Posts Tagged "Software Technologies Limited"

The Institute of Directors (Ghana), in collaboration with Software Technologies Limited and other partners had their Annual Corporate Governance Excellence Awards hosted at the Kempinski Hotel in Accra. It was also graced with the attendance of Professor Mervyn King, best known as the Chairman of the King Committee on Corporate Governance in South Africa.  He is Professor Extraordinaire at the University of South Africa on Corporate Citizenship, Honorary Professor at the University of Pretoria and Visiting Professor at Rhodes University

The aim of the awards was to stimulate and sustain the culture of good corporate governance and champion director professionalism and development through education for the benefit of organizations and stakeholders. It was also aimed at celebrating the achievements of both public and private sector Individual Personalities and Organizations who have distinguished themselves by practicing and exhibiting good corporate governance leading to desirable outcomes of ethical culture, good performance, effective controls and legitimacy.

The categories included – Most Influential Director of the Year, Innovative Director of the Year, Overall Director of the Year (Female), Most Credible Director of the Year, Rising Director of the Year, Overall Director of the Year (Male).

The corporate categories are, Agricultural Business (Agrobased), Healthcare Facility, Oil Marketing, Petroleum Refining and Related Industry, Agriculture (Fishing, Poultry and Crop farming), Hospitality (Hotels), Power Generation and Distribution, Apparel and clothing Industry, Hospitality (Support & Allied Services), Printing, Publishing, and Allied Industry, Chemical and Allied Industry, Industrial and Commercial Machinery Industry, Retail and Supermarkets, Construction, Information Technology Industry, Rubber and Miscellaneous Plastic Industry, Consulting, Insurance (Pensions), Rural and Community Banks, Ecommerce, Insurance (Life), Savings and loans, Education, Insurance (General Business), Sports, Electronic and Electrical Equipment Industry, Leasing companies, Stone, Clay, Glass, and Concrete Industry, Entertainment, Lumber and Wood Industry, Telecommunication, Fabricated Metal Industry, Manufacturing, Transportation Industry, Finance Houses, Media, Travel and Tours, Food, Beverages Industry, Microfinance Institutions, Universal Banks, Furniture and Fixtures Industry, Mining and Quarrying.

 Leaders from the public and private sectors shared with the audience how ingraining good governance at planning makes vision a reality.

 

The Institute of Directors (Kenya), in collaboration with Software Technologies Limited and other partners had their 3rd Corporate Governance Conference hosted at the Inter Continental Hotel in Nairobi.

The Theme of the Conference was Sustainable Governance for Africa. The Conference explored Africa’s potential and the role of good governance for a Sustainable Continent. Leaders from the public and private sectors shared with the audience how they think ingraining good governance at planning and throughout implementation, makes vision a reality. Topics such as Politics and corporate governance, Achieving real results in the fight against corruption; the roles and responsibilities of a dynamic private sector, Building an ethical organizational culture as a driver for corporate sustainability and Building sustainable corporate Governance systems in Africa; the African Challenge were covered

Objectives of the Conference

1. To “unpack” the East Africa region in terms of potential, opportunities, numbers etc and their implications to socio economic transformation.
2. To highlight the importance of good environmental, social and corporate governance in the socio-economic transformation of Africa.
3. To highlight the importance and value of good governance in the private and public sector.
4. A platform for policymakers, corporates, public institutions from across the East African Community to encourage and practice.

Outcomes of the Conference

The Conference explored East Africa’s potential and the role of good governance in unleashing this potential. Leaders in Africa’s public and private sectors will share with the audience how they think good governance brings visions to reality, from planning to implementation.

“We are now up to date with our compliance in all the Liasion Group Branches. The regular compliance notifications keep us in check and on our toes. Our directors are happy with eBoard.”

Mr. Jasper Wendo, Head of Audit and Governance.

 

Founded in 1981, Liasion Group, is an independent Risk, Insurance, Healthcare, Pension and Investment Advisor to a broad spectrum of clients ranging from governments, large multinational corporations, parastatals, NGOs, SMES, business partnership and individuals.

“We are now up to date with our compliance in all the Liasion Group Branches. The regular compliance notifications keep us in check and on our toes. Our directors are happy with eBoard as there is easy access to the documents. Our board meetings are now more productive.”

Mr. Jasper Wendo, Head of Audit and Governance.

THE CHALLENGE

The Liaison Group provides risk, insurance, healthcare, pension and investment solutions to countries all over Africa. Yet the board and management were faced with serious compliance and bulky board meeting challenges for the regional company.  “For every board meeting, I had to put together board packs; print, assemble and distribute hard copies using courier services. This was risky considering the sensitive nature of board information. Factoring in last-minute updates and amendments to meeting materials after board pack has been released -where a change in one agenda item affects several pages – the situation grew even more complex. In addition to that, for every evaluation, the administrators had to print evaluation forms and the Board Directors had to be physically present to fill in paperwork and collating the responses so as to generate a report was a timely board process,” Ms. Alice Wambui, an Executive Assistant recalls.

WHY SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES

“For us, the adaptive and accommodating nature of eBoard as a product was a key feature in the selection of board management software. Software Technologies’ response time is commendable and I like the fact that our feedback is wholly accepted and implemented. STL is also accommodating to the client and the system is simple to operate and navigate.”

THE RESULTS

Gained immediate visibility of compliance tasks and deadlines: Through eBoard’s Compliance module, the Liaision team can easily track their compliance state with regulatory bodies, and automatically notify when compliance is due. This has been crucial to both identifying bottlenecks and streamlining workflow. “We can now proactively divide tasks pertaining to compliance,” says Mr. Wendo.

Easy updating and sharing of board papers:  By providing directors with a central document repository, Liaision Group has seen an ease in the sharing of board papers. Ms.Wambui is now able to share corrected documents from any board pack at any time.  “I don’t have to worry when I have to send a corrected document, because I am sure everyone will be notified and it will be displayed on the homepage and stored in the briefcase.”

Savings on time, money and resources: Previously, the company’s time, printers and paper reams were all excessively used in preparation for board meetings.  With eBoard, Liaision Group has saved close to 40,000 USD in printing, distribution and meeting travel costs. They also continue to make an environmental impact by using less paper and saving more trees.

Ensured 24/7 secure access to data from anywhere in the world: Board members have all time access to the meeting pack. “We upload everything on eBoard and board members can access the details wherever they are, whenever they want, 24 hours a day. The board members can review and annotate from wherever they are. It’s saved us so much time,” said Mr. Wendo. “Everybody is now more productive.”

 

Software Technologies Operations Director, Chets Mukerjee, took the Clerks of Assembly present through eHorizon eParliament, a platform aimed at bring simplicity to legislative procedures.

Software Technologies was an official sponsor of the conference.

SOCATT (K) prides itself of several achievements including the negotiation on budget ceilings for the county assemblies, capacity building of County Assembly staff and the development of several models manuals for the county assembly including the Human Resource Manual, Committee Manual and the Procedure and Practice Manual. Capacity enhancement being at the core of the services of SOCATT to the County Assembly staff relationships have also been nurtured with development partners such the USAID through AHADI and internationally with Commonwealth Secretariat. Intergovernmental relations have been core to SOCATT (K) hence our continued engagement with Commission on Revenue Allocation, The National Treasury. The Intergovernmental Budget and Economic Council, the Council of Governors, County Assembly Forum, the National Assembly and the Senate of Kenya.

Software Technologies’ Operations Director, Chets Mukherjee, took the Clerks of Assembly present through eHorizon eParliament , a platform aimed at bringing simplicity to legislative procedures.

eHorizon eParliament is  a paperless digital solution to automate the day-to-day events of the Parliament and Legislative assembly. It enables access to rich, contextual information to everyone involved in the parliamentary process, anywhere and on any device by providing a unique repository and user-friendly interface for Members, assistants, and administration to deal with legislative documents.

 

With current conversations about climate change, deforestation, and the finite nature of natural resources, sustainability is on the minds of consumers, investors, and corporations.

But more than that, it’s also in our hands.

1.1 Hectares of Indigenous Trees

In an effort to help reforestation efforts in Kenya, Software Technologies Limited participated in a tree planting activity together with the Kenya Forest Service, Uplands CFA and the area Chief at Uplands Forest Station in Kiambu County where over 1.1 hectares of assorted indigenous trees were planted.

The Area Chief of the Uplands area highlighted that:

1. Trees clean the air.
2. Trees sequester around 20% of the carbon in the atmosphere (carbon contributes to climate change).
3. Trees help clean the water. It actually is like a filter when there’s heavy rain. Trees absorb the water and release it gradually.
4. Trees help with soil erosion.
5. Trees have a social impact on it in terms of employment and life (1.6 billion people on this planet are somehow connected to forests for their livelihood).
6. Trees are home to 80% of the world’s biodiversity (on land).

We lose about 46-58 thousand square miles of forest each year. Not for nothing—a large portion of those trees are turned into the products we buy and use every day. However, this would be unsustainable without active reforestation efforts, especially when you consider how long it takes for a tree to grow and mature.

“To waste, to destroy our natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so as to increase its usefulness, will result in undermining in the days of our children the very prosperity which we ought by right to hand down to them amplified and developed.”
― Theodore Roosevelt