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@lists.kictanet.or.ke
[mailto:kictanet-bounces+cmaye=ke.nationmedia.com@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@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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