The next wave of our ICT transformation

Mauritius has done well to diversify its economy and rid itself of its monoculture economic dependence. One of the main pillars of the economy today is the ICT-BPO sector which has experienced a remarkable growth in the past two decades, and accounted in 2014 for around 6.5% of the GDP. It is reported that theICT-BPO sector is establishing itself as the fourth pillarof the Mauritian economy and is still progressing. There is potential to further grow the BPO business in Mauritius, but there is yet another opportunity in the ICT sector which ought not to be squandered – the improvement of our national economic performance through the exportation of proven ICT solutions to the neighbouring African market.

In the heart of many a professional in the local ICT sector, there is a growing expectation that the next wave of ICT transformation in Mauritius could open doors for them in the region. In fact, a number of local ICT companies have actually made inroads into sub-Saharan Africa with varying degrees of success, or sometimes failure. But the majority of the smaller local ICT companies view the African market as a potential goldmine but do not know how to approach it. The challenge for all local ICT companies therefore remains how to tackle the African market to the benefit of all stakeholders.

A retrospective look at the growth of the ICT sector in Mauritius confirms that there are valuable skills in Mauritius. In the last decade or so, for example, some local companies have assisted multinationals to set up an office in Mauritius and build an ever increasing base of software engineers who can deliver world-class services to clients in many countries across the world, especially in Europe. These software engineers have gained significant experience in following rigorous methodologies, achieving client satisfaction, ensuring quality, and the result has been an international recognition of Mauritius in the field of software engineering, enabling it to compete with other countries such as India and the Philippines.

There are many similar examples of success stories in software development on the Mauritian market, where local companies have developed software applications that have been deployed to several organisations,both in the private and the public sectors.

All this has caused a growth in the number of sustainable job opportunities in the local software engineering sector. Yet, two realities remain, that have to be reckoned with:

• Many (if not most) of the large, mission-critical software applications that are implemented in Mauritius are those developed outside the country,

• Commercial off-the-shelf packages developed for the Mauritian market are not currently competing on the African market. There could be several reasons for this but the result is that there is currently very little revenue generated from the export of software licences for locally developed products.

Perhaps the main cause of these is that traditionally the local software engineering sector has been characterized by a high degree of cut-throat competition against the backdrop of inefficiency and relatively poor quality of products and services, attributed in turn to the lack of norms and standards, and the general chaos that tends to prevail when there are no guidelines set from abroad. As a result, there is an unacceptable number of unfinished or significantly delayed projects on the local market, which do not necessarily yield the intended benefits. We also observe a lack of synergy on the part of the software engineering companies, duplication of efforts, significant disparities in our levels of expertise, gaps and overlaps in our set of offerings, and lack of creativity and innovation in our products and services, often due to the lack of R&D budget and initiatives.

The industry also suffers from a high turnover rate of personnel, increasing personnel costs that do not necessarily translate into a corresponding increase in quality levels, which then lead to unattractive products and services that cannot compete on the international or regional markets. These issues have to be comprehensively addressed if Mauritius is to become what we could call: the regional hub of innovative ICT solution providers.

In order to provide an environment for the local software engineering companies that is conducive to higher performance, the eco-system must be reconsidered. Instead of taking a fragmented, disjointed and isolated approach, it would be more effective to take a concerted approach by federating the various local ICT companies in an attempt to create the much required synergy to face the demands of the increasinglychallenging African market. Proper coordination of the initiative is therefore critical to its success.

Africa has its realities which should be constantly borne in mind if we wish to do successful business there: history, geography, culture and traditions, infrastructure. Constraints are unique to the continent. Companies which have successfully achieved sustainable growth on the continent can share their experience. The following are the strengths on which any Mauritian consortium could build:

• Existing comprehensive and competitive offerings (products and services)

Some applications may already exist that could be positioned as flagship or best-of-breed products adapted for the African market

• Past experience and success stories of local companies and our ability to create value, realize productivity gains and optimize business processes

• International credentials of the companies in the form of reference letters and testimonies

• Experienced and Talented personnel.

All this essentially calls for a federation of the local companies interested to conduct business in the ICT sector in Africa. The aim would be to create synergy by harnessing the leadership position of successful companies in various offerings. There is also the need to promote knowledge sharing across the entire ICT sector. There should be guidance on pricing as well. Opportunities ought to be created locally before attempting to export the knowledge.

• The federated ICT companies should target specific local sectors such as construction, health, education in order to optimize their operations through the use of ICT products and services. These specific solutions can then be deployed to neighbouring countries.

• Government needs to fast track and complete the local e-governance implementation process using locally developed, quality, effective, value-for-money systems and techniques, especially using open source, cloud and mobile technologies. This requires a comprehensive study in itself so that various types of services may be provided: applications made on the internet, interfaces with government databases, centralized generic government operations such as payment kiosks, national Knowledge Base systems, and many more.

The following are suggestions on how to move forward:

• Engage ICTA and NCB to discuss their interest and involvement in the field of software engineering for exportation.

• Set up a single enabling organization, e.g. Agency for the Adoption of ICT as an economic enabler for local and regional markets to operate to accelerate the implementation of an ICT strategy for this purpose.

• Define action plan and roles and responsibilities and operate in PPP mode.

• Assist software engineering companies in obtaining certification, such as ISO and CMMI.

• Coordinate the software engineering initiatives, build synergy, achieve and monitor results.

• Create and protect the brand ‘Made in Mauritius’.

• Catalogue products and services ‘Made in Mauritius’.

• Create a portal promoting ‘Made in Mauritius’.

• Review existing systems that can be enhanced to become flagship/best-of-breed products.