[kictanet] [Skunkworks] SAP and Kenya ICT Board Partner on Skills Develeopment

Thu Sep 20 22:39:32 EAT 2012

Many thanks Paul for your candid response, indeed we have local cases that
we need to make more noise about i am thinking of Mkahawa that was worked
on by Bernard Adongo of Nikohapa.com and Open Baraza developed by Dennis
Gichangi and co of DeCIS, this guys are doing amazing work on the continent
albeit quietly and i know you have been supportive in the background in any
case you have been there as an entrepreneur, i just think we should do more
to unearth success stories in Loki that is the only way we will develop
solutions for our Kiosks and mama mbogas who contribute to 70 % of our
economy. I think he government should create an enabling environment and
promote this local success stories just as it supported Mpesa, mkesho mkodi
and the great innovations that we have seen.

On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 10:08 PM, Paul Kukubo <pkukubo at ict.go.ke> wrote:

> Barrack
>
> The answer is self evident. CIOs are concerned with technology fit against
> total cost of ownership. Mny open source systems are more expensive to
> deploy that proprietary systems. And many of the vanilla (take it ouf of
> the box and deploy) implementations are suited to certain organizations
> because they force the said organization to align to best practice.
>
> Technology options these days are plenty. The issue is purpose strategy
> project management, maintenance, scalability, interoperabilty and total
> cost of onwnership. These are all very strategic rather than technical
> issues.
>
> Even these open source system need to be written by someone. I have seen
> plenty of usage of open source systems . I have not seen much origination
> of open source systems whose code was then published back for others to
> reuse in Kenya.  We need to encourage more of it. And because code is
> written again processes, we hope that we don't have a culture of writing
> code against processes that are not good themselves otherwise you automate
> inefficiency.
>
> Also, for many open source environment, certification is also required,
> red hat etc. and even if there was no code certification, it would be
> prudent to seek project management and other process management
> certifications as a way of getting a culture of excellence to set in.
>
> There is room for both approaches. And there are other considerations
> beyond code in terms of implementer pedigree. Many customers feel locked to
> code that was developed by a few people who have since moved on and
> abandoned it. They like the comfort of big company references.
>
> Our houses tell us a story, even in a country with architects and clear
> laws we still have many buildings that make the cut. Imagine the world of
> 'invisible software'.
>
> My thoughts
>
> Paul Kukubo
>
> On Thursday, September 20, 2012, Barrack Otieno wrote:
>
>> Hi Paul,
>>
>> I look forwad to an answer to my question while i understand the benefits
>> of SAP and other ERPs that you and Walu correctly outline and having been
>> involved in some local projects in end user training i am still concerned
>> with the ultimate objective vis the Vision 2030 strategy that is mentioned
>> at  the beginning of the press release. I have raised this issue during SAP
>> sponsored events but it is always laughed off, at one point i even
>> challenged some of their representatives why the development work cannot be
>> done locally but i never got any substantive answer  should we invest in
>> users or developers from a strategic angle as a country ? as it is we have
>> too many users which is contributing to the unemployment problem and the
>> best the guys can do is to be deployed elsewhere then we start the brain
>> drain chorus which is no news to most of us, I would have loved to see the
>> ICT board promote local success cases the Alliance Technologies with their
>> ERP one and the Open Worlds and many others who are hitherto unknown yet
>> they are employing Kenyans and doing amazing stuff for the local community.
>> Anyway we need local solutions to local problems and the onus of building
>> that community is on us in simple terms.
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 8:32 PM, Paul Kukubo <pkukubo at ict.go.ke> wrote:
>>
>> Areba
>>
>> This project is about jobs. 100 Kenyans will develop skills that are
>> imediately required by the market.
>> The installed base of SAP in Kenya is substantial from Nation Media
>> Group, to Bidco, to many other large and medium sized business and some
>> state corporations. This base is growing.
>>
>> The ICT Board intends to extend these partnerships to drive high talent
>> development. This is the first. There are many areas and many projects that
>> don't have the requisite skills and there are even more Kenyans who don't
>> have jobs. Many parents will not agree to pay for a child to certify
>> further once he is out of college. Indeed many can't afford it.
>>
>> Skinning this cat of ICT job creation requires many knives.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Paul KUKUBO
>> CEO Kenya ICT Board
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thursday, September 20, 2012, Areba Collins [ @BrainiacKE ® ] wrote:
>>
>> I wonder how this bodes with the recent discussion about the Government
>> 's Intention to go Open Source.....
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 20, 2012 at 4:26 PM, Paul Kukubo <pkukubo at ict.go.ke> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> Kenyan Government and SAP to expand skill set of local graduates
>>
>> Training aims at improving youth employability in the country’s robust
>> ICT sector and is inline with vision 2030
>>
>>
>>
>> Nairobi 20th September, 2012…The government of Kenya through the Kenya
>> ICT Board and SAP has today announced a partnership that will see 100
>> bright but underprivileged studentsundergo training to become certified
>> SAP Software engineers.
>>
>> Dubbed “SAP Skills for Africa”, the Programme commits to deliver
>> professional training and certification to Kenyan university graduates. The
>> programme will seek to substantially improve the employability of young,
>> bright university
>>
>> Barrack O. Otieno
>> +254721325277
>> +254-20-2498789
>> Skype: barrack.otieno
>> http://www.otienobarrack.me.ke/
>>
>>
>
> --
> Paul Kukubo
> Chief Executive Officer, Kenya ICT Board
> PO Box 27150 - 00100
> Nairobi, Kenya
>
> 12th Floor, Teleposta Towers Koinange Street
>
> Tel +254 20 2089061, +254 20 2211960
> Fax: +254 20 2211962
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>
>
> personal contacts
> _______________
>
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>
>
> skype: kukubopaul
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> personal blog: www.paulkukubo.co.ke
> personal twitter: @pkukubo
>
>
> ____________________
> Vision: Kenya becomes a top ten global ICT hub
>
> Mission: To champion and actively enable Kenya to adopt and exploit ICT,
> through promotion of partnerships, investments and infrastructure growth
> for socio economic enrichment
>
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-- 
Barrack O. Otieno
+254721325277
+254-20-2498789
Skype: barrack.otieno
http://www.otienobarrack.me.ke/
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