A great deal has been written about electronic commerce and its impact on the business world. While this new business methodology still has detractors, virtual transactions have become a reality and literally no industry or player has been left untouched by it. This is according to Nikki Kettles, managing director of the telecommunications division at NamITech.
"The e-commerce phenomenon has often been likened to a gold rush, and not without good reason - the gold rush was characterised by thousands of fortune seekers rushing to profit from newly-discovered gold deposits.
"However, just like in the gold rushes of yesterday, very few of the opportunists who rushed to the gold fields of the e-commerce business world have survived. Indeed, the press has had a field day with bleak news about dotcom disasters. While it sounds like the bottom had fallen out of this market," said Kettles, "the opposite is actually true: all indications point to the fact that ever-increasing amounts will be spent on e-commerce. One of the areas where e-commerce will bring large business benefits is in the telecommunications sector. It is here," she continued, "where the latest in mobile communications will open up business boundaries like never before, including in so-called darkest Africa."
Kettles said that while there are only currently 15 million GSM users in Africa, this number is expected to swell to well over 100 million in the next three years as countries such as Egypt, Morocco and the densely-populated Nigeria begin to roll out GSM networks.
"This is going to be a booming market and it is potentially going to free Africa from the shackles of being limited by its communication abilities.
Kettles says her company is one of the main providers of GSM solutions to the more than 30 networks in Africa and is aiming to increase its role as the pre-eminent supplier into Africa. Its new universal commerce platform called UnIT-e is a completely open platform that facilitates plug-and-play m-commerce (mobile commerce) solutions. The platform has been created to allow access to any device, be it a mobile phone, Internet-enabled PC, PDA or kiosks that allow for the quick implementation of mobile solutions.
"We are able to assist corporates in developing and implementing successful mobile solutions without having to spend time on re-developing or adapting existing technology to fit the solution. I believe that in the next five years revenues coming from this sector in Africa as a whole are going to make a significant impact on our overall earnings."
For further information contact NamITech, 011 458 0000, www.namitech.co.za
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