I have seen the future of the marine cable
Today I saw the future of Kenya after the fiber land and I feel duty bound to share the experience. For many years my business has provided server solutions to multinationals for groupware, our main selling point for having servers located locally was always the unreliable internet links. Today one of my clients, a multinational company has moved their servers to Europe and are using thin client technology to connect the desktop user. I saw a similar scenario when multinationals where allowed VSAT terminals, as many technical activities got consolidated either at head office in Europe/USA or regional processing centers in India. What we were left with was clerical and other none core activities. With the downturn in the world financial markets expect more centralised control of corporate activites and offshoring of currently local functions. I assure the advocates of BSP and call centers that they will achieve their objective of turning Kenya into a clerical hub for the rest of the world. Which is historically what Kenya's role was always meant to be within the British Empire. We are soon to become a nation of overqualified call center operated involved in an activity that does not provide skills transfer. Come January I will have lost a prime revenue earner as all that will be expected from us will be blowing the computers and offering 1st level support on productivity applications and printing issues. This will mean that I have no need to retain high skilled personnel. What use is it then for us to be setting up Universities all over the country yet all we shall need are large armies of fellows with good spoken english, maybe french or chinese with an average IQ and basic level of education. Am I an alarmist? I do not think so I am a realist, I am reengineering to meet the challenge but can someone provide a condusive environment. Ndemo can we get collocation centers made available, the newly redressed ISPs are not about to add value in this direction. Can the government take the lead in outsourcing its activites, we are ready to setup a call centre for the Government in ISIOLO or at RIAT in Kisumu, I dare you to give me the challenge. Have a god filled christmas & a proserous new year Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
Yawe, I too shiver when I think about Kenya after the marine cable lands. I see two additional challenges: security and digital colonization. Security: With better and reliable telco-links into and out of E.Africa, hackers based in developed economies would find a rich-haven to launch attacks into and from within E.Africa where security for electronic infrastructure (e.g. government, parastatal, banking and other websites) is often an after thought. Digital colonization: similar to what you described as becoming one of the "top 10 Clerical hub" of the world (no offense Kukubo and Co ;-). But it could be true, the submarine cable will definately leap-frog us into the 21st Century faster than we shall be able to exploit it. And so those who are able, will use the cable to damp their "goods" as it were. Think of it in terms of the proliferation of TV sets before our local capacity to produce content matured - end result? Enough 3rd rate soap operas from Mexico, West-africa, etc became our staple diet. And so it will be with the cable. I am not saying the cable shouldnt come, I just think we should have plans to ride the cable at the top rather than at the bottom of the Internet value-chain. walu. --- On Tue, 12/9/08, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: [kictanet] I have seen the future of the marine cable To: jwalu@yahoo.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 11:42 AM Today I saw the future of Kenya after the fiber land and I feel duty bound to share the experience.
For many years my business has provided server solutions to multinationals for groupware, our main selling point for having servers located locally was always the unreliable internet links.
Today one of my clients, a multinational company has moved their servers to Europe and are using thin client technology to connect the desktop user.
I saw a similar scenario when multinationals where allowed VSAT terminals, as many technical activities got consolidated either at head office in Europe/USA or regional processing centers in India. What we were left with was clerical and other none core activities. With the downturn in the world financial markets expect more centralised control of corporate activites and offshoring of currently local functions.
I assure the advocates of BSP and call centers that they will achieve their objective of turning Kenya into a clerical hub for the rest of the world. Which is historically what Kenya's role was always meant to be within the British Empire. We are soon to become a nation of overqualified call center operated involved in an activity that does not provide skills transfer.
Come January I will have lost a prime revenue earner as all that will be expected from us will be blowing the computers and offering 1st level support on productivity applications and printing issues. This will mean that I have no need to retain high skilled personnel.
What use is it then for us to be setting up Universities all over the country yet all we shall need are large armies of fellows with good spoken english, maybe french or chinese with an average IQ and basic level of education.
Am I an alarmist? I do not think so I am a realist, I am reengineering to meet the challenge but can someone provide a condusive environment. Ndemo can we get collocation centers made available, the newly redressed ISPs are not about to add value in this direction. Can the government take the lead in outsourcing its activites, we are ready to setup a call centre for the Government in ISIOLO or at RIAT in Kisumu, I dare you to give me the challenge.
Have a god filled christmas & a proserous new year
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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Hi, If I may add my opinion here. The fiber will makes us no different from other countries that have such networks and deal with outside competition. As a start, it will place our networks on a level playing field as others. Export of communication and infrastructure based IT services on a global nature will be one outcome which I hope will not be resisted or made difficult by foreign exchange authorities. The regulator will have to reduce the time frame and categories of its licensing procedures to meet the rapid deployment of services/applications and infrastructure. I believe the shock will not be to those who can engineering systems nor business investors who can capitalise on the infrastructure but policy makers/enforcers who may not have been prepared for the effects of the modern network. My 2 cents......
This intself is very impresive,however; the policies to have all parts of kenya networked / provided with an ICT services is still in question. The training opf Entrepreneuors which is currently going is an indciator of the best wayforward but is it the only? I appreciate and my advise to the thiose in the Ministry of information is they recruite Chief information officers at each and evry District to work close with these entrepreneurs in ensuring technology ahs been passed to all community members. By the way, what do we call e-government ? when we talk about it here in Nairobi? Lets think broadly . For those us who attended the lecture presented by Dr. Ndemo in ICT conference of Strathmore University of Sep.2006 on E-government, they agree with me. Many things were to be implemented but upto now they are still pending. Whats the way forward? for how long can we wait? Loa. ________________________________ From: aki <aki275@googlemail.com> To: jlobore@yahoo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Sent: Tuesday, December 9, 2008 2:37:51 PM Subject: Re: [kictanet] I have seen the future of the marine cable Hi, If I may add my opinion here. The fiber will makes us no different from other countries that have such networks and deal with outside competition. As a start, it will place our networks on a level playing field as others. Export of communication and infrastructure based IT services on a global nature will be one outcome which I hope will not be resisted or made difficult by foreign exchange authorities. The regulator will have to reduce the time frame and categories of its licensing procedures to meet the rapid deployment of services/applications and infrastructure. I believe the shock will not be to those who can engineering systems nor business investors who can capitalise on the infrastructure but policy makers/enforcers who may not have been prepared for the effects of the modern network. My 2 cents......
I believe the marine cable presents a far greater opportunity than a threat. The fact that the choice of locating servers offshore/onshore exists can only be beneficial. The challenge is to focus on ensuring that the trend is inwards and to our benefit; and entails dealing with the root causes that would make a corporation steer clear of our shores in chosing where to locate its servers. These include price competitiveness, investment climate, simplified regulatory frameworks, etc, when compared with other potential destinations. Several of these areas have seen noteworthy government/private initiatives aimed at doing away with bureaucratic red-tape and simplification of investment procedures as well as improved connectivity and reduction of data transfer costs. A critical area that has been ignored is the productivity costs of doing business in Kenya - specifically Nairobi. Even before you factor in unreasonably high office rental and utility costs, the direct and indirect costs of getting workers to and from work has risen in recent years to levels that are simply alarming. These are the actual costs of transportation and as well as the time taken in the commute of workers to and from work. In a pilot survey carried out by our firm on the urban commute of professional staff based within Nairobi's CBD we established that only 58% of staff took less than an hour in their daily commute to work. We intend in future to look at firm's outside the CBD. 50% of those using public transport (in a 5-day working week) spent more than US$ 40 every month on transport. A 2006 report by Sykes - a leading South African outsourcing operator, showed that 80% of it workers spent less than an hour commuting to work at a cost ranging from US$ 27 to US$ 39. With escalating domestic rental rates in the areas close to Nairobi's CBD climbing out of reach, this problem will only get worse - fast - and only reduce worker productivity further. It is these factors that are undermining the tremendous gains made in reduction of infrastructure costs and ease of investment and are more likely the factors that led to the departure of the multinational Yawe was referring to. As an illustration -----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+pgitau=githongo.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+pgitau=githongo.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of John Walubengo Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2008 12:26 PM To: pgitau@githongo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] I have seen the future of the marine cable Yawe, I too shiver when I think about Kenya after the marine cable lands. I see two additional challenges: security and digital colonization. Security: With better and reliable telco-links into and out of E.Africa, hackers based in developed economies would find a rich-haven to launch attacks into and from within E.Africa where security for electronic infrastructure (e.g. government, parastatal, banking and other websites) is often an after thought. Digital colonization: similar to what you described as becoming one of the "top 10 Clerical hub" of the world (no offense Kukubo and Co ;-). But it could be true, the submarine cable will definately leap-frog us into the 21st Century faster than we shall be able to exploit it. And so those who are able, will use the cable to damp their "goods" as it were. Think of it in terms of the proliferation of TV sets before our local capacity to produce content matured - end result? Enough 3rd rate soap operas from Mexico, West-africa, etc became our staple diet. And so it will be with the cable. I am not saying the cable shouldnt come, I just think we should have plans to ride the cable at the top rather than at the bottom of the Internet value-chain. walu. --- On Tue, 12/9/08, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: [kictanet] I have seen the future of the marine cable To: jwalu@yahoo.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 11:42 AM Today I saw the future of Kenya after the fiber land and I feel duty bound to share the experience.
For many years my business has provided server solutions to multinationals for groupware, our main selling point for having servers located locally was always the unreliable internet links.
Today one of my clients, a multinational company has moved their servers to Europe and are using thin client technology to connect the desktop user.
I saw a similar scenario when multinationals where allowed VSAT terminals, as many technical activities got consolidated either at head office in Europe/USA or regional processing centers in India. What we were left with was clerical and other none core activities. With the downturn in the world financial markets expect more centralised control of corporate activites and offshoring of currently local functions.
I assure the advocates of BSP and call centers that they will achieve their objective of turning Kenya into a clerical hub for the rest of the world. Which is historically what Kenya's role was always meant to be within the British Empire. We are soon to become a nation of overqualified call center operated involved in an activity that does not provide skills transfer.
Come January I will have lost a prime revenue earner as all that will be expected from us will be blowing the computers and offering 1st level support on productivity applications and printing issues. This will mean that I have no need to retain high skilled personnel.
What use is it then for us to be setting up Universities all over the country yet all we shall need are large armies of fellows with good spoken english, maybe french or chinese with an average IQ and basic level of education.
Am I an alarmist? I do not think so I am a realist, I am reengineering to meet the challenge but can someone provide a condusive environment. Ndemo can we get collocation centers made available, the newly redressed ISPs are not about to add value in this direction. Can the government take the lead in outsourcing its activites, we are ready to setup a call centre for the Government in ISIOLO or at RIAT in Kisumu, I dare you to give me the challenge.
Have a god filled christmas & a proserous new year
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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That is why we must stop being Consumers of Technology and become innovators, we have what it takes succeed once fibre lands, what is failing us is the policy angle, there is nothing to fear we only need to get rid of mediocrity. Bob you looked at it from a Narrow angle. That is my take On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 1:42 PM, P Gitau Githongo <pgitau@githongo.com> wrote:
I believe the marine cable presents a far greater opportunity than a threat. The fact that the choice of locating servers offshore/onshore exists can only be beneficial.
The challenge is to focus on ensuring that the trend is inwards and to our benefit; and entails dealing with the root causes that would make a corporation steer clear of our shores in chosing where to locate its servers. These include price competitiveness, investment climate, simplified regulatory frameworks, etc, when compared with other potential destinations.
Several of these areas have seen noteworthy government/private initiatives aimed at doing away with bureaucratic red-tape and simplification of investment procedures as well as improved connectivity and reduction of data transfer costs.
A critical area that has been ignored is the productivity costs of doing business in Kenya - specifically Nairobi. Even before you factor in unreasonably high office rental and utility costs, the direct and indirect costs of getting workers to and from work has risen in recent years to levels that are simply alarming.
These are the actual costs of transportation and as well as the time taken in the commute of workers to and from work. In a pilot survey carried out by our firm on the urban commute of professional staff based within Nairobi's CBD we established that only 58% of staff took less than an hour in their daily commute to work. We intend in future to look at firm's outside the CBD. 50% of those using public transport (in a 5-day working week) spent more than US$ 40 every month on transport. A 2006 report by Sykes - a leading South African outsourcing operator, showed that 80% of it workers spent less than an hour commuting to work at a cost ranging from US$ 27 to US$ 39. With escalating domestic rental rates in the areas close to Nairobi's CBD climbing out of reach, this problem will only get worse - fast - and only reduce worker productivity further.
It is these factors that are undermining the tremendous gains made in reduction of infrastructure costs and ease of investment and are more likely the factors that led to the departure of the multinational Yawe was referring to.
As an illustration
-----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+pgitau=githongo.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+pgitau=githongo.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of John Walubengo Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2008 12:26 PM To: pgitau@githongo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] I have seen the future of the marine cable
Yawe,
I too shiver when I think about Kenya after the marine cable lands. I see two additional challenges: security and digital colonization.
Security: With better and reliable telco-links into and out of E.Africa, hackers based in developed economies would find a rich-haven to launch attacks into and from within E.Africa where security for electronic infrastructure (e.g. government, parastatal, banking and other websites) is often an after thought.
Digital colonization: similar to what you described as becoming one of the "top 10 Clerical hub" of the world (no offense Kukubo and Co ;-). But it could be true, the submarine cable will definately leap-frog us into the 21st Century faster than we shall be able to exploit it. And so those who are able, will use the cable to damp their "goods" as it were. Think of it in terms of the proliferation of TV sets before our local capacity to produce content matured - end result? Enough 3rd rate soap operas from Mexico, West-africa, etc became our staple diet.
And so it will be with the cable. I am not saying the cable shouldnt come, I just think we should have plans to ride the cable at the top rather than at the bottom of the Internet value-chain.
walu. --- On Tue, 12/9/08, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: [kictanet] I have seen the future of the marine cable To: jwalu@yahoo.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 11:42 AM Today I saw the future of Kenya after the fiber land and I feel duty bound to share the experience.
For many years my business has provided server solutions to multinationals for groupware, our main selling point for having servers located locally was always the unreliable internet links.
Today one of my clients, a multinational company has moved their servers to Europe and are using thin client technology to connect the desktop user.
I saw a similar scenario when multinationals where allowed VSAT terminals, as many technical activities got consolidated either at head office in Europe/USA or regional processing centers in India. What we were left with was clerical and other none core activities. With the downturn in the world financial markets expect more centralised control of corporate activites and offshoring of currently local functions.
I assure the advocates of BSP and call centers that they will achieve their objective of turning Kenya into a clerical hub for the rest of the world. Which is historically what Kenya's role was always meant to be within the British Empire. We are soon to become a nation of overqualified call center operated involved in an activity that does not provide skills transfer.
Come January I will have lost a prime revenue earner as all that will be expected from us will be blowing the computers and offering 1st level support on productivity applications and printing issues. This will mean that I have no need to retain high skilled personnel.
What use is it then for us to be setting up Universities all over the country yet all we shall need are large armies of fellows with good spoken english, maybe french or chinese with an average IQ and basic level of education.
Am I an alarmist? I do not think so I am a realist, I am reengineering to meet the challenge but can someone provide a condusive environment. Ndemo can we get collocation centers made available, the newly redressed ISPs are not about to add value in this direction. Can the government take the lead in outsourcing its activites, we are ready to setup a call centre for the Government in ISIOLO or at RIAT in Kisumu, I dare you to give me the challenge.
Have a god filled christmas & a proserous new year
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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-- Barrack O. Otieno ISSEN CONSULTING Tel: +254721325277 +254726544442 +254733206359 www.issenconsult.com http://projectdiscovery.or.ke To give up the task of reforming society is to give up ones responsibility as a free man. Alan Paton, South Africa
Though am a great believer in the ripple effects that the eventual availability of reliable and affordable bandwidth would have on the market and economy, i would not gamble with the strategic effort we need to put in to ensure the aggregation and generation of digital content. In my view, we need for strategic effort in ensuring the uptake and strategic local deployment of content, otherwise the pipes would be going more upstream which would tilt the scale against us, not advancing the full benefits. I wont take fiber for a given, is my point. Eric here On 11 Dec 2008, at 08:00, Barrack Otieno wrote:
That is why we must stop being Consumers of Technology and become innovators, we have what it takes succeed once fibre lands, what is failing us is the policy angle, there is nothing to fear we only need to get rid of mediocrity. Bob you looked at it from a Narrow angle. That is my take
On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 1:42 PM, P Gitau Githongo <pgitau@githongo.com> wrote:
I believe the marine cable presents a far greater opportunity than a threat. The fact that the choice of locating servers offshore/onshore exists can only be beneficial.
The challenge is to focus on ensuring that the trend is inwards and to our benefit; and entails dealing with the root causes that would make a corporation steer clear of our shores in chosing where to locate its servers. These include price competitiveness, investment climate, simplified regulatory frameworks, etc, when compared with other potential destinations.
Several of these areas have seen noteworthy government/private initiatives aimed at doing away with bureaucratic red-tape and simplification of investment procedures as well as improved connectivity and reduction of data transfer costs.
A critical area that has been ignored is the productivity costs of doing business in Kenya - specifically Nairobi. Even before you factor in unreasonably high office rental and utility costs, the direct and indirect costs of getting workers to and from work has risen in recent years to levels that are simply alarming.
These are the actual costs of transportation and as well as the time taken in the commute of workers to and from work. In a pilot survey carried out by our firm on the urban commute of professional staff based within Nairobi's CBD we established that only 58% of staff took less than an hour in their daily commute to work. We intend in future to look at firm's outside the CBD. 50% of those using public transport (in a 5-day working week) spent more than US$ 40 every month on transport. A 2006 report by Sykes - a leading South African outsourcing operator, showed that 80% of it workers spent less than an hour commuting to work at a cost ranging from US $ 27 to US$ 39. With escalating domestic rental rates in the areas close to Nairobi's CBD climbing out of reach, this problem will only get worse - fast - and only reduce worker productivity further.
It is these factors that are undermining the tremendous gains made in reduction of infrastructure costs and ease of investment and are more likely the factors that led to the departure of the multinational Yawe was referring to.
As an illustration
-----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+pgitau=githongo.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+pgitau=githongo.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of John Walubengo Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2008 12:26 PM To: pgitau@githongo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] I have seen the future of the marine cable
Yawe,
I too shiver when I think about Kenya after the marine cable lands. I see two additional challenges: security and digital colonization.
Security: With better and reliable telco-links into and out of E.Africa, hackers based in developed economies would find a rich-haven to launch attacks into and from within E.Africa where security for electronic infrastructure (e.g. government, parastatal, banking and other websites) is often an after thought.
Digital colonization: similar to what you described as becoming one of the "top 10 Clerical hub" of the world (no offense Kukubo and Co ;-). But it could be true, the submarine cable will definately leap-frog us into the 21st Century faster than we shall be able to exploit it. And so those who are able, will use the cable to damp their "goods" as it were. Think of it in terms of the proliferation of TV sets before our local capacity to produce content matured - end result? Enough 3rd rate soap operas from Mexico, West-africa, etc became our staple diet.
And so it will be with the cable. I am not saying the cable shouldnt come, I just think we should have plans to ride the cable at the top rather than at the bottom of the Internet value-chain.
walu. --- On Tue, 12/9/08, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: [kictanet] I have seen the future of the marine cable To: jwalu@yahoo.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 11:42 AM Today I saw the future of Kenya after the fiber land and I feel duty bound to share the experience.
For many years my business has provided server solutions to multinationals for groupware, our main selling point for having servers located locally was always the unreliable internet links.
Today one of my clients, a multinational company has moved their servers to Europe and are using thin client technology to connect the desktop user.
I saw a similar scenario when multinationals where allowed VSAT terminals, as many technical activities got consolidated either at head office in Europe/USA or regional processing centers in India. What we were left with was clerical and other none core activities. With the downturn in the world financial markets expect more centralised control of corporate activites and offshoring of currently local functions.
I assure the advocates of BSP and call centers that they will achieve their objective of turning Kenya into a clerical hub for the rest of the world. Which is historically what Kenya's role was always meant to be within the British Empire. We are soon to become a nation of overqualified call center operated involved in an activity that does not provide skills transfer.
Come January I will have lost a prime revenue earner as all that will be expected from us will be blowing the computers and offering 1st level support on productivity applications and printing issues. This will mean that I have no need to retain high skilled personnel.
What use is it then for us to be setting up Universities all over the country yet all we shall need are large armies of fellows with good spoken english, maybe french or chinese with an average IQ and basic level of education.
Am I an alarmist? I do not think so I am a realist, I am reengineering to meet the challenge but can someone provide a condusive environment. Ndemo can we get collocation centers made available, the newly redressed ISPs are not about to add value in this direction. Can the government take the lead in outsourcing its activites, we are ready to setup a call centre for the Government in ISIOLO or at RIAT in Kisumu, I dare you to give me the challenge.
Have a god filled christmas & a proserous new year
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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-- Barrack O. Otieno ISSEN CONSULTING Tel: +254721325277 +254726544442 +254733206359 www.issenconsult.com http://projectdiscovery.or.ke To give up the task of reforming society is to give up ones responsibility as a free man. Alan Paton, South Africa
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Eric M.K Osiakwan Director Internet Research www.internetresearch.com.gh emko@internetresearch.com.gh 42 Ring Road Central, Accra-North Tel: +233.21.258800 ext 7031 Fax: +233.21.258811 Cell: +233.24.4386792
Absolutely Eric, i agree with your thoughts we cant have those kind of thoughts if we maintain consumer mindsets, Business is about value add, it doesnt matter if you are offering clerical services or high end technological solutions that is my take On 12/11/08, Eric M.K Osiakwan <emko@internetresearch.com.gh> wrote:
Though am a great believer in the ripple effects that the eventual availability of reliable and affordable bandwidth would have on the market and economy, i would not gamble with the strategic effort we need to put in to ensure the aggregation and generation of digital content.
In my view, we need for strategic effort in ensuring the uptake and strategic local deployment of content, otherwise the pipes would be going more upstream which would tilt the scale against us, not advancing the full benefits.
I wont take fiber for a given, is my point.
Eric here
On 11 Dec 2008, at 08:00, Barrack Otieno wrote:
That is why we must stop being Consumers of Technology and become innovators, we have what it takes succeed once fibre lands, what is failing us is the policy angle, there is nothing to fear we only need to get rid of mediocrity. Bob you looked at it from a Narrow angle. That is my take
On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 1:42 PM, P Gitau Githongo <pgitau@githongo.com> wrote: I believe the marine cable presents a far greater opportunity than a threat. The fact that the choice of locating servers offshore/onshore exists can only be beneficial.
The challenge is to focus on ensuring that the trend is inwards and to our benefit; and entails dealing with the root causes that would make a corporation steer clear of our shores in chosing where to locate its servers. These include price competitiveness, investment climate, simplified regulatory frameworks, etc, when compared with other potential destinations.
Several of these areas have seen noteworthy government/private initiatives aimed at doing away with bureaucratic red-tape and simplification of investment procedures as well as improved connectivity and reduction of data transfer costs.
A critical area that has been ignored is the productivity costs of doing business in Kenya - specifically Nairobi. Even before you factor in unreasonably high office rental and utility costs, the direct and indirect costs of getting workers to and from work has risen in recent years to levels that are simply alarming.
These are the actual costs of transportation and as well as the time taken in the commute of workers to and from work. In a pilot survey carried out by our firm on the urban commute of professional staff based within Nairobi's CBD we established that only 58% of staff took less than an hour in their daily commute to work. We intend in future to look at firm's outside the CBD. 50% of those using public transport (in a 5-day working week) spent more than US$ 40 every month on transport. A 2006 report by Sykes - a leading South African outsourcing operator, showed that 80% of it workers spent less than an hour commuting to work at a cost ranging from US$ 27 to US$ 39. With escalating domestic rental rates in the areas close to Nairobi's CBD climbing out of reach, this problem will only get worse - fast - and only reduce worker productivity further.
It is these factors that are undermining the tremendous gains made in reduction of infrastructure costs and ease of investment and are more likely the factors that led to the departure of the multinational Yawe was referring to.
As an illustration
-----Original Message----- From: kictanet-bounces+pgitau=githongo.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke [mailto:kictanet-bounces+pgitau=githongo.com@lists.kictanet.or.ke] On Behalf Of John Walubengo Sent: Tuesday, December 09, 2008 12:26 PM To: pgitau@githongo.com Cc: KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions Subject: Re: [kictanet] I have seen the future of the marine cable
Yawe,
I too shiver when I think about Kenya after the marine cable lands. I see two additional challenges: security and digital colonization.
Security: With better and reliable telco-links into and out of E.Africa, hackers based in developed economies would find a rich-haven to launch attacks into and from within E.Africa where security for electronic infrastructure (e.g. government, parastatal, banking and other websites) is often an after thought.
Digital colonization: similar to what you described as becoming one of the "top 10 Clerical hub" of the world (no offense Kukubo and Co ;-). But it could be true, the submarine cable will definately leap-frog us into the 21st Century faster than we shall be able to exploit it. And so those who are able, will use the cable to damp their "goods" as it were. Think of it in terms of the proliferation of TV sets before our local capacity to produce content matured - end result? Enough 3rd rate soap operas from Mexico, West-africa, etc became our staple diet.
And so it will be with the cable. I am not saying the cable shouldnt come, I just think we should have plans to ride the cable at the top rather than at the bottom of the Internet value-chain.
walu. --- On Tue, 12/9/08, robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
From: robert yawe <robertyawe@yahoo.co.uk> Subject: [kictanet] I have seen the future of the marine cable To: jwalu@yahoo.com Cc: "KICTAnet ICT Policy Discussions" <kictanet@lists.kictanet.or.ke> Date: Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 11:42 AM Today I saw the future of Kenya after the fiber land and I feel duty bound to share the experience.
For many years my business has provided server solutions to multinationals for groupware, our main selling point for having servers located locally was always the unreliable internet links.
Today one of my clients, a multinational company has moved their servers to Europe and are using thin client technology to connect the desktop user.
I saw a similar scenario when multinationals where allowed VSAT terminals, as many technical activities got consolidated either at head office in Europe/USA or regional processing centers in India. What we were left with was clerical and other none core activities. With the downturn in the world financial markets expect more centralised control of corporate activites and offshoring of currently local functions.
I assure the advocates of BSP and call centers that they will achieve their objective of turning Kenya into a clerical hub for the rest of the world. Which is historically what Kenya's role was always meant to be within the British Empire. We are soon to become a nation of overqualified call center operated involved in an activity that does not provide skills transfer.
Come January I will have lost a prime revenue earner as all that will be expected from us will be blowing the computers and offering 1st level support on productivity applications and printing issues. This will mean that I have no need to retain high skilled personnel.
What use is it then for us to be setting up Universities all over the country yet all we shall need are large armies of fellows with good spoken english, maybe french or chinese with an average IQ and basic level of education.
Am I an alarmist? I do not think so I am a realist, I am reengineering to meet the challenge but can someone provide a condusive environment. Ndemo can we get collocation centers made available, the newly redressed ISPs are not about to add value in this direction. Can the government take the lead in outsourcing its activites, we are ready to setup a call centre for the Government in ISIOLO or at RIAT in Kisumu, I dare you to give me the challenge.
Have a god filled christmas & a proserous new year
Robert Yawe KAY System Technologies Ltd Phoenix House, 6th Floor P O Box 55806 Nairobi, 00200 Kenya
Tel: +254722511225, +254202010696
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-- Barrack O. Otieno ISSEN CONSULTING Tel: +254721325277 +254726544442 +254733206359 www.issenconsult.com http://projectdiscovery.or.ke To give up the task of reforming society is to give up ones responsibility as a free man. Alan Paton, South Africa
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Eric M.K Osiakwan Director Internet Research www.internetresearch.com.gh emko@internetresearch.com.gh 42 Ring Road Central, Accra-North Tel: +233.21.258800 ext 7031 Fax: +233.21.258811 Cell: +233.24.4386792
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-- Barrack O. Otieno ISSEN CONSULTING Tel: +254721325277 +254726544442 +254733206359 www.issenconsult.com http://projectdiscovery.or.ke To give up the task of reforming society is to give up ones responsibility as a free man. Alan Paton, South Africa
participants (7)
-
aki -
Barrack Otieno -
Eric M.K Osiakwan -
John Walubengo -
Lobore Junior -
P Gitau Githongo -
robert yawe