A local software engineer who has developed an internet-based platform could change how the world conducts procurement business.
Justice William is a perfect advert for Botswana’s educational policies and the public education system. A man with a humble background, he did all his pre-tertiary schooling in his home village Bobonong, starting out at Madikwe Primary School, through to Mosetlha Junior Secondary School, and winding up at Matshekge Hill School, where he graduated with a first class in 1996.
After a two-year BSc foundation programme at University of Botswana, he was selected to study Environmental and Civil Engineering in Canada. As part of the curriculum, he had to take introductory Java programming. It was a rough awakening when in one of the project modules he scored the lowest mark in a class of around 500 students. Initially, he took the defensive route; afterall, he was in class with kids that had grown up with computers and had taken computing lessons in secondary school. After deep reflection, he vowed to avoid a repeat of the 47% mark. So he put a lot more effort in studying programming.
“It turned out that the more I practised the more I realised that I was a natural in analytical thinking required for programming,” he recalls. “I then decided to ask the ministry of education to allow me to switch programmes. From 47% I managed to be in the Dean’s honours list by the time I graduated and have an offer from Microsoft before I even had my degree.”
Having identified where his passion really lie, he changed his study programme to software engineering.
By his account, William’s journey to one of the world’s biggest firms Microsoft was unexpected. He had never submitted his CV to the company. His suspicion is that someone who knew his work may have. Out of the blue, a call came through inviting him for an interview, and the company flew him business class to Seattle, Washington.
“I had never been in business class before,” he quips. “I kept thinking, ‘these guys know how to spoil a candidate’. I went through the most rigorous interview from 7am to around 7pm and by end of the day I was confident an offer was coming since I had met some high level executives in the group.”
An offer, which he accepted promptly, arrived within a few days of the interview.
“It was all very humbling,” he looks back. “A young guy from Bobonong, not a child of the connected elite, never been to private schools, but just out of hard work was at Microsoft. I was rubbing shoulders daily with guys and ladies that can be classified as the best in the world. I guess I was good enough to be called that too. My origins are, without question, very humble and had it not been for the opportunity to study overseas I would not have done software engineering and therefore all due thanks to Botswana’s educational policies.”
William joined Microsoft as part of the MSN Messenger team (now called the Windows Live), which worked on the chat application that was used daily by millions of people worldwide. In the days before Facebook, Messenger was the hot item, allowing users to chat, or make calls. William’s role included working on Manageability systems that led to collaboration with MSN Search (now called Bing).
“I believe the application that was developed as part of this inspired the now successful Microsoft System Center,” he suggests, “although System Center was released way after I left Microsoft.”
After two years at Microsoft, he wanted a change. There were good offers from some reputable names, including from Amazon. But he chose to join a smaller company called Medio, which built search engines and he became the lead developer for T-Mobile International, where he built a code running in five European countries. He wrote codes such as the Yahoo Integration.
William looks back at Medio as the company where he greatly matured as a developer because he was given more challenging tasks than at Microsoft, or would have possibly gotten at Amazon.
“When I turned down the Amazon offer I refused a US$20,000 signing bonus and a higher pay cheque, but I never regretted it as I grew more as a professional by joining Medio,” he says.
When the urge to come back home set in, William briefly consulted in South Africa. One of the major projects he undertook in South Africa was as part of a team that built a new trade integrating platform for one of the country’s major financial institutions, Rand Merchant Bank.
For the past three years, he has focused on personal entrepreneurial initiatives, and in the process developed some revolutionary applications. One idea grew out of the anger and frustration he felt after being stuck for hours in a queue at the Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property. By the end of that day, he had started penciling the idea of a queue management system that he would call World Queues.
“I worked day and night,” he recalls. “Three months later we had the first version of the queue management system that we put on a trial in Botswana Savings Bank banking halls at Broadhurst. The system that I developed from scratch with not even a small budget worked like a charm,” he says.
The system manages customer flow by allowing customers to digitally queue through the platform and then calling them as their queue spots reach the customer service. It permits queuing online, or via sms, after which the customer receives an acknowledgement that informs them of their reference number and the time they can expect to be served. The system is ideal for service providers that are prone to long queues such as hospitals and banking halls.
With two collaborators, Martin Moatshe and Motlhalosi Ntwaetsile, he has developed Intelligent Quotations, a platform that allows someone to request quotations from many suppliers at once, as well as being able to locate service providers in their locality. Although initially meant for companies to post requests for quotations (RFQs) and tenders, he realised that he could serve an even bigger market by widening the scope to include a wide range of services and service providers.
The way it works is that someone who needs a service ÔÇô be it a painter, plumber, or mechanic ÔÇô posts it at HYPERLINK “http://www.intelquotations.com” www.intelquotations.com, and the posting immediately reaches all the registered service providers in that particular service category. Similarly, procurement officers in different companies and departments would simply post RFQs and tenders notices at HYPERLINK “http://www.intelquotations.com” www.intelquotations.com, which will instantly reach all the registered companies that supply the required goods and services.
“Intelligent Quotations that can change the world and put transparency to the procuring processes of different countries,” he explains.
The next step is to introduce virtual stores within Intelligent Quotations for local producers of items like crafts, baskets and artworks, thereby exposing them to international clientele.
“I know how people in the United States like dibaga, manyena a Setswana, and our traditional baskets, but for the local producers setting up an e-commerce website to sell their products would be a tall order. That’s why we will allow them to create a store, take pictures of their merchandise, put pricing and when a customer buys we will handle all the credit card application, facilitate shipping and hold the payment escrow until the customer has received the merchandise and is satisfied with it. Then we release the payment locally to the seller. We believe as we expose the sellers internationally they can get better prices for their wares internationally,” William says.
At the Botswana Innovation Hub, there is what is known as the Microsoft Innovation Center (MIC). It is a result of partnership between Botswana Innovation Hub and Microsoft Corporation, and part of its mandate is to support and facilitate R&D as well as education and innovation activities in ICT. Through the BizSpark programme that supports ICT and technology innovation start-ups with potential to be scaled up, Microsoft Innovation Center will offer Intelligent Quotations assistance that includes technical support and global visibility, as well as training and virtual incubation. The Microsoft Innovation Center manager Patel Barwabatsile explains that Botswana Innovation Hub sees great potential for Intelligent Quotations to be scaled up into a global business with enormous commercial success.
When William explains the potential for job creation and foreign revenue generation, he draws a parallel with the United States company Google, which has users throughout the world yet most of the jobs it created are in its home country. William has a vision of Intelligent Quotations becoming global player with a Botswana-based support structure that includes software developers, call centres, billing systems, and administrative offices. He projects thousands of jobs within a few years.
He is already planning to give Intelligent Quotations more capabilities. These include adding support of all international languages, and building mobile phone support, which will make it downloadable globally through platforms such as Google Play, and Apple Store.
Could Intelligent Quotations be the next major foreign revenue earner for Botswana?
“There is no limit to how much this can earn for Botswana,” he responds. “We just have to market it regionally and internationally to get global penetration.”