Kitskoo Harps on Effective Business, IT Relationship

Kitskoo Nigeria, a cloud services provider has emphasized on the need for effective understanding between information technology (IT) and business for growth in organizations.

Tunde Fafunwa, managing director, Kitskoo Cloud services, stated this at the Company’s quarterly forum entitled: “Love IT or Leave IT”, held in Lagos.

He explained that the major challenge between information technology and business is communications.

“The main challenge appears to be communication, because if we look at one side of IT, the problem is that some businesses do not understand IT. On the other hand, the business representative would say that IT does not understand the business. So, the most important thing is communication. That is why we are providing the forum for both sides to meet and share their goals,” he said.

He also stressed the need for organizations to change alongside the changing consumer trends in spite of infrastructural challenges in the country.

“Infrastructure cuts across several areas. If you want to access the internet, make a call, buy goods online, or get connected, you need your mobile device. If you do not have the mobile device, signal or connection, the problem has started. Our approach is talking to those who are providing the infrastructure about the kind of changes and trends coming up which they really need to be prepared for. Are they really prepared for increase in data? How are they building the network?

At the same time, we are advising the companies. Yes, there are problems, but these days, people have the mobile devices, access the internet, downloading files, accessing applications, buying things from Jumia; as a company, how are you going to deal with that situation, even as the infrastructure is developing. You cannot sit back and wait for everything to work perfectly before you get into the market, because your competitors are already using the infrastructure even at the state it is,” he added.
 
Fafunwa, however, stated the commitment of his company in assisting organizations address some these challenges that they face.

“Our commitment to any company when we engage with them is that we are going to help them get through and keep their customers. We are going to help them acquire, grow and retain their customer base. Our method for doing that can take multiple parts. One of the parts is building infrastructure inside the Company in other to achieve that. In another case, it may be they want to house their applications and services on our platform and offering. In some cases, we have helped them designed those services from Google and Microsoft than they can get from outside, but on a platform that understands them. So, our commitment can take different forms.”

Yomi Akinde, chief information officer, Union Banks, who spoke on ‘How the Business fails IT’, highlighted some of the factors that are responsible for business failing information Technology, which include, making IT an investment rather than a cost, lack of senior business management involvement and executive support, and lack of end user adoption due to inadequate or lukewarm participation or technology fright, as most users are technologically challenged.

He further explained that business owners are usually not ready to accept change or adopt new system. “Users are the ‘ground level validator’ of project outcomes,” he said.

Another factor, he said, is business contribution scope creep. “Scope creep implies an increase in what you have to deliver, without a corresponding increase in resources or an extension to the project timeline.

More so, we don’t have skill set for some IT projects in the country, which is a major problem in Nigeria,” he said.