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Industry under pressure to harness technology
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Captains of industry are under pressure to understand rapidly evolving technologies and find ways to harness them to deliver competitive advantage to their organisation”, Alex De Oliveira, Technology and Operational Manager, Network Solutions, Dimension Data has observed.
Oliveira noted that a company’s network could be more than just a support structure as an organisation can turn its network into value adding assets by aligning business and ICT.
“An innovative IT strategy is able to demonstrate that IT delivers value and meets business needs’, and ICT can create a wealth of new opportunities for Nigerians across the country as well as make lasting contribution to the social and economic development of any nation”.
Speaking at the ITEX Technology Forum 2008, Oliveira said that business leaders today were concerned about increasing business agility, reducing cost, accelerating innovation, improving time to market and compliance and regulation and that ICT was key to all of these.
,Speaking at the same function, Cecil Thokoane Chief technology Officer of Dimension Data said that there was an unprecedented recognition of ICT as an indispensable tool for socio-economic development and transformation.
”If the world is truly serious about achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015, we must begin utilise ICT as a poverty alleviation tool”, Cecil added.
The United Nations Organisation (UNO) leverages on ICT as a tool that fosters economic prosperity and growth because there is an active co relationship between ICT and development.
Drawing a linkage between ICT and economic development, Thokoane said: “In general, studies from the more developed world have yielded evidence of strong positive co relation between Information Technology and economic performance as well as IT induced changes in workforce composition in favour of highly skilled workers and organisational changes that allow firms to implement IT more effectively.”
Thokoane noted that we are in the knowledge economy and for Africa as a continent to have a competitive edge in this global scene its populace must acquire basic skills that will aid the process.
“Information and Communication Technology can halt the marginalisation of Africa because the vibrant sector is critical to the process of lowering the cost of doing business”.
Reports from LimeAsia Research reveal that the poor value technology tremendously because of its efficiency in daily activities, perceived economic benefit in earning and savings, security and ability to act in an emergency.
Thokoane stressed that e-government can make a difference in people by making it easy for citizens to interact with government through provision of citizen-centric computing.
The Services Director, Middle East and Africa, Dimension Data, Derek Wilcocks, who delivered a paper on the crucial role of ICT in creating sustainable business, environmental and macroeconomic practices, explained that investment in technology would bring higher returns for developing countries.
This basically because only innovation driven countries can be ultimately successful in the long term.
He stated: “Productivity is the main driver of national wealth in a globalised world and over time the forces of supply and demand tend to minimise the impact of other factors - for example labour cost differences, natural resources endowment.”
He noted that there were some key issues impacting on the sustainable adoption and use of technology.He listed these as including the liberalisation of international gateways as more than 70 countries still have monopolies, establishing local Internet Exchange points and more than 90 countries don’t have Internet Exchange Points (IXP).
“Investing in telecommunication and ICT in general drives economic growth, giving credence to this fact, economical reports reveal that a ten percent growth in mobile telecommunications will ultimately translate to 0.6 GDP growth”, Wilcocks added.
Oliveira noted that a company’s network could be more than just a support structure as an organisation can turn its network into value adding assets by aligning business and ICT.
“An innovative IT strategy is able to demonstrate that IT delivers value and meets business needs’, and ICT can create a wealth of new opportunities for Nigerians across the country as well as make lasting contribution to the social and economic development of any nation”.
Speaking at the ITEX Technology Forum 2008, Oliveira said that business leaders today were concerned about increasing business agility, reducing cost, accelerating innovation, improving time to market and compliance and regulation and that ICT was key to all of these.
,Speaking at the same function, Cecil Thokoane Chief technology Officer of Dimension Data said that there was an unprecedented recognition of ICT as an indispensable tool for socio-economic development and transformation.
”If the world is truly serious about achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015, we must begin utilise ICT as a poverty alleviation tool”, Cecil added.
The United Nations Organisation (UNO) leverages on ICT as a tool that fosters economic prosperity and growth because there is an active co relationship between ICT and development.
Drawing a linkage between ICT and economic development, Thokoane said: “In general, studies from the more developed world have yielded evidence of strong positive co relation between Information Technology and economic performance as well as IT induced changes in workforce composition in favour of highly skilled workers and organisational changes that allow firms to implement IT more effectively.”
Thokoane noted that we are in the knowledge economy and for Africa as a continent to have a competitive edge in this global scene its populace must acquire basic skills that will aid the process.
“Information and Communication Technology can halt the marginalisation of Africa because the vibrant sector is critical to the process of lowering the cost of doing business”.
Reports from LimeAsia Research reveal that the poor value technology tremendously because of its efficiency in daily activities, perceived economic benefit in earning and savings, security and ability to act in an emergency.
Thokoane stressed that e-government can make a difference in people by making it easy for citizens to interact with government through provision of citizen-centric computing.
The Services Director, Middle East and Africa, Dimension Data, Derek Wilcocks, who delivered a paper on the crucial role of ICT in creating sustainable business, environmental and macroeconomic practices, explained that investment in technology would bring higher returns for developing countries.
This basically because only innovation driven countries can be ultimately successful in the long term.
He stated: “Productivity is the main driver of national wealth in a globalised world and over time the forces of supply and demand tend to minimise the impact of other factors - for example labour cost differences, natural resources endowment.”
He noted that there were some key issues impacting on the sustainable adoption and use of technology.He listed these as including the liberalisation of international gateways as more than 70 countries still have monopolies, establishing local Internet Exchange points and more than 90 countries don’t have Internet Exchange Points (IXP).
“Investing in telecommunication and ICT in general drives economic growth, giving credence to this fact, economical reports reveal that a ten percent growth in mobile telecommunications will ultimately translate to 0.6 GDP growth”, Wilcocks added.
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