Multinationals are not born with skill. Skill is developed. The multinational is in the business of maximising profit ergo, as soon as they can cut the local company out of the value chain, they will. Example. IBM started out in Kenya by partnering with local companies. It's going direct to the customer more and more. Not less. 

Focusing on the end device means we don't own the rest of the value chain - we can be easily interchanged.

In many cases, we have the capacity locally, we just don't believe we do. We continually disparage local companies and the skill sets they have without bothering to find out how experienced they are/how experienced their team is. We love holding companies to standards that we don't hold our own company/government accountable. 

I'm not saying that we don't need competent companies - far from that. We need competent and capable companies. My argument is that statements like "partner with multinationals" already assume that the local company has no competence which many times is far from the truth. 

I say this having personally worked to build a team with talent that is unequivocally competent and experienced in its field, but still being disparaged for being local and asked to partner with random MNC's. 

Sent from my mobile device, excuse brevity

On 22 Mar 2014, at 20:50, Ali Hussein <ali@hussein.me.ke> wrote:

John

Couldn't agree with you more. The world is mobile. I think what we should be discussing are solutions that are device/screen agnostic. 

Lets also be honest with ourselves. Government/major corporate software solutions do require a lot more thought process/project management/enterprise strength security etc. What we must discuss is how we can ensure the industry engages government objectively and how government engages industry objectively and honestly.

There must be engagement at both the youth and the enterprise level so that the industry has a stake in major IT projects by the government and Parastal sector. I believe there are already inroads in that direction. Undoubtedly more needs to be done.

Partnering with some of the multinationals to bid for these mega projects is also critical for us to improve on our skill sets and to add muscle to the tendering process. On the side of the government they must put in place measures to insure a certain percentage of deliverable is local content (this can come in services, personnel etc).

My two cents..

Ali Hussein

+254 0770 906375 / 0713 601113

Twitter: @AliHKassim

Skype: abu-jomo

LinkedIn: http://ke.linkedin.com/in/alihkassim

Blog: www.alyhussein.com

"I fear the day technology will surpass human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots".  ~ Albert Einstein

Sent from my iPad

On Mar 22, 2014, at 1:22 PM, Dennis Kioko <dmbuvi@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Kieti,
How comes none of these thousands of software developers are supplying even a single solution to government. How comes government services are barely available to the millions of Kenyans via mobile? 

See our drift, government should be removing barriers and improving service delivery for all. 

Also, what was the role of governments in the likes of Angry Birds, King (Candy Crush Saga) and Facebook, beyond providing an enabling environment - which we don't do here. 

On Saturday, 22 March 2014, John Kieti <jkieti@gmail.com> wrote:
Phares, Ngigi, Conrad

Your focus and preference for server side and enterprise desktop mode solutions is very much appreciated.

However the thousands of local software developers getting into the system will not fit into just that pie of the value chain you are in for now. More so, 30m+ mobile subscribers is no small market place for software entrepreneurs. And nowadays the computer does not have to be on your desk or lap, in fact most computers among Kenyans are mobile phones. It is not bad for policy to at least direct the youth towards the opportunity in mobile.

You'll recall that its a global market place and some of the kids we deride for writing the so called "mVitus" are earning thee figure dollar checks monthly from downloads and ads in india, brazil etc. They just wont shout that aloud. More importantly though M-Pesa is seven years old. Many mobile solutions targeting local/regional problems will not mature as soon as we impatiently expect. We're only 3-4 years into the "mobile craze" and  most serious attempts are not over 3 years old. There's no short cuts to developing competitive advantages - even in mobile, give it time. If you are not convinced yet, try the ringtone market and premium SMS services. Its a whole big economy out there, with big money changing hands, and its all mobile!

That said, what would you rather the CS did about local enterprise desktop based solutions and server side services?

Have a nice weekend.


On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 12:47 PM, Rad! <conradakunga@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm mystified as well at this obsession with mobile apps.

Not that we should not to them, but there is so much opportunity in other sectors - infrastructure, cloud computing, enterprise applications, content management that Kenya can not only benefit from, but we can be competitive globally.

Looks like mobile apps will be this regime's Pashas & BPOs


On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 12:14 PM, Phares Kariuki <pkariuki@gmail.com> wrote:
A fairly narrow view of the technology sector. It's not all mobile. 

Sent from my mobile device, excuse brevity

On 22 Mar 2014, at 04:56, Grace Githaiga <ggithaiga@hotmail.com> wrote:

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