SweetCorn Financials Solution

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The Chairman of MCL Nigeria today congratulates its Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Magnus Ekwunife and his team on the accomplishment of MCL’s Accounting and Management Software, SweetCorn, becoming one of the first locally developed software’s to be certified by, Microsoft.
The listing on the Microsoft website of the certification of SweetCorn, on Microsoft Windows 7 was, the Chairman said not only professional triumph for MCL but an indication of the opportunities waiting to be harvested in software development with new jobs being created in a high growth ICT sector.
The journey to the making of SweetCorn just like every innovative product has its fair share of challenges, which got compounded by the peculiar Nigerian operating environment. Unlike Microsoft team which started in 1975 and struggled through their early start, until 1981 when they got carried on IBM shoulder to deliver the first Operating System on IBM machines primarily for American market, that eventually led to the overall growth in American productivity by almost 400% through the deployment of their ancillary solutions, SweetCorn team had to bite through the numerous operating hurdles that has forced lots of peers in the industry into economic exile, to get the products to the markets.
The making of SweetCorn underscores the imperative for the schools to elevate their curriculum to the needs of the modern economy. Most businesses are too busy with the challenges of survival and market leadership to have the patience and capacity for innovative research to transform the economy. Just like Microsoft foundation was built by Harvard University team comprising Bill Gates, the founder, who was not patient enough to finish his MBA program but was wise enough to look for his former classmate in Harvard, Steve Ballmer, that had the patience,to help him manage the company which led to the game changepartnership with IBM in 1981, SweetCorn idea was also birth as a final year project by a group in Lagos Business EMBA class of 2003 that comprised the founder and three other EMBA students. The project was conceptualized as a simple solution to record, analyze and manage all the basic transaction of a business to aid business decision process for Nigerian companies to have comparable performance to the advanced economies. It is conceived as the business management software for all class of businesses. The team originally named the product “SISP”.
Megastrat Consulting was then created in 2004 to drive the vision under the chairmanship of Professor Pat Utomi, the entrepreneurship lead faculty of Lagos Business, while Magnus Ekwunife who was tutored or entrepreneurship under the Prof.,began to lead the team as the CEO. Duke Ekpenyong also of the same EMBA class joined for a period to drive the sales and marketing of the product and other company services.
SweetCorn faced stiffer acceptance hurdle test than comparable imported products stemming from the feeling that foreign software are better than local ones just like the belief in the selection of the National team coach for the Super Eagles. This challenged the development team to subject the product to more strenuous quality standard to make the product more generally acceptable which led to the successful deployment of the product in places ranging from government agencies like the National eGovernment Strategies (NeGSt), various oil and gas companies, trading companies, etc. It is this need of subjecting the product to stricter performance standards that propelled the company to ensure the product complies with known international standards, particularly the Microsoft standards. The product development team code named “harvesters” led by Gbenga Adetayo enlisted for and successfully passed the Microsoft certification test. SweetCorn is now listed among few products that have passed the revolutionary Microsoft Windows 7 certification test. This is the beginning of glorious next phase for a product that has passed through rigorous development, testing and guided deployment over the past 6 years. The governor of Anambra State, His Excellency Mr. Peter Obi recommended the product for adoption in the last South Eastern governors ICT awareness forum organized by Galaxy Backbone Plc. SweetCorn is now bundled with Microsoft Academy for schools in the State. The product was also bundled with Microsoft Academy for pilot run at Agidingbi Grammar School commissioned by the Lagos State Governor.
Nigeria is ripe to ride on indigenous technologies to drive its growth and expansion. Though it is good to learn from more advanced countries, it is not judicious to rely on them to drive our growth. Most of them have their hands full responding to the growth demand in their countries, which are bigger economies to give our nation the attention it deserves. The SweetCorn “Harvesters” team has given us another reason to look deeply inwards for technologies to drive our economic growth. Charity indeed starts from home!