Bunmi Adetoyinbo

In a move to increase its Business One Cloud solution implementations for Small and Medium Business Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria, SAP Africa has signed a private cloud licensing agreement with Oryx Computer Systems, a multiple award-winning SAP AG partner.

The agreement allows Oryx Computer Systems to offer managed cloud-based SAP services in the West African market at an affordable price point.

Since its inception in 2005, Oryx has distinguished itself as the largest SAP Business Management solutions and services company for SMEs across the region, using SAP solutions to drive businesses to seamless business process integration and increased productivity.

Speaking on the partnership, Managing Director, Oryx Computer Systems, Tayo Adegbola explained that “the licensing agreement is a natural extension of the company’s on-going positive relationship with SAP to meet its SME customers’ requirements for fixed-cost, scalable industry-specific solutions.

“With more than 300 000 thriving SMEs in Nigeria and the global trend for subscription-based cloud services accelerating, we are able to capitalise on this untapped market,” Adegbola said.

Adegbola stated that with the International Finance Reporting Standard (IFRS) coming into effect in Nigeria in 2014 which aims to strengthen accounting transparency of company financial statements, Oryx will have the opportunity to work hand-in-glove customers to meet country-specific compliance and regulatory payroll needs.

Managing Director, SAP West Africa, Richard Edet, noted that Nigeria has always been a strategic market for SAP solutions, while adding that with reliable Internet connectivity reaching critical mass in West Africa, SME cloud-based services are becoming a reliable and affordable alternative to on-premise solutions.

According to him, with dynamic partners like Oryx, SAP Business One Cloud will provide small businesses or subsidiaries of large companies with a dynamic software solution to manage all critical business processes in a cloud-based offering without the need for additional infrastructure and at a fixed cost.

He revealed that “Oryx is a multiple award winning SAP AG partner in Nigeria and with a solid track-record for implementing and supporting SAP solutions.”

There is an age long debate about how prayer should be with different denominations following different styles of prayer.

In this video on Vine, Temi Turner shows the classic difference between an “American” prayer and a “Nigerian” prayer

Really classic and funny stuff

Watch the video and share with friends

Bunmi Adetoyinbo

Nigeria’s dream of achieving food sufficiency in 2015 will be a mirage, unless the country adopts biotechnology in its agricultural sector, says agricultural experts.

Participants at the 10^th anniversary of Africa Agriculture Technology Foundation (AATF) seminar made this observation recently in Abuja.

AATF urged Mr. President to sign into law, the bio-safety bill currently before him, saying that this would open up a new vista for massive production of food for local consumption and export, irrespective of other reforms going on in the sector.

The new law is expected to usher in a new era in the deployment of biotechnology to boost food production, ensure food security and reduce the high incidence of food importation.

Agricultural biotechnology is the application of technology to agriculture to make, modify or improve on a product for the benefit of mankind.

AATF explained that it chose the most expedient way to agricultural development in Africa by embracing and investing in proprietary technology acquisition, development, adaptation and adoption for use by the resource-poor farmers of Africa.

According to the Foundation, African farmers have over the years faced many challenges in their attempts to increase productivity; pre- and post-harvest crop losses due to pests, diseases, weeds and droughts have resulted in low yields, as well as risks and fluctuations in incomes and food availability.

“Improved agricultural technologies were the key to agricultural development in many of the worlds developed economies of today and remain the key to development of the agricultural sectors in Africa,” says AATF.

Microsoft, Computers For Schools Kenya and iFixit have today kicked off the training of 20 youth artisans in device repair at the Pan African Christian University in Nairobi.

The training will give training on the repair and assembly of devices, which is managed by Computer for Schools in Kenya who will develop partnerships in order to provide similar trainings to hundreds of young people across the country.

“Working with the community, we realized that they did not have the know-how to repair the devices, and so we approached Microsoft. We want them to have the expertise to repair the devices when they break down. Also, the coming in of government laptops will bring in a big challenge of repair. We are happy that the iFixit team is also providing repair tools which are also not available to the community,” said Nicholus Nzou, Executive Director, Computers For School Kenya.

iFixit will be bringing in their skills and expertise as an industry leader when it comes to repair and assembly of smart devices. The firm regularly disassembles devices to develop repair toolkits, providing information on the manufacturing cost of the device, and how repairable and environmentally friendly devices are.

The objective of the initiative is to extend the life of devices through management of e-waste and also provide income to young people as part of Microsoft Youth Spark programme, whose aim is to provide skills and opportunities for youth.

Djam Bakhshandegi, Corporate Social Investment Manager for Sub Sahara Africa said: “We have seen lots of growth and demand of smart devices in Kenya including Windows Phone smartphones. Microsoft has identified the need to support our customers by ensuring that there is enough technical expertise, from device manufacturers and vendors to technicians on the ground. For a while, Kenyans have struggled to find reliable and trustworthy technicians.”

The training is expected to have a nationwide impact with 13 of the 20 artisans being drawn from outside Nairobi. The Repair Business Toolkit and Build Your Business Curriculum training that the technicians will receive will help them in building sustainable businesses and is also expected to lead to additional job opportunities in the counties.

Zegist Magazine, a breath of fresh air to the Nigerian online magazine space that wants to redefine how Nigerians consume Fashion, Entertainment, Beauty, Lifestyle and Technology wants to give you a special surprise gift this Valentines.

Valentine’s Day, a special day that celebrates love with different fantasy valentine’s day gift idea we hope gets fulfilled every year. From dreams of being whisked off to the most romantic island to a special proposal dinner by the seaside.

What is your ultimate Valentine’s day fantasy gift? Dinner for two on the moon? breakfast with Idris Elba in bed(who hooo)?

To win a surprise gift from Zegist, you need to simply;

Visit Zegist website here and answer the question: What is the best valentine’s gift you can ever give someone you are in love with?

Powered by Evans Akanno Creative Design Agency

Bunmi Adetoyinbo

To ease the stress of acquiring documents for property bought in Lagos State, the state government has introduced a new electronic certificate of occupancy (e-C of O) to 55 property owners in the state.

The objective of the e- C of O is to increase public/investor confidence by instilling integrity in the C of Os issued by the state government.

At a brief ceremony held in Ikeja during the weekend to kick start the process, Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola presented the documents to the property owners.

Fashola explained that the migration from the paper title to electronic C of O was a response to the problem of counterfeiting.

According to him, the illegal printing of the “Yellow Paper” has affected the reliability of the C of O as a legal title to property in the state.

“This new electronic document is more secure as it is designed to eliminate cloning and issuance of documents that are not genuine. Those issued with this e-C of O can be sure they have bought land rather than law suits. The new document guarantees safety of properties,” he said.

Fashola assured that the government would ensure speedy issuance of the new document to clear the backlog of applications.

He disclosed that holders of the “Yellow paper” would soon be required to turn in their old document to obtain the electronic one.

Speaking, the Permanent Secretary, Lands Bureau, Hakeem Muri-Okunola, said the issuance was faster and that applicants who fulfill all necessary conditions will get their document within 45 days.

Before now, the processing of C of Os in Lagos State has been made cumbersome by bureaucratic bottlenecks that unnecessarily delay the issuance of the document. There have also been cases of multiple C-of-Os being issued to different parties on the same piece of land. This has led to consuming litigations, while some people have perfected the art of cloning or illegally duplicating genuine C of Os with a view to perpetrating fraudulent transactions.

In February, Bloomberg TV Africa will be broadcasting three separate shows: African Business Weekly, Football Dynamics and African Women To Watch.

The African Business Weekly will be aired every Saturday and Sunday at 2pm GMT/ 4pm GMT / 7pm GMT. It brings you the latest business, financial and economic news from across the continent as well as bringing their weekly market update and the latest stories impacting Africa.

 African Women To Watch will air every Sunday at 7:30pm GMT through the whole of February. The life and the career of Nigerian Finance Minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, and will also feed you on the times she had been the first nominee for the World Bank presidency

Now serving a second term as Finance Minister, Dr Okonjo-Iweala offers Bloomberg TV Africa unprecedented insight into her life as one of the world’s most influential women. She opens up about her vision for Nigeria, including a crackdown on oil corruption in 2012 and the launch of the country’s first sovereign wealth fund in 2013.

As for Football Dynamics, it will be on air every Saturday and Sunday at 2:30pm GMT/4.30pm GMT/7.30pm GMT. The programme will bring a unique insight into the lasts football news.

 “These shows demonstrate an editorial variety that gives our advertisers and sponsors the opportunity to appear in a premium business news environment, currently distributed to over 200 million television households across Europe and Africa”, said Rick Plata, International Commercial Director of Bloomberg TV Africa.

PERAK wants a review of the implementation of alcoblow, a gadget aimed at curbing drunk driving. The body says that it may not achieve the desired objective of reducing road fatalities.

The Pubs, Entertainment & Restaurants Association of Kenya (PERAK) represents members who run and manage major restaurants, pubs and entertainment venues in the country.

“We are keen on partnering with the government in enhancing public awareness about the dangers of drunk driving. However, we strongly feel that the stakeholders including PERAK should have been involved in the process, regulation and implementation of alcoblow,” officials of PERAK led by Nairobi Region Chairman Patrick Muya said at a press briefing in Nairobi today.

They added that the manner in which the alcoblow crackdown was being conducted raised many questions that need to be addressed.  

PERAK criticized what they term as selective implementation of alcoblow saying police were only focusing on motorists heading home from entertainment spots.

The association further argues that the problem of high number of road accidents in Kenya cannot be attributed to alcohol alone since there are other major factors such as, road- unworthy vehicles poor road conditions with no markings or speed signs posted; unlicensed drivers or drivers with no proper testing; pedestrians; and driver fatigue.

“Statistics show that most accidents occur during the day and are caused by PSV vehicles, trucks and trailers. Small private cars contribute only 7 percent of total accidents in this country.” 

The 0.35 limit that the authorities are using is too general, said the association, Other countries where these gadgets are used have varying limits depending on the driver. PSV drivers, young drivers (18 to 23yrs), newly licensed drivers, truck drivers, professional drivers, experienced drivers; all have different alcohol limits.

There are different alcohol limits also depending on gender, body weight and type of alcohol taken. In The UK, Canada and Switzerland, maximum alcohol levels are at 0.8.

The government re-introduced alcoblow breathalyzers in December last year partly to check rising road carnage especially during the festive season. The gadget measures the amount of alcohol in a person’s breath. It then prints out results and if a driver is found to be above the stipulated threshold may be charged in court with driving under the influence of alcohol.  If found guilty, one may be liable to imprisonment for one year or a fine of Ksh100,000 or both. 

Perak is also demanding that the alcoblow initiative be subjected to further discussion among stakeholders.

Samsung Electronics has launched the Samsung Smart Control. This is an update of the Smart TV remote control.

“Innovation and design excellence is at the heart of the Samsung Smart Control, combining gesture-recognition with a new button console and touch pad to provide frequent Internet video users with more accurate content selection and faster focus movement,” says Lance Berger, Head of Product Marketing for TV/AV, Samsung Electronics, South Africa.

With the Smart Control, users get to shift between menu items through gestures through the Movie/Drama/App menu listing on the Smart TV screen to select and access their content more accurately by using four directional buttons.

So this is how interesting it is, when accessing content the remote’s touchpad can be used to flip from page to page with a similar motion to turning the pages of a book. This gadget also includes Voice Interaction functionality all you have to do is speak directly at the remote.

The touchpad on the new remote is also over 80 percent smaller than in the 2013 version and has been designed for easier use, including short-cuts to frequently used functions.

The Smart Control also includes separate buttons for “Multi-Link Screen”, which enables users to watch multiple content at the same time on a single screen, as well as “Soccer Mode”, which allows viewers to optimize viewing for soccer programmes with a single button. The new remote also brings up the virtual remote keyboard more easily and quickly.

“The TV remote has continually evolved since its invention, starting as a wired device when first introduced in the 1950s, shifting to wireless, LCD and QWERTY formats, and finally to touch and wheel control. It has also gone through a variety of designs, from classic rectangular to more modern ergonomic curved shapes. As TV functionality and viewing trends change, so should the way the TV is managed. Innovation, voice and motion control, the design and intuitive features of the remote is essential for the complete user experience,” concludes Berger.

By Anita Potgieter, COO, FOXit.

One of the major hurdles companies face in being able to extract the maximum value from their project management infrastructure and strategies is perception – or, in fact, misperception of project management in practice. It is time to debunk inaccurate theories and expose myths.

The first of these is that only large companies can afford Project Management software. That may have been the case a few years ago, it certainly is not the case now. Today, small and medium sized enterprises can afford to invest.

In the past larger enterprises had to invest hugely in server farms, server licenses and then still pay for each of their employees to use software.

The trend shifted to cloud based solutions a couple of years ago, but the change didn’t stop there.

The “Microsofts of the world” are now hosting their own solutions, which make it cost effective to use and there is no longer the need to have strong infrastructure in order to run project management solutions.

Environments are almost instantaneously provisioned. For an SME the advantage is that there is no real need for an implementation partner – unless there is a requirement for the environment to be configured to suit business needs. If the situation allows for the infrastructure to be used as is until decision makers have sorted out configuration, it will save a lot of money.

Project management roles are changing within companies. These shifts should be not only in the maturity of project managers and the way they conduct their profession on a day-to-day basis, but also in every single function they fulfil.

A second myth is the notion that technology is not important.

The fact is that technology modifications require quick adoption and projects can hardly be planned on the back of a cigarette box anymore.  Project managers today need to be proficient in using technology and it cannot be left to young professionals alone to take advantage of this resource. The need for collaboration will force “the old school” employees to stay with-it.

The demand to manage portfolios instead of just managing stand-alone projects is also on the rise and technology has finally started to catch up.  Third party service providers should, for the foreseeable future, still form part of this booming industry.

A popular myth surrounding project management is that methodologies should stay put.

In today’s fast-paced world, bulky methodologies will not make the cut for businesses to remain agile. Documenting for the sake of having documentation can be seen as waste and only the most critical processes needs to be on black-and-white.

In certain cases it is required that every step of every single process needs to be followed to ensure proven governance, but in other cases companies need to either adapt or die.

The idea that anyone can manage a project team is simply not true.  Although project management skills can be acquired quite easily, additional skill sets are required to effectively manage a project team.  According to Google there are many additional skills that next-generation project managers need to possess, but the following are those that are the most important:

Emotional Intelligence

Screaming, shouting and cursing your team will not motivate them to deliver on time, on budget, within scope and to the set quality.  Without emotional intelligence one cannot build successful stakeholder relationships, deal with difficult team members, manage conflict or avoid emotional breakdowns.

Collaborative Communication

Collaborative Communication is the ability to adapt the way you communicate to suit the audience in a matter that brings cooperation to the table.  Communication stretches further than just speaking.  Because social media continues to be on the rise, the profession will, in time, rely less on direct face-to-face meetings. As a project manager you need to have skills to effectively lead phone meetings/conference calls.  As companies grow, these interactions will also stretch to other countries and this requires the ability to deal with other cultures, languages and mannerisms. 

 Flexibility

The project manager has to be flexible and be able to change tactics/methods in response to business needs.

Business Understanding

This is essentially the ability to comprehend the strategy of the company and ensure alignment in the execution of projects.

Analytical Skills

The project manager needs to be able to analyse obstacles and find appropriate ways for dealing with it.

Ethical behaviour

The project manager should have a strong moral and ethical character and the ability to instil trust within the team.