CIO EA Magazine March Edition 2017

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VOL 9 | ISSUE 3 | www.cio.co.ke

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14 Cloud computing:

a paradigm shift for the supply chain industry

SIDIAN BANK

32 DEMO-Africa expands

Innovation Tour to connect with Continent’s startup ecosystem

March 2017

Ntwiga34 Kendi Nderitu, Sub-

Sahara Africa territory lead at Intel Security, defies the odds

on IT as a key driver of Sidian Bank’s vision

An publication

TOP DDoS ATTACK MYTHBUSTERS MYTH

TRUTH

My on-premises DDoS solution has my company protected against

One of the largest DDoS attacks recorded by F5 approached 450+ Gbps, which would easily overwhelm any on-premises DDoS deployment.

F5 recommends a hybrid approach of both on-premises and cloud scrubbing.

My company isn’t a target for

All industries come under DDoS attacks with education and professional services, emerging as new attack sectors.

Attack motivation varies from hacktivism

My firewall has my company protected

The fastest growing DDoS attack type is volumetric.

90% 90% of reported DDoS incidents are in the professional sector, followed by 81% in education. 2

between malicious and legitimate users, allowing F5’s surveys found that more than 40% of DDoS attacks pass through current on-premises firewalls. 1

to handle volumetric DDoS attacks.

simple and use only a single vector Our business is too small and will not come

volumetric in nature

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76% of DDoS attack are multi-vector and take sophisticated tools and knowledge to mitigate.

DDoS attacks are more likely to be multi-vector attacks than single-vector attacks. 1

DDoS attacks don’t discriminate.

Any organization, big or small, is in danger of experiencing the risks associated with a DDoS attack.

On average, an organization has experienced at least one DDoS attack in the last year.

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The most damaging DDoS attacks mix brute force (volumetric) attacks with Application-layer attacks comprise about 19% of all reported DDoS attacks.

DDoS solutions aren’t worth the investment

DDoS solutions are worth the investment, especially when you need mitigation.

Be prepared to keep your business online and shine for execs.

There is no financial goal around DDoS attacks

DDoS attacks are sometimes used as a mode of distraction to veil some other attack taking place in the background (such as account takeover).

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F5 SILVERLINE, 22016 DATA BREACH INVESTIGATIONS REPORT IMPACT AND COST OF A BREACH , 2015

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45% of organizations were DDoS-attacked at least once in the past year, at an average 3 cost of $200K–$500K per hour.

90%

90% of all multi-vector cyberattacks 1 involve a DDoS smokescreen.

, VERIZON,

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FORRESTER,

UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS

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Editor’s note E

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Uganda

Tanzania

Rwanda

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Harry Hare EDITOR Rob Hough TECHNICAL STAFF WRITERS Lillian Mutegi Baraka Jefwa Jeanette Oloo COLUMNISTS Ben Roberts Bobby Yawe James Muritu Peter Muya 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

GOING FURTHER THAN SCIENCE FICTION

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THE CLOUD… THE CLOUD… THE CLOUD….

IT’S ALL THE CLOUD. WE’RE ALL IN THE CLOUD.

hose were the words of an acquaintance, an engineering manager at Cisco HQ, several years ago. She (!) shared those thoughts at what turned out to be a pivotal time in the cloud era, with more than a little skepticism in her voice.

As 2010 drew near, her perspective as a high-level IT pro and mine as a technology fan and journalist were pretty close. We thought the cloud was complex, a lot could go well, a lot could be disastrous and maybe some of the talk was marketing hype.

If users might face problems with things they wanted and needed to do, my Cisco acquaintance pointed out that IT people might face nights with more cups of coffee than hours of sleep, that IT decision-makers might face unemployment if they got it wrong.

Faith in the cloud moved onward, ever onward. Billboards along Silicon Valley highways touted B2B cloud-based solutions.

A flashy TV commercial from a huge credit-card company showed a future where people would go online to buy tickets to events, with tickets existing only in electronic form, and then they would show the e-tickets on their phones on the way into the venues. The cloud would power this fabulous future.

There is a skeptical, clichéd response to grand predictions: “Yeah, yeah – and we were promised flying cars.”

That advertisement also brought to mind the thought that it can take a lot of effort to make something work effortlessly.

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Rob Hough

This experience was shown as something for everyone, not just for people with highend phones; the future would include powerful devices at prices much lower than they were at the time.

Whatever home-based or mobile devices people used to shop for tickets, someone would have to provide information about seat locations and costs. In the ad, people clicked on seat maps to see views from various seats.

transaction, generate e-tickets and deliver them. Let’s not forget that some people buy tickets and change their minds about going, so the system would need to let people sell or transfer their tickets.

Finally, the sites would need scalable, cost-effective technology to accept e-tickets.

The message back then was that it would take a huge company to do all that. Here we are a handful of years later and a Nairobi-based start-up is providing that service – and more.

Just like the TV ad a few years ago, Mookh handles e-ticketing for people who are having concerts and other events. It also handles sales and distribution of music and other electronic content and physical products people create. As co-founder George Gachui pointed out, creators want to create, not spend time on the gory details of the e-commerce back end.

To make it even better for creators, Mookh creates clean, professional web pages – essentially mini-sites – for them to show off their wares.

One can start to feel, dare I say it, optimistic about what’s coming from giant companies and entrepreneurs like Gachui, who commented with a big smile, “I love the cloud.”

Riding back from the event where I met Gachui, I remembered that TV ad, which reminded me how far tech’s come. Moving down the road in the late afternoon with considerably less speed and efficiency than Mookh provides, the skeptic’s line about tech promises came to mind, too. Maybe there should be hope, though, that someone in East Africa will create nAIRobi Force 1, a drone-type device for low-level, lowspeed personal flight – the long-promised flying car.

TO CONTACT ME:

So someone’s ready to buy tickets, to connect to parts of the system that handle the CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

QUOTED VERBATIM

Nicholas Nesbitt, Country General Manager, IBM East Africa

“It’s either you are in the cloud or you disappear. “There will be not much of a cloud differentiator once the clouddelivery solution matures, forcing providers to come down to the question of what can your application do and then go back to the old thing that we have to constantly do so as to survive, which is to innovate constantly.”

FROM OUR ONLINE LOCATIONS Five most popular stories on www.cio.co.ke Google tweaks its Verify Apps security feature to show what’s been scanned Facebook’s latest goal is to connect (and save) the world CA refutes claims it plans to monitor citizens’ calls and messages through its device management system

Cathrene Muraga, Director ICT Operations at Sidian Bank

“When we looked at our IT strategy, a couple of things came to mind; for instance, how much of our systems we want sited on-premises and how much we want on the cloud. What we have right now is a combination and with time, we can see how much we can push to the cloud.”

SageBizBuilding: Are your Systems functional? The growth in your business will tell us… #TheYearAhead: In 2017, 85% of data will be unstructured; most of it will be infrequently accessed

Five top facebook.com/ cioeastafrica posts with highest reach Kenyan software engineers head to MWC on back of hackathon win

Kris Senanu, MD of Telkom Enterprise

Bob Yawe, CIO East Africa Columnist

“For entrepreneurs to succeed, they need established space, connectivity, healthy collaboration and competition.

The start-up scene also needs more entrepreneurs and more angel investors, those investors who accept a 5-percent to 10-percent success rate and play a significant role in driving the industry forward.“

“The level of technological integration you encounter at the gate to a business premises reflects how well they have assimilated technology. If you find an askari (sentry) with a rungu (baton) who then writes your details in a lined exercise book, that is the level of technological assimilation.”

USIU-Africa to introduce seven IT related programs to push uptake of STEM Careers #TheYearAhead: Kenyan Gov’t moving from large scale acquisition of equipment to BYOD Kenya’s FEP Holdings installs new Ksh13.5 million ERP system DEMO-Africa announces key dates for 2017

Five top tweets with the highest reaction Three major components of #bigdata to a business include: Customer experience, operational efficiency & Innovation - Karanja #TheYearAhead Currently on stage is Joshua Kwendo solutions adviser, #SAP talking about #IOT #theyearahead On stage at #TheYearAhead is Dennis Karanja, #Oracle Analytics lead #Kenya tackling #BigData Thank you to @TotalSLtd & #Fabs for making this possible #TheYearAhead Terry Greer-King, Director, Security, Cisco UK, Ireland & Africa takes the stage #CiscoConnectKE

www.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

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GUEST EDITORIAL

BY KARIEN BORNHEIM

SECURITY AND THE IT CLOUD “A cloud does not know why it moves in just such a direction and at such a speed... It feels an impulsion... this is the place to go now. But the sky knows the reasons and the patterns behind all clouds, and you will know, too, when you lift yourself high enough to see beyond horizons.” ~Richard Bach

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he cloud is not a new concept but merely a new definition. People and companies have been using the “cloud” for decades – a mainframe or super computer embodies a private cloud in its very definition while Hotmail, Gmail and Yahoo Mail are prefect examples of a Public Cloud.

Companies, and IT professionals in particular, like to feel that they are in control of their applications and data. This need creates a feeling of unease when the application and/or data reside in an off-premise (or public-cloud) environment that the company does not own or control. There’s an impression that cloud computing is inherently less secure than traditional computing. Recent high-profile hacks have also reinforced this perception. Sadly, on premise (private-cloud) environments have also had security breaches (the Department of Homeland Security in the USA, even

the FBI and numerous banks across the world).

A holistic IT Security strategy should be considered for all data, applications, systems, network, mobile, people and processes. Cloud security should merely be a subset of this holistic security approach.

All risk should be defined and quantified in terms of policy and organisational, technical and legal risks.

A comprehensive understanding and analysis of all security risks, together with a proper governance, risk and compliance program for the entire IT environment –with the public, private and hybrid cloud as one of its components – form the cornerstones of a strong IT security strategy, together with a high-level security architecture for the IT environment including all the cloudbased services.

The following should receive special attention in a public cloud environment: • Data protection regulations and laws • Data breaches • Password-based authentication attacks • Service on demand • Multi-tenancy and the sharing of resources • Insider risks • Data in transit • Cloud security responsibility • Subpoenas by law-enforcement agencies or civil suits • Security incidents • Audit logs • Patch management and software updates • Network architecture controls • Privileged identity management • Anomaly detection • Incident management • Physical security • Business continuity and disaster recovery Huge concentrations of resources and data present attractive targets to attackers, but cloud service providers invest significantly more expertise, money, and effort to address them than individual companies can.

Additional benefits resulting from the scale of cloud services include multiple locations, which allow for redundancy and automatic disaster recovery; edge networks (content delivered or processed closer to its destination); improved timeliness of response to incidents; and more efficient threat management. Software patches and updates are more likely to be installed on time.

Finally, cloud computing is not a new technology, it is merely a new way of delivering computing resources. Ultimately the risk of using cloud computing should always be compared to the risks of staying with traditional, on-premise solutions.

Karien Bornheim, CEO, FABS Ltd addresses participants during the CIO East Africa breakfast event The Year Ahead, which was held recently in Nairobi.

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Karien Bornheim is the CEO of Footprint Africa Business Solutions, which in association with Total Solutions Ltd., provides security solutions to enterprises and governments across Africa.

CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

CONTENTS

MARCH 2017 6 Technology Tantrums 8 InBrief 9 Appointments 10 Regional RoundUP PRODUCT REVIEW

NEWS

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Two giants team up to expand cloud services across Africa

TREND LINES

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How we got to here – and where are we?

PICTORIAL

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They agree that Cloud is most likely meant to take on Chromebooks

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Public cloud powers ahead as enterprise splashes the cash Worldwide cloud spending will be up by more than 24 percent in 2017, IDC says

2017: The Year Ahead

TREND LINES

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26 Cover story:

Sidian Bank on IT as a key driver of Sidian Bank’s vision

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IT AND LEADERSHIP

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Nicholas Nesbitt: On his rising journey in the IT Industry www.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

Cloud security: solid or shaky?

Delivering remote internet access with innovation and the cloud

ANALYSIS

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Cloud adoption in East Africa moves forward Anatomy of a cloud project cost overrun

OPINION

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START UP CORNER

DEMO-Africa expands Innovation Tour to connect with continent’s startup ecosystem

Reverse of the brain drain Side-hustling: how to get it right Go digital or go home Reverse engineering the Silicon Savannah

Hard TALK

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Office 365: More than just a productivity tool

LOOKING AHEAD

Cloud computing: a paradigm shift for the supply chain industry

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All hat and no cattle

WOMEN & TECH

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Kendi Ntwiga-Nderitu, Sub-Sahara Africa territory lead at Intel Security, defies the odds 7

IN BRIEF AROUND

SEMTECH BRINGS HIGH-TECH TO RHINOS IN TANZANIA SEMTECH CORPORATION ANNOUNCED THAT ITS LORA LONG-RANGE LOW-POWER WIRELESS-SENSOR DEVICES AND WIRELESS RF TECHNOLOGY ARE PROTECTING ENDANGERED BLACK RHINOCEROSES AT THE MKOMAZI NATIONAL PARK, ONE OF 14 NATIONAL PARKS IN TANZANIA.

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he Internet of Life and the ShadowView Foundation founded to use innovative technology to protect the environment and endangered species, developed a LoRa-equipped sensor that is implanted directly into the rhino’s horn. The sensor gives park rangers the ability to accurately monitor the whereabouts and activities of the endangered black rhinos and keep them safe from poachers, the company said in a statement.

UGANDA ELECTED TO CHAIR TELCOM GROUP GOVERNING COUNCIL UGANDA HAS BEEN ELECTED TO CHAIR THE AFRICAN ADVANCED LEVEL TELECOMMUNICATIONS INSTITUTE (AFRALTI) GOVERNING COUNCIL, ACCORDING TO PUBLISHED REPORTS.

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FRALTI, an inter-governmental organisation headquartered in Nairobi, provides human resources capacity building through high-level quality training, consultancy and advisory services to both management and the technical personnel in the Information and Communication and Technology sector in Africa.

Uganda, represented at the meeting by Uganda Communication Commission’s Fred Otunu, takes over the chairmanship from Swaziland and will head the council for the period running up to 2018, reports said.

NIGERIA ANNOUNCES PLANS TO INVEST IN ITC COMPLEXES NIGERIA MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS ADEBAYO SHITTU HAS SAID HIS COUNTRY WILL ESTABLISH AN ICT UNIVERSITY AND AN ICT NATIONAL PARK AS PART OF THE GOVERNMENT’S ONGOING EFFORTS TO ENRICH NIGERIA’S ECONOMY.

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he minister discussed the plan after providing information about the 2017 budget at the National Assembly in Abuja, according to reports.

The Ministry of Communications is aware of the country’s economic challenges, but is essential, Shittu believes, to continue making productive investments that will benefit the nation, reports have said.

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AROUND the

WORLD HIKVISION TO ESTABLISH R&D CENTRE IN MONTREAL AND RESEARCH INSTITUTE IN SILICON VALLEY CHINESE VIDEO-SURVEILLANCE FIRM PLANS TO OPEN ITS FIRST R&D COMPLEXES OUTSIDE CHINA

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ikvision, a leader in innovative, award-winning video surveillance products and solutions, has announced that it plans to establish an R&D Centre in Montreal, Canada and a Research Institute in California’s Silicon Valley.

“These two major investments underscore Hikvision’s R&D globalisation strategy and the commitment to providing innovative, cutting-edge technology products tailored to the needs of our worldwide partners and customers,” Yangzhong Hu, CEO of Hikvision said in a statement.

Expected to open this year, the Montreal Hikvision R&D Centre will focus on engineering development. The Silicon Valley Hikvision Research Institute will focus on broad technology research, the company said.

Montreal is an ideal location for the new R&D Centre because of its excellent talent pool and business-friendly environment, and the high-tech hub of Silicon Valley is the logical location for the Hikvision Research Institute, Hikvision said.

Based in Hangzhou, China, Hikvision has more than 8,000 R&D engineers, one of the largest engineering teams in the video surveillance industry, and it dedicates about 7 percent of its revenues to R&D. The R&D Centre and Research Institute in North America will be the first operations of their kind the company establishes outside of China.

This move is “part of Hikvision’s global strategy to advance its local support and service in regions outside of China,” Hu said.

APPLE PARK OPENS TO EMPLOYEES IN APRIL THE NEW COMPLEX WILL BE FULLY POWERED BY RENEWABLE ENERGY AND FEATURE ONE OF THE WORLD’S LARGEST SOLAR-ENERGY INSTALLATIONS OF ITS KIND.

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pple has announced that Apple Park, the company’s new 175-acre campus in Cupertino, California will be ready for employees to begin working there in April. The process of moving more than 12,000 people will take more than six months and construction of the buildings and parklands is scheduled to continue through the summer.

Envisioned by Steve Jobs as a centre for creativity and collaboration, the campus’ ring-shaped, 2.8 million-square-foot main building is clad entirely in the world’s largest panels of curved glass, the company said in a statement.

Apple Park is powered by 100-percent renewable energy, the company announced. With 17 megawatts of rooftop solar, it will run one of the world’s largest on-site solar energy installations, Apple said, adding that it is the “world’s largest naturally ventilated building, projected to require no heating or air conditioning for nine months of the year.”

CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

APPOINTMENTS INTEGRATED PAYMENTS SERVICES LTD. APPOINTS JENNIFER THEURI – CEO Jennifer Theuri has been appointed as CEO of KBA’s fully-owned payments technology subsidiary, Integrated Payments Services Limited (IPSL).

The IPSL CEO, Jennifer Theuri, is a career banker and financial technology expert with over 25 years of local and international experience. Prior to joining IPSL she has held several senior roles covering the areas of mobile money, near field communications payments technology, and card business. She has in-depth knowledge of a wide range of banking products and services with significant reference and contribution to the card industry in Kenya.

Alongside Theuri, KBA announced the appointment of Michael Mbuthia and Paul Munguti as CIO and Products Manager, respectively, for IPSL. The new team will provide impetus for an accelerated rollout of the IPSL flagship product in coming weeks, company officials said.

Mbuthia has more than 14 years Information Technology and Business systems design experience. He has served in the public and private sectors within the Banking, Transportation and Energy sectors. Munguti, is an expert in switching technology and service delivery with extensive experience in product development centred on mobile and card technology.

ACCENTURE APPOINTS WANYE HULL MANAGING DIRECTOR & HEAD OF DIGITAL FOR SOUTH AND SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA Accenture has announced the appointment of Wayne Hull as managing director and head of Accenture Digital for South and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Prior to joining Accenture, Hull was the Digital Advisor for Sportradar Global. He has held a number of senior positions including board member and Global Senior Vice President for AGT International, Director and General Manager for Cisco in the Middle East and Pakistan. He also headed the Technology Group and Financial Services Consulting practices at IBM Southern Africa, the company said in a statement.

Hull returns to South Africa after spending 13 years in the Middle East, Pakistan and Switzerland.

Commenting on his new role, Hull said: “The number of South Africans – including the young population – accessing the Internet is growing and this presents opportunities for clients to unleash the power of digital, as well as deliver more meaningful customer experiences across all channels and segments.”

Hull holds an Honors Degree in Industrial Sociology from the University of Cape Town. He has also attended Harvard Business School and IMD Business School Executive Education.

OLD MUTUAL EMERGING MARKETS APPOINTS JONAS MUSHOSHO, CEO FOR REST OF AFRICA Old Mutual Emerging Markets announced that Jonas Mushosho, who had been serving as the regional CEO of Old Mutual Southern and East Africa, will take on the reinstated role of CEO for Rest of Africa with immediate effect.

With its growing presence on the African continent, the group said it believed the time is right to return its businesses in a number of countries under one overall structure that will unlock more opportunities for growth and eliminate unnecessary duplication.

A chartered accountant and MBA graduate, Mushosho is well-qualified to take up this position. He has been an Old Mutualite for the past 26 years and acquired a wealth of expertise in life, short-term insurance and banking that is critical in driving the group’s Africa strategy forward. www.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

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REGIONAL ROUND-UP

COMPILED BY JEANETTE OLOO

RWANDAN GOVERNMENT BANS MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS’ MOBILE PHONE USE AT WORK THE BAN, WHICH APPLIES TO ALL HEALTH FACILITIES WAS MADE BY MINISTER FOR HEALTH, DR DIANE GASHUMBA. THIS IS ACCORDING TO A NEW TIMES TWEET THAT STATED, “MOH BANS USE OF PHONES BY HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS WHILE ON DUTY IN BID TO BOOST SERVICE DELIVERY. BAN TAKES EFFECT MARCH 1.”

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r. Gashumba related this message at a workshop of health personnel held in Bugesera District in a bid to chart ways to improve quality of health service delivery at all levels, according to reports.

According to The New Times, the Ministry made the decision to implement the policy after officials agreed that speaking for long on personal phones affects service delivery in the health sector, said Malik Kayumba, the head of the health communication division at Rwanda Biomedical Centre.

“They (healthcare providers) were sharing best practices with reports indicating that some hospitals, which banned use of personal phones, proved to be more productive,” said Kayumba.

He said the ministry will now discuss how to implement and enforce the ban. Healthcare facilities will be fitted with office telephones for staff to use, said Kayumba.

“Use of personal phones has a negative impact at some point as some can use it in their personal business while at work,” said Agnes Uwayezu, the outgoing chairperson of National Council of Nurses and Midwives.

AIRTEL UGANDA TO CONTINUE WITH INTERCONNECTION AGREEMENT WITH UTL AIRTEL UGANDA’S JOURNEY WITH UGANDA TELECOM (UTL) HAS NOT BEEN A SMOOTH ONE SINCE 2011. AIRTEL UGANDA SUSPENDED CALLS TO UTL OVER UNPAID SHS10 BILLION IN INTERCONNECTION FEES, WHICH UTL LATER PAID AND THE PARTNERSHIP RESUMED, BUT THREE YEARS LATER UTL VIOLATED THE PARTNERSHIP AGAIN, WITH MORE ISSUES RELATING TO UNPAID FEES.

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n early February, Airtel revealed that the “interconnection agreement and interconnection services between itself and UTL had been terminated.”

A subsequent UTL statement a few days later reflected that the matter had been sorted out.

“The management of Uganda telecom and Airtel have resolved all issues related to contractual obligations and are pleased to announce it’s business as usual.”

According to Ugandan media reports, Mr. Dennis Kakonge, the Legal and Regulatory director at Airtel Uganda, said Uganda Telecom owed Airtel over Shs 8 billion arising out of unpaid interconnect fees and leased-line services offered to Uganda Telecom by Airtel.

The two telecom companies have finally come to an agreement that the amounts they remit to each other will be based on the calls made, according to media reports.

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CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

REGIONAL ROUND-UP

30 STUDENTS IN ARUSHA WITH NO IT BACKGROUND ARE MAKING ROBOTS 30 STUDENTS FROM SUYE AND MOSHONO SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ARUSHA CITY, TANZANIA, HAVE STARTED WORK ON A KOREAN ROBOT MAKING PROGRAMME.

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he Robotic Camp is being operated by E3-Empower Africa, a technology oriented organization from Korea. E3, which stands for energy, education and entrepreneurship, is working with students who have no IT background.

The head of E3-Empower, David Kim, said students are being trained to make three types of robots: obstacle removers, to clear roads and other passages, especially during riots or disasters; danger robots, to raise alerts about impending threats; and rabbit robots, which move from place to place to collect or deliver items.

“We have already made a number of trial robots and it is heart-warming to know that the students who make them never had any background in technology or ICT and in fact many hadn’t used computers before,” he said.

According to Kim, many computers in Tanzania are not being used to their potential because there is a need for more and better software. Kim also believes Tanzania’s schools need more computer teachers, better software and dedicated ICT programs to ensure the nation makes larger, more productive strides in IT.

NATIONAL LIBRARY TO USE BRCK EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY TO HELP UNDER-PRIVILEGED LEARNERS THE KENYA NATIONAL LIBRARY HAS PARTNERED WITH BOOK AID INTERNATIONAL TO HELP LESS-PRIVILEGED LEARNERS, USING KIO KIT TABLETS, A BRCK EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY.

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he partnership aims to take digital learning to the learners and will provide a friendly reading environment through the supply of new books, furniture, computers and 40 portable KIO KIT tablets.

“The KIO KIT devices, which are locally designed by BRCK Technology, are fitted with a preloaded educational content geared towards enticing disadvantaged youths in the slums and children below the age of 14 to embrace a reading culture as a way of empowering themselves and enlarging their operational space,” Thika Librarian Miriam Mureithi said in a press release issued by the Kenya News Agency.

She pointed out that the decision to take the KIO KIT portable tablets to the disadvantaged youth is based on the government agenda of equipping and empowering youths to enhance their literacy skills for individual and community growth.

The KIO KIT black box, which holds 40 portable tablets, 40 headphones, a charging system and an information content, is worth 600,000 shillings, and was donated by Book Aid International.

Mureithi pointed out that the kits have tripled the population of library clients, especially young people below the age of 18. www.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

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NEWS

BY ROB HOUGH

TWO GIANTS TEAM UP TO EXPAND CLOUD SERVICES ACROSS AFRICA Liquid Telecom will work with Microsoft to “to improve and accelerate the use of cloud services across Africa,” the company announced in February, adding that the project will help boost the continent’s access to world-class software.

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icrosoft has said it has a long-term strategic vision to enable affordable broadband access to its customers, which it believes will propel business and increase productivity. To move this objective forward, the U.S. company will collaborate with Liquid Telecom, a pan-African company that provides data, voice and IP services.

The joint effort will focus on delivering cloud services, small-and-medium business development and enabling TV white-space technology and more to increase connectivity across the continent, the telecom provider said.

“Cloud-based operations provide many tangible benefits for businesses, including reduced costs with greater levels of scalability and the ability to deliver new products and services to market faster than traditional IT solutions,” said Liquid, which operates a fibre network spanning more than 25,000 miles across 12 countries.

While African businesses have been relatively slow in adopting cloud-based services, especially in areas with limited infrastructure, Liquid believes the partnership will address this by combining its network reach with Microsoft’s solutions to bring the cloud closer to end users.

“We believe in the power and potential of businesses in Africa and we look forward to providing the best that cloud computing has to offer,” Frank McCosker, general manager of Affordable Access and Smart Financing at Microsoft 4Afrika, said in a statement. “In the age of digital transformation, we want to provide not only secure data storage, but the efficiency and scalability that businesses need to achieve more,” Through fast and more affordable connectivity, Microsoft’s cloud-based software offerings such as Azure and Office 365, will become more accessible through Liquid Telecom, the telecom company said.

As part of the project, Microsoft and

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Liquid Telecom will also be creating what they call Business in a Box, which they said will offer small-and-medium businesses a cloud-based toolkit of relevant applications, cloud services and connectivity.

The program is one element of a broad transformation in business computing across Africa, one that is gaining pace, understanding and acceptance, Liquid believes.

“Cloud computing is still gaining momentum on the continent, but we believe it has the potential to transform the way businesses of all sizes operate,” Ben Roberts, group CTO of Liquid Telecom, said in a statement. “Through better connectivity, faster internet and secure cloud offerings, businesses will have the platforms and tools they need to grow and succeed. We have the infrastructure to enable locally and regionally hosted cloud solutions keeping African data in Africa.”

In related news, Liquid has been pressing ahead with growth across the continent.

It announced in February that it completed the acquisition of Tanzania’s leading internet service provider, Raha.

As the company’s new majority shareholder, Liquid Telecom said it will will strengthen Raha’s position in the Tanzania market through further investment in its network and services.

Raha serves more than 1,500 businesses and a growing number of retail customers with connectivity solutions, including fibre, satellite, WiMAX and Wi-Fi, the company said in a statement.

Liquid said it plans to invest further in the rollout of fibre across Tanzania, enabling greater access to high-speed, reliable broadband for more businesses and households.

Moving south, February also saw South African communications network operator Neotel become part of Liquid Telecon, a move the firm said will create a new era of investment in Neotel’s network and services across South Africa.

Thanks to capital from Liquid Telecom, Neotel will deliver “significantly enhanced service offerings for enterprises and consumers,” the fibre giant said in a statement.

CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

SUBJECT:

SECURE THE FUTURE – MITIGATE DDOS ATTACKS

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a form of multi-source cyberattack that aims to disrupt network resource/services to their intended users. It has evolved in sophistication to become capable of wreaking all sorts of damage, such as fraud and extortion. DDoS attacks typically overwhelm network resources using sheer traffic volume from multiple compromised systems or devices posing as bots. DDoS attacks can be further classified into the following types: • Volumetric: denies access to legitimate user traffic by flooding network resources, crippling the ability to handle connections per second • Asymmetric: a small amount of malicious data designed to consume memory to slow the network down to a crawl • Computational: designed to consume CPU resources and memory • Vulnerability: exploits vulnerabilities • Hybrid: a combination of one or more different DDoS attack types Modern denial of service attacks are distracting security operations teams with a mix of threats that have varying effects on the infrastructure. These attacks are increasing in frequency, volume and sophistication. Attackers combine volumetric, partial saturation, authentication based and application level attacks until they find the weakest link in the chain of command.

These threats, which are becoming more difficult to defend against, are often a precursor for advanced persistent threats (APT). How quickly an organisation picks up on these threats is key to ensuring service continuity. The pervasiveness of volumetric DDoS, along with the potential increase in BOTs, requires a hybrid DDoS strategy that combines on-premise WAF with cloud-based scrubbing services.

F5 Networks provides seamless, flexible, and easy-to-deploy solutions that enable a fast response, no matter what type of DDoS attack you’re under: • Defends against the full spectrum of DDoS attacks with multi-layered, hybrid defense that combines cloud scrubbing and an on-premises appliance.

• Supports flexible deployment options with inline and out-of-band mode to make sure your applications remain available.

• Detects and mitigates targeted multi-vector, bursty DDoS with sub-second attack detection and instant mitigation in inline mode.

• Seamlessly integrates on-premises and native cloud-based attacks, signaling F5 Silverline cloud-based scrubbing.

F5’s DDoS Hybrid Defender provides comprehensive DDoS protection in a single appliance. It offers DDoS defence that combines layer 3 to 7 protection with behavioural analysis to identify and mitigate attacks, and machine-learning to detect evasive threats or traffic anomalies.

The appliance also enables on-demand cloud-based scrubbing (F5 Silverline) in a hybrid model. It redirects volumetric attack traffic seamlessly to reduce overhead and greatly improve network bandwidth usage.

Infrastructure is protected by combining multi-layered DDoS defence across network, session, and application layers to intelligently integrate offsite cloud scrubbing in a convenient, all-in-one form factor.

Please Contact Ameen Varvani ameen.varvani@westcon.com +254 20 420 1021 +254 736 165 900

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BY TAIWO SAHEED

Cloud computing: a paradigm shift for the supply chain industry Today’s continuously globalized economy consistently involves a vast range of changes, which have created new needs in supply chain dynamics.

There is a neverstopping need to move raw materials and finished products across the globe –and to keep track of them with precision and ease.

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aw materials are moved in large quantities from developing countries to developed economies, and finished products are moved from the first- and second-world countries across the globe. Manufacturing companies in North America and Europe have been moving their manufacturing capacities to Asia, because the savings offset challenges of extended supply chains and additional costs.

This convoluted loop in the product lifecycle has created a longer and more complex supply chains to move products from the exploration and manufacturing sites in Africa, Asia and elsewhere to consumption centres in Africa, Europe and the rest of the world.

Supply-chain bottlenecks can be caused by factors including technological issues, internal environments, external environmental factors and natural events. One challenge with international supply chain management in the globalized economy is the lack of visibility with movement of products to and from locations across the globe.

Visibility has been the most elusive goal in supply chain management for more than three decades, largely due to the technological limitations emerging from complications of having to connect different partners and stakeholders. Fortunately, information tech-

nology evolution in the last decade is significantly changing the landscape in many industries, and the supply chain industry is no exception.

Computer technologies such as cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things and machine learning can be adopted to streamline the supply chain processes and give visibility throughout them.

As supply chain management has started to look like an entangled cobweb, with many stakeholders such as suppliers, requesters and shipping partners, cloud-based solutions will be the solutions of choice to improve end-to-end visibility, decision making, scalability, transparency and cost savings. Cloud computing has opened new opportunities for network management and information sharing across so many industries and business needs. With so many people involved and so many volumes of vital information to assimilate, cloud solutions might be the only realistic way to keep track of it all.

Today’s supply chains are highly fragmented with silos of information, which makes it almost impossible to share information with trading partners. Businesses need platforms that empower them to visualize a product in every stage of its lifecycle, in real time, from raw materials through delivery to end cus-

CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

TREND LINES tomers. Management must be able to make quick decisions to re-route shipments, locate containers, check the condition of products that have been shipped and collaborate with suppliers.

Businesses need to communicate and share data with their entire supply chain trade network. To achieve this, organizations need solutions that go beyond the confines of their business; allow them to track and trace products, shipments, and orders; and make it easy to share massive amounts of information across a global network.

This is where organizations like Roambee comes in. Roambee is a technology company in the Internet of Things (IoT) space. It leverages cloud-computing technology to offer a real-time, multi sensor, visibility solution to monitor in-transit shipments and field equipment.

According to Louis Columbus, a contributor at Forbes magazine, Cloud Computing, mostly referred to as “the cloud,� is a broad term that encompasses various models used to deliver computing services through the Internet as a utility, pay-as-you-go model.

The true power of cloud computing lies in the way it changes the economics of computing through economies of scale by packaging and delivering computing services as a utility. Consumers of those services reap the benefits of ubiquitous access to computing infrastructure, and the flexibility to match payment for services to the value they deliver.

Common IT problems in supply chain and procurement Large multinationals and medium-sized business usually have a number of partners with their own supply chain processes and dependencies. An organization may have offices scattered across cities, countries and continents, which all need to request or track supplies and inventory. These requests can burden the IT infrastructure and team just to store and process requests and information, much less communicate with stakeholders.

Changing suppliers, updating costs and tracking shipments manually or by manually importing data from elsewhere can cause delays or costly erwww.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

rors. Improving information storage and communication with an in-house supply chain management system can bring huge costs and require more people to run it.

Natural or man-made disasters and security issues for an in-house system can bring a nationwide procurement system to a screeching halt. Even simple upgrades and maintenance downtime can impact business processes.

With cloud technology, these concerns are eliminated or dramatically reduced and companies providing these services offer a number of options that keep costs low.

Cloud-based tech can leverage new opportunities There are several ways cloud computing and SaaS can help businesses grow and improve.

Visibility Cloud-based technologies provide real-time visibility, tracking and condition-monitoring of goods and assets in transit and in storage. Owners of shipments get up-to-date information about their shipments, including information such as location, and climate conditions where the product is located. This allows for customer-defined real-time alerts, data analytics and reports that help in making informed business decisions. Users can get alerts such as ETA changes, device tampering, deviation

in routes or unauthorized movement, transporter SLA deviations, temperature deviations and shipping delays.

Scalability With cloud-based software solutions, companies can add resources during high-volume seasons or periods of growth and reduce them during down times. Most cloud and SaaS providers charge only on monthly intervals with no upfront setup costs. Roambee, headquartered in Santa Clara, California USA with a presence across Africa and Asia, offers a 100% pay-as-you-go model.

Final words Organizations no matter their size, industry or location need agile, savvy, adaptive and scalable supply chains.

Customers, suppliers, and trading partners are highly informed and demanding; they want accurate information in real time and require the right products at the right location at the right time.

This can best be accomplished through the cloud; cloud based SaaS solutions can transform a 20th-century supply chain into an automated, dynamic demand-supply network with real time visibility, control and collaboration across all trading channels. These cloud-based technologies used for supply chain management increase efficiency, improve risk management and transform data into information that can be used to make better business decisions.

Taiwo Saheed is a technology evangelist at Roambee.

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BY ROB HOUGH

HOW WE GOT TO HERE – AND WHERE ARE WE? LESS THAN A DECADE AGO, THE CLOUD WAS GETTING NO SMALL MEASURE OF EXPOSURE AND EXPANDING IN SOME HASTE. IT HAD BEEN A FEW YEARS SINCE THE EARLY VISIONARIES MADE THEIR BIG MOVES, WHICH LOOKED RISKY AND MAYBE EVEN FOOLISH. THE APPROACH DREW PREDICTABLE AND REASONABLE CONCERNS, WHICH ARE STILL AROUND TO VARYING DEGREES. WHAT ABOUT ACCESS AT ALL TIMES? COSTS? BANDWIDTH? SECURITY?

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xperts throughout Africa agree that while companies across the continent took a relatively cautious approach to the cloud, companies large and small – those providing services and those using them – are jumping all the way in.

As far as the world has come in several years, by 2008, those who took the first steps were looking more than a little bit smart. Gartner, a respected information technology research and advisory company, said in that year, “Cloud computing heralds an evolution of business that is no less influential than e-business.”

That was nine years ago, and nine years after Salesforce debuted its cloud-based model for enterprise software way on back in 1999. In its last quarterly report, the company reported US $2.1 billion in revenue. Not bad for three months.

Salesforce was followed by Amazon with its web services in 2002. Microsoft debuted Azure in 2008. Global giant GE said in 2014 that it was “all in” on the cloud.

While there’s ample evidence that cloud security is a legitimate concern, some IT leaders make a good case that for African companies, moving to the cloud is matter of when, not if, and it had better be soon.

Discussing cloud adoption throughout the continent, Neil Herbert, director of Analytics & Insight, SAP Africa, said in a recent, richly detailed paper, “The move to running businesses in cloud is going to be a sprint rather than a jog.”

He echoes sentiments shared by countless other players large and small who cite examples of tiny companies getting their work done with two people rather than with 15, and of large firms taking advantage of massive computer power and sophisticated, affordable software to mine data for business opportunities.

A Microsoft executive recently likened cloud-based services to plumbers providing the plumbing at a shirt factory, something the shirt-maker needs – and doesn’t have time or expertise to deal with.

If the cloud’s a done deal these days all over the world, cloud security needs the same level of commitment, according to a recent survey by CompuCom, a 30-year-old North American company that provides IT managed services, infrastructure solutions, consulting and products.

The pace of adoption and the need to do it are picking up, Herbert believes.

Respondents to poll taken in late-2016 and early-2017 answered the question, “Which emerging technology is most important for your organization in 2017?”

The advantages of the move speak for themselves, as using the cloud improves data governance, streamline processes and manages risk.

• • • 16

Cloud Security – 47% Internet of Things –19% Data Analytics – 17%

“It is becoming more imperative for organisations to run both core and noncore business functions through the cloud and in line with this, companies are going to make the move to hous-

ing everything in one place faster,” he wrote. “The advantages of the move speak for themselves, as using the cloud improves data governance, streamline processes and manages risk.”

Some companies may find that they have little or no choice, based on what their financiers require as the continent catches up to the rest of the world in terms of cloud use and comfort, the Johannesburg-based tech executive notes.

“Those organisations hesitant to make the shift to full integration will quickly find themselves on the back foot as investors increasingly insist on the cloud as a term of investment,” he wrote in a report, Top 5 trends in analytics in Africa that will change the future of business.

“Although Africa has been the one anomaly in making the move to the cloud and has been slower to adopt than Europe and the rest of the world, there is a growing wave of companies – particularly in West Africa – that are successfully adopting the platform.”

The cloud-related thinking is tied in part to perhaps a controversial view about what matters most.

“It should go without saying that data is the single most important part of any business, with an unrivaled amount of data being generated – more has been produced in the last month than the whole of the 90s combined, for instance,” Herbert wrote. “Being able to analyse and use the data intelligently to improve an organisation’s bottom line in terms of revenue and profitability, cost-cutting and risk management is becoming ever more important for business owners, no matter what industry they operate in.”

CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

BY ARTHUR KINTU

PICTORIAL

2017: THE YEAR AHEAD IT LEADERS AND INDUSTRY EXPERTS GOT AN EARLY START ON THE DAY WITH BREAKFAST AND FRESH, HEALTHY FOOD FOR THOUGHT AT CIO EAST AFRICA’S MORNING EVENT, THE YEAR AHEAD, HELD AT THE RADISSON BLU IN NAIROBI. SPEAKERS FROM A NUMBER OF LEADING LOCAL, REGIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL COMPANIES SHARED THEIR VIEWS AND DISCUSSED WHAT TO EXPECT IN THE WORLD OF IT, IN THE REGION, THE CONTINENT AND AROUND THE WORLD.

Dennis Karanja, Business Analytics Lead, Oracle Kenya addressing participants during the CIO East Africa breakfast event The Year Ahead at Radisson Blu.

Sam Gicharu, CEO, Insight Wells giving an overview on the 2016 CIO East Africa Survey Report during the CIO East Africa breakfast event The Year Ahead.

Dennis Karanja, business analytics lead, Oracle Kenya addressing participants during the CIO East Africa breakfast event The Year Ahead.

Participants during the CIO East Africa breakfast event The Year Ahead. www.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

Ali Hussein share ideas with Dennis Karanja, business analytics lead, Oracle Kenya, during a panel discussion at the CIO East Africa breakfast event The Year Ahead at Nairobi’s Radisson Blu.

Nyimbi Odero, advisor, Innovation and Digitization at the Kenya Ministry of ICT, addressing participants at CIO East Africa’s breakfast event The Year Ahead.

Participants during the CIO East Africa breakfast event The Year Ahead.

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BY ROB HOUGH

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CLOUD SECURITY: SOLID OR SHAKY? IF YOU CAN BARELY BREATHE WITHOUT HEARING ABOUT THE EVER-GROWING CLOUD, YOU CAN BARELY TAKE TWO BREATHS WITHOUT HEARING OF COMPANIES’ SECURITY PROBLEMS.

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All of these concerns sound rather familiar to Microsoft executives who were in Nairobi last month for NexTech Africa.

f anything, the lists of problems and potential problems have grown along with the cloud as more and more criminally minded people have come up with ways to pursue dirty money and nasty mischief. And we know they’ll keep on trying to do those things, coming up with new ways to make life miserable for IT leaders and everyone who relies on cloud-based systems in their work and lives.

The issues CIOs are hearing about, reading about and perhaps encountering are remarkably similar to those their U.S. and European counterparts were sharing a few years ago, the executives said, expressing confidence that all’s well in the cloud.

However well things might be, the cloud is a given, everyone agrees, something that will only grow. But there’s a need for growth in planning and understanding related to cloud security, according to Gartner, a widely respected research and advisory firm.

Companies providing cloud-based services can sing the cloud’s praises with some vigor. Companies and organizations that focus on security can make it sound like we’re all moments away from complete and utter disaster.

So what’s going on?

Clearly there are reasons for real concerns.

In 2016, the Cloud Security Alliance published its Treacherous 12, a slate of the top threats to organisations’ cloudbased operations.

The Alliance describes itself as “the world’s leading organisation dedicated to defining and raising awareness of best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment.” Its dozens of chapters around the world include chapters in Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia.

1. Data breaches 2. Weak identity, credential and access management 3. Insecure APIs 4. System and application vulnerabilities 5. Account hijacking 6. Malicious insiders 7. Advanced persistent threats (APTs) 8. Data loss 9. Insufficient due diligence 10. Abuse and nefarious use of cloud services 11. Denial of service 12. Shared technology issues.

The Cloud Security Alliance's Treacherous 12, the top threats to cloud-based computing. www.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

The list of cloud-related threats may change in the next several years, but it will be around as cloud-based activities grow and grow.

By 2020, wireless and mobile device traffic will account for two-thirds of total global IP traffic. Average broadband speeds are on pace to nearly double between 2015 and 2020, according to Cisco.

Here in Nairobi, when the highest-level IT people talk about what’s going on and what they see coming, they say “Everything’s mobile,” which is to say that much of everything is in the cloud.

Some measure of that growth will relate to the Internet of Things, which presents a new realm of concerns, according to Fortinet, an IT security firm.

“The security challenges of IoT are ones of both depth and breadth,” Phil Quade, the firm’s chief information security officer wrote in a recent post. “Many IoT devices were never designed with security in mind. Their challenges include weak authentication and authorization protocols, insecure software and firmware, poorly designed connectivity and communications, and little to no security configurability. Many are “headless,” which means that they cannot have security clients installed on them, or even be easily patched or updated.

In addressing cloud security as part of its Gartner Predicts 2017, the firm noted that “No useful level of consensus exists on what constitutes best practices for cloud security, and as a result, organizations struggle to determine which cloud control processes and products they should apply.

Things are moving in the right direction, with some way to go, the firm added.

“The state of cloud security practice and the fitness of the associated technologies continue to mature, building awareness among IT leaders around the appropriate use cases for cloud computing, but further development is necessary.”

No useful level of consensus exists on what constitutes best practices for cloud security, and as a result, organizations struggle to determine which cloud control processes and products they should apply.

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BY LILIAN MUTEGI

DELIVERING REMOTE INTERNET ACCESS

WITH INNOVATION AND THE CLOUD If cloud computing will enable another technology revolution, internet access is essential for reaping benefits and opportunities that the cloud will unleash, Microsoft believes.

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he company shared that sentiment in its book, A Cloud for Global Good, which it published about five months ago. It added that, “(I)n a world of up to seven billion people, close to four billion people remain offline. Finding new ways to connect the half of the world population that remains offline is among the main reasons that why people, organizations and governments are trying to find ways to ensure those who remain on the wrong side of the digital divide get access, too.”

Broadband adoption rates have slowed, the company notes, though it adds that governments, companies and non-profits are working to increase effective internet access throughout the world.

Mawingu is one of those efforts. The company is using its technology to deliver internet access to small towns and villages that have had little or no access to the internet, much less low-coast access.

In the Nanyuki, Kenya, area some 125 miles north of Nairobi, residents of nearby Burguret, Thome and Matanya had to travel about 15 miles to the market town to get online – and relative to their incomes, they paid a steep price.

Mawingu, which means “cloud” in Swahili, uses technology that takes advantage of underutilized television broadcast spectrum known as TV white space to provide low-cost internet access to residents of Nanyuki and the surrounding countryside. Through what it calls solar-powered “nomadic” wireless internet stations, Mawingu says it provides affordable last-mile connectivity access to areas where people cannot otherwise access the internet at rates they can afford.

The Kenya-based company established its operating model thanks in part to a grant in 2013 from Microsoft’s 4Afrika initiative and

Ultimately, the expansion will build Africa’s knowledge economy by connecting more people to educational and advancement opportunities, 20

the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Two years later, they received equity funding from angel investors and Microsoft.

In its first three years, Mawingu relates that it has produced results by connecting Laikipia County Government offices, the county library, a Red Cross office and a medical clinic to the internet, which has improved access to public services and healthcare. It added that it has several hotspots in and around Laikipia and Meru Counties.

Mawingu also provides the infrastructure for new businesses such as Solar Cyber, an internet café that offers unlimited internet access for 300 shillings per month, in addition to bundles that are far less expensive than the old options. Before Mawingu arrived, those wanting to use the internet in Nanyuki were paying about 60 shillings per hour.

On the technical side, the company has proven that its concept works, Malcolm Brew, Mawingu CTO said recently.

“The Mawingu project has successfully demonstrated the technical viability of this model of delivery, with interference free point to multi-point coverage of up to 14 kilometers from TVWS base stations operating at only 2.5 Watts power (EIRP measurement),” he related at an event in Nairobi.

The firm’s successful initial program attracted funding that will make it possible to expand its model of using TV white space to deliver internet access to rural areas, the company has said.

Mawingu’s endeavors have been produced the results Microsoft hopes for when it partners with start-ups and young companies, one of its executives said.

“This is one of the success stories. An idea, an organization, people appreciate what you are giving, sustain it, then we walk away. And because they are that successful we are able to position them to investors. Ultimately, the expansion will build Africa’s knowledge economy by connecting more people to educational and advancement opportunities,” said Louis Otieno, director, Microsoft 4Afrika at Microsoft Responsible for Government & Corporate Affairs during an interview at February’s NextTech Africa event in Nairobi.

CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

NEW ERA OF INVESTMENT IN NETWORKS Liquid Telecom has already made a series of major announcements so far in 2017. Find out how our networks and services are continuing to grow to better serve the connectivity needs of businesses and customers across the region.

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In February, South African communications network operator Neotel officially became part of the Liquid Telecom Group, marking a new era of investment in Neotel’s network and services across South Africa.

Through substantial new capital from Liquid Telecom, a revitalised Neotel will emerge on the South African market with significantly enhanced service offerings for enterprises and consumers.

Over the coming months, Liquid Telecom plans to make extensive upgrades and expansions to Neotel’s network, delivering greater levels of high-speed connectivity to more customers across South Africa.

For the first time, Neotel’s operations and focus will also become pan-African.

Its network in South Africa will link together with Liquid Telecom’s extensive fibre footprint to offer access via a single connection to over 40,000km of cross border, national and metro fibre networks.

“The refinancing of the company’s balance sheet will see a revitalised Neotel enter the market with the ability to offer consumers and businesses greater quality services and products delivered through worldclass networks,” says Nic Rudnick, Group CEO, Liquid Telecom. “As Liquid Telecom continues to grow,

we are committed to maintaining our entrepreneurial spirit, encouraging innovation and delivering on our vision of a more connected Africa.”

Liquid Telecom also plans to make substantial investment in Neotel’s zdata centre capabilities. The acquisition includes two of Neotel’s Tier 3 designed state-of-the-art data centres in Johannesburg and Cape Town, which

offer a combined 1,700 square metres of rack space.

Liquid Telecom and 30% equity partner Royal Bafokeng Holdings (RBH), a community-based South African investment group, have been preparing for the integration of Neotel since receiving regulatory approval for the ZAR 6.55 billion acquisition in December 2016.

Increasing connectivity in Tanzania At the start of February, Liquid Telecom also completed its acquisition of Tanzania’s leading internet service provider Raha.

As the company’s new majority shareholder, Liquid Telecom will strengthen Raha’s position in the Tanzania market through further investment in both its network and services.

Raha currently serves over 1500 businesses as well as a growing number of retail customers with a range of connectivity solutions, including fibre, satellite, WiMAX and Wi-Fi. Liquid Telecom plans to invest further in the rollout of fibre across Tanzania, enabling greater access to high-speed, reliable broadband for more businesses and households. The rollout of new fibre will also help provide high-speed connectivity to more state schools across the country, supporting key education initiatives by the Tanzania government.

In addition, Liquid Telecom will explore ways to develop and enhance Raha’s data centre facilities in Dar es Salaam.

Liquid Telecom also plans to significantly increase the number of free Wi-Fi hotspots throughout Tanzania, helping to bridge the digital divide by providing more of the population with access to the internet.

Raha has already introduced over 150 free Wi-fi hotspots across all major cities in Tanzania, which are currently enjoyed by over 150,000 unique users.

“With Liquid Telecom’s support, Raha can explore new ways to increase connectivity within Tanzania as well as to the rest of the region. We will also benefit from the group’s skills and expertise, helping us to achieve our vision of a more connected Tanzania,” says Aashiq Shariff, CEO, Raha.

For more information about Liquid Telecom visit www.liquidtelecom.com

www.liquidtelecom.com

AFRICAN. We can help grow world-class business out of Africa.

We believe in the ambition and potential of African business.

It’s why we’ve built Africa’s largest fibre infrastructure and provide an award-winning satellite network, capable of keeping any enterprise connected, protected and competitive at all times. Because we are not just a telecoms company.

We are your technology partner.

Building Africa’s digital future

ANALYSIS

BY BARAKA JEFWA

CLOUD ADOPTION IN EAST AFRICA MOVES FORWARD CLOUD ADOPTION THROUGHOUT THE GLOBE IS ON A STEADY RISE AS MORE AND MORE PEOPLE AND COMPANIES USE CLOUD-BASED SERVICES TO STORE, SHARE OR SEARCH FOR INFORMATION. IT APPEARS THAT EAST AFRICA’S MAKING CONSIDERABLE PROGRESS, AS WELL, BOTH IN TERMS OF INCREASING NUMBERS AND GROWTH RATES.

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orldwide, Skyhigh Networks’ Cloud Adoption and Risk report revealed that companies and employees both actively use an ever-greater variety of cloud services.

They found that the average employee actively uses 36 cloud services at work, including nine collaboration services, six file-sharing services and five content sharing services such as YouTube, Flickr, etc.

To look at it in financial terms, global demand for cloud computing in all forms will grow 18 percent in 2017, to $246.8 billion, up from $209.2 billion in 2016, according to Gartner, a research firm.

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTS IN EAST AFRICA Worldwide numbers look encouraging and numbers for cloud adoption by large organisations and SMEs in the region have some way to go, but they’re looking better, John Muraya, head of innovations and systems architectures, MTN Business, Kenya, said in an interview with CIO East Africa.

“If I look back, adoption has not been very good,” he said. “This is trying to compare our market to the developed markets; it has not been very good.”

Regional firms have related a number of cloud-related concerns – generally related to access, security and regulations – for some time, though comfort has been growing and should grow more rapidly, Muraya said.

“I think we are at the tipping point where for the corporate side of business, the awareness is there,” he said. “It’s not about if, it’s about when, and there are quite a number of 24

customers we’ve seen starting to adopt cloud services. There are also those that are planning to start cloud services.

“One of the limiting things for the corporate and the public sector has been the regulatory framework, sometimes lack of clarity and other times, where clarity exists, people are a bit limited on what they are able to run on the cloud.

But from an awareness point I think we are getting there.”

The advantages are especially significant for the relatively small companies, which face constant pressures to execute effectively and efficiently, Muraya added.

“To touch on the SME, I think the cloud adoption that they have is services that they are using, not really out of choice.

It really is out of necessity, because they’re trying to leverage economies of scale.”

As much as there are advantages to be gained, there’s some long way to go with East African SMEs maximizing what the cloud can provide, Muraya said.

“Consumption in the SME industry is still very low; the awareness is still low.

I think the bigger thing we need to address is the awareness,” he said.

REGIONAL USE BY INDIVIDUALS As regional companies make their moves, individuals here and around the world have been making large strides toward the cloud and they’re expected to keep making on making them.

A 2014 report by Juniper Research predicted that the number of unique consumers accessing cloud-based services will exceed 3.6 billion by 2018, rising from about 2.4 billion in 2013. The report said that expanded connected services within cloud-based storage would drive consumer demand.

Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania have a combined total of about 51.5 million internet users, as per Internet World Stats (IWS). Some of these users are coming into contact with cloud services on a regular basis, with the best example being through social media networks; according to IWS there are 11,400,000 Facebook users in East Africa.

LOOKING AHEAD Analysts and industry executives across the region consistently relate that personal internet access is growing in East Africa, along with use of cloud-based services. A number of experts have agreed with Muraya’s view that while cloud adoption has been slow among companies in the region, adoption has been growing and the rate of adoption has been growing, as well.

While the infrastructure continues to improve, along with cloud-based services offered by companies large and small, local and global, Muraya encouraged service providers across East Africa to step up their efforts to educate businesspeople about how and why they can benefit by going cloud.

CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

BY DAVID TABER

ANATOMY OF A CLOUD PROJECT COST OVERRUN I RECENTLY CONDUCTED AN INFORMAL SURVEY OF SOME CLOUD INTEGRATION COMPANIES AND FOUND SOMETHING DEEPLY TROUBLING.

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side from “cookie-cutter” or formulaic quick-start projects, more than 70 percent of cloud-consulting engagements involving new customers resulted in either a 10 percent cost overrun or a change-order. The bigger the project, the more likely the overrun.

that reflects reality. Start on the migration/integration/validation tasks at the outset of the project, so the surprises come early. Expect that migration and integration can represent the single largest part of your project.

You can blame it on stupid consultants or bad estimation or nutty customers or sunspot activity, but blame does no good. Something is going wrong here, and it’s causing a lot of heartburn for customers and vendors alike. A root cause of any cloud overrun is mis-set expectations: customers believing that meeting their requirements will be simpler and cheaper than what’s realistic.

However significant that observation may be, it’s not particularly actionable.

So let’s understand the driving specifics, and what steps we can take.

Clients often stipulate “no code, out of the box functionality only” as part of their project definition, and on day two of the project discover requirements that cannot be satisfied any other way.

Unfortunately, too many consultants are code-happy, so they willingly nudge the client toward custom-code land.

And the rich coding environment of the Salesforce.com (SFDC) platform makes it tempting for both user interface and business logic.

In most cloud projects, several areas are nicely contained and are unlikely to cause significant cost surprises. If setting up a function is merely a matter of system configuration, there can’t be that many hours of mouse-driving involved.

We should be so lucky!

Here are the project areas where we see cost surprises on a regular basis:

2. Custom code

The problem, of course, will be developer productivity and code maintenance costs. Expect custom coding a feature to be at least an order of magnitude more expensive than configuring the standard functionality.

Solution strategy: To the degree possible, use standard system features and off-the-shelf plug-in products to meet requirements. Bend requirements to fit what’s available. Push coding out of the initial delivery if possible, so coders are working on a stable platform.

1. Data integration/migration This twin-headed beast can involve some very serious surprises, as it’s impossible to detect many of the issues until you’re in the middle of draining the swamp. The cost issues scale both with the amount of data and the number of data sources.

Solution strategy: Do a real cost-benefit analysis of the amount of data to be migrated and the number of sources to be integrated, and develop a cost model www.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

In most cloud projects, several areas are nicely contained and are unlikely to cause significant cost surprises.

ANALYSIS

3. Really nice reports The original SFDC reporting engine strikes a nice balance between power and ease of use, but it gives spreadsheet-quality output. If you want really clever and beautiful reports, it won’t take long before you run into a wall.

SFDC’s Wave reporting system is both more powerful and prettier, but really leveraging its power means writing query code. For even fancier stuff, third-party add-ons are needed. But if it’s got to be pretty, it’s going to be pretty expensive.

Solution strategy: Thoroughly understand and specify every variant – including formats and user-specific tweaks – of every single report you will need prior to putting the system out to bid. It’s best to discover that you actually require 100+ reports, not the ten you thought.

4. Project management & supervision This means you, project leaders and executive champions! Things you do will contribute directly to overruns. Beware of the deadly D’s: dithering and (unending) discovery. The first of these, dithering, is bad enough, as it causes delay and erratic direction, which leads directly to rework. But the second, whose hallmarks are discovering that (1) the requirements weren’t really known up front, (2) your assumptions about how things need to work were wrong, and (3) your assumptions about how the new system features will work were wrong, is the root cause of scope creep.

I can’t tell you how many large projects discovered more than half of the costly requirements after formal discovery was completed.

Solution strategy: Make the discovery phase longer, and when it’s complete have a signoff sheet for a strict feature and data freeze. Make the project team as small and tight as it can be, and do not hire more than one consulting company (to reduce finger-pointing). Work to constantly improve trust among the team members. Kick people off the team who blame. Keep executives and bean counters as far away from the project as you can, and limit big review meetings.

Focus everyone’s attention on business value rather than abstract or arbitrary metrics and project dashboards.

David Taber is a contributor to CIO 25

COVER STORY

BY LILIAN MUTEGI

Sidian Bank

on IT as a key driver of Sidian Bank’s vision

WHAT ASSOCIATION WOULD A ROCK HAVE WITH A FINANCIAL INSTITUTION? ABOUT A YEAR AGO, 2016 K-REP BANK REBRANDED TO SIDIAN BANK – PART OF THE BANK’S TRANSFORMATION TO DELIVER FIRST-CLASS, 21ST-CENTURY ENTERPRISE BANKING IN KENYA. So why the name Sidian? It was taken from obsidian, which forms when molten rock cools very rapidly.

the bank made a perfect fit to emphasize the firm’s strength and the width and breadth of its capabilities.

The result is a glass-like material with a smooth, uniform texture that breaks into shards that are sharper than a razor. Our Stone Age ancestors used obsidian – which is powerful, durable, valuable and versatile – for making tools they used and sold. The rock and

Since the launch of its transformation agenda in 2015, the bank has invested heavily in technology and product innovation to create packages that serve a broad range of business and personal needs. Sidian, which is active in digital banking, has 38 branches across Kenya.

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In this issue, Cathrene Muraga, director ICT Operations at Sidian Bank walks us through the journey of K-Rep bank to Sidian Bank, her role as the Director of ICT, the bank’s mission and the shift in the banking sector brought about by cloud adoption.

Ms. Muraga told us that she started off her career in IT almost 14 years ago, with humble beginnings.

CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

COVER STORY “Like any other techie, I started off from a very low level, pulling cables and desks. I started off at two local system integration firms. First I was a system administrator then I moved to be a network engineer. After two and a half years I joined East Africa Breweries Limited (EABL), where I held various IT roles,” she said.

After working at EABL for six years, Ms. Muraga, joined Kenya Airways and held positions in office automation and service delivery.

With time the regulations will change, but we have to look at the compliance and security perspective.

Products and services

“After two and half years I left and joined Stanbic Bank; it was a lateral move, where I served under service delivery.

I left Stanbic, as head of IT Operations after a two-and-a-half year stint; that’s when I joined Sidian Bank,” she told us.

In the same year, it established a micro-credit lending program as a core business and growth area. It also expanded its activities to include research and product development, along with consulting.

Having joined Sidian in November 2015, months before the bank rebranded, Ms. Muraga shared the bank’s 32-year journey.

Headquartered in Nairobi

K-rep Group was established in 1984 as an investment-vehicle project that supported the development of small and micro enterprises through NGO-managed programs. In 1987, the project was incorporated as a local NGO. 1989 saw the company change its strategy from supporting NGOs with grants and technical assistance to directly providing loans

www.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

“When we talk about the role of IT at Sidian Bank, several things come to mind. But our key role as IT is to advise the business to make right investment in technology and ensure that technology speaks to the overall goal of being a tier-two bank by 2019. IT also serves a formative goal in that it can bring efficiency and increase productivity to the customers,” she said.

In November 2014, Centum Investment Company Limited became the majority shareholder and launched its transformation agenda, which included rebranding and the goal to become a tier-two bank by 2019.

To execute the plan, the bank had to marry the core business to ICT and innovation. Ms. Muraga was tasked to ensure that IT efficiently helps the bank achieve its vision, mission and strategy.

In its efforts to serve a broad spectrum of customers and compete effectively in extremely competitive markets, Sidian provides customized products for each customer group, Ms. Muraga said.

“We have product offerings for SMEs, Micro, Corporate, Consumer and High Net-worth Individuals (HNI). Through our interaction with our customers and insights from market intelligence, we craft products and services that will meet their needs,” she added.

In the world of mobile banking, Sidian’s offers VIBE, Virtual Instant Banking Experience.

“VIBE sits on a very robust infrastructure,” Ms. Muraga said. “It offers a wide range of services from transferring funds within Sidian Bank account-holders to transferring funds to other banks.

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COVER STORY You can as well do your normal M-Pesa transactions and pay your usual bills… and recently we also introduced mobile lending.”

are the days that vendors will force us to buy a whole suite of products. As banks, a lot of the core banking systems are legacy-based so we will have to look into how we marry it to the new era of digital offerings that speak to what is happening,” she said.

Developed by ModeFinServer, VIBE has over 10,000 users and supports Android 2.3.3 and up, as well as Windows and iOS platforms.

“Branches may remain, but in a few strategic places. The branch structures may as well change and may be forced to have digital offerings as core, not complimentary. Data mining and analytical skills will also be key when it comes to human resources. Also, in a few years, banks will be IT companies that lend.”

Sidian also offers internet banking solutions as well as agency banking.

Ms. Muraga pointed out that the bank’s also working to introduce ATMs that dispense cash and accept cash deposits.

Ms. Muraga was quick to point out that whether Sidian’s activities are relatively traditional or contemporary by global standards, the bank is acutely aware of ongoing trends and developments, to include those relating to security.

New partnerships A famous proverb on a wall in Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo Airport relates, “If you want to walk fast, walk alone, but if you want to go far, walk together.” Sidian Bank is taking this approach in working to achieve its 2019 vision.

“As mentioned earlier, each segment has unique needs so we have leveraged on data mining which has informed our partnerships. One of our biggest partnerships is with Uber, where we have so far worked with over 100 drivers,” Ms. Muraga said.

In May 2016, Uber and Sidian Bank launched the Uber Vehicle Solutions Programme, which gives driver-partners and business investors convenient, affordable access to vehicles they need to start or grow Uber-based businesses.

The initiative, valued at approximately Ksh 10 billion (USD 100 million), includes vehicle financing delivered through Sidian and vehicle leasing from Zohari Leasing.

“We have also partnered with Medical Credit fund for the last seven years. This is a Ksh 2 billion partnership targeting to benefit over 3500 medical service providers in Kenya,” she added.

For the bank’s own infrastructure, the CIO pointed out that they partnered with IBM. 28

“When we looked at our IT strategy, a couple of things came to mind; for instance, how much of our systems we want sited on-premises and how much we want on the cloud. What we have right now is a combination and with time, we can see how much we can push to the cloud,” she said.

Sidian opted for the Infrastructure as a Service platform and tied this to the business transformation agenda. The bank refreshed its data-center equipment and took up managed services.

“IBM’s key focus is to support the bank in terms of stability and uptime, which speaks highly to our customer experience,” added Ms. Muraga.

Addressing the question of whether she’s more of a cloud CIO or an on-prem CIO, she said, “I am more of a cloud CIO, however I am more cognizant of the environment we operate in. Narrowing this to banking, we are highly regulated in that there is only so much you can take to the cloud. With time the regulations will change, but we have to look at the compliance and security perspective. From a collaboration perspective, it is all on cloud.”

Digital transformation That’s just one part of comprehensive changes that are sweeping through her industry, Ms. Muraga believes.

“I see a shift in banking. Our engagement with vendors will change. Gone

To Ms. Muraga, cognitive computing or predictive analytics is an emerging technology that stands out as an area for great growth in the Banking sector.

“This is because banks have so much data. The question then will be how can we use this data to understand the persona behind the customer?”

Selling to the CEO “For me, the key tenet I put in place when selling the digital strategy to the CEO is showing the business value, as well as showing how the strategy speaks to compliance and guidelines from Central Bank of Kenya, our regulator,” she said.

Milestones and challenges Among Ms. Muraga’s proudest moments at Sidian are those when she and her team have refreshed the technology infrastructure and brought in solutions that help the business with yearly targets.

“I guess like any other career, if you focus on what you want, it will always be a smooth sail for you. Once upon a time 14 years ago I said to myself I wanted to be a CIO and it came to pass. The key thing is focus and taking time to grow yourself. Take a coach or a mentor. From a CxO perspective, you need soft skills and there is value in investing in the soft skills.”

And her advice to CIOs was simple, “From a banking sector perspective, outsource what is not your core business.” Her thoughts about women in her field and at her level? “I look forward to seeing more and more women in the industry.”

CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

BY LILIAN MUTEGI

IT AND LEADERSHIP

From establishing Kenya’s first call centre to being awarded the Order of the Grand Warrior in recognition of his contributions to developing the country’s ICT sector and now overseeing ten countries for IBM, Nicholas Nesbitt, is no stranger to the region’s IT industry. The man’s done a lot and lived some years, but fast changes and fresh possibilities keep him intrigued and engaged about what’s next.

NICHOLAS NESBITT: ON HIS RISING JOURNEY IN THE IT INDUSTRY www.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

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IT AND LEADERSHIP

“I

started my career working for the Born in Nairobi Boston Consulting Group. I worked Kenya, Mr. at BCG for a long time, cutting across the Marketing, Branding and Media sectors,” Nesbitt went to he told us. “I later joined Square D which is Kilimani Primary now known as Schneider Company. I worked School in the city with them for five years, rising through the and to St. Mary’s ranks.”

When the internet came along, Mr. Nesbitt for his A levels. was among the early adopters in business, He later attended working for a telecoms company that was pushing its capabilities around internet Dartmouth adoption, e-commerce, and managed serCollege, in the vices. He later joined a start-up providing bandwidth and high speed internet and left USA, where he join a bigger telecom company as global pursued a degree to sales marketer. in Electrical Engineering. He Homeward bound also attended the After a short stint in that role, Mr. Nesbitt back to Kenya, where he worked as a Stanford Business came consultant for two years. In 2002, he set up School, also in the his own business, a call centre he named KenUSA, for his MBA. Call, which he ran for close to a decade.

Several years after he returned to Kenya, his efforts and accomplishments were recognized at the highest level.

Nesbitt was among the first IT leaders to get the Order of The Grand Warrior (OGW), from then-President of Kenya Mwai Kibaki. The award is given in recognition of distinguished and outstanding services rendered to the nation in various capacities and responsibilities.

“I was awarded the Order of The Grand Warrior back in 2006 for pioneering development of IT enabled services by building business in the (business process outsourcing) and call centre space, through my company KenCall.

Through this we were able to put Kenya in the global map as an attractive destination and demonstrate what was said to be the best call centre in the world, using Kenyan talent and Kenyan resources,” he said.

He was successful in a time when there was any number of basic IT challenges.

“We were able to do that way before even the fibre-optic cable came, through the use of the satellite,” Mr. Nesbitt recalled. “We also did a lot of work around citizenship and helplines for kidney specialists. We started a helpline for farmers to call in and get information about the crops and fertilizers. Many of these projects were done for free or very little funding. This involved taking a capability, growing it from scratch with nobody else to learn from and then using that to deliver good to the community.”

Big Blue beckons He joined IBM in 2013 as the country general manager for East Africa, his current position, and leads IBM’s effort in 10 countries.

“This means that I look after all IBM operations in these countries. I ensure that we bring all the IBM solutions in the region and deliver them to our customers both in the public and private sector,” he said.

Mr. Nesbitt’s day begins at around 5:30 am and he’s at the office around 7; he starts off with meetings or industry breakfast meetings.

“We have so many meetings internally and discussions on customer engagement on pre-sales or post-sales,” he said. “Calls from Dubai, which is our regional hub, also take part of my day in office. My evening is spent either at a networking-and-cocktail event or at home. My day then runs till 11pm.”

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CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

IT AND LEADERSHIP Understanding IBM in Africa Nesbitt explained that hybrid cloud and cognitive computing are at the pinnacle of IBM’s focus, though considerable attention is being given to bringing structure to unstructured data.

“Cloud is important to our clients, with 44 percent of enterprises worldwide now relying on cloud in order to launch new business models, Mr. Nesbitt said.

“It is also important to IBM both as a set of offerings to these clients but also as the platform that we ourselves are using to deliver the rest of the IBM business, whether it’s Analytics, Cognitive, Internet of Things or Security.

I am looking to further develop deeper working relationships with arms of the governments in areas around block-chain and IoT Having risen to oversee 10 countries for an enormous American company that does business all over the world, Mr. Nesbitt told us that his success recipe focuses on five things: hard work, becoming a student of the industry, maintaining focus on the horizon, maintaining a positive attitude and having a deep believe in himself and his capabilities.

IBM supports hundreds of African clients with diverse work to include the provision of banking services to people without traditional bank accounts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, providing automated systems offering real-time status of all business processes for Kenya Power and managing Fidelity Bank Ghana’s technology infrastructure and services.

“I also stick to the IBM processes and performance-management processes,” he said. “We are actually quite selective in our recruiting, always trying to get the best that we can possibly get. We also encourage young people to join earlier in their career so that we may help them shape and mould their careers. I think in IBM there is a lot of integration, that if you learn how to work with and stay within the system, at your choice you can stay in IBM the whole of your career and there is so much diversity.”

Mr. Nesbitt took the leadership role from Anthony Mwai, who led the launch of the IBM Africa Research Lab and the 12th Lab globally, in Nairobi, Kenya in 2013. The facility mines vast amounts of data to seek solutions to Africa’s most pressing issues, the company said.

IBM investment in Africa IBM has operated in Africa since 1920 and had a direct presence since 1939.

In 2006, IBM had offices in four African countries; now it has a direct presence in 24 countries on the continent. www.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

“We have done a lot of with farmers helping them with remote sensing and remote management of their crops. We have done a lot of work around traffic and understanding the use of county vehicles,” Mr. Nesbitt said.

In February, the company launched IBM Digital - Nation Africa, which features a US $70 million investment to bring digital skills – at no cost – to 25 million young people through a cloud-based learning platform.

“What is core for IBM is how we deliver services to our clients, which is cloud and is primarily hybrid cloud, which means a combination of people using their own public cloud and private cloud. Our focus today is also building around cognitive computing. Everything else we do serve as building blocks to support that.”

What’s coming to the region?

With cloud technology at the heart of IBM’s business, Mr. Nesbitt shared his thoughts about what’s become a competitive market for cloud vendors.

“Two to three years from now, probably 95% of all software will be cloud-enabled, across all providers,” he said. “It’s either you are in the cloud or you disappear. There will be not much of a cloud differentiator once the cloud-delivery solution matures, forcing providers to come down to the question of what can your application do and then go back to the old thing that we have to constantly do so as to survive, which is to innovate constantly.”

Mr. Nesbitt also spoke of expanding relationships with public officials and developments in technology that’s gaining attention here and around the world.

“I am looking to further develop deeper working relationships with arms of the governments in areas around blockchain and IoT,” he concluded.

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STARTUP CORNER

BY BARAKA JEFWA

DEMO-AFRICA EXPANDS INNOVATION TOUR TO CONNECT WITH CONTINENT’S STARTUP ECOSYSTEM DEMO-Africa, now in its sixth year, is taking Africa by storm with a series of events that make up the Innovation Tour. For the first time, the events, where entrepreneurs pitch their startup companies in hopes of being selected for the final main event, are being held in 14 countries.

T

he Tour’s significantly expanding the competition’s reach and bringing more participants to one of the continent’s biggest startup launch-pad competitions.

Having covered six countries in 2016, this year’s effort marks a serious step forward in DEMO’s goal of finding the best talent in Africa, organisers said.

“We will be covering all the four corners of the continent and we have increased the number of countries that we will visit this year,” said Martin Obuya, projects director at DEMO Africa. “There has been a lot of innovation and entrepreneurship activities in these new countries and we hope to catalyze the ecosystems there in line with our mission.”

The tour kicked off in February, in Nairobi, where the winner was announced as MobiTicket, a Service for commuters to book their favorite buses or shuttles from Nairobi to various destinations.

The second stop for the tour was Tanzania, where A-traders, an online and app based trading platform, that allows anyone with a mobile phone or internet access to buy and sell securities, emerged victorious.

In the next stop, Uganda, Malako Uganda took the top spot. The micro-credit company offers services primarily for low- and mid-income earners so they can have smoother cash flows and more easily pay for water, electricity, air time and other services and utilities.

The tour’s other stops include Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt, Zimbabwe and South Africa, along with first-time visits to Botswana, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Morocco.

At the mini-events, the DEMO Africa team and partners engage with technology startups and provide coaching and mentorship, as well as share tools to help them build and grow their businesses.

Each event features a pitching competition, with the winner gaining direct access to launch at the main DEMO Africa event in September.

“We want to engage with startups in all the countries we visit,” said Mbugua Njihia, event director, at DEMO Africa. In addition to the pitch competition to win a direct entry to launch at DEMO Africa, startups will be able to engage with the DEMO Africa team, mentors and coaches from partner organizations.

“This is a very good opportunity for startups to take advantage of the partner network created by DEMO Africa and its partners through the LIONS@FRICA partnership to create linkages and networks that can help grow their businesses,” Mbugua continued.

This year’s DEMO Africa will be held on September 6 and 7, and will once again return to Johannesburg. Last year marked the first time DEMO was held in South Africa after events in Kenya and Nigeria.

Thirty companies will be selected to pitch at the main event, with entry categories including: Health, Education, Agriculture, Commerce, Hospitality, Manufacturing, Entertainment, Energy and Logistics.

Nickson Nyakumbi expresses his gratitude after emerging as the winner of the first DEMO Africa 2017 Innovations Tour event, which was held in February in Nairobi.

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The 30 companies will also receive mentorship and will attend a two-day bootcamp in preparation for their launch; they will also receive software and services worth more than US $150,000 each for the next three years.

CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

BY BARAKA JEFWA

O

ffice 365 is hard to figure out for some first time users, me included, but once you grasp the basic concepts it becomes really easy to use.

In this review, I will try to get you to grips with this product by going into detail on some of the services on offer.

DESIGN

Once you log into Office 365, you interact with a dashboard, called Office 365 administration center. On the top righthand side there is an option to download the full Office 365 suite for your device.

On the dashboard you will also see all the services available to you based on the plan you are subscribe to. The most common services include:

MAIL

This application is best for businesses that need business-class emails. A business can add the domain name it owns to Office 365 to create domain-based email addresses, which look so much more professional than something sent from a Gmail account or similar.

MICROSOFT OFFICE 2016 SUITE

An Office 365 subscription gives you access to the latest versions of Word 2016, Excel 2016, PowerPoint 2016, OneNote 2016, Outlook 2016, Publisher 2016, and Access 2016 on your PC, Mac, tablet or smartphone.

OFFICE 365: MORE THAN JUST A PRODUCTIVITY TOOL AT FIRST GLANCE, OR RATHER FIRST USE, OFFICE 365 COMES ACROSS AS A VERY NIFTY COLLECTION OF PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS, BUT UPON FURTHER INSPECTION IT TURNS OUT THAT IT’S A SUBSCRIPTION-BASED BASED PLAN THAT INCLUDES ACCESS TO OFFICE APPLICATIONS PLUS OTHER PRODUCTIVITY SERVICES THAT ARE ENABLED VIA CLOUD SERVICES. offering – at your disposal. An advantage that Google Apps has over Office 365 is that it is free, with an option to spend some money and upgrade to Google Apps for work.

MICROSOFT PLANNER

Microsoft Planner is, as its name suggests, a planning application. It’s available to premium, business and educational subscribers to Office 365. Individuals and teams can create plans, assemble and assign tasks, share files, communicate and collaborate with other users, and receive progress updates via Office 365.

So what does this mean for other planning tools?

One tool that comes to mind is Asana, which Microsoft recently debuted in Kenya. I have been privileged to use both in my work life. With Asana what I can say is that it’s a good alternative for SME’s and startups looking to increase productivity without actually spending money for software. It’s a free online tool for up to five people; after that, it’s Ksh 833 per person.

Subscribers can also view and edit their files from any Web browser using online versions of the Office apps. Office 365 versions of the desktop- and laptop-based Office apps are updated monthly with new features. You can use these apps on your phone or tablets seamlessly, though they have fewer features than the PC version.

Asana holds the edge over Planner when it comes to support, as it can be accessed through android and IoS devices via Apps but at the same time is not supported on the Microsoft OS. Planner on the other hand can only be accessed on mobile through a Microsoft App.

Office also allows for collaboration on documents. You can store a document online, on OneDrive, and send out sharing invitations to workmates who can make edits and share back. You also get 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage for your photos, videos and documents, plus 60 minutes of Skype calls per month and tech support from Microsoft-trained experts.

Once you move your domain name to Office 365 you can access emails on both browser and Outlook seamlessly.

With Office 365 you get the full Office 2016 suite and a host of other Microsoft applications accompanied by 1TB online storage per user.

Those capabilities give rise to a comparison with Google Apps, which also offers document sharing. The difference though is with Office 365 you have the full Office suite –which is far superior to Google’s www.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

PRODUCT REVIEW

PROS

In terms of user experience, I find Planner to be more user friendly and easier to use thanks to its easy going dashboard which has a simple design that gives you a look at the status of tasks of all the plans you and your team have laid. With Asana on the other hand the free plan only allows you to view only three projects at a time.

So I think the decision ultimately falls on costing.

Some of the other cool applications available on Office 365 include: Yammer, Sharepoint, Calendar, Delve, Sway, Flow, PowerApps and you even have access to the windows store to add other Apps that you feel you might need.

PRICING

The service comes in the form of the home package and business package.

The home package includes: Office 365 Home for $99.99 (Ksh 10,000) per year, Office 365 Personal for $69.99 (Ksh 7,000) per year or Office Home & Student 2016 available for a one time purchase fee of $149.99 (Ksh 15,000). The business package includes: Office 365 Business available for $8.25 (Ksh 825) per user/​month, Office 365 Business Premium for $12.50 (Ksh. 1,250) per user/​month or Office 365 Business Essentials for $5.00 (Ksh 500) per user/​month.

CONS

One of the main disadvantages of Office 365 is that to be able to utilize all the applications your team might have to undergo training which is time consuming. Another problem could be that the mobile versions are a bit light and don’t have all the features of the full version.

VERDICT

With its favorable pricing options on the different packages on offer, Office 365 is a worth-while get for companies looking to improve productivity and increase accountability among staff members. The product, being a Microsoft tool, has the advantage of being compatible with desktop Microsoft Office software which can easily be linked via the net.

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WOMEN IN TECH

BY LILIAN MUTEGI

KENDI NTWIGA-NDERITU, SUB-SAHARA AFRICA TERRITORY LEAD AT INTEL SECURITY, DEFIES THE ODDS She Believed She Could, So She Did STEM was the name of a recent event in Nairobi and a concise way to describe Kendi Ntwiga-Nderitu’s life.

T

he event, organised by the United States International University-Africa in partnership with the She Goes Tech initiative, brought together and encouraged students, teachers and private- and public-sector employers of STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – workers in Kenya.

Ms. Ntwiga-Nderitu, the Sub Sahara Africa Territory Lead at Intel Security (McAfee), attended the event and shared her journey as a Kenyan woman in the IT Industry.

“Some years back I was born in a home of two civil servants, a teacher and a water engineer,” she started off. “Up to the age of 11, I was in Embu town and life was fairly okay but at that point we moved to the village and life became really hard. The life of a villager involves waking up, going to the farm, fetching firewood and water, and so on.”

Ms. Ntwiga-Nderitu recalled feeling being motivated to live a life beyond her surroundings “I remember back then, being 11, telling myself I am not a village girl and I resolved to change it,” she said. “In 1991, my dad decided to do computer science and he sold us the hope of the urban life, as that’s when we had to move to the village. But as much as life was hard, we knew there was hope in the near future.

My main thing I learnt in the Valley was that it was okay to fail and I realized that is why Sillicon Valley has so many start-ups, because they encourage you to start and fail and what it says when you fail is that you are courageous “I watched him toil and read the most complicated books. I saw him get excited writing code. Actually now that I think of it, I do not even know how he got to do it, as we did not have access to computers. There are moments he would wake up in the middle of the night to write his code. He spoke with so much admiration and he made me love it. At that point, in my teenage years I knew there and then I wanted to study computer science.”

Moving to high school As much as Ms. Ntwiga-Nderitu was determined to forge a future in tech, she acknowledged that she had some growing up to do as she made her way through school.

“My first three years in high school were wasted in the adolescent drama,” she laughed. “In form four I knew I had five months to catch up. My mother is a mathematics teacher and through her I was able to work extremely hard in maths, physics and chemistry, and I got a preferable grade to start my journey in computer science.”

She moved on to her first job, in the hospitality industry, as an IT assistant manager.

“My first job was walking around with a blower and blowing hardware. Quickly, my dream of being a hacker and being rich shortly after that became a dream. I analyzed myself

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CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

WOMEN IN TECH

and realized that since I did not have access to so many computers, I couldn’t go to the software side of IT. So I moved to the Business side and that’s how I got to manage business for IT firms,” she said.

In 2016, after several jobs with increasing responsibilities at major companies like HP and Oracle, Ms. Ntwiga-Nderitu joined McAfee, part of Intel Security, where she’s the Sub-Sahara Africa territory lead. She runs the business in the region and manages key accounts.

“Every time I have had to change jobs, people have looked at the diligence in execution. I have never applied for these jobs, but I am referred. I have come to learn that when you are working, you need to know that your current job is an interview for the next job.”

In 2015, Ms. Ntwiga-Nderitu became a TechWomen Fellow. The TechWomen program, based in Mountain View, California, is a U.S. government initiative that assists promising leaders from Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia who are working in STEM fields.

Those who are selected get to experience a five-week mentorship and exchange program in Silicon Valley, where they shadow top executives and engage in focused growth-acceleration projects.

“My main thing I learnt in the Valley was that it was okay to fail and I realized that is why Sillicon Valley has so many start-ups, because they www.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

encourage you to start and fail and what it says when you fail is that you are courageous,” she said.

In the same year she founded SheGoesTech, an initiative started in Kenya to encourage girls to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.

“Different reports show that women are involved more in soft skills and shun the hard skills,” Ms. Ntwiga-Nderitu said. “It is important for ladies to recognize that hard skills allow a person to sit on a deciding table and therefore they must be deliberate about growing their skills and focusing on STEM.” Having gone some way, with a collection of hard skills and soft skills, Ms. Ntwiga-Nderitu acknowledged that her story represented a lot of untold stories. She called on women to carry out their tasks with excellence and out-do themselves.

“Allow yourself to be celebrated as a woman, in whichever industry you choose, through success, which makes you stand out and feel appreciated.”

I have come to learn that when you are working, you need to know that your current job is an interview for the next job.

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LOOKING AHEAD

BY GREGG KEIZER

Analysts peer into Microsoft’s rumored Windows 10 Cloud

Moorhead, principal analyst at More Insights & Strategy, via email.

THEY AGREE THAT CLOUD IS MOST LIKELY MEANT TO TAKE ON CHROMEBOOKS

“My take is that [Microsoft is] trying to address the low-end Chromebook market,” concurred Bob O’Donnell, chief analyst at Technalysis Research, when asked about Windows 10 Cloud. Microsoft, he contended, sees Chromebooks and Chrome OS as “a real threat and concern” to its Windows business, if not overall then within the education segment.

TALK OF A NEW VERSION OF WINDOWS 10, DUBBED “CLOUD,” SURFACED IN FEBRUARY AS EAGLE-EYED BLOGGERS UNCOVERED CLUES IN A RECENT BETA AND PRELIMINARY CODE LEAKED TO THE INTERNET.

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t was unclear what purpose another edition would serve, but because it will apparently run only Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps obtained from Microsoft›s store, many assumed that Windows 10 Cloud would play rival to Google›s Chrome OS, the browser-based operating system for Chromebook personal computers.

Chromebooks have gained ground in education, where their low cost -- both in device price and in managing those devices -- has been irresistible to many

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schools. In response, Microsoft joined forces with chip maker Qualcomm to announce that the former›s partners would market Windows PCs powered

by ARM-based silicon later this year. For its part, Microsoft will craft a version of Windows 10 for ARM chips.

The leaked build of Windows 10 Cloud, however, runs on Intel processors.

“I see this as an effort to offer a simpler experience and in the process, better battle Chromebooks,” said Patrick

But O’Donnell also wondered how Microsoft could successfully compete with Chrome OS and Chromebooks, even if it wielded weapons like Windows 10 Cloud and/or Windows 10 on ARM. “The thing that’s confusing and hard to figure out why Microsoft keeps [going after Chromebooks] is that part of the reason why Chromebooks have done well is that they’re so much easier for the back end and admin side. And Microsoft doesn’t have an answer to that,” O’Donnell said.

The author, Gregg Keizer, is a writer for Computerworld

CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

BY JAMES HENDERSON

LOOKING AHEAD

PUBLIC CLOUD POWERS AHEAD AS ENTERPRISE SPLASHES THE CASH WORLDWIDE CLOUD SPENDING WILL BE UP BY MORE THAN 24 PERCENT IN 2017, IDC SAYS WORLDWIDE SPENDING ON PUBLIC CLOUD SERVICES AND INFRASTRUCTURE WILL REACH $122.5 BILLION IN 2017, REPRESENTING AN INCREASE OF 24.4 PERCENT OVER 2016, ACCORDING TO ANALYSTS.

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s enterprises across the world increase investment, overall public spending is expected to surge 21.5 percent by 2020, nearly seven times the rate of overall IT spending growth.

By 2020, IDC research forecasts public cloud spending will reach US$203.4 billion worldwide.

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) will remain the dominant cloud computing type, capturing nearly two-thirds of all public cloud spending in 2017 and roughly 60 percent in 2020.

According to IDC, SaaS spending, which is comprised of applications and system infrastructure software (SIS), will, in turn, be dominated by applications purchases, which will make up more than half of all public cloud spending throughout the forecast period.

However, spending on Infrastructure-as-a-Service

(IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) will grow at much faster rates than SaaS, with five-year increases of 30.1 per cent and 32.2 per cent, respectively.

“In 2017, discrete manufacturing, professional services, and banking will lead the pack in global spending on public cloud services as they look for greater scalability, higher performance, and faster access to new technologies,” IDC Program Director of Customer Insights and Analysis, Eileen Smith, said.

“Combined, these three industries will account for one-third of worldwide public cloud services spending, or US$41.2 billion.”

Smith said the industries that will see the fastest growth in public cloud spending over the five-year forecast period are professional services (23.9 percent), retail (22.8 percent), media (22.5 percent), and telecommunications (22.1 percent).

It is worth noting, however, that 18 of the 20 industries included in the IDC Spending Guide will experience fiveyear increases of adoption greater than 20 percent.

In terms of company size, nearly half of all public cloud spending will come from very large businesses (those with more than 1,000 employees) while medium-sized businesses (100-499 employees) will deliver more than 20 percent throughout the forecast.

The author, James Henderson, is a reporter for ARNnet

www.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

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OPINION

REVERSE OF THE BRAIN DRAIN

BY SAM MWANGI

WHILE MOST OF US FROWN UPON TRUMP’S NEW FOREIGN POLICY, ITS EFFECTS MIGHT ACTUALLY BE POSITIVE TO THE KENYAN TECHNOLOGY SPACE. THE NEW PRESIDENT HAD PROMISED TO REVIEW THE IMMIGRATION POLICIES, WHICH PROBABLY INCLUDES THE H-1B VISA; MOST HIGHLY SKILLED WORKERS UTILIZE THIS TO WORK IN THE USA. EVERY YEAR, APPROXIMATELY 85,000 TECHNOLOGISTS RELOCATE TO THE USA’S SILICON VALLEY FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD ON THAT VISA.

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o complicate things further, President Trump also promised to terminate an executive order by former President Obama that allowed around 700,000 undocumented immigrants, who went to the USA as children, to obtain work permits.

This means that thousands of workers would be rendered jobless and compelled to go back to their home countries. For several decades, Kenya has been losing skilled personnel to the Americas, Europe and Middle East; some go abroad to study and never return. Much of their motivation is based on poor pay and political instability here.

Studies over the years have shown that hundreds of thousands of skilled, educated Kenyans and other Africans are working in other countries. A 2013 United Nations report said about 11 percent of Africans with tertiary educations were living in developed countries in Europe, North America and elsewhere.

The economic effect of the brain drain on a country that loses highly skilled professionals such as doctors, engi-

Tax-free zones would encourage foreign direct investments, which would provide employment to skilled Kenyans.

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neers, professors and technologists can be significant. To be sure, professionals staying here and the return of those who had left, would have a positive impact on the economy. A thriving economy means better technology uptake and more innovation to fulfil the needs of consumers, especially those with disposal income.

So, there are reasons for concern, but there are reasons to be more optimistic. The recent emergence of incubation hubs and technology enterprises reflects that there is a significant presence of young technologists in Kenya, and that they have opportunities. Who would have thought Kenyan applications such as Little Cab would rival USbased applications such as Uber? The rolling effect has been job opportunities for developers and higher incomes for cab drivers. This encouraging trend has been experienced in several fields.

Young doctors are setting up private hospitals, lawyers are establishing law firms, engineers are practicing as consultants and many more professionals are now preferring to work locally and in the region.

Kenya and Africa in general need those developments to continue and grow.

Various major challenges require skilled personnel. The growth of technology in agriculture, mobility solutions, mobile money transfers, e-commerce and other industries has created needs and opportunities.

The government has a key role to play, as well. Political stability is a key factor

For several decades, Kenya has been losing skilled personnel to the Americas, Europe and Middle East; some go abroad to study and never return. to retaining talent, especially in essential services such medical care. Tax-free zones would encourage foreign direct investments, which would provide employment to skilled Kenyans. The government also needs to invest more in research and development to keep scientists engaged in solving societal problems. Private organizations can help, too; they need to maintain or establish working environments that recognize and reward talent.

Some countries have deployed a new approach that allows them to tap into the talents of their citizens who live in other countries. The participants form groups that their governments can engage for services while the participants live outside their native countries.

Whatever might help it happen, whether it’s helped along by the U.S. President’s decisions we may find unsettling in some ways, the government here or the private sector, Kenya needs to keep all the talent it can and encourage Kenyans working elsewhere to help their homeland from afar or come home.

CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

OPINION

SIDE-HUSTLING: HOW TO GET IT RIGHT

BY BILLY OWINO

THE SIDE-HUSTLE, A PART-TIME EFFORT TO GENERATE EXTRA MONEY, LEADS SOME PEOPLE TO THINK OF SOMETHING LIKE DRIVING FOR UBER OR SELLING HOMEMADE JEWELRY. IF THE TERM IS TRENDY, THE CONCEPT IS NOT, AND IT’S LONG HAD A PLACE IN IT.

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couple guys named Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs worked together in the 1970s, had some ideas and spent some free time working on ‘em. They did pretty well. Side-hustle prospects are still plentiful for IT people – and not just the younger folks like the famed Steves were more than 40 years ago.

Billy Owino, regional director for Sage in East Africa, checks in with some side-hustle insights that make good sense for IT people at all levels and everyone else.

Kenya bursts with entrepreneurial energy, with small & medium businesses contributing around 90% of GDP. In fact, Kenyans are increasingly choosing to run more than one small or medium business, and many others hold down a job while running a small hustle on the side.

For some, side-hustling is a way to make ends meet in a tough economy; for others it’s about pursuing a passion and for many, it’s an opportunity to share their great ideas with the world. But managing numerous business interests can be tricky and demands great discipline.

Here are a few ideas about how you can juggle your day job (or main business) and several side hustles:

Don’t lose focus on your main source of revenue Starting a small business demands a lot of time and you might need to invest some savings in stock or assets. Make sure that you’re on top of your day job www.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

If you are starting a new side-hustle, be sure to sell and market your service to your friends, business contacts and community. or your existing small business before starting up a side hustle. Don’t try to start two businesses too close together because one or both will suffer from the lack of focus. Ideally, your first business should be stable and providing you with a constant income before you try to launch the next one.

Be choosy The problem that many entrepreneurs face is not a shortage of (seemingly) good business ideas and opportunities, but an excess of them. Pick your projects carefully and be brave enough to walk away when a side project will not be a success. There are many great ideas for side hustles, but you should look at where you have the skills to succeed and where your community has unmet needs.

Share infrastructure and skills where you can Look at the assets and skills you already have. Use the contacts you have and the things you already own to make more money, rather than buying more equipment or trying to sell into a market you do not know.

Be a time-management and multitasking master • Use IT systems to save you time.

Ditch the spreadsheets and use proper accounting software, for example.

• Learn to prioritise: perhaps focus on sales first, then marketing and admin.

• Make time first thing in the morning or at the end of the day to take care of admin and email, when there is no one else around to distract you.

• Schedule your time carefully.

Sell and market yourself If you are starting a new side-hustle, be sure to sell and market your service to your friends, business contacts and community. The web can help you market yourself to the world and find opportunities. Sidehustle.co.ke is one site that brings together people who need jobs done – IT, customer service, marketing, translation, writing and more – with people who need part-time work.

In closing It takes hard work to turn a dream business idea into a way of life, but it is this entrepreneurial spirit that makes Kenya vibrant and one of the fastest-growing economies in Africa. We started small and have grown beyond what seemed imaginable and we take pride in our customers being able to do the same. It is this reason that we continue to support business builders as they power African economies.

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OPINION

Go digital or go home

BY MARTIN MIRERO

IT LOVES CHOICE AND COMPARISON. I THINK WE ALL DO. DO WE CENTRALIZE IT ON A MAINFRAME OR DECENTRALIZE DEPARTMENT-WISE, BACKUP TO TAPE OR DISK, GET A SAN FOR STORAGE OR OPT FOR NAT, COPPER OR FIBRE… DO WE DIGITIZE THIS PROCESS OR LEAVE IT AS IS?

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ell you see, that last one there… is no longer a choice.

The choice unfortunately has already been made for us – digital it is.

And here let me spell out the reality for you - Go Digital or Go Home. Simple.

Okay, I know you’re probably thinking – we’re in manufacturing, we build widgets; we’re in construction, we move bricks and build roads; we’re in the food industry, we design recipes and process ingredients into delectable dishes.

Yes, I know, and I’m talking to you. You see, this is not about an isolated technology-sector play, no! This cuts across all verticals, all sectors, like the broom of..., without fear or favour, touching everything in its wake. And if you’re not with the program, you’re going home, my friend.

The disruption that digital brings is unlike any we’ve seen this century, perhaps even for as long as man has walked the earth. The term 4th revolution is making the rounds, but I think it’s going to be a complete reconstitution of the world as we know it. Wholesale new processes, artificial intelligence, machine-to-machine communication, cognitive engineering are some hallmarks of this new age. This is the first time that human cognition is being replicated, rather than just the muscle/work efficiency dimension.

The other day, I talked to a friend running a successful fintech start-up ; at their level of execution, you would expect them to have 10-15 employees.

There are only two. They have digitized 40

just about everything including customer service, where they linked APIs and AI/bot technologies to offer automated email responses, etc. It is incredible to see efficiencies digitization provides. It’s not a step change; it’s transformative.

So, what are the building blocks of digitization? How do you go digital?

Cloud – laying the foundation

We must flee from conversations about procuring boxes and specs! We live in an age of capabilities and services! Mail service, directory service, database service, conversion service, capability to take up a 10,000 concurrent user spike, etc., that’s what should dominate the conversation.

Mobile and social – ubiquity and the social imperative Mobile has taken the world by storm.

More and more users consume services first on mobile. Intimately intertwined with this is social networking. Mobile and Social are so synergistic that I find it hard to delink the two. If your product or service strategy is not shaped around them, you need to rethink it.

Few shifts in modern history will have the impact that a connected-everything reality will bring.

The disruption that digital brings is unlike any we’ve seen this century, perhaps even for as long as man has walked the earth.

IoT – connected everything

Few shifts in modern history will have the impact that a connected-everything reality will bring. Internet of Things (IoT) will wash over every traditional industry and change them in ways we may never have thought possible. One amazing example, from Rio Tinto, involves autonomous vehicles; it will save millions if not billions and transform open-pit mining.

Google it and marvel.

Big Data and analytics – unlocking value

With massive amounts of data generated by those technologies, a new approach to unlocking value and insights is needed. Enter Big Data and Analytics, closely connected with machine learning, artificial intelligence and cognitive.

Business leaders want to know where new products, top-line growth nuggets and other valuable insights are hidden in their massive silos of data.

Each of the above topics is really a separate article. I hope in the not too distant future to unpack each and examine the transformative possibilities that each holds.

CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

OPINION

REVERSE ENGINEERING THE SILICON SAVANNAH

BY KRIS SENANU

WE OFTEN HEAR NAIROBI DESCRIBED AS THE SILICON SAVANNAH – THE SILICON VALLEY IN THE RIFT VALLEY. SILICON VALLEY, WHICH BROUGHT US GOOGLE, UBER AND COUNTLESS OTHER INNOVATIONS, CREATED A DYNAMIC ENTREPRENEURIAL ECOSYSTEM THAT IS APPRECIATED THE WORLD OVER. ACROSS CONTINENTS, CITIES TRY TO REPLICATE THE SILICON ECOSYSTEM, TO CREATE A PLACE WHERE IDEAS AND TECHNOLOGY COME TO LIFE.

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n Nairobi, we have seen a surge over the last decade in connectivity, mobile technology, innovation and startup culture. But does Nairobi, and Kenya at large, make the cut? Is this a robust Silicon ecosystem? Or are we all getting high on our own supply?

What does it take?

In 2015, while ‘Africa Rising’ was still at its peak, Bloomberg published an article that said “Nairobi, Kenya has become the tech hub of Africa, a niche that could be worth more than one billion dollars to the country in the next three years,” but it also noted that Kenya had 40 percent unemployment.

This is the crux of the matter. The endgame is to have a functional and robust Silicon ecosystem. For this to work, and for Kenya’s start-ups to compete internationally, we need massive changes.

We need to develop a full ecosystem; it’s critical to develop the infrastructure for sustainable innovation. In 2015, Ory Okolloh, a founder of Ushahidi – a service that’s essentially the Silicon Savannah’s poster child – grappled with the lack of infrastructure and its effects.

“We can’t entrepreneur our way around bad leadership. We can’t entrepreneur our way around bad policies,” she said, Entrepreneurs in Kenya face a myriad of challenges and infrastructure is one of the most crippling. It is a two-pronged issue; on one hand, people try to work around issues at the state level; work past systemic deficits. On the other hand, people try to work within a fragwww.cio.co.ke | MARCH 2017 | CIO EAST AFRICA

Entrepreneurship in Kenya is at a critical juncture, but with this comes a key opportunity. We need to identify the enabling and disabling aspects of the Silicon Savannah and ensure that we create conditions for a robust ecosystem. mented ecosystem. Entrepreneurs in Kenya try to fill the void with their innovations – counting on their idea to meet the needs of the common man, but more often than not, these start-ups miss the point or get it right and fail to scale.

WHAT NEXT? For entrepreneurs to succeed, they need established space, connectivity, healthy collaboration and competition.

The start-up scene also needs more entrepreneurs and more angel investors, those investors who accept a 5-percent to 10-percent success rate and play a significant role in driving the industry forward.

Investment in itself is a challenge; in Kenya, most start-ups fish from the same investment pool. In many cases, funding is the goal, with no workable

business plan to implement after funding’s secured.

For entrepreneurs to work in a dynamic environment, they need to stop relying on friends and family for feedback, and start collaborating, tweaking one another’s ideas, and ensuring that their ideas are practical. Captains of industry need to be mentors and coaches who provide academic and corporate buy-in, and help entrepreneurs stress test their ideas. The same could be said for major telephone companies getting involved in the investment and charity side.

And, if we are being frank, there are some tough conversations that need to take place, about where the industry stands and if there is equity and equality in investment process. With the former, take Konza City; this is supposed to be the outward-facing example of Kenya’s digital revolution, but it’s more like a white horse – not quite as substantial as an elephant. With the latter, we need to examine whether there is an investment bias towards teams that have a particular make-up, featuring African women and/or Caucasian men, or address a particular need, something that is “worthy” in the eyes of NGOs. Entrepreneurship in Kenya is at a critical juncture, but with this comes a key opportunity. We need to identify the enabling and disabling aspects of the Silicon Savannah and ensure that we create conditions for a robust ecosystem.

Kris Senanu is the MD of Telkom Enterprise.

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HARD TALK

BY ROBERT YAWE

All hat and no cattle

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he phrase “all hat and no cattle” refers to someone who looks like a rancher from his attire while in reality he has no herd worth writing home about; this is what we have been outed as by the global community, relative to technology assimilation.

As we grew up, our main pastime as we waited for the national broadcaster, Voice of Kenya, to begin transmission at 5 o’clock was reading books, mainly Westerns such as Sudden.

I use the word assimilation as it reflects what is expected of a truly engaged technological organization; it means to inculcate, absorb or ingest which is something we have not yet done.

Many of us walk around with smartphones, which treat us as their pets, as we are more mesmerized by the marketing hype than utility.

For a long time, I held off from moving onto any of the so-called modern platforms of smartphone as my Palm delivered most of what was being hyped about in a more intuitive manner while still being able to operate in full-feature mode for the entire working day.

Until recently, the term power-bank referred to an array of batteries connected to a data center UPS for extended backup time.

I have moved on only because my OS developer opted to sell off the kernel to an appli-

ance manufacturer to embed into their devices. I moved to the Android platform and from day one it was a nightmare.

The phone shipped with more than 10 apps on the home screen and another similar number on other screens. To become as productive as I was with my previous device, I was forced to install another 10 or so apps.

At the same time, my son earned himself a new phone and opted to remain on the Windows platform. I can assure you he is having a better experience than I ever will, all because the product is built for productivity.

I recently walked into a local bank to find that the queuing system they had installed less than two years ago had been abandoned and we were back to dragging queue-jumpers off the line. If they cannot manage a simple enough queuing system, how exactly do they hope to become innovative?

Maybe I am picking on the wrong industry players as I presume their specialty is selling money not managing technology.

On the other end, I walked into the customer experience center for the largest mobile provider, where I found a new queuing system “installed.” Due to the complexity of the interface, they have been forced to assign staff members to operate the ticket issuing terminal for clients.

This made me suspect that Procurement was given a free hand in its procurement.

There is a strong need for us to look at technology as an enabler and not an end in its self; we need to realise that unless it increases value, it is useless.

I will regurgitate what I have said previously: The level of technological integration you encounter at the gate to a business premises reflects how well they have assimilated technology. If you find an askari (sentry) with a rungu (baton) who then writes your details in a lined exercise book, that is the level of technological assimilation.

We seriously need to get a herd of cattle, ride bareback across the ranch with berets on our heads and stop masquerading for just a little while as we ask ourselves, what improvement has technology brought into our lives and those of our customers?

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CIO EAST AFRICA | MARCH 2017 | www.cio.co.ke

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