Johannesburg, South Africa – 24 March 2026 – In a move set to accelerate digital transformation for African enterprises, Smart Hands Africa (SHA) has appointed Khalil Hassim as Director of RPA and Automation Solutions. With over six years of hands-on expertise in UiPath RPA and Test Automation across the MEA region, backed by 15 years in software architecture and development, Hassim brings proven thought leadership to one of the continent’s most pressing operational challenges: scaling businesses without scaling headcount or costs.

Hassim, a Johannesburg-based Senior Sales Engineer who previously led RPA and Test Automation initiatives at UiPath, now heads SHA’s dedicated RPA business unit. In his new role, he is driving strategy, go-to-market execution, solution design and customer success for SHA’s fully managed Robotic Process Automation (RPA) offering – powered by Automize, the no-code RPA platform for which SHA is the sole distributor in South Africa.

“RPA isn’t just about bots, it’s about removing the limitations that manual processes place on growth,” said Hassim. “African businesses face the same pressures as global players: legacy systems, data silos, repetitive tasks and the constant battle to do more with less. Our no-code Automize platform, delivered as a fully managed service, turns those constraints into competitive advantages – fast, accurate and scalable.”

Why End Users Should Consider RPA and Process Automation Now

Traditional manual workflows are holding organisations back. According to industry insights and real-world deployments, businesses lose valuable time, money and talent to repetitive, error-prone tasks such as data entry, invoice processing, reconciliations, order capturing and report generation. The result? Process bottlenecks, compliance risks, high operational costs and employee burnout.

RPA changes the game by deploying a digital workforce that works 24/7, with 100% accuracy, zero fatigue and instant scalability. Key benefits include:

• Eliminating manual, repetitive tasks – Freeing teams for strategic, high-value work.
• Dramatic error reduction – Achieving 100% accuracy and creating full audit trails for compliance (POPIA, GDPR, SOX).
• Instant scalability – Handling seasonal spikes or hyper-growth without hiring.
• Legacy system integration – Connecting old systems without costly upgrades or APIs.
• Cost savings of 30–50% – Plus up to 70% faster cycle times in finance processes like invoice processing and reconciliations.
• Improved employee satisfaction – Moving staff from mundane work to meaningful roles.

Real results speak volumes. In one deployment, Automize RPA captured over 50,000 orders in just six weeks using only six bots on six PCs, while the interface changed weekly and new business rules were added. This eliminated the need to hire an additional 74 full-time equivalents (FTEs) and delivered 100% accuracy with zero mistakes in CSG audits. In another case, RPA was used to generate reports for executives, who required them by 8AM on a Monday, meaning that the person previously doing them, no longer needed to come into work at 5AM every Monday morning. 

Why Partner with Smart Hands Africa for Implementation and Managed Services

While many RPA tools promise quick wins, most initiatives fail due to complexity, poor scalability and unstructured data challenges. SHA’s Automize-powered solution is deliberately designed to overcome these pitfalls: it is no-code, intuitive and built for non-technical users, with a central web platform for process management and lightweight client-side bots for recording and playback.

What sets SHA apart is the fully managed service model designed for African businesses that want results without the overhead of building or maintaining an internal RPA team:

• Once-off build cost for discovery, design and initial automation development.
• Monthly subscription thereafter, based purely on processing hours consumed irrespective of the number of bots. All bots draw from the same shared hourly pool, making it simple, predictable and truly scalable.
• SLA-driven delivery with local African support, full compliance, real-time dashboards and continuous optimisation.
• End-to-end journey from process discovery and pilot to enterprise rollout and ongoing management.

Whether you’re in finance (automating AP/AR, reconciliations, reporting), operations, HR, customer service or IT, SHA delivers measurable ROI within months. The service is also available white-labelled for channel partners and accounting firms seeking recurring revenue streams under their own brand.

“Smart Hands Africa isn’t just selling bots, we’re delivering a scalable digital workforce that lives in the cloud, or on premise, and grows with your business,” Hassim added. “Our combination of Automize’s simplicity and SHA’s local expertise means organisations can start small, prove value quickly and scale confidently.”

Ready to Unlock Your Digital Workforce?

If manual processes are capping your growth, now is the time to automate. Connect with Khalil Hassim and the SHA team for a no-obligation RPA discovery workshop or demo.

Visit: [https://smarthandsafrica.com/robotic-process-automation-rpa/](https://smarthandsafrica.com/robotic-process-automation-rpa/) 

Or for finance teams: [https://smarthandsafrica.com/finance-process-automation/](https://smarthandsafrica.com/finance-process-automation/)

About Smart Hands Africa 

Smart Hands Africa is Africa’s leading provider of enterprise IT professional services and managed solutions. With a focus on large-scale projects and operational excellence, SHA delivers RPA, automation, infrastructure and digital transformation services across the continent empowering businesses to scale faster, reduce costs and compete globally.

About Automize 

Automize is a simplified, no-code RPA platform designed for ease of use and seamless scalability. By combining intuitive process recording, advanced data handling and centralised management, Automize makes enterprise-grade automation accessible to every organisation without the traditional barriers to success.