by Cat Pritchard
It’s always exciting when a project from a South African university beats thousands of entries from the likes of Harvard or MIT to win a prestigious prize. It’s even better when that project has the potential to help small businesses in Africa become globally competitive.
Imagine a toolkit that can help small businesses in Africa to set themselves up for e-commerce at minimal cost. Professor Jean-Paul van Belle (UCT Head of Information Systems) did and now he is the recipient of the prestigious and highly competitive IBM Faculty Award.
More than just the immediate award is the potential that a project like this has to change the image of a “struggling”, “backwards” Africa. With many small businesses in Africa not yet using ICTs effectively, due to a lack of know-how, ease of use and accessibility, this toolkit becomes an essential tool in unlocking Africa’s business potential.
Professor Mike Wormald, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, believes that “this will not only increase the efficiency and effectiveness of organisations, but also help SMMEs and NGOs to leap over the digital divide using mobile internet access, customer relationship management, digital storytelling and open source platforms.”
The funding from IBM, of more than R162 000, will enable UCT to create this Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) self-assessment resource toolkit, which enables small businesses to assess their own readiness for e-Commerce.
How it works is that, once an organisation has assessed its maturity and decided which ICT areas to target, a set of resources will assist it to implement the changes. These include how-to guides, checklists and other self-help materials customised for Africa.
The toolkit will be available free online as well as on CD or DVD. The project has already been prototyped thanks to seed funding from NGO, ConnectAfrica.
Professor Mike Wormald believes the award will have a much greater long-term impact: “There will be an important feedback loop to larger IT organisations, such as IBM, sensitising them of the needs and challenges of small organisations in the developing world, opening up engagement with this market.”