Our immature ICT industry

Yesterday I was again confronted with the fact that the ICT industry is very immature. One of our partners announced the withdrawal of a relative new product!  What makes it more difficult to understand is that the product was sound and addressed the SME market which is a focus and an opportunity in Africa.

One can argue what is the problem with an immature industry?   It creates opportunities and is very dynamic with higher margins.   It is however the negatives that does impact all.  In this case some customers made the bold move to buy this product and their peers, colleagues and manager knew about the decision. They are now embarrassed by the fact that unexpectedly the product is withdrawn.

In the motor industry a roadmap for a product is known in advance and a buyer knows this vehicle will still be manufactured for 2 or 3 years etc.   

We have invested in education, training, demo equipment, marketing seminars, printed brochures and proposed the product at several customers in the past 12 months.  We are now embarrassed and on the financial side is was not a profitable exercise!

Recently a question was asked on a ICT e-mail forum as to why ICT in Africa is expensive.  The immaturity of the industry contributes to cost.  Tenders requests are issued but often not awarded.  Products just installed are being withdrawn by vendors.  

A former employee told me recently that the IT Manager at a Tanzanian mobile company  regularly took 15% of the contract value as bribe while he was employed at a supplier. Corruption and Bribes, destroys the rule of law in countries, trust between citizens and those in authority.

We often experience a situation where systems we support runs into interface issues with other systems. Often the answer from the other system's support team is "We could not find any problem".  If you however analyse the logs their system's behaviour changes as the investigation was done!  It raise the question as to the honesty and correctness of the finding. 

Gartner recently said "The survey revealed that service and software providers have improved their position from 2008, but remain relatively immature in terms of both their internal programs, as well as their market offerings."  Quote from "Gartner and WWF Assess Low-Carbon and Environmental Leadership in the ICT Industry 2010" http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1458613

We should all work toward improving. On the positive side there is more and more standards and processes like ITIL

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Good Corporate Governance

Today I had to refuse to support a customer (non paying international corporate)

A child will enter a room while his parents are present with a noticeable guilty face if he or she stepped out of line. The same should be the case with international corporate players, but yet it is not true. Many companies have processes and procedures to bully their suppliers and vendors and yet they have no guilt. I copied the following from Wikipedia:

Corporate governance is the set of processes, customs, policies, laws, and institutions affecting the way a corporation (or company) is directed, administered or controlled. Corporate governance also includes the relationships among the many stakeholders involved and the goals for which the corporation is governed. The principal stakeholders are the shareholders, the board of directors, executives, employees, customers, creditors, suppliers, and the community at large.

Corporate governance is a multi-faceted subject.[1] An important theme of corporate governance is to ensure the accountability of certain individuals in an organization through mechanisms that try to reduce or eliminate the principal-agent problem. A related but separate thread of discussions focuses on the impact of a corporate governance system in economic efficiency, with a strong emphasis on shareholders' welfare. There are yet other aspects to the corporate governance subject, such as the stakeholder view and the corporate governance models around the world (see section 9 below).

There has been renewed interest in the corporate governance practices of modern corporations since 2001, particularly due to the high-profile collapses of a number of large U.S. firms such as Enron Corporation and MCI Inc. (formerly WorldCom). In 2002, the U.S. federal government passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, intending to restore public confidence in corporate governance.

Read more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_governance

Reflecting on 2010

The year had its ups and downs. There are the events outside human control and then there events caused and influenced by humans.

We acquired new customers in Tanzania and South Africa. The new customers are in the education and retail sectors. We serve customers in several countries in Africa. Apart from our largest customer, based in Nigeria, customers generally paid on time. The customer has a history of being a bad payer in spite of changing ownership several times in the past five years. Good corporate governance and business practise is always relevant. We lost a competitive bid and as a result a supplier due to unfair practises.

In this year we submitted several large tenders for amongst others Call Centre, IVR and Service Desk solutions.

Our technical team developed skills in Lotus Foundations, Lotus Connections and Tivoli Service Manger, to mention a few. Internally we migrated to Lotus Notes as messaging platform.

The VPN and VoIP telephony between our office in Tanzania and South Africa is improving productivity beyond expectation.

Appointing BE Agency as media consultants is paying dividends. Social media like Twitter and blogs are being used more and more. IBM’s co-funded marketing strategy is used to compliment our own initiatives with success.

In this year new people joined on the sales and marketing side. Leon in South Africa has already contributed significantly in acquiring new business. Sumitra recently joined ICMA in Dar es Salaam.

On a personal level I lost my son in law, Pieter, which reminded us all of the brevity of life. It is now 10 years ago that my son Andre drowned in the sea. At that time I was in Egypt on an IVR project. On the brighter side, my first grandson was born in May. It is a real delight. These events underline that we all have diverse dimensions comprising the whole.

The outlook for 2011 is positive. We have a good base to work from. It will not be easy as we live in an imperfect world, but let’s take the challenge and run to the best of our ability. May you all have a successful 2011 and remember that on Friday 11 November 2011 at 11h11 it will be a day of ones.
--
Johan Grobler

C.a.T.S. Pty Ltd (Computer Assisted Telephony Systems (Pty) Ltd), www.ivr.co.za
ICMA Ltd (Information Communication Mid Africa Limited), www.icma.co.tz

IBM to handle IT for Bharti Airtel's Africa Operations - Deal of the decade

In what I coin the deal of the decade IBM has won the IT business of Bharti Airtel's Africa Operations (formerly known as Zain and Celtel)

Bharti Airtel has selected IBM to manage computing technology and services that power its mobile networks in 16 African countries in a 10-year planned agreement, the companies said on Friday.

An agreement would be finalised in the fourth quarter, the companies said in a statement.

Bharti was the first Indian mobile operator to outsource its network to save on costs, a strategy that helped it on its way to become the country's top mobile operator.

IBM already manages Bharti's IT infrastructure in India in a 10-year deal that began in 2004. The deal had an initial value of about $750-million, but is estimated to have grown manifold as it is linked to Bharti's subscriber and revenue growth.

"Bharti Airtel plans to replicate the success of its relationship with IBM by lowering the barrier to entry for the people of Africa to own a mobile device," the statement said.

Bharti said the partnership will help it scale its network and systems to more than 100 million African customers by 2012, from about 36 million currently.

Read more:

• ITweb
• voicendata.ciol.com
• www.ioltechnology.co.za/
• I.B.M.: Africa Is the Next Growth Frontier

Corporate IT Security: Theoretical and Practical Training, 25-27 August 2010, TGDLC, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

[www.eThinkTankTz.org] Corporate IT Security: Theoretical and Practical Training, 25-27 August 2010, TGDLC, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania [1 Attachment]

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From:	Vincent Wambua ... Add to Contacts
To:	ethinktanktz@yahoogroups.com
Cc:	vincent@africanedevelopment.org

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[Attachment(s) from Vincent Wambua included below]

Dear All,

Apologies for cross-posting.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Re: Corporate IT Security: Theoretical and Practical Training, 25-27 August 2010, TGDLC, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

African eDevelopment Resource Center (AeRC) in collaboration with Tanzania Global Development Learning Centre would like to invite delegate/s to a 3 day unique, authoritative, high-value, hands-on practical course which will provide participants with essential understanding of the tools, methodologies and vulnerabilities that fraudsters could employ to exploit IT systems on the 25-27 August 2010.

Most Organisations now realise that in order to defend themselves against the threat of attack by fraudsters and indeed any individual intent on causing disruption to their IT systems, IT staff must have an informed and current understanding of the present-day methodologies, tools, and vulnerabilities which allow these exploits to happen. For the banking sector, this course will be very useful in preventing revenue leakages through fraudulent activities.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course fulfils two vital objectives for anyone working in IT systems administration, IT security or IT support roles:

1. Build a strong awareness of the Information Security Management Framework

2. Offer a business-oriented, architectural perspective that defines how to organize and oversee a risk-based enterprise information security program, blending best management practices with key physical and information technology

By the end of this course, the participant will have learnt about:

· Security Management Practices

· Access Control Systems

· Telecommunications and Network Security

· Cryptography

· Security Architecture and Models

· Operations Security

· Application and System Development

· Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Planning

· Law, Investigation and Ethics

· Physical Security

COURSE SPECIAL FEATURES

Targeted Tracks: You will benefit from the expertise of industry front-runners, learn from real-world case studies and leave with everything you need to know to safeguard your IT Environment

Tangible Take-Aways will be given to you including useful documents, guidelines and checklists that you can use as a springboard to your own initiatives.

Optimum networking opportunities are available through breaks, receptions, and luncheons. You will have the opportunity to talk shop with information security professionals and you will return to the office with new ideas and fresh contacts.

Obtain materials in 2 easy ways:

At the training you will receive bound volumes of the training materials

After the training: download the materials you want from the web with a special access code.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

· Information Security Officers, Directors and Managers

· Internal Auditors, Finance Managers, Risk Managers

· Information Technology Auditors, Managers and Staff

· Network Security Managers and Administrators

· Security Managers

· Local Area Network Administrators

· Technical Support Staff

· System Administrators

· Others charged with various security responsibilities

The registration fee for this course is US$ 715 and includes the Course handbook and CD, administrative costs, Certificate issued on successful completion and meals and refreshments during the course.

Due to the practical nature of the course, we have limited spaces available and they will be offered on a first-come-first-served basis.

Attached, please find the course outline.

Kindest regards,

Vincent Wambua

African eDevelopment Resource Centre
Landline +254 20 3741646/57 : : Cell +254 725 541916

Email: vincent@africanedevelopment.org Website: www.africanedevelopment.org

Training : : Research : : Consultancy : Publishing

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Attachment(s) from Vincent Wambua

1 of 1 File(s)

Corporate IT Security Course Outline.pdf

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IBM Co-Funded Marketing in Dar es Salaam Tanzania

Africa is growing fast. We in C.a.T.S. and ICMA believe that the appropriate ICT tools is crucial for business to grow and prosper. IBM has announced several products aimed at smaller operations that we believe will be suitable for the African market. IBM approved our request for co-funded marketing to promote Lotus Foundations and Tivoli Foundations. It will be a morning session in the Kilimanjaro Kempinski Hotel. More information at lotus.icma.co.tz/lotus We are advertising it on-line - www.tender.co.tz

The event has already attracted some media coverage - ITweb. It is also on our company press office

IBM Lotus Media Campain

IBM has lanched a media compain to promote the Lotus products in South Africa during the Fifa World Cup event. The event's first game is on June 11th and the final on July 11th. It is a great opportunity for South Africa to promote the country, its products and services to the world. The image is from SA Airlink's magazine Skyways June 2010 issue page 172. ibm.com/lotusknows/za