Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

‘Cloud computing, key to data protection in Nigeria’

By Adeyemi Adepetun
30 April 2018   |   4:15 am
Franklin Nkadi is the Business Development Manager, Priority Communications Limited, a leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) firm in Nigeria.

Franklin Nkadi is the Business Development Manager, Priority Communications Limited, a leading Information and Communications Technology (ICT) firm in Nigeria. He spoke with ADEYEMI ADEPETUN, on why organizations need to adopt cloud computing technologies to guard against data theft and loses. Excerpts:

How do you advice business owners in search of quality technology solution?
My candid advice is for customers to remain with the best service provider to grow their business. Customers should not dabble into solutions they do not actually require. They must seek professional advice from the right technology solution company. At Priority Communications, we do consultative selling and we do not sell solutions for the sake of money. Any solution that a company invest in, must address specific challenges. Customers must therefore prioritise their Information and Communications Technology (ICT) needs to achieve better results.

Nigeria’s economic space is still pourous and this has allowed malicious attacks, how can we mitigate the impact of cyberattacks?
We are aware of the rising rate of cyber-attacks on organisational data, at Priority, we have solutions to mitigate various kinds of cyber-attacks. We are in partnership with global security companies to address insecurity in the cyberspace, and our customers are currently enjoying such solutions that have always kept their data protected. A lot of researches have been carried out on cyber-attacks and we have solutions to address all of that. Our solutions offer first-hand security protection to customers’ data, and this is the reason why we had to invest in cloud-based technology solution that provides maximum protection to customer database.

So what will you say are the advantages of cloud computing solutions to your customers?
Cloud computing is key to data protection. It gives customers peace of mind that their data is fully secured, aside helping to solve the challenges of getting the adequate storage space to store data on-premise. Again, we backup data in the cloud in such a way that customers could access their data outside their location, especially when they are roaming. In the case of disaster on organisation’s data, we are able to retrieve backup data from the cloud and make them accessible to the organisation, without its customers feeling the impact of the disaster.

Can Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SME) get relevant solutions from your firm?
Our products and services cater for low, middle and high profile companies. We have solutions for both enterprise companies and SMEs. For the SMEs, we have solutions that meet their size of business that are reliable and affordable. Tell us what you want and disclose your budget, we can fashion out a dependable and reasonably priced solution for you.

Moreover, our solutions are interoperable and scalable at the same time, thus giving room for business expansion.

Priority Communications will be 11 years in the provision of telecoms/ICT services to a whole range of customers by June, how has the business faired in these years?
Yes, we clocked 10 years in telecoms/ict business in June last year, and by June this year, which is two months away, we will be clocking 11 years in telecoms/ict business and we are still very strong in business, thanks to our customers who have been with us all these years. Their continued patronage and support have kept the business going in the last 10 years. I want to use this medium to thank the management of Priority Communications for its resilience in the face of business challenges all through the years. We cannot forget the Banking and financial institutions in Nigeria that have been doing businesses with us in the past years, their support and patronage have to a greater extent, kept us strong in business all these years.

So what have been the strategies for survivability in the face of recession and business challenges?
We pay so much attention to our customers’ needs and we ensure that their challenges are addressed promptly. We are a technology company that researches in new technology solutions that will enhance customer business and our focus is centred on our customers. For these reasons, customers have always believed in our service offerings and it has helped us as a company to continue to survive, despite the harsh business environment. As a technology company, we are always innovating to bring the latest technology solutions that we address our customer’s needs.

Can your organizations help businesses mitigate financial losses?
We have a solution that is capable of not just reducing financial leakages in organisations, but will also put a total stop to any form of financial leakages. As a technology solution company, we understand the various ways through which organisations lose money and some may not even be known to the organisation and we have gone ahead to develop solutions that address all of that at reasonable cost to the customer. What organisations should do is to constantly put a check on the financial team that manages organisational finances to avoid any form of financial leakages. Our financial solution is automated and eliminates physical cash handling.

What kind of business support do you have for partners and customers?
As a service provider to enterprise and SME companies, Priority Communications offers support services to our customers in various ways that are designed to enhance business excellence. It has been a win-win between us and our partners because we have shared knowledge and fostered good cooperation’s. For us, partnership is the key because technology is evolving and we need each other to keep our customers abreast with new trends in the technology space. We have business relationships with local and international partners, to provide the best technology solutions to customers. We offer our customers the best of training in modern technology solutions and we go as far as creating awareness on current technology solutions for both our partners and customers. Whenever we have new solutions, we do well to invite our customers and partners to educate them and as well seek their opinion.

What are the new solutions that Priority Communications is bringing to the table for customers and how effective are the solutions?
We currently have a number of solutions we are deploying to customers. These solutions offer new ways of achieving faster results in business and at the same time, blocking financial leakages. The solutions offer improved methods of responding to business challenges and they provide ease of doing business in a way that controls operational expenditure (OPEX) of the business.

We have “Smart e-ticketing” a solution that addresses leakagesassociated with internally generated revenue (IGR), and most customers that have deployed the solution are fast reaping from it. We have a solution that addresses data loss and downtime in organisation and most of our customers are currently running the solution. We have a solution that addresses disaster recovery in real-time. We operate cloud technology, where we store data in the cloud and provide full protection of such data. We also provide document and archive management services to our customers. The solution helps in proper Classification, Sorting, and labeling of files and documents, ensuring softcopy documents aresecurely backed up in the Cloud which could be easily retrieved at any time.

In spite of technology solutions available, customers, organisations and government agencies still suffer revenue leakages, which have always affected their internally generated revenues.

Having invested in technology solutions for businesses, how affordable are your solutions?
Some of our solutions are tailored made to address specific challenges and needs. These solutions are not above the reach of organisations, even small organisations with little cash flow can afford our solutions. The most important thing is that our solutions are tailored to address specific organisation’s need(s).

So what are the bouquets of telecoms services that your firm offers to customers?
We offer a wide range of technology solutions that meet the needs of customers. Data communications, Building and Maintaining of Mast and Towers, are our majors but we also render tailor-made solutions to address specific challenges. Some of our Banking and Financial Institution clients rated our Point-to-Point, Point-to-Multiple Points over Radio as the best in 2017. We also deploy over Air Fibre and Fibre optics linking branch offices to Head Quarter (HQ). We provide Virtual Private Network (VPN), Wide Area Network (WAN) and Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) for easeof secured data flow, among others.

What percentage of local contents are embedded in your solutions?
We take the local content policy of the federal government very seriously. In all our solutions, we use local materials that are sourced from within the country. A typical example is in our telecoms masts that we build and manage for customers. The materials are standard, yet locally sourced and our trained engineers are Nigerians. Although we still import some foreign masts to meet local demands.

0 Comments