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In August the dti invited senior managers and decision makers from companies in the ICT sector to attend an Executive Breakfast Briefing on "Improving Business Performance". Briefings were held at the dti Campus in Pretoria, Wits University, in Johannesburg, the Bandwidth Barn, in Cape Town, and the SmartXchange, in Durban. A total of over 50 people attended the Briefings.
"Improved performance" means different things to different organisations. For some it means looking inside the business for ways to improve. For others it means improving external factors such as marketing and exports. The objective of the Briefing was to explain a number of initiatives, supported by the dti, that aim to grow the competitiveness of local ICT companies and to build a world-class ICT industry in South Africa.
Prof Barry Dwolatzky, Director of the Joburg Centre for Software Engineering (JCSE), described dti-supported programmes that aim to improve the "internal performance" of ICT companies. Internal factors include the quality of software produced and the ability to run development projects on time and within agreed budgets. The focus in these programmes at the JCSE is on Process Improvement. Dwolatzky pointed out that the "process management premise" states that the quality of a product or service is strongly influenced by the maturity of he processes used to produce or deliver it. It is this principle that lies at the heart of quality initiatives in the manufacturing and other sectors. The Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) helps organisations to improve the maturity of their processes.
The JCSE launched its "Bringing CMMI to South Africa" programme in 2006. With financial support from the dti local experts have been trained to provide support for organisations wishing to adopt the internationally accepted CMMI process improvement model.
The JCSE has been working with a group of 12 local companies and organisations on a Pilot CMMI adoption programme. With additional support from the dti this programme has been expanded to include other process initiatives, namely People- CMM, CMMI for Acquisition and Services, the Team Software Process (TSP) and the Personal Software Process (PSP). The JCSE is also looking for companies in the Western Cape and KZN to join its CMMI Pilot. The Executive Breakfast Briefings were an opportunity to inform companies in these regions of the value of process adoption.
Nadia Nortje of the dti spoke at the Briefing about the SAVANT Programme, which she manages. SAVANT is a marketing and awareness programme for the ICT and Electronics sectors. It started in 2000 with the establishment of the ICT Development Council chaired by the former dti Minister Alec Erwin. One of the major objectives of SAVANT is to showcase the capabilities, successes and competitive advantages of the South African ICT and electronics companies.
SAVANT's activities include hosting an information portal, various networking activities, participation in tradeshows, B2B matchmaking, research and many more. Nortje encouraged companies at the Briefing to become SAVANT members and to participate in its activities.
The third presenter at the Briefing was Eileen Leopold, CEO of the South African Electrotechnical Export Council (SAEEC). The Export Council facilitates export growth for its members. It also acts as a formal interface to Government on export issues for companies in the ICT, electronics and electrical engineering sectors.
After presenting some interesting statistics on the SA software industry - valued at R22.1 billion in 2008 - Eileen Leopold discussed factors that companies wishing to export software products and services should consider. She said that foreign buyers of software attached a great deal of emphasis on the perceived risk profile of the company that wishes to export. "Trust" and "Competence" are crucial elements in the perception of risks. International quality frameworks, such as CMMI, are essential in building credibility of exporters.
Leopold ended the Briefing by giving companies a number of valuable practical guidelines in carrying out an assessment of a company's export readiness. She encouraged companies to join the SAEEC, and spoke about a cost effective scheme whereby companies can join both the JCSE and the SAEEC.
Companies that participated in the Briefing gave very positive feedback. They all felt that they gained useful insights and advice on how they might improve their performance. Similar Briefings will be held in the future.
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