Pioneering Africa’s Integration the Digital Way
Techno Brain Group is steadily expanding its efforts across Africa and further afield, building upon local skills with a strategy for success
Writer: Phoebe Calver
Project Manager: Kane Weller
Since its inception in 1997, Techno Brain Group has supported global enterprises and Fortune 100 companies through the provision of leading technology, consulting and outsourcing solutions.
The Company has built its strategy for success over the years around innovation, technology and teamwork, all of which stemmed from the founding idea of Chairman, Mahesh Patel.
In those early days it was highly apparent that Africa required a huge investment into its IT skills, and subsequently the Company created a vision which began with training people on the continent with the required IT skills; beginning in East Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
“We started our work in East Africa, and when I saw how well the young people we had trained were coming on, I realised we needed to work on creating opportunities in which they could utilise these skills,” explains Manoj Shanker, Chief Executive Officer at Techno Brain Group. “Following on from this realisation, I came up with the idea to get our people writing software codes that would solve local problems.”
As Techno Brain began to grow and evolve as a business, the realisation came that the major opportunities available were in the public sector. For example, the Government required automation and public financial systems, as well as identification systems.
“There were opportunities for us to fill the gap left by larger companies in the industry, where they were lacking a credible IT company to run operations,” continues Shanker. “It has been a long journey during the past 20 years, but we are incredibly proud of the position we are in with our committed staff with thanks to the education, innovation and solutions that have contributed to achieving a shared goal.”
Breaking new ground
The Company’s single-minded focus on innovation has led it to achieve the delivery of groundbreaking solutions across a wide range of sectors, helping enterprises to adapt to the ever-evolving markets and new technological advancements with thanks to strategic consulting.
“Over time we have had to adapt to the changing markets by finding new ground to branch into,” adds Shanker. “Recently we have worked hard on achieving application and enterprise management solutions, as well as advanced technology that includes business intelligence, data warehousing, cloud computing and analytics.”
During the past 10 years in particular, the Company was required to build upon its capabilities in order to attain a position of leadership in the aforementioned sectors and from that its business units were created. These units include financial management, tax and customs, identification business, training, vendor centric products and solutions that have led to focused work with Microsoft and Oracle.
“During 2017 and 2018, the main trends we have been working towards include the creation of a more technically based business,” states Shanker. “We have already started building new small-scale solutions using robotic processes and new artificial intelligence tools and we hope to be the leading digital business using these technologies in Africa.”
Business intelligence
Over the years the Company has built up a solid reputation and track record within business intelligence and data warehousing, with a dedicated team of 30 employees working in the area.
“We have established a pool of talent across the region that currently stands at approximately 1,200 people, as well as our office in London which is aiding us in our move into the UK,” explains Shanker. “As well as our centre of excellence in Kenya, we have also established centres in India and the US.”
“Over the years a lot of people have asked me how we have managed to build such a successful technology company out of Africa, and the reason is due to the understanding of how to best utilise the skills available to us on the continent, which of course has not been an easy job.”
The young Africans in the region have clear aspirations for the future and for their careers, and subsequently Techno Brain has been working hard to meet their requirements through training and providing introductions into the industry that allow for growth.
Shanker adds: “We have been able to achieve successful growth with talent all over the continent to create a solid foundation on which to continue building our Company, having said that, when required we also have an international pool within the family at Techno Brain to utilise.”
With thanks to its excellent employees, the Company has built a reputation for delivering the highest quality in the industry that stems from the adoption of best practices, establishing models and methodologies to follow to the letter and an uncompromising approach to ensuring excellence in delivery.
“Stemming from the aforementioned factors our Quality Management System is a blend of customer driven and process driven practices,” continues Shanker. “We have a dedicated Software Quality Assurance team that focuses on defining the processes and conducting internal quality audits.”
World-class processes
Techno Brain is proudly a completely African company, utilising the African talent available to it locally which proves to be a massive differentiator within the industry. Focusing on IT capabilities that matter the most to African companies, Techno Brain offers advanced experience while innovating indispensable day-to-day solutions to organisations.
“There is a high-tech space within the market today for a company such as ours to compete with the global companies out there,” explains Shanker. “In order to succeed in these challenging conditions, we place a lot of emphasis on quality and compliance, demonstrated in our recent achievement of CMMI Level 5 certification.
“As the only African company out there with that accolade, we are in a unique position and follow the highest standards to deliver the best products and solutions in the country.”
At present the Company is focused on bringing forward world-class processes in order to provide the best possible value, however, looking forward it has its eyes on the prize when it comes to transforming into a truly digital company that works with big data and artificial intelligence, as well as many other facets.
Shanker adds: “We’ve been Africa’s leading custom software application provider for 20 years, and as a CMMI Level 5 Company we have an unsurpassed experience and knowledge of providing, deploying, commissioning, training and maintaining large engagements all over the world for Governments, NGOs and the private sector.”
Techno Brain continues to steadily expand, servicing customers in 33 countries with an employee count of more than 1,200, spread out across Africa, India, UAE, UK and US.
“We are also branching into new regions and hope to see more territorial expansion into more of the French speaking countries that we are yet to branch into,” concludes Shanker. “In the next five years Techno Brain will be one of the leading regional digital players expanding our innovations, product range, employees and footprint on every continent.”
