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returning  to Zimbabwe years after it packed up.
This has been necessitated by serious potential which Zimbabwe has not only for the local community but internationally.

This happens against the backdrop of international recognition which Zimbabwe got from the International Telecommunications Union as the world’s second fastest ICT developing country.

IBM regional representative Mr Francis Mateyo-Makayi said: “For the past years we have been closely working with our business partners and official distributors to push our business in Zimbabwe and we are impressed by the serious opportunities presented here and have seriously considered coming back to Zimbabwe.”

Mr Mateyo-Makayi said after due consideration with the IBM executives a due notice will soon be issued on the actual dates when such a move would be initiated.

To most people especially in Zimbabwe, IBM is just a company that sells desktop computers, but after the technology road show which availed the full powerhouse of the computing giant, there is a lot to learn and share about the company which has been in the business for more than 100 years now.

IBM is not just a computer hardware company; there is more to the computing giant which has been in the industry for a century now.

IBM is also a solution provider company for end to end, support and maintenance.
“This falls under our Global Business Solution where we technically advise the client on the best package for their requirements from the hardware servers, storage solution, desktop or the best customer related system they should be setting up.

“Another vital organ is our IGF, which is the IBM Global Finance.
“This is the solution for big deals which some governments may not be able to finance; this goes to our financial partner.

“We are basically the IBM bank for government and large corporates when they want to buy without enough funds” said Francis.

He said most of their clients were in the banking sector, government, mining and large corporates. This is where the IBM trademark has made a big imprint. When asked why the IBM laptops are virtually disappearing from the market, he said that their laptop brand is now being sold under the Lenovo trademark, in a deal that saw IBM moving out of the laptop business.

On the same event, IBM also unveiled a stream of its state-of-the-art trademarks from high-end servers, storage racks, super computers and cloud-based services.

The road show was attended by a number of organisations, from the public and private sector, individuals and the academia who witnessed the new innovations being unveiled.

Mr Mateyo-Makayi also affirmed that during his past experience in the African region, Zimbabwe was ahead in terms of real technology implementation and the general understanding of technologies by most Zimbabwean IT managers is averagely high and well-polished compared to other regional neighbouring countries.

During an interview on constantly updating hardware and infrastructure, the IBM representative said it is of paramount importance that heads constantly update and upgrade their infrastructure to make tasks easier and aids efficiency.

He was, however, quick to say issues of upgrading or replacing old systems should not be done as a culture but rather when the circumstances demand so.

“I know of some entities who are running old servers but because their data requirements and network capabilities are not demanding, it does not make sense to advocate for new hardware for them in the name of catching up, needs would differ.”

This is, however, contradicted by most IT heads not only in Zimbabwe, but due to financial constraints and uninformed heads of department, some organisations are still going at a snail’s pace due to old computers and servers which the powers that be are not willing or capable to change hampering production and directly also affecting the entity’s profit margin. 
Issues of hardware security and back-up were perfectly dealt with too.

A good example was raised when the IBM head asked what happens to the national data if there is an accidental fire which quickly razes down the Zimra head offices.

“Do we lose all the data, what kind of back- up is being done there, even if it was on other storage media devices a strong fire will leave everything to ashes? Suppose they had another back-up office just close by is it good enough against natural disasters like earthquakes or floods?” he asked
The possibility of such disasters should make our IT heads much more proactive and reinforce the need to protect assets in an increasingly connected world.

Options like cloud-based storage which is basically backing up data on the Internet should be seriously considered without compromise.

Because it is unrealistic to avoid new connection-enabling technologies, business executives can address emerging security risks by building a proactive security intelligence capability; developing a unified view of all endpoints, including mobile devices, protecting information assets at the database level and creating safer social habits too.

Using trusted and tried brands saves the decision-makers from the selection headaches and possible brand associated risks. Mr Mateyo-Makayi said he was confident of the IBM brand that in their century years of trade “not a single IT head was ever fired for buying an IBM product”.

The writer is the founding editor of TechnoMag. Website http://technomag.co.zw  or join us on Facebook page http://facebook.com/technomagzw  Like our page for  FREE airtime giveaways, Twitter @technomagzw. Email: [email protected] [email protected]