Lawson Software, which bills itself as "the enterprise behind the Internet" is a provider of Self-Evident Applications (SEA) that require no-end-user training, and its lead sponsorship of the ACT 2000 Summit (being held at Sun City, South Africa from August 29 to September 1) reflects its commitment to the effective implementation of IT and telecom strategies in Africa.
Cliff van Tonder, the multinational company`s country manager, says Africa is ready for the type of technology Lawson offers in the way of simple, affordable enterprise and e-business management solutions.
"We have strong partnerships with companies such as Microsoft, IBM and Compaq which places us in a favourable position to offer Africa IT solutions encompassing human resources, financial procurement and supply chain management software," he says. "Our products are all web deployable and the fact that the end-user requires no training is a huge benefit, particularly in previously under-developed regions."
Lawson already has a number of large clients in Africa, including Topics, Eskom, Dimension Data and the Government of Tanzania, where some 300 000 civil servants are paid through its human resources and payroll offering.
Tanzania itself is a striking example of IT success in Africa. Lawson has named Tanzania-based IT solutions company Computers & Telecoms Systems (CATS) its business partner for the entire Eastern and Central African regions. CATS offers a total IT solution including hardware, training, software development and maintenance as well as local- and wide-area networking and ISP solutions. It has even been retained to handle a Lawson implementation in Mauritius. "This means that a Tanzanian company will be earning foreign exchange for exporting it`s knowledge. There are not many instances of that in the continent outside South Africa," says Van Tonder.
In South Africa, Lawson has partnered a number of leading companies, including Manchu Consulting, a Black-owned IT and business solutions company whose primary focus is government and public enterprises. It is also looking to build up a strong affiliate base by appointing partners in Botswana, Ghana, Mauritius, Nigeria and Zambia, among others.
Contemptuous of the Afro-pessimists, Van Tonder believes that Africa can leapfrog development by making use of leading-edge technologies such as the e-business solutions which are reshaping the way companies and countries do business.
"While there is an array of e-business options, few companies are able to offer all the building blocks for a complete solution," he says. "Lawson Software enables companies to deliver e-business services to their entire community of employees, customers, managers, investors, business partners and vendors. Our approach as a very simple one - Lawson`s open architecture integrates any platform, any database, any industry standard skills and any desktop.
"Our ERP suite executes on a server and offers full functionality via a Web browser, and we have designed it to be bandwidth friendly. Our browser screen is Active-based, and the browser page is downloaded only once - thereafter only data packets are transferred. This is working well in India, where the problems are much the same as in Africa."
In another development that is forecast to play a significant role in the development of IT usage in Africa, Lawson is among the first companies to embrace the application service provider (ASP) model of providing the necessary applications and their maintenance in a hosted environment through on-line access.
"The ASP provider takes over responsibility for furnishing the necessary infrastructure for efficient data processing, software upgrades and so on, saving its clients from having to make the huge capital investment that would otherwise be required for them to reap the fruits of technology," says Van Tonder.
The delegate fee for ACT 2000 is R3 500 (US$560) per person. Two delegates from the same organisation qualify for a 10% discount; three delegates qualify for a 15% discount, and four or more for a 20% discount.
There are four easy ways to register for the Summit:
Via the Web:
www.aitecafrica.com
E-mail:
ACT2000@aitecafrica.com
Fax: +27 11 789 5312
Post: ACT Registration, AITEC, P O Box 398, Fonteinbleau 2032m South Africa.
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