Businesses will have to rethink the ways of managing and storing information following the entry of a new player in provision of cloud computing services in Rwanda. With most organisations and businesses using onsite systems that are linked by a common server, Biasharaworks, a Tanzanian based Mkenga Group subsidiary, has partnered will NetSuite to provide new-age cloud computing services in the region dubbed “enterprise resource planning”. The new facility is an enterprise database, where all business transactions are entered, recorded, processed, monitored and reported in real time giving a view of the business that encompasses all functions and departments. Cloud computing enables users of the system to store and retrieve data on the Internet rather than hard-drives. The services popularity is growing thanks to the increased need to reduce data management costs and the urge to have key functions automated and unified in a single database. Mkenga Group’s solution enables a user access data, not only when they are at the work premises, but also when they are on the move. It also provides a complete view of the organisation according to the authorisation granted. Unlike the hardware system used by most organisations, the system also doesn’t require infrastructure upgrades or frequent maintenance costs. Elsante Mnzava, the Mkenga Group boss, said with development being the priority focus in the region, the system is the future of information storage and management. “Cloud-based enterprise resource planning is the future of how medium-and-large sized businesses will be managed in the region and NetSuite (Mkenga Group’s partner) has begun to plant flags in the region to address this development. “Moreover, Rwanda is perfectly suited for this type of solution because the business environment here is progressive - and crucially, the Internet bandwidth here is solid and will only get better,” Mnzava said. He said this system guarantees users about 50 per cent reduction in IT maintenance and invoice costs, among other benefits. He noted that so far, they were in talks with Rwandan medium and large businesses and had expressed interest in the system.
