Charting new course for online entrepreneurs

Features of the week:

The need to turn Nigeria into a knowledge-based economy prompted the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) to organise a one-day seminar, to herald its Internet-for-Job (I4J) initiative in Lagos, writes Remmy Nweke.

Introduction:

It was Chief Chris Uwaje who ignited the fully packed hall at the Golden Gate Restaurant, Ikoyi-Lagos, venue of the launching of I4J initiative of the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), with his “Business Prayers on the Internet!”

For Chief Uwaje, the Chief Executive of Connect Technologies, a quick search of the world wide web (www) illustrates how entrepreneurs are bombarded with the possibilities of knowledge economy.

In his literary fashion, Uwaje came up with his poetic stanzas by asking the audience if any one is “Tired of working for someone else? Start your own Internet Business!”

For him, interested people or potential entrepreneurs could strike it rich on the Net in what he described a fail-safe business opportunity.

“Looking for diamond … Find it here on the Net,” he declared, saying that a trial to visit the Internet and one will be changed forever.

For those who want to become millionaires within micro-second on the keyboard, he invited such persons to join him in the moon by clicking and making millions with moon rocks, which is the offer today.

The above messages are just examples of what the emerging entrepreneur may apply to engage exploration of web-based market resources, which have now become a global entrepreneurial opportunity.

Journey of Internet penetration in Nigeria:

With this, the tone for the initiative to stand firm seems to have been set as NIG President, Mr. Lanre Ajayi welcomed participants to the event, recalling that in 1995 when the Internet commercially found its footing in the country, the state of Internet awareness and access were nothing to write home about and unimpressively comparable with other countries of the world.

He also noted that then, the Nigerian government seemed averse to the penetration of the Internet into the country, hence it did nothing to promote it, while some staff of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), were arrested for daring to provide the services to the public.

He pointed out that this took place whilst the rest of the world, were strategizing on how to connect more of their people to the Internet, leaving Nigerians unaware of the great revolution called the Internet.

In order to reverse this trend, he said, a group of concerned Nigerians and corporate organizations came together to form the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG), adding that aggressive awareness campaign was embarked upon with conferences and seminars conducted and several meetings held with government officials.

Initial efforts paid off:

The resultant effect of these efforts, he said, was a tremendous improvement on the awareness of the Internet in the country and a measured success in the level of Internet connectivity.

“The success recorded was not too surprising judging from the quality of leadership NIG has enjoyed from inception under the likes our current chairman, Chief Olawale Ige,” who he described as a devoted and highly respected former Communications Minister who has been leading very distinguished and committed members of the Board of Trustees (BoT), which are the supporting pillars for the very dedicated and enthusiastic presidents of NIG since inception, including Chief Johnson Asinugo, Eze Cletus Iromantu, Dr. Emmanaul Nnama, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe, Mr. Jim Ovia and Dr Ekuwem.

“I am indeed honoured to step into the shoes of these reputable Nigerians who have committed their time and other resources to the service of the Nigerian Internet community,” he asserted.

Mr. Ajayi, did not forgot so soon the challenge facing the Internet community in the country as of today, adding that it’s no more that of Internet awareness, since an average Nigerian has heard about the Internet, but is how to apply the Internet as a tool to improve quality of life, particularly as a platform for creating jobs for people. Positively deployed, he said, that the challenge is to reverse the negative use of the Internet as manifested in scam mails syndrome and the “yahoo yahoo boys.”

And in order to address this challenge, he said, NIG has come up with a programme, tagged Internet for Jobs (I4J) Initiative, with this initial seminar focused on “Internet for Jobs: Promoting Internet Entrepreneurship in Nigeria.”

What I4J stands for:

For him, what I4J stands for is to demonstrate the enormous potential of the Internet as a platform for creating jobs, hence NIG intends to achieve this by facilitating a selected number of online businesses and nurturing them to maturity, with the hope that the success stories will spur many more entrepreneurs to start their own online businesses and create job opportunities for Nigerians.

In addition, he said that the goal of I4J is to take participants’ ideas from concept to the market.

“It is our hope that, through I4J a sizeable number of online businesses that will start small but grow big within a short space of time will be established in Nigeria. In not too distant future, we should begin to see Nigerian online companies in the mood of Yahoo, Amazon, Goggle and eBay that will be addressing local problems and even take on the world by providing global services,” he noted.

Modality:

To achieve this empowerment goal, NIG, he said, has come up with some modalities based on call for proposals, review of the proposals, awarding of grants and registration of servicing companies.

As said by him, advertisement would be placed in the media and through flyers calling for interested applicants to submit proposals, which gives details of their intended online businesses.

This would be followed by review of proposals by a panel of distinguished and experienced Nigerians to be constituted soon, to determine which ones are qualified to be admitted into the Internet for Jobs (I4J) Initiative programme.

Following this, he said, would be the awarding of grants to successful applicants, noting that the grants, to be administered by NIG, would not be cash-based but by paying the servicing companies who provide supporting services to the awardees. Such services may include technology support, marketing, financial consultancy, training to name a few.

Strict compliance:

To ensure strict compliance to the cash-less administration of the project directly, Mr. Ajayi said, NIG would identify companies that will be providing support services for the participants. He stressed that selection will be by advertising in the media, while interview shall be conducted and qualified ones chosen.

“Participants shall be required to choose from the registered servicing companies to provide the support required by them. NIG shall disburse payment for services rendered directly to the servicing companies,” he said.

NIG President also disclosed that the group intends to partner with a number of organizations, including multi-lateral agencies, government agencies, private organizations and individuals to achieve the objectives of I4J Initiative.

He pointed out that these partners would be expected to contribute not only money that will be used as grants for the participants, but also useful suggestions to the participants as may be required to encourage patronage of their services which may not necessarily be perfect at the initial stage.

Partners:

“Classes of partnership would comprise Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze and shall be created to designate the level of support given to the Initiative,” he said, just as the partners will be encouraged to proudly display their I4J partnership status on their letter headed papers, adverts, complimentary cards and so on, as a demonstration of their commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in general and I4J in particular.

While applauding the invitees for honouring the group with their presence, NIG singled out the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for giving adequate support for the realization of the vision.

“When the need arose to create Internet awareness, NCC led by its pioneer Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Eze Iromantu, was there to join forces with NIG. Now that the need also arose to create awareness on the opportunity available on the Internet for job creation, the NCC, led by the incumbent EVC, Dr. Ndukwe, has also demonstrated commitment to the I4J initiative.

NIG, Mr. Ajayi said would work closely with NCC, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), Computer Registration Professional Council of Nigeria (CPN), other government agencies, multilateral agencies, corporate bodies and individuals to achieve the goals of I4J.

“It is our sincere hope that when the success story of I4J is being told we shall all be proud to have played some roles in it,” he urged, adding that so much have been said on the need to turn Nigeria into a knowledge economy, even as NIG is about to walk the talk and invited well meaning Nigerians to join hands with the group.

Promoting Internet-based businesses:

Speaking at the event on ‘Promoting Internet-based businesses in Nigeria,’ Dr. Ndukwe of NCC, recognised the power of the Internet, noting that for anyone to be indifferent to technology and the changes imposed on today’s business markets could be suicidal whether private or public business concern.

The Internet, he said, is empowering users and creating new business models and to harness this power, has become imperative, declaring “Today the Internet represents an exciting new frontier. A frontier that is abundant with opportunity. More communications now take place via the Internet than over the telephone or other media.”

He noted that the evolution and power of the Internet have always been a spectacle for him, and pointed out that between the year 2002 and 2003, it was reported that the American online delivered about 50 per cent messages in one day than the United States (U.S.) Postal Office.

He also observed that about 85 per cent of the small and medium size industry used the Internet and about 65 per cent of small businesses in the U.S., for instance, have their own websites.

“This number has continuously increased as of today,” he said, emphasising that e-business transactions, are expected to grow to over 1.5 trillion dollars before end of this year, 2007, while the small businesses that extensively use the Internet are expected to grow much faster than those that do not use Internet.

Technology drives economies:

He observed sadly that while the number of people using the Internet in the G8 countries continued to grow, in many African countries, such as Nigeria the story is not the same. “Truly, technology is driving economies, but not everyone is benefiting from it,” he declared.

However, the penetration of mobile communication technologies supported by the pre-paid system has been the driving force behind the success of these communication technologies.

“Today, about 3 billion people in the world now have access to mobile communication. This number, is however, very small when compared to those that have access to the Internet,” he asserted, noting that there is a wide gap between those who have information through the Internet and those who do not have.

“People, businesses and communities that do not have ready access to Internet are being left behind in the scheme of things,” he said, adding that the implication of this to mankind is a continuous effort to meet up. “With the Internet, people could actually access any form of information in the whole wide world,” he maintained.

According to him, a new world order has emerged through the deployment of fixed and mobile wireless systems offer key advantages in making Internet services universally available because of the speed of deployment.

“It is now glaring that the new world order is dominated by ICT. Only those countries, which implement the required communications infrastructure, will continue to define culture and information transfer as well as dominate political and societal views on issues and events,” he said.

Legitimate wealth making abound on Internet:

Also speaking, Managing Director, RaisingWealth Incorported, Mrs. Olakitan Wellington, pointed out that lots of legitimate ways of making money abound on the Internet, stressing that it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that there is huge potential to make money on the Internet. However, very few people succeed in realizing what needs to be done to make it happen.

“Everyday there are countless numbers of intelligent people that come to the Internet looking for ways to make their dreams of financial freedom come true. But it does take much more than intelligence to succeed in this business. It takes tactics, it takes strategies, it takes hard work to succeed in Internet business,” she said.

Mrs. Wellington added that lots of these people who come to the internet to ‘seek their own green pastures’ do not see the internet as a business that will make them money, but see it as an opportunity to make money, hence, they are called ‘opportunity seekers’.

Opportunity seekers:

She defined opportunity seeker as somebody who is looking for ways to make money online, without any work or effort, believing that there is some “magic formula” that will solve all of their problems and make them a ton of cash.

She emphasised that this has been the main reason some people are easily scammed by those who offer to invest their money for them and give them 1000 per cent profit within 30 days, without them having to do anything other than go and deposit their money in a certain bank account.

Strategic Marketing:

While dwelling on “Strategic Marketing: A success factor for eBusiness,” she said that marketing means to make a communication about a product or service in order to encourage recipients to purchase or use the product or service. And for strategy, she defined it as simply a ‘tactics’.

Strategic Marketing, therefore, she said, is a marketing system that has been tactically planned so as to achieve specific results, for example, to determine how the product could compete favourably in the market place.

In order to make good money on the internet, she said, promoter of such business need to handle it as a serious business, “the way you would handle your business offline.” He pointed out that one of the most important, if not the most important tasks required to undertake the business, is good marketing because marketing is one of the most important functions of business.

“No business survives without good marketing and no marketing succeeds without it being properly planned ahead; Internet business more so. After creating your good quality product or service, you need to bring it to the awareness of the people who need and are searching for such product or service. No matter how good a product or service is, if nobody knows where it is, it will not sell,” she said.

Conclusion:

Whereas advising those who have ideas to simply put same into practice and not bother about the kind of initial results, Chief Uwaje, who discussed “Internet: The factory in our heads – Challenges and opportunities for the entrepreneur,” added that the Internet would help nations build the knowledge bank and create wealth locally.

But suffice this to say that Internet is clearly the ultimate future for trade and commerce. “It has become the centre of gravity and common currency of modern business. Internet entrepreneurs should learn from the traditional lessons about starting a business,” he declared.

Uwaje further advocated that either offline-based or Internet-based, a successful entrepreneurial venture must be founded on a strong idea for a product or service and must be implemented by an entrepreneur with a solid understanding of the product or service, the customer, marketing principles and elements of financing.

Furthermore, Internet entrepreneurs, he said, must go beyond these traditional lessons to understand how the Internet changes business, particularly, the changed relationship between the business owner and the customer; the geography of the Internet, the importance of the location of one’s website, and finally, the challenge of attracting and cultivating return customers to the website.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

IT, inseparable part of good governance – Ekeigwe

For Information Technology (IT) to make relevant impact, especially economically as being predicted by experts, IT must not be separated as an element of good governance in corporate organisations.

This was the view of the Managing Director, EDP Audit & Security Associates, Mr. Chris Ekeigwe at the just concluded one-day seminar on Finance and IT organised by ICT Africa in Lagos.

Dwelling on ‘IT Governance Assurance: Roles and Responsibilities’ Mr. Ekeigwe pointed out that in order to get the needed assurances with the evolution of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), there are best practices approach to it which must be adhered to strictly.

He said that some of the key concepts to have at the back of the mind when tinkering on transforming an organisation to have reputable good governance in this century including IT has become inseparable element of good corporate governance.

He also said that it is the responsibility of board members and executives both in business and Information System (IS) departments to uphold this concept, because it requires a top-down approach and urged senior management team to live up to the model.

Mr. Ekeigwe stressed that business objectives must be aligned to the Information System objectives in order to have effect.

He pointed out that based on the kind of signals the regulators globally are giving, to have focus on operational risk within which security and IT would be seen as very crucial.

“All major risk issues are usually caused by breakdown in internal control, oversight and information technology,” he declared.

EDP boss also noted the importance of having concern for extreme dependence of industry on IT, hence he advocated for creation of awareness among senior company officers and the need to address three technical areas and improve on them.

These, he enumerated including to authenticate, segregate and make accountable.

Mr. Ekeigwe added in a paper co-authored with Mr. Roy Hay that essentially, IT governance is about achieving the most value from technology, including moving IT toward its strategic goals, ensuring that stakeholders and management understand the key IT risks and manage them equally.

He canvassed for the establishment of conditions by firms that would allow IT management to operate effectively especially by enabling the section to have superior, effective allocation of IT decision rights.

According to him, stewardship is gradually extending to IT as boards nowadays question the depth of their enterprise’s reliance on IT.

He adduced some reasons why corporate organisations should not only invest in IT governance but must be seen to get involved that include the importance of due diligence.

“IT is critical and strategic to the businesses and expectations and reality don’t usually match,” he asserted, adding that IT has not gotten the attention it deserves because of huge involvement of investments and large risks.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

For Vodacom, a lost customer

Market Intelligence:

Last quarter of 2006, a Nigerian businessman, Mr. Dimkpa Ogele, visited South Africa for the 3GSM conference in Cape Town, and had a course to buy a Vodacom’s Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card to easily communication with his family in Lagos.

Unfortunately, he could not send any successful Short Messaging Service (SMS), which he found to be cheaper down making voice calls.

He endured it for the five-day duration that the event lasted.

But recently, Mr. Ogele had another reason to be in South Africa and this time, the Eastern Cape city of Port Elizabeth.

Unfortunately too, he could not make use of his SMS, even the free SMS’ on recharging his phone’s credit were not used.

Efforts to engage the customer service was not fruitful because the first contact resulting in the customer care specialist directing him to check his SMS account set up in his Sony Ericsson M6001.

Mr. Ogele followed religiously the instructions and tried out all the directives given to him, but all to no avail.

At a stage he was told that his model of Sony Ericsson was not programmed on their network for SMS and later, he was asked to contact any Vodashop nearest to him.

Mr. Ogele also complained of having sent an electronic mail, which he got response three days later.

Incidentally, 48 hours later, Mr. Ogele was on his way to Nigeria and decided to get this corrected at a VodaShop at the international wing of the J’bourg Airport, so that when next in South Africa it would be an easy ride, only to be informed by the attendant that they were at the airport to sell Vodacom products among other telecommunications gadgets, but not to peep into customers phones.

At this moment, Mr. Ogele simply declared that its high time he checked out another network.

Definitely with this kind of service to a subscriber in need, Vodacom has lost a customer.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

MTN denies fraud in x555x1 top-up code

Leading Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) network in the country, MTN Nigeria Communications Limited, has denied rumours making the rounds over its x555x1 top-up code for prepaid subscribers.

Champion Infotel recalls that recently, some subscribers have been alarmed with the news that MTN’s recharge code of x555x1 has been associated with some fraudulent motives of deducting undisclosed credits, which they said were usually taken to calm some political nerves in the erstwhile leadership of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in the country and has even persisted after he left office.

Even as they claimed that x555x12 digits is as successful as x555x1x12 digits and wondered why the x1 was being used by the telco.

Initially, officials of MTN did not believe that subscribers can use x555x12 digits without the x1 during investigations of this story until it was proven.

But responding to the allegations, Corporate Services Executive at MTN Nigeria, Mrs. Amina Oyagbola, while refuting the report said that MTN’s subscribers should disregard such rumours and carry on with their lives and continue to enjoy the telco’s services.

She explained that currently, MTN Nigeria has two codes for recharging on its prepaid platform, which are the x555x1x12 digits Personal Identification Numbers (PIN) or x555x12 digits PIN respectively.

“Both codes give the customer full value for their recharge all the time,” she declared.

She therefore urged Nigerians and MTN subscribers specifically to disregard the rumour of fraudulent deduction of their top-up credits.

MTN Nigeria is part of the MTN Group, acclaimed Africa’s leading cellular telecommunications company, which entered the nation’s telecom market on May 16, 2001.

Also, the telco prides itself as the first GSM network to make a call following the globally lauded Nigerian GSM auction conducted by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) earlier in 2001 and subsequently launched full commercial operations beginning with Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.

To get its initial GSM license, MTN paid $285m as one of the four GSM licenses in Nigeria in January 2001 and till date it has expended in excess of US$1.8 billion as investment in building mobile telecommunications infrastructure nationwide.

Even as it claimed that since commercial launch in August 2001, MTN has deployed its services across Nigeria, providing services in 223 cities and towns, more than 10,000 villages and communities and a growing number of highways across the country, spanning the 36 states of the Nigeria and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja with over 13m subscribers.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

NiRA to inaugurate 5 committees

The Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), has concluded plans for the inauguration of five committees by tomorrow, Thursday, in Lagos.

President, NiRA, Mr. Ndukwe Kalu who disclosed this to Champion Infotel said that the five committees include publicity, technical, organisation, legal and contact cum finance.

He explained that while the publicity committee would be headed by one of the NiRA director, Mrs Ufuoma ‘Daro to see to the positive propagation of NiRA aims and objectives to the public, the technical committee is expected to take care of the engineering and other technical matters for the association.

Also, he said that the organisation committee would be in charge of employment procedure; legal would review the constitution and advice appropriately, the contact cum finance would facilitate contacts and funding for NiRA projects.

The committees, he said would work jointly to ensure that the six initiatives of NiRA to be unveiled at the inauguration are made success stories.

Equally a press statement from NiRA endorsed by the Administrative Secretary, Ms Glory Ogbonna, recalled that NiRA is now in charge of the .ng domain, while a substantive board has been put in place.

“It will equally interest you to note that we already have a temporary office in Victoria Island, Lagos,” she said.

She stressed that these committees have been set up to help in moving NIRA to a very enviable level when compared with its counterparts.

“It is our pleasure to let you know that committee members have been chosen, as a result of their pedigree in the industry,” Ms Ogbonna declared.

She added that NiRA believes the committee members would embrace this call so that the association will benefit from their repertoire of knowledge.

“We will appreciate all the inputs they will bring through the committee that will help in moving NIRA forward,” she said.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Tradeways increases clientele

Leading courier entity, the Tradeways Express International Limited, said it has witnessed a remarkable increase in the number of clientele.

Speaking at the pre-Annual General Meeting (AGM) press conference in Lagos, Managing Director, Tradeways Express, Mr. Larry Chinekezi, said that the firm’s clientele base has increased over the years and this was achieved based on cutting edge services and unique solutions to customers’ peculiar logistics challenges.

Hence, customers have found the firm’s seamless professional services immeasurable.

“Tradeways today renders effective and efficient logistics solutions services to several domestic and multinational companies within all sectors of the economy especially banking, communication, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), pharmaceuticals, food and beverages, oil & gas, manufacturing to name a few,” he declared.

Mr. Chinekezi stressed that a high level of customer centric consciousness has taken its root in the company, thus prompt responses to customers’ issues, proper attention to customers’ complaints and in the uniqueness of services stand Tradeways apart in terms of unparalleled customer service delivery.

To this end, he said, Tradeways has invested in human resources as a great asset and has continually initiated and implemented policies geared towards achieving optimum returns from the workforce.

Tradeways, he added, believe in professionalism and productivity has seen to the training and retraining of the workforce in order to keep them abreast with the latest trends in the industry and also to encourage personal development for greater effectiveness.

“We have constantly put in place programmes, that will enhance knowledge and its application by staff,” he asserted, stressing that occasionally, Tradeways has sponsored some staff on training programmes outside the shores of the country.

“Efforts are continually being made to improve on the welfare of our staff, as this is paramount to the management,” Mr. Chinekezi said.

Just as Tradeways has automated its operations in the bid to embrace the advantages provided by the advent of ICT in the country.

He emphasised that the firm has a functional website which also could be used to track customers shipment and ascertain status.

He added that Tradeways has deployed Datacom and Superpro.Net software packages so as to create monthly client statements, human resources and payroll functions, billing of customers and general operational review report.

Even as customers can now keep track of their shipment through the firm’s recently introduced Short Messaging Service (SMS) of Proof of Delivery (PoD).

“Which means that wherever they are, they could keep track of any shipment that is sent through our network,” he said.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

AfriHub certifies 12,000 UNIZIK students

Estimated 12,000 students of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU) otherwise known as UNIZIK in Awka, Anambra State, were recently certified by AfriHub Limited.

The certification came after a 12-month training under AfriHub’s Universal Mandatory Information Technology (IT) Training (UMITT ).

Chief executive, AfriHub, Prof. Manny Aniebonam made this disclosure to Champion Infotel and brings the total number of students trained over the past 18 months to 20,000.

He also lamented that no Nigerian university was ranked among the first 1000 universities in 2007 using web metric methods, adding that it raises several questions as to what type of intervention must be applied by Nigerian institutions in order to address the issue of capacity building including infrastructure, telecommunications, human and research capacities.

In his address to the occasion, the Vice Chancellor, NAU, Prof. Ilochi Okafor, (SAN) said the institution has continued to grow from strength to strength with the application of UMITT.

“With UMITT, the graduates of this school have excelled in bank interviews in the labour market. We’re sending out IT literate graduates in the labour market to compete with their counterparts even at the international labour market. We will continue to be first in the ICT application,” he said.

Prof. Okafor also said that with UMITT certificate by AfriHub, students of the school could use it confidently all over the world, stressing that all students trained in UMITT, are now knowledgeable in areas of effective internet utilization, word processing, spreadsheet, PowerPoint, database, digital-research, cyber-communication, academic productivity tools, and speed-typing.

“We will continue to empower the students of this school with IT tools and knowledge. What we plan for our students in the near future is Internet connection anywhere in the school. We hope to offer laptop to students at subsidized rate. We are proud of you,” Prof. Ilochi asserted.

The Executive Governor of Anambra State, Mr Peter Obi, earlier in his speech commended AfriHUB UMITT initiative, saying that it will go a long way in preparing university students for the challenges ahead.

“ICT can guarantee you job tomorrow. It is a laudable development that we have AfriHUB in Anambra State. It is great that the students of NAU have continued to do well in the labour market as a result of UMITT introduced by AfriHUB. Anambra State will partner with AfriHUB in IT training. We want to capture the students right from secondary school. We will have a functional computer labs in over 200 secondary schools in Anambra State” he assured.

In the words of Kingsley Odibo, who spoke on behalf of about 13 best graduating students of UMITT programme, AfriHUB UMITT programme has taken the students of the school to the next level.

“With the new Laptop given to the best graduating student by AfriHub, our future is guaranteed. With IT skills and knowledge acquired, I can compete in the international market,” he said.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

HiiT offers scholarships to Lagosians

Information Technology (IT) education solution provider, Hands-on Institute of Information Technology (HiiT) has announced the offer of scholarships to excelling secondary school students in Lagos State.

Managing Director, HiiT Limited, Chief Kayode Shobajo, said the award of scholarships to secondary school students in Lagos is part of the institute’s efforts to contribute to the development of IT education in the country.

The scholarship, he said, offers students the opportunity to register for any course of their choice at HiiT.

“The gesture is part of activities lined up by HiiT to mark its 10 anniversary and is also to recognise and reward the students’ good performance in their last examination,” he said.

He explained that in HiiT, information technology training is taken above core subjects available in schools especially as most schools in the country, which are not well equipped to offer IT training needed to make Nigerian students of secondary school level to compete in the today’s digital society.

“This offer would help them improve their IT proficiency as well as expose them to the numerous potentials available in the digital world,” he said.

Chief Shobajo added that the goal of HiiT is to empower youths in the country with the best IT and professional business certification training through the use of up to date software and programmes at affordable prices.

He also said that plans have been advanced to extend the scholarships to tertiary institutions in order to keep track of kind of empowerment these youths get as they grow into university scholars.

Presently, he said, Ifako International Secondary School and Provident Height, both in Lagos are among the schools that have benefited from the scheme.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

VIA PowerSaver gets CSC endorsement

Leading innovator and developer of silicon chip technologies and Personal Computer (PC) platform solutions, VIA Technologies Inc, has announced the endorsement of its advanced PowerSaver technology by the China Standard Certification Center (CSC) for its outstanding energy efficiency.

The first technology of its kind to receive CSC recognition, VIA PowerSaver, was commended for having practical applications in the effective reduction of processor power consumption, resulting in greater energy efficiency and economic benefit for businesses and consumers.

China’s equivalent of the energy star programme in the United States (US), the CSC aims to encourage energy efficiency through a certification program that rewards power saving and environmentally friendly designs.

Known formerly as the China Certification Center for Energy Conservation Products (CECP), the CSC is a non-profit organization that encourages manufacturers to produce resource-efficient products and helps consumers make more sustainable purchase decisions.

Given stronger central government emphasis on energy efficiency and growing public concern for the environment in China, CSC product approval is becoming increasingly important for both vendors and consumers alike.

Technical Department Director, China Standard Certification Centre, Chun-Yan Zhu, noted that in order to realize the goal of an energy efficient society, certification organisation like CSC need support not only from the government and the community, but also from commercial enterprises like VIA with a strong sense of social responsibility.

“In certifying VIA’s PowerSaver, the CSC recognizes that VIA’s advances in developing energy efficient technologies can make a significant contribution to China’s environment as computing becomes more ubiquitous in our society,” he said.

VIA PowerSaver technology dynamically adjusts processor clock speed depending on the performance demands of running applications.

During less intensive tasks, processors can run at lower frequencies, thereby generating less heat and consuming up to 40 per cent less power than in fixed-frequency operation.

This, experts said, is not only reducing power bills, but also significantly aids efforts to reduce the amount of CO2 emitted into our environment.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Celtel supports Africans for CNN prize

Pan African telecommunications company, Celtel International, once again demonstrated support for finalists in the CNN MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year 2007, which ended recently.

The latest demonstration came in form of availing its subscribers on the continent to be part of voters in this year’s exercise, which was the first of its kind to facilitate their choice of winners at the prestigious awards.

Announcing this development, Chief Executive, Celtel International, Moez Daya, said that the offer enables more Africans to participate in selection of winners.

This is coming as Celtel sponsored the African Arts and Culture Award category of the annual CNN MultiChoice African Journalist of the Year.

According to Daya, the category is aimed at promoting excellence in reporting African arts and culture across the continent.

The pan African mobile operator offered more Africans the opportunity through Short Messaging Service (SMS) voting, which were sent to special short codes indicated on country basis.

He disclosed that some short listed candidates for the award category included Nigerian journalist, Justus Nwakanma of Champion Newspapers, Zambian Muwana Wamunyima of News and Information TV Services and South African Carte-Blanche’s staff Diana Lucas.

“We are proud to promote Africa’s rich cultural heritage. Celtel’s support of African arts and culture extends beyond the CNN African journalist awards. It also covers a range of other initiatives including an extensive music sponsorship programme which includes the prestigious Pearl of Africa Music Awards in East Africa, the Sounds of Wisdom (Sauti za Busaara) festival in Zanzibar, the Premier Music Awards in Sierra Leone and Gabon ’s Gabao Hip-Hop festival,” he said.

Daya also said that Celtel’s sponsorship policy is focused on the promotion of African arts and culture across the continent as part of the company’s commitment to develop Africa’s talent, adding that Celtel sponsored several talent development programmes such as Star Search in Zambia and Pop Idols in Nigeria.

Daya further informed that last year awards ceremony was held in Maputo , Mozambique and the prize was won by Victoria Cullinan of South Africa who works for Carte Blanche, M-Net.

Celtel presently has presence in 15 African countries, including Nigeria, which covers more than a third of the population on the continent.

Initially known as MSI Cellular Investment, it was changed to Celtel International based on the name of the holding company in January 2004 and claims strong record of investment and growth on the continent.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Seagull partners banks to drive VoIP

Emerging telecommunications company, Seagull Global Limited is partnering with two Nigerian banks to drive its offering of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony product known as WizeTalk.

Chief Executive, Seagull Global Limited, Mr. Bola Sijuwade, while disclosing this to Champion Infotel at a media session in Lagos, said that his firm is collaborating with two banks, namely the Oceanic Bank International Plc and Diamond Bank Plc to boost the roll out of the telco’s offering.

As said by him, Seagull for instance, is advancing plans to deploy its Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) infrastructure in the South Eastern part of the country in partnership with Diamond Bank Plc with a proposed landing point in Uzuakoli town in Imo State.

He also said that this would be replicated in other parts of the country in effort to build its own wireless infrastructure nationwide.

He explained that presently Seagull has customer accounts with the two banks to facilitate ease payment structure for its subscribers instead of always coming to Seagull’s office.

Prospective customers interested in any of Seagull’s solutions, , he said, should approach any branch of Oceanic Bank International Plc nationwide and make remittances into the company’s account.

He added that the same service is available for its customers who are disposed to Diamond Bank, especially those interested in its Sipura offering.

He explained that with Sipura 2100 VoIP gateway device, subscribers tend to benefit from multiple value added service (VAS) as soon as they pay for the equipment, activation in addition to recurring charges respectively, which is not in excess of N45,000.

Mr. Sijuwade also said subscribers would benefit from Voice mail notification via electronic mail, call waiting, call forwarding, multi-party calls conference, call blocking, call filter, music on hold, repeat dial, speed dial, wake-up call, find me- follow me, anonymous call rejection, black listing and call roaming.

He also said that Seagull offers free customer care services, stressing that the monthly charge paid, subscribers have unlimited access while outgoing calls cost 35 kobo per minute to any part of the world.

He equally said that Seagull’s WizeTalk is accessible in 34 countries of the world and could even be used to call mobiles in five countries including United Kingdom, United States, Canada among others.

“We’re just poised to achieve our aims of making calls cheaper for Nigerians,” he declared.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

LASPOVOND commends MTS

Commercial Telephone Operators (CTOs) under the aegis of Lagos State Association of Phone Operators, Vendors and Distributors (LASPOVOND), has commended the pioneer wireless telecommunications operator, MTS FirstWireless Limited, over what the group called customer-friendly disposition.

The commendation came from the group’s president, Oladeji Amusat, who led a delegation of LASPOVOND executive on a visit to the corporate headquarters of MTS in Lagos.

Amusat said that the telco has continued to endear MTS services to the hearts of its numerous subscribers, making it a preferred first choice offer for potential subscribers.

“MTS is the most affordable of available networks in Lagos and one that is capable of meeting the telephone requirements of individual subscribers as well as those of corporate users,” he said.

Mr. Amusat added that his association is overwhelmed by the genuine concern of MTS to create easier access and opportunities for a wider-spectrum of people in Lagos to communicate with their families and friends by eliminating the inhibitions of cutthroat tariffs and phone prices.

He also commended the flexibility and reliability of the MTS’ business centre package, code-named (Hot Profit), describing it as a rain of bumper harvest for subscriber-operators.

He enjoined commercial telephone operators in the city to avail themselves of the offer while it lasts.

Receiving the visitors, Public Relations Officer of the company, Omor Bazuaye, assured that the company would continue to maintain its form and especially the customer-friendly orientation while evolving latest ways to delight and reward existing subscribers to the network.

“As a business concern, MTS is driven more by a commitment to provide a simple, dependable and affordable world class telecommunications service delivery to our numerous subscribers. We keep this as a corporate promise; one that is not negotiable in the face of exiting competition,” he said.

Bazuaye also said the company is excited by its current impact in the market and would continue to dazzle with unbeatable offers such as its ‘Hot Profit’ offer and the free as well as unlimited on-net (MTS-MTS) calls currently being enjoyed by its subscribers during off-peak periods, Monday to Friday with a treat of marathon free on-net calls at weekends.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

ATCON, PMM join forces on cyber survival

Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) is joining force with Private Media Mart (PMM), a specialized publicity management firm based in Lagos, in staging a one-day workshop and mini exhibition for cyber café operators and intending entrepreneurs in Nigeria.

The executive secretary of ATCON, Mr. Godwin Morgan informed in a press statement made available to Champion Infotel that the aim of the workshop, which has been slated for the second week of September 2007, is to educate investors in this area of the sub-sector on how to run a successful and profitable cyber café business in the country.

He also said that since inception, ATCON has shown commitment to the growth and development of communications in general in the country.

“This association is interested in promoting programmes that will continue to expand technology services in every corner of the country both in urban and rural areas” he said.

Mr. Morgan equally said that ATCON decided to partner with PMM because the company is a professional consultancy firm that has proven its competence on issues pertaining to publicity management for technology brands.

He further highlighted the challenges of cyber operators in developing economies like Nigeria, saying that ignorance has been the major reason why cyber café operators go out of business everyday and those of them existing are operating under negative capacity.

“If you go to a cyber café where they have about 30 computers, you will discover that it is only few of the computers that are working and the few that are working are very slow and at the end of the day, there is no return on investment,” he said.

Mr. Morgan pointed out that most of these café operators buy fairly used computers that will not match the Internet connection, use inadequate bandwidth, operate with illegal software, disregard security issues and do not exploit alternative energy solutions or even proper financial management.

“And because the owners are most times not personally involved in the running of the business, the staff buy easily manipulated billing solutions that do not guarantee a proper recording and matching of the time spent with returns,” he observed.

He stressed that based on these observations that ATCON is putting the event together, to create opportunities for solution providers, technocrats in modern Internet solutions, operators of cyber cafes and people who are interested in the cyber café business to meet face to face so that they can discuss the way forward in the café business.

“It will also be a platform for knowledge sharing among people in the industry,” he said, adding the event slated to hold at Sheraton Hotels and Towers, Ikeja will be free for pre-registered visitors.

“There will also be limited spaces for a mini exhibition for solution providers within the cyber café industry,” Mr. Morgan said.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Cisco introduces VFrame data centre

Cisco has introduced a new data centre known as virtualisation orchestration solution, VFrame.

This platform, Cisco said would leverage on network intelligence to provide resources together as virtualized services.

The company also said that this industry-first approach greatly reduces application deployment times, improves overall resource utilization and offers greater business agility.

Cisco added that the solution code named VFrame DC includes an open API, and easily integrates with third party management applications, as well as best-of-breed server and storage virtualization offerings.

With VFrame DC, customers are expected to now link their computer, networking and storage infrastructure together as a set of virtualized services.

Senior Vice President, Data Center, Switching and Security Technology Group, Cisco, Mr. Jayshree Ullal, said these services approach provide a simple yet powerful way to quick viewing of all the services configured at the application level to improve troubleshooting and change management.

As said by him, VFrame DC offers a policy engine for automating resource changes in response to infrastructure outages and performance changes.

Additionally, he said, these changes could be controlled by external monitoring systems via integration with the VFrame DC web services Application Programming Interface (API).

VFrame data centre, Ullal noted, offers unprecedented orchestration within the data centre network, for dynamically re-programming server, storage and network resources into agile application services.

“This agility addresses the need for greater time to market for complex E-commerce application deployments by customers,” he said.

Also commenting on the VFrame DC, Director of Data Center Networks, IDC, Lucinda Borovick, said that stakeholders should take advantage of the ubiquity of the network to orchestrate data centre services that could help data centres evolve beyond their current functions.

“This approach has the potential to deliver more efficient application provisioning, reduce costs, and increase IT productivity,” he said.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

LG earns $11,227m in 3 months

Korean consumer electronics and mobile communications leader, LG Electronics has announced unaudited consolidated earnings results of the three-month period, which ended June 30, 2007.

Company recorded sales of KRW 10,430 billion about $11,227 million on a global basis, which rose 12.6 per cent from KRW 9,260 billion, estimated $9,747 million, a year earlier, and KRW 5,903 billion (USD 6,354 million) on a parent basis.

Operating profit jumped 50.6 per cent to KRW 464 billion (USD 499 million) from KRW 308 billion (USD 324 million) year on year on a global basis, and decreased to KRW 145 billion (USD 156 million) year from KRW 190 billion (USD 200 million) year on year on a parent basis.

LG Philips LCD and overseas subsidiaries net profit boosted LG’s recurring and net profit to KRW 461 billion (USD 496 million) and KRW 385 billion (USD 414 million) by equity method gain at KRW 309 billion (USD 333 million).

A year earlier the company recorded net loss of KRW 9.7 billion (USD 10.2 million) on a parent basis.

The company outlines its performance in its four main business division including Mobile Communication Company, Digital Appliance Company, Digital Display Company and Digital Media Company.

As for the Mobile Communication Company, LG said that the overall sales recorded KRW 2,865 billion (USD 3,084 million), 24.4 per cent higher than a year earlier and operating profit of 11.3 per cent, a jump from 0.4 per cent.

Handset business showed great progress both on a YoY and QoQ basis. Sales improved a whole lot to KRW 2,709 billion (USD 2,916 million) by 26.9 per cent YoY and 15.1 per cent QoQ with profitability of 11.6 per cent from loss of

0.7 per cent YoY and gain of 4.7 per cent QoQ mainly by premium product mix. Total shipments were 19.1 million units, which make accumulating sum of the two quarters to 34.9 million units.

On the Digital Appliance Company, LG noted that strong performance were made by this company which has jumped in sales of 21.4 per cent YoY and 22.5 per cent QoQ to KRW 3,604 billion (USD 3,879 million) and sustained the operating profit at stable level of 8.1 per cent.

For the Digital Display Company, LG announced that sales mainly from TVs and monitors posted KRW 2,727 billion (USD 2,935 million, 2.1 per cent decrease from the figure from a year earlier, but operating loss of 5.1 per cent proved improvement from the previous quarter through fixed cost reduction efforts and slower flat panel TV price decline.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Omatek consummates N1bn deal with First Bank Plc

Leading Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in the country, Omatek Computers Limited, at the weekend, consummated its N1 billion deal with the First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Plc, under its diffusion initiative, e-Xpress.

Speaking at the ceremony to endorse the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Lagos, Chief executive of Omatek, Mrs. Florence Seriki said that the main purpose of the facility is to take computers to every home in the country.

She said that the dream of average Nigerian to acquire top of the range computers is being realised with the completion of the deal.

Mrs. Seriki also said that as the Nigeria’s foremost OEM, Omatek went into the partnership with FBN to ensure that the dream of any Nigerian desirous of owning a computer is actualised with easy repayment plans spread over a long period.

“With this understanding, the average Nigerian is relieved of the burden of paying a large sum of money upfront to acquire a computer,” she declared, saying that payments could be structured to spread over a period of 12 to 24 months.

She stressed that with this, Nigerians could acquire top of the range Omatek desktops or laptops.

The Omatek boss added that the MoU would equally assist her company in fulfilling the twin objectives of both parties of putting a computer in every home in the country and contributing to the development of Information and Communications Technology (ICT).

This, she said, is in tandem with the federal government’s Information Technology (IT development initiatives, mostly now that government has introduced the Computer for all Nigerian Initiative (CANi).

“Every Nigerian should own a computer. It is not a luxury and we consider it a necessity that every one should be availed the opportunity of owning a computer, affordably with ease,” she asserted.

Mrs. Seriki emphasised that the era of inability of Nigerians to purchase computers because of the stringent payment conditions are gone, adding that now with this facility, even a low income earner could acquire an Omatek Computer because all the barriers to owning one have been removed.

She noted that at Omatek, they see computer as a utility tool that ought to be in every home in the country so as to enhance learning and human capacity development in both children and adults as well as in incoming earning capacity for the generality of Nigerians.

“With the expansion of communications services, particularly the recent impetus that has been given to the growth of broadband in the country, putting computers in every home in Nigeria is the final jigsaw in the developmental puzzle of our country,” she submitted.

She pointed out that as a proudly Nigerian computer firm, the deal with First Bank is to help and support Nigerians, no matter the situation they may find themselves toward being part of ICT potentials.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

HiiT, Franchworld partner on forex seminar

Information Technology (IT) education provider, Hands-on Institute of Information Technology (HiiT) and FranchWorld Limited, at the weekend commenced its two-day seminar on Foreign Exchange (FOREX).

Disclosing this, chairman, HiiT Limited, Chief Kayode Shobajo, said the seminar has been divided into two folds and would hold in Lagos and Kano.

He also said that it is to empower more Nigerians on the use of IT for FOREX trading and was structured to be comprehensive and practically intensive.

It would also feature eight-hour of life-coaching sessions with free $5 deposited in each participants trading account, while the seminar would offer one-participant-to-one-computer live-on-Internet practical training session.

In addition, he said, that participants would be offered free six-week post-training mentoring, even as free newsletters on latest strategies would be made available to them.

Describing the seminar as a smart way to train, Chief Shobajo said that participants cutting across professionals such as lawyers, doctors, engineers, bankers, businessmen and women, retired officers, unemployed graduates as well as students in higher institutions.

“Discover how our complete, comprehensive and practical intensive online forex trading can help you become a millionaire,” he said.

According to him, while the Lagos edition of the seminar took place at the weekend, July 28 and 29, that of Kano has been slated to hold between August 4 and 5, both at HiiT centres in these cities.

He added that the seminar fee is N39,500, interested members of the public could still get eight compact disc of FranchWorld Forex materials for N12,500.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

LASPOVOND endorses Celtel’s payphone

The Lagos State Association of Phone Operators, Vendors and Distributors (LASPOVOND), otherwise known as, Commercial Telephone Operators (CTOs), has applauded Celtel Nigeria for introducing its Jembi ‘Red’ payphones in the Lagos Coastlands region.

Speaking through the Chairman, LASPOVOND, Oshodi-Isolo branch, Mr. Emmanuel Idakoro, the operators gave kudos to Celtel for initiating this kind of payphone deployment in the country.

He also said that Celtel is the only operator so far that when it issues a tariff plan stands by it.

“Celtel is the only operator that if they say the tariff is N1 it would remain N1, unlike other competitions who would say N1 and at the end charge N1.10k,” he said.

He also endorsed the Red payphone from Celtel, saying it has tested the product in the last two weeks and declared, “its working and I know that when Celtel promise, they deliver.”

Welcoming guests at the launch, the General Manager, Lagos Coastlands Region at Celtel Nigeria, Mr. Ayo Gbeleyi, said that its first from the telco, stressing that the launch is in respect of the importance, Celtel attaches to the people in the region.

“We’re introducing Jembi Red payphones to empower more Nigerians and give more people, including those who do not have phones and those who live in the rural areas, the opportunity to communicate with their friends, family and business associates at cost effective rate and conveniently,” he said.

Mr. Gbeleyi added that Jembi ‘Red’ payphone is a complete business tool, which offers the user several services including voice calls, text messaging (SMS) and value added services (VAS) in either prepaid or post paid mode.

“It’s a very secured system and posses such distinctive security features as flexible recorded keeping attributes, ability to connect with printers and scanners as well as a high capacity internal battery which provides over seven hours talk-time.

“Also the battery can be easily recharged,” he said.

He emphasised that the device has been specially tested and proven by Celtel engineers and customer interfacing unit, customer care team, as well as some key stakeholders.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

Forrester rates Finacle high in core banking solution

Finacle, a banking solution from InfoSys and marketed in Nigeria by Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) through its subsidiary, ExpertEdge Software and Systems Limited, has been rated top in a study released by first Forrester Wave of core banking solutions.

Marketing Manager at CWG, Ms Morenike Popoola, informed that Infosys earned one of the top slots in the first Forrester Wave of core banking solutions, via its Finacle platform.

She noted that Finacle stood out with its convincing strategy and a very sound current offering and was the short-listed choice for banks that need a highly scalable core banking solution, want a strong multi-channel solution supplementing the suite, or are seeking an architecture solution that is able to cope with changing business needs.

This, she said was the conclusion of renowned industry analyst Forrester Wave Report on core banking solutions released in the first quarter of this year, 2007.

The rating in the heels of the last quarter of 2006 rating by Gartner in their Q4 Magic Quadrant for core banking solutions was also rated Finacle tops in vision and more significantly in the ability to execute placing Finacle squarely in the leaders quadrant.

Infosys had announced that it has positioned Finacle core banking solution in the Leader Quadrant in the recently released ‘Magic Quadrant for International Retail Core Banking (IRCB) 2006’ report.

Magic Quadrants depict markets using a two dimensional matrix that evaluates vendors based on their completeness of vision and ability to execute. The Magic Quadrant has 15 weighted criteria that plot vendors based on their relative strengths in the market. Magic Quadrant for IRCB assesses the impact of transition and volatility in the market, vendor consolidation trend, and a technology evolution that promises to enhance business agility on key international vendors and their products that serve this market.

According to Gartner, “Leaders are vendors that possess a strong banking market understanding, have a measurable strategy for disaggregating core banking software functionality into component-based constructs, exhibit highly developed and certified development and delivery of quality methodologies, and have extensive marketing delivery and sales channels. Leaders also share conspicuous operational organization approaches that are relevant to the business and a willingness to extend resources to ensure a successful customer experience”.

In his response, Vice President and Business Head - Finacle, Infosys Technologies, Merwin Fernandes, said the company believes that being rated leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant is another key milestone that unambiguously reinforces Finacle’s leadership of the retail core banking solution space.

“Finacle’s strategic approach and execution capabilities have always been globally recognized and we believe this analysis from Gartner once again demonstrates our differentiating strengths. We also believe that this reinforces the confidence reposed in us by leading banks across the world who have successfully leveraged Finacle to differentiate and lead in this competitive marketplace,” Fernandes said.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

ICANN’s At-Large shops for scribe

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has announced an immediate opportunity for a Secretary for Regional Affairs for the At-Large Community Working.

ICANN is the global co-ordinating administrator of the Internet based in the United States.

ICANN added that this position entails acting as the Secretary for the constituency of individual Internet users known as ‘At-Large’ within the organisation as regards the work of the Regional At-Large Organisations (RALOs).

Confirming this development, Director at At-Large Mr. Nick Ashton Hart, said that the five regional organisations aggregate the Non-Governmental Organisation (NGOs) who are participating as representatives of individual Internet users within ICANN.

This, he said is a full-time position and requires light international travel.

Successful applicants, he said, would assist in strengthening the capacity of the elected regional officers in providing effective coordination and administrative management of the community within each of the five geographic regions recognised by ICANN.

According to ICANN, the responsibilities of the secretary would include planning for the capacity building of RALO leadership structures, policy guidance to the director of At-Large on conceptual strategy development and management of the implementation of overall strategies and intra- and inter-divisional policies and institutional as well as management processes.

In addition, the scribe would assist in the planning and managing activities as well as meetings undertaken by the regions, preparation of documents for presentation to regional bodies and other policy-making organs of ICANN, as appropriate.

Just as the secretary is expected to help in instilling best practices in policies and procedures adopted by RALOs, and providing advice and draft proposals on structuring of work programmes for transparency and effectiveness in reaching consensus decisions, assist regional leaders to translate ideas for programmes into budget proposals together with the programme of work and priorities they encompass.

Such candidate, ICANN said must have thorough knowledge and understanding of supporting the secretariat function in an international policy-making cum decision-making context among others.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D

APC-MGE sets up service centre for African customers

American-based provider of critical power and cooling services, APC-MGE, has improved its services offering by locating a customer centre closer to Africa to specifically cater for customers on the continent.

APC-MGE, a $3 billion company is a subsidiary of Schneider Electric, offering comprehensive product and solution range for critical Information Technology (IT) and process applications in industrial, enterprise, small and medium business and home environments.

Regional director, Africa at APC-MGE, Mr. Carl Kleynhans, informed that with this customer care centre, which is based in Dubai, “APC-MGE aims to become increasingly customer-centric through an easy-to-use system providing one point of contact.”

He said that by moving the pre and post sales support from Galway to regional offices, such as the Dubai centre, all processes would be integrated and APC-MGE has ensured that it can act as a one-stop shop to even better serve our local customers.

“We have seen major growth within Africa over the past few years and want to show our increased support of local customers and partners by providing the best possible service. When a customer calls the Dubai Customer Care Centre with a query, regardless of whether it is of a pre- or post-sales nature, we make sure that they don’t have to navigate through a complex telephone system and instead speak directly to one of our highly trained support staff, who will be their one point of contact, or put them in touch directly with somebody who can take better care of specific queries,” he said.

According to him, the centre is manned by staff with local market knowledge and will follow a query through and make sure customers receive the proper feedback, adding that APC-MGE Customer Care Centres have also been set up in a number of European locations, including Munich, Reading, Budapest and Moscow.

Mr. Kleynhans disclosed that the Dubai Customer Care Centre could be reached on +27 11 465 2583.

APC-MGE solutions include uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), precision cooling units, racks, and design and management software, including the industry’s only integrated power, cooling, and management solution.

ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D