NAIROBI, November 17 – Information and Communications Technology (ICT) remains a challenge for corporate Kenya, even as analog systems increasingly become outdated.
This can be addressed by technological integration which has been cited as a requirement to this technological challenge.
Director of Technology Integration Consulting at Deloitte, Muchemi Wambugu, spoke to Capital Business saying the greatest impediment to IT integration in Kenya has been the lack of strategy among consumers to utilise the technologies in their possession.
“One of the things that we have noticed is embracing change; change management in some cases is a very big impediment. We may have technology available but if the adoption rate is not high and the appetite for change in the organisation is low, it becomes difficult,” he adds.
Mr Wambugu says with the fast-changing ICT world, change is inevitable and companies have no choice but to conform to the new technological wave in order to improve services.
He gives an example of the submarine fibre optic cable that is expected by end of next year as a probable surprise.
Mr Wambugu is convinced that there is an urgent need to ‘adequately prepare’ for the fibre optic cable which he says will present huge amounts of data and accelerate communication.
He says it is in this regard that Deloitte Consulting Eastern, a professional services company in Kenya, has established an Information Technology (IT) Integration Department, aimed at improving the already existing advisory services offered to its client base.
He informs that the consulting company has now embarked on educating clients on the merits of it integration through forums and seminars including talks.
“We have started with our own client base and we are looking at areas of opportunity for increased service growth,” he said and urged companies to guard against the imminent risk of theft of intellectual capital that is a reality of an expanded bandwidth.
The IT guru who started his career in the US is convinced that there will be an inevitable need for the establishment of information security which he says will be a sure problem due to increased sharing of data.
He, on the other hand, believes that information overflow would not be a case to be made, saying that Kenya stands to be more competitive, with an influx of information which he says is a powerful resource.
“The more knowledgeable people get, the more competitive we become,” he says.
According to Mr Wambugu, the IT department at Deloitte comes as an addition to the already existing services within the Eastern African Cluster where the company deals in Enterprise Architecture that comprises Project Management and Technology Infrastructure.
He says this move to create the department has been necessitated by the increasing need to breach the gaps existing in technology among both its present and prospective clients.
“Our clients are now looking at many things such as high speed connectivity and increased bandwidth because we have more technology available in the market and we have to inject the services that will allow them to realize the benefits,” Mr Wambugu says.
He says this is an adjustment that seeks also to fit within the evidently ‘fast-maturing market‘that is, in his opinion, experiencing an ‘exponential growth.
He notes that on many occasions clients may experience in-house technology problems which derail business and theierefore Deloitte would exploit this opportunity to help the particular client resolve the issue in order to tap resultant benefits.
The department which has been running for six months now is targeted at improving services in government institutions, medium and large corporations, educational, medical and financial institutions among others.
