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ICT, engine of the workplace
A modern-day work space. FILE PHOTO
If a suave, debonair elite gentleman who worked in the Ugandan public service or the East African Community in the 1960s was to make his way back to the modern workplace he would simply be amazed by the leaps in information technology and communication.
The in-vogue tool of trade then was a typewriter or at best a landline telephone. By the way, this was not your modern telephone set where you simply dialed digits and in seconds you are through to the recipient, no.
One had to call the telephone operator at the post office and ask to place a call to a particular number, which included waiting patiently in a queue of sorts.
Don’t ask me how I know, all I can say is I was born many generations later.
Today with the vast use of information and communication technology, businesses have grown. The use of computers per se is not enough. It is what generation of computers one uses and even then, what software one employs.
Giant leap
Companies can truly boast of being global thanks to the heavy use of business technology. Members of an organisation sitting in different cities can be tied in to the same meeting via telephone hookup and each make meaningful contributions to the meeting. There is also Skype, which adds a dimension of live, real time images to the meeting as long as there is a reliable internet connection, web cameras and microphones to carry the voices into the medium of communication. Jack Welch, CEO and Chairman of General Electric (GE) from 1981 to 2001, in his bestselling book titled Jack –Straight From the Gut deals with three dimensions that could not have been remotely possible to achieve without heavy reliance on technology. These were dimensions that were directly responsible for driving GE, at its peak, straight to the top of the world’s leading multinational corporations in profitability and a solid bottom-line. These were borderless, six sigma and e-commerce.
By delivering goods and services to the comfort of clients’ living rooms and business premises, they were able to drastically cut costs and leverage profits from previously wasteful forms of selling. Clients simply log onto the web site, select a product and pay for it online and it is delivered to them at their convenience in the quickest and most efficient way. All of this would was made possible with the use of information and communication technology.
In our own country Uganda, businesses can no longer thrive, let alone work effectively devoid of business technology. Bank tellers no longer count cash manually. In addition there are hundreds of Automated Teller Machines in several suburbs around the country.
All these various uses of technology have greatly improved the efficiency of doing business by introducing the element of speed in operations.
When Celtel Uganda opened shop in 1994, mobile telephone communication was a novelty and very expensive too. Today, the telecommunication giants Airtel (former Celtel, Zain), MTN, Orange, UTL, Warid, Smile cannot seem to come up with promotions, offers and counter offers fast enough to outsmart the competition.
The ability to transfer money electronically is no longer the preserve of commercial banks and money transfer services like Moneygram and Western Union.
Telecommunication companies have jumped into the fray and evenly muscled their way into the mix with their bigger brothers in the trade, the banks.
The vital contribution of technology in building businesses locally and globally is no longer a subject of debate. The real issue seems to be whether companies can catch up with the speed with which newer, faster, technology is being incorporated into business systems. Where television stations for example were using analogue technology, all this is fast being replaced by digital technology. Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) is already running announcements in the media that by December 2012, TV sets will all use digital technology or top boxes, bringing an end to the era of free to air analogue television.
Who could have imagined that taxes to URA can now be paid online, that one can do all their banking online, and that one can check their NSSF statement online, or buy cars online in 1990? Corporations that have any intentions of being taken seriously in the global market can no longer afford to be bystanders as the technological train speeds by greatly causing visible change and adding the dimension of speed to the work process, all leading to more competitiveness and profitability.
