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New Platform Aims to Reduce High Failure Rate of Communications Initiatives in Emerging Economies
At a U.N. meeting in Geneva earlier this month, Amjad Umar told SciDevNet, an NGO that analyzes the impact of science on solutions for developing countries, that failure rates for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) projects in developing countries hovers around 85 percent. His company, NGE (Next Generation Enterprises) Solutions, has launched a beta platform that can cut failure rates and costs of ICT projects, and reduce the planning time to a few hours.
The Strategic Planning, Architecture, Control and Education (SPACE) platform is a multipurpose tool and resource, and provides assistance with research and planning, development and entrepreneurship. The materials are tailored for specific countries.
SPACE can cut costs for governments and organizations by up to 80 percent, Umar boasts.
In less than an hour, according to Umar's website, SPACE can “produce detailed technical plans and project management guidelines for more 100 mobile and Internet-based services for 192 countries.”
The company boasts an extensive network of IT connections, including corporate technology leaders like IBM and Google, NGOs and government officials.
The platform has been used by groups like the Cyber Cities of Nepal (CCON) Project and the Republic of Macedonia.
On the SPACE website, Ivo Ivanovski, the Minister of Information Society of Macedonia, writes:
Using the Computer Aided Planner has proved to be very simple and straightforward, speeding up the process of preparing required documentation significantly. Beside that and more important, we have been able to gain access to highly useful resources (methodologies, guidelines, standards and best practices) which guided us through the whole strategic planning process.
Mayak Machar, the founder of South Sudan Development Network, wrote, “Computer Aided Planning Environment is of great value in rapidly developing the large number of eservices needed by my country.”
Umar told SciDevNet that an “ICT consultancy without borders” initiative could be launched as soon as September.
Original article by Jessica McKenzie published on TechPresident, July 16 2013