TechCity was recently part of a hugely successful signature summit, the IBM Business Connect 2015 Summit. At the end of the event, we left with our minds further enriched on the need to fast track our collective quest to integrate technology into Business and Governance.
In a nutshell, Business and technology cognoscenti attending the IBM’s Business Connect 2015 event in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, discussed the following issues and more:
- The intersection between Technology and Business;
- Is technology a huge drain on the resources of the business community in Africa?
- How well is technology influencing decision making in Africa?
- How well is the Nigerian business and public sector landscape integrating advanced technology solutions to resolve its efficiency, knowledge and capacity issues?
- With about 700 million mobile phone users in Africa, the continent has adopted mobile technology pretty well; what other type of value-added services should the continent now begin to develop and evolve from this mobile culture?
- And what is the current state of Nigeria’s data, IT Security and Cloud Infrastructure?
If anyone ever had any doubts about the capacity of the Nigerian business community to intelligently dissect not-so-simple technology concepts, those doubts were fully put to rest during this summit. With the theme “Seize the Moment – Engage, Evolve, Emerge,” this event witnessed an unprecedented turnout of Nigeria’s private and public sector leaders, deliberating on the evolving architecture of the local business and technology environment.
For an event that would have been fully subscribed at 200 participants, this September 2015 IBM event was attended by about 480 persons, most of them Chief Executive Officers, Chief Information Officers, Chief Human Resources Officers, Chief Information Systems Officers, and Chief Marketing Officers from Academia, government IT department and agencies, the financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications, petroleum and technology sectors.
IBM’s subject matter experts at this Business Connect 2015 event came from Nigeria, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and North America. Leading the pack of IBMers was Taiwo Otiti, Country General Manager, IBM West Africa; Yusuf Assenjee, Cloud Leader, IBM Central West Africa (Assenjee is also the immediate Country GM, IBM Mauritius); Joel Waterman, IBM Sales Leader, Analytics Solutions, Africa & Middle East; Bill Doak, IBM Security Service leader, Middle East, Africa and Turkey; Dipo Faulkner, IBM, Global Business Services Lead, West Africa; Ade Kehinde, IBM Territory Sales Manager, West Africa; Kwafo Ofori Boateng, IBM, Global Director, Front Office Transformation & Banking & Financial Markets.
Registered as an Over-The-Counter (OTC) securities exchange and self-regulatory organization by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in November 2012, the FMDQ promotes market development in the Nigerian OTC financial markets, with a primary focus on the OTC markets – fixed income (money, treasury bills, and bonds), currencies and derivatives.
“Business analytics solutions provided by IBM and other technology firms helps current and prospective customers explore how they should be reshaping their industries and driving growth in this new era of technology,” Onadele told CEOs, many of whom had come to understand what the next wave of business technology solutions has in store for their institutions and industries.
So why does IBM invest so much in stimulating conversations amongst experts and user groups?
The answer is not so simple. It is also not so difficult. It is part of IBM’s DNA to foment intelligent, thought provoking discourse amongst its numerous stakeholders. Increasingly, IBM is ensuring that everyone understands its CAMSS philosophy, an acronym which spells out its go-to market strategy for its various business units.
According to IBM insiders, CAMSS (for Cloud, Analytics & Big data, Mobile, Social and Security) allows IBM to approach its customer’s issues from a holistic, end-to-end, 360 degrees perspective; a clear departure from previous eras where the customer’s pain points needed either a hardware or software solution.
One may also view the hosting of this Business Connect event by IBM in Africa’s largest economy and the CAMSS issues discussed therein against the background of IBM’s historic ties with Nigeria’s Business community, including its growing list of client engagements in the government space.
With a fresh set of federal ministers joining the new government team anytime soon, analysts say the hosting of this IBM Business Connect event was timely.
“Business analytics is the nexus between business and technology, it is the new engine of growth for any enterprise or business,” Taiwo Otiti told TechCity on the sidelines of this event. “The ability to harness the ever-expanding amounts of data that companies and governments generate will completely transform their ability to understand the world of their customers.”
Analyst firm IDC say the global market for Big Data is currently worth about $125 billion.
In his keynote address, Dr. Leo Stan Ekeh, told participants to embrace the “wholesome opportunities and challenges that the world of technology offers.” According to Ekeh, it took him years to achieve the growth he achieved in his business but “we now live in a generation where everything has been made easy for us to achieve even in 2 weeks.”
Lagos-based eSofties was one of the early adopters of IBM’s Softlayer Cloud solutions in Nigeria two years ago.
TechCity recently learnt that eight or nine of the world’s top 10 leading banks rely on IBM.
Leading banks in Ghana, Togo, Kenya, DRC, Mauritius, South Africa, just to list a few examples, also depend on IBM solutions, including business analytics.
“Awareness of advanced technology solutions like Mobile, Big Data, Analytics, Cloud and Security is growing fast,” Mr. Ade Kehinde told TechCity. “The banking industry is now very aware that they need to invest a lot more resources in big data and analytics technology which can help them better manage their compliance, risk management, operational efficiency, customer management and economic policy mandates.”
“Corporate strategy and stakeholder expectations drive business goals,” says Dipo Faulkner. “Today’s bank customer wants to enjoy banking services anywhere anytime, they are not really interested in where the bank is physically located or in going into a particular bank building to enjoy these services.”
Economic and financial inclusion is one of the focus areas IBM experts are working on at the IBM Africa Research Lab in Nairobi, Kenya. It is not unusual for researchers at IBM labs to mine “conversations, market insights and perspectives” from IBM events like Business Connect as input into their designs of commercially viable tech solutions for business.
From an IBM point of view, the customer’s perspective is always going to be crucial for building successful business technology solutions. “Henceforth, banks and service providers will no longer be in control of the Company – Customer Relationship, the Customer will,” says Ofori-Boateng.
You can watch Highlights of the event here:
