In East Africa, the prevalence of mobile devices has opened up a new world of opportunities. With intelligent device management solutions, businesses can
capitalise on them.
Imagine a future where every African is connected to the internet via their own personal mobile device, no matter where they live and what their circumstances may be. What might have been a pipe dream only a decade ago is now looking more and more inevitable. Projected patterns of growth for mobility on the continent are staggering: Africa is the fastest emergent continent for the ICT sector with an annual growth rate of over 20%.
This ICT growth comes on the back of incredible levels of mobile penetration – smartphones are being used for money transfers, ecommerce payment, credit, savings, and insurance. The World Bank predicts that mobile money transfers will exceed $200 billion by 2015.
East Africa is blazing a trail when it comes to this mobility revolution. Tanzania leads the way in mobile commerce across sub-Saharan Africa, with Uganda and Kenya also setting the pace. In Kenya there are more cellphone subscriptions than adults and the country is expected to become one of the most connected economies in the developing world.
With personal mobile devices proliferating in the region at such an exponential rate, businesses need to seriously consider whether their mobile strategies are both developed enough to take advantage of the endless possibilities of omnipresent connectivity and secure enough that essential data is safe no matter what.
SAP’s portfolio of mobile management solutions offer a one stop solution to implementing an integrated model that takes full advantage of increased mobility while providing all of the necessary security to protect critical corporate data. Such solutions are diverse and scalable, allowing companies to implement according to their budget, needs and preferred architecture.
Building a strong device management foundation can skyrocket the quality of a company’s communication and collaboration levels, as well as support various mobile devices on multiple service providers as tools of productivity. Companies can easily and safely manage mobile workforces through their personal devices from any location.
Perhaps most exciting of all is how a well-conceived device management strategy can act as a springboard toward future enterprise applications. M-banking is only the beginning – the East African market is ripe for innovative mobile applications that can support agricultural, educational, health, social, and governmental development.
The ubiquity of mobile technology is transforming the East African consumer landscape. With the right device management strategies, businesses can revolutionise the way they manage their workforces and implement ground-breaking applications of such technology.
