admina lucrative two-year tender in Malawi while its business contracts in South Africa, Swaziland, Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, Nigeria and Mauritius are still in full swing, the company’s group chief executive officer, Dr Dennis Magaya, has said.
He said ICT entrepreneurs in Africa should go beyond supplying hardware and reselling software adding that time had come to start working on the business services side of the industry.
In an interview with Business Herald yesterday, Dr Magaya said there was a lot of scope for ICT consulting companies to help bring the costs of business down by implementing solutions that add value for the benefit of the organisation and ultimately the end-user.
“I am excited and inspired by the progress we are making. There is a lot of scope for ICT consulting companies to help bring the costs of business down by implementing solutions that add value for the benefit of the organisation and ultimately the end user. There are a lot of opportunities to transform the customer’s experience in our continent given that Africa is still a developing continent. We need to understand the importance of rendering good services to our clients.
“There is an opportunity for the indigenous person in Africa to take ownership of the solutions required to move the continent forward. As ICT entrepreneurs, we need to go beyond supplying hardware and reselling software.
“We need to start working on the business services. The success of the continent is largely depended on how the entrepreneurs are performing,” said Dr Magaya. He added: “From being a small company that I founded in 2007, Rubiem has become a specialist in providing ICT solutions predominantly in the telecommunications sector. We started with a one-year consulting contract with Swaziland Posts and
Telecommunications Company (SPTC) and followed this with operations in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, Nigeria and Mauritius.
“In Namibia, we are working on a major transformation project for Telecom Namibia while in Malawi, the company recently got a major two-year contract with one of the key operators to transform the company’s technology, business and products and services.
“Now we have clinched more than 30 consultant jobs in different facets of the ICT realm, from core network, radio network, billing/CRM, products, sales and distribution, customer experience and managed services consultants.
“The company is growing rapidly and in each key market it has had huge success. We are competing with other big international ICT consultancy companies and our advantage is that as an African company we understand that market better than those companies that come to the continent to impose their products and solutions.” Dr Magaya said in Africa there is low capital investment in many organisations with poor infrastructure, antiquated technology and business processes that cause huge inefficiencies adding that his company had devised solutions that improve business efficiency.
“We think we are playing a major role in bridging the gap between Africa and the rest of the world in ICT development. For instance, in telecommunications, more than 80 percent of the technologies are imported. We want to ensure that Africa maximises the indigenous contribution to the solutions. We cannot continue to import everything from overseas.
“ICT is key to economic development. We want to continue to lead the advancement of this sector in our own ways.
We will ensure “Africa is Covered”.
“We are working on projects for SMEs in Mauritius. We have a big business transformation project in Namibia with the fixed line operator, Namibia Telecom.
“In Zimbabwe, our major client is NetOne. In Malawi, we are working with key ICT service providers such as Access Communication Limited and Malawi Telecoms Limited,” said Dr Magaya.
Online Reporter