By Phillip Pasula
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Sparc Systems Limited is the 2023 ICT firm of the year award winner following the ICT Association of Malawi (ICTAM) annual corporate awards presentation ceremony held at Bingu International Conference Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe where several ICT companies walked away with different awards.
Managing Director for Sparc Systems Limited, Wesley Phiri, says this latest ICT firm of the year award is a clear testimony of the many solutions the company is offering across Africa.
Speaking after scooping the biggest award of the year, Phiri said his company is behind most of the innovations in the ICT sector in Malawi.
“This is a testament to many solutions Sparc is offering across the continent. Our solutions are behind 80 percent of the banks in Malawi and all major telecommunication companies, amongst other industries. We are behind most of the innovations in the country,” he said.
Phiri added: “Sparc has been a leading ICT company across Africa for some years. We have done a number of in-house innovations that have earned a number of awards before. We are proud to be awarded the Best ICT Firm for the year 2023 by the ICT Association of Malawi. I should also mention that this is the second time we have gotten this award, having gotten it again in 2019.”
Quizzed on why he thought the award went to his company, Phiri said the secret was that Sparc Systems Limited had the ability to come up with several innovations that have made it possible for companies to serve their customers better.
“We have been working on a number of innovations. We offer customer tailored solutions to help businesses serve their customs better through ICT. Our solutions are cross cutting; from ICT infrastructure, software development, cyber security, to ICT training. We are also an exam centre offering various certifications in the ICT sector,” he remarked.
Phiri further revealed that Sparc Systems Limited is working on a number of innovations to continue offering better ICT services on local and international markets.
“We have a number of innovations that we are working on. Currently, we have put on the market seven various software innovations including the award winning Mental Lab, a mental health application, the Students Academic Record Information Systems (SARIS) and DOMASO; a Document Management Software that help our customer in digitalization and archiving documents.
“We also have the HR system development by our engineers. These are just some of the innovations that we already have. We also have customer tailored solutions for Customer Relationship Management amongst others,” he said.
Despite successes on the ICT market, Sparc Systems Limited is also facing a number of challenges including lack of government support.
“Some of the challenges that we are facing include lack of government support for local innovators. But challenges are what inspire more innovations. We will keep on innovating to solve specific problems which our customers meet. Incentives that apply to other sectors do not apply to the ICT sector.
“Yet in digital economy, and when we expect Malawi to be self-reliant under the Malawi Vision 2063, ICT is supposed to be the main driver of change,” concluded Phiri.
