[kictanet] IT posts for full circle

[Charles Maye]

Actually, IT on its own cannot create profits.
Airtel Kenya has a network that is as good as any. But they are losing cash. Same goes for Telkom Kenya. Africa Online was a great idea born by IT experts. It was ahead of its time and never made money. When a technology is new to the world, it can generate profits. The moment it is duplicated and commoditized and for the rest of its life, it needs another set of skills. That set of skills is what makes organizations select people other than IT experts as CIO's.

Closer home, part of the many reasons the good doctor is so successful at driving our ICT agenda as a country is because he understands how to make technology connect with our aspirations as a people. I stand to be corrected but I believe the good doctor is not an engineer.

Charles Maye

From: kictanet-bounces+cmaye=ke.nationmedia.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+cmaye=ke.nationmedia.com at lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of Agosta Liko
Sent: 08 August 2011 13:25
To: Charles Maye
Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions
Subject: Re: [kictanet] IT posts for full circle

Toma

About - "Lets face it ICT on its own cannot run or profit an organization"

This is not true, Safaricom, Airtel, Access Kenya, Zuku etc etc etc are ALL about IT.

It can create mad profits or drive them

Look at agency banking - its all about branding, float and a device (android app) ... with that a bank cuts on capex


Look at Mobile Money - its all IT, Money moves from one account to the other and there are fees for that

For old school corporates - IT is gives massive distribution ... an insurance company does not have to have offices and agents all over the country, all they need is mobile/web interfaces

A good CIO is the difference between USD10,000 for SugarCRM and USD3,000,000 for Siebel ... etc etc etc

Thanks
On Mon, Aug 8, 2011 at 12:05 PM, Thomas Kibui <thomas.kibui at gmail.com<mailto:thomas.kibui at gmail.com>> wrote:
Initially ICT was considered a necessary cost centre within many organizations. It was usually placed under  Operations division or sometimes under the stingy Finance division to control its cost.

Lets face it ICT on its own cannot run or profit an organization. It is a business enabler and unless the ICT division within an organization is able to show the management of that organization that it can operate as a profit centre  and actually generate tangible profits OR at least reduce the cost or making profit within other divisions , .. it will never have say in the organization.

Bottom line .. the shareholders want "profits"

Another line of argument that I have heard inside a board room is that .. most of what the ICT team refer to as "ICT Technology" are actually "nice to have" gizmos e.g. iPADs..    But I have reservation about this argument .. simply because those who were saying it were fidgeting with their blackberries ...

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