Internet penetration is on the rise across the world with over 4 billion consistent internet users all over the world and more than a quarter of a billion new users accessing the internet in 2017 alone, according to the 2018 Global Digital report by HootSuite.

Based on this, there is no better time than now for businesses to begin to focus on new collaborative strategies to help deliver more efficient service for users.

This was the focus of the keynote presentation made by Solomon Ogufere, Commercial Director, Vodacom Business Nigeria, at the NigeriaCom 2018 Conference and Exhibition organised by Informa Telecoms Group, which recently took place in Lagos.

The event broadly themed, “Leading Economic Resurgence through ICT Innovation”, provided an excellent opportunity for various stakeholders within the Information Communication and Technology (ICT) space to deliberate on pertinent issues facing the sector today, paramount of which, was the issue of collaboration in order to achieve optimum quality of service for the end user.

While addressing the Mobile Network Operators, Internet Service Providers, Policy Makers, Techpreneurs and others present at the NigeriaCom 2018 Conference, Ogufere said: “With the increase in internet penetration around the world, the rise of Internet of Things (IoT) and new enabling technologies permeating every facet of business and life, there is an urgent need for swift development within the ICT industry and this can only be achieved through a paradigm shift.”

He said: “The shift must begin first from our approach towards collaboration, moving from opportunistic pseudo collaboration to symbiotic collaboration that leads to efficiency in service delivery, improved quality and a better all-round experience for the customer.”

As the rest of the world enters into the fourth industrial revolution, Africa as a Continent still lags behind in digitization efforts when compared to Europe, the United States and even Asia, showing that there is yet more ground to cover as it pertains to technological development and this cannot be achieved unilaterally.

Ogufere also noted: “The secret to solving the collaboration conundrum is to create a culture of collaboration which requires constant interaction. Industry leaders must move away from ownership mentality by creating avenues for collaboration at every point within the ecosystem and encouraging new entrants with specific expertise into the market.”

In conclusion, he said: “Collaboration is fundamental for sustained development across industries. As such, collaboration can be said to be the ultimate key ingredient for the development of the economy across all industries. Therefore, being the driving force of all development across the world, this collaboration must begin with technology.”

The board of directors for the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has approved plans for the first-ever changing of the cryptographic key that helps protect the Domain Name System (DNS) – the Internet’s address book.

During a 16 September meeting in Belgium, the ICANN board passed a resolution, directing the organisation to proceed with its plans to change or “roll” the key for the DNS root on 11 October 2018. It will mark the first time the key has been changed since it was first put in use in 2010.

“This is an important move and we have an obligation to ensure that it happens in furtherance of ICANN’s mission, which is to ensure a secure, stable and resilient DNS,” says ICANN board chair, Cherine Chalaby.

“There is no way of completely assuring that every network operator will have their ‘resolvers’ properly configured, yet if things go as anticipated, we expect the vast majority to have access to the root zone.”

ICANN notes that some Internet users might be affected if the network operators or Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have not prepared for the roll.

Those operators who have enabled the checking of Domain Name System Security Extensions or DNSSEC information (a set of security protocols used to ensure DNS information isn’t accidentally or maliciously corrupted) are those who need to be certain they are ready for the roll, it adds.

“Research shows that there are many thousands of network operators that have enabled DNSSEC validation, and about a quarter of the Internet’s users rely on those operators,” says David Conrad, ICANN’s chief technology officer.

“It is almost certain there will be at least a few operators somewhere across the globe who won’t be prepared, but even in the worst case, all they have to do to fix the problem is, turn off DNSSECvalidation, install the new key, and reenable DNSSEC and their users will again have full connectivity to the DNS.”

The changing of the DNS root key was originally scheduled to happen a year ago, but plans were put on hold after ICANN found and began analysing some new, last-minute data. That data dealt with the potential readiness of network operators for the key roll.

An analysis ultimately led the organisation to believe it could safely proceed with the changing of the key. As a result, the organisation, after consultation with the community, developed a new plan that recommends putting the new key into use exactly one year after originally scheduled.

In the intervening time, the organisation has continued extensive outreach and investigations on how to best mitigate risks associated with the key change.

The ICANN Board, during its 16 September meeting, passed a resolution approving the plan, and with that, the ICANN org has set in motion its plans to change key at 4PM UTC on 11 October 2018.

“This is the first root key change, but it won’t be the last,” says Matt Larson, vice-president of research at ICANN and the organisation’s point person for the key roll.

“This is the first time, so naturally we are bending over backwards to make certain that everything goes as smoothly as possible, but as we do more key rollovers in the future, the network operators, ISPs, and others will become more accustomed to the practice.”

For embracing the core values of innovation and customer focus, Inlaks has been recognized as the best Temenos Learning Community (TLC) partner of 2018 in Africa for also investing in training and development with well-coordinated training methodology in delivering value to numerous customers across Africa.

This endorsement was highlighted by Temenos at this year’s Temenos MEA (Middle East and Africa) sales and partner meeting in Dubai. Temenos specializes in enterprise software for banks and financial services.

The Managing Director and CEO of Inlaks, Africa Operations, Femi Adeoti, acknowledged what the testimonial connotes for Inlaks as the best Temenos Learning Community partner, “Through this, the company has delivered more value to numerous customers across Africa”.

He explained that the Temenos training and certification is delivered through Temenos Learning Community; as such, each member “will need to study online or attend classroom training courses and take the associated exams to earn the necessary credits needed to move to the next level of membership”.

Detailing the line of action for the course, he shared that the course catalogue is available in the Temenos learning community, which provides details about each course and prerequisites needed accordingly. Course materials and examinations are both available on the designated online link for TLC.

Inlaks and Temenos through excellent collaborative effort have triumphed by securing the biggest deal in the history of Temenos in a Francophone country, Afriland Bank Limited, Cameroon. “This is a landmark deal since Temenos T24 replaces an entrenched core banking application (Sopra banking software) in Francophone countries across Africa”, Adeoti added.