Digital Broadcasting Migration in Africa - Options, Alternative and Pitfalls

As a solution provider and tech pundit -I make it my business to survey the economic landscape and determine the potential technologies that will radically change the future. Particularly in Africa - we have a tendency to be late comers to the technology party BUT we make up for it in adoption and other other value added avenues.

The digital broadcasting and migration guide indicates a subtle shift from analogue broadcasting technologies to digital infrastructure powered by IT systems that are becoming pervasive and more common place in our everyday lives.

It is safe to say that the availability of various technologies in the broadcasting arena provides various alternatives and avenues of exploration for this migration.

On a personal note and form my professional standpoint - the INTERNET provides one of the lowest barriers of entry and a cost effective means to migration. As an infrastructure, it already exists and supports the display of almost all types of media. The major/ONLY constraint is bandwidth which will have to be managed on a user by user basis based on capacity.

In this regard there has been a steady expansion by most internet companies operating in Africa to grow their capacity to provide bandwidth to a growing subscriber base - whose preferences for video continues to grow.

Various companies have invested in technologies that brings the internet into the broadcasting realm - Hulu, Chromecast and other contenders.

It is ONLY a matter of time (i dare say within a five year limit) that broadcasting will have gone full bore on the internet.

We currently have internet radio stations and from surveys and polls form the last five years to date - there has been a steady decline of viewership on traditional media stations as more attention is shifting to user preferences which can be found more readily on the web.

The cost of setting up a digital broadcast hub that will rely sole on the internet as a major propagation channel is already in the works by some companies and i have started doing the due diligence required to investigate the take off of such in Nigeria and by extension - Africa.

Setup boxes that connect directly to the TV set either via video/HDMI or other available channels are already present. Their cost point ranges from 20$ - 250$ depending on the capabilities and requirements of the subscriber.

If these setup boxes are paired with paid subscription plans that already factor in Data Subscription from various internet providers - we can begin to see the traction and viability of using Internet ONLY as a primary broadcast medium.

There are even SMART-TVs that have built in web capability and access and these ill continue to proliferate.

Even the market for content generation, distribution and transmission will be a separate income segment with several stakeholders in different kinds of partnerships.

I am looking for partners and stakeholders willing and able to envision a future that is already in the works and who have the required commitment and vision to create this new business model and future together.

INCUBATION HUBS AND THEIR ROLE IN BUSINESS IDEAS AND INNOVATION

Creativity is the spark that powers innovation, drives growth and development. It sets us free to express the full gamut of our inductive powers of reasoning, logic and passionate longing for something that was not once there or something that addresses a problem.

We all know the tough call of becoming a person of independence and deciding to go through with that crazy scheme of ours - we all know too well the sleepless nights and the inherent doubts that haunt us daily - the tiny voices of dissidence in our heads that scream out to antagonize this spark of creativity that seeks to live in our world.

It is sometimes and most times a hard road to travel; especially if you are traveling alone and so you do need all the help you can get.
That is why the advent of incubation hubs is so vital.

They are a concentration and support structure of people, skills and infrastructure that can often be the kiss of life needed to lift an idea off the ground. They can be the entrepreneur best friend in a time of chaos and difficulty. Where the inherent bliss of structure, support and routine create a safe haven for new ideas and entrepreneurs to thrive.

Incubation hubs as the name implies act as incubators of ideas - like an artificial womb - they cater to and sustain an idea with merit until it is fully formed and able to take a life of its own - they provide an environment for such ideas to thrive and develop at a pace that is not smothered with real world issues.

They are often a mix of people with different talents - business managers, marketers, analysts, technical personnel, creatives and they provide a haven and equipment, time, support either in personnel and infrastructure to the would be entrepreneur.

These days as the engine room of growth that pushes for self independence - they are a means to jump start an economy that is mostly dependent on white collar jobs. The traditional mindset insists that people finish from college or the university and immediately start looking for jobs. In an flourishing economy with many jobs available - this would be no problem at all but in an economy marked by high unemployment numbers and shrinking job markets - it becomes a keenly contested battle where rights are sacrificed and employers become overlords.

Incubation hubs help to alleviate this by encouraging  independence, viable business plans and ideas that can create and open up opportunities that were sorely lacking. Most tech companies of today have very humble beginnings and started out in incubator hubs.

They received mentor-ship, financing, space, resources etc and in return they went ahead to create employment as employers of labour and eventually profit.

The sheer creative energy that resides in these hubs are a testament of the power of surrounding yourself with like minded people who seek to create something new and viable.

These hubs create and promote a mindset and attitude of never say never - they create a pool of talented persons that can be called upon for different projects and assignments within the hub.

At the juncture when that business idea is deemed viable and has been proofed - venture capitalists and partners step forward to offer support and other incentives to take it to the next level - this creates employment opportunities and re-creates the cycle all over again when one of the founding members goes out to start another venture.

We need mush more of such hubs and we need people who are not afraid to be partners an stakeholders in the creative process.

In Lagos - the cchub: http://cchubnigeria.com is one of such innovation hubs and has received support from major industry players like Google, Microsoft, RIM, MainOne, Samsung etc

We need more innovation hubs like these both for the service they provide and the outlet for creativeness and other productive enterprises.

The Role of IT Business Services in today's business economy

The business opportunities relating to the IT sector are quite encouraging.

Recent figures indicate that more than 60% of business processes are automated and the list continues to grow. Of course the benefits are very plain to see. Think:

• Time and cost savings to the business
• Personnel reduction
• Efficiency of processes

These are of course more benefits than those highlighted above but these represent the major benefits.

There is thus a need to identify areas that can benefit from the use and impact of IT.

Whole service industries have been built around IT business services and these include but are not limited to:

• Process automation
• Data capturing
• Data processing and validation
• Consultancy
• Design and specification
• Implementation

Most businesses are so integrated with IT services that they look and act more like IT companies and repositories than traditional businesses.

Business Ideas - How to Create an Maintain a Business or Business Idea

Let's face it - business ideas and opportunities are a dime-a-dozen.
There are many would be entrepreneurs with the next big "THING" only to end up disillusioned and bitter because they didn't plan.
It isn't because success is impossible - far from it. The issue is rather the combination of traits that sets the pathway to success rather than failure and believe me - failure is very easy.
Just look around, statistics indicate that new businesses are likely to fail within their first year - due in part to the pressures and other internal and external influences. As the years proceed - the risk of failure is still high but it tapers down - it is never altogether eliminated.

For businesses or business ideas to thrive they need to understand certain dynamics.
But to at least stand a chance to compete - here are some of the considerations that you need to put in place and to watch out for.

1. GET A BUSINESS IDEA or IDEAS as the case may be(this is the classic "which comes first problem" - the chicken or the egg)
2. GET A BUSINESS PLAN TO COVER AS MUCH SCOPE ON THE BUSINESS IDEA(s) as possible - do this in tandem with point number three (3) below.
3. DO YOUR RESEARCH CONTINIOUSLY- in my estimation it is better to have a good grasp of the dynamics of demand and supply or to be able to anticipate the general direction or trend of the market at any given time. This often calls for one being a gambler of sorts but only based on GOOD INFORMATION.
4. BUILD A GOOD TEAM with diverse skills and inherently complimentary abilities to make up for each other's short comings.
5. DESIGN YOUR BUSINESS FOR MULTIPLE INCOME STREAMS FROM THE GET GO -don't wait to rewrite your map - it often gives the business a sense of direction for the short, mid and long term.
6. ESTABLISH THE CASH FLOW - nothing keeps businesses afloat like money - keep expenses down and income up - that is the surest way to stay solvent.
7. CONSULT SUCCESSFUL AS WELL AS UNSUCCESSFUL BUSINESSES - learn from both good and bad decisions as the yard stick to gaining experience but nothing can replace good old fashioned mistakes (just make sure the mistakes are not too expensive or frequent)
8. EXPAND ACCORDINGLY - don't start spreading thin too early or too soon.
9. INNOVATE FREQUENTLY - Be as nimble as APPLE inc - don't follow standards too frequently; create them.
10. Patent processes - find and service needs of clients, customers or business where ever you can find such needs - that is the only way.

Evolution of the Internet: Reborn as Cloud based Infastructure

Who would have guessed?
Definitely not you or me (okay - I confess; you would probably have guessed) but in the last twenty two years - we have seen a leap in scope and scale of the Internet/web and by all accounts this evolution continues. This leap is a result of advancements and contributions made to the baseline by people like you (Yes; you - so stop looking behind you) building on the foundation laid by others.

The various buzz words out there - web 2.0, web services, cloud storage, SAS, PAAS, IoT - Infrastructure-On-Demand and so many others has created a head spin with the promise of more to come.

While it would be just swell to dwell in that sweet spot and focus on the "wonder" of these innovations (probably in another post) - I cannot help but look at the application of these technology because that is the REAL bottom line.

The question is: What and how does this help businesses, companies and organizations out there?

While these "Ohhh's and Ahhh's" moments are truly wonderful - the bottom line still remains:
How do we techprenuers (I love the sound of that) generate value and by extension income opportunities from the deployment of these new technologies?

My focus for this post is the on advent of the cloud - what it is and what it represents for the technology lovers out there?

What is the Cloud? 
(Please -I beg of thee; whatever you do, don't go quoting the process of cloud formation and references to white fluffy stuff made of angel dust)

The cloud in a word of summary is: Infrastructure.
It is a representation of hardware and software components that have been abstracted - we no longer refer to the components - we refer rather to the grouping of components to deliver a service or achieve a task.

The cloud is the modern representation of service or infrastructure on demand. It means that companies no longer have to waste precious resources buying and managing server hardware, software components, power, space and rentals and other logistics to run or host their services or IT processes.

It means that a separate business entity has taken up the responsibility and dare i say calling for purchasing and managing the required hardware and/or software components. They also take away the various dependencies that would sometimes detract from the core business competencies of businesses out there.

At the heart of the matter - IT is a tool meant to address service requirements of clients and customers the world over - these clients are wholly interested in the services that they receive and not necessarily the technology behind them or associated complexities.
To customers and clients the world over - technology is often viewed as a black-box. They know it works but they would rather not be drawn into the under-the-hood details.
I know of banks and financial institutions that look like full fledged IT companies - in fact they own more technology than the IT firms that support them.

A lot of these resources are often under utilized and wasted.
Servers and mainframes waste CPU cycles, memory and hardware storage with burst based performance that might throttle down for long periods. Sometimes - these machines are largely under preforming and not running up to 25% of their full capacity. If a new service is to be launched - we just think: Gee - why don't we just buy more hardware. We don't need more hardware - we just need better utilized hardware.

It's no body's fault - we're all collectively guilty. Call it whatever you may - the attitude of simply sticking with what one has always known and not adapting until change is virtually crammed down our throats. We tend to  force the smart ones who have already known the answers to shut up, to conform with that ignorant attitude of silence. Even if we're not interested in the core technology underpinnings - we still should look for ways of improving efficiency - the benefits are numerous - chief among them is cost savings and a quicker and less long term ROI (Return on Investment).

The carbon emission foot print of most firms is truly staggering. Power generation requirements to sustain such businesses to run 24/7 with 99.9% up-time is sometimes impossible to achieve under unforeseen circumstances that are often predicted but nobody seems to pay attention.

In comes technology to the rescue (hopefully under the guise of common sense).
Someone simply took stock of the waste and inefficiency and said:

There must be a better way to utilize these computing resources.

They were of course right!
The pre-cursor was always there - right under our noses.
The old time-slice based mainframes had it right all along; technology often borrows heavily from itself.

First was optimizations in hardware - single or multiple chip micro-processors (or brains) with multiple cores within each chip or chips (basically a brain with multiple mini brains all inter-linked) allowing certain cores (or brains) to be turned on or off as needed. Hardware made more power-efficient; better utilized CPU cycles - to do more in less time. Power requirements where monitored and brought under a lower thermal envelope.

Software wasn't left out either - codes were rewritten to take advantage of the optimizations and improvements in hardware. Utilize less CPU cycles and resources and therefore less power. In fact design principles dictate that often software should be designed for baseline hardware - this means that when placed on high end hardware - there is a significant improvement in processing speed - keeping resource allocation and utilization to a bare minimum.

On top of these foundations - virtualization came as the white knight.
It allowed us to abstract or "clone" multiple hardware stacks on the same or single hardware BUT as a software abstraction. Suddenly one server became two or three housed or "hosted" in one box. Suddenly efficiency and utilization was way up.
We could now utilize the same hardware used for typically one function for several functions.

Cluster computing also brought its own bag of tricks - allowing resources to be added or removed without having to bring the whole hardware down - meant always on hardware that was dynamically expandable. Storage, computing cores and memory were added as needed.
Management software to allocate resources to tasks, shut down sections that are not used and efficiently use sections that were running.

The last element was the commercial aspect. If big organizations found that after building these infrastructure stacks and apart from peak periods which are often not sustained indefinitely - the infrastructure was still largely under utilized - what happens?

Putting all these elements together: Virtualization, Cluster computing, Software as glue and suddenly the cloud is born.

Smaller organizations can now outsource their infrastructure - can buy what they need and expand accordingly. They can now focus on the core of their business and leave the technology and IT requirements to these cloud hosting organizations.
Data, information & systems can all be dynamically created, allocated and when done - decommissioned without the attendant technical hassle.

No more hardware management nightmare, system upgrades and maintenance, no more installation headaches or patches or fixes.

The cloud is NOT one single technology - it is an amalgamation of many technologies working together.
The cloud is not only about hardware or software - its is also about services.

It becomes a black box that is managed at a central location and availability is closer to the 99.9% target.
Clients simply handover their hardware and software worries and the "experts" take over.

Its capacity with convenience -  IT management abstracted. The future - an IT department of one.

Stay tuned!

E-Payment Space in Nigeria [Emerging Trends: PART 1]

Recent edicts by the Central Bank of Nigeria; has positioned Nigeria to embrace E-payment as a payment alternative in place of cash. Coined the "cashless" initiative; pundits and other observers later convinced the apex body to re-christen it to "cash-lite" to more adequately reflect the true nature of  E-payment systems as systems to enhance payments and purchases while reducing cash handling.

There is still a need to sensitise the populace on the many benefits and at the same time set-up the required frameworks and infrastructure to handle seamlessly payments. Fears and slow adoption are normally as a result of dis-information or misunderstanding of the overall objectives.

However the rate of adoption is still largely stalled by the infrastructure limitations and the requirement of a cheaper and more efficient means to implement such systems without incurring un-necessary costs.

Hence the positioning of mobile payments as the best possible channel and avenue to facilitate E-payment in Nigeria. By sheer statistics; mobile phones are more prevalent than payment cards. There are an estimated seventy million active mobile lines - it is thus perceived as the easiest mechanism to entry and equally cheaper.

Recent collaborations and partnership based on the frameworks promulgated by CBN have specified three models for the implementation of mobile payment systems.

• Bank driven model
• Telecom operator driven
• Third party driven

Each of these models has potential advantages and disadvantages - telecom driven models would favour the unbanked populace but would need to create collection or payment points which handle cash based transactions. The bank driven would favour banked clients but would need means to break away from bank tailored solutions that would mainly favour ONLY banked customers and this would largely be within the same bank and would be largely restricted to the number of bank branches or the branch strength. The third party driven model depends on independent solution providers who can create strategic partnerships among the various stakeholders.

However today, there are various solutions and business concerns that have been licensed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (part of the requirements for operating in the mobile payment space to keep it regulated) and each goes about its solution using any of the above listed models.

The major model that has not been fully exploited is a collaboration between telecom operators and payment processors - the idea is that a payment processor has connections to many/multiple banks. The telecom operators also have both banked and unbanked users distributed in various geographical areas. hence this provides the best value proposition among the stakeholders.

There are also the direct and immediate advantages such as individual to individual payments; individual to business payments and other variations. These can facilitate direct payments without the physical medium of money. By relying on mobile phones as the payment medium there are limited costs restricted to infrastructure already available and in use; it can provide additional revenue for telecom operators and payment processors or third parties involved in the process, commissions can be earned by agents and can thus create employment opportunities.

Additional value added services can equally be built into the mobile payment structure.

Service Apartments with a Twist (Income generation model turned on its head)

Most business ideas suffer from an income generation perspecvtive. The idea might be sound but the issue of income genration always seems to dodge the idea and this is why a majority of ideas are tossed out of the window from the onset.

The ideas found on this pages always appraoch from an income generation prespective and seek to create MULTIPLE income streams.

For instance - if you would consider the property market in Nigeria and you will agree on two major premises:

• Properties costs are normally exorbitant because owners are trying to earn back the capital and return on investment at the same time in the shortest time possible.
• The earning power of most persons and cost of living are fairly high in lagos and this impacts the choice of location.

Typically the avreage worker may live distances that are far removed from his working environment.
It may require that he wakes up at very odd hours (4 am - 5 am) and start the rigors of preparation. They would have to make seperate arrangements for such things as laundry services, feeding etc while paying a significant portion of his income as rent proceeds.

In comes my model of service apartments.

My model calls for a slightly different approach from the traditional estate model - without the large number of houses. Instead High rise apartments (maximum of three to four of such) -all  to a maximum of five/six floors.
Each  consists of a service flat (which may come in on or two bedroom configurations) with a dinning area, sitting room and toilet and bathroom.

The real ploy is not actually the property but the services that can be sold to the occupants.
The aim is to ensure that every service requirements of the occupants is met WITHIN the service complex - they will spend a good portion of their income WITHIN the service complex and thereby generate a significant amount of income for the service complex owners.

Services include but are not limited to:
Salons (men and women)
Social hangouts within the service complex
Gymnasium
Drycleaning services
Car rental services and pickup services
Kitchens (for breakfast, lunch and dinner)
Fastfood joints etc
Cinema
etc.

Thus a significant service will generate consistent income streams outside the typical rent bracket.
Services are metered out and occupants pay for only the services they require.

Based on the pace of life - it would be a welcome convinience to have all the chores taken away from your hands, while you focus on the immediate comforts andd requirements that make life easier for you. If you so wish - you can join a drop-off service (another extra amenity) to a location that is close to your office or working place.