| ISSUE 8 | www.cio.co.ke VOL 8
LEADERSHIP TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS
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GEORGE NJUGUNA
Exploiting new cloud technologies at Commercial Bank of Africa
17 Joshua Mwaniki on tapping Africa’s tech talent brilliance 30 Judith Owigar, changing communities, 33 Why huge government IT projects fail
August 2016
one woman at a time
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EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Harry Hare EDITOR Davis Weddi TECHNICAL STAFF WRITERS Lillian Mutegi Baraka Jefwa Jeanette Oloo COLUMNISTS Bobby Yawe Sam Mwangi HEAD OF SALES & MARKETING Andrew Karanja BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Njambi Waruhiu ACCOUNT MANAGERS Amuyunzu Oscar Vanessa Obura SUBSCRIPTION & EVENTS Ellen Magembe Mellisa Dorsila DESIGN Nebojsa Dolovacki Published By
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Social Media can be a lethal weapon First of all, welcome to our August 2016 edition! Hey, do you know what? Did you also watch the biggest mob justice event in the region of recent? Social media has changed a lot more than you might think. As a CIO, surely you must have observed those events unfolding. In the hands of an angry mob, Social media becomes a lethal weapon that is now being used to tear down towering careers built over time. Yes, kindly check with Kofi Olomidde who is paying dearly for the “flying mule kick” that he allegedly applied to a lady at Nairobi’s JKI Airport. A fire has been set on the poor artist’s career and with enough wax added to the burning woods, it will take a lot of cold water to extinguish the aggressive flame. Just imagine, if the person behind the Olomidde camera had not been there to capture the event and share the short video online, you most probably would not be reading this. The artist’s attempts at resolving the outcome of his act through media total collapsed – he could not argue against the hundreds of thousands of members of an angered and actively charged social mob. Anyway, given the immense pressure delivered through social media and the resultant verdict of kicking out the artist, shows you that Olomidde’s career is sloping down towards oblivion going down the drain, this makes Social media also a lethal weapon. We need extra care while dealing with it, no wonder some governments are in a hurry to block it whenever a mob might take to using it. It is totally different from TAKE THE SURVEY
the spin of President Museveni with his famous act – stopping his motorcade to make a phone-call. Yes, many took the #M7Challenge, of course that is what his spin-doctors wanted to see and they benefitted. CIO’s must by now know the effectiveness of social media campaigns for “Image” enhancement or destruction. This month we bring you interesting coverage about the use of ERPs – the Do’s and the Don’ts . We have also peeped into Big IT projects in the region and tried to get a local specialist to tell us why some of the big government projects in East Africa fail. Our specialist columnists and staff writers have delivered very informative themes around those subjects. Two of the big names in the region’s Telecom Industry are here with us now. We shall be sharing their insights and please watch this space – it is eye-opening and insightful knowledge they are imparting. We Introduce Mr. Bob Collymore the CEO of Safaricom and Mr. Ben Roberts the CEO of Liquid Telecom as specialist columnists. We shall continue to bring you specialist and professional writers from among the industry-experts. Right now, we encourage you to join the CIO100 survey, we need your knowledge to enhance the results of the report. You should also not miss to register for the two-day’s CIO100 Symposium that will take place at Enashpai in Naivasha. Enjoy reading our August edition.
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CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
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FROM OUR ONLINE LOCATIONS “Cybercrime is here to stay, and thus CIO’s and IT managers in general should evolve their security to predict and prevent such attacks from happening. The most prevalent attacks taking place in the East African region are Denial of Service and Ransomware.”
“That moment on the world’s stage was a time to reflect on our collective journey and the impact we have had on young women in Africa. From this experience we have gained exposure to the world. It was not an only a highlight in my life but also a highlight for Akirachix.”
John Gichohi, the Fortinet Systems Engineer for East Africa
Judith Adem Owigar, Co-founder and President of Akirachix
TOP FIVE Most popular stories on www.cio.co.ke 1. DEMO Africa releases 2016 final 30 list of startups 2. CA endorses NCC as go to organization for Kenyans to report Cybercrime 3. Tigo sign MOU with the Tanzanian Government to connect secondary schools to the internet 4. Women in Tech: Kenyan Students finalists at Global Technovation contest 5. Ghanaian entrepreneur Eyram Tawia expands his video game business into Kenya
Facebook reach 1. Kenic slashes domain prices targets more than 62,000 domain names by year end 2. CS Mucheru calls for consultations over ICT Practitioners Bill 3. ICT ministry distances itself from controversial new ICT Bill in Kenya “It’s a positive sign that just earlier this month Safaricom launched a rival app called Little Cab, which it has developed with a local software firm. Little Cab will offer free Wi-Fi to passengers and aims to provide cheaper fares than competitors while offering drivers a higher share of revenues.”
Ben Roberts CEO Liquid Telecom
“The fact that ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems have suddenly become gloriously accessible at ultra-low cost, on monthly payment models accessible via cloud deployment frameworks. What was previously a domain only affordable to large organizations has shifted to being the greatest business battlefield for the SME players.”
Delano Longwe – CIO EA Columnist
4. A first in Kenya: Use your telecom reward “Bonga points” to pay for taxi 5. News from CIO East Africa: http://www.cio.co.ke/ newsletter/html/147
Most retweeted 1. Disaster recovery as a Service taking root in Kenya thanks to @NodeAfrica #cioexecbreakfast @kaboro @kenyanpundit 2. Any investment on ICT is never wasted and it pays off very well - Robert Mugo Ag CEO ICTA #SmartCounty @ICTAuthorityKE 3. Wangusi added that UPU is also helping to improve Kenya’s National addressing system roadmap & developing the e-commerce industry in Kenya. 4. Read the CIO East Africa #DigitalEdition here https://issuu.com/cio-eastafrica/docs/ june_2016_1.2_issue_ … @mbuguanjihia @moseskemibaro @JamesMuritu @SamsungMobileKE 5. In a month’s time you will be able to book #LittleCabsKe using a USSD code
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GuestEDITORIAL
By Bob Collymore
Cash is Dead, Long Live Cash? IN THE 13TH CENTURY, KUBLAI KHAN, THE CHINESE EMPEROR (AND GRANDSON OF GENGHIS KHAN) PUT FORWARD A RADICAL IDEA.
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e believed that money — which at that time took the form of sea shells or gold coins—was valuable only because people trusted it. Ruling at a time when there was no single currency in China, he quickly turned this to his advantage by creating a unified currency. This initiative heralded the birth of the paper note as we know it. Khan’s paper money not only provided a common currency for his empire, it was also far superior to gold and silver coins for an extremely obvious reason: It was both lighter and cheaper to manufacture. And by virtue of being lighter, Khan’s paper money made trade faster. Today for most of the modern world, the average cash transaction can take anywhere between 5 seconds and several working days. Using mobile money solutions such as M-PESA, over 400 transactions can be processed in a single second. The corresponding impact on trade is quickly becoming apparent. Launched in Kenya in March 2007, M-PESA now has over 21 million customers in Kenya and over 85,000 Agent outlets countrywide. Already, 80% of the world’s mobile money transactions are happening in East Africa, driven by Kenya, which is now becoming known as the epicentre of mobile money innovation. Currently, 93% of Kenyans are mobile phone users and 73% are active mobile money customers.
predict mobile transactions will reach $171-billion this year. With over 8 million transactions a day in Kenya alone, are we seeing the seeds of an even ‘lighter’ currency that has already started building trust in the same way Khan’s paper currency did in the 1200s? In reality, cash still fuels 80% of transactions in Kenya, meaning there is still vast opportunity for the growth of more mobile money solutions like M-PESA. In addition, M-PESA’s success is heavily rooted in the banking system and in cash. Without the two, M-PESA would not exist. But cash only goes so far. For decades, development advocates implored banks to open branches in remote places, but it made little business sense: nearly half of Kenyans live on just $2 a day or less. They felt the financial transactions of the populations they were trying to reach were just too small to make commercial sense.
How small? Imagine a world where you do not have enough money to buy water, or even power because the infrastructure to deliver those services just not exist. Where you buy a dab of toothpaste because you cannot afford the entire tube.
They trust M-PESA because it both increases the velocity of trade and is reliable and secure.
The success of M-PESA lies in its ability to manage several small payments, the kind that in the past did not attract too much in the way of investment or financing.
Mobile money is projected to become a $617-billion industry by 2016, according to researchers Gartner, who
For the residents of the village of Njogu-ini, access to M-PESA means they have access to a reliable water
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
source. They built a modified pump that also has an M-PESA metre box and only dispenses water if you text the code from the M-PESA transaction to the pump. Villagers pay for clean water by texting M-PESA to this meter box -- which unlocks the pump. A villager can get a full month’s worth of water for around $6. The fact that the pump only unlocks once payments have been sent eliminates the temptation of theft from the well, and means that every citizen in the village is now safe from theft. This is where M-PESA succeeds where cash cannot. It provides a safe and secure new currency that can be more easily tracked and which is more accountable. Is it the future of money? See what Lesley Stahl from CBS 60 Minutes recently discovered on her trip to Kenya to see how M-PESA works and decide for yourself. The Author is the CEO of Safaricom This article first appeared on the Authors Pulse page on LinkedIn
Currently, 93% of Kenyans are mobile phone users and 73% are active mobile money customers.
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AUGUST 2016
CON T EN TS Cover story:
George Njuguna
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Head, Information Technology Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd
Start up CORNER
InBrief - 8 Appointments - 9 Regional RoundUP - 10 - 11
IT AND LEADERSHIP
TRENDLINES
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CIO’s applying security based on business driven IT will be champions
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Region’s booming financial sector needs risks control
OPINION
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SAP CIO Roundtable held in Kampala
New ICT policy to secure Kenya’s digital future The Achilles Heel of ERP Implementations in Kenya What Is an ERP In Ordinary Language?
Using IoT to fix Kenya’s transport sector one matatu at a time Echo Mobile
Women & TECH
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HARD TALK
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ICT and Business Continuity
Joshua Mwaniki
Judith Owigar,
changing communities, one woman at a time www.cio.co.ke
on tapping Africa’s tech talent brilliance CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
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IN BRIEF AROUND
Nigeria Silences Unsolicited SMS’s Telecommunication providers in Nigeria have heeded to the orders of their regulator and started implementing the “Do not Disturb” short code designed to empower customers in relation to management of all promotional messages sent to their telephone lines. The Nigerian Communications Commission has gave all Telecom operators in the country time to switch on a code that would bar any unsolicited messages sent to subscribers. Airtel Nigeria was among the first to implement the mandatory code which took effect on July 1, 2016. The self-service platform allows customers to either opt-in or out of the ‘Do Not Disturb’ service, thereby empowering consumers to end unsolicited promotional SMS or promotional voice calls.
NEW EXCHANGE LAUNCHED IN UGANDA KAMPALA BA SED ALTX EAST AFRICA HAS LAUNCHED ITS NEW EXCHANGE OFFERING THE ABILITY TO HANDLE 150,000 TRANSACTIONS PER SECOND, ONE OF THE FASTEST IN GLOBAL PRODUCTION.
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he high tech innovative exchange went live with technology from GMEX which acquired a 25% stake through its GMEX Technologies (GMEX Tech) subsidiary in the Mauritius-based ALTX Africa Group. ALTX East Africa led by CEO, Joseph Kitamirike has built the exchange since 2013 and optimised their systems, aiming to deliver a world class securities exchange facility. The platform obtained regulatory approval in 2014 and depository approval was secured in 2015.
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WORLD LATEST MASSIVE DDOS ATTACK SUGGESTS CRIMINALS ARE PLOTTING LONG CAMPAIGNS DDOS ATTACKERS JUST KEEP AT IT BUT THE WAY THEY KEEP AT IT CONTINUES TO EVOLVE. ACCORDING TO AN AKAMAI NOTE, ON 18 JUNE, AN UNNAMED “LARGE EUROPEAN MEDIA ORGANISATION” (PRESUMABLY E-GAMING) EXPERIENCED A SUDDEN DDOS ASSAULT THAT IN 10 MINUTES ROSE TO A PEAK OF 363 GBPS.
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hat’s a large attack by any standards Akamai’s description of the events of that day reveals other interesting trends worth paying attention to such as the way DDoS criminals are expanding the complexity of their attacks while the defenders find themselves building huge global defences simply to keep up. The attack bundles extreme size with the use of six different attack types; DNS reflection, SYN flood, UDP fragment, PUSH flood, TCP flood, and UDP flood. Barely 2 percent of attacks use this multipronged approach but it’s clearly a growing trend. As reported by Computerworld UK, on 14 June, days before the attack reported by Akamai, mitigation provider Incapsula recorded an even more massive flood that also used the spray and pray technique. The real story hidden inside the numbers is that this was only the latest in a long string of much smaller attacks on the company by this group or groups over 34 weeks. The first conclusion is that a growing number of DDoS attacks are no longer best described as singular events so much as campaigns that go on for months and perhaps even, shortly, years. The attack also abused DNSSEC because, the criminals have cleverly fathomed, the DNS security protocol generates larger responses and can therefore be used to boost DNS amplification still further. Akamai has mentioned such tactics in several of its traffic reports during 2015 and 2016 but it is ironic that a security standard should end up being manipulated in this way.
NOKIA AND SAMSUNG EXPAND THEIR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CROSS LICENSE
They come to the market having met several design goals, including building a competitive facility based upon world class technology, reducing settlement time to less than a day, enabling trading of assets listed in different markets, providing professional investors access to the trading platform, availing different asset classes on a single platform and reducing the risk management burden on the brokers accessing the system.
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With those speeds, settlement of trades where the settlement bank is automated, can take from fifteen seconds to fifteen minutes, meaning that where an investor anywhere in East Africa has previously had to wait for four or five days to access their settled funds, one will now be able to access those funds on the same day.
With this expanded agreement, Nokia Technologies’ annualized net sales related to patent and brand licensing is expected to grow to a run rate of approximately EUR 950 million by the end of 2016.
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
NOKIA AND SAMSUNG HAVE AGREED TERMS TO EXPAND THEIR PATENT CROSS LICENSE AGREEMENT TO COVER CERTAIN ADDITIONAL PATENT PORTFOLIOS OF BOTH PARTIES. his is in addition to the outcome of the arbitration between the two companies that was announced on February 1, 2016.
The agreement expands access for each company to patented technologies of the other and reinforces Nokia’s leadership in technologies for the programmable world. With this expansion, Nokia expects a positive impact to the net sales of Nokia Technologies starting from the third quarter of 2016.
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NEW APPOINTMENTS
Frank Kagyigyi Tumwebaze appointed Uganda’s Minister of ICT
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rank Kagyigyi Tumwebaze has been appointed as the new Cabinet Minister of Information Technology and Communications in the Cabinet of Uganda. Mr. Tumwebaze is a Ugandan educator and politician. He was appointed to that position on 6 June 2016. He previously served as Minister for the Presidency and Minister for the Kampala Capital City Authority between 2012 and 2016. He is also an elected Member of Parliament representing Kibale County in Kamwenge District of Western Uganda.
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Wambui Kinya appointed Chief Strategy Officer at Andela
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ndela has appointed Wambui Kinya to the role of Chief Strategy Officer. With over eighteen years’ experience in digital, mobile marketing and technology consulting, Kinya will spearhead Andela’s partnership strategy in Africa and ramp up the company’s efforts to recruit technical leadership across the continent. Kinya was formerly Group Managing Director, Pan Africa and South America, for global technology consulting firm ThoughtWorks, where she was responsible for the strategic evolution of the business. She has since transitioned to a consultative role in order to continue building the open source and health service ecosystems in Africa, both areas of great personal passion. Kinya brings immense experience to the Andela team, having worked in North America, Europe and Africa for companies including Praekelt Consulting, IBM Global Business Services and Digitas (Publicis Groupe). Kinya will be based out of Andela’s Nairobi headquarters with frequent visits to Andela Lagos and Andela NYC.
Kris Senanu to head Telkom Kenya enterprise division
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elkom Kenya has hired outgoing AccessKenya deputy CEO Kris Senanu to head its enterprise division. Mr Senanu will join Telkom on August 1, the same day he leaves internet service provider AccessKenya where he has worked for nearly 16 years rising to his current position of deputy chief executive. His appointment comes amid a corporate restructuring at Telkom where France Telecom (Orange) recently sold its majority stake to private equity firm, Helios Investment Partners. Kris Senanu, joined Access Kenya back in 2001 as a sales executive, and rose through the ranks of the Deputy CEO. Throughout his career life with the company, he has been a key resource person in the organization’s growth through listing on the Nairobi Stock Exchange as the first publicly listed ICT firm, its subsequent de-listing and a later compulsory buyout by Japanese IT group Dimension Data Holdings.
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REGIONAL ROUND-UP |
JEANETTE OLOO
Uganda’s new e-immigration portal to reduce bureaucracy UGANDA’S IMPROVED E-IMMIGRATION PORTAL KICKED OFF OPERATIONS ON 1ST JULY, 2016 WITH THE GOVERNMENT EXPECTING TO MAKE IMMIGRATIONS DOCUMENTATION PROCESSES SIMPLE SO AS TO REDUCE ON THE TIME WASTED IN BUREAUCRACY.
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t is a project of Uganda’s Directorate of Citizenship and Immigration Control (DCIC) which was tasked with implementing an electronic application processing system for visas and entry work permits for anyone intending to travel to, study or work in Uganda. Through the portal’s visa application processing component, applicants will not need profiling but for those seeking entry permits, organisations will be required to forward specific company documents for profiling their organisations in the portal which is now also processing all types of visas, entry permits/work permits, students pass, special pass, dependant pass (If the principal’s work Permit was obtained electronically), Certificate of Residence. A director for e-government in the National Information Technology Authority (NITA-U) Mr. Peter Kahiigi as saying, “The e-visa system will not only save time but also reduce on the human contact which many times see people ask for kickbacks in order to help travellers.”
Kahiigi however indicated that government needed to help NITA-U to ease the implementation of unified information technology systems, something which will save money from duplication of services by different departments.
South American company makes computers in Rwanda WITH A TAGLINE ‘PROUDLY MADE IN AFRICA’ FOR THEIR MARKETING MATERIALS, SOUTH AMERICAN COMPANY POSITIVO BGH IS NOW MAKING LAPTOPS IN RWANDA UNDER THE BUSINESS NAME PBG RWANDA LIMITED.
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statement on the company’s website says, “The company is a result of the joint venture between two leaders in these matters in Latin America; Positivo Informática from Brazil and BGH from Argentina.” The company also said, “PBG Rwanda Limited manufactures and distributes PCs and other electronics products both for education and comfort purposes.” A webcast on CNN quotes Juan Ignacio Ponelli, the Africa president at Positivo BGH as saying, “Right now we have 50 direct staff but if you count indirect, like security and cleaning, we have created about 120 positions.” He also said most of the staff are locals and were trained by expats. He also said the company’s move to Rwanda was a strategic decision. “We are a top company in technology but we are known really just in South America. So right now we decided to go global and chose here to start the international arm for this group,” he was quoted as saying.
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
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REGIONAL ROUND-UP
Safaricom WIT: Boosts uptake of STEM among girls AN INITIATIVE THAT SEEKS TO BOOST THE NUMBER OF EMPLOYED WOMEN WORKING IN TECHNICAL POSITIONS AND TARGETS GIRLS IN HIGH SCHOOLS FOR A 12 WEEK COACHING PERIOD. -SAFARICOM WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY (WIT).
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afaricom Women in Technology has been jumping through hoops and hurdles to ensure they bridge the gender ICT skills gap. It is in regards to this that Safaricom WIT partnered with Akili Dada, Iridescent Learning and Technovation to launch the Technovation challenge, a girls only competition to inspire the pursuit of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). Now in its third year, the initiative supported a mobile application developed by Precious Blood, Riruta students that were named first runners-up in a global technology and entrepreneurship competition in San Francisco, California July 14th 2016. The five students- Priscilla Wambui, Laura Ayushi, Victoria Kanan, Gladys Wairimu and Harriet Karanja – who go by the name Sniper team, presented their innovation dubbed M-Safiri, a bus booking app to offer a solution to the country’s fast growing transport sector. “We are happy for the rare opportunity to participate in this year’s Technovation Challenge. We are also delighted that
we are able to compete on a global platform and emerge second. We acknowledge the support of our coach, mentors, teachers and Safaricom Women in Technology, who gave us the necessary guidance, skills which have helped us compete with teams from across the world and emerged second,” said Harriet Karanja, one of the students, who is also Team Sniper Marketing Director.
Tanzania’s start-up CUMii brings M2M ConnectedCar Technology WHEN TANZANIA’S GOVERNMENT EXPRESSED THE NEED TO MAKE THE COUNTRY’S ROADS SAFER BY IMPLEMENTING INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS AS A SOLUTION, VODACOM PARTNERED WITH CUMII, A LEADING AFRICAN COMPANY IN DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY, TO INTRODUCE CONNECTEDCAR, A MACHINE-TO-MACHINE (M2M) TRACKING SERVICE FOR MONITORING DRIVER BEHAVIOR USING A REMOTE MANAGEMENT PLATFORM.
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edia reports in Tanzania indicate that once installed, ConnectedCar can converge with different devices including smart phones, cameras, gas readers, and many more via the Internet. It is easily configured to meet user requirements and using a mobile app or web interface displays information. ConnectedCar is a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) tracking service that monitors driver behavior using a remote management platform. Once installed, it can converge with different devices including smart phones, cameras, gas readers, and many more via the Internet. The system is configured display via a mobile app or web interface displays information including: driving habits, trip reports and customised reports, Geo fencing, real time tracking, battery tampering alerts, multiple driver tags and panic button, fuel management, violations notifications via SMS and email, route planning and management.
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TREND LINES |
BARAKA JEFWA
CIO’s applying security based on business driven IT will be champions
Businesses that rely on IT, in this day and age, try to invest in the development of solutions that directly satisfy their requirements in a bid to benefit from the technology.
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hile it is advantageous for businesses to rely on technology to drive their functions, it is also important for businesses to understand that IT comes with its own problems. The biggest problem facing IT is cybercrime. Cybercrime is certainly a global problem that is turning out to be a lucrative business for criminals. A 2013 Europol Serious & Organized Threat Assessment, reported that the “Total Global Impact of CyberCrime [has risen to] US $3 Trillion, making it more profitable than the global trade in marijuana, cocaine and heroin combined.” “CIO’s of today need to build security that extends to whatever direction business drives IT, be it Cloud or BYOD adoptions for example. Designing a dynamic security policy and its enforcement is tasking, and having the right security consultants and partners can help the CIO’s to adopt a good security policy,” said John Gichohi, Systems Engineer East Africa, Fortinet, a provider of fast and secure cyber security solutions, during an interview with CIO East Africa.
According to Gichohi, on their part, Fortinet has launched a Security Fabric Infrastructure which can help them in enabling organizations to scale their security enforcements from the Cloud to the Endpoint in one security fabric. “By having a collaborative, adoptive and integrated security infrastructure powered by the Fortinet Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) framework, Fortinet can help organizations address the most sophisticated Cybersecurity challenges.” He concluded. John Gichohi, the Fortinet Systems Engineer for East Africa
“The challenge is that technology has forced employees, business partners and customers to access information using devices that are not controlled, managed or owned by the organization. With the increased attack surface created by these devices to the organizational security policy, security implications for data leakage, theft, regulation and compliance are being realized. CIO’s must therefore remove the distinction between corporate and non-corporate assets and incorporate them under one security policy,” he added. Mr. Gichohi said that the Cybercrime is here to stay, and thus CIO’s and IT managers in general should evolve their security to predict and prevent such attacks from happening. He added that the most prevalent attacks taking place in the East African region are Denial of Service and Ransomware. “We still have a lot of malware incidences happening across the industry, but the bottom line is that Cyber criminals are actively targeting sensitive information out there mostly to extort money from businesses and also to deface organizations and businesses,” Mr. Gichohi continued.
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TREND LINES |
DAVIS WEDDI
Region’s booming financial sector needs
RISKS CONTROL
These days, governments and organisations are often required to address cybersecurity and potential risks for technologies and assets in East Africa, a region considered to be a big growth ICT hotspot which has a unique digital footprint with each country having a very unique digital footprint, creating a very strong environment for businesses to grow and develop.
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CIO who is way ahead of the market is one who protects the integrity of the data of his or her organisation, its reputation, its environment, its employees and its objectives of making money. The same CIO has to have the foresight to look at the external threats facing the organisation and invest proportionately in securing the organisation. According to Wendy Cheshire the Cyber Security Director at Control Risks, an organisation for business risks control currently in 37 countries, there are four pointers that are increasing the severity of cyber “criminal” attacks thereby affecting the profitability of organisations. “The first is the demography of the region based on under-privileged, highly technically-savvy but potentially unemployed individuals in the region which means that there is a greater exposure to be drawn into criminal activity,” says Cheshire. According to her, the sectors that are booming in the region - particularly in the financial services sector and critical national infrastructure sector are considered financially rich so therefore they become targeted for criminal activity. Cheshire observes that, Internet access in the region is increasing at an astronomical rate, 65% of the population, under 25 years of age are having internet access. This is coupled with lack of user awareness, minimal law enforcement, training development and lack of support for the existing legal framework. Meanwhile, while
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governments have set all in place, there is a need to move some laws from paper to practical application. Such a situation has created fertile grounds for professionals at Control Risks, an organisation that speaks 79 languages around the world, to move into the East Africa to offer integrity, political and security risks control services.
compliance. They are also doing forensics in relation to litigation support and dispute services, corruption investigations, fraud and internal investigations, insolvency, cybercrime investigations and technology solutions. Under compliance they also do Intelligence work around strategic business intelligence, stakeholder mapping and analysis and cyber threat intelligence.
On Integrity risk, the company is focusing on Compliance consultancy in relation to Anti-bribery and consulting services, regulatory and compliance risk assessments, compliance due diligence, anti-fraud and anti-money laundering and cyber security
Under cyber threat intelligence which is the core fundamental process, they identify threats and according to Cheshire, while most cyber security programs focus on information, Control Risks provides that information with additional “who is trying to do what.”
HOW DOES CONTROL RISKS DO IT? Once an organisation’s threat profile has been identified and that could be a sector threat profile a regional or individual organisation, Control Risks will provide Cyber Protect consultancy. This is where they identify in an organisation or assets the things that the bad guys want to try to get. According to Cheshire, “an asset could be a database of information, but it could equally be intellectual property, through to your reputation and your shareholder price, or it could be your employees.” When an organisation experiences a problem, Cheshire says, “We will hold hands and support an organisation with Cyber-Respond, which is where a response or a crisis normally a point of pain for the CEO should never be left to just a technology solution, a CIO for example will be a core component for a crisis management team and as such should not rely exclusively on technology to help steer the crisis. With well-staffed offices in Nairobi, Kenya, the company also boasts of a “really good breadth of customers globally, who are international organisations, governments, down to small localized organisations, and of course all sectors. That gives Control Risks an absolutely unique oversight into business and commercial organisations worldwide,” according to Cheshire. The company also does wide consultancy in Security risk covering crisis management, enterprise risk management, security and crisis management training, protective services, security design and engineering in addition to cyber security services among others.
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Presidential invitation from His Excellency Paul Kagame, President, Republic of Rwanda
In partnership with
COMESA & GOVERNMENT OF RWANDA
Delivering international trade and investment to Africa’s most dynamic region 5-6 September 2016
Kigali Convention Centre, Rwanda
1,000 global investors
seeking investment in regional projects and businesses
Developing trade and investment corridors in the TFTA region
26 heads of state invited to discuss regional trade opportunities
Attracting investment and private sector players to enhance physical infrastructure
Creating an environment that enables harmonisation through policy and regulation
REGISTER your interest to attend at TGAISComesaRwanda.com/bookings Limited availability. Early booking recommended. Limited free passes for delegates from COMESA, SADC and EAC countries on first-come first-served basis. Register your interest early. Organised by
Sponsors
TREND LINES
SAP CIO Roundtable held in Kampala
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he SAP CIO RoundTable was held on July 20th 2016 at the Serena Kampala. More than 60 professionals turned up to learn how to reimagine business for the digital economy and to be able to unleash the power of digital innovation while finding a balance between maintaining their current infrastructure and innovating without disruption.
Participants’ attention captured during the SAP CIO Roundtable event in Kampala
SAP showed them how businesses that run the SAP HANA platform and SAP S/4HANA suite function with reimagined business models, reinvented business processes, and new ways of working that drive value, simplicity, and transformation for the digital economy. Photos by ARTHUR K. KINTU
SAP Country Manager Uganda Mr. Henry Gichohi giving welcome remarks at the SAP CIO Roundtable event
Ashley Boag, Managing Director East Africa SAP presenting “Reimagine Business for the Digital Economy” at the SAP CIO Roundtable event at Kampla Serena hotel.
A participant the SAP CIO Roundtable event gets indulged in a previous issue of the CIO East Africa Magazine
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Some of the SAP staff members during the R SAP CIO Roundtable event
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DAVIS WEDDI
One Touch app changing hospitality at Radisson Blu The hospitality industry all over the world has over the years come to accept that it can also grow through mobile bookings.
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nstant messaging has become a common platform for people to make bookings in a personalized form. The moment this became real, hotels immediately sought what else they would include if they were to run an app in that case. One of the things that Radisson Blu did on entering the East African market was to bring along an App that is conveniently revolutionizing the way hotel guests and the hotel management interact. Radisson Blu is already planning on opening another hotel in Nairobi and yet they have one planned for Kampala and another in Kigali. In Africa Radisson Blu has over 30 hotels and on the look of things more are yet to come. The new app at Radisson Blu has a convenience that revolves around hotel
guests being able to use their mobile phones right from planning, researching, to making instant reservations, checking in to the hotel and even making payments. “I think we are the only hotel in Kenya at the moment that I am aware of, at least one of the few who has their own app. It is called OneTouch,” said Nairobi Radisson Blu’s extremely eloquent General Manager Jens Brandin. He explained that it is a portal where a guest can do all those pre-arrival things excluding the check-in option which needs one to use their passport. Currently Hotel guests have access to hotel information, they can make requests, order room service, order pick once. It also has elements for meetings too.
According to Brandin one can hold their own events using the app into which they can upload the agenda while at the same time being very interactive. “We see quiet a number of people who once they discover the app, they started ordering room service or having guests requests,” said Brandin who observed that the app is currently serving guests only. The One Touch app is available off the App Store and Brandin says, they are now in the process of popularizing it to reach all potential guests of the 271 rooms Radisson Blu hotel in Nairobi.
With just a few clicks , do more with our Standard Chartered Mobile App Manage your finances at your finger tips. Our Mobile Banking App gives you the freedom to bank from anywhere, like never before.
You can do this and more: • View your banking portfolio at a glance - accounts, loans, credit cards • Make credit card payments • Transfer funds in real time • Set up and manage beneficiaries • Schedule payments We are committed to enhancing your experience with us. Download the Mobile Banking App from the App Store Or Play Store and log in using your online banking details.
Call 020 329 3900 or visit our website for more information.
sc.com/ke Standard Chartered Bank Kenya Ltd is regulated by Central Bank of Kenya.
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
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FEATURE |
LILIAN MUTEGI
Why would government IT projects fail When the Kenyan government announced that they would be implementing a digital fare payment in Kenya, there was much excitement. The implementation, however, was such an upheaval that it forced the National Transport Safety Authority (NTSA) to push the implementation date indefinitely.
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n fact, the cashless payment system for Public Service vehicles was officially launched by the President Uhuru Kenyatta in November 2014. The cashless payment system had been piloted along several routes in Nairobi County although with some challenges including deadline extensions. With the majority of the population using the country’s thousands of minibus taxis, and with a $2bnturnover, Kenya’s transport industry is lucrative, however, vehicle owners lamented that they lose up to 30% of their earnings daily. With the e-payment system in place the industry had perceived that they would save on pilferage of money collected from passengers which robs not only investors but also government of millions of dollars in taxes. By February 2015, Public Service Vehicles (PSV) Savings and Credit Cooperatives (Saccos) with 410 vehicles plying Nairobi’s Jogoo road
route from Eastlands had announced that they were switching over to cashlite fare system and wouldn’t accept cash as fare, but it wasn’t long before everything went back to normal. This had seen a number of banks, IT companies and bus companies launch competitor cards. For instance, the Kenya Bus Service (KBS) unveiled the ‘Abiria’ card. US technology giant Goggle was first in the market with its ‘BebaPay’ cards, unveiled in 2011 in partnership with Equity Bank Group and KCB Bank also invested millions in its “Pepea” Cards. As bad as the Cash-lite fare system debut was, there are dozens of examples, in both the government and private sector, of similar debacles. But such projects haven’t failed only in Kenya only, take for instance the US, Obamacare’s website problems. In 2014 Americans witnessed the poor performance of healthcare.gov. Earlier, only one in five users were able to sign
in to the site. Poor performance and unavailable systems hampered the federal and some state exchanges. But given that the size of the signup audience was well known in advance and that website technology is mature and well understood, how could the government create such an IT mess? Especially given how much lead time the government had (more than three years) and how much it spent on building the site, (estimated between $300 million and $500 million). Globally, Industry research suggests that large IT projects are at far greater risk of failure than smaller efforts, infact up to 75% of ICT projects end up failing. A 2012 McKinsey study also revealed that 17% of lT projects budgeted at $15 million or higher go so badly as to threaten the company’s existence, and more than 40% of them fail. But why do this IT Government projects fail? The failure in these projects can teach us a lot about large-scale project management and execution. According to Mr. Mohammed Karama, Project Manager and Director at PwC who has been involved in the deployment of various Government projects across the East Africa including the deployment of an CoreBanking System for the Central Bank of Rwanda and HF Group in Kenya, the major reason why this projects fail mostly it issues of poor Governance The key role of the governance team is to enable, facilitate, manage and direct (as necessary) the successful implementation of the project’s changes into a prepared organization so as to maximize the benefits available. Still on Governance most Government Projects fail because unlike in the projects ran in the private sectors
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FEATURE |
LILIAN MUTEGI
where project managers are answerable to shareholders well, for the Government there is no much follow up is done. Another issue presumably. ICT project are actually why this projects fail is because of corruption well-designed and relevant but they end up being entangled in procurement dynamics such that they end up being executed by some briefcase operator. Mr. Karama stated that the third reason why these projects fail is Government project managers tend to complicate their projects. The ICT Projects by the Government at times tend to be huge and complicated and the outcome is that ICT projects never run to completion and remain a constant economic drain to the exchequer. Another cause of ICT project failure is resistance to change and the fight between status quo and the forces of change. Government officials still think there is a lot to gain in a system that is manual, archaic and chaotic. Unexamined ROIs and miscalculated lifetimes is another reason, especially when project costs are believed to be low or the results are believed to be spectacularly good. Similarly, many Government IT projects are not thought through as to when they will approach end-of-life, and what their upkeep will cost until then. Thus, many IT projects never fully pass on to the business, but are a constant generator of requests for IT to tweak the system. Remedies to this, Mr. Karama felt that there was need for Government bodies to harmonizing technologies through creation of bodies like ICT Authority of Kenya that is a body that is tasked with the deployment and management of Government ICT Projects. “I guess Governments stick more on complicated projects. Governments and people involved in these projects should as well keep their projects to simplicity,” he said. But all hope is not lost if Government practice accurate planning, defined goals, clear assignments and effective communication, they can overcome those odds to master even the most challenging project. Simply knowing where potential pitfalls lie can help prevent backlogs and costly delays in the future.
Globally, Industry research suggests that large IT projects are at far greater risk of failure than smaller efforts, infact up to 75% of ICT projects end up failing.
Notable IT projects recently done in East Africa CURRENT ICT INITIATIVES AND PROJECTS - REPUBLIC OF KENYA Kenya Education Network (KENET) Project details: KENET provides the National Research and Educational Network in Kenya and its vision was enacted in 2001. Funding sources: Government
Pasha Centres (Digital Villages)
Project details: Pasha Centre’s are hubs in rural Kenya. The hubs provide a host of services to the public via computers connected to the internet. Funding sources: Government
Huduma Kenya
Project details: Huduma Kenya aims to transform Public Service Delivery by providing citizens’ access to various Public Services and information from service centres. Funding sources: Government
Tandaa Digital Content Grant
Project details: The Tandaa Local Digital Content Grant was a grant to provide seed funding for companies entering new media and ICT, to support Internet and mobile phone product and service delivery. Funding sources: The Government ran a $4 million three-year grant program from 2010 – 2013 to support the development of local digital content.
Kenya open data
Project details: The online portal was re-launched in July 2015, with an improved user experience and more timely and diverse data. Funding sources: Government
Information Security
Project details: In order to address cybersecurity challenges at national level, the Ministry of ICT in cooperation with the ICT Authority launched the National Cybersecurity Strategy in June 2014. Funding sources: Government
Digital Literacy Programme
Project details: The cost of the first phase of the Digital Learning Programme/ Digischool is estimated at Kshs 17 billion and will deliver 1.2 million devices in the next two years to cover all public primary schools. Funding sources: Government
Konza Technocity
Project details: The Government of Kenya through the Ministry of Information and Communication aims to set up a technology park at Konza. Funding sources: Government
eGovernment
Project details: The e-Government
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
Programme was launched in June 2004. Funding sources: Government
National Optic Fibre Broadband Infrastructure (NOFBI)
Project details: This project aims to ease communication across counties as well as improve government service delivery to the citizens. Funding sources: $6 billion is jointly funded by the Government of Kenya and a loan from the Chinese Government.
e-citizen portal
Project details: Launched in 2014, eCitizen is the one-stop portal for Government information and services. Funding sources: Government
Itax
Project definition: iTax is a webbased system developed to simplify revenue collection in Kenya. iTax aims to end the reliance on the old KRA web-based system. Funding sources: Government
Integrated Financial Management Information Systems (IFMIS)
Project details: The central purpose of IFMIS is to oversee the implementation of a unified financial management system and its adoption across all Government departments. Funding sources: Government
County Connectivity Project (CCP)
Project details: The ICT Authority is implementing the County Connectivity project that aims at ensuring that county government offices are connected to the internet. Funding sources: Government
Government Common Core Network (GCCN)
Project details: GCCN is the infrastructure used to connect the Government Data Center (GDC) to Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies. Funding sources: Government
Transport Integrated Management Systems (TIMs)
Project details: TIMS was envisioned in 2008 by a multi-stakeholder group led by the Ministry of Transport through a multi-agency initiative to enhance road safety on our roads. Funding sources: phase 1; National Transport and Safety Authority (NTSA) & ICT Authority. Phase 2; Copy Cat Ltd and Sims Sift Technologies from China.
Kenya News Agency (KNA) Digitisation
Project details: Through the ICT Authority of Kenya, KNA has begun the process of digitizing its content with the aim of creating an online library. Funding sources: The World Bank
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FEATURE CURRENT ICT INITIATIVES AND PROJECTS - REPUBLIC OF UGANDA Research and Education Network Uganda (RENU)
Project details: RENU was set up in 2006 as a not-for-profit limited company, through the Vice Chancellors Forum to establish a Research and Education Network (NREN) for Uganda. Funding sources: Government
World Bank Cycle II project Development Process
Project details: The main investment programme of the project includes sub county broadband services for Northern Uganda and Communication Information Centres. Funding sources: World Bank
National backbone infrastructure and e-government project
Project details: the development of the National Data Transmission Backbone Infrastructure (NBI) and the Electronic Government Infrastructure (EGI). This US$ 100 million project is implemented by NITA-U. NBI is intended for high bandwidth data connection availability in major towns at reasonable rates. EGI will reduce cost of doing business in government, improving communication between government agencies and minimising the need for officials to commute for meetings and thus increasing efficiency. Funding sources: The People’s Republic of China and the Government of Uganda
Migration from analogue to digital broadcasting project Project details: UCC fulfilled the international switch off of Analogue TV Transmission on 17 June 2015. Funding sources: Chinese government and implementation by the Uganda Ministry of ICT
Voter registration- Electoral Commission Uganda project
Project details: The purpose of the project was to support the voter registration in the 2010 general elections. Funding sources: was funded through a US$600,000 USAID grant to IFES.
National Identity Cards project
Project details: The National Security Information System (NSIS) project was focused on implementing a biometric and central data management and identity card registration. Funding sources: Uganda Government, Implementation overseen by Uganda Ministry of ICT
ICT4Democracy in East Africa
Project details: The ICT4Democracy in East Africa project (June 2011 - July 2013) was based on leveraging the potential of ICT to increase citizens’ participation in decision-making processes. Funding sources: Swedish Programme for ICT in Developing Regions (SPIDER) / SIDA (SEK 8.4 million)
Improving Learning Outcomes through ICT
Project definition: The project ran from December 2011 to 31 December
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2014. It is focused on improving learning outcomes for girls in particular in primary schools Uganda through access to ICT. Funding sources: Funded through Grant of €36,000 from Edukans, Netherlands.
ITELE for ICT (Improving Literacy and Numeracy in Primary Education through ICT) Project details: IICD ran the project in a bid to improve literacy and numeracy in primary education through the integration of ICT in teaching and learning processes. Funding sources: Funded through Grant of €39,568 from Edukans, Netherlands. To Serere District, Eastern Uganda. (December 2011 - 31 December 2014)
Helping teachers use ICT for teaching
Project details: IICD launched the project in December 2010 focused on training teachers and sensitising Head Teachers on the importance of using ICT for Education and for school management in Western Uganda and West Nile. Funding sources: Funding of €110,820 from CFSU (€18,203), IICD (€35,117), Close the Gap (€47,500) and CharITy (€10,000)
e-Network
Project details: Makerere University Faculty of Computing and Information Technology won an Africa Union (AU) bid to create an e-network that will provide connectivity for Eastern and Central African countries to a panAfrican network through fibre optics and wireless links. Funding sources: Government of India through the AU
Electronic Rural Health Information project: Feasibility and Acceptability of e-Card MaternalChild Health Passport in Rural Community
Project details: Towards the end of 2010, the Ministry of Health released a Mother-Child Health Passport (MCH HP), an initiative to improve maternal and child health in Uganda. Funding sources: Government in collaboration with ICTs for African Rural Development (ICTARD), Uganda Martyrs University, Nkozi.
Malaria Diagnostic Systems project Project details: The overall objective of the malaria diagnostic systems project is to design and implement an easy to use computerized system that has the capabilities to support the treatment of malaria. Funding sources: Government
District Business Information Centers
Project details: This project was launched in 2008, it aims to address the needs of the community demand driven ICT based services. Funding sources: Government, UNIDO, with funding from the Austrian Development Agency (ADA),
Reflect ICT Resource Centre
Project definition: The aim of the Reflect ICT resource centre is to facilitate access to agricultural, health, and commercial information based on needs that the 10 communities identified. Funding sources: DIFD, and community.
Energy for Rural Transformation (ERT) Project
Project details: Has three components: construction of the rural energy infrastructure, financing internet broadband extension to rural areas and financing solar PV energy packages for rural schools, health clinics and water facilities. Funding sources: The World Bank funding of US$75 million with implementation overseen by Office of Rural Communications Development Fund (RCDF).
Adaptive Bandwidth Management in Cooperative Wireless Networks: Affordable and equitable access to the Internet
Project details: In 2006, the Community Wireless Resource Centre (CWRC) was established under the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Makerere University. Funding sources: Government, under the MSI World Bank project.
CURRENT ICT INITIATIVES AND PROJECTS - REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA Science Technology and Higher Education Program (STHEP)
Project details: The Tanzania Science and Technology Higher Education Program (STHEP) is a 7-year Program under the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MoEVT). Funding agency: World Bank, IDA credit, $100 million + further $15 million.
Tanzania National Research and Education Network (NREN)
Project details: It is envisaged that over time the NREN will enable HEIs (Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Research Institutions to link to the Internet. Funding sources: Government
ICT Infrastructure
TANZICT
Project details: TANZICT is focused on strengthening the Tanzania Information Society. Funding sources: Government of Finland, 5 million euro (Sept 2011 - August 2015, extended to July 2016).
Dar Teknohama Business ICT Incubator (DTBI)
Project details: The Dar Teknohama Business Incubator (DTBi) was set up in June 2011. Funding sources: InfoDev and COSTECH
KINU
Project details: KINU was established in January 2012 to provide an open space for Tanzania’s tech community to foster co-creation, innovation and capacity building. Funding sources: Indigo Trust, Google Africa, SMILE, RAHA, SEACOM and Samsung Tanzania ICT Technology Park Project details: The ICT Technology Park is a Public and Private Partnership between the Government of Tanzania and SEACOM. Funding sources: SEACOM and COSTECH
ICT PROJECTS IN RWANDA Telecommunications Sector
Details: Consists of; Telecom sector, National Data Center, Kigali metropolitan Network and the International Gateway Traffic Verification System (IGTVS). Funding sources: Government with help from the private sector
Finance Sector
Details: Consists of: online Tax payment system, e-Payment system and a single Electronic Window System.
Education Sector
Project details: The Government of Tanzania through MCST built the National ICT Optic Fibre Cable (OFC) infrastructure Backbone (NICTBB). Funding sources: Government
Details: Consists of; Educational Management Information System (EMIS), and the Rwanda Development Gateway and a programme to promote the Acquisition of computer equipment by educational institutions.
Last Mile Connectivity
Governance Sector
Project details: due to limited funds available for phase 1 of the STHEP implementation, recommendations were made to connect only 28 higher education and research institutions in phase 1 and the remaining institutions to be connected in phase 2. Funding sources: Government
Connectivity Arrangement
Project details: Various higher learning institutions in Tanzania were connected to the COSTECH NOC and directly linked with European GEANT2 through the Ubuntu Alliance. Funding sources: World Bank
eHealth Strategy
Project details: It is planned that by 2018, eHealth will provide a sustainable and efficient health system for citizens that guarantee patient information rights, integrity and confidentiality. Funding sources: The Government of Tanzania, with the process facilitated by the International Institute for Communication and Development of The Netherlands.
Details: Consists of Automated Passenger Clearance System, Using Biometric data, A total of 7 institutions including Police are now connected to the National identification Authority Database using online secure authentication
Agriculture Sector
Details: Consists of; eSoko system and a Land Use Management and Information System.
Tourism sector
Details: Consists of; One Click Rwanda and an e-Tourism platform.
Health Sector
Details: Consists of; OpenMRS , TRACnet, Mobile e- Health and a Telemedicine and a Navigation Surveillance and Air traffic management system (CNS-ATM). (Sources of this information: ICT Authourity: www.icta.go.ke, IST-Africa: www.ist-africa.org and Fortune of Africa: www.fortuneofafrica.com)
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FEATURE |
STAFF WRITER
The Do’s and Don’ts of
ERP implementation
The implementation of ERP systems is complex and according to Synconics.com there are various “Dos” and “Don’ts” effecting success or failure of an ERP implementation in an organisation.
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ynconics explains that most experts in the Information Technology agree that failures occur far more often than they should and that the failures are universally unprejudiced: they happen in every country; too large companies and small; in commercial, non-profit, and governmental organizations; and without regard to status or reputation. In summary of Synconic’s list of critical success factors the following points emerge at the top: Involvement of Top Management in the ERP project implementation, Provision of the necessary resources including a significant financial commitment and budgetary support, selection of the right ERP and Consultant, Unrealistic expectations especially as ERP systems are not an all cure silver bullet. Moreover, one must consider that the success of an ERP project is governed by various factors including need assessment, software chosen, vendor support and capability of your organization to handle such a project.
is properly updated before it’s imported to avoid a “garbage in, garbage out” situation. • DO make sure that you set additional time aside to train your employees in the new ERP system. Even the most technologically advanced amongst your employee pool will need training in the new system, so it’s imperative that they’re well-adjusted to the new system. • Make sure that you’re aware that the scale of your project may require more or less, time on all sides. Obviously, the more of everything you have, data, computer updates, employees, etc. On the other hand, IT Toolbox gives the Don’ts as: • DON’T have unrealistic expectations about the project. Remember implementation is going to take time, and that your employees need to be trained in the new system. Also remember that there will be some errors and potential “reboots” depending on the integrity of your data. It is not an overnight process, and it’s unrealistic to expect to know the new system overnight. • DON’T overload the system with data in the hopes that it will get done quicker. In fact, the exact opposite will happen: It will take longer to finish up the process because there’s too much data going in at too quick of a rate. • DON’T neglect the necessary updates after the implementation. It’s not enough to simply put in a new system -- rather, you have to maintain this new system with necessary updates as they arise. • DON’T assume that a more conventional system is necessarily right for your company. As was mentioned in the “do’s” list, while researching the proper system is important -- and it should be done prior to implementing any ERP system, you’re not required to take the system that everyone else is using, especially if it’s not right for your company or for your industry’s standards.
It Toolbox.com lists some of the many DO’S that should be performed when implementing a new ERP: • Before you decide which ERP you’d like to implement into your company’s system, DO perform extensive research on what the right system is for you. Not all systems are right for every project, regardless of how well ranked they are by industry professionals. • DO make sure that you’ve set aside sufficient time for both the implementation process and the transfer of data. Remember that the more data you have, the longer the process of transfer is going to take. In addition, remember that it’s important that the integrity of your data is preserved, so make sure that your data
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
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ENTER
A COLLABORATIVE PAYMENTS ECOSYSTEM FOR A DIGITAL AFRICA With so many successful mobile wallet offerings and mobile banking solutions available across Africa, how can African businesses find a way to easily collaborate with all of them? Liquid Telecom Payment Solutions has the answer.
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ociety is becoming cashless. Driven by a dramatic change in consumer behaviour as well as major digital disruption, a revolution is happening in the payments world, with transactions of all kind increasingly going digital. In Africa, new trends in payment solutions are helping to facilitate the growth of businesses as well as bring informal financial services to the unbanked. Although the continent’s transition to contactless payments lags well behind Europe, where cash usage is expected to decline to just 43% by 2018, Africa has accelerated ahead in its adoption of mobile financial services. The early dramatic rise of mobile money across parts of East and West Africa has led to an influx of mobile money services and the exploration of innovative partnerships between banks, Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and retailers. This in turn has created a large but unwieldly ecosystem of mobile financial service propositions looking for ways to easily and securely integrate with third parties.
End-to-end solutions Liquid Telecom Payment Solutions has over 20 years of experience in the African payments market, first launching as Transaction Payment Solutions (TPS) in 1992. Acquired by the Liquid Telecom Group in 2007, it today provides end-toend solutions tailored for businesses of all sizes in Africa’s financial and retail sectors. As well as offering the latest stateof-the-art mobile, in-store point of sale (POS) terminals, Liquid Telecom Payment Solutions can also provide integrated tills and fully-servicing ATM machines. Following a customer transaction, Liquid Telecom is then able
to offer behind the scenes support including transaction processing and comprehensive financial reporting. This could support, for example, a large bank looking to improve client identification and transaction processing, or a small business looking to efficiently manage its cash flow.
Moving with the times Recently, Liquid Telecom Payment Solutions has been exploring ways to help businesses across Africa tap into new trends in payment solutions. The African market is becoming saturated with mobile money platforms eager to replicate the astonishing rise and success of the Vodafone M-Pesa service, which at the end of March 2016 surpassed the 25 million customer milestone globally. The service transformed economic interaction in Kenya, bringing informal financial services to an estimated 20 million Kenyans and helping to facilitate the growth of thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Mobile money has had a profound effect on other African economies as well. In Zimbabwe, EcoCash is becoming an increasingly preferred mode of payment for a range of goods and services – even helping to ease the country’s current cash crisis. Restrictive regulation and a population more reliant on traditional banking services has meant mobile money adoption failed to reach such heady heights in South Africa. But that is now changing as a flurry of new services enter the market, including WeChat wallet; an ambitious mobile money offering that, among other things, allows for peer-to-peer money transfers and the ability to cash out at retailers.
One platform fits all Yet as more sophisticated and successful mobile wallet solutions appear on the market, the harder it has become to create a payments ecosystem that can accommodate all of them. There is a growing need to not only bring together disparate mobile wallet and mobile banking offerings, but to also integrate the large number of third party programmes – the partnerships with supermarkets, gas stations, utility companies and alike. Which is why Liquid Telecom Payment Solutions is offering one unified platform that can bring all these parties together.
Mobile Financial System Platform by Liquid Telecom is the first white label product of its kind in Africa that can provide access to value added services from unlimited stakeholders on any mobile wallet programme. Offering a comprehensive Agency Management System, the platform can enable businesses to integrate various wallet programmes and service providers – creating a new ecosystem of collaborative mobile financial services. A more advanced payments ecosystem that brings together the latest innovations in mobile financial services is critical to helping all businesses across Africa grow, and this platform ensures Liquid Telecom Payment Solutions is at the heart of their digital journey. For more information about Liquid Telecom visit www.liquidtelecom.com
ENTER
We take care of payments, so you can take care of business. Payment solutions. Whether you’re a financial institution, mobile money operator, retailer or merchant, biller or revenue collection agent, or a system aggregator, they’re a necessity. But Liquid Telecom Payment Solutions can turn them into your business advantage. We provide end-to-end solutions that start at the very moment of transaction – from the ATM, mobile, in-store POS terminal or integrated till system in retail outlets – and include everything from transaction processing to comprehensive reporting. Unlike using multiple suppliers to provide your hardware, software, networking and support, you get one point of contact that does it all - for a more responsive, reliable and secure solution, no matter the size of your business. The result is you spend less time and effort looking after payment solutions in your business and more time doing what you do best: growing it. Contact us to discuss your needs on +263 8677 033 033 or email ltpssales@liquidtelecom.com
www.liquidtelecom.com/payments
FEATURE |
24
BY ROB ENDERLE
Most CEOs are planning to kill their companies CEOs are thinking about technology, that’s good. However, a recent survey indicates they don’t trust what they’re getting from IT and may look blindly to alternate solutions bypassing IT and ultimately doing more harm than good.
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had an interesting briefing earlier in the week. KPMG just finished a large CEO survey looking at how CEOs are thinking about technology. The good news is they apparently think about technology and IT a lot. The bad news is they don’t trust what they’re getting from IT and that suggests that not only will the move to cloud services accelerate, but it may very well accelerate without IT. Other than looking for a job at Amazon Web Services this suggests the perception of quality needs to improve dramatically or IT is likely to see a rather massive shift in budget as money stops flowing through the organization and increases the current tendency to flow around it. However, if you actually factor in what the CEOs are saying you should conclude that most CEOs are actually planning to kill the companies they are running and that should scare the hell out of most of us.
to take that into account when looking at the results. However, while KPMG does custom software and services they aren’t a platform, software or hardware OEM. This means on subjects like services you have to take what they are saying with a grain of salt, particularly if the result favors KPMG. On issues like broad trends, or even preferences for third-party software, hardware or cloud services they should be relatively unbiased. Therefore, their recommendations would be tied to platforms that have worked for them at scale so here their results can be more trusted because the truth better aligns with KPMG’s interests. So, for a study on CEOs’ views on technology and IT they should be reliable. However, this information also needs to be factored in with other data sources particularly with regard to your own CEO because this is a study of averages and your CEO may not be average.
Let’s cover some of the details.
The results
KPMG
I’ll cherry pick the results from this study and comment on each.
First let’s talk about KPMG. Surveys can be compromised by the firms that do them. Surveys like this are generally done to increase business so you have
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
Two thirds of CEOs don’t think their companies can keep up. The actual question focused on the fact that CEOs are focused on innovating through acquisition rather than organically. But the translation is they have no confidence in their organization’s ability to innovate. This is a significant problem for every employee because it implies the CEOs feel a large portion of their firms are unwilling or unable to perform. Acquisitions should be the exception not the rule, yet the opposite appears to be true. Now it is unlikely that 75 percent of firms can’t execute so this is likely a blend of CEOs not understanding what is being done and organizations that are being restricted
by policy, culture, or practices (like Forced Ranking, which kills innovation). But it certainly doesn’t bode well for job security. Eighty five percent of CEOs don’t think IT is performing critical functions. The focus of the related question was on the quality and time strategizing, but this feeds directly into IT guided services like Business Intelligence and analytics. In effect the vast majority of CEOs apparently think they are blind. This can be due to a lack of information and a distrust for whatever they are getting. For me, the big issue is that a whopping huge majority of CEOs seem to think they are driving their company blind. If this were me I’d be in a near panic to fix that and this really implies most IT shops should be scheduling a top level meeting to better understand why the CEO thinks this and to prioritize fixing the problem before they try to fix it themselves. Building on this, 40 percent of CEOs are planning to massively change their firms. Now the question actually asked if they were anticipating change but CEOs steer the ship. If they are anticipating something that means they will be driving it. Now recall that most think they are blind, so you basically have a huge number of drivers who think they are blind yet are planning to make a huge change in direction. If these were cars instead of companies you’d likely conclude that 40 percent of companies are likely to have major accidents. This further supports the argument that fixing the “blind” problem should be prioritized. A whopping 90 percent of CEOs feel they have no idea what their customers want and aren’t meeting their customer needs. The question focused on customer loyalty, but the implication was clear. Holy crap, www.cio.co.ke
FEATURE |
BY ROB ENDERLE
Analytics efforts are failing
we not only have blind CEOs who are about to make a massive direction change, now we learn that virtually every CEO is convinced they are going in the wrong direction. Whether this is real or perceived this means that at least 50 percent of CEOs will be easily convinced to make a massive organizational change -- and remember they still think they are blind so this won’t end well. Seventy five percent of CEOs think their firms need to disrupt the market but aren’t. You could read this as implying that every CEOs longs to be Steve Jobs. I don’t blame them, but they want to disrupt the market and be rich heroes. Now follow me here. The CEOs think they are blind, they are panicked that their firms are heading for a cliff (their customers are going to leave), they feel they need to make dramatic changes, and they don’t want to flow through traffic. The implication is virtually every CEO is on a path to destroying their respective companies, some faster than others, largely because they have no confidence in their firms or their own ability to make measured decisions. Technology has failed them and while a lot of this certainly could be organizational, it also showcases that analytics isn’t doing the job it is supposed to be doing. We shouldn’t be here.
Analytics efforts are failing What got me to take the briefing was that far less than half of CEOs trust what is coming out of their analytics solutions. This flows on top of other surveys I’ve
seen saying over 80 percent of analytics efforts fail. Given that IT is missioned as the organization that makes technology work, the fact that CEOs think the parts of their technology that they personally depend on aren’t working suggests that IT as a class of job is in for massive disruption either because the CEO is looking elsewhere for help or (and this isn’t mutually exclusive) because they are on a fast path to killing the firm outright. Now they may not intend this outcome but if we had a blind driver (in a car) scared they are going in the wrong direction, who wants to speed up, take a lot of dramatic turns, and doesn’t trust what they are hearing from their passengers (which at some point likely would be screams), you’d not only have a certain accident, you’d have a deadly one. From a survey like this I can’t suggest a complete path to fixing this problem because the nature of it likely spans everything from incompetence in IT or the CEO. The latter is a very real possibility because this reads like a lot of these guys are certifiably nuts, based on the complete disconnect between what is being done and what is being used and trusted. But fixing a problem like this starts at the top, this suggests that IT better align with what the CEO needs or something really bad will result, with emphasis on the “really” part. This also suggests that right now being in a Fortune 500 company is really risky and that a smaller firm might be a lot safer because working for a blind CEO who wants to be disruptive sounds like job suicide. Holy crap.
What got me to take the briefing was that far less than half of CEOs trust what is coming out of their analytics solutions. This flows on top of other surveys I’ve seen saying over 80 percent of analytics efforts fail. Given that IT is missioned as the organization that makes technology work, the fact that CEOs think the parts of their technology that they personally depend on aren’t working suggests that IT as a class of job is in for massive disruption either because the CEO is looking elsewhere for help or (and this isn’t mutually exclusive) because they are on a fast path to killing the firm outright. Now they may not intend this outcome but if we had a blind driver (in a car) scared they are going in the wrong direction, who wants to speed up, take a lot of dramatic turns, and doesn’t trust what they are hearing from their passengers (which at some point likely would be screams), you’d not only have a certain accident, you’d have a deadly one. From a survey like this I can’t suggest a complete path to fixing this problem because the nature of it likely spans everything from incompetence in IT or the CEO. The latter is a very real possibility because this reads like a lot of these guys are certifiably nuts, based on the complete disconnect between what is being done and what is being used and trusted. But fixing a problem like this starts at the top, this suggests that IT better align with what the CEO needs or something really bad will result, with emphasis on the “really” part. This also suggests that right now being in a Fortune 500 company is really risky and that a smaller firm might be a lot safer because working for a blind CEO who wants to be disruptive sounds like job suicide. Holy crap.
The Author - Rob Enderle (renderle@enderlegroup.com) is president and principal analyst of the Enderle Group. Previously, he was the Senior Research Fellow for Forrester Research and the Giga Information Group. Prior to that he worked for IBM and held positions in Internal Audit, Competitive Analysis, Marketing, Finance and Security. Currently, Enderle writes on emerging technology, security and Linux for a variety of publications and appears on national news TV shows that include CNBC, FOX, Bloomberg and NPR.
www.cio.co.ke
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COVER STORY |
DAVIS WEDDI
Exploiting new cloud technologies at Commercial Bank of Africa
GEORGE NJUGUNA Head, Information Technology Commercial Bank of Africa Ltd
George Njuguna has the daunting charge of leading the IT team at Commercial Bank of Africa(CBA), which has operations in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, a role he may not have foreseen ten years ago when he worked as an IT Security Analyst for Dollar Bank in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA). At an Industry level, Njuguna sits on the Kenya Bankers Association Operations and Technical Committee, as well as the CIO Council, where he works with other IT leaders on addressing common challenges like data security, while sharing experiences and knowledge. George Njuguna
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
www.cio.co.ke
COVER STORY
Talking to staff
O
ne of Njuguna’s key responsibilities is to formulate and deploy long-term strategic plans for acquiring and enabling efficient and cost-effective information technology systems. He is quick to point out that he sees his role as being more of a business partner, who enables the organization to deliver on strategy and goals through effective use of technology. Njuguna has to keep abreast with the latest technology trends, cost reduction strategies and leverage new technologies like cloud, mobility and big data. In addition, he is also tasked with ensuring that the technology services deliver the customer value proposition and meet the service levels promised to CBA clients.
towards implementation, as this requires many hours of design, planning and most of all focused execution.
Njuguna is a firm believer in a structured approach to deployment of new solutions. He believes that it is important to ensure that adequate time is dedicated to design and architecture as well as alignment of internal operations to support the change.
“People have a proclivity to buy boxes. I, personally, do not like boxes. IT shops should be buying less boxes even though they have been deemed necessary for certain appli-
“IT heads like myself, CIOs, are under so much pressure to reduce spending on technology, so I view cloud as the foundation for almost everything you want to do in IT, be it Internet of Things (IoT), Mobility, Big Data, etc.” he declares. Njuguna discloses that some people seem to think cloud is too far-fetched and requires significant investment. “This is not the case however; we’ve done it with local skills and more organizations should embark on this journey given the efficiency gains and cost savings.”
Staying ahead of the curve? “Perhaps one the most exciting things we have been able to do has been on the cloud front,” he asserts in a confident tone and then claims the prize: it is now emerging that by 2013, CBA actually did the first private cloud deployment in Africa. “We have deployed cloud, as a key technology in our operations. The private cloud is a significant building block in the delivery of shared services that are accessed across the region,” says Njuguna. With foresight and flexibility of enabling options, Njuguna says they have been able to take some bold steps including moving services like email from local servers to cloud, which in turn reduces server footprint, associated technical support costs and improves workforce productivity. He points out that quite often, emerging technology trends are welcomed with great enthusiasm but organizations seldom take steps www.cio.co.ke
Awarding a staffmember
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COVER STORY cations that cannot be hosted on a cloud environment. This is fast changing however and there are now fewer applications with this constraint,” he points out. He goes on to add that even core banking systems are migrating to cloud.
CBA Consolidation Program The private cloud deployment is part of a wider CBA infrastructure consolidation program aimed at (i) reducing hardware CAPEX and OPEX; (ii) cutting facility costs like power and cooling; (iii) improving application availability, (iv) increasing business agility and (v) collocating readiness by reducing server racks. “We are planning to remove our entire data center footprint from our premises to a collocated site. So cloud is a key forerunner for collocation as it will aid in reducing the racks and servers we collocate, a direct cost consideration in renting space,” he adds. “The challenges we faced as our business was expanding, were that there was a higher demand for the availability of our IT services, data was growing, and there was need for BI and mobile apps,” he elucidates. They had two options: either they could take a step-by-step approach or they could fast-track it through converged systems. After assessing the technologies they had already invested in, they opted for converged infrastructure for some of their new businesses. Further, for existing businesses and applications, they opted to leverage what they had as part of a well thought through lifecycle management plan. Njuguna and his team are able to provision a new server within 15 minutes as part of their Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) capability. So far they have saved about $2.7million in CAPEX and about $0.5million in OPEX. They have realized an 85% improvement in application uptime and have not increased the data center racks in three years. The next wave of consolidation aims to reduce the racks by half as more applications are migrated to the Private Cloud. “Right now 50% of our servers have been migrated to the private cloud, while the rest are on standalone servers. In the next two months we are looking to improve this to a 70:30 ratio (70% private and 30% physical)” he adds. As part of extending cloud services, they have also embarked on Database as a Service (DBaas). From the comfort of his office, he demonstrated to us how simple it will be for users to create a new Microsoft SQL database as part of their private cloud offering. The aim of the project is to reduce SQL server sprawl and consolidate seventy-two servers into four powerful ones. They will also gain key cloud functionalities like self-provisioning, charge back, templates and efficient management of resources. In the last 10 months, the IT team has been able to reduce the end of day process from 7 hours to an impressive 1.5 hours. Consequently, some among their competitors within the industry have shown interest in visiting their offices to understand the secret behind this undeniable ground breaking success. Njuguna points out that, “It is not only about the technology we deploy, but also about the planning and design. The key technologies behind this improvement are the new database architecture and storage solution,” he remarks.
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
In the office
Using advanced tech to monitor operations at CBA From his office in Nairobi, he has the real-time ability to monitor everything taking place on the bank’s digital operations; right from a client making a withdrawal or deposit on one of the service channels, to various components of their IT environment like network, servers, storage and backup equipment. With that capability, the IT team at CBA is able to anticipate problems in the system operations and take proactive measures to reduce customer complaints. This monitoring solution has enabled the technology team to improve service uptime and automate measurement of availability. “Traditional monitoring systems and what they use in NOCs (Network Operations Centre) are focused on network uptime, but this solution allows us to check on everything including system services, backups, databases, servers, ftp folders, batch jobs, etc.,” he states. CBA aims monitor every single aspect of their technology environment so as to minimize outages and more so to quickly narrow down on the root cause for swift resolution.
Challenges Like any other IT leader, Njuguna is faced with some operational challenges. These include regulator demands such as having to set up new data centres in Uganda and Tanzania. He has spent the better part of 2016 devising solutions to respond to these changes in the market whilst maintaining a www.cio.co.ke
COVER STORY
Part of the IT team on duty
low cost to income ratio. “From my perspective, it is important for financial institutions to appreciate the risks that the regulators are trying to address and come up with practical solutions that cater to the interests of key stakeholders,” he details.
IT team dynamics
TOP VENDORS SUPPLYING CBA 1. 2. 3. 4.
HP Servers and HP Storage Support: CopyCat Network Support: Dimension Data Private Cloud Partner: GoodInfo Business Systems Monitoring: Hakken
Njuguna explains that by automating mundane tasks, employees are able to effectively manage their time and focus on more challenging objectives. As a result, they are able to augment their existing professional experience and skills, in turn creating a diverse and dynamic team. Career mobility is supported and employees are encouraged to rotate within various job functions in line with their strengths and aspirations. CBA excels in creating brand loyalty in its employees by openly sharing information on both the challenges faced as well as the longer term vision. This says something about CBA as an organization in terms of the way they treat their employees and probably best characterized by the ease with which they can schedule an appointment with management without the characteristic cumbersome red tape that inundates many organizations. It is futile to devalue the importance of IT as it is presently an essential facet of a financial institution’s business strategy. Having a well-designed IT strategy is part and parcel of a sound vision of delivering innovation solutions, securing the organizations assets improving efficiency, reducing costs and enhancing customer experience. Njuguna maintains that building and sustaining a sound IT infrastructure that adapts to growing customer demands is not only good business, it is prudent as well. His vision is to ultimately convert IT from a technology organization to a service organisation. www.cio.co.ke
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IT & LEADERSHIP |
LILIAN MUTEGI
Joshua Mwaniki on tapping Africa’s tech talent brilliance His is an interesting story, unlike most of IT Leaders Joshua Mwaniki; Country Manager of Andela is not a “techie”.
J
oshua Mwaniki with a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Nairobi, In Kenya, naturally started off as a lawyer, turned tech-prenuer, with a passion for working in spaces that drive technologies which influence behavior. His love for entrepreneurship saw him start a media company soon after University that was later acquired by the Naspers Group. He went on to work with Naspers in various country lead roles in both Media and E-commerce, before leaving in 2013. He since worked in various sectors like renewable energy (M-KOPA) and Payments (Cellulant), before joining Andela. “My working career has been in tech although I am not a techie by trade. I see myself as a business man in technology. This has led me to appreciate the value of technology talent because to get things done, you have to use talent and I think across all my career stints in this part of the world, getting right talent has been an issue. You see today to achieve your business goals you need the right tech talent,” said Mr. Mwaniki. Andela was founded in 2014 by CEO, Jeremy Johnson, and co-founded by Lyin Aboyeji, who remains based in Nigeria. Andela has trained just under 200 engineers in its two years of operations, accepting them from a pool of 40,000 applicants and giving six months of intensive training before sending them to spend two weeks at technology partners. After that, the Andela developers sign on to those companies full-time, working out of Andela campuses it operates in Lagos and Nairobi. “Around the world you will always find brilliant people and geniuses evenly distributed but why some places seem to have more than others are because of opportunities. Silicon Valley exploded because of technology and India became a tech hub because of opportunities. Brilliance is evenly distributed but opportunity is not,” said Mr. Mwaniki. He added that the idea of Andela is simply trying to tap the brilliance in Arica’s youngest population. Andela selects the top 1% of tech talent from the largest pool of untapped talent in the world—the African continent. Dubbed the startup that’s harder to get into than Harvard by CNN (Harvard’s acceptance rate is 6.2%). Andela sifts through tens of thousands of applicants. So how intense is the recruitment? First all candidates complete a series of psychometric tests and IQ evaluations to gauge
problem solving ability and aptitude. Then the qualified applicants are assigned a self-study programming curriculum to measure drive and discipline. Selected candidates are invited to in-person interviews, where the company gauges soft s kills and personality fit. Successful applicants then participate in a two-week, full-time boot camp at an Andela campus led by senior developers. They measure programming aptitude, work ethic, and culture fit. Some of the companies working with Andela are Udacity, Microsoft, IBM and many other global companies. But then why global companies? Mr. Mwaniki explained that when Andela was formulated, the company saw a gap in the USA and UK, where there were a lot of jobs but few developers, so Andela is able to offer its developers at a huge discounted price to UK Tech firms making them quite restrictive to continental tech firms. There is a huge deficit of tech talent in the USA and UK. In that for every five programmer jobs there is only one programmer and when you look at the programmers you stop getting descent programmers. So the idea was how we can fix this gap. In May, Andela secured its Series B, a $24M round led by Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. The company is also backed by GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Spark Capital. “The round represents a huge vote of confidence from some of the most respected names in technology. Not only is it a vote for Andela, but it’s also recognition of the talent of software developers and human beings that make up the Andela Fellowship,” said Mr. Mwaniki. Mr. Mwaniki pointed out that Andela will look into investing the secured funding in expanding further across the region, as well as create an Andela Hub for the East Africa Community.
Around the world you will always find brilliant people and geniuses evenly distributed but why some places seem to have more than others are because of opportunities. CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
Joshua Mwaniki www.cio.co.ke
INTERVIEW
What AITEC has learned from producing conferences
AITEC will be holding its 10th annual Banking & Mobile Money Conference in Nairobi over 30-31 August. AITEC Chairman Sean Moroney who has been producing the conference over the decade, answers questions on the lessons learned. Having produced the AITEC Banking & Mobile Money Conference in Nairobi for ten years, what are the main lessons you can highlight for the financial services sector? For ten years we have been gathering experts to brief bank executives on the systems and technologies they should implement to provide their institutions with the security, competitiveness and customer-centric services they need to thrive and grow. I suspect that very few have taken heed of those lessons – or implemented them in their organisations. Why do you think that is? Technology is still seen as the preserve of the IT department, with little understanding at the board level of its importance and impact. Top-level leadership commitment is required, not only to allocate the necessary resources for the right systems, but to implement fully, with the right internal skills sets in place. Vendors and consultants report that there is minimal commitment by management teams in some banks to implement risk management systems that will detect and expose security and governance breaches – both internal and external. With such attitudes in place, recent bank failures in Kenya should not be a surprise. What is your assessment of the measures taken by CBK Governor Njoroge? He’s a God-send for Kenya’s banking industry – one of the wisest appointments by the Kenyatta administration. He is steadily restoring confidence and laying the foundations for the development of Nairobi as an international financial centre – one of the long-term goals under Vision 2030. Which, by the way, is a goal that we want our conference to support, by bringing key players in the international financial services industry to Nairobi on an annual basis to network and partner with the region’s bankers. www.cio.co.ke
Which key international players are you bringing to the conference this year? We have invited the London Stock Exchange and the Qatar National Bank and Qatar Financial Centre to participate. Is this a technology conference or a business strategy conference? It is both. Technology has to be assessed and implemented in the context of the institution’s overall business strategy, so both need to be developed in tandem. The theme of the conference this year, “Technology to secure and transform financial services”, reflects this overall focus of the event. We want the IT guys to understand the bigger business picture they should be supporting and board and C-level executives to understand how technology can help them achieve their broad business goals. We also include a wide range of focus areas to cater for different management specialisms. Topics this year include new payment channels and innovations; the impact of new international regulations on local compliance requirements; a guide to sourcing technology; the role of challenger banks and MFIs; security challenges and strategies; the increasing importance of crypto-currencies; big data analytics; an HR workshop on managing human capital risk. What are the other highlights of the conference? Aly-Khan Satchu of Rich Management is going to be the conference chairman and will moderate the opening and closing sessions which will each include panel discussions with senior bankers. He will facilitate frank dialogue on the commitments sector leaders need to make to achieve security and excellence for their organisations. In addition, to celebrate our tenth anniversary we will be showcasing the region’s leading emerging fintech innovations in the Fintech Innovators Pavilion.
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
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WOMEN IN TECH |
LILIAN MUTEGI
Women in Tech:
Judith
Owigar,
changing communities,
one woman at a time She is known as a woman who got to sit and shake hands with the two most ‘powerful’ personalities Globally and in Kenya during the Global Entrepreneur Summit 2015 and the state visit by USA President, Barack Obama.
T
his what she termed as the highlight of her life. On this issue we get to feature Judith Adem Owigar, Co-founder and President of Akirachix and a game changer for young women innovators in Akirachix “That moment on the world’s stage was a time to reflect on our collective journey and the impact we have had on young women in Africa. From this experience we have gained exposure to the world. It was not an only a highlight in my life but also a highlight for Akirachix,” she said. A look into her career journey, Judith Owigar went to University of Nairobi where she graduated with a degree in Computer science. During her stay at the university Judith co-founded a chapter of Kenya Model United Nations a club that promotes international diplomacy among the youth. “I developed my interests in sciences back in high school and I really wanted to pursue something that really had mathematics or sciences in it. I first wanted to pursue chemical engineering but I didn’t qualify and I decided to try Computer Science out of curiosity. In the first two years it was quite abstract, but when I started seeing where I could apply it in life, it became more live to me and a few years later now I am applying what I learnt through teaching young women how to code,” she said.
www.cio.co.ke
Judith has worked in various capacities in the field of technology. She started off as a tech support specialist in a Kenyan company called Turnkey Africa. Turnkey Africa is a start up that provides solutions to insurance companies and banks in Africa.
Akirchix started in my second work place where we were four women developers and we felt the need to prove our abilities as programmers.
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WOMEN IN TECH |
LILIAN MUTEGI
She later moved to the position of developer at a start up called Ibid Labs. There she honed her developer skills. She later moved to Japan Center for Conflict Prevention (JCCP); an organization that deals with peace building in Macedonia, Afghanistan and East Africa. It was at her second work place that Akirachix was born. “Akirchix started in my second work place where we were four women developers and we felt the need to prove our abilities as programmers. We felt programming wasn’t quite welcoming for women since there were fewer women representatives in the field. We first thought of starting a mentoring program for high school girls around careers that are ICT related. Our goal was to see more girls in ICT. But after a while we changed jobs and the whole dream remained just that, a dream,” she said. Later on while attending the launch of the iHub, a space for hackers, designers and bloggers in Nairobi, Ms. Owigar met up with other likeminded ladies who noticed the few ladies in attendance. They decided to increase the ratio of women to men in tech and for the second time Akirachix was formed, this time for real. AkiraChix was later founded in 2010 by Judith Owigar, Linda Kamau, Marie Githinji and Angela Oduor Lungati, to nurture generations of women who build solutions for Africa through technology. Akirachix, started off as a network for women in ICT. Later the four felt that Women didn’t benefit from this and that’s when they started the training programme to target girls who didn’t have similar opportunities as them. “We targeted girls who have just completed high school in low income areas,” added Ms. Owigar. “AkiraChix is a not for profit organisation that aims to inspire and develop a successful force of women in technology who will change Africa’s future. Our aim is to be the leading women’s network impacting technology in Africa,” she said.
Our inaugural Women in Technology Conference brought together 300 tech enthusiasts for a day of learning and sharing, and exposed organisations such as SKIRTS (Socially Keen Individuals Redefining Technology Spaces – seeking to secure women’s spaces online) to access to funding, mentorship and incubation to build their ideas
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
After the launch the founders still pushed the initial agenda to mentor young girls in high schools as well as teach them how to code and graphic design. During this time they realized that there was a mentality that had been formed among girls in high schools on how sciences are hard and they realized the need to even start changing this mentality at a tender age and thats they started Kids Bootcamp in primary schools that has since impacted over 30 kids. Five years, later Akirchix has created opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship in the technology ecosystem for 91 talented, yet underprivileged girls. On the high school outreach program Akirachix has reached 280 high school girls through bi-weekly visits and training sessions in the last three years. “We’ve organised three annual high school career fairs(dubbed Geek Girl Festival), with more than 500 high school students in attendance. We’ve also hosted 6 training boot camps during school holidays since December 2012, reaching more than 150 girls,” she added. In a bid to grow a self sustaining network of women technologists in Africa, Akirachix has seen its members grow to more than 800. “Through Akirachix I have seen beautiful applications developed through some hackathons we have held. We’ve hosted two female hackathons that have given rise to ideas such as Ujirani, a mobile application that helps you connect with your neighbourhood and updates on happenings in your surrounding as well as Pata Ride, an application that operates like Uber but for Motocycles,” she added. “Our inaugural Women in Technology Conference brought together 300 tech enthusiasts for a day of learning and sharing, and exposed organisations such as SKIRTS (Socially Keen Individuals Redefining Technology Spaces – seeking to secure women’s spaces online) to access to funding, mentorship and incubation to build their ideas,” added Ms. Owigar. Judith together with Akirachix was awarded the unsung heroes award by the US embassy in Kenya. This was in recognition of the work that Akirachix has done to promote women and give them a voice using science and technology. Together with a team of two other members, Judith was recognized as one of the top 50 SMEs in the Infodev Global forum. Infodev is a donor funded agency of the World Bank. In 2009 Judith was named as one of the Top 40 under 40 by the Business Daily newspaper in Kenya. This is a listing of women who are changing the landscape of business and technology. In 2007 she was named the Best Female Engineer at the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers students’ exhibition. HER PARTING SHOT, “THE AKIRACHIX MODEL IS ONE THAT HAS PROVEN REPLICABLE IN OTHER AREAS. WE CONTINUE TO SEE MORE AND MORE WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY ORGANISATIONS COME UP IN DIFFERENT PARTS OF AFRICA. WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF SCALING AND EXPANDING OUR REACH ACROSS KENYA, AND AFRICA AT LARGE. WE’RE LOOKING INTO CHANGING COMMUNITIES, ONE WOMAN AT A TIME.” www.cio.co.ke
PRODUCT REVIEW |
DAVID STROM
How to buy endpoint security products In our testing of endpoint security products, we found that no one product does everything. You will have to make compromises, depending on what other security tools you already have installed and the skill levels of your staff. While there is no single product that can suit all situations, endpoint configurations and IT requirements, there are a few key things to consider in your purchase: 1. Going agent or agentless. A few of the products we tested don’t require endpoint agents, but the trade off is that you will need to setup LDAP or clean up your Active Directory domain and make use of network switch SNMP management and other connections to your network fabric. The upside of the agentless approach is that the product can track endpoints that might be used to compromise your network, such as IP cameras and other embedded devices that aren’t running traditional endpoint operating systems. Another upside is because there is no code installed on an endpoint nothing is exposed to a potential attacker. A third advantage to going agentless is that some products with agents only have them for particular Windows versions and are still working on their Mac and Linux agents. Other products have begun to recognize the mobile universe and either integrate with mobile device management tools or (in the case of Comodo) have specific iOS and Android agents.
2. W hat does the endpoint user see on their desktop? Products that install endpoint agents vary widely in terms of what an end user can observe and how stealthy they operate: some obscure any listing in the Windows Control Panel Programs list or taskbar icons, others operate more like ordinary applications. And those that operate without agents are completely invisible, of course.
3. H ow is the product configured and managed? Each product has a combination of web and native management consoles, and some (even the SaaS-based tools) have fairly complex installation routines. Many of them will require consulting contracts to get setup properly. Of the www.cio.co.ke
product we tested, Comodo, Outlier and CrowdStrike stood out as the easiest to set up.
4. Pricing Pricing on endpoint security products is all over the map: most vendors charge between $15 to more than $50 per year per protected endpoint device or user, with some charging a fixed price per appliance. Prices quoted are really more starting points than a hardand-fast list price: especially as the number of endpoints rises, these are more an upper bound than anything else as volume discounts are liberally available.
5. Real-time or not Some products, such as Guidance Software and Outlier Security, aren’t designed for real-time or even near realtime analysis and are best used on longer time horizons to examine larger trends. Depending on the complexity of your network and the nature of your business, this may be important in your purchase decision.
6. B etter remediation through remote endpoint control. One feature finding its way into more products is the ability to disconnect an endpoint from the general network and have it only communicate back to the EDR server for eradication and remediation. Many of the products we tested, including Sentinel and CrowdStrike, offer this feature. The Author - David Strom writes and speaks about networking and communications topics for ITworld, Network World and other publications. He can be reached through his web site (http://strominator.com/), or on Twitter @dstrom.
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STARTUP CORNER |
BARAKA JEFWA
Using IoT to fix Kenya’s transport sector one matatu at a time
Echo Mobile In some businesses it is hard to monitor and control your employees, one good example of such a business is Kenya’s matatu (mini buses) industry.
K
enya’s matatu industry is structured in a way where someone will purchase a matatu and hire a driver, entrusting him/her with their vehicle in the absence of any supervision. This lack of supervision sometimes leads to accidents which are a major problem on the Kenyan roads; with the World Health Organization estimating that road accidents kill as many as 13,000 Kenyans a year.
and often improve the automation and accuracy of data collection,” Mr. Maguire added. The company, through a team of applied economists from University of California Berkeley (UCB) and University of Nairobi started to put Echo Sense to use. The team uses the Echo Sense platform to monitor matatus (mini buses) that are connected with remote sensors.
One company in Kenya, Echo Mobile, decided to help deal with this problem by leveraging on IoT technology to empower businesses such as the matatu one. Echo Mobile recently developed Echo Sense, a web platform that adds sensor-based data collection to the suite of Echo Mobile’s communication channels.
Through their efforts ten matatu owners in Nairobi are now tracking their buses in real time via SmartMatatu. The SmartMatatu app is Echo Mobile’s first experimental deployment of Echo Sense, with the goal of testing solutions to the issue of matatu safety and contracting.
“We have added this product because the world of data collection is advancing beyond human based data collection and is now connecting devices directly to each other; this is commonly known as the Internet of Things (IoT),” said Boris Maguire, Project Manager, Echo Mobile, during an interview with CIO East Africa. “The benefit of remote sensors being used in the IoT is that unlike SMS which rely on human interpretation of information, sensors removes human bias
“The system includes an in-vehicle sensor that monitors and reports vehicle velocity, hard braking/accelerating, sharp turning, off-road driving, distance and other data to Echo Sense via GSM. Echo Sense collects and analyzes the data streams against pre-determined thresholds and then presents real time alerts and tracking to owners on Echo’s SmartMatatu Android application, hopefully empowering them to realign incentives with their drivers to improve their business,” he continued. According to Mr. Maguire Echo is currently aiming to install over 250 devices in matatus around Nairobi by July, giving owners access to different levels of information via the app. The app reports each of the buses location and mileage and sends instant SMS alerts when unsafe driving events occur. “The project’s academic title is ‘Mitigating Market Frictions by Monitoring Employees in Small and Medium Enterprises’. To put it simply, we are testing how the information communicated from remote sensors can empower small business owners to grow and improve their business while simultaneously improving public safety by tracking and incentivizing safer driving behavior,” Mr. Maguire concluded.
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
www.cio.co.ke
OPINION |
BEN ROBERTS
New ICT policy to secure Kenya’s digital future Kenya’s Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology (ICT) has recently completed a draft for public consultation of on a comprehensive new ICT draft policy, which could have a big say in how the country harnesses the power of new technologies.
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orking alongside relevant industry stakeholders – including members of academia, media and industry bodies, such as TESPOK – the latest draft ICT policy promises to further position Kenya as one of Africa’s leading ICT and economic hubs. As a keen technologist and industry stakeholder, I have been involved throughout the consultation period, which has provided a fascinating insight into the policy framework that will help shape the country’s future. As outlined in the policy, it aims to “provide a clear and compelling roadmap to drive social, economic, cultural and political transformation through the effective use of ICT in the years ahead”.
Kenya needs to have an environment where telecoms operators such as Liquid Telecom Kenya, Safaricom and Airtel can continue to competitively rollout more advanced ICT infrastructure. This infrastructure forms a platform for further innovation to happen in the Kenyan market, enabling new business models to evolve. The draft ICT policy is a big step forward for Kenya and the wider African region, but it must also bear in mind that new technologies challenge old business models. Uber did exactly that when it launched in Kenya in 2015, attracting customers by offering lower prices and cutting out haggling over fares.
It also provides a much needed update to the 2006 ICT Sector Policy Guidelines. In the space of ten years, technology has totally transformed the way businesses and consumers interact. We’ve seen hugely disruptive start-ups such as Uber and Airbnb emerge on the global market, while in Kenya, mobile money has had a deeply profound impact on the economy.
It’s a positive sign that just earlier this month Safaricom launched a rival app called Little Cab, which it has developed with a local software firm. Little Cab will offer free Wi-Fi to passengers and aims to provide cheaper fares than competitors while offering drivers a higher share of revenues.
The draft policy will ensure Kenya has a policy roadmap that belongs in the digital age.
Competition is healthy for the market, and the ICT policy must ensure that it does not protect the status quo.
It is guided by ten principles, covering areas as far and wide as privacy and security, open access, competition and innovation.
With this new ICT policy, the Kenyan government has demonstrated to the world that it really understands and recognises the benefits technology can bring to an economy, and I am looking forward to being a part of that journey.
The draft policy also pays particular attention to emerging technologies and trends, namely the likes of IoT, OTTs, Big Data and cybersecurity, as well as content and applications development. The number of use cases for these technologies continues to rapidly grow. Just the other day, I was at London Zoo, who shared with me an IoT application that is being trialled in Kenya to detect illegal poaching of wildlife and send instant alerts to rangers. Such innovations, however, can only flourish with sufficient infrastructure in place. E-commerce is a prime example of this – its success hinges on having both effective digital and physical distribution.
The Author – Ben Roberts is the CEO of Liquid Telecom
The draft policy will ensure Kenya has a policy roadmap that belongs in the digital age.
Stimulating the advancement of ICT infrastructure across Kenya is therefore a key requirement of the draft policy. www.cio.co.ke
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OPINION |
DELANO LONGWE
EXPANDING ENTERPRISE Something particularly interesting has been begun to happen at the SME (Small and Medium Enterprise) end of the regional market rather than the SMB (Small and Medium Business) end of the economy.
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pectacular, unreal and almost unbelievable growth projections have become the order of the day for the sector which now looks factored to overtake gains made by LE (Large Enterprise) over the last decade in terms of tangible contribution to GDP (Gross Domestic Product) within the next 36 months. This irrespective of the fact that the growth seems to be occurring quite spontaneously and outside of the traditionally focused verticals which we are largely accustomed to. The underlying driver for the sudden and strange manifestations of augmented small scale enterprise businesses which are planning to clone their operations ad infinitum across the region lies mainly in 2 key areas. The first is the fact that ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems have suddenly become gloriously accessible at ultra-low cost, on monthly payment models accessible via cloud deployment frameworks. What was previously a domain only affordable to large organizations has shifted to being the greatest business battlefield for the SME players. From Healthcare to Education and traditional commercial models the whole sector seems to be rapidly shifting gear and ERP comes along as the highly affordable bolt-on-turbo to provide the additional impetus required to keep one ahead of the competition and suddenly everybody has now shifted to sports mode in the competition in anticipation of many chequered flags. The market on the other hand is steadily cheering on these bold players and the risk appetite for faster changes in the course of business planning and deployments is growing steadily. The second reason for the sudden change is the almost irrational amount of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) that has been streaming into the region. For some strange reason Africa in general has become the blue-eyed boy for the global market that is reeling from the Brexit shocks and the reality of home-front terror and is mentally checking out into a place far from home‌ our region. With the large number of Heads of State and Leaders of Government constantly streaming in confidence seems to have
grown in the regions capability to host all kinds of small scale predictable enterprises that are architected to grow on the building block concept across many urban and rural areas. The change is profound and leaves one slightly awestruck, witnessing economic growth that is not tagged to our forever unchanging high interest rates and inaccessible local business capital. While the sector grows at LE layer not wanting to be left behind there are quiet whispers in the market of some of the largest players shifting to completely Cloud based models with timelines set and running. Amazing stuff from an industry that took between 5-7 years to even begin embracing Cloud Computing. Not everything is Cloud and that’s where the Hardware Vendors are rubbing their hands in anticipation as the on premise deployments that call for massive server engines and huge databases drive the need for hardware spend that far outstrips the cost of the ERP software and with it brings on the need for forever connected and forever available capacity and connectivity across the Enterprise. Huge implications for all concerned and considerations have to be made in how the contractual objectives are structured. The quietest player to suddenly begin to impact the ERP arena is of course Government. Public Sector has finally started behaving like its First World counterparts and is engaging multiple processes to scale services to its citizens and automate many manual processes as it streamlines to absorb the many bilateral agreements and engagements that are being signed into reality. The focus one sees is shifting from technology that required long periods of education followed by longer periods of adoption and even longer and more tedious processes of manual implementation to rapid deployment via self-service portals in the safety of highly secured cyber-environments. With the dispelling of the mystery and grey areas in ERP technology the region has come of age for the first time to experience the benefits globally of deploying and scaling with technology.
Public Sector has finally started behaving like its First World counterparts and is engaging multiple processes to scale services to its citizens
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
www.cio.co.ke
OPINION |
JAMES MURITU
The Achilles Heel of ERP Implementations in Kenya Kenya’s private and public sectors have had a busy decade of rolling out massive ERP systems in a bid to stay ahead of the pack and remain competitive. From banks to insurance companies to government ministries, it’s been a beehive of activity with new system acquisitions and upgrades as well.
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he project budgets are staggering, with most projects incurring hundreds of million shillings. The downside is that it’s not been a smooth sailing at all and the road is wrought with systems that either failed to deliver completely or were never delivered at all. One of the most recent cases is the IEBC Biometric Vote registration system whose simple idea was to enable 33,000 polling stations across Kenya to have a mobile driven app that would enable provisional results to be dispatched real time to centralized services. The project failed terribly with the public and activists crying foul play. Though there are different schools of thought, on what went wrong, it’s obvious of the blunders that were committed by the procurement and technical teams. In 2005, the Kenya government implemented an Integrated Financial Management Information System as its sole accounting system. A decade later, the same system was manipulated to facilitate disbursement of fraudulent payments. As advanced as the system was, there’s enough proof that this was a case of a world class system implementation whose post implementation structure was not well laid out, hence giving room of manipulation and access lapses. Unfortunately, the media has been more ruthless with regard to exposing project failures in the public sector with little regard to the on goings in the private sector. If the net was to be cast wider, we would be witnessing worse scenarios in the private sector, where secrecy is paramount. Listening to different versions on why heading south is the norm for most complex ERP projects in Kenya, some key words come to mind as follows: Change
All is not lost though and we have some excellent case studies on several ERP implementations that have been done quite well
Management, Process Alignment, Project Management, and Procurement. The failure to adopt rigourous Project and Change Management strategies seem more encompassing with most players claiming that change is often tackled as an afterthought. Research has shown that well executed projects take pride in paying attention to Change Management as much as Project Management. Whereas Project Management is about Implementation with a focus on a plan built around events and timelines with the aim of getting from a current state to a future state , Change Management is about adoption with a focus on the people aspects; the aim being to getting commitment and buying from all the stakeholders involved. It’s common knowledge that the Project Management and Change Management fields are still involving in Kenya. It’s no excuse for not investing in them, without which an ERP implementation will be doomed to fail, as happened in most institutions across the country. Besides Project and Change Management issues, Process alignment also comes forefront as a common cause for pain points and failures of massive scales. In one prominent institution in Kenya, a 200 million shilling ERP system failed terribly and upon scrutiny I was surprised that a new state of the art system was being implemented on top of processes that had been in existence for almost twenty five years. What followed thereafter was an exercise in futile to customize the new system to fit into the old processes. The rest is history and a story for another day. All is not lost though and we have some excellent case studies on several ERP implementations that have been done quite well.
www.cio.co.ke
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
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OPINION |
SAM MWANGI
The NOFBI Project: SUCCESS OR FAILURE? In 2007, three companies were awarded the tender to lay out the National Optical Fibre Backbone Infrastructure (NOFBI) which covered 5,000 kilometers at a cost of $37 Million.
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his was a new dawn to the most of the remote parts of the country that were seeking broadband access to the Internet. The companies included Sagem, Huawei and ZTE and were split into three sections namely Western Kenya, Coast and North Eastern, and Central — each region handled by one company. Sagem has laid out cables in Coast and North Eastern, Huawei in Nairobi and Central, and ZTE laid in Western Kenya. The infrastructure was essential in linking the regions with the various undersea cables that connect the country to other parts of the world. The government settled on Telkom Kenya to manage the infrastructure because access points terminate inside the firm’s building and government institutions such as police stations. However, following the privatization of Telkom Kenya, and the need to make the infrastructure available to other private operators, the government saw the need to look for a company that would manage the infrastructure on its behalf. The government signed a deal with Telkom Kenya in which the company would have to pay access fees just like other private operators and get a commission for managing the infrastructure on behalf of the government. The open access model gave operators access on equal terms, thus eliminating the possibility of the operators using it as an advantage and increasing the cost. In the second of the project in 2012, Kenya secured a concessional loan worth 6.12 billion Kenyan shillings from the China Exim Bank for the construction of national fiber optic infrastructure and e-government projects through eight major towns and 36 districts. According to the Kenyan Aid
Unreliability of NOFBI has compelled most operators to roll out parallel fiber or microwave backbone under pressure to provide quality service their customers.
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Management Platform, the project was expected to finish by June 30, 2016. The Kenyan Aid Management Platform also reported that, as of November 28, 2013, 2.55 billion KES in loans had been disbursed. The Ministry of ICT was about to expand Kenya’s fibre optic coverage with an additional 1,600KM of NOFBI, in which all 47 County Governments are earmarked for connection. The then ICT Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Fred Matiang’i launched the project on 22nd September 2014 in Embu County. The construction begun in September 2014 and was expected to be complete by June 2016. The implementation of the project would ease communication across counties as well as improve government service delivery to the citizens such as application of national identity cards, passports and registration of birth and death certificates. Have all the counties been connected? Can the citizenry access government services more easily? Have operators leased capacity on the NOFBI and is it under high utilization? According to the ICT Authority, 1200Km out of the 1600KM civil works are complete, 900Km of fibre has been laid in the backbone section, the backbone section is now complete and fibre installed in all the 47 counties, capacity to connect Kajiado County HQ will be sourced from other operators whose fibre is along the power line to Namanga and Metropolitan fibre civil works has been completed in 35 of 47 counties. NOFBI Phase 1 is already in use in the national government, Telkom, Safaricom, Jamii Telecom and KENET utilizing more than 3,000KM of the cable. The operations and maintenance of NOFBI Phase 1 is being handled by Telkom. There is a lot the can be done better. There is misalignment of the government and private sector strategies leading to low utilization of the infrastructure and redundant efforts, replicating the same fiber infrastructure in some areas. Some operators are concerned with the lack of service level agreements, compensation of any downtime experience, with the Telkom Kenya who are managing the NOFBI network. Unreliability of NOFBI has compelled most operators to roll out parallel fiber or microwave backbone under pressure to provide quality service their customers. What about consolidation of the NOFBI and KPLC networks to form a common consortium owned by government? Considering the massive infrastructure that KPLC owns and the fact that light signals in fiber cables are not affected by electrical power, rolling out the backbone fiber should have been less of challenge. With Kenya’s vision to be an ICT hub, NOFBI would serve such an essential roll if there was synergy between government and private sector, improvement on reliability and collaboration between different government entities. www.cio.co.ke
OPINION |
JPETER MUYA
What Is an ERP In Ordinary Language? “In ordinary language, what is an ERP exactly?” This is a question that posed during an interactive session on one of the local media station.
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he subject had captured national attention because of the impact it had created in the enterprise where this project was conducted. It was a fair question in a bid to unravel such a monstrous term that seemed to carry huge investment figures for which there was difficulty ascertaining the end product. The difficulty of a tangile end product may have been the context upon which the question was posed to the guest speaker.
Wikipedia dates the industrial revolution period to have occured between 1760 and 1840. In this period production moved from hand production methods to machines thereby improving efficiency giving rise to the factory system. With increased demand for goods, the need for faster production to meet rising demand required better methods of production planning from raw materials, processing, storage and distribution. This gave rise to terms like Total Quality Management for quality improvement of processes. In the 60s advancement in computing led to creation of inventory control systems whose job was to manage the inputs to production and the output of production. Roughly, these were the humble beginnings to what is presently referred to as an ERP. With this backdrop, it is safe to say that the context of conception of an ERP was rise in demand for goods and services. The growth of the building blocks, of what is presently more than just a solution to manage inputs or outputs, was organic. It was based on the need to automate or integrate on one hand, and the ability to do it and knowhow on the other. In its infancy, an embryonic ERP may have had inventory management capabilities but on one thought that the clocking system and payroll process for casual laborers would require some kind of integration / consolidation until decades later.
This was a rare moment for such a sector specific term that typically would be discussed in an IT project team to be lectured on national TV for an audience that may have had little understanding of it. Google search on the term “ERP” returns 88,900,000 results while a search on the term “Enterprise Resource Planning” returns 6,520,000 results. This is evidence that alot has been written about the subject. Just like the word cloud picture illustrates, some definitions have explained the acronyms very well but possibly offered little insight into the meaning behind the words. Others have mixed up the terms while others may have scrambled the definitions to create a totally new meaning that may remain meanginless to a curious customer. Many if not all reading this article have been exposed to the term and the definition of the acronym. Many others many have been exposed to components and the conventional packaging of capabilities that comprise an ERP. Perhaps at best that is the defintion we been exposed to, taught others about and are satisfied with. Context Is King(TM), so the adage goes. But more than a cliche, it is important to examine the context of ERP in order to better understand why ERP in the first place. www.cio.co.ke
Over 50 years later since the embryo developed, what can be said of the successes of the capabilities of an ERP? What is the guarantee that a packaged can ERP deliver on all requirements in which it they were acquired? Are there cases of near-to-100% match of requirements-to-capability for successful implementations? How can these be exposed before a decision to invest is made? These are the questions investors need to ask.
The Author - Peter Muya, is an award enterprise transformation practitioner, possessing 15 years experience conducting mid and large-scale transformation projects in the telecommunications, financial services and public sector industries. He is the co-founder and a managing partner of PTI Consulting, a pan-African consulting practice providing ICT related business advisory services Web: www.pticonsulting.co.ke Email: peter.muya@pearltouchint.com
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
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HardTALK |
BOBBY YAWE
ICT and Business Continuity It is unfortunate that as organisations have become more dependent on ICT the less critically it is considered by management as essential to the businesses continued existence.
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the servers in the data centre have been in service for over 5 years. Clearly the image of the MD while stuck in traffic is more important to the operation of the organisation than the core applications sitting in an overheating space with a warped raised floor and installed on equipment many years past their retire by date.
he irony is that when ICT was responsible for less than 10% of the organisations activities it had greater priority than it has today when 90% of an organisations activities are very dependent on the services provided by ICT.
Today organisations are highly dependent on the operations of technology but because they have become so transparent that, there has been a tendency not to take its importance seriously.
When I compare this, it becomes clear that when ICT was more a status symbol it had greater prominence than today when it is a critical requirement in the survival of the organisation.
It is scary when you walk into the data centre of an organisation and find a retired desktop patched on the floor being used to run critical operations all because finance sees no reason to buy servers for such a basic activity like SMS alerts.
As we have concentrated more on working with ICT departments to upgrade their primary and secondary data centres it has become clearer where the priorities of management lie. A case in point being in a resent encounter with management of a leading organisation who had called us in to discuss our cost estimates for a proposed data centre upgrading we had recommended. The discussion was more like the haggling you would expect in a fresh produce market place with items eliminated based on price rather than functionality. Note that a majority of those in the room where not from the ICT department but mainly finance and procurement, with the ICT representatives sitting docilely at the table unable to defend the proposal most likely due to previous frequent dress-downs when trying to request budget allocations. To cut a long story short, the data centre upgrade has been postponed to the next financial year while the funds have been used to buy the managing director a new four wheel drive vehicle to replace the 3 year old one while
Today organisations are highly dependent on the operations of technology ...
CIO EAST AFRICA | AUGUST 2016
Scarier is when the organisation only has a single site and is dependent on backups done onto the hard disk on a local machine in the same server room. With cheap cloud storage services available both locally and internationally it is unfathomable why an organisation should take such risks. I worked for an audit firm at some time in my past and thus learned to appreciate the need for financial audits of an organisation not only to prevent theft but also as a way to test the businesses ability to continue operating as a going concern. Having run away from the world of figures to those of bits and bytes it always, and still does, perplexed me why the audit activity did not include the business infrastructure with ICT being one. Thus when an audit report indicates that the business has the ability to be a going concern for the next 12 months yet the servers Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF)is close to zero invalidates the statement. I know this is article is published in an ICT publication so it is the responsibility of those of you in the industry to share it with those who sit pretty in their corner offices believing that the business is solid. My proposal is to cut off this article, frame it and then hang it in the board room as without the ICT systems the business cannot be considered a going concern.
www.cio.co.ke
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