Hi Everyone,
Keep in mind that those (trained) SAP Consultants will in fact
help towards your goal of improved trade-balance.
1. By having local SAP consultants Kenya will have to import less
of these skills and hereby reduce the "imports".
2. Companies in Kenya are not the only ones using SAP, a lot of
(large) enterprises in neighboring countries also use it. With
Kenya having trained SAP consultants it is likely that many of
these will work on project outside Kenya and hereby increase
export.
I think it is a bit misplaced to say that open source ERPs or
local solutions would be able to handle the workload/use-cases
that SAP is being used for.
SAP is a very very extensive system - in fact it is so
comprehensive that it is only suitable for the largest of
enterprises with the most demanding business needs, using it for
smaller companies will in many cases be a very choice since the
complexity will be way too much for it to actually be
used/implemented.
As one of the persons behind one of these local "ERP" solutions
(Uhasibu), I can say that we do not consider SAP a competitor,
Uhasibu can not and never will be able to do the job that SAP
does. I am happy that the largest enterprises have SAP (and the
overhead that comes with it), I am quite satisfied to address the
needs of the rest of the market ;-)
In essence this deal is a great thing for SAP users in Kenya,
having local support/consulting staff for them will reduce their
overhead, which in turn will make them more competitive, and allow
for them to grow Kenya's exports, so it is also great for Kenya in
general.
So now that the large enterprises are sorted, what are we doing
about the rest ? and about making them grow into becoming so large
that they will need SAP ?
..
Michael Pedersen
On 9/21/12 12:37 PM, Evans Ikua wrote:
Mwendwa, this is where we have a disconnect. To build
onto what you have pointed out, the Government would do good to
actively support the development of the capacity of local
developers who can be able to extend and develop local or open
source ERPs, and any other systems. My big question here to Paul
is, how much money do we lose in forex buying SAP and all the
other software licenses annually, as a country? Can we get figures
of how much a standard SAP implementation costs? How many are
there in the country? How much of that money stays in the country
and how much goes to Germany? Aren't we better off investing in
our own developer skills so that we can keep some of this money
within the country (and maybe pay teachers better)?
The reason why rich countries stay rich is because they have
positive balances of payments. A poor country like Kenya has a
negative balance of payments. This basically tells us that we need
to import as little as possible, and export as much as possible.
Then vision 2030 becomes easier to achieve.
Countries like Malaysia, Brazil, UK and Germany have come to this
realization. They know what is in their best business interest and
so they actively support local developer capacities, as opposed to
having software engineers whose work is just to install packaged
software from shiny discs.
Brain drain? When we have a situation like I have just mentioned
above, the really good developers will never have an incentive to
stay in a country where all they do is install software. They will
soon emigrate to Germany (or Silicon Valley) where they can be
employed by SAP to get involved in the exciting world where they
can actually do the development. With open source, they would stay
in Kenya and still get to develop exciting applications
On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 11:50 AM,
lordmwesh
<lordmwesh@gmail.com>
wrote:
This is a great debate, but we should not trivialize what the
ICT
board is trying to do in helping build local SAP developers.
Any
movement forward is welcomed.
Although Great developers don't need any baby sitting, they
will move
and work with any platform may it be proprietary closed or
Free open
source.
The debate of what software an enterprise should use should be
decided
by the investors, after analysing all risks involved.
SAP has seen an opportunity to develop local talent, great.
Anybody who feels like me that local developers should also be
taught
to integrate Open source ERPs should sponsor them too. A lot
of talk
and no walk will not help anybody.
Kudos KICTB, Any movement forward is welcomed.
______________________
Mwendwa Kivuva
For
Business Development
Transworld Computer Channels
Cel: 0722402248
twitter.com/lordmwesh
transworldAfrica.com | Fluent in computing
kenya.or.ke | The Kenya we know
_______________________________________________
--
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Kind Regards,
Evans Ikua,
lanetconsulting.com,
lpi-eastafrica.org,
ict-innovation.fossfa.net,
Skype: @ikuae
Cell: +254-722-955831