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GABORONE – With five years experience in information communication technology (ICT) solutions in Botswana, Consult I.T (CIT) is spreading services in pursuit of client centric system solutions with a major bias towards Livestock Identification and Traceback Systems (LITS).

The company applauds the uptake rate of ICT solutions following its string of successes implementing solutions across the breath of the industries which include various government departments, various parastatals, banking industry, political parties, mining companies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

“We see a shift in mindset as more and more companies realize the value of retaining existing customers as opposed to always running after a depleting customer base. There is now an emphasis in the market for customer relationship management solutions and also measuring internal processes and resources’ responsiveness to customer needs,” said Dominic Ferguson managing director of CIT.

Ferguson said the biggest challenge with introducing any new technology is changing the intended beneficiaries’ mindset.

“To this end CIT attaches great emphasis to change management as a key element of our overall solutions provision approach.”

Having identified a niche, CIT has managed to score various successes in providing customer centric solutions to the local market, the major achievement being the international recognised LITS.

“When the government of Botswana initially introduced LITS with our assistance it was the first and only national Bolus based LITS solution in the world. This presented unique challenges that had to be solved locally without any avenue for external assistance (technical or process wise),” said Ferguson adding that farmers are enthusiastically embracing the solutions.

He further said since the introduction of the LITS some challenges have been solved.

Ferguson cited outbreak of a contagious disease like Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) which can be contained within a week and the ability to accurately resolve ownership disputes among farmers.

On the other hand CIT has assisted the Department of Water Affairs to consolidate and manage its server infrastructure more effectively and training the department’s staff members to manage the installations on their own post the project closure.

“Given that the department requires its systems to be up 24/7 as they are critical to proper handling of customer payments and customer relationship management, we designed the server infrastructure to be always available and to cross-compensate for any equipment failures. The department has reported a dramatic increase in their system uptime since our solution came online,” said Ferguson.

To complement appreciation of its services on the local market, the company’s service delivery and customer relation are kept at a high level.

“The value customers derive from using us is getting advice from a company with a strong knowledge on the Botswana ICT industry and the market in general. They also have the assurance as we are a stone’s throw away should customers need our assistance at any time.”

Commenting on human resources issues Ferguson the company is affected like any other player in the market.

“We are happy that at CIT we have maintained our 100% citizen employee level while facing these daunting challenges, instead of taking the easier route of employing cheaper and more readily skilled foreign workers.”

“Our relationships with our partner companies are based on cross-benefaction of the partners. With our local partners it is the sharing of specialized skills in our various areas of specialization in the ICT market.”

He said sharing skills helps the company save money as opposed to trying to be the jack-of-all trades while with international partners it is usually around specialist solution in both directions, “they need our LITS solution for a customer in their country or we need their PMS tool for a customer in Botswana as examples.”

“These relationships give assurance to our customers that the team they are engaging is the right team to meet their specific solutions needs,” added Ferguson.

Powered by international standards and best market practices the company is proud to offer Microsoft Solutions Framework and the Microsoft Operations Framework for our Microsoft related solutions.  The company also follows the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) from the Project Management Institute (PMI) as our overarching project management approach.