Leading system developer on software development in Kenya

Interview with Jyoti Murkhejee, CEO of Software Technologies

How do you access your sector as of 2016? How do your company compare to competitors?

The Kenya ICT sector has really grown tremendously in the last five to seven years. Especially, we were recognized when M-Pesa came into the world and people started looking at Kenya, “Wow, innovative products can come from Kenya.” But SDL started in 1991 with five people and I had a goal of growing this company. And, at that time, it was very rarely known that a Kenyan product with software was indigenously designed and developed. My goal was to really have the international technology with the latest technology versions and train the local skills to design world class products. And that was a little bit doubtful for a lot of people, but I was very confident about it. So when we saw that this was going to be a bit challenging, because at the time these skills were completely zero, not even where now at least we have very good resources compared to 1991, we started our own institute. That’s why IST started. And we started creating the people and absorbing for our customers’ requirements. Concerning east Africa, Kenya is a hub now. East Africa neighbouring countries are really looking at Kenya very seriously for every kind of leadership stage. Call it infrastructure, call it software development, call it projects or e-governance. Kenya has become a regional hub for technologies and people are looking up to us. I would not stop at east Africa. Our next goal is to be a global company.

Can you explain what your expansion plans are? Where are you present now, and what is your strategy?

We started in Nairobi as a headquarters. But I knew that if I want to grow I can’t only depend on one country. If there is certain uncertainty, as there was in 1998 and 2008, we need to really grow regionally. So we have our project offices, not brand offices, but project offices, in Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Nigeria, Ghana. Wherever our projects are, we have our partnerships with the resellers. And that really gives us leverage from a partner because they know the local market, they know the local culture, they know the local government. And that way we add value to the solution. Good solution design anywhere in the world is a good solution. It doesn’t have to come from first world countries, or USA, or UK, or India or South Africa. Good solutions, even if designed in a village, will be really recognized all around the world. And that’s what we are known for: good service and good solution. Today, I’m very proud that whoever uses our products really calls for celebration. “Oh, this is a Kenyan product? Wow!” And they give us a reference. Today, we get references all around the world. People call us from the USA and UK and South Africa, “Hey why don’t you try and come and market over here?” So nothing will stop me to become a global company.

What are the services? Can you describe to us where your strengths are and give us a description?

As the name says, Software Technologies Limited, we are very strong in software developing. We dream, eat, drink, wake up with thoughts about software. And our culture within the company is custom. So right from the entry level, you will see the customer is the king. So we have to listen to the customer, what he wants or what she wants. We don’t just have to design the solutions because we think it should be this way. To do that you have to understand the customer needs and the culture of that particular region, all the ways people are thinking, all the ways people are having that process in their offices and in their mind. If you capture that well and put our company under processes itself, our solutions have really outshined, meaning that we are a process oriented company. We don’t depend on one person. So one of our strengths is that we are process oriented and we have a process like CMMI3 and so on. And another strength comes from when the customer is happy and you continuously service him, not only designing and implementation but training and handholding and taking them to the new trends. One has to be aware of what’s coming up in HRMS, what’s coming in the board management, what are the new trends of good governments. So one has to study the domain knowledge, and that’s where we are very strong. We understand the domain knowledge, we turn that domain knowledge into the solution, listening to the customer and with the processes we provide a service or a solution which has quite a long shelf life. You’d be amazed to see that the HR system which we designed in 1993 still has version 1, 2, 3, and 4 and 5 because of that process orientation. If we didn’t have process, in two years companies come, talk, give the product, it dies. So one has to depend on the processes rather than only people. Yes, people, brains are the machines. But process orientation is one of the biggest success factors of SDL.

This strategy, this philosophy, is this the philosophy of all the software companies in the world? The big guys from outside could come but they will not feel this way because they’re not Kenya. They’re not from Uganda. You have a competitive advantage to them, even if they are stronger. But you have other companies that do that. They think about the customer first. Give me exactly what makes you different from the others.

International companies are very, very good. They have designed and developed systems with billions of dollars with a lot of intelligence to really reach the international level. How we become different, is that if you are my customer, and if you go to an international company and you say, “Hey, I want my software to be customized to this aspect,” the local agent will say, “Wait, I have to talk to the USA. Wait, I have to talk to my principal company.” And that cost of customization is a white elephant, which we Kenyans or Africans cannot afford. Whereas if you come to my HR system or my board management or my financial systems, we say, “Hello, yes. What do you want?” The IP belongs to us. The domain knowledge belongs to us. People are right here. We listen to you and we adopt our system to the local rules and regulations, taxations and other things, immediately with a proactive way, rather than waiting for a principal company. They are not bad. Every software design in the world is done by an intelligent person. But the answer is, or the question is, who is at your door with the right price, with the right service and with the right kind of combination of customization and long term services. And it should not happen that the foreign company comes and gives you an obsolete solution because they have a name. We should be giving the top versions, the latest versions of the software and the solution. I won’t even call our software software. It’s a solution. You try to understand from the need to hand holding and the baby starts running. Rather than just throwing the box on your table and you say, “Make yourself work.” So definitely, there’s a difference. Again, a competitor is not lower than us. Every country has a niche market. The idea is to fit in the niche market with your domain knowledge, with your specialty to give what a customer is looking for at the right time.

If you want to reach up to their level, you need a human resource, you need the right person, the guys that are able to listen, able to adapt. Is that tough?

Which business doesn’t have tough challenges? It was a challenge is it challenge, it will remain challenge. And turnover in the international companies or our local companies is quite a big challenge on its own. The idea is to train the people in what you want to do and show them, involve them in the designing of an international level product. They should feel proud about a brand like our brand, eHorizon. “Wow, I am involved with eHorizon which is global.” Or that the vision of the management or the board is to really take this product globally. So first of all, train the right set of people, then make them involved in the pride, emotionally involved in the sense that they feel they belong to the company and belong to this brand. And next, that they are involved with the customer right at the grassroots: what is the requirement, how do you want the screen, how do you want this system to really go to the next stage, and so on. We are fortunate enough to say that our turnaround is very low because the people come from the very, very junior level and now they are some of my great department heads. And if we don’t have that expertise, we either train them or we bring in foreign companies or outsource that service. We bring them over here, make them do the work and train our local people with them so that they own it. That way, they also feel encouraged, “Wow, we are getting new training.” And at the same time, when they own it, from there onwards they can service. So the IP belongs to us, the expertise which was lacking has come to us, and then we turn that into an opportunity to really train the Kenyan students in our institute. For example, many of our systems are on iOS, on iPad. Also, all of our systems are on the SAS service, Cloud service. So we when we saw that there is no expertise on iOS here, we called for expertise from outside, we outsourced some of the service, we trained our local people, and now we are ready to give that training course in IST. That means, by next year, I will have lots of expertise available here for us and for our customers and for the market. So the employment opportunities will increase, local expertise will increase, our people will feel very proud that we are the first company to come up with this kind of solution. And it is a win-win situation for everybody.

What are the skills other than iOS that you’re looking for at the moment?

Our philosophy, or our strategy, is to really go through the whole product growth in the terms of where you see ERPs and a lot of accounting systems, HR systems are available. But our niche line, what we call our tagline now is “People, Processes and Governance.” And all of our systems should be on the Cloud. So definitely we are looking at extra services to be given to our customers on the Cloud, extra services to be given on security. So we are always expanding. We are not lacking. We are always in the line to learn and expand, learn and expand, learn and expand. We can always hire the best of the expertise from the world, but how do we absorb that within our company? If I am looking for Cloud security, I’ll go for the best people in India, USA, UK, South Africa, say, “Come. Come and work for us for three months, train our people.” And how do we absorb that technology so that our Cloud service is the securest in the world? Instead of “What are we lacking?” ask “How do we absorb that expertise in the world and make it work in Kenya?” So those are more services on the Cloud, more services on big data, more services on security and more services on lot of unstructured data lying in your company. In your company, 20% of your data is structured. 80% of your data is unstructured. If you search for those versions of contracts you had last year, your hair will go grey. So that’s where we come in. We actually structure your unstructured data and make it available when you want it. So that’s one of the biggest differences I’m bringing in Africa: to really look after governance and processes and people’s products which involve not only structured but also unstructured data.

Can you tell us about your clients? What are they? Who are they? Are they SMEs, large corporates from here, or international companies that have offices here? Are they more governmental or private?

Our product line as it says, “People, Processes and Governance” can come from SME to the large industries. From 1991 to early 2000 we were only in large companies. We were in ERPS and very large databases. But then we saw that large projects are good. However, there were a lot of challenges. Large projects in the government depend on the World Bank and donor countries, which was a big challenge. If the donor countries or the World Bank stop, the project is at a halt. So we turned our philosophy, our marketing strategy from being in  only the corporate big sector to SME. And now we are also going into micro. That means from corporate to B to B and B to C. Any company who has employees can be a market target. A corporate which has a board where you do the board meetings, you do the board evaluations, you do board compliances, you do board approvals, you do board meetings. Wherever there is a niche market for that you are saving money. Because we are not telling the company that you pay from your pocket. Whatever you are doing instead of printing, you make it available on iPad 24 x 7 and even the world, with extra the way are expanding the digital benefits. And those digital benefits are seen in the first meeting, “Wow we can search?” “Wow we can do approvals?” “Wow I’m in the UK and still I can have a meeting?” So those kind of values we give the board and he can be my customer. Then coming to the processes like contract management which is one of our biggest upcoming solutions. Which company doesn’t have contracts? There are HR contacts, vendor contracts, customer contracts. If I ask anybody, “Which was your latest or last version of your contract with ABC?” it’s hard. Legal offices have some copies, finance has some copies and your department has that. But if I consolidate it all in a container of contract management and how to make the contracts, how to put the experience of the contract, how to put the tenure of the contracts, Voila! You’re not paying for anything because they are Cloud services. I’m not telling you to go and buy big servers, buy big computers. If you have an iPad or any tablet or a laptop you just access it from anywhere in the world. I call it technology on the tap. When you open your tap water tap you don’t have the whole intelligence on how the pipeline is working. You just turn on the tap. When you put on the TV, you’re not an engineer and know how the whole of the satellite TV is working. Even my four year old granddaughter just turns on the remote and she watches her cartoon. So that’s how the technology should be. Technology should not be that you need to have three months training to run your product. It should be very easy. It should be very intuitive. It should be a very enjoyable experience. And that’s the difference I’m bringing in Africa. The technology on the tap.

Like an iPad or an iPhone application basically.

You don’t need training. Who trained you on Google or on your main service? Nobody. It should be intuitive. It should be self-learning. It should be very easy to go from one screen to another. The way your mind is thinking, the product should take you there.

Small companies might say, that’s very expensive for me to start to be intuitive and to reach a certain level of a turnover and sales. What do you think they can start with?

Even if you have 50 employees, even if you have 20 employees, you can afford our services. Even if you have five board members, some of our companies have about five board members, you pay as you use. Per user, per month. Per user, per year. Whatever suits you. So it’s not compulsory that you give me $30,000, $50,000, $100,000.You just come and get your ICT person trained for a few days, so that he can support you on names and user passwords and so on. And then, you just start paying a subscription. So our HR system is per employee per month, whether you want a payroll, personal, self-service, you just subscribe to that. Your full board system we give per month per user. That’s it. So how many community members you have or how many directors you have, you pay for that. Very simple pricing, very cost-effective, and it doesn’t pinch your pocket for SME or a small company. That’s the whole idea. Gone are the days when you repeat service after service after service. So if I have about 250 boards using my products, if this was not an SAS service can you imagine 250 servers with 300 person more capacity than what you’re using? It’s just lying in the companies. “Because it’s so confidential, it should be a separate server.” “Because this is only for directors, I don’t want anybody else to use it.” Now, it’s the Cloud, its secure.  Even your ICT guy doesn’t know, or your internal secretary doesn’t know what type of dividend you are going to give in the next meeting. So it’s very fully secured, very cost-effective, no printing. And why not the added factors of being green? Saying you are a board, you have to set an example. You’re telling your people to use double-sided paper, but what about you? How many papers are we using in every board meeting? How many trees are we cutting? And where do those papers go? Either in the shredder or in your drawer. Next time when you want this information, it’s not, “Please get me that paper again.” Now, you go on your iPad, just click, read it, and make your decisions. Paperless.

To conclude the interview, I would like yourself to project yourself towards medium term, 3 to 5 years. How do you want your company to develop in that time if things go well?

My dream is to really have an ICT University with a difference in Kenya which will really cater to combine your other faculties with ICT. Today, ICT is the foundation of every business. But if you ask a finance guy to make a decision on which ERP I use, he will scratch his head. If you are a director or if you are in agriculture, or any other business, ICT has become a big cost. I want to combine that expertise. Security has become such a big issue in Africa with banking and insurance. I want to bring that difference, that every bank, every company should have that internal expertise for information security, for added facilities. Those things are available but with a pinch of a little here and there. How about having a structure, for Africa, for African problems, and combining those faculties with the ICT background? Can you imagine the economic, educational and leadership growth Kenya will have? I want Kenya to come on the map that yes, we have a university that is different, rather than just doing the MBA on certain subjects and going and sorting out your ICT expertise there. You have to combine that expertise in such a way that when you come on the job you know what decisions you are making on information security. You know what differences you’re bringing to the company for bringing the right ICT tools to run the company. That’s one of my prime goals. And definitely on the horizon, the product should be global. Those are the two dreams I’m carrying on my shoulder that before I retire I should have that dream come true.

You don’t have a university at the moment, it’s more like a training. You have 450 students?

We have more than 250 students. It’s an institute.

Can you tell us exactly what is this institute?

We had a lack of skills when we started the company. So in 1994 I started a department of its own to start bringing the graduates or A Level people, and give them a kind of diploma which is industry related. A lot of universities give us graduates but they’re not industry related with the solutions which I’m using now. They come with some kind of tools which are obsolete in 2000. So we started really giving those products and solutions training and absorbing them. And we created our diplomas which will have a syllabus which our customers can use immediately. So once you get the diploma and you go and join a  company, you know how to utilize those solutions. With time, this has really created a lot of ways that in every company, or in every government section, wherever I go, there is an ex-IST student. So it has become a very premium brand Institute which gives industry related training. Not just because of money, we are not after money for education, we want people to really create jobs and to give them opportunities. So that’s why we call it a “window of opportunity.” We also started doing a CSR for giving education to the needy students. If you’re good and you need ICT education just to start, we give them free education for 13 courses and then they can select which sector they want to go to. Especially, I have always been encouraged to mentor women. People always ask me about how I am a woman and what am I doing for other women. All of us are equal. Just now, we did some education for children with albinism. And now they’ve got very good jobs. Very intelligent girls. I’m so proud of them. And we have done training with the deaf and dumb so now they can create their own website, they can create their own small e-commerce kind of shop. And they actually told me in their language, “Now people cannot see that I’m deaf and dumb.” And I was really touched by that. And we have started putting small telecenters with the local churches or community halls. We just go and beg and borrow the computers and put a telecenter there to train them. So training is one of my very biggest passions to ensure that not only paid students but even the free students. If I meet a person on the road and he says, “Now I have got a job and I was trained in ICT,” I’ve done my job. So that really gives me a thrill.

What is the challenge on that side of your business? What is your major challenge to develop this cost for the Institute?

Capital. I need a lot of capital to for the university to grow into college. Because colleges and education doesn’t give you instantly what you have invested in big halls and computers and infrastructure. So definitely we need a lot of capital to grow this premium brand institute to a college level or a university level.

Are you looking for investors?

When the right time comes, the right people will come. Currently, we are growing on our own from 100 students to 200 or 200 to 300 students. But then, when the right time comes, then yes, we have that kind of platform where we can make this a college, then definitely will get the investors or some kind of funding. It’s a long-term goal. University is not like tomorrow. So one has to really work towards it. And now it’s a small seed of a dream. It has to really mushroom to become the college or the university.