Jyoti Mukherjee as featured in The Standard

Jyoti’s incredible passage to wealth, By Lucy Ndichu
For a 48-year-old daughter of a former freedom fighter, Jyoti Mukherjee’s career in business is an incredible Kenyan success story.

On a bright sunny day 18 years ago, she stepped into Kenya for the first time. She was 28 years old and pregnant with her second child, Nivedita.

“I was taken in by Kenya’s natural beauty and the simplicity of the people.”

Jyoti was in Kenya to join her husband, Sanjiv Mukherjee, who had already immigrated to Kenya and was working as a salesman earning Sh5,000.

Married at the age of 25, Jyoti met her husband in very interesting circumstances. “He played chess with my father and he impressed him so much that he convinced him to part with his daughter - Sanjiv says that he let my father win the chess game, in order to win his daughter!” Jyoti’s father fought for India’s independence alongside Mahatma Gandhi.

Jyoti’s husband soon quit his job and they started a printing supplies shop on Kijabe street and, for the next eight years, they worked alongside each other. Then in 1991 she started Software Technologies. Today, Software Technologies is one of the biggest software distribution companies with annual sales in excess of US$3 million (Ksh. 234 million). Jyoti has also started setting her sights on the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) where she plans to list Software Technologies in a year if the market conditions improve.

As the exclusive distributor of enterprise software, this may not look too big for a company like Oracle (which her firm represents in East Africa), but compared to the might of competitors like global giant SAP, Software Technologies is doing great.

Indeed, she is now the only woman in the East African region to head a major software development house.

She attended Premier High School and then Bombay University where she graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree. She had the feel of business at age 16 when she worked briefly as a secretary. At the university she never lost her dream of making a difference.

She was content to handle small clients instead of bribing to get major ones. This has eventually paid off as she has been able to create a network of reliable and faithful clients. Her list of clients reads like who is who in the region.

Moreover, Jyoti attributes her success to her vision. She is able to set her goals and plan towards achieving them 10 years in advance. “Once I have set my goals, I work towards them, which has been my major strength as I am able to forecast in the future,” she explained.

Jyoti’s desire to create a successful information technology empire in 1991 came from her recognition that many Kenyans were not utilizing their computers well enough. Though many companies were computerized, they were not able to utilize the systems like in developed countries.

All used the computers to feed data using the EDP and none was utilizing them to analyze information.

On January 1, 1991, Jyoti started off with a team of five in a small office in Westlands where she conducted individual consultancy and training. But she did not lose sight of her goal - to make her company the largest software provider in the region and make a difference.

“I knew there was potential in this country. I never lost sight and I also kept to one line of product,” she explained from her expansive offices in Gigiri, Nairobi.

Today, she is the managing director of Software Technologies Limited (STL), a multi-million-dollar outfit spread over four countries, three continents and enjoys the services of over100 professionals.

STL has evolved into East Africa’s leading and largest software development house. The company now supports over 150 corporations in East Africa alone, making it the most recognized provider of Oracle based solutions and Oracle product support.

Jyoti’s company has since 1994 developed its own full suite of solutions - eHorizon which are in use in 3,500 desks in the world. The product so far has 25 applications.

STL also develops customized systems to suit various needs of companies. Basically Software Technologies Limited gives the customer the software products, ownership and training.

The company provides customized systems development, Resource Optimization Consultancy (ROC), and support and training, both on Oracle E-Business Suite and their own generic range of products, eHorizon.

During the initial years, Jyoti was offering training and her first major clients were Kenya Revenue Authority, Ministry of Finance and ICDC, who still use the systems developed by the company.

Jyoti, with the support of experts, has systematically created a web of customers that includes some of the largest companies in the region.

From an initial staff of five, Jyoti’s objective was to design and develop software on relational database management system (RDBMS) in 1991.

To enable her identify and develop her product, Jyoti travelled to the USA in 1992 and made a deal with Oracle, the largest database software company in the world, to be their sole distributor, now referred to as Oracle partners.

In the same year, she established the STL training centre, which offers diverse training in a variety of IT courses. This fully-fledged training centre is recognized by Oracle Corporation as the regional training centre.

In 1994, she installed customized systems at the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) and Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE) which are still in use today. The following year, she completed her first product, the Horizon Human Resources - which was the first to be designed and developed locally - an integrated HR and payroll systems on RDBMS.

By 1997, Jyoti had already started spreading her wings. She opened a branch in Uganda. The Uganda Electricity Board is one of her customers.

Each year Jyoti set out to achieve a goal and her determination ensured that she achieved it. In 1998, she completed new solutions for savings and co-operative societies, Medical Insurance, Pensions and Loans.

She achieved a record in Kenya as the first company to have its own Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system designed and developed locally.

Two years ago, she inaugurated a marketing hub in the USA. Hers is the first company to export software and training services to the West.

With this success, Jyoti moved to larger office premises in Gigiri. The company also developed eHorizon HRMS Version 2 which has been installed at Securicor.

She also expanded and opened another development office in India.

Last year, STL developed eHorizon Version 2.5 and new solutions: eHorizon fleet.

Jyoti believes the information technology is now unstoppable so the government should support and protect the local industry. For instance, she says local companies charge a quarter of what foreign companies charge yet they get business. The government should ensure that local software developers are protected to encourage business growth.

While Jyoti strongly believes that the IT industry potential is still largely untapped, she feels that local universities have completely failed to meet demands. Universities must learn to train graduates who do not have to be retrained.

Jyoti has a lot of faith in IT. She says that Kenya should encourage the development of this field. “If we are able to export our products to the USA, India and Uganda, that means we have the capacity to make Kenya the IT powerhouse in the region.’’

Introducing computers in the most rural areas, she says, will enable farmers to market their produce. For instance, a woman in Meru will be able to sell her potatoes to the highest bidder if she gets information on the market prices.

“We say information is power but it has to be transformed into knowledge and then wisdom to make a difference.

By exposing our people to computers, we will encourage them to have control over their products and will enable them to get the best prices.

With the right information, Kenyans will make the right decisions.

To make this dream come true, Jyoti has started by sponsoring telecentres - by providing computer and training to especially disadvantaged people with the aim of providing Internet and e-mail facilities to the local community.

This, Jyoti says, will create IT awareness in the country and also give the ordinary Kenyan a chance to use the technology in their daily lives.

The facilities are now available at Kivuli in Kawangware, Huruma NCCK and Gigiri Police Station.

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