The industry has spoken

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Enough is enough. The words of the IT Personality of the Year in his award acceptance speech spring to mind - in a different sense: enough of degrading the local ICT industry for unprofessionalism, lack of depth and breadth, lack of innovative spirit, a box-dropping mentality, and its inability to align with business and add "real value".

With leaders like these, it cannot be all that bad. The finalists for the 2004 IT Personality and IT Leader awards have among them enough optimism, passion, knowledge and goodwill to move mountains of bad IT legacy: from veteran Ken Jarvis who has transformed SARS into a world-class IT organisation, to 30-year-old Stafford Masie who wants Africa to champion the open source movement; to the brothers Khumalo whose entrepreneurial drive is fuelled by IT services excellence; to Nirvesh Sooful who is turning Cape Town into a smart city; to Mthunzi Mdwaba, a lawyer with a passion for ICT sector transformation and skill development.

There`s an uncanny sense of the six finalists being of similar mind.

"We are taking what the president is dreaming about and translating it into reality. I believe with ICT we can make a phenomenal contribution to society," says Sooful.

In the words of Masie: "The ICT sector has been identified by Mbeki as the platform to address poverty, the skills problem, the need for innovation and entrepreneurship."

Mdwaba says the ICT empowerment charter "is not going to be able to deliver if we can`t have a co-ordinated effort towards skilling the nation from the bottom right to the top".

Nkosinathi and Lucky Khumalo are doing just that in their own way. They want their company, Mthombo-IT, to be "a shining example to the rest of the industry, a role model to a whole lot of other people who are starting up in IT".

Other shared sentiments include: "I could not do this alone" and "There`s lots more to be done".

"Of course, it`s not all glory," says Jarvis, whose system helped put an extra R4.3 billion in the SARS coffers last year. "We know we`ve got a long way to go."

Passion honoured

By Iain Scott

Ken Jarvis, South African Revenue Service CIO and winner of the 2004 ICT Leadership Award, is passionate about what his organisation can do for the country.

Ken Jarvis`s leadership in the deployment of SARS`s single-view-of-the-taxpayer project has attracted attention worldwide. The project is a global first and an example of excellence in transforming public services. It is estimated it will save SARS about R20 million a day.

"It`s been a fascinating two years," says Jarvis. "I don`t think I`ve ever been so challenged, so excited, so happy in what I`ve done. Of course, it`s not all glory - we know we`ve got a long way to go. We`ve only scratched the surface of the value that we can add to this country."

Saving the country money is a key driver for Jarvis in his role at SARS. "Last year there was R54 billion worth of debt money owed to SARS, and you could break that up into what`s in dispute, and what`s older than 30 or 60 days. We implemented a brand new system to try and tackle that and collected an extra R4.3 billion in the last tax year. We were very pleased we had collected that much, but there is another R49 billion to go," he says.

Team player

"The CIO role in SARS is exciting because that`s adding value to the country. Whenever you do something right, there is an impact on every individual that lives in this country. When I leave the office at night, if I`ve managed to save R10, I`ve saved R10 for the country. And the passion and the drive that gives you is quite amazing."

Modesty is one of Jarvis`s notable characteristics. He seldom refers to himself in the first person when talking about SARS`s achievements on the technology front, and never claims credit for his accomplishments. His speech is peppered constantly with words like "we", "us" and "our". Asked who "we" are, he replies: "I cannot do this job alone. I have a wonderful management team that reports to me and colleagues at my level. I have a commissioner who is the most wonderful guy to work for."

Jarvis`s influence goes far beyond the role of the CIO. He is a mentor to CEOs and CIOs, and a business and government advisor. He has even served as acting commissioner of SARS in the absence of Pravin Gordhan.

Jarvis says a true CIO is business focused. "I don`t know how many CIOs there are in SA - 250 or 240. Of those, most probably fewer than 20 are true CIOs. The rest are IT managers.

"A CIO really doesn`t care what PC brand or what storage brand you buy. He needs to know that I have a storage strategy in place, that the storage strategy is in support of business strategy; that my desktop, which is a crucial part of my infrastructure, has got a good investment behind it and know that it is secure and that I`m not going to bring the company down because of viruses. But whether it`s a Dell or an IBM or a Mecer or a Sahara, who cares? It`s not the issue. I must be worried about the price and if it`s a good business decision."

Jarvis is not resting on his laurels either, and speaks excitedly about other projects in the pipeline. He mentions that there is strong demand for online tax returns. "So maybe you`ll see that in the not too distant future."

Another innovation is the use of mobile technology: the ability to keep taxpayers up to date with the status of their tax return via mobile.

"We will tell you your tax return has been received and captured, your tax return has been assessed - via mobile.

Be afraid

"But be worried, because the other edge of that sword is the ability to say, 'Where is your tax return?`, 'Why are you actually doing this activity?`, 'How are you affording to buy the car that you`ve just driven out of the showroom in?` So it`s a double-edged sword. But for the good South African taxpayer this is good news."

Man on a mission

By Tracy Burrows

A lawyer who developed a passion for IT, Mthunzi Mdwaba urges the industry to believe in transformation, local development and the growth of people.

Torque-IT`s charismatic executive chairman Mthunzi Mdwaba is a qualified lawyer with a passion for skills development and an ongoing involvement in empowerment. He`s clearly also an astute businessman.

Mdwaba is at the helm of Lithalelanga Connections Holdings, a black-owned strategic investment enterprise. Lithalelanga wholly owns Sourcecom Technology Solutions via Lithalelanga Technologies, and recently acquired a 63% stake of Tecor Group, an IT solutions company with a R100 million annual turnover and a large stake in the government business pie.

His impressive r'esum'e starts with his BA LLB studies at Wits University, where he supplemented his student income by working as an agent for car-rental company Avis.

The next few years saw him move from legal services manager at Southern Sun to operations director at the Association of the South African Music Industry, and then to Primedia Music as CEO.

Outside the law

He embarked on a career in law because lawyers, along with doctors, engineers and teachers, were highly respected in the poor rural Eastern Cape village in which he grew up. However, when he met Torque-IT`s Gary Chalmers in an MBA class in January 2001, he discovered that the world of IT, and not law, offered the challenges he was looking for.

"At the time, Torque-IT had a R36 million cumulative loss. The first challenge for us was to turn it from a white-owned company to a black-empowered company so that it was strategically positioned; the second was the challenge of making it profitable."

And that`s what Mdwaba and his team did. "From June 2001 till the end of our financial year last year in November, Torque had grown 104%, and year-on-year had grown 34% per financial year. More importantly, it`s now a hugely profitable business," he says.

Mdwaba is credited with leading Torque-IT to three 2003 African Achievers Awards nominations, including the Creative Use of ICT in Education category, which it won; the Top Black ICT Company category, where it was first runner-up; and the Top Individual in ICT category, in which Mdwaba was first runner up. Mdwaba was also named "Icon Man" by Divas Africa.

One wonders if there are ever enough hours in the day for Mdwaba, who serves as secretary of the Gauteng Black IT Forum, president of the Information Technology Association, executive of the Sandton chamber of the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce, treasurer of the Rivonia branch of the ANC, and member of the ICT Empowerment Charter Working Group. He even manages to find spare time, as the father to three children and chairman of the Bryanston Primary School governing body.

He refers to a letter his young son wrote for a school assignment, on what he would like to achieve in life. "He wrote about his ambitions to study, become a lawyer, have his own business, and then just have fun," Mdwaba smiles.

"I told Time magazine, in an interview earlier this year, I could never have written such a letter as a child." The fact that such opportunities exist for his son indicates to him that SA has made progress. "But we`re an impatient nation - we want to see more progress, faster," he says.

"People need to understand that they must take the initiative to empower themselves at the same time as legislation and big business moves to empower people."

This is why one of Mdwaba`s driving passions is skills development and training. On a recent trip to India, accompanying ministers Geraldine Fraser Moleketi, Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri and Aziz Pahad, Mdwaba saw the remarkable progress that can be achieved through sustained education and training.

Skills are crucial

"For me, the ICT empowerment charter is not going to be able to deliver if we can`t have a solution for skills. We need a co-ordinated effort towards skilling the nation - from the bottom right to the top. There`s no way you can empower anybody without skilling that person," he says.

He lashes out at businesses that use a lack of black skills as an excuse for not embracing transformation. "Don`t tell me you can`t find people; we train them here."

Mdwaba says he is honoured, but slightly overwhelmed, at being named an ICT Personality of the Year. But he does believe people like him can serve as role models for youngsters - particularly in a culture where many youths hope for "easy money". People need to value integrity and hard work, he notes, and extend a hand to others along the way.

Leading the African show

By Carel Alberts

The kid from Eldorado Park who made it big now has the chance to realise a momentous ambition - and drag the country along in his wake.

Stafford Masie`s head is screwed on right, his heart is in the right place, he has feelers out everywhere and his hands are on the wheel. At 30, the MD of Novell SA crackles with energy, charisma, wit and ambition.

But the former kid from Eldorado Park remembers paying his dues. He tells of standing in front of Putco buses as a youth in winter, warming his feet on the engine plates. But he left school at 16, on a Telkom scholarship, and has been on his way up ever since.

Colleagues remember when he left Novell SA in his early twenties for the company headquarters in the US, promising them he would be back to lead the show. Masie says he was the only man of colour and the only non-Mormon in the state of Utah, but he quickly made his mark. He was instrumental in transforming Novell into what it is today - a company that has put its intellectual property and hard-won respect on the hottest ticket in ICT today: open source.

Then, after coming home and instituting new Linux certifications, a services management framework, national support line and the world`s first hardware bundling of Linux, he increased Novell`s partnership base, re-instituted a bursary programme and threaded it all through with empowerment and skills development.

Respect!

The Computer Society citation came only a year after Masie returned to the country. The commendation mentions his vision of Africa as a champion of the open source movement, and lauds him for striving to make IT affordable and "believing that ICT can address poverty, the skills problem, the need for innovation and entrepreneurship in SA".

"I can see open source software putting us in a different bracket as a country," he says. "I can see less money leave the country. I can see, soon, that you`ll pay R5 000 less for a computer."

For next year he wants five wall-to-wall Linux migrations, two Mono universities (a cross-platform .Net application framework) and - the hardest thing of all for companies - to "just do it" for the empowerment charter.

He likes what he sees in other young people. "They`re passionate and energetic. We`re standing on the brink of something great, even if we don`t quite know what that something is. But I would like the university graduate to walk into a sustainable ICT sector where he or she can have a platform for true expression. Then we will have succeeded."

Smartening up Cape Town

By Paul Vecchiatto

The Mother City`s CIO is dedicated to making President Thabo Mbeki`s dreams come true - and is realising some of his own along the way.

If the success of an IT project can be judged by the number of awards it receives, Nirvesh Sooful, City of Cape Town CIO, has reason to feel proud of his efforts. But he says the yardstick that matters most to him is the extent of delivery on promises made to clients.

Sooful is one of the architects of the "Smart City" project that aims to bring Cape Town into the information age.

One notable undertaking under the Smart City banner is implementation of an SAP ERP system (a first for an African local authority and aimed at radically improving the business processes in the organisation); another is providing public Internet access to citizens via libraries.

Other important aspects include setting up a special governance body to engage multiple private and public city stakeholders in the planning and execution of the strategy, and equipping all councillors with PCs and Internet connectivity as a way of getting the leadership to understand how technology can improve lives.

In 2002 and 2003, the City of Cape Town won the African ICT Achiever`s E-Government Award for its Smart City initiative. In August 2003, the Smart Cape Access project won the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Access to Learning Award worth $1 million.

Sooful identifies three key issues driving a successful IT strategy. Firstly, leadership of the organisation has to be educated on its benefits, and has to buy into it. Secondly, a team must be built to ensure successful implementation in the face of challenges. Lastly, intended beneficiaries - in this case the people of Cape Town - need to see a direct improvement in their lives.

Sooful describes himself as a leader who listens to his staff and allows each of them to contribute, confident they share his vision. He wants them to feel they are making a difference.

"I`m only as successful as my team. And I also know I can leave most of the tasks in their hands, safe in the knowledge that we share a common vision," he says.

Sooful is very aware of the social impact that ICT can have. "We are taking what the president [Thabo Mbeki] is dreaming about and translating it into reality. I believe with ICT we can make a phenomenal contribution to society."

Role models for the youth

By Kaunda Chama

For many, the turn of the century was not a good time to even consider setting up a BEE ICT company. The Khumalos did just that, and have continued to prove sceptics wrong.

Four years ago, two brothers and a handful of partners left comfortable positions at big companies like Investec and HP and ventured into something many peers had unsuccessfully attempted: setting up a black economic empowerment (BEE) ICT company.

Lucky and Nkosinathi Khumalo and their business partners decided to go the ICT services route - as opposed to simply box-dropping, which was what most BEE start-ups were doing at that time. Nkhosinathi was an executive at financial services group Investec, while Lucky had a BSc in computer programming, giving the company expertise on both the management and technology sides.

The Khumalos were short-listed among the top five finalists "for building an ICT company with a difference: growing Mthombo-IT Services into a successful services organisation".

"A lot of people are fascinated by MI-T`s success because 80% to 90% of start-up businesses fail," says Nkosinathi.

Lucky adds that M-IT was built with the single-minded purpose of not being a box-dropper, behind a cellphone and fax line, calling itself an IT service company. "We went out and said there`s the element of procurement box-dropping, there`s the element of services, there`s the element of solutions, products, IT domains and IT platforms. So we started off as an IT services organisation with about seven people."

The birth of M-IT caught the tail end of the Y2K bubble burst, but it has nonetheless grown from its small beginnings into an organisation of around 300 people, with a presence in Durban, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth, and operations in four other sub-Saharan countries.

Nkosinathi says "there is a big issue of service delivery" in the local ICT industry. "To move forward, to move the decision-makers, IT needs to be able to deliver. Never mind about the new technologies, let`s deal with the basics, understand the business and make sure you deliver what you promise."

The Khumalos are passionate about entrepreneurship. "To succeed, you need to have the passion, the perseverance and the commitment," says Nkosinathi. But the brothers know you need a helping hand, too. "Other people were there for us when we were starting and we can do the same for young entrepreneurs today."

The brothers want Mthombo-IT to be "a shining example to the rest of the industry, a role model to a whole lot of other people who are starting up in IT".

The next challenge for the company is to become an employer of choice. "A year from now, we`ll probably employ a thousand people - that`s a thousand families we`ll be making a difference in," says Nkosinathi.