift that is needed. And the social media revolution (yes, I said revolution) has spurred on this need for evolution in business to business (B2B) thinkers.

The major problem is highlighted in the term “B2B” itself. There should be no such term in anyone’s lexicon. And there are a number of reasons why this is true:

1. Businesses don’t make purchase decisions, people make purchase decisions

At the end of the day every single piece of marketing collateral is going to be seen by a real life human being. They may be employed by a business and are therefore instructed to conduct certain due diligence in their purchases; but that does not change the fact there is certainly going to be some emotional connection and response in their decision making.

This is critical for anyone to understand because that emotion ultimately will have a lot to say in how well or poorly your marketing message is received.

2. Marketing needs to live inside the business

Please note that I didn’t say that marketing needs to live within the sales department. It needs to live within the business! Living within sales is one thing — but if you are truly trying to understand what your targets are trying to achieve, then marketing needs to have a daily exposure to the needs and frustrations of those people. Living within the sales department means that marketing will always be thinking like a sales person (with respect) and trying to close the deal — where in today’s environment it is about where can marketing add value to the business and ensure that their targets are always thinking of their name first.

3. Change your selling mentality

Probably the most important shift that needs to happen in business marketing is a move away from B2B thinking; and a move towards B4B thinking! Become the business that other businesses cannot do without. Become a business for business marketer and position yourself as the product or solution that your targets cannot afford to ignore. Show your targets that you are there to make their lives easier and that your organisation is the thought leader in the industry by sharing what you know with them freely.

Using this approach will ensure that you understand not only the target business’s needs, but also the needs of the individuals living within that business -– and that is a differentiator that will not easily be taken away by your competitors who are still trying very hard to understand how they can push their products and services in to the path of their business targets.

Jonathan Houston is a Digital Marketing Lead within Deloitte Consulting; for more information please contact him on johouston@deloitte.co.za.

This article originally appeared on Memeburn.com

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Partnering for growth and development

Thu, 17 May 2012 07:30:38 +0000

In 2012, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the competitiveness of global cities according to their demonstrated ability to attract capital, business, talent and visitors. In this index Johannesburg occupied the 67th most competitive position out of 120 global cities. While this ranking is not construed as undesirable by any means, as South African cities rank as some of the most competitive in Africa, it could be improved upon from a global stand point.

Infrastructure, economic growth, improved education, job creation and skills development have all been identified as key focus areas in Government’s National Development Plan 2030. In terms of this plan funding is seen as a key economic enabler. Infrastructure development is intrinsically linked to improving the competitiveness of cities and countries. It enables greater local and international trade, distribution and integration as well as improving the quality of life of its citizens and thereby attracting better qualified and more productive professionals and employees. Having effective, efficient, extensive and well maintained infrastructure contributes to socio-economic development and growth.

Download the full article here, on Partnering for Growth

If you have any questions or require a more detailed discussion, contact Mgcinisihlalo Jordan (Partner – Deloitte South Africa) at mgjordan@deloitte.co.za

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The three models for tax compliance and reporting – It’s your choice

Thu, 17 May 2012 05:00:33 +0000

Global Tax Compliance & Reporting

The search for a more effective delivery model

There have been significant changes in the business landscape over the last 10 years, which have materially affected the global tax compliance and reporting processes for corporate tax payers. These include changes in regulation and tax laws, electronic filing requirements, risk-based assessment techniques, and advances in tax technology solutions among others.

If you have any questions or require a more detailed discussion, contact Clinton Eidelman (Associate Director – TMC Technology – Deloitte South Africa) at ceidelman@deloitte.co.za

Commercial objectives

Recent research commissioned by Deloitte, which included 250 interviews with the tax directors of 250 global organisations, shows that the principal commercial objectives for global tax directors are managing or reducing Effective Tax Rate and ensuring sound risk management. Other objectives include a desire for operational efficiency or cost reduction but these are of less importance.

Likewise, where metrics are in place to measure the performance of the tax department, these are based on managing the Effective Tax Rate in the vast majority of cases.

Resourcing and management

The resourcing of global tax functions appears to vary significantly.

What is clear is that outside of the headquarter location there are often inconsistent levels of in-house tax expertise. As tax directors seek to assert more control over global compliance, making sure there is sufficient expertise is very rarely a straight choice between in-house management and outsourcing. Instead, hybrid models prevail with the ultimate requirement being to ensure there is sufficient tax expertise at each stage of the process, regardless of whether it is resourced in-house or externally. However, where resource and expertise does allow, overall there appears to be a preference for in-house management over outsourcing. 65% of the researched companies manage indirect tax compliance solely in-house, 52% manage statutory accounts in-house and 73% manage the global tax provision in-house. Only when it comes to corporate income tax compliance, a minority of companies manage it in-house (36%).

Across every area of compliance and reporting, where management is not solely in-house, total outsourcing is marginal and ‘co-sourcing’ is far more prevalent. This demonstrates the requirement to bring in external expertise mainly to fill the gaps around in-house capability.

Shared services

There is evidence that as part of the in-house management of global compliance and reporting, businesses are using their own shared service centres. 55% of multinationals state that they operate a shared service centre for finance and in just over half of these, some compliance and reporting work is carried out. However, qualitative assessment suggests that only certain data related tasks reside within the service centres and there is no significant tax expertise apparent.

Technology

Conceptually, the potential benefits of technology in compliance and reporting are well acknowledged: only 13% of global tax directors believe that they could not do more with technology.

However, deeper questioning suggests there are barriers to adoption when it comes to new technology. Typically, these revolve around perceptions that implementation will entail significant disruption, the cost is too high, and there is insufficient return on investment or a view that major technology projects are not something that tax functions would embark upon unilaterally within the business.

Compliance and reporting service provider delivery models

Tax directors show a general preference for external expertise delivered at a local level. When asked whether central service centres or local teams work better, 75% express a preference for local teams while 19% think that central service centres work better. The hypothesis here is that more ‘progressive’ global businesses are seeking to outsource non-core business functions or to achieve integration with their own shared service centres.

The three methods of compliance and reporting delivery are:

Decentralised

Delivered and managed locally

All services are managed and delivered locally. This approach relies on local control and responsibility.

Coordinated

Delivered locally, managed centrally

This method involves local delivery of service but introduces a strong element of central coordination and management. This brings greater efficiency, better control, and less risk.

Centralised

Delivered and managed centrally, supported locally

This method shifts the emphasis toward central delivery as well as coordination and management. Crucially, though, local activity, relationships, and support are also maintained.

It is important that whichever model is adopted it should grow and evolve with the organisation to meet their needs now and in the future, wherever they are on the spectrum. Standardised processes and methodologies underpinned by common technologies and tools are essential in this regard. Tools such as Microsoft Office-based solutions (Excel and Word) that have been in widespread use no longer match much better tax technologies in the market for example MS Dynamics NAV (for data management and statutory accounting), 3rd party tax software (for due date tracking, VAT return production and tax provisioning) and web-based dashboard portals.

Benefits

An organisation should ensure it selects a delivery model and service provider that at a minimum provide the following benefits:

Increased visibility, transparency, and control over global compliance and reporting
Flexibility to maximize use of in-house resources, respond to shifting priorities and the ability to provide expertise at the global and local level
Integration and efficiency to control costs, increase accuracy, minimize risk and to respond to regulatory changes
A path to improvement without the introduction of significant risks
Insight to make informed strategic business decisions

If you have any questions or require a more detailed discussion, contact Clinton Eidelman (Associate Director – TMC Technology – Deloitte South Africa) at ceidelman@deloitte.co.za

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Is the Manufacturing Competitiveness Enhancement Programme the answer to the manufacturing industry?

Wed, 16 May 2012 05:00:45 +0000

Dr Rob Davies, The Minister of Trade and Industry, has launched the Manufacturing Competitiveness Enhancement Programme (“MCEP”), to assist the manufacturing sector. In this context it is important to remember that, in the past five years, the manufacturing sector has been plagued by the global economic meltdown, rising electricity costs, escalating wage cost and the threat of a carbon tax. Unlike other countries with specific “bail-out” plans, there were no specific measures announced to benefit the ailing manufacturing industry, until it was announced in this year’s budget speech, that a new incentive would be launched during 2012 which would inject R5.8 billion into the distressed manufacturing sector.

If you require more information or a more detailed discussion on the MCEP, contact Newton Cockcroft (Deloitte Research & Development and Government Grants Leader for South Africa) at ncockcroft@deloitte.co.za

In terms of the budget speech, the aims of the program would be “to provide a credible support package to stabilise and grow output, grow employment and grow confidence in the manufacturing sector in the of face or uncertain local and export market conditions arising from the global economic crisis”.

It is heartening to see that the Department of Trade and Industry launched MCEP within 3 months from the announcement in the budget speech. It is also very encouraging to note that the programme will go live on 4 June 2012.

Although this is not aimed to provide the reader with a detailed summary of the MCEP, we hope to raise awareness about the existence of the programme and its benefits.

Who will benefit?

The new incentive programme will focus on providing assistance for participants in the manufacturing and engineering sector including conformity assessment agencies. It should be noted that this incentive programme will not be available to start-ups or companies without at least one year’s manufacturing track record. It is, however, important that all enterprises that are in the manufacturing value chain should take cognizance of MCEP as it may affect them, whether directly or indirectly.

How to qualify for the benefits

Successful applicants will be assigned a benefit ceiling based on entity level manufacturing value add which the applicant will have to claim through the 7 sub-programmes of the MCEP within a 2 year period.

The benefit ceiling is calculated as follows:

Sales / Turnover

Less: Sales value of imported goods

Less: Sales value of other brought-in finished goods

Less: Material input costs (used in manufacturing process)

= MVA

MCEP consists of two categories, a production incentive and industrial financing loan facilities. The two categories have seven components in terms of which an applicant can benefit from MCEP. These are:

Production Incentive

Capital Investment
Green Technology and Resource Efficiency Improvement
Enterprise Level Competitiveness Improvement
Feasibility Studies
Cluster Competitiveness Improvement

Industrial Financing Loan Facilities

Pre- and Post-dispatch Working Capital Facility
Industrial Policy Niche Projects Fund

The cash benefit, based on the MVA, which is available through the above listed seven components will amount to the following percentages of the calculated MVA:

Asset Value	MVA Benefit
100% Black Shareholding	15%
< R5 million	15%
> R5 million but < R30 million	12%
> R30 million but < R200 million	10%
> R200 million	7%

It is also important to note that an applicant can apply for a combination of the seven components of MCEP and that the benefits can be substantial. As example, benefits for capital investment and green technology and resource efficiency improvements are capped at R50 million per component. If one adds the job creation bonus payment in these 2 categories to this, an applicant meeting all the requirements and creating sufficient job opportunities, can obtain a benefit of as much as R110 million in these two categories. This benefit, if tax exempt as expected, may make the incentive in some instances more attractive than the section 12I Income Tax additional tax allowance. It is in this light, important to note that it seems to be Government’s intention that projects under R200 million should apply for either the Manufacturing Investment Programme (MIP) or the MCEP whilst projects over R200 million should apply for benefits in terms of section 12I of the Income Tax Act. Despite this it is important that any applicant should consider all mandatory and other criteria of all the applicable programmes in order to ascertain which would be the best fit for the company.

The Automotive, Clothing, Textiles, Leather and Footwear sectors that qualify for support under AIS, APDP, MIDP, CTCP and CTCIP have been disqualified from this incentive programme. Automotive manufacturers which earn less than 25% of its turnover from the motor vehicle supply chain may, however, apply for the MCEP.

There are more stringent requirements for certain industries, as listed below:

Industry	Must Prove
Manufacturers of paper pulp and paperboard; Petroleum refineries/synthesisers; Processing of Nuclear fuel; Manufacture of basic chemicals; Manufacture of basic iron and steel, Manufacture of basic precious and non-ferrous metals	Direct, quantifiable downstream jobs; and/or Benefits to other applicants in the value chain (access to new markets/introduction of new products and processes); and/or Sector is in cyclical distress

The swift release of the MCEP incentive programmes is welcomed by Deloitte. It should however, be noted that an applicant’s benefit will be based on the historical asset cost and, if one adds the 20% expansion requirement in order to qualify for the programme to this, we feel that this may lead to a large scale disqualification of large manufacturers from the programme. Large manufacturers have, as their smaller counterparts, suffered as a result of the recession and one must hope that measures would be implemented that will prevent the disqualification of large manufacturing companies from the programme.

It is also concerning that more difficult qualification criteria have been set for certain industries, which have been specifically earmarked in IPAP 3 as priority sectors, which should be grown and supported. One would have expected that these priority sectors would have received beneficial treatment or easier qualification criteria.

Other aspects that must be seen as positive are the relative short timespan within which and successful applicant will be able to claim benefits. It was expected that a B-BBEE hurdle (Level 4) would be in place and the fact that non-compliant companies would be given four years to achieve such status would also tend to be on the lenient side.

In closing, it is important that MCEP, and the substantial benefits that it will inject into the manufacturing industry, be implemented and administered swiftly and efficiently. In this regard the relative short timespan between the announcement of MCEP in the Budget and the release of the final programme shows that the DTI and Government realise the needs of the manufacturing industry in South Africa.

If you require more information or a more detailed discussion, contact Newton Cockcroft (Deloitte Research & Development and Government Grants Leader for South Africa) at ncockcroft@deloitte.co.za

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Addressing Africa’s Infrastructure Challenges

Tue, 15 May 2012 12:37:22 +0000

Inadequate infrastructure remains a major obstacle towards Africa achieving its full economic growth potential. With Africa seen as one of the world’s fastest growing economic hubs, meeting the demand for key infrastructure has been identified as a priority. This translates into exciting opportunities for global investors who need to look past the traditional Western view of Africa as a homogeneous block, and undertake the detailed research required to understand the nuances and unique opportunities of each region and each individual country.

This detailed piece of thought leadership looks at the importance of adequate infrastructure within Africa, as it is crucial to long-term growth, backlogs as an opportunity, funding, Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) and Deloitte’s involvement in infrastructure development.

Read the full article . . . . Addressing Africa’s Infrastructure Challenges

Would you like more information or do you require a more detailed discussion? Andre Pottas, Corporate Finance Advisory Leader for sub-Saharan Africa, would love to hear from you! André may be contacted at apottas@deloitte.co.za

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Business transformation starts with people and processes and technology follows

Tue, 15 May 2012 05:00:37 +0000

Market pressures and corresponding growth strategies push business transformation to the top of many organisations’ agenda and best practice companies are using business process models to achieve such transformation and ensure increased shareholder value.

Would you like more information or do you require a more detailed discussion? Kamal Ramsingh, Head of Technology at Deloitte Consulting, would love to hear from you! Kamal may be contacted at kramsingh@deloitte.co.za. Have a look at the new Deloitte Consulting Technology home page!

Business Process Before Technology

Although common business operations have three dimensions: people, process and technology, many organisations, when they embark on transformation and require one view of the business, choose to lead with the implementation of technology, such as a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Deloitte’s experience has shown that smart leaders don’t try to lead transformation through technology. The right way to transform an organisation is to:

Begin with people and process
Make sure that technology is set up to follow the people and process rollout in an integrated manner

A pure technology-led effort often poses the threat of becoming overly technology centred, resulting in low acceptance and a lesser than expected positive business impact. This should be seen in contrast to a significant number of organisations which prefer to lead the transformation of their business with structured and well thought through process- and people-related efforts to gain early benefits. These are then embedded and expanded through a relatively low-key technology entrenchment.

Read the full article . . . . Business Process Before Technology

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