Interview with the Managing Director Data Fundi (U) Ltd

	1. What is Data Fundi? Data Fundi is an ICT consulting and systems integration company incorporated in November 2002, we celebrate 5 years of successful operations this year.
Mr. Edward Kasule

2. What are your products and services?
Our main products and services are:

• ICT Consultancy
• Regulatory Consultancy and Support
• ICT Systems Integration
• Infrastructure rollout
• Development of ICT solutions
• Technical Support
• Hardware and Software Agency
• Project Management

3. What kind of clients do you cater for?
Our clients and customers include Governments, Communications Regulators, Telecommunication’s Operators, Business Enterprises, NGOs, Internet Services Providers, Multinational Corporations, Development Organizations, Banking Industry, SMEs, Universities and other tertiary institutions, telecommunication infrastructure manufacturers and vendors, Tier 1 Internet Backbone connectivity providers, Electronic Media Operators etc

4. What are your areas of operation?
Our main operations are in Uganda but with a focus on the East African region, which for our purposes includes: Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC and Southern Sudan. Uganda has in the last few decades strategically positioned itself as the transport and communications hub for the region’s leading businesses. Our choice of geographical market served is therefore quite natural.

5. So, Data Fundi is celebrating five years of operations, what have the five years been like? What have been some of the achievements made during those years?
We have undergone phenomenal growth as a business, employer and service provider. We have expanded our office space from a mere 6 sq meters in 2002 to 200 sq meters in 2007, and warehousing space from 20 sq meters to 300 sq meters. Our payroll staff compliment has grown from just 2 to 16. We have several associate consultants and for infrastructure roll out projects and technical audits, our Just in Time (JIT) hiring often hits over50 skilled workers. We have expanded our geographical reach to the entire region and the publics in the ICT Industry know us as a very highly professional and competent technical skilled team. We have set up strategic partnerships with a number of leading players in the sector. These include a Tier 1 internet connectivity provider based in Denmark, an ICT consultancy firm in Rwanda and two international business development organizations.

6. What unique factors have enabled your successful operations during the last five years?
At Data Fundi we pride ourselves in our ability to deliver a quality service in a market awash with overburdened service providers. We have spared no expense in our efforts to build the winning combination of technical expertise, financial resources and state-of-the-art equipment all of which have contributed immensely towards our impeccable record of projects accomplished. Consistently over the year, all our projects have the three key ingredients below that have ensured customer satisfaction:

• Timely completion
• within budget and
• High technical quality

7. What are some of the project areas you have handled in the last five years?
Professional ethics and customer sensibilities bar us from “blowing our trumpet”- our satisfied customers gladly do that for us. References from some of our customers can be obtained on our website and/or on specific request. Over the last five years, we have delivered high value telecom infrastructure projects on a turnkey basis covering vast geographical expanses in areas of Radio planning, Site construction, Microwave transmission, telecom installations and project management. We have provided integration of ICT systems on multiple vendor platforms spanning hundreds of end user stations and in some cases rolling out to over 30 remote sites supporting voice, data and video applications. We have provided regulatory consultancy and technical support services to at least two major telecommunication regulators in the region. Our performance is sustained by the vast internal knowledge base underpinned by a strong R&D department, comprehensive Heath, Safety and Environment policy, exceptional corporate governance structures supported by a transparent corporate culture that emphasizes honesty, a sturdy work ethic and team spirit.

8. You did mention partnership with international firms; which are some of the organizations you have partnered with in the past and what are their strengths?

• Arup Communications of London UK- Consultancy
• Siemens Norway- Project Management
• Emperion and Tele Greenland International of Copenhagen, Denmark - IP communications
• PCCW of Hong Kong - Systems integration

9. What challenges have you faced during the last five years?
Data Fundi faced the usual challenges affecting small and medium scale indigenous businesses in Uganda: high operational costs caused by poor infrastructure/utilities, high taxes, stringent credit terms, etc. One of the first challenges we faced was to build a reliable financial base to enable the company handle the most exigent of telecommunications rollout projects whose success requires a big capital outlay. In our bid to deliver globally recognized ICT solutions, we quickly found a big challenge in the levels of awareness and acceptability in the local market. Our experience showed that the high level clientele we sought to serve were fatigued by the endless stream of broken promises offered by some local providers. They had by this time turned to foreign providers and our challenge was to get them to revisit the idea of sourcing local companies to carry out their technical projects. We had to rigorously engineer and plan and re-engineer our work processes. Other challenges include globalization, lack of economies of scale, weak intellectual property laws, and weak public sector.

10. How did you address the above challenges?
Right from the very start, our vision, was to build the company into a professionally managed, profitable, self-sustaining and socially responsible enterprise providing leading, globally recognized ICT solutions. We strived to employ a lean but highly efficient staff compliment with a high usage of expert systems to deliver quality services at competitive prices. This drove our ambition to build a strong brand which in turn enabled us to partner with local and foreign organizations and to access credit that has made it possible for us to mobilize material and financial resources in fairly shorter time frames and this is one factor that our customers study keenly.

11. What is the way forward for Data Fundi in the next five years?
We have set ourselves ambitious growth targets and our strategic plan 2008-2012 is the blue print that will guide us through the next 5 years We want to forge better relationship with other sectors especially the heavy users of ICT services such as banks, Universities and other institutions of higher learning, tourism sector, Multi-national corporations etc. We intend to have a better and improved web presence, and to conduct more of our client business processes on-line through a revamped web portal. Under our CSR plan we shall continue to train and empower fresh university graduates in ICT to give them a softer landing in the job market.

12. What should the ICT sector expect from you?
We measure our growth against a number of performance indicators, among these our positioning in the market and our customers perception of us. In 2008, we plan to set up a world class Teleport to serve the East African region and to consolidate our existing services in the region. We shall do this through business and technology partnerships with carefully selected Industry leaders. We intend to co-sponsor with I-network an upcoming Academic Network of Technical Support (ANTS) seminar and the ICT Media Awards and any other such meritorious awards.

13. Any Closing remarks?
I would like to inform our valued clients that, in order to better serve our clients, we have this year, 2007, moved into a new and better location at Plot 106 Kanjokya Street Bukoto, Kampala and we invite you to pay us a visit.