The Focus Group is the youngest ICT group to be certified to the ISO9001:2015 standard in sub-Saharan Africa and a conglomerate of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) companies with a clear and dedicated focus on providing end-to-end ICT solutions and services to solve present and future problems.
The Focus Group has grown into an ICT powerhouse in Nigeria with capability and competency in the three core areas of infrastructure, connectivity & networks and software & applications. We exist to Power businesses/organizations to the next levels through technology. The ICT group came to be practically to put an end to the challenges often faced by many business es/organizations with the application of tailor-made solutions and services to addressing the problem thereby guaranteeing the much-needed peace of mind for our clients.
The Focus Group comprises of InfraFocus Technologies Limited, the Hardware & Infrastructure Solutions subsidiary offering solution and services around Servers, Storage, End User devises, and Data Center infrastructure. ConnectFocus Technologies Limited, Network & Connectivity Solutions subsidiary offering solutions and services around Local Area Network (LAN), Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), wide Area Network (WAN) and System Integration. SoftFocus Technologies Limited, the Software & Applications Solutions subsidiary offering solutions around Front End Applications; Back End Applications and workflow, robotic, Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Process automation solutions. SmartFocus Technologies Limited, the Smart Solutions subsidiary offering solutions around Smart Buildings, Smart Facility Mgt, Smart Parking etc using internet of Things (IoT) technology. The fifth member of the group is Soft Solution Concept Limited, the bespoke & home-grown solutions subsidiary providing locally built and tailored made solutions around Human Resource Management application, Legal office management application among others.
Oladipo Raji is the President/CEO of Focus Group, one of the fastest growing ICT conglomerates in Nigeria with a clear and dedicated focus on providing end-to-end ICT solutions and services to solve present and future problems with four subsidiaries and the founder of Oladipo Raji Foundation, a humanitarian organisation set up to empower the less privilege in the society to achieve their full potentials in life through access to formal education.
How does your operations work?
We are a technology company using technology to innovate in order to serve our customers. We basically use innovative technology to deliver value added solution to corporate organisations. As a vendor agnosticc but customer centric company, we partner with the world-class technology brands such as Dell-EMC, Oracle, Microsoft, Cisco, Newgen, HP, NetApps, Airtel, Glo, MTN, etc, use their technology to innovate and solve organisation’s business problems that are most suited for. We also create new solutions and intellectual Properties (IP) of our own to solve problem where existing solution are either not suitable or not optimized for such business problem. In all if it doesn’t add value to the operations of the customer or solve a business problem its no business for us.
Our products
In the last three years we have created innovative solutions that is revolutionizing the industry till now. Some of the innovation we have successfully delivered today includes:
•e-ligal: This is a legal office management system that provides a 360-degree management of the law firms available as a Software as a Service (SaaS) and on a pay per use model available for use by law firms and individual lawyers. This solution allows the law firms and individual lawyers to manage both their offices and cases. It also provides artificial intelligence that guides a layer on a step by step stages to deliver on any legal objective. This is the toast of every lawyer and law firm today.
•RWorkPlace: This is a human resource management system available as a pay-as-you-go model. Even though Human Resource applications are not new the innovation around our own solution is the fact that it is made available as a service and on a pay per use model. Hence companies no longer need to invest in infrastructure to run their human resource system neither do they need to be in their office to access their HR systems again but can access it from anywhere in the world. This service delivers full human resource management service to SME, SOHO and other medium size companies. The solution manages the staff from entry to exit including their records, career progression, training, leave, appraiser and renumeration. This is required by every organisation for their staff management. The fact that we made it available at no infrastructure cost made it very attractive to all prospect.
•SmartHome: This is an intelligent home monitoring and control service. The service is to monitor and manage devices in the residence of people on a subscription model. Hence, we have created different type of services that people can subscribe to depending on how many devices they want to control remotely.
2020 vision
By the end of year 2020 our group will be entering its 5th year, within the first three years of our existence we have grown from an SME to a large corporate and set new record in our industry as the youngest ICT company in the sub-Saharan Africa to be certified to ISO9001:2015 standard as well as the youngest ICT company to run a 24/7 operations in the country. These landmark achievements have raised the bar for us and positioned us appropriately for the next levels. At the inception in 2016 we set these goals for ourselves over a four-year period in our Vision 72020. This vision is for us to be among the 7 top ICT companies in Nigeria by the year 2020. By God’s grace we are set to deliver this vision next year. Beside being among the 7 top ICT companies in Nigeria other things to expect from us from 2020 and going forward are: Improved customer support with our 24/7 experience center, launching of new innovative service to solve current day challenges and Expansion to other African countries
What are your CSR initiatives
For our CSR initiatives we own a foundation known as Oladipo Raji Foundation, a humanitarian organisation set up to empower the less privilege in the society to achieve their full potentials in life through access to formal education. The foundation became operational in June 2018 and its currently sponsoring more than 10 young Nigerian in both secondary and higher institutions of learning across Nigeria. Beside the foundation we also run an academy where we train young graduates to make them employable for free.
Competition
One of the ways we mange competition is through Innovation. We operate a blue ocean strategy at Focus Group thereby creating our own future instead of struggling for the already saturated markets. Our capability to offer end-to-end solution from within the group position us to do this effectively. For existing markets however we compete effectively through unmatched efficiency in the industry. Our unique value proposition that sets us above the pack includes: one stop shop, service excellence, trust & confidence, Innovation, agility, experience & industry Knowledge and cost effectiveness.
Challenges
Our greatest challenge is availability of pool of skill set from which to recruit from. There seems to be scarcity of skill set in the country as its very difficult to get capable skilled people to employ. Although there is so much cry of high unemployment in the country unfortunately the so-called unemployed graduates did not have any skill neither are, they ready or willing to learn and work, all they are interested in is money. Looks like the very few good people have left the country. The next is the general lack of adequate infrastructure that is common to every other Nigerian business especially power. As a 24/7 company we spend heavily on power to keep our operations running and this impact greatly on our bottom-line. Other changes worthy of mention is the market structure especially in the connectivity sub-sector where we have to compete with our service provider for the same business due to lack of effective regulation that segment the market for different scale of operation. Apart these three major challenges others include lack of government patronage and support, lack of protection for the young local companies, multiple taxation etc