At the same time, we were already active in a distribution mode for a little of our customers. So that was the primary target. There were not many companies that were very active, especially in the storage area. So that gave us a little bit of an advantage entering into Nigeria, and I think we are now entering into the market. The third element is that we see that stability being sustained; we see our business growing, and that means that we are now preparing to really become more active in Nigeria than we currently are.

So we are building up our staff, doubling from two to four, and again, it’s still very limited, but that is the model we are currently working, and I think like any business company, you look at certain countries or areas to penetrate and when you become successful, you try and drive that success by a give and take model. So I think until now, we have been in the taking model, and it’s also the time to give something back to Nigeria. And that would primarily be investment in people and resources.

In which of the sectors would you say you have an edge?

I would say that our main presence now is in the telecommunications and finance industries. It started in the finance industry and as soon as the telecommunication industry through companies like Celtel and MTN started, we cornered them.

They are not only bringing their primary storage environments to it, but also their secondary environments. So there is a lot of activity around; there is a lot of activity around disaster recovery going at the moment in Nigeria where you see those companies preparing themselves to make sure that they can get to a zero downtime environment.

What informed the decision to hold the forum?

It’s a concept that we use already in many countries. That innovation is something that started off very big in the US and now we transported it into the European and African countries. And we use it for two folds: One is for our customers, which I think, is a kind of recognition of the business they are doing with us. In the second place, it’s almost like an acquisition forum.

How robust is the NetApp platform?

Some of our customers in the beginning were not sure whether this platform would do it. Of course, the customers have said after using it for a couple of years that it works, that it can be done in zero downtime, and of course, as a company we always assume that it’s not only our solution that is a part of it. One of the key things in Nigeria is how to do the power supply the right way. There are still issues around getting the right power supply.

So that is something that we are not part of, we cannot really influence that. But if you look at things around data integration, which is very crucial, we can do things in back up and restore mode. Again, I think we have a proven record with many customers, not only in Nigeria but also outside. That has really improved.

What support do you give to companies to be able to manage your data storage equipment?

If you look at our current support model, we have people now on the ground; hence we’ve been able to do personal back-ups. We have our regional office in Tel-Aviv in Israel, and hence, you will hear a lot of customers saying that the Israeli team is very pro-active and very quickly reactive in helping to solve things, and they are in the back-end supported by a global support infrastructure where we have a 24/7-hour support in North Carolina.

Again, like any company, you have a layered structure in giving the support well, and the only thing I think is our challenge in Nigeria is that with regards to what we are currently experiencing, we will speed up more local oriented support to make sure that we are there in a timely manner. And then the second element is that we will also invest much more in what we termed consulting services. Because what you see with large corporations either in the telco space or in the financial space, and maybe, the oil industry, is a priority for a lot of the companies, including the IT companies.

Those companies want much more from the vendor and support in terms of storage infrastructure and architecture. So these requests become more robust as companies go into a conscious model where they understand that we are now in new phase after the 1980s and 90s where storage and data have become a central point of entry.

I think the reason is that we have now finally come to a point where the business people are much more conscious and involved in the IT decision because they understand that most of their decisions will be based on how they get the data provided to make sure that they will make the right decisions.

Our global support infrastructure like in any company,( you can always think about things that you’ll improve), is robust enough to support a lot of our other global companies.So the Israeli team is very dedicated and proactive, and so now we are at the flipping point of investing much more locally to make sure that we can cover a lot of support in Nigeria itself.

What other areas are you looking at tapping into?

I would say that the major area we haven’t touched on Nigeria yet is the public sector. And public sector would mean, let’s say the utility companies like government institutions. So that is absolutely where we have a lot of room for growth; that’s one.

The other thing is that as we now have a customer base, that is working on our products let’s say between zero and five years, those customers may come with new demands. So in the financial institutions, it will not be much more about data security, making sure that, like I said, disaster recovery and the back up situation is improving.

The next element for most of our customers here now is that the telecommunication companies will be scaling out and that for them will be our next investment, which will be much more around training and educating a lot of people in-house through our resellers.

If you look at the latest, it is very much partner-oriented and the reason for that is we have understood that it is the only way to really scale out our business and it comes down to our core, which is that we are a technology company. We are not a services company per se, it is for us to find out the right ways to bring our technology to the market.

What’s your market share, and what do you project.

You see, there are a lot of ways people look at the market. And honestly, the only way we try to look at it is through the analysts. So there are a lot of slices around, the IT storage industry is very young. So in general, our market share is around 10 per cent worldwide. In Nigeria, we have no data at all. We are still in the phase where we are looking at growing customer by customer through our partners, gaining

a lot in IT educated personnel, that’s where our platform is even going to do better because it is so simple to handle.

What are your challenges?

I will tell you from the customer’s perspective, the world has become one place, so the demands we get from the large enterprises here is the same we’ll get from Holland or the US, especially the demands around storage are so similar.

For example in the financial services market, all those demands have the same types of characteristics so it’s about having a full disaster recovery; because its so much regulated. I would say that the primary thing around Nigeria for a long time of course has been that people are looking for the right stability of investment climate to do business.

And I think at least after eight years of democracy from the political side, that that climate is absolutely there, and there is a lot of trust in that moving forward. Maybe, the only peculiarity that you will have, but that’s part of the growing up of the country is, the way we do business in the financial basis is still very much around pre-payment basis etc, which to be honest, you will not find in most of the European or American countries. Aagain honestly, that's the only peculiarity I can mention, because if I begin to look into how the approach to IT technology is and the implementation of that, there is no difference.

What is the place of power in your business?

Anything around information technology is fully dependent on power. If power interruptions would continue the way they currently are, what that means is that the skills of people being able to use IT technology in general and storage specifically will be limited. What I've seen and read until now is that Nigeria is preparing to separate the production of electricity from the distribution. This is where you will see what we call a modern approach to making sure that you will get fully focused on the production and the distribution. Again, it's a matter of time before all of that come under control in countries like Nigeria.

Should we look forward to more visits?

Absolutely. Again between myself and the people working here in the country, we have at least one management layer. So I will not be here on a monthly basis or every two months, but I think twice a year.

The funny thing is that it will also depend on how much the company will drive into Nigeria, it's always you going anywhere you put your money.The good thing with me coming here now is that I will get a very tiny flavour of maybe the Lagos Area and how companies are operating, so the team that is working here today has a very broad view of what the potential is and how they want to get it. And so you have to work the internal dynamics; how does the company measure itself, and how do we prepare ourselves?

As I said before, it's a give and take model. It's like we've been taking alot from the business side, and there's a moment where you have to start giving it back to get even balance. I'm not saying it's unbalanced, but I think the balance over time will be better because like any country or company, it's just a shortage of knowledge of everybody. you know how this is on a world wide basis; we have those shortages in Europe and in the US, and so people try now to go to India or to China to sort of fill that gap.

I've had some interesting discussions here, but the big question is why should Nigeria not be one of them? Because, besides your local language, your first language is English, it is the world of business language, and again I think it is so much more opportunity with Nigeria than just the discussions we had along storage. The country is in a great shape to take advantage of this.

ORGANIZATIONS operating in Nigeria have been alerted on the need to raise their antennae for cyber-terrorism and other forms of Internet attacks as a means of protecting employees, core networks and back-end facilities.

The warning became necessary following the increase in strategic value of Information technology and the Internet to organizations’ service delivery. Speaking at the inauguration of Information Security Group (ISG) Africa held at the headquarters of the United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc in Lagos recently, Mr. David Isiavwe, Chairman, ISG Africa, Lagos chapter expressed fear over the level of information security awareness by organizations playing in Nigeria, saying “with the threats of terrorism and a dramatic increase in the number and complexity of other security related risks such as computer viruses, cyber attacks, theft, extortion and fraud, companies must find a more comprehensive approach to securing their facilities.

Isiavwe, who is also the head, Corporate Audit and Compliance, UBA, said that at a time when company assets are increasingly becoming information-based and intangible, there is a greater need for a collaborative effort towards the institutionalization of information security throughout the country.

“Terrorism is a real threat as it presents a significant opportunity to destroy the economic environment of organizations and the society at large. The migration of business, government and the activities of individuals to technology-driven platforms; the technical evolution towards undisrupted availability of systems, instant access to networks and the growing risks to the global IT infrastructure make it mandatory for the infrastructure to be protected by all concerned parties,” he declared.

He added that the formation of ISG Africa in Nigeria is a purposive step towards ensuring that a lasting solution is found that will protect the back-ends of corporations in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, Nigeria has been identified as the second largest country originating fraudulent orders.
Making a presentation at the ISG meeting in Lagos, Mrs. Adedoyin Odunfa, Executive Director, Phillips Consulting pointed out that activities of financial services operators are much more prone to attack and called on companies to adopt a preventive rather than curative control measure.

Zinox Divine Notebook, Nigeria ’s No. 1 selling PC, which was launched in January this year at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University , Awka, is attracting deserved attention in the market. Mr. Echika Ezuka, Zinox’s head of corporate affairs, said since the introduction of the new product, there is a scramble to acquire the notebook which came with many revolutionary features such as the LCD 15.4 inch high definition SVGA display screen, the Net Trace-anti theft application which enables Zinox trace a stolen divine notebook from anywhere in the world, dual core processors etc. The acceptance for the product, reassuringly, cuts across the various targets of the market.

Ezuka made this observation while answering questions on the performance of Zinox products in the market from a delegation that visited the company recently. He explained that, generally, the Zinox brand is well received in the Nigerian and West African market but the acceptance of the Zinox Divine is unprecedented with a record of 3,500 confirmed orders before launch.

Ezuka pointed out that globally Zinox records at least 300 enquiries daily on the Zinox Divine with more than 50 per cent of those enquiries translating into sales. He said the product has three main variants, which make it possible for it to win the preference of different market targets.

The Zinox Divine DMX runs on an Intel Dual Core 1.6/2.0 GHz, the Zinox Divine Notebook MX runs on Intel P - M 1.6/1.8 GHz, while the Zinox Divine Notebook CX runs on Intel C – M 1.6GHz. All the variants come standard with 512 MB Ram. Ezuka stressed that the most striking feature of the Notebook is its durability.

He explained that the product has an almost zero return rate. He said that only 2 of the over 6,500 systems already sold, were returned for minor repairs that had to do with software.
Ezuka explained that the pricing for the Zinox Divine Notebook was very competitive given its high quality and the Zinox 13 month’s comprehensive no-story-warranty, which drastically reduces the total cost of PC ownership.

He said the company’s branch network nationwide would always remain an advantage. In addition, Zinox Computers has a strong financing arrangement with financial institutions like First Bank. These PC purchase financing arrangements ensure that the low level of disposable income would not be enough reason for not buying a computer.

Zinox Computers ensures that individuals and organizations could pay in instalments ranging from three months to 24 months depending on the financial capabilities of the customer. Recently, Zinox Computers won the Computer Brand of the Year 2006 (NITTA), and the Computer Company of the Year 2006 (This Day Awards for Excellence).

IN SPITE of the fact that the Federal Government waived off duty on Completely Knocked Down parts (CKDs) last year, this is yet to reduce the price of systems in the country.
Rather prices seem to have been out of the reach of the people. Unlike before, many people are today getting more technology- inclined owing to information gathered through the Internet. But price has remained the greatest problem being faced by the people.

In some quarters, it is believed that clone PCs are cheaper compared to brand ones but in reality, the cost of software installation as well as other peripherals put together is close to the price of a new one.
Even the Computer for All Nigerians initiative (CANi) has not done much to abate the situation even when it is hoped that things would change for the best with the coming on stream of the scheme.

But kudos should go to Zinox Technologies Limited, for initiating the Students Laptop scheme, which is meant to be affordable for the average Nigerian student.
Though the scheme, a partnership with First Bank of Nigeria seems to address this issue on the face value but some IT critics explained that rather than eradicate poverty, it adds to it based on the fact that the installment is far higher.

Another company, West Atlantic Computers Ltd, initiated another kind of scheme in the mould of the UN-backed One Laptop per Child initiative, the One Student per Laptop scheme, in the country.
This scheme is purely based on refurbished laptops, which are made available to genuine students that can produce certain documents as well as a guarantor after which the student can now own the laptop.
Much as this favours a few of these students, what happens to others that would want to own a system but cannot still afford it?

It is also a known fact that this is computer age and every one needs to be computer literate. This cannot be achieved if price of systems seem to be skyrocketing and not in the least stable.
Much as it appeared that the government has done its part in the waiver of duty on CKDS, many dealers still argue that there should be a zero percent waiver on complete systems as well.

This they say would invariably reduce drastically the cost of systems in the country and help in accelerating access to the computer as well as bridging the digital divide. They argue that if government should limit its waiver grant on only CKDS then, it has not done enough to alleviate the problem being experienced by people who seek knowledge through the Internet. Whether the government is ready to give a listening ear is another.

According to some IT critics, except the government is ready to grant zero per cent waiver on all Computer products, clones and brands, the issue of computer access for Nigerians will remain a mirage. And this is bound to defeat the laudable CANi programme.

The Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria (Capdan) has said that Vietnam does not offer Nigerian computer vendors a good business opportunity going by the logistics of connecting the two countries.

According to the association, the visa fee is one of the highest in the emerging markets of the world as it goes for as high as $300 compared to $150 for countries such as China , Malaysia , and Dubai among others.

Apart from this, there is no direct flight from Nigeria to Vietnam and it takes a minimum of four days to get to the country with about four connecting flights, which to many, will also make doing business with the country very expensive.

This revelation is a fallout of Vietnamese trade office which is currently making all efforts to ensure patronage from computer vendors in the country of Vietnam ’s computer and allied products.
Mr. Pham Van Cong, head, Vietnam trade office in Nigeria , said at a meeting organized by a one man Nigeria-Vietnam chamber of Commerce led by Mr. Oye Akinsemoyin with members of Capdan, that there are a lot of business potential in doing business in Nigeria , especially with the large volume being driven by businesses in the country.

Cong was, however, unable to convince members of Capdan that attended the meeting on the benefits they stand to get in doing business with Vietnam as well as incentive the office plans to give vendors who may be willing to trade with the country’s businessmen.

VIA Technologies has unveiled its vision of mobile computing devices, with its NanoBook ultra mobile device (UMD) reference design.

The company hopes the NanoBook – designed and manufactured in conjunction with First International Computer – will provide original equipment manufacturers with ideas for their own UMD product lines.
Utilising the company's ultra low voltage 1.2GHz VIA C7-M processor and VIA VX700 chipset, the NanoBook weighs 850g, measures 230x171x29.4mm and features a seven-inch WVGA screen with touch panel.

However, the shrunken notebook is not without the power of a standard laptop.
Buyers have the option to run Microsoft Windows XP or Windows Vista Basic on the NanoBook and can expect up to five hours of battery life. It also has a standard computing keyboard.

The NanoBook provides 1GB of double-data-rate two synchronous dynamic random access memory (DDR2 SDRAM) and a minimum 30GB hard drive. In terms of connectivity, the NanoBook features 802.11g WiFi, Bluetooth and Ethernet support, plus a digital video interface and two USB 2.0 ports.
Alongside the screen, the NanoBook has a USB 2.0 slot that enables the snap-in integration of a variety of modules, including world time clock/calendar, GPS, VOIP, and wireless broadband.

VIA has already secured the interest of Packard Bell in its NanoBook reference design, which it hopes will retail at around $600 (R4 200).
Speaking at the VIA Technology Forum in Taipei, Packard Bell's VP of Asia and global operations, Roger Yuen, said the design addressed the top five criticisms of notebooks and handhelds.

“We are continuously told that the user interface of portable devices are not optimised and too complex; the prices are too high, battery life too short, the device is heavy and too big and, when faced with smaller options like handhelds, there isn't a keyboard and pointing device,” he said.
However, VIA's reference design combines the best features and functionalities of both devices, he explained.

Building on VIA's reference design, the company has developed its own brand of the NanoBook, called the EasyNote XS. Targeting a price point of $499 (R3 500), the vendor hopes to release the product to the market by the end of the year.