The author Frank Makoza works as a System Administrator at Epsilon & Omega and as an it@ab consultant. He is responsible for developing and implement the Commodity Brokery and E-payments Solutions in Business Information Server.
Sometimes the production of goods in African countries is a lesser problem compared to the difficulties with logistics and transportation. In Malawi, especially in remote areas without an effective transportation network, losses and damages due to poorly organized logistics are now addressed by an ambitious Information Technology project: a Business Information Server, set up and run by Epsilon and Omega, aims at minimizing these losses by sound information management.
Everyday in communities, whether as individuals or organizations, we are involved in decision making processes. One important element in this process is information. The significance of information supporting business processes can hardly be overstated. One example is Malawi, one of the countries in Southern Africa where transport companies and local producers are faced with the problems of uncoordinated transportation of goods due to the lack of business information. To date, transportation often remains a highly individual process, additional cargo and organized bundling of several transportation jobs can hardly be achieved. The result are high expenses for producers and considerable losses during transportation.
Internet Based Information System for Transportation
The e-Business project Transport and Commodity Server aims at solving problems of uncoordinated transportation of goods by providing an internet platform where local producers and farmers can input details of commodity to be transported in a central database. Transport companies now can access this information and plan routes and additional cargo for the transport.
Users of the system will subscribe on the system and using their login details they will access the information on the platform. All the subscribed users will have to pay annual subscription fees and services charges for the transactions. The system has been developed in such a way that users can find it easy to use.
On the other hand, producers themselves can combine load and share the transportation expenses rather than an individual paying for a trip which sometimes is expensive. The system will also provide secure ePayment services as an option for billing, e.g. credit card payment via the internet.
A major challenge in this project is making internet access available for local producers, especially those in remote areas. In Malawi most of the people in rural areas have very limited access to internet. Another challenge is the use of online payment for goods and services. A lot of people have only little, if any, knowledge on how to use the online payment systems.
In cooperation of transport company associations and local producers' associations the problem of internet access infrastructure can possibly be overcome through establishment of internet access points in remote areas.
The Malawi Government is currently running a project of establishment remote internet access points in urban centers which later will extend to the rural areas throughout Malawi. In the private sector Telecommunications and Internet Providers and main Telecommunications Company (Malawi Telekom Limited – Mstreams Project) are involved in joint ventures to provide internet to remote areas.
it@ab Training Programme Supports e-Business Projects
The Transport and Commodity Server has been developed as part of the Information Technology in African Business (it@ab) training programmes of 2003/4 and 2004/5. The one year Junior Consultants' training conducted in Germany under the direction of the German capacity building organization InWEnt has facilitated the skills and knowledge required to develop this platform by providing state of the art technological knowledge.
Mr Soyapi Mumba (who works as a Consultant at Epsilon and Omega) participated in the 2003/04 Junior Consultants' Training and developed the Transport and Security Module of the Business Information Server.
Epsilon and Omega, the company responsible for the server and the service behind it, is an it@ab institution partner based in Malawi, founded in 1990. The company provides Information Technology services in areas of ICT and Management Consultancy, Internet Services such as connectivity through broadband and dial up connections, end user training through Customer Oriented Approach Training (COAT) and general IT Technical Support Services. Epsilon and Omega has also partner companies in Southern Africa, United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.
High Hopes, Small Steps
Epsilon and Omega as a player in the private sector for the development of ICT in Malawi believes that, with time, the Business Information Server will provide useful information supporting business processes and communication between local producers, transporters and other involved partners, such as exporters, government ministries and departments, revenue authorities and future investors.
As the world is moving towards the information age, Malawi as a developing nation needs to move forward and use the ICT infrastructure as a tool for development. Maybe the Transport and Commodity Server can add to a sustained development and, through the substantial benefits it offers, to the better and more effective use of the resources the country offers.