ICT and Smart Businesses

We can look at two distinct sets of businesses and entrepreneurs under this theme. First, those operating in the ICT industry itself providing value-added services to the Telcos, ISPs or any other entity requiring such services. These providers could be locally developed Content, Apps, Programming, Software developers, business intelligence systems or IT service providers. The beauty of these enterprises is that they are knowledge driven, scalable and exportable at a least cost. This is because to build scale or export the service, they rely on the same Smart ICT facilities to drive. Rwanda is not short of ideas, what Rwanda needs is opening up big multi-national Telcos and ISPs to do business with these up and coming ICT entrepreneurs. In the same vein, those entrepreneurs must also learn to build strong business cases and thoroughness in dealing with Telcos. Thus said, we must both be Smart in engaging and even taking risks to support locally bred businesses to grow. The second segment are all other businesses and entrepreneurs that must use ICT as input to deliver Smart services, processes and products to their customers. SMEs must become smarter in their approach in adopting simple, cost-effective ICT solutions to grow their businesses. Take advertising services for a start-up or SME with a limited advertising budget for instance. A simple example of advertising their business or product as a ring-tune on phones may help. Subscribing to digital Directory services is a creative way to make their services known to millions of potential customers in no time. Adoption of Mobile Payment solutions such as Mobile Payroll may be an efficient way to pay outbound staff working in the field or in the regions in the shortest possible time. Accepting mobile payments affords an SME the opportunity to attract new customers who are Mobile Money users. Almost every business problem has an ICT solution and it is about time businesses avail themselves to ICT services provided by other developers. It is also about time that local content and Apps developers turn their attention to providing customized services to local businesses and not always making the big Telcos as their targets. For ease of access, it may be about time that the ICT entrepreneurs and would-be members came together to create a one-stop shopping Portal to display all available general apps so businesses will know what is available before they reinvent the wheel. Such a portal or a site will even make it possible for them to retail simple Apps solutions on line without compromising on intellectual property if it is well crafted. Going smart means finding smarter ways to reach customers with smart ICT solutions as business opportunities for going Smart and thinking Smart are enormous. A huge investment has gone into providing the basic ICT infrastructure by both the Rwandan government and the private sector. In the next and final Smart Series, I will discuss the infrastructural readiness for a Digital Revolution. The writer is the CEO of MTN Rwanda ebeneza@mtn.co.rw

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ICT and Smart Businesses