Firm Finds Niche in Managed IT Services
As parents stream into theatres to watch the underground hit How To Train Your Dragon with their young children, few are aware that some of the systems that run the cinema are being remotely controlled by an ICT firm.
When complaints get to Zain’s help desk, engineers in the field get real time updates from the company using an integrated solution, again provided by a supplier outside their office.
IT guided projects like the Silverbird and Zain executions are on the rise in corporate Kenya which is responding to a shift in the way ICT processes are being integrated into business functions.
According to the latest research from IDC, over 13 per cent of IT managers are interested in gaining a return on investment in ICT solutions, nine per cent are worried about maintaining their companies’ systems and a growing number (six per cent) are concerned about managing their outsourced IT solutions.
Merging these disparate IT functions often forms the focus for Qunitica which launched its Kenyan office late last year in response to the changing corporate market.
Betting Sh115 million on the emerging managed services market, which it says is currently under served, Quintica hopes to streamline the operations of its clients as it saves them money by using technology to merge processes.
The last few months have seen a number of companies in the ICT sector extend their menu of services to include IT service outsourcing.
“Many companies offer just a few segments of managed services. We have identified a niche that requires end to end solutions. Many companies need to ensure their service delivery is seamless, that is where we come in,” said Jimmy Wahome, business manager of Quintica Kenya.
The company, a subsidiary of a South African company that focuses on service management for its clients, was established last year.
Offering managed infrastructure, covering servers, network equipment and applications, as well as storage-as-a-service applications, Quintica hopes to challenge players in the market who offer similar services.
The company made the decision to shift its planned base from Dubai to Nairobi on the back of what it perceived as untapped demand in the region, bolstered by the arrival of several undersea fibre optic cables last year that have upped internet connectivity and allow for remote monitoring of company resources.
“The East African market is ready to take advantage of high performance, cost-effective managed service solutions, as many businesses in the area are at an appropriate stage of maturity. The concept of managed service is gaining acceptance,” said Quintica chief executive officer, Charles Osburn.
Quintica currently offers total customer support, technical troubleshooting, remote site configuration changes and overall coordination of field repair work.
In the case of Zain, the company resolved an internal issue that required consolidation of information from various departments within the mobile firm.
Like many mobile operators, Zain faced the challenge of finding a helpdesk solution that could be managed via a single service desk environment.
Quintica delivered a centralised model that allowed for holistic management of all help desk issues– whether these came from internal staff with IT issues, from external customers with requests relating to their Zain telecommunications service, or issues relating to both.
“The result was that the company realised a key benefit of the integration of the two service desks is a major cost saving in terms of staff as well as licensing,” said Mr Wahome.
Shifting regulations will also see more companies digitise their processes with an eye to lowering operational costs.
“Companies such as those in the insurance sector who must keep records for long periods of time and those who need to access their company information consistently form the main focus of our customer base,” said Mr Wahome.
IT services spending in the region is expected to increase by two per cent this year, according to IDC industry data.
Following a decline last year largely attributed to the effects of the global financial crisis, IDC says the outlook will improve for vendors in the coming months.
IT spending in the Middle East and Africa will also return to 12 per cent growth in 2010 after a 2.5 per cent decline in 2009.
The engine of global industry growth in 2010 will be in emerging markets, in particular China and India, where IT spending will recover much more quickly.
However, IDC says that despite pent-up demand for upgrades and new applications following the deep spending cuts of the past year, economic uncertainty will combine with capital and credit constraints to inhibit spending.
“Following a decline in overall tech spending of 4.5 per cent at constant currency in 2009, IT spending will not fully recover from the global recession until sometime in 2011,” said Stephen Minton, vice president of worldwide IT markets and strategies at IDC.
