Nigeria Content Online

The slow adoption
of Information technology by SMEs to further enhance their businesses,
automate their processes, to provide a more efficient service or to
provide quality and affordable products as it applies to the Nigerian
society, can be attributed in my view to lack of knowledge, perceived
cost implication, low levels of IT literacy, lack of access to
affordable computers, lack of affordable/reliable Internet service and
a lack of general awareness.

For an SME, the
focus should be on producing quality products that are required by the
consumer in the most cost efficient manner or to provide a targeted
service at low costs ensuring that operational and distribution costs
are minimal; which all contribute to influencing the pricing of a
product or a service and in turn, making it more affordable.

In running a
profitable business, which needs to be enhanced and made more efficient
using Information technology, an SME needs to be focussed on ensuring
that all the relevant information, from financials to HR data, through
to stock inventory, supplier information, customers details/buying
patterns etc, are captured to ensure that you can target the relevant
services or products accordingly.

Also, an SME needs
to be continuously worked to reduce operational costs or overheads,
widen the distribution/sales channels, inculcate flexibility,
innovation and the ability to react accordingly to all relevant factors
from changing government policies, new duties or taxes, competition etc.

The business also
needs to incorporate efficient processes that will assist in getting
new products or services quickly to the market in response to any
emerging or changing trends.

If we agree on all
the above then let us take a closer look at the underlying information
technologies that can be used to achieve the above objectives.

For multinational
companies and other companies who can afford to utilise expensive
technology to achieve the above objectives both bespoke and off the
shelf customised application packages exist to assist them. Examples of
such off the shelf packages will include Enterprise Resource Planning
products such as SAP, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, Data warehousing modules,
statistical applications and Siebel CRM application modules. There is
also the option of developing bespoke applications to capture the above
mentioned requirements at possibly significant costs.

For the SME who may
not necessarily be able to afford these so called off the shelf
packages or are not able to afford the significant development costs
that will be incurred in developing a bespoke application, I will go
through possibly cheaper techniques, utilities or applications that can
be used to a large in extent in achieving the same objective in the
next paragraphs.

For an SME, a
simple Excel spreadsheet or a Microsoft Access database application
with the relevant formulas and macros can be implemented to capture
expenditure, income, HR information, maintain stock inventory and
capture your suppliers details. The total cost of implementing such a
tool could be as little as fifty thousand naira depending on the exact
complexity (as both Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access, these
application environments are supplied as a standard part of the
Microsoft office suite) and so the only cost really incurred is the
cost of development or customisation which is really minimal. There are
also other inexpensive off the shelf tools such as Sage, Quicken etc
(there are even free or shareware applications that can be downloaded
on the Internet for free such as Gnumeric etc) that can all be used to
achieve the same objective. The list of relevant freeware is endless
and readily available on the Internet.

An SME may need to
capture the relevant details of his customer either in a Microsoft
Excel spreadsheet or Microsoft Access database not only to have his
contact information, but to be able to capture the consumers buying
habits or any emerging patterns which can ultimately result in repeat
sales of the same product or service or even possibly result in the
sale of other related products/services to the customer. There is also
a host of free software that can downloaded from the Internet that can
also be utilised for this purpose.

The more an SME can
use technology to streamline or automate their inherent business
processes, the less they will have to spend on operational costs, less
manpower will be required and the more efficient the operations will be
and which can all in turn translate to producing better quality,
affordable products or providing a more consumer focused also
affordable service. For example for an airline ticketing business if
the relevant applications are in place you can have only one member of
staff sell the required ticket to the customer, bank the money, issue a
receipt and still capture all the relevant details of the customer to
ensure there is a repeat sales.

Technology can also
assist in providing other avenues to sell your product or service such
as sales via the Internet, via mobile telephony technology outside your
conventional methods of selling, marketing, advertising or distributing
your product, this obviously depends on the kind of product or service
in question.

By always having a
snapshot of your business at your fingertips using the relevant
applications as earlier mentioned, it is much easier to react to any
new factors that may affect any aspect of such a business or to even
react adequately to any new competition. Also by clearly understanding
your customer and always having a full picture at your fingertips so to
say, it is easier for your business to be innovative, flexible and
adaptable in a modern society such as ours where change is inevitable.
It becomes a whole a lot easier to introduce new products and services
to market, since you know your customers and you have the aid of
technology in advertising, marketing, selling, distributing or
manufacturing your product or in providing a service.

A good business model perhaps, will be to create an all, purpose,
generic, fully managed portal that captures all these areas of
emphasis, make it available to SME’s for a small fee. Such a portal
will need to be segregated and secured using modern encryption
technology, firewalls, various forms of authentication techniques etc,
just a thought.