376 Data Integration jobs in South Africa

Empowering Africa's tomorrow, together…one story at a time.

With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

Job Summary

Technology Enablement owns the data processes that enable sustainable, accurate and timeous financial information in support of internal and external reporting. The individual will operate in Technology Enablement with primary focus to design, build and maintain SAP S/4 HANA interfaces.

Job Description

Accountability: Design and Maintain Data Interfaces

• Develop data and information architecture strategy, blueprint and roadmap and track progress towards achieving the strategic goals set out.
• Develop a strategy to ensure that operations, systems, and procedures are appropriate to absorb the impact of changes to increase the financial operations for Absa Group and specifically in the Financial Control environment.
• Provide leadership on SAP S/4 HANA functionalities for current and future financial system landscape.
• Manage stakeholder engagement in order to ensure consensus and approval of the data interfaces.
• Be pro-active and manage changes impacting SAP S/4 HANA, enable long-term planning and input development.
• Design, build and manage SAP S/4 HANA DI processes
• Maintain DI and replication mapping tables
• Liaise and engage with Functions Technology to discuss system and technology enhancements to increase performance of data integrity.
• Obtain and sustain knowledge and experience on the end-to-end processes, including product systems and general ledgers, to support business units with enhanced service delivery.
• Obtain and maintain technical knowledge, skills, and benchmarking to keep up to date in specialist areas to perform at the required standards.
• Manage adherence to the standard interface testing procedure for all new systems before interfacing with SAP S/4 HANA to ensure prevention of rejections and miss-representation of financial information.
• Manage research, design, promotion, development and testing of innovative improvements or new solutions that will improve processes and ensure financial data integrity.

Accountability: Business direction and support

• Work with different Stakeholders to achieve excellent business results through continues engagements
• Contribute to the development of business unit strategy.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of the vision for the team.
• Agree targets and take accountability for the overall achievement of performance objectives in the business area.
• Define customer experience metrics.

Accountability: Risk management, compliance, and controls

• Ensure that the team understands applicable risk management, compliance, and control requirements, including required compliance training.
• Keep up to date with all the relevant legislation/regulatory requirements.
• Own and agree corrective action items with Internal and External Audit for findings related to data interfaces and integrity.
• Participate in the development of the Business Continuity Plan by reviewing and ensuring the critical financial processes are adequately covered and tested.
• Perform proper maintenance of all actions needed for the completion of DEA (Design Effectiveness Assessment) and OET (Operating Effectiveness Testing).

Accountability: People and talent management

• Exhibits Absa Way, Purpose and Values and champions them in the team towards development of a corporate culture.
• With the support from the HR Business Partner, interview and recruit direct reports and provide support to them during the recruitment of their teams on request.
• Effectively assign and balance staff allocations to attain the required performance levels.
• Develop suitable induction training solutions for the area of business.
• Ensure that staff is developed in accordance with personal development plans aligned to organisational priorities and individual development areas.
• Ensure that the people and talent management record keeping system is kept up to date.
• Establish and maintain a succession plan for the management team in the area using the formal Talent Management process for identified talent and an informal process for remaining roles.
• Perform quarterly "health checks" with staff and confirm that they are meeting their required level of performance.
• Diversity - manage and make sure that every team member is treated with respect in terms of culture, gender and religion.
• Create effective workforce and recruitment demand plans to ensure that current and future business requirements can be met.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Understanding of business processes
• Excellent ETL skills
• Solid SAP S/4 DI skills
• Solid financial background
• Solid accounting knowledge
• Networking and relationship management
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Understanding of Absa processes and systems
• Commercial awareness

Education and Experience Required

• B-degree in information technology (NQF level no. 7)
• At least 5 years SAP DI experience
• At least 5 years banking experience
• At least 5 – 8 years financial reporting experience
• People Management Experience

Competencies:

• Applying expertise and technology
• Working with people
• Analyzing
• Relating and networking
• Crating and innovating
• Persuading and influencing
• Entrepreneurial and commercial thinking

Education

Bachelors Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Data Science, Bachelors Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Information Technology, Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Manufacturing, Engineering and Technology

Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.

Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised

Job category: Others: IT and Telecommunication

Location: Bedfordview

Contract: Permanent

Remuneration: Market Related

EE position: No

Applications are invited for the position of Manager: Data Integration & Operations (Peromnes Grade 7) based at Head Office, Bruma. The successful applicant will be reporting to the Head of Data Management. The purpose of this role is to ensure effective data management, formulate quality data collection techniques, implement efficient and secure procedures for data handling and analysis, and establish data sharing rules and proper governance.

1. Evaluate and recommend data management tools and technologies.
2. Implement and manage master data management solutions for core data entities.
3. Ensure consistent and accurate master data across the organization.
4. Lead data profiling, cleansing, and validation initiatives.
5. Monitor and report on data quality metrics and drive continuous improvement.
6. Define and implement effective data pipeline jobs to Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) data.
7. Collaborate with expert teams to design and maintain data architectures that support business needs.
8. Conduct regular data security audits and risk assessments.
9. Ensure compliance with data privacy regulations (e.g., POPIA, HIPAA).
10. Develop and manage strategic relationships with key IT product and service providers.
11. Manage staff in accordance with HC policies and ensure effective performance management.

• B.Eng. or BSc in Computer Science or related field such as Electronics/Electrical/Computer Engineering/Data Management/Information Systems.
• Postgraduate degree in Computer Science or related field will be an advantage .

• Minimum 5 years’ experience in information technology, data management, and engineering within an operations environment, preferably air traffic services/air traffic management, with at least 3 years at management level.
• Proven experience in data management and familiarity with database technologies.

Interested applicants are requested to register their CV’s and apply on by no later than 28 February 2025.

ATNS is an equal opportunity employer that strives to achieve a diverse workforce broadly representative of our people. This position will be filled in line with the objectives of ATNS’ Employment Equity Plan.

People with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

Empowering Africa's tomorrow, together…one story at a time.
With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

Job Summary
Technology Enablement owns the data processes that enable sustainable, accurate and timeous financial information in support of internal and external reporting. The individual will operate in Technology Enablement with primary focus to own master data principals and design and implement own the mapping rules between product systems and ledger on all Interface implementations. Support master data and manual journal postings as normal BAU where required.

Job Description
Accountability: Design and Maintain Data Interfaces

• Understand the product system and the file formats and interface methods required to interface into the ledger.
• Own all master data principals and ensure adherence to master data principals in all postings into ledger
• Develop a strategy to ensure that operations, systems, and procedures are appropriate to absorb the impact of changes to increase the financial operations for Absa Group and specifically in the Financial Control environment.
• Knowledge expert in how interfacing into the ledger works and what is required for a successful implementation.
• Manage stakeholder engagement in order to ensure consensus and approval of the data interfaces.
• Be pro-active and manage changes impacting SAP S/4 HANA, enable long-term planning and input development.
• Maintain DI and replication mapping tables
• Liaise and engage with Functions Technology to discuss system and technology enhancements to increase performance of data integrity.
• Obtain and sustain knowledge and experience on the end-to-end processes, including product systems and general ledgers, to support business units with enhanced service delivery.
• Manage adherence to the standard interface testing procedure for all new systems before interfacing with SAP S/4 HANA to ensure prevention of rejections and miss-representation of financial information.
• Support business and own the process where manual journals needs to be processed as part of data clean ups or where the automated journal tool do not have the required functionality to ensure a successful posting.
• Manage research, design, promotion, development and testing of innovative improvements or new solutions that will improve processes and ensure financial data integrity.

Accountability: Business direction and support

• Work with different Stakeholders to achieve excellent business results through continues engagements
• Contribute to the development of business unit strategy.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of the vision for the team.
• Agree targets and take accountability for the overall achievement of performance objectives in the business area.
• Define customer experience metrics.

Accountability: Risk management, compliance, and controls

• Ensure that the team understands applicable risk management, compliance, and control requirements, including required compliance training.
• Keep up to date with all the relevant legislation/regulatory requirements.
• Own and agree corrective action items with Internal and External Audit for findings related to data interfaces and integrity.
• Participate in the development of the Business Continuity Plan by reviewing and ensuring the critical financial processes are adequately covered and tested.
• Perform proper maintenance of all actions needed for the completion of DEA (Design Effectiveness Assessment) and OET (Operating Effectiveness Testing).

Accountability: People and talent management

• Exhibits Absa Way, Purpose and Values and champions them in the team towards development of a corporate culture.
• With the support from the HR Business Partner, interview and recruit direct reports and provide support to them during the recruitment of their teams on request.
• Effectively assign and balance staff allocations to attain the required performance levels.
• Develop suitable induction training solutions for the area of business.
• Ensure that staff is developed in accordance with personal development plans aligned to organisational priorities and individual development areas.
• Ensure that the people and talent management record keeping system is kept up to date.
• Establish and maintain a succession plan for the management team in the area using the formal Talent Management process for identified talent and an informal process for remaining roles.
• Perform quarterly "health checks" with staff and confirm that they are meeting their required level of performance.
• Diversity - manage and make sure that every team member is treated with respect in terms of culture, gender and religion.
• Create effective workforce and recruitment demand plans to ensure that current and future business requirements can be met.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Understanding of business processes
• Excellent ETL skills
• Solid financial background
• Solid accounting knowledge
• Data and data analyses skills
• Knowledge and experience of the full SDLC life cycle
• Networking and relationship management
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Understanding of Absa processes and systems
• Commercial awareness

Education And Experience Required

• B-degree in accounting or information technology (NQF level no. 7)
• At least 5 years banking experience
• At least 5 – 8 years financial reporting experience
• People Management Experience

Competencies:

• Applying expertise and technology
• Working with people
• Analyzing
• Relating and networking
• Crating and innovating
• Persuading and influencing
• Entrepreneurial and commercial thinking

Education
Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Physical, Mathematical, Computer and Life Sciences (Required)

Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.
Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised

Empowering Africa's tomorrow, together…one story at a time.

With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.

Job Summary

Technology Enablement owns the data processes that enable sustainable, accurate and timeous financial information in support of internal and external reporting. The individual will operate in Technology Enablement with primary focus to own master data principals and design and implement own the mapping rules between product systems and ledger on all Interface implementations. Support master data and manual journal postings as normal BAU where required.

Job Description

Accountability: Design and Maintain Data Interfaces

• Understand the product system and the file formats and interface methods required to interface into the ledger.
• Own all master data principals and ensure adherence to master data principals in all postings into ledger
• Develop a strategy to ensure that operations, systems, and procedures are appropriate to absorb the impact of changes to increase the financial operations for Absa Group and specifically in the Financial Control environment.
• Knowledge expert in how interfacing into the ledger works and what is required for a successful implementation.
• Manage stakeholder engagement in order to ensure consensus and approval of the data interfaces.
• Be pro-active and manage changes impacting SAP S/4 HANA, enable long-term planning and input development.
• Maintain DI and replication mapping tables
• Liaise and engage with Functions Technology to discuss system and technology enhancements to increase performance of data integrity.
• Obtain and sustain knowledge and experience on the end-to-end processes, including product systems and general ledgers, to support business units with enhanced service delivery.
• Manage adherence to the standard interface testing procedure for all new systems before interfacing with SAP S/4 HANA to ensure prevention of rejections and miss-representation of financial information.
• Support business and own the process where manual journals needs to be processed as part of data clean ups or where the automated journal tool do not have the required functionality to ensure a successful posting.
• Manage research, design, promotion, development and testing of innovative improvements or new solutions that will improve processes and ensure financial data integrity.

Accountability: Business direction and support

• Work with different Stakeholders to achieve excellent business results through continues engagements
• Contribute to the development of business unit strategy.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of the vision for the team.
• Agree targets and take accountability for the overall achievement of performance objectives in the business area.
• Define customer experience metrics.

Accountability: Risk management, compliance, and controls

• Ensure that the team understands applicable risk management, compliance, and control requirements, including required compliance training.
• Keep up to date with all the relevant legislation/regulatory requirements.
• Own and agree corrective action items with Internal and External Audit for findings related to data interfaces and integrity.
• Participate in the development of the Business Continuity Plan by reviewing and ensuring the critical financial processes are adequately covered and tested.
• Perform proper maintenance of all actions needed for the completion of DEA (Design Effectiveness Assessment) and OET (Operating Effectiveness Testing).

Accountability: People and talent management

• Exhibits Absa Way, Purpose and Values and champions them in the team towards development of a corporate culture.
• With the support from the HR Business Partner, interview and recruit direct reports and provide support to them during the recruitment of their teams on request.
• Effectively assign and balance staff allocations to attain the required performance levels.
• Develop suitable induction training solutions for the area of business.
• Ensure that staff is developed in accordance with personal development plans aligned to organisational priorities and individual development areas.
• Ensure that the people and talent management record keeping system is kept up to date.
• Establish and maintain a succession plan for the management team in the area using the formal Talent Management process for identified talent and an informal process for remaining roles.
• Perform quarterly "health checks" with staff and confirm that they are meeting their required level of performance.
• Diversity - manage and make sure that every team member is treated with respect in terms of culture, gender and religion.
• Create effective workforce and recruitment demand plans to ensure that current and future business requirements can be met.

Knowledge & Skills:

• Understanding of business processes
• Excellent ETL skills
• Solid financial background
• Solid accounting knowledge
• Data and data analyses skills
• Knowledge and experience of the full SDLC life cycle
• Networking and relationship management
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Understanding of Absa processes and systems
• Commercial awareness

Education and Experience Required

• B-degree in accounting or information technology (NQF level no. 7)
• At least 5 years banking experience
• At least 5 – 8 years financial reporting experience
• People Management Experience

Competencies:

• Applying expertise and technology
• Working with people
• Analyzing
• Relating and networking
• Crating and innovating
• Persuading and influencing
• Entrepreneurial and commercial thinking

Education

Bachelor`s Degrees and Advanced Diplomas: Physical, Mathematical, Computer and Life Sciences (Required)

Absa Bank Limited is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. In compliance with the Employment Equity Act 55 of 1998, preference will be given to suitable candidates from designated groups whose appointments will contribute towards achievement of equitable demographic representation of our workforce profile and add to the diversity of the Bank.

Absa Bank Limited reserves the right not to make an appointment to the post as advertised

Business Segment: Insurance & Asset Management

Location: ZA, GP, Roodepoort, Ellis Street 4

To develop and maintain complete data architecture across several application platforms, provide capability across application platforms. To design, build, operationalise, secure and monitor data pipelines and data stores to applicable architecture, solution designs, standards, policies and governance requirements thus making data accessible for the evaluation and optimisation for downstream use case consumption. To execute data engineering duties according to standards, frameworks, and roadmaps.

Minimum Qualifications

1. Type of Qualification: First Degree
2. Field of Study: Business Commerce
3. Type of Qualification: First Degree
4. Field of Study: Information Studies
5. Type of Qualification: First Degree
6. Field of Study: Information Technology

Experience Required

1. Software Engineering
   5-7 years: Experience in building databases, warehouses, reporting and data integration solutions. Experience building and optimising big data data-pipelines, architectures and data sets. Experience in creating and integrating APIs. Experience performing root cause analysis on internal and external data and processes to answer specific business questions and identify opportunities for improvement.
2. 8-10 years: Deep understanding of data pipelining and performance optimisation, data principles, how data fits in an organisation, including customers, products and transactional information. Knowledge of integration patterns, styles, protocols and systems theory.
3. 8-10 years: Experience in database programming languages including SQL, PL/SQL, SPARK and or appropriate data tooling. Experience with data pipeline and workflow management tools.

Please note: All our recruitment processes comply with the applicable local laws and regulations. We will never ask for money or any form of payment as part of our recruitment process. If you experience this, please contact our Fraud line on or

Overview

Deloitte is a leading global provider of audit and assurance, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax and related services. Our global network of member firms and related entities in more than 150 countries and territories (collectively, the “Deloitte organisation”) serves four out of five Fortune Global 500 companies. Learn how Deloitte’s approximately 457,000 people make an impact that matters at

Deloitte Consulting — Our Culture

Innovation, transformation and leadership occur in many ways. At Deloitte, our ability to help solve clients’ most complex issues is distinct. We deliver strategy and implementation, from a business and technology view, to help lead in the markets where our clients compete.

Are you a game changer? Do you believe in adding advantage at every level in everything you do? You may be one of us.

Deloitte Consulting is growing, with a focus on developing our already powerful teams across our portfolio of offerings. We are looking for smart, accountable, innovative professionals with technical expertise and deep industry experience insights. The combination of our 6 areas of expertise, our well-developed industry structure and our integrated signature solutions is a unique offering never seen before on the African continent.

Deloitte Consulting - AI & Data

Be at the forefront of the revolution.

AI-enabled technologies are shaking business foundations. Some find this daunting. We see opportunity—for clients, societies, and people.

Deloitte’s AI & Data Specialists partner with clients to leverage AI and reach new levels of organisational excellence. We turn data into insights, into action—at an industrial scale.

Join us as we enable clients to grasp the future and reach new heights. Learn from the best in the field to create solutions blending data science, data engineering, and process engineering with our industry-leading expertise.

Ready to shape the future?

Join us to reimagine what's possible with data. At Deloitte, your engineering leadership will drive outcomes that matter — not just pipelines, but real-world transformation.

At Deloitte, we want everyone to feel they can be themselves and to thrive at work—in every country, in everything we do, every day. We aim to create a workplace where everyone is treated fairly and with respect, including reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. We seek to create and leverage our diverse workforce to build an inclusive environment across the African continent.

Join us. Shape the future. Win big

Job Description

As a Data Engineering Manager , you will lead the design, build, and scale of enterprise-grade data infrastructure and pipelines to power advanced analytics, AI solutions, and AI transformations across Tier-1 clients on the African continent. You will work at the intersection of business strategy and technical delivery , guiding multidisciplinary teams to enable data-driven decision-making and measurable business impact.

You will be responsible for:

• Architecting scalable, secure, and high-performance data platforms
• Leading the design and development of robust ingestion, transformation, and governance pipelines
• Managing project timelines and deliverables across diverse industry engagements
• Coaching data engineers and analysts to deliver client-ready solutions
• Collaborating with AI/ML specialists, solution managers, and client stakeholders to translate strategic needs into modern data capabilities

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and own data engineering workstreams across AI transformation, analytics modernisation, and digital core rebuilds
• Design and implement data pipelines using modern architectures (e.g., Delta Lake, Data Mesh, Data Lakehouse)
• Drive data modelling, data quality, and metadata management best practices aligned to business KPIs
• Build, manage, and scale cloud-native data infrastructure (e.g., on AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Mentor junior engineers, oversee code reviews, and ensure delivery quality to tier-1 consulting standards
• Translate business and industry requirements into scalable data engineering solutions
• Partner with AI, strategy, and business consulting teams to deliver end-to-end data value realisation

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Data Science, Engineering or related Degree
• Post Grad Degree in Data Science Engineering or related Degree
• Data related Cloud Certifications

Additional Information

• 8–12+ years of experience in data engineering, with at least 2 years in a team leadership or technical management role
• Proficient in building modern ETL/ELT pipelines using tools like Apache Spark, DBT, Kafka, Airflow
• Strong programming skills in Python and SQL (Scala/Java a plus)
• Deep experience with cloud data ecosystems (e.g., AWS Redshift/Glue, GCP BigQuery/Dataflow, Azure Synapse)
• Strong understanding of data warehousing, data lakes, streaming, and batch architecture
• Experience with CI/CD for data , testing frameworks, and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, etc.)
• Familiarity with data governance and security frameworks in regulated industries (e.g., FSI, healthcare)
• Previous experience in a top-tier consulting environment or client-facing data role
• Exposure to AI/ML deployment pipelines , MLOps, or analytics productisation
• Experience in delivering data modernisation programs at enterprise scale
• Cross-industry knowledge with a focus on FSI, Telco, Consumer, or Healthcare

At Deloitte, we want everyone to feel they can be themselves and to thrive at work—in every country, in everything we do, every day. We aim to create a workplace where everyone is treated fairly and with respect, including reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. We seek to create and leverage our diverse workforce to build an inclusive environment across the African continent.

Note: The list of tasks / duties and responsibilities contained in this document is not necessarily exhaustive. Deloitte may ask the employee to carry out additional duties or responsibilities, which may fall reasonably within the ambit of the role profile, depending on operational requirements.

Be careful of Recruitment Scams: Fraudsters or employment scammers often pose as legitimate recruiters, employers, recruitment consultants or job placement firms, advertising false job opportunities through email, text messages and WhatsApp messages. They aim to cheat jobseekers out of money or to steal personal information.

To help you look out for potential recruitment scams, here are some Red Flags:

• Upfront Payment Requests : Deloitte will never ask for any upfront payment for background checks, job training, or supplies.
• Requests for Personal Information : Be wary if you are asked for sensitive personal information, especially early in the recruitment process and without a clear need for it. Fraudulent links or contractual documents may require the provision of sensitive personal data or copy documents (e.g., government issued numbers or identity documents, passports or passport numbers, bank account statements or numbers, parent’s data) that may be used for identity fraud. Do not provide or send any of these documents or data. Please note we will never ask for photographs at any stage of the recruitment process.
• Unprofessional Communication : Scammers may communicate in an unprofessional manner. Their messages may be filled with poor grammar and spelling errors. The look and feel may not be consistent with the Deloitte corporate brand.

If you're unsure, make direct contact with Deloitte using our official contact details. Be careful not to use any contact details provided in the suspicious job advertisement or email.

We are seeking an experienced Data Engineering Manager to lead a team of data engineers in designing, building, and optimising robust data pipelines and platforms. The successful candidate will play a critical role in enabling the organisation to become a truly data-driven organisation by ensuring that data is accessible, governed, and trusted across all business units. This role will report to the Head of Data Engineering .

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of skilled data engineers.

• Drive the design, implementation, and maintenance of scalable data pipelines and data platform solutions.

• Ensure data quality, availability, lineage, and governance across all data assets.

• Collaborate with analytics, AI/ML, and business teams to deliver fit-for-purpose data solutions.

• Oversee technical architecture, cloud-based data infrastructure, and integration frameworks.

• Establish and enforce best practices for data engineering, DevOps, and CI/CD.

• Ensure compliance with security, privacy, and data governance policies.

• Foster a culture of innovation, automation, and continuous improvement within the team.

• Partner with senior leadership to shape and deliver the data engineering roadmap.

• Bachelors or Masters degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.

• 8+ years experience in data engineering or software engineering roles, with at least 3+ years in a leadership/management capacity.

• Proven track record of delivering enterprise-scale data engineering solutions in production.

• Strong experience with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and modern data architectures (data lakes, lakehouses, data mesh).

• Proficiency in SQL, Python, and data pipeline frameworks (Spark, Kafka, dbt, Airflow, etc.).

• Solid understanding of data modelling, ETL/ELT, APIs, and integration patterns.

• Experience with data governance, metadata management, and compliance frameworks.

• Experience working in retail, e-commerce, or consumer-focused industries is advantageous.