Over time, technology seems to advance so fast that keeping up with to latest innovations is more or less impossible. Today, the importance of technology in society can never be underestimated— from simple manual chores to more complex industrial systems, technology has made our activities more straightforward and more accessible, and easier than ever before.

13 years ago when Seamfix started, we were not specific about the problems we wanted to solve, but we were very much interested in assisting businesses to thrive—we asked ourselves: what are these businesses trying to achieve? What are the problems they are facing? How can we help make their processes easier? How can we make them satisfy their end customers? Will these processes improve the quality of their businesses or lives?

We focused on these three keywords, which are Improvement, digitization, customer satisfaction, and better quality of life—exactly what our mission was. 

Quality of life is a very ambiguous term, but I will break down this term for the sake of simplicity. What I meant by quality of life, this has to do with comfort, satisfaction, and happiness—towards businesses, and life generally, because businesses are part of our day-to-day lives. Right from the inception at Seamfix, we have always been committed to being part of this evolution of digital transformation. Launching as a startup with no investors wasn’t a smooth journey, but our problem-solving attitude and hunger towards digital transformation made it easy for us to create innovative technology solutions that are able to empower businesses to have the capacity to meet their customers’ needs and deliver satisfaction at maximum level, with high-quality service-in today’s competitive business world, understanding your customers is very important, this means that providing a strong customer experience has become a necessity in order to sustain a successful business.

Notwithstanding, let us take a giant leap and discover the best ways technology has improved the quality of business processes today-these were culled from our own experiences.

Increased efficiency and productivity

 It is no news that dealing with physical documents slows down the process. For example, if there is a request for a particular data or record, you must have to physically search for this data—may be amongst files. What if this record has been misfiled, or even lost? This alone delays business activities. Again, doing anything manually makes the process prone to error.

The whole process is made easier with technological solutions, we realized that we can cut down the record or data retrieval processes. With software solutions, everything is stored in an accessible format, accessing each file as fast as possible. Through this, Employees can have time to do more crucial tasks, rather than spending their time tediously running through physical archives.

Accuracy in Statistics

Asides from storing and transforming data, Statistics was once excessively limited. Companies would only get access to reports on a monthly basis, making it difficult to make highly informed business decisions. With the use of automated software tools, employees can collect and analyze data in real-time which can be displayed and sent out as reports whenever needed.

Now that everything is digital, businesses and organizations can have access to centralized dashboards that provide the most important metrics displayed instead of having to schedule meetings in which you spend time showing slides with statistics.

Most importantly, technology has made it easier to collect and analyze massive amounts of data to help improve decision-making while also making it easy to share reports throughout your organization at any point in time.

Confidentiality and Security.

One of our main aims for digitizing manual processes was not just to store data, but to secure data.  Digitization enhances the security of a document and maintains confidentiality. Since scanned documents are traceable, only certain users can access documents if necessary. Information stored on paper is degradable information as paper degrades every time it is handled manually. Document image processing keeps data safe and easily accessible in the future.

Verification

Earlier, in businesses, we had to capture important data manually which was stored in physical files. This signifies that to review the information, you had to locate the file and find what we were looking for—anyone can actually have access to this file.

Thanks to Technology, with the Identity Identification process or Biometric authentication, you can automate data capture and review information. These software tools are specially designed not just to capture data but aim at analyzing information and successfully detecting fake identities—this reduces the rate of fraud, and sometimes cybercrime.

Also, identification systems offer many solid benefits for governments, private companies, development partners, as well as individuals-by providing a secure and accurate way of identifying the population, these systems can facilitate the delivery of a wide variety of services that increase gender equality, improve access to social safety nets, boost economic opportunities, expand financial inclusion, and many more.

A lot of businesses still shy away from advanced technology because of its supposed complexities; little did they know that when they join the wagon of the advanced digital technological crew, they can boost speed to their market products or services, leverage customer satisfaction into loyalty, and also improve profitability. 

Ultimately, advanced technological solutions are constantly evolving such as cybersecurity technology, Cloud storage, Advanced AIs and analytics, Biometric Identification, Blockchain, and the list goes and on-We, the seamFIXERS, would keep evolving as time goes, rapidly joining the trend of digital transformational leaders, consistently easing business processes with innovative technological solutions. 

It all happened in the year 2020; while the complexities of a year like no other piled up and we, like the rest of the world, were dealing with them in our own way we decided to take a detour to drive our value offerings and services to the highest level. On our own, we identified the need to mature corporate policies, procedures, and tools, all the while reinforcing our core values of customer satisfaction and continuous improvement.

This bold journey accumulated both time and dedication, however, in many ways it was unique and interesting. With this journey came delays, obstacles, challenges which did not deter us and instead made us bigger and better. We had to deal with the ever-changing regulatory standards, including ethical and customers expectations, still, we pressed on because compliance was up on our prioritized to-do list on the corporate Jira board. 

We were headed for our big goal of achieving world-class quality assurance and standardization, and the best of all which was becoming a certified ISO holder.

The early stages of this were rigorous in all ramifications as we literally had to learn almost everything from scratch. We also had to figure out a safe way to get the team together during a pandemic and acquire all the necessary information in time. This was more or less like getting your house in order when expecting an important guest during a tsunami. We had to do all we could to develop grit.

There were tons of voracious meetings and moments where we had to distribute sheets and documents across all departments and ensure that they were filled, and uploaded on confluence if need be. We had to make procurement arrangements to get everything we didn’t already have… and remember, there was a pandemic.

When it was all said and done, the audit started physically and but later had to be moved to a virtual space. It was pretty challenging because we had to deal with poor internet connection and also logistics for team members when needed. We had to muster the courage not to give up as well as effectively adjust to the new normal. 

Now, there were two audit sessions we passed through. The first was an internal audit which was quite easy, more like a review stage where we had to erase all our flaws and errors in preparation for the final audit. The last audit felt like we were preparing for an exam. We had to ensure everything was put in place at the right time, with valid evidence. I mean we couldn’t just go through all that stress for nothing. At the final stage, the auditor was very impressed and applauded Seamfix for a job well done conforming to all ISO standards and our strength to stand tall despite the challenges.

The road to success is not easy to navigate, but with hard work, drive, and passion, it is achievable. We indeed achieved this great success and we are pleased to announce that we have acquired ISO 27001:2013 information management and security (ISMS) and ISO 27701:2019 Privacy Information Management System (PIMS). 

The  ISO 27001:2013 certification, an internationally recognized and accepted standard that ensures that its products and services meet the needs of customers, and clients through an effective information security management system. Also, awarded to Seamfix is the ISO 27701:2019 certification to buttress its commitment to secure customers and client’s personal data privacy.

That is not all … Seamfix is now the first software development company in Africa and the first company in Nigeria to get the ISO 27701:2019 certification for Privacy Information Management System (PIMS).

These achievements would not have been possible without a Trusted Information Security Partner, Digital Encode. This brings us joy as we will take a consistent approach to maintain the ISO status and dedicate ourselves to continuous improvement and development with regards to the quality of our products and services that will, in turn, increase the satisfaction of our clients, employees, shareholders, and the society at large. Overall, these achievements will ensure that we have the right processes and systems in place.

Now, we can proudly and safely state that Seamfix is established with quality and transparency in mind. We integrate the attitude of quality in our daily work and continuously challenge ourselves to improve the quality management system to provide products that meet or exceed the needs and expectations of our customers and always comply with specifications and regulations.

These certifications are proof that the Seamfix systems and processes have been audited against international best practices and operating within global standards. Hurray!

Many thanks to the Team!

‘Reform the Police’ is a chant that has made headlines worldwide over the past few years, and even more this year especially in Nigeria. Reformation would first start from the internal processes within the police departments and move all the way out. In a world driven by technology, reformation would mean a transition from the old way of doing things to a more efficient, tech-driven way. This new way is sure to automate a lot of mundane tasks within the force, improve transparency, and allow for better service.

We have highlighted some reformative technologies that will do the Nigerian police force a lot of good:

Digitization Technology

Policing in this digital age will definitely call for digitalization especially in the areas of data collection, reportage, and storage. By going digital, the Nigerian police force can convert all paper forms needed — from arrest to release— into digital forms that can be accessed on any digital device, which would ensure that everything is properly documented and transparent. With this, reporting crimes can happen a lot quicker as officers can complete paperwork from any crime scene and have them updated in real-time for processing. The file, once digital, can be easily referenced if needed; take an instance of a repeat-offender getting arrested in another location, officers in that location can easily pull out the case file and have knowledge of the offender’s previous crimes.

Centralized Digital Technology

The beauty of a central system is in the transparency it offers. When all forms generated are uploaded to a central system, it becomes easy for the top officials in the police force to track cases and get real-time updates on activities in the station from anywhere in the world. Arrest and release forms can pass through the chain of command for approval, and even be signed digitally without any need for the officials to visit the station. 

Identity Verification Technology

When making an arrest, the need to know ‘exactly who a person is’ becomes necessary. It will be unfair for an impersonator to go scot-free after committing a crime while the impersonated gets a criminal record that might taint their reputation. Hence the need for identity verification to ensure the person to be arrested is exactly who they say they are. Using ID verification technologies, police officers can match the information provided by the suspect/criminal at the point of arrest with the information in a different database— say a national database — that can serve as a source of truth. For example, officers can match a person’s face with the image in the NIN or BVN database. This way, police officers can be sure of who has been detained (or about to be detained) in any cell nation-wide.

Case Management Technology

A case management technology will offer a robust system to digitally transform the processes of tracking, investigation, monitoring, and collation of data within the police force to allow for a more efficient and productive workflow. This system will harmonize all the information that is pertinent to a case and offer all the necessary tools for a proper follow-up. Another great benefit of this system is in its offer of analytics. This system will be able to churn data into presentable formats which can be used by the police force to analyze trends and answer questions like where and when crimes occur mostly, ensuring that every opportunity to arrest a suspect or stop a crime is maximized.

Workforce Management Technology 

The technology solutions in this group can play numerous roles including serving as a tool for holistic staff enumeration necessary to weed out ghost workers, like excommunicated officers or impersonators, that pad up the payroll records and receive paychecks for no work done. This technology can also serve as a payroll automation tool that will ensure that salaries are calculated effectively and go out as at when due so police officers can smile to the bank and be more motivated to do the good work. Finally, this technology can even go further to automate the processes of re-evaluation and re-training of the Nigerian police force (as is a demand for reform) which can be enforced as a requirement for deployment or reinstatement so that only certified police officers are put on duty.

 

Technology can do all these and even more, all aimed at reforming a willing Police Force. Certain solutions like BioRegistra are built for this purpose and come with amazing capabilities that will go even further to digitally transform the force for optimized results. With enabling features like mobile capture so that arrests can be documented on a mobile device outside the station, offline capabilities so that there are no limits to reportage, geofencing to pinpoint the exact location of an arrest, and so much more.

See how BioRegistra can foster police force reformation

Beauty they say is in the eyes of the beholder, but the beauty of digitalization can be seen by everyone — businesses, their end-users, their potential end-users, their competitors, and even the sceptics.

Right now, seemingly every business-related article, panel discussion, and keynote address is talking about the importance of going digital, most especially in the view of the current pandemic.

Every time the picture of a post-COVID world is painted with words and inferences to the economy, the word digitalization (or digitization, often used interchangeably) is depicted as the knight that saves the day. They all make a fair point considering the world of good digitalization can do for any business with the current economic situation.

The pandemic has exposed the need for digitalization globally. In truth, global digitalization should have been a topic of consideration way back when, however, COVID-19 and the behaviour shift it forced upon us has created an avenue to have this conversation again, and this time more urgently.

In business: Digitalization — which is the adoption of digital technologies to transform a business model — aims to upgrade business processes for adaptability (e.g, touchless), better workflow, flexibility (e.g, remote work), productivity, high quality of service, and ultimately business satisfaction which will increase customer inflow and add to the bottom line of the business.

By going the route of digitalization, businesses can rethink their work methods and strategies to reap value using new technologies. Any business that isn’t thinking of making the switch right now is, as they say, ‘sitting ducks’.

Achieving digital transformation through digitalization

Digital transformation is that fundamental change that comes from infusing digital technologies into all areas of a business. This change can differ from business to business, but one common factor is the end result of delivering value to customers.

Author Greg Verdino says “Digital transformation closes the gap between what digital customers already expect and what analogue businesses actually deliver.”

It is also important to note that digital transformation is not triggered by technology, instead, by the need to solve problems and meet customer’s needs in a different and optimized way.

Although digital transformation is broader than digitalization, the latter sets the ball rolling for the former. Where digitalization stops, digital transformation goes the extra mile as the outcome. This connection between the two becomes obvious when one looks at the enabling factor behind a successful digital transformation — Hence, digitalization is the fuel.

Digital transformation for some businesses can be a long-term feat, for others can be one mighty sweep that would mean turning their backs completely on legacy business activities and processes and imbibing a tech-driven approach to predominantly everything.

The effect of digital transformation will lead to an entirely new market, new strategies, new customer touchpoints, even new business realities. The business will experience a wholistic and accelerated transformation of activities, competencies, processes, and models in a strategic and prioritized way.

Transitioning into a digital business through digitalization

When we talk about digital business, we refer to a business that is offering value to customers through digitized channels. Digitalization enables the shift to a digital business model by fueling digital transformation whose adoption will propel the development of a digital business strategy where everything that can be digitized is digitized.

When a business transfers their traditional structures and core operations to digital platforms or environment, they are able to create new value, new offerings, better customer experiences, high-quality performances and capabilities.

Digital businesses will continually adapt to emerging technologies and digital possibilities; rely on data to make decisions; leverage opportunities in a strategic way; create value in line with customer benefits using digital technologies… and the rest is uphill.

Enabling process automation through digitalization

Process Automation simply refers to the use of technology to carry out processes. It is pertinent for businesses to automate their processes to remain relevant and competitive.

Digital transformation is the driving force for process automation, which will lead to the adoption of a digital business model, all of which are driven by digitalization. For this reason, digitalization is also often used as a synonym for process automation.

Business process automation can be wholistic or partial with some infusion of human effort at some strategic points in the workflow. When existing processes can be digitally mapped or automated they can be transformed into a single automated workflow which will serve better and offer more value-producing opportunities also saving time, effort, and money.

Digitalization and your business

The emergence of digital technologies changed the way businesses operate and the new normal is adding its own blend to the mix. Customers always wanted things faster, easier, and at their convenience — now, they want all of that but from a distance and without the need for physical contact or surface touch.

Digitalization which leads to digital transformation, process automation, and ultimately a digital business, will fundamentally change how your business operates and adapt your offerings to enable you to deliver high-end value to customers even as the world evolves.

Digitalization will empower your business to get comfortable with experimenting with emerging processes, digital services, and models —  to unlearn and relearn. It will enable a radical cultural change in a positive direction.

Digitalization will make it necessary for your business to focus actions on the development and deployment of digital innovation strategies, to stay ahead of the competition and be successful in new market disruption.

Employees will not be left out of this change. Digitalization will prepare them for the challenges of the digital age, inform them to align their activities and play integral roles in the journey to digital change.

We would love to here from you. Contact us at Support@seamfix.com. We have a whole lot to tell you, subscribe to our newsletter HERE.

A pseudo-case study of Nelson & Co.

By Petra Muolokwu

Within a period of 15 years, Nelson & Co., an outsourcing firm, had grown to become a major player in its industry. It had accrued major outposts and franchises pan globally, providing top-notch professional services for A-list local and multinational clients across different regions.

However, with business growth comes business challenges. At some point in the lifecycle of the organization, complaints began to mount from major clients. There were major customer service gaps, service failures as well as security breaches. On a few of the instances, Nelson & Co. had to fire erring staff members often for serious negligence and gross company policy violations.

Despite all the efforts of the management team to retool and reposition the company, the same set of complaints kept coming from different quarters of their clients at different times. After a while, customer complaints evolved to customer walk-outs! after a 2-week spate, three major multinationals sacked Nelson & Co. and stopped doing business with them.

Unknown to the management of Nelson & Co., more than half of the staff that were fired from a particular region of the company had applied and gotten hired by the same company in another region. For instance, staff who were laid off for poor performance and criminal activities in the West regions easily applied to regions in the East and vice versa, still dispelling the same behaviour for which they were laid off in their previous locations.

In addition to this complex problem, some staff also maintained employment with Nelson & Co. in two different regions! The very same person would pose as a different staff in a different region. Nelson& Co., in addition to losing credibility with customers was also losing money from paying ghost workers.

It then became necessary to consolidate the various databases and manage staff identities from one central location and verify these identities against a national database — National Identification Number.

Organizations like Nelson & Co. often avoid Identity Management systems for:

1. Expensive license acquisition and maintenance fees.

2. Complex deployment of a solution

3. Bureaucracy in the deployment process.

In a bid to restore it’s company’s image and appropriate lost opportunities, Nelson of Nelson & Co. called for a press meet to enlighten the public on identity management in organizations.

According to him, “Identity management is basically the management of who people say they are, backed up by a fact. There is no identity management without the role of people or who people say they are”.

All these realizations did not happen until after Nelson & Co. had lost the business custom of 7 of the companies it used to work for. These are clients which could have been returning customers and doubled, tripled or even quadrupled its monthly revenue. The more unfortunate thing about losing just one customer is really not just the business opportunity that customer would have brought to the company, but the negative word-of-mouth that customers could engage in with other potential customers of the said company.

These are the current business realities for Mr. Nelson, who is bent on revamping the organization. You may read more on the story and learnings here. We really wish that Mr. Nelson had read our previous blog post.

Every organization, small or large needs an identity management system to manage customers’ identities or employees’ access to sensitive data. An identity management system culminates policies, processes, and technologies that enable organizations to control the access of users to it’s resources and applications. They protect their confidential information from unauthorized users. Therefore, it is important that unauthorized parties be weeded out.

After Seamfix’s intervention, Mr. Nelson summoned the management to share the benefits gained with Seamfix cloud-based data capture and identity management system. According to him;

1. Data Quality Control –

This is one of the most prominent problems of identity management. For Nelson & Co., identities of new intakes were verified against national databases such as BVN, NIN or International Passports.

2. Central Identity Management Platform-

With a central system, captured identities can be verified, to ensure proper monitoring and management of staff activities across various regions. We also equipped Nelson & Co. with robust analytics of company-wide performance.

3. Increase in Productivity –

The adoption of an automated identity management system empowered Nelson & Co. with digital transformation capabilities and reduced the time that would otherwise have been manually spent on monitoring and verifying identities. This also influenced the staff to be more productive as reports of their operations were published nationwide and the supervisors of various regions to ensure that their regions were at par.

4. Impersonation and falsification were vehemently curbed-

With a centralized system, staff identities cannot be falsified as false records will be flagged. To this end, Nelson & Co. is able to reaffirm its credibility and deliver premium quality services.

Seamfix, The KYC Company …

Seamfix is constantly empowering organizations across Africa to proceed from strategy to implementation with data capture and identity management solutions, driving digital transformation in Africa and beyond with her ever-improving AI/ML supported solutions.

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Are you, or your organization passionate about data? collecting it? collating it? verifying it? analyzing it? then you are the kind of people we write for. Follow our publication, and you would gain knowledge on everything data, from the process of easy capture to the end goal of making data-driven decisions. Find out about our company SEAMFIX and how we solve big organizational issues with third-generation solutions HERE.