.NET:


I'm collaborating with SAP & maybe Microsoft. Based on their policies, they don't sell ERP directly to users. Instead, they refer the end-user to their agents (which i can become very soon). I am allowed to charge as much as I deem fit. I just pay a certain amount for each client. Plus, they also give me a certain percentage of the amount I remit to them if I reach an agreed milestone in the number of clients and Revenue generated for them.

.NET

More questions and criticisms are welcome. I wanna be sure I've plugged all the holes, before I venture into this thing.

Cool but whats the internet speed of most companies in Nigeria? Thats comes as a factor if you going to offer Software as a service. I dont know for sure and its part of what i want to make research on. If they does have good internet speed, using SAAS will be pointless

Chief06: IrokoTv is not worth 30 million dollars. They are not even profitable I.e revenue exceeding expenses ... only mainstream Nigeria focused Internet properties that are profitable and financially viable ie they can afford to hire staff and work out of office space are NairaLand, LindaIkeji and BellaNaija.

Getting investor money does not make you profitable, borrowing money to stay afloat does not make you profitable either. Thats why I SMH @ IrokoTv Guy buying range rover for himself and what not.

Internet is a business and works like any other, you have to be in for the long haul and be prepared to grind it out.

personally, I'd never advice anyone to get investors or VF if they can afford not to.

Ah, you responded before I could get my act together

Your appraisal, here, is right on the money here (pun intended).

Afam4eva: The only online businesses that make good profit are those that sell virtual products. Here in Nigeria, we have not imbibed the culture of doing non-virtual transactions online. So, it will take some time for us to get there. Companies like Jumia are just doing ok but not fantastic. The best way to make money off the web is to offer free services like nairaland is doing and then charge companies for adverts just like facebook and google are doing to a greater extent.

I think the major problem to online business in Nigeria is a lack courier/post culture. I also think Nigerian developers should embrace the bigger picture i.e when building a product, don't think of the Nigerian market alone except you are building Enterprise apps.

http://startupschool.org is a good resource for every aspiring start up.

powerblaze:

Acknowledged, but then again, liasing as a reseller for amazon, then setting up a software solution with of course a well thought out purpose.. I dont think that'll be too expensive, especially when the companies know their data is safe in the cloud..

Do you have a current reseller account with any ERP vendor?

If you don't, you will do well to find out precisely what this entails.

hoodboi: This is probably the best post I have ever seen on nairaland. I will be brief with my comments.

The problem most developers have in this country is that they are too profit driven, hardly would you see an programmer or web developer create something because they want to invent or create, they do it for profit. I totally agree with what someone said earlier abt going freemium before premium. We also have to learn that there is more to business than just creating a website, putting it online and hoping it would blow up. A website in the current world is thesame as any offline business, it takes planning, time, patience and the right mindset.

Jobberman is a total disappointment if you ask me. There is nothing special or different bout the site, they don't offer any feature that I can't get anywhere else. The only thing that keeps them afloat or distinct is the name. If I were to own jobberman or be given the opportunity at management, I would have copied the ebay model. I would not charge job seekers right off from the start, their charge would be left till when they either get the job or have been contacted by a company. I would also charge the company for posting the job and an extra charge once a candidate has been found and the job given to him. I would also provide a premium service to send the profile or cv of a job seeker directly to an employer which will be paid for by job seekers. Before all these charges are implemented, you need to know how much you wish to make on each deal / transaction that goes through your site, then split this into little affordable bits.

What really makes the difference btw successful .com companies and the not so succesful ones is the business model behind it. Ebay was not the first auction site but the business model behind it is a killer. The fees they also charge are so moderate that you wouldn't feel the pinch in ur pocket. We need to study the successful ones first and take after them. I see a lot of potential in companies like vconnect in the nearest future. The have a wonderful brand. And hopefully I see a lot of potential in my own think-house concepts. You guys should start hearing the name by the end of this year.

.. I believe I have said enough. I am not a professional consultant by the way but I do it freelance for several companies on IT matters. God bless us all and lead us aright.

Words of wisdom. The web is a channel to get customers to buy your stuff or use your service. No demand for the product, no business.

eGuerrilla:

Do you have a current reseller account with any ERP vendor?

If you don't, you will do well to find out precisely what this entails.

Not a lot. some of them are free or you need to pay yearly subscription which is not a lot. They do ensure you have a registered company though.

Brand_new: Yes, the problem with that is trust a fear of being scammed and lack of effective payment processors. Interswitch Nigeria has disappointed in that regard. Now most e-commerce stores offer payment on delivery.

Just as you inferred, the absence of a viable e-payment platform has to be regarded as the #1 impediment to the growth of eCommmerce in Nigeria.

Sky-walker:


Not a lot. some of them are free or you need to pay yearly subscription which is not a lot. They do ensure you have a registered company though.

But how do you plan to sell and support cloud-based ERP solutions when you do not have a relationship with the vendors concerned?

eGuerrilla:

But how do you plan to sell and support cloud-based ERP solutions when you do not have a relationship with the vendors concerned?

The thing about cloud based products is this

You don't have to support it. You install and configure it.If your client is having issues with it,you do normal checks to ensure everything is fine at the client's side and then you call your vendor straight. They resolve the issue, not you.

Clouds based products are just applications with their server hosted with the Vendor. You cant get access to the server to fix it, That's the vendor's job

How about https://VoguePay.com ? Any info on the local payment processors?
I know VoguePay is Nigeria's largest payment processor but i doubt if they are profitable because of their very slim charges.

Are we actually answering this question?

.NET:


I'm collaborating with SAP & maybe Microsoft. Based on their policies, they don't sell ERP directly to users. Instead, they refer the end-user to their agents (which i can become very soon). I am allowed to charge as much as I deem fit. I just pay a certain amount for each client. Plus, they also give me a certain percentage of the amount I remit to them if I reach an agreed milestone in the number of clients and Revenue generated for them.

On the Bandwidth issue, we intend to get two channels of 20mbps Fibre connection. Fortunately, the office we're taking soon is close to the POP of a good, reliable Fibre Internet company.




Bro, that's where I think the ERP thing comes in. The application is already developed. Don't have to crack my head for that. All I need to do is sell to the people who need it.

.NET

More questions and criticisms are welcome. I wanna be sure I've plugged all the holes, before I venture into this thing.

@.NET,

If you consider ROI 'a hole', then I suggest you invest more time researching current trends in this area.

I can state, without fear of contradiction, that most vendors aren't making any profit from their cloud offerings right now.

SAP’s Cloud Computing May Not Be Profitable by 2013, Welt Says

SAP AG (SAP)’s cloud-computing business won’t be profitable this year, Welt said, citing an interview with Chief Financial Officer Werner Brandt.
It’s too early to say whether the business, software sold as an on-demand service, will be profitable by 2013, Werner said, according to the German newspaper.
To contact the reporter on this story: Sheenagh Matthews in Frankfurt at smatthews6@bloomberg.net

Source

The truth is, cloud technologies continue to pose a challenge for even the most established players in industry.
And as things stand, while some appear to be growing revenue by the week (I won't mention names), only a select few are actually making a profit.

Gooogle:

But bros, if you are like every typical angel investor or venture capitalist, please do us a favor by making additional info available for us like link etc so we can understand before sending mails or what do you think.

Mr Gooogle, I like ur name - it says it all.

I worked briefly with a local angel investment group and one thing that struck me during my brief spell with the company was the limited scope for ecommerce growth in Nigeria.
Nairaland is arguably Nigeria's top social networking website yet it took the site more than 7 years to get to one million "registered" members ( a good fraction come from the diaspora by the way); for a country that has a population of 160 million, that is hugely disappointing when compared to social and gaming websites in china such as renren and qzone that have well over 100 million active members.

Relatively speaking, no internet company in Nigeria is going to crack a billion dollar valuation any time soon for the following reasons:

1. Uncle Sam is eating our lunch, take a look at the top rated websites in every country in the world, they are all american ( Facebook, Youtube, Google) except in china.
2. Most Nigerians do not care about the net: I can't begin to tell you the number of reasonably smart Nigerians who do not know or care about nairaland, dealdey, jobberman, and Iroko Tv, lindaikeji etc These websites to my mind enjoy a huge chunk of their patronage from Nigerians abroad ( I may be wrong)
3. Education standards are falling in Nigeria. You need a web savvy critical mass to market too, we don't have that yet ( Over half of China's 1 billion population use the internet in some way) You'll be hard pressed to get 10% within Nigeria. And there's also no innovation coming thru. All we do is consume. Do Nigerians have the wherewithal to build the next skype, or ebay to serve a world market?
4. Lack of patient capital. Nigerian net entrepreneurs need more patient capital, not just shrewd VC investors, but angel investors who can invest quality funding in the range of 100 to 500 million and give you free rein to run your company. We don't have those yet.
5 Then of course, the usual suspects: phcn, corruption, lack of broadband etc

halimat1985: How about https://VoguePay.com ? Any info on the local payment processors?
I know VoguePay is Nigeria's largest payment processor but i doubt if they are profitable because of their very slim charges.

Yeah! Voguepay is really pushing to the forefront of online payment processing though they still use interswitch. Etranzact and cashenvoy is really trying too. Problem is enlightenment.
Someone also mentioned an effective courier system for product delivery. Lots of problems begging for solutions.

eGuerrilla:

@.NET,

If you consider ROI 'a hole', then I suggest you invest more time researching current trends in this area.

I can state, without fear of contradiction, that most vendors aren't making any profit from their cloud offerings right now.


Source

The truth is, cloud technologies continue to pose a challenge for even the most established players in industry.
And as things stand, while some appear to be growing revenue by the week (I won't mention names), only a select few are actually making a profit.

Is data security the main issue here? why are more companies not using the service?

I love d fact dat most NLers are simply cheerful teachers. I'm really learning things from u guys. Pls fire on!

orgasticdance: I worked briefly with a local angel investment group and one thing that struck me during my brief spell with the company was the limited scope for ecommerce growth in Nigeria.
Nairaland is arguably Nigeria's top social networking website yet it took the site more than 7 years to get to one million "registered" members ( a good fraction come from the diaspora by the way); for a country that has a population of 160 million, that is hugely disappointing when compared to social and gaming websites in china such as renren and qzone that have well over 100 million active members.

Relatively speaking, no internet company in Nigeria is going to crack a billion dollar valuation any time soon for the following reasons:

1. Uncle Sam is eating our lunch, take a look at the top rated websites in every country in the world, they are all american ( Facebook, Youtube, Google) except in china.
2. Most Nigerians do not care about the net: I can't begin to tell you the number of reasonably smart Nigerians who do not know or care about nairaland, dealdey, jobberman, and Iroko Tv, lindaikeji etc These websites to my mind enjoy a huge chunk of their patronage from Nigerians abroad ( I may be wrong)
3. Education standards are falling in Nigeria. You need a web savvy critical mass to market too, we don't have that yet ( Over half of China's 1 billion population use the internet in some way) You'll be hard pressed to get 10% within Nigeria. And there's also no innovation coming thru. All we do is consume. Do Nigerians have the wherewithal to build the next skype, or ebay to serve a world market?
4. Lack of patient capital. Nigerian net entrepreneurs need more patient capital, not just shrewd VC investors, but angel investors who can invest quality funding in the range of 100 to 500 million and give you free rein to run your company. We don't have those yet.
5 Then of course, the usual suspects: phcn, corruption, lack of broadband etc

I can attest to that. I was very surprised at the lack of awareness and knowledge about the web. Even some people working in the banks or service sector, do not get the business potential.

Though Nigeria has 44 million web users, my guess is majority spend less than an hour each day surfing. Bandwidth and connectivity issues still remain

occam:

Is data security the main issue here? why are more companies not using the service?

Off the top of my head, the main concerns are...

Vendor lock in - think about not being able to migrate your data when a cloud vendor fails to deliver on contractual obligations

Data Security - the Sony security breach which affected playstation users around the world springs to mind here

Performance (scalability) - thousands of Netflix users were left without a service during the recent festive period simply because the infrastructure could not scale, as a result of extra demand.

Proprietary APIs - a major disincentive

Uwadiegwu1: @ Sarutobi,

If though Jobberman received a million Dollar and don't know how to manage it, it does not necessarily mean they're progressing. Nairaland could be more profitable than Jobberman simply because of the traffic here. Seun makes decent money from Nairaland and Jobberman is only for jobs and people barely go there to apply for jobs. The charge to apply for jobs are even driving applicants away and not many are not ready to pay for that. But if you have a website that can allow people do all in one place like craigslist does for free, that will be better. People can do the same thing they do in Nairaland, Search for chics, items for sale, Events etc and apply to jobs.

Craigslist type of website will be a good business in Africa as a whole

[size=15pt]Craiglist is not free. I pay to post jobs all the time.[/size]

Why not be the C.E.O of your web based business, and monitor your profits. Try importation biz!

dansmog++:
i got this idea when i was in the bathroom.. What if you create a web startup that gives website and blog owners or administrator analytics and metrics, KissMetrics does this, and it is not 9ja base. It is like combining google analytics with google keywords, seo together for administrators. This will sell, because of the amount of website designers and admini we have in nigeria who dont have much time for maintaining and monitoring their websites. This might even go into applications monitoring and analytics both for web or standolone apps.

hmm bros speak in plain english o

eGuerrilla:

Off the top of my head, the main concerns are...

Vendor lock in - think about not being able to migrate your data when a cloud vendor fails to deliver on contractual obligations

Data Security - the Sony security breach which affected playstation users around the world springs to mind here

Performance (scalability) - thousands of Netflix users were left without a service during the recent festive period simply because the infrastructure could not scale, as a result of extra demand.

Proprietary APIs - a major disincentive

hmmmm so implication: don't use small players cos if they collapse your business grinds to a halt. And the bigger players charge too much

Proprietary APIs - a major disincentive not sure what you mean here. more info pls

occam:

hmmmm so implication: don't use small players cos if they collapse your business grinds to a halt. And the bigger players charge too much

Proprietary APIs - a major disincentive not sure what you mean here. more info pls[/b]

When I mentioned proprietary APIs, what I meant is; adopting a particular cloud vendor is not simply a question of bringing your own device (BYOD) or data.

As every public cloud implementation is different, there is currently very little synergy between the solutions offered by respective vendors.
This constraint is one most small and enterprise organisations find hard to grapple with, since the preference is to pick and mix suitable cloud offerings based on considerations like cost, proximity, QoS...etc.

Providers, as well as suppliers of proprietary technologies, like to follow their own ideas on how a cloud and the applications within it should be accessed, operated, and managed. Business customers, on the other hand, are often reluctant to be tied to a single cloud provider. Interoperability, or the ability to migrate smoothly from one provider to another, is therefore becoming more and more important.

Source

who knows any angel investor/venture capitalists that can finance web based business start up

@ eGuerrilla

Just wondering if you have an idea on this

Are companies in Nigeria already using Cloud services? If yes, which one?

Last time i checked, Some Naija companies were not bothered about about backing up their electronic data as long as they have a hard copy.

Brand_new: Yes, the problem with that is trust, fear of being scammed and lack of effective payment processors. Interswitch Nigeria has disappointed in that regard. Now most e-commerce stores offer payment on delivery.

Yep that is true, i agree with u. Even Common Traders on google trader, Nairaland, Olx etc. offers payment on delivery in more effective and efficient manner than all these so called e-stores. The Delivery of all these e-stores Takes time sometimes you know.

Sky-walker:
@ eGuerrilla

Just wondering if you have an idea on this

Are companies in Nigeria already using Cloud services? If yes, which one?

Last time i checked, Some Naija companies were not bothered about about backing up their electronic data as long as they have a hard copy.

Of course companies are using cloud services in Nigeria - NAMA, NOUN, Private universities, telcos, banks..., etc, are just a few notable examples.
The business model you proposed earlier - partnering with service providers abroad - is actually fairly common.

Would it be right to assume the question you really meant to ask is; do we have any public cloud infrastructure homed in Nigeria?
If so, to the best of my knowledge, the answer is 'no'.
I believe resourcery maintains its own data centre though.

kambo: what of DealFish? They were once everywhere like nose and body hair!?

deal fish is still existing. They're now

Every area imaginable. These companies have server farms and 99.999% uptime guarantees, and can run numerous apps at the same time. With one measly server run by you how do you hope to compete? Except all yoru customers are on a LAN in your apartment, cost of running your business will put you out of business.

.NET:


ok. about the competition with Amazon and Google, I don't think that will be a problem for me o. I will offer something different (at least in the early stage) - ERP cloud Hosting. SAP seems to be the most popular in this Country, so I am talking with them on how this can be achieved.

On the issue of Power, we are talking Engineers to design and install good-quality Solar Panels with Inverters.

Please tell me other areas that I might fail. Thank you bros.

.NET

Free vs. paid is a matter of the deal one works out. AWS is paid but you get the same for free on a lower scale. Same service, Google Drive is free to a certain extent and paid beyond that.

Sky-walker:


You wrong. Free clouds services are not supposed to be used in companies.Most companies will prefer a paid subscription which ensure that thier data is secured. Also for companies who wants to store their data offsite and not with popular vendors will want to go for his service

Reselling would make more sense, but why go with you when I can go directly with AWS or the Big G or whomever?

powerblaze:

Cloud its great as a ' 3D' storage server.. Though i'd think you should just rent a huge space from corporate cloud firms like google, and be a reseller.. Or something like that.. Also, rather than just store files, why not add something more dynamic, like a software solution with back end cloud support.. Like an, sql server on the cloud.. Pm me.. We could work out something