VOL 8 | ISSUE 12 | www.cio.co.ke
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December 2016/ January 2017
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KENNETH OGWANG CIO of the Year 2016
Kshs. 300 Ushs. 9,000 Tshs. 6,000 RWF. 2,200 Rest of the World US $ 9
An publication
Ambitious taxi haling App - Mondo Ride to bring new products - CEO
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Microsoft’s Kunle Awosika on driving business transformation through cloud services
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Eziki TV providing an alternative to traditional broadcasting
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EFFICIENCY THROUGH INNOVATION
ISYX Technologies Africa Ltd
1335 Regus, Floor 13, Delta Corner Tower II, Chiromo Road, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya.
MIDDLE EAST AFRICA UK INDIA
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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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Davis Weddi
Brace yourselves for surprises in 2017 THE WRITING IS ALREADY ON THE WALL. USE TECHNOLOGY SPARINGLY. IN ONE COUNTRY CALLED CAMEROON, SOCIALIZING USING DIGITAL CHANNELS LIKE FACEBOOK IS LIKELY TO LAND ONE IN BIG TROUBLE.
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an you imagine the government has launched a campaign against social media, which the government-owned Cameroon Tribune says is “fast becoming a threat to peace and a secret instrument of manipulation” promoting “character destruction, destabilization of public opinion and deformation of facts among others.” Now, while that is happening in the Central African country, there are developments that are starting to shape up the new way consumers of news will be accessing and consuming it. At the just concluded CIO100 Symposium (2016), those present and attentive witnessed how one newspaper is starting to react to the change in audience dynamics. According to Paul Ikanza the IT Chief at Uganda’s Vision Group, the new frontier for news dissemination is Mobile and no longer will the printed newspaper rule. Sales have for a fact declined drastically. Vision Group has decided to follow up a new type of audience right into their pockets and the palms of their hands. With 2.5 million smart phones in circulation in Uganda, it is worthwhile to consider and muse oneself with attempting to drop the costly printed newspaper which is only circulated to only 35,000. The mathematics to consider here is big time and very enticing to a business mind. Moreover, there is just enough space for multiplicity of opportunities
for advertisers on the mobile platform let alone having such a large crowd (2.5million people carrying smart phones) to disseminate their marketing content to. For that reason Mr. Ikanza and his team are hopefully spawning one of Africa’s best responses to decline in newspaper sales. It remains to be seen what Ikanza and his team will accomplish in 2017, but it must be surprising. No wonder he walked away with the CIO100 Best media and entertainment Award for his company. In this last issue of 2016 and first for 2017, we have brought to you the man who took the CIO of the year 2016 Award. Mr. Kenneth Ogwang has shared the secrets that propelled him and his team to the top position. We also bring you strategic and very important insights from a leader at Microsoft. Kunle Awosika, the Country Manager Microsoft tells us about cloud being business transformation and digital disruption. We also managed to get an interesting story about Jessica Colaço - a TED fellow who co-foundered the iHub in Nairobi with Erik Hersman in 2010 read on. 2017 will be a year of bigger opportunities, watch this space and stick to us. Otherwise, while you are reminded to take good care of your techie stuff this December, we at CIO East Africa wish you all the best during the festive season.
TO CONTACT ME:
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
QUOTED VERBATIM
Kenneth Ogwang Head of IT East Africa Breweries Limited (EABL)
“In a fast paced Industry, decisions are made on the go. Time is money and time wasted is opportunity foregone. With the coming in of cloud and use of mobile devices, communication through email doesn’t have to be done at your desk. An approval necessary to crack a deal can be done just as you board the plane.”
FROM OUR ONLINE LOCATIONS Five most popular stories on www.cio.co.ke
Oracle Digital Day 2016 now on its third leg kicks off in Nairobi E-directories launched for Ugandan, Kenyan IT businesses #CIO100AwardsEA: Equity Group CEO says Majority CIOs will be future CEOs #CIO100AwardsEA: Seven Government projects helping drive digital transformation
Delano Longwe Columnist CIO East Africa
Kunle Awosika Country Manager Microsoft
Bob Yawe Columnist CIO East Africa
“Technically speaking with the era of President Donald Trump agility and accuracy become a far more important aspect of living vicariously as did the invisible wizards behind his highly successful trouncing of the Clinton campaign through an almost unlimited and ceaseless budget pumped into a data and analytics driven campaign.”
“The cloud is the Tsunami and 80% of the Fortune Companies have now moved to the cloud .IT managers need to embrace and adopt the cloud. It is very clear that company budgets continue to be constrained. Everyone is talking of doing more for less and the cloud has very positive advantages especially around cost and still allows scalability and reliability of their data and will continue to grow.”
“You can imagine being in the theatre room with your chest open then you burst a vein, do you want a doctor who can make a quick decision that will save your life but you lose a leg or one who opts to leave the remainder of the procedure to the pathologist?”
#CIO100AwardsEA: East African CIOs should lead digital innovation at their organisation
Five top facebook.com/ cioeastafrica posts with highest reach Ken Ogwang of East African breweries Ltd Takes 2016 CIO of the Year Award – #CIO100AwardsEA @visionwire (Vision Group) ICT chief Paul Ikanza Receiving the Media Award at the #CIO100AwardsEA 2016. Djiba Diallo, the Startup Engagement Lead, Microsoft4Africa (https://www.facebook.com/ MicrosoftAfrica) speaking about the support for #CIO100AwardsEA session on the DEMO Africa Traction. Moses Gesami - Business Development Manager Total Solutions presenting on Tapping the IoT opportunity and converged infrastructure. The CIOs in a Panel at CIO100AwardsEA, Jack Maina (Britam), Inocent Muhizi (Access Bank), Bobby Yawe (CIO East Africa - moderator), Joan Ambutu (Uniliver) and George Njuguna (HF).
Five top tweets with the highest reaction Kiambu County ICT Director, Kiambu County, takes the stage during the launch of free WIFI in the county. Korea tops Global ICT Development Index for the second straight year #wtis2016 Bloomberg just announced a new Bloomberg website that will be focused on Africa http:// bloomberg.com/Africa #ABMI2016 “If you have two dollars, invest one dollar in people and the second dollar in processes” - advice by @ MrBankole to entrepreneurs #ABMI2016 EABL CIO Ken Ogwang with his trophy after winning the CIO of the year 2016.
www.cio.co.ke | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA
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GUEST EDITORIAL
BY DELANO LONGWE
TECHNOLOGY TANTRUMS FROM THE KENYA ICT AUTHORITY PRESENTATION ON DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR TO THE MANY CASE STUDIES AND THE KEYNOTE PRESENTATION THE RECENTLY CONCLUDED CIO 100 AWARDS HAS LEFT US WITH MORE ANSWERS THAN QUESTIONS.
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ot only did the 2016 event surpass the prior year’s event in terms of quality and matters addressed but the maturity gained from industry experience is beginning to reflect through the wide range of successful undertakings both in the public and the private sector. This therefore goes to show that carefully selected partners do make an impact in building effective organizations through the use of relevant and precisely managed solutions and services. Its take a while to grow to this stage but we’re here, a good place to be, where our digital sons and daughters have grown up and the technology tantrums of the past no longer loom over our day to day financial and operational activities in terms of unpredicted cost centers and surprising downtimes. The world is as it were our oyster from which we can with time pick and choose predictable paths to our own success no longer worrying about the infrastructure road beneath us but constantly focusing on the expected destination deliverables and always choosing routes that are more pleasant in terms of the user experience and
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the bigger scenarios and vista’s that are dotted all over in places we previously never had a chance to take a look at. It’s the fresh new breeze of a mature IT society led with confidence from the Public Sector and driven dominantly from the private sector and era when trouble and hardship cannot say no to the success and triumph of achievable e-glory or m-glory depending on which side of the enterprise you’re coming from. Technically speaking with the era of President Donald Trump agility and accuracy become a far more important aspect of living vicariously as did the invisible wizards behind his highly successful trouncing of the Clinton campaign through an almost unlimited and ceaseless budget pumped into a data and analytics driven campaign run mostly through his son in law the likes of which has never been seen on this planet and to which he adhered to with unbending and unflinching trust that proved all the archaic and outdated political pundits and polls absolutely and quite ridiculously wrong. It was a world sized tremor, a digital earthquake of
such magnificent proportions that it did exactly that, it shook our world. The lessons learnt from this may go a long way in many directions but certainly for the most of us it will question the faith of what we should believe in when the truth is just a technology investment away and you can be spared years of wasted efforts and negative returns by only being willing to listen to that uncomfortable voice that is talking about your technology future without the discomfort of a tantrum. A newly emerging trend that echoes these changes is the fact that even money as we know it is changing and we’re now learning through Blockchain technology and the steady rise of Bitcoin that the disruption cannot be stopped. Many Central Banks have now taken a stance to work steadily towards adopting the new entrant this means that fiscal and monetary policy will be influenced by cryptocurrencies in the future. That said in Africa we lag behind the world in only one respect, the ability to scale our demand and expectations in the IT world to a global scale. Apart from Ushahidi that played a role in the recently concluded US Election, and kudos to Juliana Rotich and her team for that, very little of what value we create and innovations that we develop are capable of moving the needle on a global scale or perhaps we are guilty of not pushing hard enough or trying hard enough to achieve the pinnacles of worldwide fame for the fear of failure. It’s high time that our industry, nay our entire society believed enough in itself to stand up and say it’s time to make Africa great again.
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
CONTENTS
DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 6 Technology Tantrums 8 InBrief 9 Appointments 10 Regional RoundUP ADVERTORIAL
FEATURE
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Infrastructure, Security & Service defined 2016
TREND LINES
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What Kiambu County should expect from the newly launched free WI-FI initiative
INTERVIEW
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Ambitious taxi haling App - Mondo Ride to bring new products - CEO
PICTORIAL
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TREND LINES
Cover story:
Kenneth Ogwang CIO of the Year 2016 IT AND LEADERSHIP
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Microsoft’s Kunle Awosika on driving business transformation through cloud services
6th Annual CIO 100 Symposium and Awards
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Smartphone trends to watch in 2017 LG boosts picture clarity with its new LG OLED 4K televisions in Kenya
START UP CORNER
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Eziki TV providing an alternative to traditional broadcasting
www.cio.co.ke | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA
Speed to drive CIO agenda in 2017
PRODUCT REVIEW
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Huawei Mate 9: A powerful device with a great battery-life
OPINION
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Connectivity and ICT as a driver for business innovation
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How IT Executives can sell to a Board
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The Worrying Numbers?
Disruptive Technologies in the Insurance Industry
Hard TALK
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A Profession Disrupted
WOMEN & TECH
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Jessica Colaco, on the Ihub journey and her new venture
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IN BRIEF AROUND
AIF INVITES IVORY COAST, SENEGAL, AND TOGO TO BID TO HOST IPA 2017 THE AFRICAN INNOVATION FOUNDATION (AIF) WILL EMBARK ON A SERIES OF ROADSHOWS IN IVORY COAST, SENEGAL, AND TOGO TO MEET WITH KEY STAKEHOLDERS AND DISCUSS THE BIDDING PROCESS TO HOST THE PREMIER EVENT ON THE AFRICAN CONTINENT, THE INNOVATION PRIZE FOR AFRICA (IPA).
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hrough these roadshows, AIF will build partnerships with key government leaders, private companies, institutional organizations, innovation enablers and investors. The delegation will host a range of meetings and presentations to enlist wider public and private sector participation in IPA 2017, themed Africa Innovation: Investing in Prosperity
VODAFONE FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES MOBILE-BASED HIV PROGRAMME IN LESOTHO THE VODAFONE FOUNDATION ANNOUNCED A MOBILE-BASED HIV PROGRAMME IN LESOTHO, WHERE AN ESTIMATED 23% OF THE POPULATION IS HIV POSITIVE, MANY OF WHOM LIVE IN EXTREME POVERTY IN REMOTE RURAL COMMUNITIES SEPARATED BY MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN WITH MINIMAL INFRASTRUCTURE.
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he Vodafone Foundation programme combines Vodafone’s M-Pesa mobile money service – which is widely used across sub-Saharan Africa – with travelling clinics and a smartphone app designed for healthcare professionals which enables the tracking of patients in remote areas.
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AROUND the
WORLD BRITAIN’S WARTIME CODEBREAKING BASE COULD HOST A NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY COLLEGE PLANS ARE AFOOT TO BUILD THE U.K.’S FIRST NATIONAL COLLEGE OF CYBER SECURITY AT BLETCHLEY PARK, THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE COUNTRY’S WARTIME CODEBREAKING EFFORTS.
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t was at Bletchley Park that Colossus, the world’s first electronic computer, was built during World War II to crack the Lorenz code used by the German high command. Bletchley is also where Alan Turing developed some of his mathematical theories of computing while working on breaking the enigma code. After the war the site fell into disrepair, but parts of it have been restored and now house the U.K.’s National Museum of Computing. Other buildings at Bletchley Park, though, are still vacant and it is in one of those that Qufaro, a company founded only last year, hopes to set up a cyber security school. The company’s directors include Margaret Sale, widow of one of the museum’s founders, and Alastair MacWillson, an IT security consultant. Qufaro’s ambitious plan for the site includes offering virtual courses on cyber security, and a specialist school offering young people a path to become cyber security professionals.
MAKE COMPANIES PAY FULL COST OF BREACHES TO RESTORE TRUST IN THE INTERNET, SAYS ISOC FAKE NEWS, ONLINE BANKING THEFTS AND DATA BREACHES: IT’S NO WONDER THAT TRUST IN THE INTERNET IS AT AN ALL-TIME LOW.
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ut don’t worry: The Internet Society has a five-step plan for restoring faith in the network of networks. The first step is to put users first, according to ISOC, which published its 2016 Global Internet Report on Thursday. That involves being more transparent (step two) about risk and the incidence of data breaches and prioritizing data security (step three) to ensure breaches don’t happen. ISOC isn’t just a talking shop, it is also the organisational home of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), source of many of the protocols and standards on which the internet relies. That adds weight to the more detailed recommendations on how to prioritize security contained in the ISOC report. Step four, according to Michael Kende, the economist and ISOC Fellow who authored the report, is to make businesses accountable for data breaches. The fifth step ISOC proposes in the report is for businesses to send clearer signals about the level of security of their websites and the services they provide. CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
APPOINTMENTS ANDREW WAITITU GENERAL MANAGER HEALTHCARE, GE EAST AFRICA
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ndrew Waititu has been appointed as the new General Manager for Healthcare GE East Africa. Prior to GE East Africa, Mr. Waititu was the Managing Director for SAP East Africa Region. He led SAP East Africa from July 2010 working from the firm’s Nairobi office with a responsibility for P&L of the business across the greater East Africa region, the development of a sustainable engagement model that includes the growth into new markets and the development of new strategic business lines. Before joining SAP, Mr, Waititu worked at Microsoft, starting as a Channel Manager in 2001 before rising to the position of the Anti-Piracy Lead for the firm’s East and Southern Africa operation.
VINCENT BAGIIRE WAISWA – PERMANENT SECRETARY MINISTRY OF ICT, GOVERNMENT OF UGANDA
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incent Bagiire Waiswa has been appointed as Permanent Secretary of ICT and National Guidance for the Government of Uganda.
Mr. Bagiire is also the Chairman of Busoga Rural Open Source and Development Initiative (BROSDI) from 2003 to date. He was formerly the Member of Parliament for Bunya West constituency from May 2011 to May 2016. He was also the Managing Director for Hallmark Events and Promotions Ltd between February 2002 and May 2011. He served as the CEO of CIPESA from 2005 to 2010.
EDDY MABANO KAYIHURA - CIO BANK OF KIGALI
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ddy Mabano Kayihura has joined Bank of Kigali to serve in a new role as the Bank’s Chief Information Technology Officer where he will oversee the development of a full-bodied digital strategy to drive Bank of Kigali’s technology delivered services. Mr. Kayihura has 17 years of high level experience in Information Technology related business. Since 2013, he has been the Chief Executive Officer of Broadband Systems Corporation (BSC) an Internet Service Provider in Rwanda focusing on service delivery to Major Corporates using Fiber and 4G connectivity. Between September 2011 and September 2013, Mr. Kayihura was BSC Deputy Chief Technology Officer charged with leading a team of 30 engineers to operate the largest fiber backbone in Rwanda, Mobile WiMax and Data Center. Mr. Kayihura has various highly specialized trainings including in Mobile Communication and Broadband, obtained from South Korea, this, on top of a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology from the University of Rwanda. He’s currently pursuing an (online) MBA in International Business at Oklahoma Christian University.
www.cio.co.ke | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA
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REGIONAL ROUND-UP
COMPILED BY JEANETTE OLOO
INTERNET BLACKOUT FORCES YOUNG ETHIOPIANS TO GO RETRO SINCE ETHIOPIA DECLARED A SIX-MONTH STATE OF EMERGENCY, MOBILE DATA AND NUMEROUS SOCIAL MEDIA SITES HAVE BEEN BLOCKED LEADING YOUNG PEOPLE TO ADOPT ‘OLD-SCHOOL’ SOLUTIONS FOR MAINTAINING THEIR SOCIAL LIVES.
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ouse parties in Addis Ababa aren’t what they used to be. This is one of the consequences of the Ethiopian government’s declaration of a six-month state of emergency that you don’t tend to hear about. Admittedly, the declaration made on Oct. 9 appears to be having the desired effect as protests previously rocking the Oromia and Amhara regions have calmed down. But a swathe of internet restrictions - including blocked mobile data and social media sites - remain very much in place. And no one is sure for how long they’ll remain, whether they’ll be relaxed before the state of emergency’s has run its full course or whether they might even be extended.
TELECOM FIRMS HURRY TO MEET SHARE LISTING DEADLINE IN TANZANIA BY END NOVEMBER 2016, MOBILE PHONE COMPANIES IN TANZANIA WERE REPORTED TO BE IN A HURRY TO BEAT A GOVERNMENT DEADLINE TO LIST THEIR SHARES ON THE LOCAL MARKET BY THE END OF 2016.
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anzania’s eight operators are legally required to have 25 percent local ownership by 3st December 2016. They include Vodafone subsidiary Vodacom, Millicom subsidiary Tigo, and a local unit of India’s Bharti Airtel. Reports indicated that the companies were left with a choise of facing a prospect of being fined or having their network operating licences suspended. Although foreigners are allowed to buy listed shares, the Tanzanian telecoms law restricts buyers in the new listings to Tanzanians. President John Magufuli, was quoted as saying the move will bring more transparency and offer the public a share in the industry’s profits. While analysts say rushing through public offerings could lead to unsold shares, given that only Tanzanians are allowed to buy them. “There’s a lack of realism.” The Dar es Salaam Stock Exchange has a market capitalisation of $9.3 billion, while Salim has estimated that the total market capitalisation for all the telecoms firms amounts to $2.5 billion. 10
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
REGIONAL ROUND-UP
ICT LEGISLATORS TOUR BACKBONE AND INFRASTRUCTURE INSTALLATIONS IN UGANDA UGANDA’S PARLIAMENTARY ICT COMMITTEE HAS TOURED INSTALLATIONS OF THE NATIONAL DATA TRANSMISSION BACKBONE INFRASTRUCTURE AND EGOVERNMENT INFRASTRUCTURE (NBI/EGI) IN DIFFERENT TOWNS OF UGANDA TO GAIN APPRECIATION OF THE ROLL OUT AND IMPLEMENTATION STATUS OF THE PROJECTS.
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he Natioal IT Authority – Uganda (NITA-U) is currently implementing Phase 3 (expected to be completed by 2017) of the NBI and will cover the Districts of Masaka, Mbarara and Kabale. Phase 3 will extend connectivity to the border points with Tanzania and Rwanda at Mutukula and Katuna respectively. NITA explains on its website that the overall objective is to provide connectivity to Government Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs) and Local Governments through optical fiber cable backbone. According to NITA-U, this is intended to enhance data transmission and other e-Government Services across Government thus increasing efficiency and effectiveness of communication as well as service delivery to the citizens. ICT Committee Chairperson Turyahikayo Mary Paul emphasized the need to advance e-Government initiatives to improve Government efficiency in service delivery to citizens. Through the installations, connectivity has so far been extended to 174 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) and Local Governments (LGs) 102 MDAs are to be connected in between 2016 and 2017.
RWANDA GOVERNMENT IN PARTNERSHIP WITH MICROSOFT RWANDA’S EDUCATION MINISTRY AND MICROSOFT CORPORATION HAVE ENTERED INTO A PARTNERSHIP THAT WILL SEE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION THE COUNTRY’S EDUCATION SECTOR.
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eports from Kigali say the partnership aims at enabling speedy digital transformation of the education sector. The partnership includes benefits like the ‘Smart Classrooms Initiative,’ which will complement the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) programme, according to officials. The partnership will also see over three million students and 61,000 teachers access Wi-Fi internet during learning. It has been reported that so far, implementation of the Smart Classroom is underway with 1,500 ‘smart’ classrooms being set up while 150 Microsoft Academies are being set up to help train students, teachers and local community. www.cio.co.ke | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA
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BY RAYMOND MACHARIA
ADVERTORIAL
Infrastructure, Security & Service defined 2016 The industry has reached a point where decent infrastructure is ubiquitous with the industry thanks to increased Fibre reach in counties.
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n the year, we experienced at least two major losses on the submarine cables but without a significant loss of service owing to increased stability on backbone infrastructure. We have enjoyed more stability of service owing to the entry of more players in the market which has intensified competition and helped boost resiliency. This kind of competition has also led to growth in the number of data Centers some of which are complete while others are still underway, this can only translate into more and better service upon completion. Not too long ago, the buzz word in the ICT circles was Cloud! Today, it has actually matured into an actual service that is understood by users. In 2015 it was a novelty but
now it is a critical part of building resiliency for IT infrastructure Looking at the market, there is a seemingly better understanding of threats but with the appreciation of risks is still low. While users are well aware of threats they have not taken as much precaution or haven’t been affected yet, so everybody is confident that they’re doing it right. However, when you look closely, there are increased risks that have been brought on by increased capacity on personal devices and to businesses, exposing us to high level attacks.
IN 2017… Locally, I anticipate that most Data centers will be in production by mid-2017, an addition that provides more choice for users. I would also expect to see more adoption of IoT albeit in small scale by various industries as players get to understand what it is about. As we prepare for a general election, there will be heightened interest by businesses looking for better back-up, disaster Recovery and co-location, which could eventually make BCP relevant and increase uptake. The Business environment will be looking at more economical ways of delivering service at lesser costs as a measure of self-preservation and as a cushion against potential investor flight in the wake of our general elections. On a personal level, increased attention on the political goings on may also portend increased exposure to cyber-attacks as individuals expose themselves more online and opponents seek out ways of dealing with competition. Therefore there is need to take extra precaution online as well as securing personal devices. As the region also continues recording growth in connectivity tied to growth in business and renewed aggression in reviving regional economic blocks and harmonized regional cooperation, I expect to see infrastructure upgrades that will support this growth, in anticipation of bigger trade and therefore demand of services by citizens. Globally, software defined networks will become mainstream. The autor is Head of Network Planning and R&D at IS Kenya.
www.cio.co.ke | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA
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TREND LINES
BY BARAKA JEFWA
What Kiambu County should expect from the newly launched free WI-FI initiative Liquid Telecom and Kiambu County partnered to kick off a county wide free WI-FI initiative on the 24th November, at the Kiambu County government offices. The county becomes the second in Kenya to benefit from Liquid Telecom’s Wi-Fi project after Nakuru County.
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he technology we will be using here is the same technology that we used for the Nakuru WI-FI. In Kiambu we will use the same technology and that technology will give you, once set up in various WI-FI zones, access speeds of beyond 10 Megabyte per Second per user, that means it is a speed that is quite high and lets you do a lot of things in terms of connectivity, in terms of online access, in terms of online banking and many other things,” said Hans Haerdtle, CTO, liquid Telecom,East Africa ground breaking ceremony for the initiative. “The access will be done in two phases, the access radios of each location will be plus/minus a kilometre or two so in five locations we cover an access radius of about five kilometres, the radius of which you will be able to access the free Wi-Fi,” added Haerdtle. The first phase of the free Wi-Fi will target the four largest towns in Kiambu County, which include; Thika, Kikuyu, Ruiru and Kiambu Town. The other remaining Sub-Counties, which include; Limuru, Kabete Lari,Gatundu North, Gatundu South, Githunguri, Kiambaand Juja, will be connected in the second phase. Liquid Telecom is in a vision of connecting every citizen on Africa, in order to accelerate economic growth and alleviate poverty. In Kenya, Liquid Telecom Kenya has invested more than$20m in the last three years in projects such as; the free street Internet in Nakuru, and Kiambu; laying 4,200km of fibre optic network;built state-of-the-art metro fibre rings in Nairobi, Kisumu, Nakuru, Garissa, Mombasa, Kilifi, and Eldoret; and has developed new, low-cost satellite technologies to connect rural areas. During the ground breaking,Kiambu County Minister for Education and ICT,Mrs. Esther Ndirangu, took the stage to highlight why the free Wi-Fi will be important in Kiambu, which has fully embraced technology, pointing out that it will allow citizens ease of access to both services and information. “Liquid Telecom approached us and said, we have seen Kiambu County is doing a good job in ICT but you are complaining that
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most of your citizens, much as you go to; e-procurement, e-citizen and recently we launched the eDAMS, but they were asking how are you going to manage these people? How will they be accessing the internet, so that with their Digitika card they get what they need?” Mrs. Ndirangu added. Across all of Liquid’s investments, its vision of achieving Internet access for every citizen of Africa is driven by the understanding that highspeed Internet connectivity delivers a direct impact in accelerated economic growth. Businesses also benefit from the introduction of Internet, a Deloitte study found that connections reduced small businesses’ transaction costs and enabled a reach to wider markets, increasing productivity by up to 11 per cent, in Mexico, Malaysia and Morocco. Hon. William Kabogo, Kiambu County Governor, took to the stage during the ground breaking, and in his speech echoed the findings of the Deloitte study by saying that Citizens of Kiambu County should be looking at the free Wi-Fi as a business enabler and a tool of self-employment.
Other Counties benefiting from Liquid Telecom’s connectivity projects In a 2013 report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and Society for International Development (SID), Lamu, Tana River, Kwale and Kilifi counties led in the poverty index with the residents experiencing problems of low income, expenditure and immense inequality.
Against this backdrop, Liquid Telecom last year completed major infrastructure investments in both Kwale and Kilifi counties. The Kwale government wireless connection now spans across the four sub-county offices in Matuga, Kinango, LungaLunga and Msambweni, including the county headquarters, covering an estimate radius of 36km. The connection has enabled the county government to increase access to information on business fee levy rates, with local entrepreneurs now able to submit and file their tax payments and bills online, has made it easier for the county to process submissions for business licences by start-up entrepreneurs, and driven the development and roll out of the county’s new ICT policy. In Kilifi, Liquid Telecom Kenya has invested Sh36.4m in Internet infrastructure, providing a 10km radius Wide Area Network (WAN) to Kilifi County Government and connecting more than 50 organisations in the county.
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
BY DAVIS WEDDI
INTERVIEW
AMBITIOUS TAXI HALING APP - MONDO RIDE TO BRING NEW PRODUCTS - CEO Troels Andersen, Global CEO of Taxi hailing App – Mondo Ride was recently in Kenya. CIO East Africa caught up with him at the company’s office at Nairobi’s Upper Hill for a Question & Answer session. The excerpts follow…
CIO EA: Give us a brief background about Mondo Ride? Troels Andersen: Mondo Ride is a smart transportation application which was founded in Saudi Arabia in 2014, we are now in three different countries: Saudi, Tanzania and Kenya. We have been in a pilot period for the past 6-8 months. We have seen a lot of activities in the market and we really wanted to come up with a robust and localized products that I think that we are finally here with. What is Mondo Ride strategy and policy about global business and how you’re applying this on the market especially here in Africa? Our strategy is to become the number one transportation provider in general in Africa. It is every citizen’s right to have access to safe, easy, affordable transportation and that is what we want to achieve. Kenya is a technology hub in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is a perfect place to have a market entry. Penetration is very high compared to rest of Africa and while many people don’t have smartphones, what we’ve done for the past six months is making sure that people without a smartphone can place an order where one calls the call center and gives the directions and a taxi will be arranged 24/7.
What are your expansion plans? We have set our eyes on Mombasa, we’ve seen a some completion and are having good traction in Mombasa. We have a lot of clients who go between Mombasa and Nairobi for work and have suggested we expand to Mombasa. We are spending a lot of time in Nairobi trying to figure out the type of product for Nairobi and Africa. So, the more time that we spend sort of optimising and finalising and testing the product. A lot of the technology hiccups that we saw earlier we have ironed out almost completely. I don’t think there is a technology company that does not have glitches once in a while. What strategic opportunities have you planned to bring into East Africa? Right now we have a couple of interested partnerships in the pipeline. As a young startup, what we rely right now is not so much as big corporate partnerships, it’s more the word of mouth effect. Later on we do have in the pipeline to tie up some large corporations. Are there any other businesses that Mondo is looking at in the region? Yes. One of them is the Motor Safari which I can’t disclose much about because we haven’t rolled it out yet. What you will see for the rest of the year is different categories on the lower part of our app with a couple of other interesting introductions which we will be rolling out pretty soon. In terms of deliveries, do you have any plans towards that direction? Yes. We have a lot of suggestions from clients that actually use the service right now but that’s for a very specific purpose. So it’s something that we have been testing out for quite some time. What about competition, where do you place yourself in with the local big two that is Uber and Little, who is better, is it MondoRide, Uber or Little (Cabs)? I believe that Mondo Ride gives the best service and that’s why we are here and that’s why I am here, that’s why the company is still here. If we didn’t do that then there is no reason for us to exist. I think
www.cio.co.ke | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA
15
INTERVIEW
BY DAVIS WEDDI
that Uber has been in the segment for quite some time and have a large fleet. We have managed to wrap up our own fleet to more than 1,500 drivers right now and growing very aggressively especially after the announcement that you know. Little of course has been on a pretty aggressive march, sprint over the summer and winter and you see them sort of spending a lot on marketing and we did not want to get into that game too early because there were a couple of things we needed to have ironed out on the technology side, on the product side and also on the supply side. Now that we’re here, we are ready to roll. One thing that I constantly get asked about is the “price war.” I don’t think it is a price war. I think it is the normalisation of prices and that is the reason we reduced our prices recently and also reduced the fee that we actually charge drivers. Right now we fixed the charge at 10% which is very fair and our drivers are able to earn a more money. Drivers in Nairobi sometimes own three phones for Uber, Little and Mondo Ride, any comments on that? We welcome our drivers to work on as many platforms as possible to maximize their income. If he wants to work for both, we welcome that too. We think fair competition should be in order. But we have a lot of drivers that work exclusively with Mondo and they get a lot of rides and have significantly increased their income and their livelihood - that is something that is of great comfort to us. Where do you see Mondo Ride in the next 5-10 years? If you look at the trajectory it has catapulted all over the world and my vision for Mondo is to be the Number One smart transportation provider in Africa and that is what we’re here to do. What is the next big thing in the Taxi space? The next big thing is figuring out how carpooling can be done safely. Carpooling is a big thing in the US, in Europe. How can you make it work here where let’s say that the safety levels is appalling than if you travelled alone. I think that is something that is very interesting in solving because then you move in from individual transportation to carpooling which is a lot of people 16
at the same time. Which is going to be more efficient, cheaper and the safety part is something that we are looking at very closely. But you will see that in the future. What are the biggest challenges ever faced by Mondo Ride since its inception and how were they solved? I think one of the biggest challenges that Mondo Ride has seen in Kenya for example once we did a market entry and we wanted to know was how do you gain a loyal customer startup when it’s just a teeny-weeny startup. How did we overcome it? We gradually continued on improving our product, improving the service, improving the fleet hand in hand over the last six months and we have seen a lot of users who take Mondo, who take the competition they come back. I spend a lot of time calling the customers personally, asking on feedback- what they like, what they don’t like and a lot of that information is actually showing in the product today. What advice do you have for IT business and IT leaders in East Africa with regard to innovation in this era of taxi hailing? Kenya, especially Nairobi, is very prone to new technologies. I think Uber, MondoRide and Little have been accepted pretty well in the Kenyan market. That is the reason why there is so many competition right now because there is big demand for transportation. Now looking at other segments, what are the
segments for? There are a billion other segments that you could go in to and make things better, safer, cheaper and so on. I think there is a huge potential, the economy has been going up rapidly for the past many years in Kenya. My advice to any technology, any IT CXO/ Leader in the segment is just Do It. If you are a first time entrepreneur you should not be afraid on executing your idea. If you’re more experienced you already have a big platform don’t be afraid to expand. You see a lot of foreign companies coming in and trying to start. We are also a foreign company and we have been trying for long time to make it as local as possible - the fact that we 90% of our staff here is local. What advice would you give to technology companies that want to enter the market? Find a local mentor that has potentially done it before, that knows the local market that knows the type of local pitfalls, how to navigate the legal system, that is going to ensure a smooth entry - that depends on the product, depends on the circumstances. We are service providers so we did everything mainly on our own with help from one of our investors ISON Technologies. ISON Technologies is part of the ISON Group which again also has ISON BPO, which is the biggest BPO provider in Africa. So that is a good backup to have if you plan to take over the continent with a smart taxi application.
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
BY ARTHUR KINTU
PICTORIAL
6th Annual CIO 100 Symposium and Awards ON NOVEMBER 10TH AND 11TH 2016, CIO EAST AFRICA HOSTED THE SIXTH ANNUAL CIO 100 SYMPOSIUM AND AWARDS AT ENASHIPAI SPA AND RESORT IN NAIVASHA, KENYA. CIO100 is an acknowledged mark of enterprise IT excellence. It’s a celebration of 100 organizations (and the people
within them) that is using information technology in innovative ways to deliver business value.
Nicholas Nesbit, GM, IBM East Africa (L)Neil Dwyer, CIO, Equity Bank (C) and Kunle Awosika, Country Manager Microsoft Kenya (R) having a conversation during the CIO 100 Symposium and Awards.
Part of the production team present at the CIO 100 Symposium and Awards.
Dr Joseph Sevilla, Director, @iLabAfrica, having a conversation with other guests during the Awards part of the CIO 100 Symposium and Awards.
Guests lining up to be served delicious food while waiting on the awards ceremony to begin at the CIO 100 Symposium and Awards.
Winner of the CIO of the year award, Kenneth Ogwang, Head of IT, EABL (C) gives acceptance speech while flanked by friends and the CIO East Africa Directors. www.cio.co.ke | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA
The regional ICT fraternity responded in big numbers and the result was pomp and splendor. Below are photos:
An audience member makes a comment at the CIO 100 Symposium as others look on curiously.
Kenneth Ogwang, Head of IT, EABL (L) Harry Hare, CEO, CIO East Africa (C) and Andrew Karanja, Director, CIO East Africa (R) having a conversation during the CIO 100 Symposium and Awards. 17
PICTORIAL
Jack Maina, CIO, Britam (Left) has a conversation with Dr. James Mwangi, Group CEO, Equity Group (Right) at the CIO 100 Symposium.
Innocent Muhizi, CIO of AB Bank poses a question as CIO 100 Symposium delegates look on.
Djiba Diallo, Startup Engagement Lead, Microsoft 4Africa (L) and Ashraf Abdel Wahab, CTO, 4Africa initiative pose for a photo during the CIO 100 Symposium.
Delegates at the CIO 100 Symposium listen keenly to an on-going discussion.
Jovial audience members paying close attention during a presentation at the 6th annual CIO 100 Symposium.
(L-R) Ronald Osumba, Moderator, Michael Njenga, CIO, Subaru Kenya, Moses Gesami, BDM, Total Solutions and William Makatiani, CEO, Serianu, pay close attention during a panel discussion at the CIO 100 Symposium. 18
Philip Obondy, Country Manager-Kenya, Sophos explains to delegates at CIO 100 Symposium about Sophos.
(L-R) Jack Maina, CIO, Britam, Innocent Muhizi, CIO, AB Bank, Bobby Yawe, Moderator, Joan Ambutu, Head of IT East Africa, Unilever Kenya and George Njuguna, CIO, HF Group on stage at the CIO 100 Symposium during a panel session.
Delegates at the CIO 100 Symposium and awards pay close attention.
Guests arrive at the registration desk for the 6th annual CIO 100 Symposium and awards.
Registered CIO 100 Symposium guests assigned their name tags for the event.
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
BY AGAM SHAH
V
irtual reality will spread to budget smartphones, and they will also have better graphics, higher resolution screens, and more storage. More than ever, you’ll be using your smartphone to pay for products and log into websites. Here are 10 smartphone trends to watch out for in 2017:
1.
New designs: The rumor mills are filled with new smartphone designs. The prominent rumors include Apple giving a facelift to its decade-old iPhone design and Samsung coming out with a folding smartphone. It’s not certain these will happen, but like every year, expect something new. This year, the hot trend was customizable smartphones like Moto Z and LG G5, which were partly inspired by Google’s now defunct Project Ara. Some innovations were unveiled in 2016, including Lenovo’s CPlus, a prototype folding smartphone that can be worn like a watch. LG and Samsung have also talked about smartphones with folding displays.
2.
Faster chips: Graphics will be smoother, and applications will run much faster on next year’s smartphones. Qualcomm has already announced the Snapdragon 835, which could be installed in some premium Android smartphones from top mobile companies. Some may opt for Mediatek’s Helio X30, which has 10 CPU cores, the highest number among mobile processors. That’s a lot of processing firepower, and handsets will move closer to PCs in overall performance.
3.
Virtual reality: The point of speeding up mobile devices is to allow them to run applications like virtual reality, which demand heavy resources. It’ll be possible to plug handsets into Google’s DayDream View VR headset to watch movies, play games, or roam VR worlds. VR is now limited to a few handsets like Samsung’s Galaxy S7, but it’ll come to more high-end and mid-range phones next year. The VR smartphones will need to have high-resolution displays to deliver a stunning visual experience.
4.
Faster LTE: LTE speeds will get a serious boost with new modem technologies. Smartphones like
TREND LINES
Smartphone trends to watch in 2017 SMARTPHONE BUYERS HAVE A LOT TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN 2017. DEVICES WILL BE THINNER, FASTER, AND PERHAPS A BIT MORE INTELLIGENT THAN YOU’D LIKE. like Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 4, which will help smartphones run for five hours after just five minutes of charging. That technology will reach smartphones next year.
8. the Galaxy S7 and Apple’s iPhone 7 can download data over LTE networks at a maximum speed of 600Mbps (bits per second), and upload data at 150Mbps. Download speeds could reach close to 1Gbps with Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X16 modem, which should reach devices in the second half of 2016.
5.
USB-C: This is the year USB-C will replace the aging micro-USB 2.0 ports in Android handsets. USB-C is extremely versatile -- beyond charging, it can be used to connect mobile devices to high-definition monitors, headphones, flash drives, and external storage devices.
6.
Wireless audio: There’s a good chance a majority of smartphones will still have headphone jacks, but like Apple, some may make muster up the “courage” to remove it. Those handsets will switch to Bluetooth earphones. That means the extra headache of buying and recharging wireless headsets, but getting rid of the headphone jack could result in thinner and lighter handsets.
7.
Quicker charging: Smartphones will charge much faster with USB-C cables, which can carry more power to a battery. There’s also technology
www.cio.co.ke | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA
Device smarts: Lenovo’s Phab 2 Pro augmented reality smartphones can recognize objects, map out rooms, and present relevant information about objects in sight on a handset’s screen. That’s a good example of how smartphones will evolve to enrich the user experience. Deep-learning techniques in smartphones could also contribute to making smartphones friendlier. For example, a device could learn how hardware is being used by a specific application, and over time, better modulate power usage to improve battery life.
9.
Bluetooth 5: Devices could soon get the new Bluetooth 5 wireless specification, which will have two times the speed and four times the range of its predecessor, Bluetooth 4.2. A Bluetooth 5 connection could stretch up to 400 meters in a clear line of sight, but with obstructions, a 120-meter range is considered more realistic by analysts. You will use a mobile device to operate a wireless Bluetooth speaker or unlock or a car from a longer distance.
10.
Storage: Extra storage on a smartphone never hurts, be it to store videos, photos, or games. Currently, internal storage tops out at 256GB and SD storage at 512GB, but SanDisk this year showed a prototype 1TB SD card.
The Author - Agam Shah, is a correspondent at IDG News Service 19
TREND LINES
BY LILIAN MUTEGI
LG boosts picture clarity with its new LG OLED 4K televisions in Kenya EVER WANTED TO WATCH THE EPIC WILDEBEEST MIGRATION FROM THE MAASAI MARA TO SERENGETI IN AUGUST OR EVEN VISIT THE AMBOSELI AND OTHER BEAUTIFUL SITES AND VIEWS THAT NATURE HAS TO OFFER. Well, LG has made life good and much easier through the introduction of LG OLED TV into the Kenyan Market that redefines television to create a unique sense of realism, making you feel like you are in the Mara or just anywhere you want to be. A ‘4K OLED TV’ is an ultra-high definition television in picture resolution. With OLED technology, consumers can enjoy awe-inspiring picture with perfect blacks and incredible color, even from wide viewing angles unlike in its predecessors the LCD/LED TV. Blacks rendered by LG’s 4K OLED TV are up to 200 times deeper than those of any other LCD/LED panel, creating an infinite contrast ratio and bringing colors to life like never before possible. “The history of TV in LG starts off way back with the Black and white TV, that was followed by colored Tv, then LCD, then LED, UHD and Super UHD and our premier product is our OLED TV that comes in both curved and straight TV. OLED 4K TV is a much more superior type of OLED TV, which supports HDR technology as well as Dolby Vision; a demonstration of our commitment to continuous innovation in order to deliver unparalleled at-home viewing experience,” said Moses Marji, General Manager Marketing, LG Electronics. In Kenya, LG has started by introducing two models in flat and curved configurations and two sizes-led by 55-and-65inch. Price for the two models ranges between KSshs500, 000 and Kshs800, 000 and are available in all LG stores and other retail outlets across the country. “OLED this is the most important advancement in TV technology in more than a decade, and a vast improvement over both LCD and LED and comes with the Perfect Black element that gives us very perfect black as compared to the other TVs. Once you have perfect black all the other colors become vivid clear,” added Marji. 20
LG OLED TVs were launched for the first time in 2013, ushering in a brand-new category of television in the world. Both experts and consumers like consider it the best picture quality on the market today. With LG OLED TV, gone are the backlights, diffusers and other complex structures of LED/LCD televisions. It combines OLED technology with 4K Ultra High Definition for a truly unique and mesmerizing viewing experience. One of the features that stand out in the LG OLED TV is the perfect Black feature. The feature actually allows color pixels to switch off completely to achieve perfect black for infinite contrast, and contrast ratio is considered the key indicator of picture quality. The display then offers a wide gamut of accurate colors. And because colors look best against a pure black background, images are now more vibrant and detailed. “For OLED TV, there are no backlights instead they have self lighting pixel. Like individual pixels will light itself. If for instance it’s a dark sky scene the individual pixels for the sky will be off. Completely off, means that the photo pixels will completely go off to get a perfect black to mean that absence of light does not necessary mean lack of color,” said Mr.William Kamore, LGEEF Senior Trainer and ISM Support. With its incomparable picture quality, the TV holds up even from wide viewing
angles so now everyone can appreciate the color and clarity of OLED. OLED technology also enables a design that is ultra thin and light. Its 4K resolution with an incredible 8.3M pixels, four times that of Full HD leads to a breathtaking clarity and fine picture details. With 10-bit panel and 10-bit processing power, LG’s OLED TVs can render more than a billion possible color variations. This, along with LG’s Color Prime Pro technology for a wider color range, gives these TVs the ability to display the finest details of color and gradation. The TVs also come equipped with a unique sound bar speaker system developed in partnership with high-end audio pioneer harman/kardon. The entire 4K OLED TV lineup also features the newest generation of LG’s acclaimed webOS Smart TV platform. With webOS 3.0 advanced new features make finding and switching between LG’s expanded content options including broadcast TV, streaming services and external devices simple and fast. With enhanced mobile connectivity, remote features and more content options including those offering streaming HDR, LG webOS 3.0 makes it even simpler and more fun than ever for users to find and enjoy the content they want to watch. “Another feature that comes on board is the High Dynamic Range (HDR). HDR allows the TV express a wide range of colors and contrast range. The result is a vivid and lively colors compared to the environment you are on,” added Mr. Kamore. Earlier in 2016, LG’s entire OLED line up became the industry’s first to be certified as “Ultra HD Premium,” meeting the stringent premium performance requirements just released by the UHD Alliance. The Ultra HD Premium certification applies only to products that meet the most demanding performance standards for resolution, peak luminance, black levels, wide color gamut and audio quality, among other criteria. Another unique aspect about the TVs was the Picture-On-Glass design. The design is only possible with OLED technology and is ultra-thin, measuring just 2.57 millimeters. With a translucent glass back and powerful, forward-facing sound bar speaker system LG 4K OLED TV represent a new level of home entertainment innovation.
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
Clear and present danger The fight against cybercrime looks as uncertain as ever across Africa, reveals a new study by Liquid Telecom.
African businesses are failing to take necessary steps to protect themselves against data breaches. Many organisations have experienced multiple security breaches within the last 12 months. The region could be facing a cybersecurity skills shortage. These are just some of the concerns highlighted by businesses in new research conducted by Liquid Telecom. The study is one of the first of its kind evaluating how heavily the issues of cybersecurity and data protection weigh on the minds of employees at African businesses today. In order to gather the data, Liquid Telecom surveyed 269 respondents from the business community. Respondents drew experience from a wide range of industries with IT professionals featuring heavily (over 31%) as did the finance community (14%). Over 40% of respondents work for microbusinesses and small organisations, while just over a third are employed by small to medium sized businesses with under 1000 employees. Large enterprises with more than 5000 employees make up just 12% of respondents. How many security breaches does your company have per year?
5% 6-10
9% More than 10
business community to raise its game or risk the financial devastation caused by a cyberattack or data breach. Security breaches are worryingly commonplace across Africa. According to the survey, an astonishing two thirds of respondents have experienced a security breach in the last 12 months. Almost 10% of respondents claim their organisation has suffered more than 10 security breaches, while almost half state they have encountered between one and five security breaches. It is also clear that African businesses are failing to take enough precaution to prevent data breaches. Over 40% of respondents believe African businesses could be doing more to protect themselves from data breaches, while almost a quarter feel the region is falling significantly behind global standards.
49%
None
37%
Facing up to a cybercrime-wave In the wake of soaring internet use across the region, and the rise of the continent’s digital economy, comes the threat of damaging and increasingly sophisticated cybercrime. Incidents of cybercrime are on the increase across the region and globally, prompting the
Do you think there is enough legislation in place across Africa to support businesses in improving cybersecurity and data protection?
4% 16% The region is falling significantly behind
The region is in-line with legislation globally
Mind the skills gap A skills crisis could be emerging across Africa, with the survey results indicating there is a limited pool of cybersecurity talent. Over two thirds of respondents believe more training and qualified cybersecurity professionals are required. Furthermore, over a quarter of respondents express genuine concern over the lack of qualified cybersecurity professionals in the region. With demand for cybersecurity on the rise in Africa, filling positions could become an increasingly hard process for businesses. African enterprises are running into what is, in truth, a global problem – a desperate shortage of people with the right skills and experience to combat cybercrime. Neither Africa’s corporate training departments nor its public education sector are producing talented people at a fast enough rate to match the evolving nature of the problem.
1–5
governments should be introducing tougher legislation to support businesses in their fight against cybercrime, or that almost 40% aren’t even familiar enough with existing legislation to fully answer the question. What is clear, however, is that data protection legislation is a grey area for many businesses across Africa. Data protection legislation is evolving quickly across the region and businesses must keep up.
Tough economic conditions are tending to apply downward pressure on business ICT training budgets at a time when they should be increasing, loading added pressure onto existing staff. And governments are in many cases failing to play their part by not putting enough resources into national skills development programmes.
More measures could be introduced by African governments
I am unfamiliar with existing legislation
38%
42% Developments to data protection legislation could be a deciding factor for businesses looking to expand across Africa, as they aim to avoid places where the integrity of data is set at a low premium, or where they might get hit hard by protectionist and maverick data laws designed to seal borders and favour domestic enterprises. Establishing a regulatory framework that both protects citizens and allows for healthy economic development should be the end goal for many African nations. As in the long run, getting cybersecurity and data protection right will benefit all parties – consumers, businesses and governments alike – which is why now is the time for positive action.
An alarming response It is difficult to determine which is the more alarming statistic: the fact that over 40% of respondents believe African
To download Liquid Telecom’s full Cybersecurity & Data Protection Africa Report visit: www.liquidtelecom.com
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Building Africa’s digital future
FEATURE
BY ANN BEDNARZ
Speed to drive CIO agenda in 2017 THINK FAST, CIOS. IT’S TIME FOR ORGANIZSTIONS TO MOVE PAST THE “FALSE PROMISE” OF A BIMODAL APPROACH TO IT, WHICH RESULTS IN A DIVIDED TECH DEPARTMENT OPERATING AT TWO DIFFERENT SPEEDS, ACCORDING TO RESEARCH FIRM FORRESTER. CIOS NEED TO PUSH FOR ENTERPRISE-WIDE ACCELERATION – AND A COMPREHENSIVE BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY – TO KEEP UP WITH CUSTOMERS’ APPETITES FOR NEW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES.
“G
one are the days of stability and predictability. The business environment you operate in will change faster than ever in 2017. Many of these changes will be outside of your control, but your ability to anticipate and respond will make or break your success,” Forrester writes in the report Predictions 2017: CIOs Push For Speed Amid Volatility focused on the evolving role of the CIO in 2017. Forrester forecasts a 2.9% increase in tech spending in 2017, and it cites weak economic growth and increasing uncertainties about the future as reasons for the unremarkable gains. Report highlights:
The fast pace of tech adoption among consumers isn’t letting up
Consumers’ intention to buy a new product or service when it first launches is up to five times greater than it was a decade ago, according to Forrester’s numbers. In the coming year, technologies such as augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT) will be on the radar of tech buyers who are “perpetually open to the next big things,” the firm says.
Old-school businesses can’t hide from need for speed In the business-to-consumer world, most CIOs are familiar with today’s accelerated pace of change. But in 2017, even the most conservative and traditional business-to-business firms will need to make operational changes that drive speed.
Expect to work with new people
Business and operational changes will lead to greater turnover among execu24
tive leaders. For CIOs, that means they’ll be working with new partners inside and outside the organization. In particular, CMO turnover will hover around 30% next year, - many CIOs will find themselves having to rebuild IT-marketing relationships.
Say goodbye to bimodal
In a bimodal approach to IT, teams pursue two different styles of work: one group is more practical, focused on improving systems that are predictable and stable. “They only pushed part of their team to adopt an accelerated pace — and left others unchanged. But those CIOs are already experiencing the shortcomings of operating at two speeds. Business peer frustration, polarizing and deteriorating cultures, and unsustainable operational complexities will continue, ultimately spurring most of these CIOs to course correct in 2017.”
Agile and DevOps will dominate
In the application development and delivery area, CIOs will embrace agile development and DevOps methodologies for most new projects, to keep IT moving at a fast pace. “CIOs at more progressive and customer-obsessed firms will push further, plugging their teams into firmwide design-thinking processes.”
CIOs will tap new ways of finding talent
“Talent shortages will continue in software development, cybersecurity, and data science and pick up steam in emerging technology-related areas like blockchain and AI,” Forrester predicts. “These challenges will drive CIOs to augment existing recruiting strategies with promiscuous partnering, more
freelancers, and even experiments with the technology-based gig economy.” As for the technologies behind this enterprise-wide focus on speed and agility, Forrester points to five key technologies that leading CIOs will make it a priority to adopt:
1. Cloud Already a mainstay in many organizations, cloud computing will play an increasing central role in IT in the coming year. “In 2017, CIOs will step up to orchestrate cloud ecosystems, connecting employees, customers, partners, vendors, and devices to serve rising customer expectations. Developments such as containers and DevOps will help in that transition.”
2. Open source Open source tools and technologies clearly aren’t new in enterprise IT, but 2017 will bring greater reliance on open source as a driver of innovation and speed. “In 2017, we will see the vast majority of development organizations embrace open source/OpenStack — in particular for the development of product-related software, customer experience, and process solutions that need to cut across business and technology silos.
3. IoT There’s been a lot of hype around IoT, but adoption so far has been limited to industrial, automotive and certain business-to-business projects. “The IoT’s ability to create and deepen relationships with customers (B2C and B2B).
4 and 5. Augmented reality and artificial intelligence Despite a fragmented vendor landscape and scarcity of use cases, AR and AI will begin to take hold. “In 2017, CIOs will partner with their marketing colleagues to reap the benefits of these technologies. By weaving AR into more of their mobile apps, companies will offer customers more personalized shopping and enhanced ownership experiences. Meanwhile, AI and cognitive computing will increasingly be integrated into existing applications to drive innovation throughout 2017.” The Author - Ann Bednarz covers IT careers, outsourcing and Internet culture for Network World.
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
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COVER STORY
Kenneth Ogwang
CIO of the Year 2016 How he handles East. Africa’s biggest digital. distribution network of. beverages. 26
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
COVER STORY ON NOVEMBER 11TH 2016, THE HEAD OF IT AT EAST AFRICAN BREWERIES LTD MR. KENNETH OGWANG WAS AWARDED THE CIO OF THE YEAR 2016 AWARD AT THE PRESTIGIOUS CIO100 AWARDS AT ENASHIPAI SPA AND RESORT IN NAIVASHA, KENYA. HE ALSO TOOK HOME HIS COMPANY’S ACCOLADE FOR TOP MOST COMPANY AT THE AWARDS. LATER, CIO EAST AFRICA EDITOR DAVIS WEDDI ENGAGED THE WINNER IN A Q&A SESSION. THE EXCERPTS FOLLOW… Davis Weddi: Who is Kenneth Ogwang and what exactly do you do at EABL? Kenneth Ogwang: I am the Head of IT – East Africa meaning I am accountable for the delivery of IS services within Eastern Africa a region that comprises Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and our export markets South Sudan, Burundi and Rwanda. I oversee the implementation of our IT Strategy within EABL as per our performance promise and in line with the business objectives; the fulfilment of which is through a team of passionate and talented individuals. Tell us about your career Journey? I started off my career in 2004 as a management trainee in BAT (Uganda). This was soon after graduating from Makerere University, Kampala with a degree in Bachelor of Sta-
tistics specializing in computing (first class honors). I worked for BAT Uganda for 3 years in different capacities as an IT Analyst in Corporate Services and Leaf Operations before being posted to BAT Kenya in 2007 as Area IT Analyst – Corporate Services for East and Central Africa Area. This stint only lasted about 8 months before moving in 2008 to DR Congo as IT Services Delivery Manager. DR Congo was amongst my most challenging environments as I had to deal with a different culture, language and a long to do list. Nevertheless, it was also one of my most successful outings. I was in DRC for 2.5 years and then moved back to Kenya in 2010 to take on a Regional Project role as Regional Implementation Manager for Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMEA). I did this for 2 years and was then promoted to the Head of IT Services, East and Central Africa Area position in 2012. This was my last post in BAT. After 11 years, in December 2015, I moved
over to EABL as Head of IT for Eastern Africa. How did you make it to the top CIO accolade of East Africa? I knew we had done a fantastic job with respect to our distributor management system. I could tell that from the business stakeholders’ feedback; from the demands in terms of how to better integrate the system; appetite for reporting and insights and from the amount of pressure when the system is down or slow. Based on this, when the CIO100 Survey opened up and EABL got an invitation to participate, I had no doubt we would do well. Taking top prize though for CIO of the Year 2016 and Overall Company winner came as a pleasant surprise. What’s an example of how EABL is implementing digital transformation? There is a huge focus on Analytics at the moment. How to derive information from the data collected. For the DMS project, analytics gives a broad range of insights from the Sales performance, call performance, Journey Plan Adherence as well as distribution checks amongst others. Analytics will definitely help us accelerate our performance as it’s the fuel needed for fast paced decision making. How does EABL currently utilize the cloud? Cloud is becoming second nature when it comes to the hosting of applications. We are embracing the cloud for our global systems and application; including our collaboration, front and back office applications. We are also looking at application rationalization within the market. This involves looking at the remaining legacy applications to determine if they can be incorporated within the global estate and hosted within the cloud. The perfect scenario for us would be the time when we do not host any physical servers on site and focus more on resilience and business partnering. How does big data fit into all of this? We are partnering with some of our local firms to explore big data analytics especially the area around Social Wifi Analytics. What do our consumers think of our products when they step into an outlet.; How can we gather that huge amount of data and process it in a way that helps us understand the consumer trends; This is relevant for both
www.cio.co.ke | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA
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COVER STORY descriptive and predictive analytics. Imagine if you are able to predict what a consumer would do over the course of the year. This definitely will help your execution plan going forward. How does IoT fit into all of this? There is a huge interest in IoT but we are taking it slow based on two concerns: - First, is the issue of security. There is a proliferation of ioT devices but not enough in terms of security. In the era where webcams and driverless cars are being hacked, we need to ensure we partner with a credible organization that understands these risks and puts in place mechanism to minimize them. Secondly, is the issue of cost. We had ventured into this in Kenya regarding Asset tracking but the costs were prohibitive. However, one good thing is time makes technology ubiquitous and costs go down. We are once again in discussions with an organization in Kenya to further this with respect to tracking and utilization of our coolers in the different outlets. What is the key issue for CIOs in the beverages industry today? IT is universally accepted as one of the major drivers for growth in organizations and hence there is a huge demand to make sure that we put in place appropriate technology to drive this growth. The Key word here is ‘appropriate’. As CIOs, it is important that we look at technology through the lens of the customer and not our own. This is to ensure we have a fit for purpose tool at the market’s disposal. Anything different, and you may end up with a white elephant and lots of frustrations. In addition, specifically for fast-moving consumer goods, agility in execution is important. It is necessary that we do our due diligence but need to be better at decision making and project execution so as to be able to shorten the turnaround from concept to live. This is to keep in tandem with the fast pace of the Industry. Then, is the issue of productivity and effectiveness. How do we harness the new technologies to deliver things more efficiently at less cost? How do we shed off the non-core value addition processes that we still hang on to and fully focus on understanding business processes and driving value creation? 28
Cyber Security is a key concern at the moment as it touches on the reputation of the company. Are the mechanisms to mitigate loss such as business continuity plans present and tested? Lastly of course, our people. We need to build our people both in terms of capabilities in light of new skill sets such as Analytics as well as the softer skills like improving interpersonal relations, communication, presentation and the like. A typical Corporate IT person is now seen as a pivotal player in the business journey. From your perspective, what are the top three tenets of a winning digital strategy that a good CIO should sell to his or her CEO? - Shift on focus to revenue growth from cost reduction: The traditional IT has evolved from keeping lights on to reducing costs within the organization. We are now in the era of value creation through revenue generation. Digitalization helps change that focus to revenue growth for the organization through avenues such as e-commerce - Increased collaboration and mobility. In a fast paced Industry, decisions are made on the go. Time is money and time wasted is opportunity foregone. With the coming in of cloud and use of mobile devices, communication through email doesn’t have to be done at your desk. An approval necessary to crack a deal can be done just as you board the plane. - Diagnostic to Predictive Analytics: Analytics is here with us and focus is no longer on what has occurred but what can be. What the consumer is likely to think in 2 years’ time can be a powerful piece of information for the company. When a machine is likely to fail can help the engineers prevent a major business downtime.
How does this digital transformation impact your IT agenda for the coming year? We will be looking building more at Analytics, Re-evaluating the different platforms we have to ensure seamless end to end integration and embarking on search optimization of our websites How have you managed to maintain the best talent in your department? I would say three things. Firstly, empowerment. Talented individuals need to feel that they are in charge of their space. Allow them that and only provide direction and correction. Secondly, celebrate Success and Achievements. We do this by truly living the Diageo purpose which is celebrating life every day, everywhere. A prompt “well done” when someone does well is significant. We also take time off every quarter to celebrate achievements of individuals and team members. Lastly, Work life balance. Goes hand in hand with empowerment. Allow your team to use their judgment in getting work done on time and in full. Respect their private times and be accommodative of flexi working. What do you tell CIOs who want to be better at executing their plans? First, hire the right people with the right capabilities to do the job and provide them the tools necessary to get it done. Sponsorship from the business is critical to get things moving and then in terms of delivery, a robust mechanism for tracking progress of the things that need to be delivered. This could even mean a short weekly meeting to understand and track progress. In this way, you nip any issues in the bud and you are aware of all that is happening.
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
BY LILIAN MUTEGI
IT AND LEADERSHIP
Microsoft’s Kunle Awosika on driving business transformation through cloud services From an Oil & Gas Industry to leading a global multi-billion ICT Firm in Kenya, Kunle Awosika is not a new name to many key players in the ICT industry.
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look into who Kunle Awosika, Country Manager Microsoft is. Nigerian-born, Kunle, started off working within the sales and marketing organization for the downstream arm of Exxon-Mobil in Nigeria responsible for driving sales of fast moving lubricants and other consumer products, thereafter moved to a local technology company Solix Technologies in 1998 where he started his IT career, focused on web-designs, IT training and development and networking solutions. He first joined Microsoft in 2000 and in 2003 Kunle was appointed by Microsoft to lead the nascent telecommunication business in the West East and Central Africa (WECA) region. He performed this role out of Kenya where he led and managed the sales function for the organisation. In July 2009, Kunle moved back to Nigeria to serve as Director, Enterprise Business for (Anglo) Africa for Microsoft and in August 2013, Kunle returned to Kenya to run the Kenya business as Country Manager. www.cio.co.ke | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA
In his span of three years overseeing the Microsoft Business in Kenya, we caught up with Kunle Awosika, to discuss his role as Microsoft Country Lead, transformation in Microsoft as a business and Microsoft’s journey to the cloud. Below are the excerpts: Briefly explain your role at Microsoft. My role entails a lot of responsibilities from infrastructure, to people and leadership. I also try to propel development within the company as well as drive the company’s sales strategy and the company’s priorities. In a nutshell, I am the ambassador of the market within Microsoft and still the ambassador of Microsoft to the market. What exactly is the big news from Microsoft for the East African market? There are a couple of answers to this. First I think the global launch of Windows 10 last year, one of our big line products and was attended by our Global CEO Satya Nadel29
IT AND LEADERSHIP la, must have been great news for the region . We have also seen under my watch the deployment of TV White Spaces initiative in Nanyuki known as “Mawingu Project�. Our focus around skills development within the communities under our Microsoft 4Afrika initiative is another big
achievement. The launch of the TukoWorks, an employment and enability portal was also great news for the market. Our key focus on digital transformation within schools and partnership with Government of Kenya on the roll out of Digital Literacy Programme is also key for us. For me though my number one two and three big news and priority in the East African Region, is to get our partners and customers to the cloud platform. There seem to be changes at the Microsoft office in East Africa, what exactly has taken place? We are getting our resources to be more focused on cloud competency. Internally, what we are trying to do is to align our resources with our Global strategy and we are investing heavily to ensure resources we have on the ground continue to think about the initiatives around business productivity and re-inventing business processes. We are trying to have
our resources focus on what we call intelligent cloud of services, personal computing and proliferation of devices across markets. Our resources are thinking about that because that is our ambition. Kenya is not an exception as it is an entity where Microsoft focuses on even with the global strategy; we will then continue to shift our resources to think around our three core-ambitions mentioned above. Tell our readers what they may not be seeing about the transformation Microsoft is going through. What would help them understand what Microsoft is doing? Microsoft is a services and platform company. We are focused on ensuring that we empower individuals and organizations on the planet to achieve more. Our investments are around services that empower people like Office 365, which drives productivity. We are building huge datacenters globally to ensure we continue to drive initiatives in pervasive way. We invest in infrastructure, people and skills just ensuring everyone is aligned to the Global Strategy. We have a strategy to hit 20 billion dollars by 2018 in terms of commercial cloud services. In our Q1 results we hit 13 billion dollars this shows we are about to achieve our 2018 strategy. I think it is fundamental to the core of our business to continue focusing on the Cloud Business. In Kenya, we are also aligned to that, the adoption of Office 365 in the enterprise and SMEs is huge. We feel good that we are moving in the right direction.
The cloud is the Tsunami and 80% of the Fortune Companies have now moved to the cloud. IT managers need to embrace and adopt the cloud.
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What are the major solutions you bring to bear for East African customers today? From a customer perspective, security is a huge problem. We have advanced threat protection which is a critical part of windows and office which are our two main platforms. There is a huge proliferation and most companies today are using Windows as their core Operating System in their enterprises, some have devices with different Operating Systems they carry. This creates security challenges and organiCIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
IT AND LEADERSHIP be and SAP. Oracle has a number of services on the Microsoft platform. So I will call it a co-opertition; in that we compete where we need to compete as well as co-operate where we have to. For example, we thrive in the area of Software as a Service (SaaS) as well as Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas). Where we compete is the areas of databases or Business Intelligent tools. This is because SAP has SAP Hana, IBM has DB2 and Oracle has Oracle Database and Microsoft has Microsoft SQL2016. We have our different platforms. But from the performance point of view if you think of the value for money competition when CIOs think of the value for money, the value for money is on Microsoft. zations have not thought of their data security. Microsoft hence is providing solutions through Enterprise Mobility Suite of products to ensure we secure the end-points more from an identity management al the way to the application and all the way to the devices and this is done through the provision of our cloud service.
60% of our total employees globally are in the R&D side. This shows you that we are thinking of 25 years ahead.
Microsoft has always had a theme of aligning IT with businesses. What is new in the cloud era for East Africa?
erate thrir business better however, we are not ignoring the role of the CIO in an organization through the use of cloud.
The cloud is the Tsunami and 80% of the Fortune Companies have now moved to the cloud. IT managers need to embrace and adopt the cloud. It is very clear that company budgets continue to be constrained. Everyone is talking of doing more for less and the cloud has very positive advantages especially around cost and still allows scalability and reliability of their data and will continue to grow.
What’s your take on the competitive landscape for big customers when it comes to cloud computing?
Aligning this with businesses, our IT conversation is not only with CIOs, anymore our conversation extends beyond that, with the CFO, the CMO is also interested on how to get products faster into the market and you can do this cloud. One conversation we are having with CIOs is that you do not need the large servers, since you can provision that through virtual machines or cloud and still you data and operating systems will be in a secure environment. We getting SMEs to know that the use of Cloud platforms can help them accel-
I think everyone has seen that the cloud is the way to go and there is so much advantages. We have companies like Oracle SAP IBM Cisco all wanting to offer one cloud services or the other. The true enterprise breed solution leaders in cloud space are Microsoft and Amazon. We know today Microsoft has invested more in datacenters Globally far more than any other cloud provider. Amazon and Google combined have not invested in datacenters like Microsoft has in the last three years and this tells you why we believe in the Cloud service and adoption from the growth depicted in our Financial Year Results. Who do you consider to be your competitors in East Africa? The cloud I mentioned earlier is quite elastic and strides Microsoft is making are quite visible . So one of the things we have done is partnership with Ado-
www.cio.co.ke | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA
What do you envision as the next big technological disruption in the region and what would our readers expect from Microsoft in the next year or two? There is a lot of investment in R&D and Microsoft spends up to billion dollars from the annual revenue. 60% of our total employees globally are in the R&D side. This shows you that we are thinking of 25 years ahead. There is a whole concept of robotics and cognitive services, Conversation as a Service is another area we are looking into trying to look into artificial intelligence and how can we help organizations respond to customers quicker and faster in an intelligent way. Lastly we are looking into the holographic technology which is about mixed reality where we basically trying to ensure we get people to live a life where you can be in one room and have a real time conversation and in another room your image is being portrayed in multiple other rooms where real time conversation is going on. I think that the Holographic Technology will be the most disruptive technology. It will be coming out next year. It is currently being tested in different industries from airlines e.g the Japan Airlines are already using this. For instance if there is an issue with the engine, the Japan Airlines engineers are able to use the Holo Lens to access the specific area with the issue. The second area will be around education and healthcare. Now this changes how we do things and this becomes a technology disruption. 31
STARTUP CORNER
EZIKI TV PROVIDING AN ALTERNATIVE TO TRADITIONAL BROADCASTING Attending and watching live events can be a very exciting experience for anyone, but finding the time and money to do so might be the problem. In the modern day though, we can get to experience such events in real-time on TV or via internet in any quality we want via live streaming.
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hroughout the world livestreaming has been gaining traction due to the fact that it is easy and cheap. In Kenya, Eziki TV, a livestreaming solutions provider and Video on Demand (VOD) provider, has for the last five years been providing livestreaming for events,
churches, broadcasters, government and for entertainment purposes in Kenya. “Business has picked fast in the last two years, because of the continued intake of Data. Data is growing and the price of data is reducing,
Business has picked fast in the last two years, because of the continued intake of Data. See more at: http://www.demo-africa.com/news/demo-africa-2016-final-30-list#sthash.35jKHO7H.dpuf 32
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
STARTUP CORNER so it has helped us to grow fast in a short time,” said Santos Okottah, Founder, Eziki TV, during an interview with CIO East Africa. But with big name brands such as Samsung, Facebook and YouTube enabling anyone with a device as small as a Smartphone to broadcast their own events, why would one need Eziki TV to help us stream events? The answer according to Okottah is that Eziki TV offers quality. “Most phones right now you press a button and you go live, the challenge comes in in-terms of quality. We do broadcast quality streaming,” said Okottah. “We are able to combine up to eight inputs to one streaming, so we give the audience a 360 experience, we even use drones. And when you stream you get more viewers when the streaming is high quality and more of production,” he continued. According to Leon Sabisa, marketing manager, Eziki TV, another advantage of their broadcasts is that there systems do not buffer. “If you compare us to other streams they buffer because they are shared services,
If you compare us to other streams they buffer because they are shared services, because ours is dedicated it is very stable, so it makes us stand out. because ours is dedicated it is very stable, so it makes us stand out. And the quality is very high we stream HD and above,” Okottah explained. Eziki TV works when the company gets a client; who explains to them what exactly they require. Eziki then stream’s the client’s content on Facebook, a client’s website or both. Once the company gets a customer they utilise analytic software’s to let them keep an eye on several data sets so as to know the consumer needs and to predict some situations, which enables them to improve their services. “We did stream Rio Olympics on behalf of KBC, so we were able to know, early in advance the kind of bandwidth we will need, so it helps us plan ahead. Analytics also helps us to improve our products,”
www.cio.co.ke | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA
According to Okottah their mined data is stored as it later benefits Eziki by putting them ahead of the pack. He explained that their data helped them move quickly to webcasting and livestreaming. Other than streaming the Rio Olympics, the company also did streaming for the WTO Conference, among others. The company makes its money by charging for their service, but are planning to move to pay-perview in the near future. “The data we are talking about is what helped us transition into this. We started with subscription, that time people did not know what VOD was, very good product, wrong time. The time is now, you see many players, which confirms just how big the market is and how lucrative it is,” Okottah concluded.
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WOMEN IN TECH
BY LILIAN MUTEGI
Jessica Colaco, on the Ihub journey and her new venture AFTER FIVE AND A HALF YEARS OF WORKING TO BUILD THE IHUB, KENYA’S CENTRAL HUB FOR THE LOCAL TECHNOLOGY COMMUNITY, JESSICA FRANCISCA COLAÇO LEFT IHUB WHERE SHE WAS THE CO-FOUNDER AND CO-FOUNDED BRAVE VENTURE LABS BASED IN NAIROBI AND SAN FRANCISCO WITH IBANGA UMANAH; EAST AFRICA’S FIRST NETWORK SCIENCE LAB AND BRAVE ACADEMY. BRAVE ACADEMY IS CAREER ACCELERATOR FOR EMERGING PROFESSIONS IN DATA SCIENCE, DESIGN, AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP.
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essica Colaço is a TED fellow She co-foundered the iHub with Erik Hersman in 2010 and served in various leadership positions – She was the Director of Partnerships and Community at iHub, the Founding Manager between 2010 and 2011 at iHub and Research Director between 2011 and 2013 at iHub Research. She is currently writing a book about her journey at iHub and how it all happened (The genesis of the Silicon Savannah).
sue an engineering course. She took a year gap and took a course in web design . After that she joined St. Mary’s to take International Baccalaureate (IB) where she took interest in music. “I did not take anything related to computers either during my IB classes because I found everything a little bit similar to what I studied in Web Design classes. But I remember immediately after high school I had coded a website from scratch,” she told us.
We met with Jessica Colaço at the new Brave Venture Lab Offices in Riverside Nairobi where she took us through the journey and exit at IHub, her role at Ushahidi, her being a TED Fellow and her new venture and book.
After her IB she took a nine month break to literally concentrate on music. In 2003, she was called at The University of Toronto to pursue a degree in computer science and after two months she received an acceptance letter from University of Nairobi to pursue a degree in computer science too.
“I have lived in Kenya for over 30 years,” she started us off “I studied in Loreto Convent Valley Road for both my primary and high school education. I later joined Nairobi University where I pursued my undergraduate studies in Computer Science.” Growing up Jessica explained to us that she was quite curious and this was how she developed her interest in computers while in high school. “ I was interested mostly in Mathematics and sciences during my early education days and participated in science congress mostly in physics and chemistry projects. I got my computer after high school but back then I could only play with it after classes and this drove my interest to interact with computers.” She further said that after high school she was certain that she wanted to pur34
In my second year I created the first mobile application that could do remote sensing of devices. This opened a whole new chapter for me and I developed interest in mobile devices.
“How I ended into computer science was funny. Being curious, I attended a lot of AITEC events and that’s when I met Dr. Cate Getao, who was among the few Computer Scientists then. She inspired me to try out the whole computer world,” she said. She further told us, “In my second year I created the first mobile application that could do remote sensing of devices. This opened a whole new chapter for me and I developed interest in mobile devices. Back then we were still in the initial steps for mobile and there was no data.” Jessica termed her third year as her exploring year and that’s when she started researching for her final year project. It was then in 2007 that she developed a Wireless Map Service for java apps.
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
WOMEN IN TECH “Android, play store and app stores did not exist then. So I was poor in directions and that’s how I started exploring the possibility of studying mobile Geographic Information Systems systems and that is when I developed a mobile application known as Wireless Map Service.” She told us. The Wireless Map Service received accolades from the public during the tenth annual IEEE Engineering Students Exhibition in 2007. And it is through her passion to evangelize technology, that in2008, she organized the first-ever Nairobi Facebook Developer Garage and Mobile Boot Camp in East Africa in March 2008 and November 2009 respectively. She later on joined Strathmore University and had to shifts from mobile to research. She was the Research Leader at Strathmore Research and Consultancy Centre (SRCC) at Strathmore University in 2007 – 2010 and spearheaded and managed the research projects within the company. Around the same time in Strathmore she noticed a lot of interest by students in mobile and that’s when she organized the first ever mobile bootcamp. She has organized several Mobile Boot Camps in Kenya as well as the first Facebook Developer Garage in Kenya in 2008. She has been featured by CNN Labs, Wired UK and other mainstream media. “So how does all this tie to IHub, Ushahidi and me being a TED Fellow? 2008 was that eye opener for me. The Post Election Violence happened and Ushahidi was developed by local developers. Erik Hersman heard that I was a good mobile developer so he actually he texted me and asked for a meet up. That’s how I ended up in playing a part in Ushahidi as well as meet up with other local developers,” said Jessica. In 2009 we had a chat with Erik on how to bring developers into one space and through my work with boot camps I thought of a space in university but he said we look for a neutral place. In 2009 he moved to Nairobi and in December, he told me he wanted to set up a place and wanted me to run the space. So I left Strathmore Research and Consultancy Centre (SRCC) to start IHub in February
I had to figure out what I am good at and that’s how I discovered I am good at unleashing the best in people. 2010 and launch it in March. We had the space already on Ngong Road that we found suitable and access to everyone. “It’s crazy how IHub started,” Jessica laughs, “We just worked with Wananchi Group who brought in their fibre and Erik brought his old Router and then we had this bags that we just placed on the concrete floor. After all this we had to settle for a name as well as look for a logo we gave this task to 99 designs who crowd sourced the logo. Remember all this had to be done in a month’s time.” Since the launch, Jessica has served as iHub’s Founding Manager, building the iHub and growing the community and partnerships within the region. She later convinced Hersman and the iHub team to start iHub Research where she served as its Director between 2011 and 2013. Ms. Colaço also started a robotics technology group at the iHub which later inspired the launch of Gearbox. In 2013, Colaço grew iHub Research into a powerhouse for iHub sustainability and meaningful technology research within the region and between 2014 and 2015, she took on the relationships with iHub’s corporate partners. “Interesting IHub was started by TED Global Fellow. In 2008 and 2009 that’s when I met Erik and Juliana Rotich who are both TED Fellows and they both talked into me applying for TED Fellow and sent it five minutes to the deadline. I was shortlisted as a TED Fellow in 2009and became a TED Fellow It is again serendipity you need to look around and see the opportunities that surround you,” she told us. Ms. Colaço also Co-Founder of WMIAfrica and AkiraChix, ISOC-Kenya Chapter, Treasurer in 2014, ACM-W Nairobi Chapter Chair 2014, TED Global Fellow 2009 and Bass Guitarist in her
www.cio.co.ke | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA
band Bass ii IV. She was named one of the top 40 women under 40 years in Kenya’s business scene by Business Daily on 2009, 2011 and 2012. She was part of the DFID’s Digital Advisory Panel team as a member and advisor in 2015. “I am one person who is passionate about “building”. Two-three years I sort of revolve and try something new and that’s why after five and a half years I had to leave IHub. I had to figure out what I am good at and that’s how I discovered I am good at unleashing the best in people. And that’s how we decided to map the local talents with the best talents and that is how we started Brave Venture Labs,” she said. In her early 30s Jessica is passionate about Innovation, Research, Mobile and Robotics Technology, Mentorship and Entrepreneurship in Kenya and as an African Startup Evangelist and Mobile and Robotics Tech Evangelist and uses her position in Kenya to court local, regional and international stakeholders to adopt Kenyan-made and African-made solutions. As an angel investor, she courts local and international investors to invest in great tech ideas and companies at idea and concept stage. She is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Applied Computing at the School of Computing and Informatics, University of Nairobi with a focus on Fin Tech, Talent and Block chain. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the School of Computing and Informatics, University of Nairobi. She is a certified researcher and has carried out various research studies in conjunction with Strathmore Research and Consultancy Centre (SRCC) at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya and iHub Research in Nairobi, Kenya for companies such as World Council of Credit Unions, Rockefeller, World Bank, Google, GSMA and Africa Innovation Foundation. In February 2009, 2010 and 2012 ‘Business Daily’ named her as one of the top 40 women under 40 years in Kenya’s business scene. Ms Colaço is a trailblazer said the ‘Business Daily’ and she has been instrumental in connecting young software developers with multi-national ICT companies. 35
PRODUCT REVIEW
BY LILIAN MUTEGI
Display: The Huawei Mate 9 rocks a 5.9-inch screen, a step down from the Mate 8’s 6-inch display. The first Android 7.0 Nougat handset from Huawei also measures 156.9 x 78.9 x 7.9mm and weighs 190g. The display is a full HD affair boasting a pixel density of 373ppi, and handset color options include space grey (hello, Apple lawsuit), moonlight silver, champagne gold, mocha brown and ceramic white. But while it’s big and brighter than any other Huawei phone we have reviewed before we still have a couple issues with the Mate 9’s screen. Maybe the most significant problem is that it’s not particularly high-res at 1080 x 1920. A full-HD panel like that looks great on a five-incher, and is acceptable on a 5.5inch model, but on a 5.9 inch we crave quad HD. It is a little bit frustrating knowing that Huawei’s Porsche Design Edition Mate
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Huawei Mate 9: A powerful device with a great batterylife THE CHINESE SMARTPHONE MANUFACTURER HUAWEI HAS CONTINUED ITS BID TO CRACK THE LUCRATIVE WESTERN MARKETS WITH A NUMBER OF BIG-BUDGET SMARTPHONE LAUNCHES WITH THE LATEST DEVICE TO TRY THIS WITH BEING THE HUAWEI MATE 9, WHICH WAS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHED IN MUNICH, GERMANY ON NOVEMBER 3RD.
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
PRODUCT REVIEW 9 has a 1440 x 2560-resolution screen, and it’s only a 5.5-incher. That the standard Mate 9 is both larger and lower-res is disappointing. The Mate 9’s screen also suffers from some color accuracy issues, with the sort of over-saturation normally expected from AMOLED panels. The good news is that EMIU 5.0 allows you to adjust the display’s color temperature and tweak its output to your liking. It also comes with the “eye comfort” option that allows you to adjust browse for long hours without any eye discomforts. The phone also comes fitted with a protective screen.
Design: The phone comes with a gorgeous design. We had a chance to review the Mocha Brown device. T he phone comes in an aluminium chassis and feels like a quality piece of kit. The phone comes with a curved unibody, furnished in soft-feeling matte aluminum, broken up by relatively discrete plastic antenna cutouts at the top and bottom. The top, bottom and sides have a slight polished effect to them, along with a barely noticeable brushed pattern, and a very slight curve of their own. The Mate 9 features a huge 5.9 inch FullHD screen that stretches to the edge of the device. The device itself is reassuringly solid, but fits comfortably into your hand. It nearly feels the same as the design of its predecessor, the Mate 8. The bezels are thin, the speaker grille is a bit more pronounced, the edges are ever-so-slightly curved, the volume locker The fingerprint scanner for the Mate 9 is found on the rear of device, underneath the leica camera lens, as is the case with many modern Android devices. On the left side is the volume rocker and textured power button while the right side is bare except for the nano SIM card and microSD tray. Overall, the Mate 9’s design is everything you’d expect from a modern flagship device - smooth and polished, but nothing that exciting.
Camera: I must admit that from the Huawei P8, Huawei P9 Huawei Mate 8 and now Huawei Mate 9, Huawei never disappoints on its camera. For the second time, Huawei has partnered with Leica to co-engineer the camera. Huawei and Leica have continued to improve and enhance the optical performance of the camera module, which now includes a 12-megapixel RGB sensor, a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor and enhanced image fusion algorithms that work to produce stunning photography. The Kirin 960 is also designed specifically to support the Huawei Mate 9’s second generation Leica dual-lens camera with Hybrid Zoom. The 4-1 Hybrid Auto-focus features laser focus, phase detection focus, depth focus and contrast focus. The Mate 9 is also the first Huawei device capable of capturing Ultra HD 4K video, and features something Huawei refers to as a “hybrid” lossless zoom. There is 64GB storage on board and a microSD slot capable of boosting this by up to 256GB, which should provide ample space for all those ultra-high-def videos.
Battery Life: The Huawei Mate 9 comes with a 4000mAh battery. The Huawei Mate 9 is five degrees cooler that S7 edge. Offering 50% less emission than S7 edge and 8-layer thermal mechanics and no thermal voltage transmissions in phone. The Mate 9’s battery also spots Huawei’s “Super Safe 5-gate protection,” a power design which delivers real-time voltage, current, and temperature monitoring to “eliminate safety hazards” and “safeguard battery life.” It supports SuperCharge, Huawei’s fast charging standard. The company said it’ll juice up 50 percent faster than the Mate 8, and reach as much as 58 percent capacity in 30 minutes. The phone houses a 4000mAh Battery and a smart power saving technology that allows 20 hours of video playback,30 hours of 3G calling, 20 Hours of 4G browsing and five hours of music playback.
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The Mate 9 also packs a USB Type-C connector, Bluetooth 4.2, NFC, dual SIM slot, four noise-canceling microphones, and MicroSD card slot that’s expandable up to 256GB. And it’s got cellular radios compatible with 7 WCDMA + 4 GSM.
Processor: First of its kind, The Huawei Mate 9 Series debuts the premium Kirin 960 chipset with Huawei’s Machine Learning Algorithm which is set to deliver a fast and smooth experience, even after 18 months of continuous usage. Huawei Mate 9 has also toned-down version of Huawei’s Emotion UI operating system, which now includes the optional app drawer. With the introduction of EMUI 5.0, the Huawei Mate 9 reimagines the native Android operating system using Linux to improve the user experience. With EMUI 5.0, Huawei says that the Huawei Mate 9 becomes more intelligent and efficient over time by understanding consumers’ behavior patterns, and ensures the highest priority applications are given preference subject to system resources. This guarantees a long-lasting, smooth experience as over time, EMUI 5.0 slows down the performance erosion that all smartphone devices experience. EMUI 5.0 also introduces a brand new intuitive interface design. More than 50 percent of features can now be reached within two clicks while over 90 percent can be reached within three clicks. With the new octa-core 2.4GHz Kirin 960 chipset, Huawei says the phone has the highest-performance it has built to date, along with 4GB of RAM and support for Category 9 LTE. It all runs atop the latest release of Android, 7.0 Nougat. And its got gaming chops: the Mate 9 supports Daydream VR, Google’s virtual reality platform.
Price: The Standard Mate 9 is set to launch in December or early January in Kenya. It will retail at cost 699 Euros roughly Kshs. 75741.85 (with the trading rate being 1 euro is equal to Kshs. 108.36). 37
OPINION
Connectivity and ICT as a driver for business innovation BY BEN ROBERTS
IN 2013 JUST AFTER I MOVED TO KENYA, MCKINSEY PUBLISHED A REPORT ‘LIONS GO DIGITAL’ IN WHICH THEY CONCLUDED THAT THE INTERNET’S GREATEST IMPACT IN AFRICA IS LIKELY TO BE CONCENTRATED IN SIX SECTORS: FINANCIAL SERVICES, EDUCATION, HEALTH, RETAIL, AGRICULTURE, AND GOVERNMENT.
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years later we have seen connectivity and supporting infrastructure grow with FTTH expansion, 4G rollouts, satellite connectivity, huge data centres, and creation of pan African fibre backbone networks. I’ve spend my time working on this kind of connectivity rollout, and watching the impact and adoption of connectivity by our customers to change their business. As we end 2016 its time to look at the progress of the digital revolution that this connectivity has enabled with African born innovation to change the way business is done in these sectors.
Financial services.
Prediction- The Internet, digital technology and the mobile phone will reduce costs, and bring banking services to 60% of Africans by 2025 with more than 90% using mobile wallets. The banking sector has been partnering with or chasing after the hugely successful mobile money revolution to bring banking to the unbanked. Equity bank launching its own MVNO has quickly taken a decent market share of mobile money, and James Mwangi, Equity CEO predicts branchless banking to be the future. Overall the banking industry seems to be leading the way in investment in technology adoption to transform business. With some of the most talented African CIOs being attracted to the banking sector where they can best employ their skills.
Education.
Prediction- Affordable tablets and connectivity enabling access to content will bring about huge productivity gains in education, providing millions of students with the foundation for a better future. Government procurement processes have been slow while the dropping prices of tablets have been fast. But now Kenya’s digital learning programme is underway with tablets rolling out fast. Meanwhile African innovators like BRCK have developed specialist hardware kits for 38
classrooms, and many content developers are making local education content. The real effects of e-education will be seen when the children of today graduate to the workplace.
Health.
Prediction- Technology-related benefits in health care could be huge and the broader social and economic impact of improved health outcomes will be far greater. Somehow the African health sector seems to be decades behind in ICT. Bliss Healthcare in Kenya uses our data centre and connectivity to link insurance companies to clinics so that patients can verify their insurance at any clinic country wide using the mobile phone and biometrics. But huge investment in systems and skills need to be made into the health sector to deploy ICT to its full potential.
Retail.
Agriculture.
Prediction: Farmers can access expertise and information on everything from weather, crop selection, and pest control to management and finance. It can also improve access to markets, generating better prices for produce. Agricultural information seems to focus around information services for farmers. For instance Kenyan made iCow is an app that works on the type of basic mobile phones farmers own. Each animal is registered with the service, which then sends SMS reminders to the farmer about milking schedules, immunization dates and many other tips to enhance eth cows’ welfare. But the real revolution may be yet to come with IoT in agriculture as we will see ‘connected cows’ will tell your smartphone when they are sick and call the vet automatically.
Prediction:- Ecommerce will open up a new shopping experience for Africa’s growing middle class. By 2025, it could account for $75 billion sales in the continent’s largest economies.
Government.
Online retailers like Jumia and Kilimall are growing African internet brands, selling many products delivered to your door. But despite the oncoming digital revolution, the investment in bricks and mortar shopping malls seems to be accelerating, with huge high end malls opening in order to house mostly the same chains of stores. While some of these store chains have their own e-commerce website, some just don’t get it allowing you to select goods and ‘request for quote’. It seems for now the middle classes like to and have time to go out and shop, rather than be rushing to do everything online. The revolution in e-commerce especially through social media may end up helping the SME retailer to sell to a bigger audience, rather than taking a significant share of traditional high end retail for now.
In Kenya e-government has made great steps at national and county level with government taking a leading role in ICT. Online visa applications to enter Kenya, eCitizen, tax returns online, payment of your online parking fees and county dues make it easier for citizens and visitors to interact with Government of Kenya. E-government of course can make great steps to improve financial efficiency. Yet it seems there is quickness to blame a system like IFMIS when a corruption scandal breaks. The truth is that systems like IFMIS do increase transparency and will lead to a long lasting cultural change in government whereby procurement wastage becomes a thing of the past. Resistance to change will come from cartels that profit from inefficiency but the progress will continue.
Prediction: The Internet is a powerful tool to improve transparency, streamline service delivery, and automate revenue collection.
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
OPINION
HOW IT EXECUTIVES CAN SELL TO A BOARD BY JAMES MURITU
I RECENTLY ATTENDED THE CIO 100 AWARDS EVENT AT ENASHAPAI, NAIVASHA AND WAS HONOURED TO BE PART OF A PANEL THAT WAS DISCUSSING AN INTERESTING TOPIC ON HOW IT EXECUTIVES CAN SELL TO A BOARD OF DIRECTORS. WITH ME WERE IT LEADERS FROM SAFARICOM AND BARCLAYS BANK.
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he audience was composed of both IT and business executives who were all keen to hear how IT Leaders should sell their agendas to Board of Directors. First things first, do IT Executives even need to sell to a Board or does the Board already know what they need? Fortunately or unfortunately with IT being often viewed as a mystified, technogeek, utopia domain by most directors who sit in Boards, selling to a Board is inevitable and there’s no two way about it. Demarcating between presenting and selling is critical, with the latter concentrating on getting funding to spend and the former being a session to give general status updates. Selling to a Board is a process that starts way before even a Board convenes. It calls for some specialized skills and tact that are not taught in any MBA class, but are acquired by learning,
An effective IT Leader is astute at packaging his agenda with a skill of dissecting his items within the following compartments: Transformation, Compliance, Productivity and Innovation.
doing and re-doing till you get it right. With a Board’s primary objective being to maximize on shareholder’s return, they are the sole gate keepers of the money purse in every organization irrespective of size and hence telling your story right along the lines of positively impacting on this agenda is a must if they are to give you audience. There’s a caveat though; you can’t tell your story before you earn your place to sit in the high table. My good friend Steve from Barclays was emphatic that every IT Executive first needs to earn himself a seat in the high table before selling his agenda. This can be achieved via influencing and negotiating with a good mix of PR strategies. Beyond earning the seat, setting your agenda and selling it across the table is the hard part. To start with, the audience concurred on the importance of understanding the Board members and making rapport on a continuous basis. An effective IT Leader is astute at packaging his agenda with a skill of dissecting his items within the following compartments: Transformation, Compliance, Productivity and Innovation. With that in mind, he’s better placed to pass his message with precision and accuracy. With packaging in place, the next skill calls for one to think and operate like a sells man. This is where most IT Leaders get lost unfortunately. Packaging the agenda and preparing the best presentations and documents will not be enough to convince a Board to buy into an idea. A
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Beyond selling, an effective IT Leader should understand that the ultimate objective of the selling process is to get Board commitment. good sells man knows how to grab his client’s attention; he’s tactful in reading the Board’s mood with precise agility to quickly shape and change the presentation style as required; wearing the hat of a sales man, he’s able to skillfully catch the Board Chair’s attention and finally the winning IT Leader grasps the art of selling by good story telling with a funneling strategy in mind. Beyond selling, an effective IT Leader should understand that the ultimate objective of the selling process is to get Board commitment. It therefore follows that the climax of the entire process is to get buying and commitment by stating in clear terms the funds you are asking for or the approvals that you require from the Board. Politely asking for the Board’s opinion is equally important lest they think you are just walking them through a rubber stamping exercise. Finally the best IT Leader, builds a good rapport line with the Board Secretary and ensures that his points are well captured in the Board minutes. 39
OPINION
DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGIES IN THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY SAM MWANGI
ON 13TH NOVEMBER, 2016, MR. SUNNY BINDRA WROTE AN ARTICLE IN ONE OF THE DAILIES THAT ECHOED MY THOUGHTS. IN HIS ARTICLE, HE ILLUSTRATED HOW THE RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY THAT MIGHT DISRUPT THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY AND FIND THE CONVENTIONAL PLAYERS UNAWARE.
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efore you think it’s farfetched, recall the disruption caused by Uber and Air BnB. Both are global companies that identified a gap that transcends countries and cultures. Startups are leap frogging the archaic claims processes, static premiums and poor customer service and inventing in dynamic premium computation methods, numerous customer service channels, seamless onboarding and easy to follow claim procedures. In the current market, products are difficult explain and covered in legal jargon that is too complex for customers to understand. The risk of customers is treated equally, without considering the different attributes of individual customers, corporates or assets. A reckless driver is more risky in comparison to a careful driver, a moving vehicle is more risky in comparison to a stationary vehicle in a garage, goods stored at a warehouse in a war torn country as at a higher risk in comparison to goods stored in a peaceful country. These elements of risk are not captured in the product of most insurance firms. Most Kenyans are unaware of the merits of insurance and only take insurance that is required by law, namely motor vehicle insurance and national hospital insurance fund. In fact, based on the Association of Kenya Insurers report for 2015, the insurance penetration in the local market had worsened for the three years in a row, dropping to 2.79 per cent in the year 2015 from 2.94 per cent in 2014. What global technology trends in the insurance industry that could change this trend? 40
A seamless customer experience is a possibility that would give a competitive advantage to the firm the offers it first. Use of location awareness of property and assets is a unique value proposition that would appeal to corporates. If the premium for an asset, fixed or mobile, is based on location then corporates can observe caution and prudence on how they place assets with an aim of controlling costs. In essence, this would lead to reduced claims hence improved profits for insurance firms. Most companies in the insurance industry shoot in the dark when looking for sales. There would be better rewards if companies would engage in customer intelligence and analytics. Gathering demographic data and understanding customer behavior is key in customizing products for various market segments. Social media platforms provide an opportunity to understand customer behavior in a dynamic way. Insurance firms can invest in social miners to gather trends and mentions from which needs in certain market segments can be identified and solutions created. Brick and mortar presence has been overtaken by events. However, most insurance firms still require you to walk to a branch to sign up for policy and lodge
a claim. Soon, there will start ups that would allow you to sign up remotely and policy deliver at your door step. Mobile applications can be used for viewing policies, policy inquiries, paying bills, filing claims, finding agents, quick notifications and updates. How about cover that are less than 12 months and dynamic? Pay as you drive for instance, would make economic sense. Why should I pay for insurance for the car in the garage while am on holiday? Using Internet of Things, insurance firms can monitor assets and only charge a premium while they are in use. Imagine the savings that would be made if a firm leasing heavy machinery only pays a premium when the machinery is in use. As long as the machinery idle, no premium would be charged hence reducing the fixed costs. Insurance firms need to contemplate investing in core business systems that allow integration to government agencies and partners that stakeholders of the insurance industry. Wouldn’t it be great if your insurance firm had access to police records of reported accidents? Once you report and accident, the firm would pick out your number plate and process claims, repairs, courtesy car and all the value adds without you intervention. A seamless customer experience is a possibility that would give a competitive advantage to the firm the offers it first. The penetration of the insurance service in Kenya does not interpret to lack of need for it in the market. It’s an opportunity lingering for next innovator, a solution provider that will meet the needs of the 97 per cent.
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke
OPINION
THE WORRYING NUMBERS? BY PETER MUYA
“DO NOT BE WORRIED BY INVESTMENT GONE INTO THE SYSTEMS BUT FOCUS ON THE BENEFIT OF THE INVESTMENT”, IS A QUOTE PICKED OFF THE JUST CONCLUDED 6TH CIO 100 AWARDS EAST AFRICA THROUGH A TWEET FEED. THE TERM SUGGESTS THERE IS REASON TO WORRY BUT ALSO PROMISES HOPE BEYOND WORRY.
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he question is how much is that statement believable by any decision maker who has genuine reason to worry? Is there convincing evidence about the promise of benefit that far outweighs the looming worry? Should decision makers worry about the brevity of understanding of their worries and even more brevity of reassurance?
Statistical data by Insight Wells, obtained from cio.co.ke, provides on investment by large, small and medium enterprises on IT projects in the last two years. A total ofUS$450M was spent. This has been split in the ratio of 78% to 22% for large enterprises and SME’s respectively. SMEs were considered to be having “employee costs of between two and 100”. It is assumed this was meant to be employee headcount of between 2 and 200. These IT projects according to the companies surveyed were for those considered, “innovative projects”. The presentation of this additional survey data somewhat goes to give a picture of exactly what causes decision makers to worry. The dollar numbers are not little money. The survey results presented do not provide information on the number of enterprises polled. An assumption is taken of a figure of
50, where 20 represents large enterprises and 30 represents SMEs. This would mean, the average annual investment by large enterprises is around US$9M while that of SMEs is about US$1.5M. Consulting one of the tier 1 bank’s half year results of 2016, the estimated annual average “other operating expenses” is US$100M. It is assumed that the line item “other operating expenses” includes investment in projects to increase operational efficiency which includes IT projects. If this assumption is correct then, assuming the tier 1 bank falls within the category of large enterprises as defined by the survey, then the portion of other operating expenses related to the part of spend on IT projects would represent 10% of that category of expenditure. Going further on the same tier 1 bank half year results, it indicates that the value of loans transacted via digital channels grew by 438% in one year. The value of interest on loans and advances grew by 39%. However, the proportion of all income compared to what came through via digital channels (using the assumptions here) was 96% to 4%. Notably, there is a significant part of revenue that is not directly traceable to digital transactions. That notwithstanding, it is assumed that even the non-digitally driven revenue generating transactions somewhat are digitized transactions in part. This perhaps tips the scales a little further than 4% in favor. These numbers (with assumptions) are a clear reminder of why maturity is critical in how enterprises transform. Previously, there was an article shared on Enterprise Debt™. Maybe the spend de-
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scribed here is based on the approved budget and not what was required for the change to be effected in full. That is, the assigned budget versus the required budget created a deficit. This deficit didn’t make the need go away. The unallocated value of the need was either parked for the future or met using workarounds. This debt plus the cost of continually remaining non-compliant with the original requirement increased the Enterprise Debt. The problem is not the existence of debt but ignorance of it. Occasional spikes and troughs of its manifestation could lead to knee-jerk investments to contain it. Doing so would increase the debt to proportions where it cannot be repaid back. An investment that appears to be US$10M a year may not have looked at the hidden debt of an almost equal amount accumulated over time. This would bring the actual transformation spend to US$20M. Unexposed, the US$10M debt continues charging interest over its unexposed period. What should leadership do? They should not worry about the face value of dollars spent on IT projects. They should worry about the hidden costs that these projects bring and the impact on the overall enterprise debt. This then should be deducted from the traceable benefits such investments bring in order to have a clear view of their actual benefit over their lifetime to the enterprise. The cost of transformation should be a profit and loss item using the Enterprise Architecture to achieve stability and predictability of transformation. Remember, “if you don’t control enterprise debt, it will control you” (Pragmatic EA) 41
HARD TALK
BY BOB YAWE
A PROFESSION DISRUPTED
We are all fresh back from the recently concluded CIO100 Awards and Symposium that brought together those at the highest echelons of the profession where pertinent issues were discussed, in addition leading edge technologies demonstrated.
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ortunately, the usual hobnobbing with senior government officials was lacking after the invited officers failed to appear most likely because they have refused to embrace technology in a task as mundane as maintaining and sharing diaries. There is usually a silver lining but this time it was an entire 4 lane brightly shinning silver ring around the storm clouds that seemed to be gathering giving Dr. Mwangi of Equity Bank 3 times more time than would have otherwise been allocated to him if GoK was in the room. As we drove up together from Nairobi to Naivasha the topic of the short-lived stints of CIOs at Equity Bank came up which to some of us was a result of Dr. Mwangi being intolerant of decent from the ranks, how wrong we all were. Dr. Mwangi seems to have had a premonition of what questions he would be asked and thus prepared accordingly, he gave an unwritten keynote speech that just blew us all away to the point that the only questions raised were similar to those to Dr. Njoroge was asked when being vetted by our parliamentarians. This was an indication that the issues he was articulating were very close to his heart and soul making it clear what keeps engaged CEOs awake at night.
CIOs cannot think on their feet The initial blow came less than 3 minutes into the bout, CIOs seem incapable of thinking on their feet always needing to go back and research or consult yet the market doesn’t provide the organisation with such luxuries. You can imagine being in the theatre room with your chest open then you burst a vein, do you want a doctor who can make a quick decision that will save your life but you lose a leg or one who opts to leave the remainder of the procedure to the pathologist?
CIOs cannot speak business As far as Dr. Mwangi is concerned, and I too, is that there is too much tech speak and very little business speak coming from the CIO which results in a broken communication 42
channel thus gravely affecting the businesses chances of survival. I reiterate what I have said before, an MBA as it is currently constituted is wasted on a marketing or finance graduate as they end up covering the same topics they did as undergraduates. It is time we had this classes occupied by those who they were structured for in 1908, engineers who need to learn how to speak business. If you disagree with me on this issue please pick a ticket, queuing system installed – your number 1,967 currently serving number 1, and await your turn.
CIO merging roles The thrashing did not stop there, Dr. Mwangi went on to explain that he views the CIO as a merger of the activities of the CMO, CFO and the COO amongst many others thus effectively placing them a notch higher than the CEO in terms of responsibility for the business. He went further and even coined the new title Customer Experience Director (CED), a clear breakaway from the obsession with chiefs leaving the CEO due for imminent disruption or elimination. Note that the customer is at the forefront of the job description as today they rule the world. Interestingly as Hare and I welcomed Dr. Mwangi to the venue before going into the conference room, he joked that he is interested in becoming a techie, little did we know how serious he was.
CED as a prophet We long ago moved away from data processing and management to information, at least for some organisations many still remain in the data doldrums. As dashboards have become more prevalent information has become knowledge thus assisting in improving decision-making, but with big data and high speed processing we are rapidly migrating towards predictions thus prophesy. The role of the CIO has been disrupted, it is only those individuals and organisations that realise this and adopt accordingly who will survive and flourish, ask the US Democratic Party CIO what hit him for details.
CIO EAST AFRICA | DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 | www.cio.co.ke