MTN Business has unveiled a pilot project for its MTN Cloud bouquet of services, piloting the Cloud Service Brokerage model in Africa.
The introduction of the services comes less than a month after MTN announced it would embark on a process of brand reinvention. MTN says it will run a trial, with designated SMEs, in six key African markets - SA, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Cameroon and Cote d'Ivoire.
The Cloud Service Brokerage model centralises access to services, where a third party - in this case, MTN - acts as the single point of contact for customers. MTN says this eases the administrative burden for companies, which now deal with one service provider as opposed to many.
Minimising IT costs
Farhad Khan, executive for enterprise business at MTN Group, says MTN Cloud will be targeted at SMEs in Africa to help customers reduce the cost of doing business by offering customised ICT solutions.
He says enterprises need to change the way they operate, in line with the ever-changing business landscape. "A particular challenge facing small and medium-sized businesses in Africa is the high cost of IT software and hardware. This includes the licence fees. What MTN Cloud services seek to do is enable SMEs to minimise these costs, and at the same time improve productivity and efficiency."
The trial period commences today, and will run until the end of January. MTN says participating companies will automatically gain access to a variety of MTN Cloud services, including Office Desktop (e-mail and collaborative software), Mozypro (a backup service for file and server management), and Dialcom (on-demand video conferencing).
"Also on the catalogue is McAfee, an anti-virus and anti-spam security software; Averiware, catering for companies' HR, accounting, finance and sales force automation needs; and Microsoft SharePoint, a staff and cross-functional collaborative tool. Also available will be Microsoft Dynamics CRM, a customer relations management tool."
Khan says, for accessibility's sake, users will be able to pay for the cloud offering using their airtime or MTN Mobile Money. "Payment for the services will be in the local currency of the different markets."
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