Alex Barasa’s ABNO Software International serves mainly educational institutions.
Alex Barasa has been innovative from a tender age. It was therefore no surprise that he set up an IT firm immediately after graduating from the Kenya Technical Training College (KTTC) where he studied for a diploma in computer studies.
So good was he in technology that KTTC employed him as a computer technician. However, Mr Barasa left the job to form ABNO Software International in 2004, a computer technology and consulting firm based in Westlands, Nairobi.
“When I established ABNO I was actually working at KTTC. After realising that the business had huge potential I had to leave,” says the 36-year-old father of two from Bungoma County.
He said his new business was buoyed by the fact that Microsoft and Oracle were the only dominant players in the Kenyan ICT market, and their software licences were "exorbitantly costly."
Armed with some savings (he refused to disclose the amount), a laptop and Internet connectivity, Mr Barasa developed a software solution that creates management information systems for colleges, universities and companies.
“It was not an easy start. Getting the first customer to believe in me was not easy. People always believe it cannot be made in Kenya and that it has to come from the West,” he said.
Another challenge was that his partner abandoned him a year later, he had to continue alone. “Maybe we were not reading from the same script and he had to go,” he said.
“Fortunately, I met Jane Wangui, a very talented and self-motivated techie who joined me to help conceptualise a management information system. She is also the mother of my two children.”
Today ABNO is one of the leading ICT companies in the country with close to a decade of experience in developing customer solutions.
The list of customers has also grown from about five to include higher learning institutions, reputable organisations and companies in Kenya and across the globe.
To date, the company has implemented enterprise resource planning systems in 40 Technical Industrial Vocational and Entrepreneurship Training institutions and 12 universities across the country.
ABNO's software is fully integrated and provides solutions for the entire management of universities and colleges from invoicing of fees to hostel allocation, admission and generation of letters, among others.
“The system has made life easier for administrators and students by eliminating cases of wrong course registration and missing marks,” he said. Mr Barasa recently bagged a contract to install his software in 65 Kenya Medical Training College campuses across 43 counties.
The company, which boasts of about 40 employees, also recently won a World Bank contract to deploy a software to the National Industrial Training Authority for managing the Kenya Youth Employment and Opportunities Project.
“Our automation process has enabled our customers to get quick reports and data that fuel ‘what is’ and ‘what if’ scenarios and dynamic plans to meet today’s unpredictable markets.
“This explains why we have replaced a good number of ERPs implemented by our competitors, especially in learning institutions,” he said.
Like any other business, the company is grappling with several challenges. Mr Barasa said that convincing customers to embrace locally developed products is an uphill task.
His desire to expand the business has also been hampered by shortage of funds. Mr Barasa said his dream is to see his software adopted by universities across Africa. He also looks forward to growing ABNO into a giant firm specialising in customised software development.
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