Company Announcement - Pan African telecoms operator, Gondwana International Networks has announced that its AfricaOnline business has launched a managed infrastructure and services solution in Ghana. The new SME product offering, iManage, has been done in conjunction with managed services company, SevenC Computing. Winston Smith, General Manager, Terrestrial Services for GIN and AfricaOnline says that the partnership with SevenC Computing has already proven beneficial in several countries: “We have seen great success in Namibia, Zimbabwe and Uganda and anticipate tremendous growth in Ghana. There is great demand for level three managed services support in Africa, as cloud simply cannot deliver on its own.”

SevenC Computing Managing Director, Darren Osbourn says Ghana is a developing country and needs the SME sector to succeed, propelling the economy forward and creating long-lasting employment: “Given that IT skills across Africa are lacking, AfricaOnline has a significant opportunity to successfully introduce a unique managed service solution in conjunction with SevenC Computing.” Kwadwo Ohemeng Asumaning, Managing Director: AfricaOnline Ghana says that IT is seen as a significant enabler, but one better suited to being outsourced as opposed to provided in-house: “Local SMEs do not have the resources or skills to manage these functions in-house nor can they afford the capital expenditure for the required infrastructure. The iManage solution is as a result, perfect for the Ghanaian market, enabling SME businesses to focus on building their businesses and not managing IT.”

He says local SMEs face significant IT issues and are not equipped to deal with them: “There is often inferior quality software that does not produce the promised results; software piracy, exorbitant software costs, lack of support, poor quality network infrastructure and data security issues.” In addition, he says there is also the high cost of implementing an effective data storage solution and as a result, most SME’s do not have disaster recovery plans or systems in place: “iManage solution will address the majority of these local IT issues, removing initial capital outlay, thus making it much easier for these organisations to concentrate on building a business and not an IT network,” says Asumaning.