[kictanet] Foreign Software Houses of Babel..in kenya.

[Sylvester Kisonzo]

In addition to these, the idea should not just be trying to help with the integration. Integration and compatibility issues ought to have been dealt with long before an informed decision to procure the product  was made. Why should they be identifying problems after procuring – didn’t they have sufficient time to evaluate/test? Were they not happy enough that they were obtaining the product that best fitted their requirements?

 

I can understand the predicament the suppliers might be caught in. I do not expect a supplier to spend their time making their system work with another, a job which may not have been costed initially.

 

True, we need to understand the real issues. I am almost certain that procedures were not followed. There are some very competent IT guys in KPA, and most likely they never had the chance. 

 

So to the PS (and KPA), help is knocking.... not just to integrate the systems at KPA but to establish (if they don’t exist) or reinforce mechanisms for successful government project implementations.

 

From: kictanet-bounces+skisonzo=gmail.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+skisonzo=gmail.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Brian Munyao Longwe
Sent: 25 August 2008 22:21
To: skisonzo at gmail.com
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] Foreign Software Houses of Babel..in kenya.

 

Actually Bill I think that this is just a clear and perfect example (or expression) of the dire need for standards in Govt implementation of ICT projects as well as coordination across departments.

 

Since both of us are techies - we know that integration between system no matter the origin or the language/database/message formats is simply a matter of a deliberate integration process. Clearly that is missing in this picture - and rather than deal with the real problem, the actors have resorted to finger pointing/blame game and all the other forms of unhelpful and time-wasting bureacracy that plague large institutions like governments (as well as many corporates). I can assure that if there was commitment to process and deliverables from the top down to the bottom, these issues could have/would have been sorted ages ago.

 

Our "Waafrika" problem is that when faced with challenges we'd rather tear each other down than face the problems head on and (together) tear them down.

 

Brian

 

 

On Aug 25, 2008, at 10:04 PM, Bill Kagai wrote:






I am watching news in awe where they are reporting that Kenya Ports Authority has deployed a Korean piece of software (Kwatos) to ease turn-around at the Port but now its not working well with the Kenya Revenue Authority software from Chile (Simba). Ofcourse both cost billions.

As the spanish-speaking chileans 'haga el informe con los otros extranjeros' with the Koreans to '소프트웨어를 저희를 위해 일한' , sisi wakenya tunangoja kusaidiwa. Mwafrika anajimaliza mwenyewe...as Baba Gideon would say. <http://uk.babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt>

The result according to one Mureithi of Kenya Shipping Associations is that port has now become a 'store' rather than a 'door' taking ages (14 days instead of 3 days) to clear goods because of the software conflict. Here be dragons...is this a kictanet sized problem...or do we just watch and comment later in another study on this discussion forum????

Time for an ICT Commission of Inquiry ??? 

Bill Kagai

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