Comments on: Is Government failing ICT Sector

By: Mantsika Matooane

Mantsika Matooane — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 06:51:26 +0000

I think it would be valuable to initiate a “National ICT Council” to integrate the various industry roles and interests. An overarching body could coordinate the common interests while smaller working groups of the council or ’sub-councils’ could focus on the separate areas of focus e.g software development companies, system integrators, business process outsourcers etc. And there are models we could adopt without re-inventing the wheel; India, Ireland and others. I have been particularly impressed with how Enterprise Ireland supports Ireland’s software industry through developing new markets and introducing Irish companies to potential customers.

I would also urge that we also include the ICT customers (e.g Banks, Insurers, Retailers etc) in some of these discussions as there is a lot of software development happening ‘in-house’ in these companies. An example would be to interact with the recently formed “CIO Council of South Africa” to link with CIO’s.

Regards,
Mantsika

By: Gavin Potgieter

Gavin Potgieter — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 12:13:35 +0000

I happened to be at CeBIT with Prof. Barry as one of the exhibitors. One thing that I took home from my trip to Germany, in general, is how serious the German government is about the ICT sector. In fact, one entire exhibition hall was dedicated to e-Government initiatives.

The initiatives were predominantly electronic content management and dissemination, devices for citizens to procure government services (unmanned kiosks), and government incentive schemes for ICT. In fact, many of these services were geared around removing barriers for citizens to participate in government. Many of the initiatives showcased were already “in production”; certainly during my trip I made use of a handful of these services, all of which were also internet enabled.

In contrast, in the UK the Electronic Communications Bill (postponed until after the election) has been receiving flak from analysts predominantly because ministers were accused of not understanding the importance of the internet.

Then there is South Africa. On the one hand, the government can do so much more to remove barriers for e-commerce and eliminate anti-competitive practices. For example, until very recently South Africans could not easily derive international revenue from products and services provided through the internet (no Paypal). On the other hand, the government is being, I believe, utterly ripped off by unscrupulous ICT suppliers. As the ICT industry, it is our responsibility to educate the government in these matters, just as it is our responsibility to educate all our clients.

In both of these instances, industry organisations can play a role. The question is which model should be adopted; voluntary membership or legislated compliance?

By: Adrian Schofield

Adrian Schofield — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 09:55:47 +0000

Prof Barry has highlighted some key issues that affect the success (or lack of it) of the South African ICT sector – well, perhaps more the IT than C, but we’ll come to that.
I have to acknowledge up front that I work with Barry, so we share the ideals and goals for the development of the country’s potential. But, I am responding with my Computer Society hat on, since he has specifically referred to the role of industry organisations.
It has long been a hobby horse of mine that South Africa’s approach to the so-called ICT sector is fragmented beyond belief. “So-called”, because I have another whole argument around the wisdom or foolishness of grouping multinational, monolithic, network service providers with individual “entrepreneurs” writing code or repairing devices and expecting them to behave as “an industry”. Even so, other (more successful) economies have benefitted from a holistic view of the role of ICTs by government, balanced by strong representation of industry and practitioners by industry associations.
Our government has no such holistic view. In spite of efforts in the past to take a non-departmental approach through such bodies as the President’s National Commission and the President’s International Advisory Council, we still persist with dividing the consideration of the role of ICTs in our country’s performance between too many, sometimes conflicting, Ministries. How many of us understand the interests of Communications, Trade & Industry, Public Service & Administration, Public Enterprises, Science & Technology, Higher Education & Training and the rest, when it comes to shaping the development of ICT capacity in South Africa?
On the practitioner and private sector front, we have even more “bodies”, each with a tiny “voice”, singing somewhat different songs and rarely combining their minimal resources to achieve a common goal. Perhaps the notable exception to this was the Working Group that came together to compile the ICT Charter, but even this has failed to produce a clarity of purpose in the final outcome. Given this lack of coordination within the industry, is it any wonder that government has no great vision of the potential that is being wasted?
South Africa does great things when it comes to selling wine, minerals, cars, tourism. What will it take to elevate our ICT capacity to the same level? I have challenged the CSSA and the BITF to take the steps that will unify them in the short to medium term. I have challenged the “business bodies” to do the same. I challenge government to form a National ICT Council to demolish the barriers between the departments and across industry, so that we can follow the example of our network providers and brand “South Africa” on the global ICT stage.