Technology

Failure to reward employees holds back in-house systems

CIO

Urvendrasinh Gohil and Philip Obondy, of Cyberoam present a cheque to Andrew Karanja, of CIO East Africa towards the third annual CIO 100 Awards to be held in Kigali from July 10 to 12. Photo/Courtesy

Failure to reward employees who come up with innovative systems is holding back the development of in-house IT solutions, an industry expert has said.

Harry Hare, director, CIO East Africa, said most firms relay on third party IT systems yet some have competent staff who can develop innovative systems, helping the companies save huge capital.

CIO East Africa has organised a two-day IT forum to be held in Rwanda between July 10 and 12 that will bring together more than 100 chief information officers from the region to discuss best practices that can be adopted to reward such employees while at the same time not compromise the company policy.

“Procurement rules in most firms do not recognise buying systems or solutions from their own employees or most firms don’t have a way to compensate their staff who come with innovative systems and as such bringing friction between the employer and the employee with some cases ending up in courts,” said Mr Hare.

In 2011, a Kenya Revenue of Authority (KRA) employee, Mr Samson Ngengi, went to court to force the authority to recognise his effort in developing the system by issuing him with a certificate of innovation and compensating him.

But the taxman ignored his plea and wanted to procure the system from a third party.

The CIO meeting will also fete firms and government agencies that are using information technology in innovative ways to deliver business value, whether by creating competitive advantage, optimising business processes, enabling growth or improving relationships with customers.

The forum is collaboration between CIO East Africa, Rwanda Development Board and the Rwanda Ministry of Youth and ICT.

The IT meeting provides a networking platform for buyers and this year’s survey has attracted over 350 companies that intend to make entries for various IT innovations.

Mr Hare said that a panel of judges has been selected and will start he process this week.

Hosted in countries such as the US, Canada, Sweden, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam and Hungary, the CIO100 Annual Awards has become a global recognition.

Previous awards saw KENET emerge the overall winner through its project that seeks to provide Internet connectivity to schools.

The first runner up was 'Eat Out Kenya' which was recognised for its project that has seen many restaurants have an online presence where diners can check menus and make restaurant bookings.