Tanzanian IT Market: James Sweke Presents IT Firm Corporate Information Technology Solutions

Interview with James Sweke, CEO of Corporate Information Technology Solutions (CITS)

What major challenges do you face in your business?

In today’s business environment, decisions need to be made based on data. However, there exist two major challenges hampering the ability to do this. The first is the availability of skilled people with in-depth knowledge of data analytics and the ability to analyze data. This is an area of focus for us as a business and we are looking forward to building the capacity of our people to not only conduct research but also to make decisions based on the data available. As a technology organization, whatever technology initiatives that we bring to the market must be well researched and informed by data to ensure that they will indeed work.

The second major challenge is the readiness of the market to accept the initiatives and products that we introduce. Being a technology organization, whatever products we introduce must be consumed by the customers. Technology should work for the people and institutions and not vice versa. If you look at the global coverage of technology, you will find it to be working and helping people in other parts of the world. These same technologies when brought onto the local market face challenges because the market is not ready and as a result fails to accept them. Ten years ago, one of the very early initiatives we came up with was call center services. With this service, people could easily call institutions to inquire about or acquire services and be served without necessarily going to the institutions’ offices. At the time, the market was not ready. In 2020, however, after the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic, the same service and software product that was not accepted over the past ten years has become widely accepted. For some people, this can be seen as an advantage because an occurrence like this means the company can anticipate and get ahead of issues before they happen to meet the demand of customers.

What is your scope of business and your competitive advantage?

The technology industry in Tanzania is growing very well. Looking back about 20 years ago and comparing it to the present, it is evident that Tanzania is moving at a magnificent speed in terms of technology.

CITS stands for Corporate Information Technology Solutions. The organization was instituted in 2010 but started full operations in 2011. At the beginning, CITS was focused on everything IT. Later on, the decision was taken to focus on three specialized IT fields. To do this, the capacity of the staff had to be built to ensure customers receive the best services. The first IT specialization is software development. Today, 90% of CITS work is focused on developing software. We develop our own software solutions for the general market as well as custom software for customers who come with specific requirements. The second IT domain that CITS is focused on is call center software and service provision. The call center services, or “contact center” as it is currently known, focus on calls and social media communications. We have three projects running on the same domain at the moment. This is in line with the market readiness for the call or contact center services, unlike 10 years ago when people did not have to practice social distancing. The third domain of our specialization is IT governance which entails the development of IT policies, processes and procedures, strategies, business continuity, and data recovery. This is one of the important aspects of our operations in our bid to help our customers. We also help to show them the best operating practices for the technology that we offer. CITS utilizes a team of proud professionals specializing in software development and support.

Two things make CITS stand out in the Tanzanian IT market. The first is the people that work in our organization. We place critical emphasis on building their capacity because having the right workforce with the right attitude who are eager to learn is better than having capable people with the wrong attitude. It is for this reason that we ensure we get the right people and develop them to be proficient in delivering the quality that we promise our clients. The second competitive advantage is that we do not only look at the “what” but the “how” aspect of work. We always consider how to help our customers increase their productivity. This means doing more than what we offer. The “what” aspect of CITS’s work is what we can do for our clients, while the “how” refers to how we offer our services and the behavior we present as workers of CITS both in the process of offering services to customers and internally. This is a significant competitive advantage which has brought us very good results.

What is your general assessment of the technology industry in Tanzania?

The technology industry in Tanzania is growing very well. Looking back about 20 years ago and comparing it to the present, it is evident that Tanzania is moving at a magnificent speed in terms of technology. Today, we can consider internet and mobile connectivity and online payments as a clear sign that the industry is getting better. Technology initiatives that failed in the past have now been implemented and are functioning successfully. The readiness of the market to accept and consume technology is very high at this moment in time. Nonetheless, there are some areas of technology that a country needs to improve. As stakeholders of technology, CITS and other technology companies also have roles to perform to ensure that the technology industry in Tanzania and Africa as a whole reaches the point where they can offer what is expected from them.

How has government support come in to aid the technology industry in Tanzania?

In 2007, the government established the Universal Communications Service Access Fund (UCSAF) to help expand technology to areas that have not yet been reached. This government institution works with private sector players such as telecom companies and other stakeholders to ensure that technology, data and voice communication, network and internet connectivity penetrates down to areas that have not been reached. The government of Tanzania is making significant milestones in making sure that technology reaches all citizens.

Did the Covid-19 pandemic have an impact on your business? What strategies did you implement to persevere?

There have been both positive and negative effects because we do not work in isolation. We work with various organizations and groups around us. The negative effect has been that most of the customers became cautious of their spending. Also, only a few people were visiting the office and, as such, the IT support service was not required as much.

The positive effect is the readiness of the institutions to use technology in doing work. We have been privileged to render call center services to four organizations. The reason being that the government was supporting social distancing and did not want people coming to the offices to queue for services when they could simply make a call, send a text message, WhatsApp, or email and have their information and inquiries captured and addressed. In the process, they have helped people to save costs because instead of driving miles to come for services, they can now make a call for TSh100 or TSh200 and have their issues addressed. We also worked with a manufacturing organization where instead of gathering the employees in one room or venue, they wanted to communicate any announcements by sending a direct message to the screens of the computers used by the employees provided they were on the network. If they were not on the network, the next time they plugged in their computers and logged in, a message popped up on their screen to inform them of what the management wanted to communicate. Another example of the positive effect of the Covid-19 pandemic was that the government of Tanzania, through the Tanzania Police Force, introduced a police reporting technology that enabled people who lost items such as laptops, bank cards, phones or sim cards to simply go to the website of the Police Force to report and capture information about the report. This pushed some of the service providers to have an API that communicated with the Tanzanian Police Force application to be able to get that information. Before the introduction of this technology, if I lost an item such as a bank card, I had to go to the police to report the incident, get a document from the police, and then send that document to my bank before I could be issued another card. Now, I can simply go to the website of the Tanzania Police Force to register that incident and get a reference number. When I go to the bank, the banker now has an application and a connection to the Tanzanian Police Force application to be able to validate and verify that I have reported the incident. CITS was engaged by one of the banks which wanted that application and connectivity to the Tanzanian Police Force application to be able to verify when their clients report those kinds of incidents.

Do you work with both the government and private sector?

From the onset, most of our clients have been from financial institutions. The second biggest clients we have been working with are non-governmental organizations. Although we have worked with the government in the past, there has been an increase since 2020.

What are some of your software applications such as the Flex Boardroom, Flex Performance, and Flex Asset Pro?

We develop some software ourselves based on internal initiatives. Every institution or organization has people. If that institution needs to increase its productivity and efficiency, it must have the capacity to mine data in whatever those people do and be able to set and meet targets. Flex Performance is a software application that is typically for performance management. It also has a complete payroll and human resource management application. All our software we have named “Flex” because of the flexibility and ability to integrate with other software solutions that may be there on the premises of the customer. Also, every organization has assets or software that needs to be managed. Flex Asset Pro is a software asset management application. Flex Boardroom is a software application that is aimed at helping management and Boards in conducting their meetings without working on paper, printing, and sharing printed copies. With this software, they can use their laptops, mobile phones or tablets to book and confirm meetings, save minutes, and make decisions and vote using the same devices. CITS has other software programs such as the contact center which is a first in the market. In Tanzania, there has never been a call center solution developed by Tanzanians within the borders of the country. It is working in a number of institutions and we are very proud of that.

What are your current projects?

The call center application has been the main focus of CITS even though we started developing it two years ago. Customers using the software have given us more impetus to improve it. We have also recently developed a Customer Relationship Management System (CRMS) that works with the call center to capture information about the customers and their inquiries. This system has to be integrated within the call center itself as well as with social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, along with email, SMS, and WhatsApp. We look forward to serving not just Tanzania, but other countries with this specific product. We also understand that we have a responsibility as an organization to not only send out the software product but the ways of operating it. When a contact center solution is provided, operators can make calls and communicate using their computers instead of phones. They are serving customers who they are not in front of so there is the need to communicate the “how” component, which is customer service. We also build the capacity of customer service for the institutions that we provide these solutions to. We have a responsibility to help our government and the country. The focus of Tanzania is on industrializing, so one of the projects in the pipeline is the development of the capacity of industries towards industrialization, developing tools and software applications to support the entire life cycle of production from raw material acquisition, processing, machine management, distribution, and sales. All these initiatives have to be integrated with other software products available, such as those for financial and procurement management. Therefore, we need to consider an Enterprise Resource Plan (ERP) for this initiative.

What is your vision for the company in the medium term, three years’ time? What would you like to have achieved?

We understand that our achievement is anchored on the people and their capacity. Our main focus in the next three years is to onboard more people and build their capacity so that through them we will be able to solve problems for not only Tanzania but Africa and the world at large.

Are there any countries where you plan to start operations or where you already have a presence?

Our next goal will be within East Africa. We will start in the nearby countries and try to expand. However, if an opportunity is available for us to start in other countries outside East Africa, we are more than ready to expand there as well. We also try to learn from other countries. A few years ago, I went to Nigeria and had a lot to learn in terms of the modernizations in technology. In the banking industry, they are doing very well with payment platform development. They are also doing well in building the capacity of the people in technology. As we try to expand, we also try to learn from others so we can build the capacity of each other across Africa.

What is your inspiration? What drives you to do what you do?

My philosophy is in line with CITS’s to an extent. We believe in making a difference in people’s lives on a very personal level. Before venturing into technology, I was a trainer and through that, I made a difference in people’s lives. My philosophy is to have an impact on people around me who work for CITS. I also look at the generations to come. A time is coming when the generations to come must see what we have done, learn from it, and advance further than what we did. At the corporate level, our ambition and the mission of this institution is to help organizations increase their productivity. To be able to do that, we rely on what we offer and how we offer it.

For more information, please visit: www.cits.co.tz.

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