 Welcome back to why in the morning, if it's Tuesday, it's entrepreneurship Tuesday at Y254 channel is where you can find us across all our social media platforms. At Michel, Ashira is where you can reach out to me equally across all my social media handles. In this particular session, it's all about matters pertaining Salix data Africa. And we're looking at how they're going to talk to us about how they get to empower the youths in a couple of their programs. So today, I'm joined by Vincent Carril, who is the general manager. Then we have Margaret Wangoy, who is the head of operation. Good morning, guys. Good morning. Thank you for joining us. Thank you, guys, for coming through. We appreciate it. And we're looking forward to have this conversation. Indeed. And get to know how our fellow youths are there. Can get empowered and what Salix data Africa is all about. All right, so starting us off, I probably just like to find out. For the person who's watching this particular conversation, they are wondering, what is Salix data Africa? Well, Salix data Africa first. Salix is an acronym for SALIX, which stands for Service, Achievement, Leadership, Integrity, and Expertise. Interesting. Yes. We initially started off as a business process outsourcing company. But basically what we do is we do digitization. So we help companies transition from regular paper-based business processes to digitize their platforms. Yes. You're going to just dive into that, more of that later on. My great problem could tell us more about when the business was founded. Just a little bit of a brief background so that we can be at bay when you're having this conversation. Great. So Salix has been in operation for the last on average 20 years. It is headquartered in the US, but has offices in India, Kenya, and Ghana. Now to the Salix data Kenya, we founded it in 2017. So it's been in operation. Around three years now. And what we are basically centered on, like Vincent has mentioned, is digitization and now the BPO destination. So coming back to you, Vincent, when did you get to be part of Salix Africa and why Salix? Well, it's interesting. I got to be part of Salix data by accident. So before that, I was in a totally different field. I'm a trained electrical engineer. Really? Yes. And then I saw an advert for someone who was looking for someone to start off a business from scratch. And at that time, there were two adverts, apparently. One was running for a renewable energy partner, and there was one that was running for digitization. So I did apply for renewable because I was in solar at that time. Well, so I got this invitation for an interview and while sitting in the interview, I'm like, why are they asking about digitization? Yeah, I am for solar. So way later is when I realized somehow my CV got mixed. I'm sorry. So you're going into the wrong field, but you ended up actually loving what you do. Yes. And it's interesting that, even though it's a change of field, I'm loving it. I like digitization. I'm in need full-time, and I like it. So that's how I met the owners. And then so at that time, what they were looking at was purely business process outsourcing, where we'd be processing data for US-based companies, but we process them here in Kenya. But over time, and having now understood what digitization is all about and what it entails, I realized there is a market here. Why should we continue doing business and digitizing market companies for the US? Yet there is so much that can be done here locally. So at that time, then we said, let's now focus on Kenyan market. And at that time, we went in, myself, the president, his brother, and one other Kenyan. So we had two Kenyans and two US-based people, partners, as directors. Did you just mention, OK, I think I got it wrong. So the president of Salix Africa, Salix Data Africa, that you're going to partner with? No. So the company has a president, who's John Adams, who is actually the co-founder with his brother. Right now I get the whole picture. Yes. Yes, so the president is John Adams, who sits in the states with his brother, who is the vice president, who sits in the states. And so together with them, I have another person called David Gizoku, then we founded Salix Data Africa. Right. And for Margaret, I want to find out how is it for you guys to penetrate the market? And as I said earlier, if someone just get to hear about Salix Data Africa and considering that the headquarters are back in the USA, they will probably shy off considering the mentality of the perception that it's not our space. So how are you guys breaking through into the market? And how did you do it during initial stages? That is actually a very interesting question, because we are operating in a Kenyan market where people feel, if you can't show me who you have worked with locally, I'm not quite sure I can trust what you're doing. But it's been an interesting journey, because when we got registered in Kenya, which is sometime last year, it was around the same time Kenya was transitioning. Like right now you will see that the judiciary is needing to transition to do away with a lot of paperwork. So we are actually operating in a very interesting time that the country is actually ready to embrace what we are bringing on board. So I wouldn't quite say we are there, but then given that we are in the right time when the country is actually transitioning, I think we're in the right place. Oh, right. OK. So back to you Vincent, and I'd like to find out your role in Salix Data Africa and how does the day look like for you when just going around your business, the usual business? A very interesting day for me. So there's a lot of forecasting in terms of where we need to be, what we need to be doing, what can we do more to better meet the customer needs, and what other things that we can do to improve our service delivery. And then we also have empowerment programs where I head and help in people skill improvement, be it project management skills, be it communication skills. And I think I mentioned a while back before this that we work with youth, who some of them just transition from high school to direct to workplace. So I also form part of the training team where we just empower in terms of skill set, just empower in terms of service delivery, who is a customer to us, and things like those. Yes. All right. And Makra, it's a lot of fun. Someone who's watching this and just listening about Salix Data Africa, it cuts across almost most industries that we have. And one may think, what do I require? Or what sort of educational background should I have to just be part of you guys? I would say the basic form for education. Because like he has mentioned, we do a lot of impact. So most of our jobs, given that we are currently doing a lot of BPO and digitization, which means we do most of our jobs actually data entry. So you just need to have the basic typing skills and obviously a personality that you can work with people. Yes. So and for you Vincent, you mentioned a lot that you work with the youth. And prior to this discussion, we were talking about partnership. Maybe we can go into details on how the youth actually get to benefit from this. I know you mentioned it. But I would like to just find out in details how young people can actually benefit from this program. Well, first we have partnered with many organizations in the SLAM areas, where initially their main target was just to take people to schools. But then after school, then it stops there. So what you've come to do is to offer opportunities where you can transition and be prepared to be ready for a workless environment. So like for Mission of Hope, we did build a computer lab in there and we equipped the lab and then we equipped the trainers. So since the time we started off, we've trained over 3,000 youth. So and they're ready for any digitization program. I know when even the government started off the Agira program, we have some of the beneficiaries who are able to easily transition to do the online job. So that's something that is huge for us. OK, so it's basically based on online, like the skills they get. The skills they get is purely computer-based. Computer-based, OK. Computer-based, yes. All right, OK. Yes, and it transitioned to both premise-based and web-based, yes. Margaret, one of the major services that you guys mentioned are down in some data entry and I would like to find out, how do you ensure your client's security and privacy? That's a very interesting question. So before we get into an engagement with you, the client, we sign an undisclosure agreement. So you will be assured of the security of your data because you will understand that some data is very sensitive and you need to be very safe when you're disclosing it to other people and so do our employees. Before you work for us at the orientation, you will need to sign an undisclosure agreement and that binds you to not giving information whether you're working with us or whether you have left. All right, so for potential clients out there, they should be safe. Yes, they are. And just to weigh in on that, apart from the name having the part of integrity, we don't look at our clients as a client or a customer. Reason being, we look at them as a partner. The reason is we get access to so much data that if should we be reckless with their information, then it will be out there, even for the competitors to access them. So we look more of another department within that company where we process, say financial information or health information about your clients if it's a hospital. So that means we definitely need to have some level of integrity to be able to partner with you and handle your data. I'm so sure now our potential clients are at ease. Yes. So who are the biggest spenders right now in this space? The biggest what? The spenders. Well, if I get you right, the biggest potential people for this particular space is the insurance industry. We have law firms. And basically those people who handle a lot of paper based information, like general application for insurance, chances are that you will fill a form. A law firm would have tons and tons of papers to support a certain lawsuit. So those are the people who would be the best suited to work with us. Supply chain, manufacturing, there's a lot of papers like local purchase orders, invoices and things like those. Those are the people who are best suited for us to work with them in order to have their processes more automated. All right. Yes. Okay, let's look at, going back to Margaret, you're the head of operation. How does it work? Do I need, as a client, do I need to create an account with you? What is the process looking like? Our process basically starts with us visiting you so that we see how much paperwork you have. What do you want us to do? Do you want us to first deal with all the paperwork you have then going forward? What's the plan? Do you want us to develop a platform for you so that once we have digitized all the records that you have from the past, then going forward, you do not need to have any more paperwork. So depending on what exactly you want and how you want us to go around it, because there are people who are not willing to give us their information so they want us to work from their premises. So we work with what works for you, but ideally we will just digitize what you have and then get your plan going forward so that we completely do away with your paperwork. Okay, and how do you guys do your work through automation? So just to add to what you said, so we offer a free workflow study or assessment where we just come in and study your processes. How does one paper move from you to the next person, to the person who is doing either the entry or the final product? So we study that and then we come up with the best way to handle that. Sometimes we develop web-based forms where you don't necessarily have to have a physical paper to process your stuff. And given that to digitize an environment is quite costly, what we do is we just start off with the basics. Like where does it hurt most? What is that process that you feel? If I were to find a way of solving this, then I would be in a better place where you'd be more efficient, you'd be more accurate, you'd be more effective and you'd utilize your employees more. So we start with that. We like to call that a low-hanging fruit. So let's start off with this particular process. And then we start the processes of developing it and digitizing that. And then once that is done, then we deploy the full workflow process where there are some that will have transition into digitized form and then you remain with fewer that definitely must be paper-based. Yes. Who works with prioritizing what the client actually wants? Yes. It is more of where does it hurt the most, you know? Like in this process, every CEO battles with how can we be more efficient? How can we meet our customer needs more? How can we meet employees? How can we improve employee morale? Because if you imagine a system where you're bundled in tons and tons of papers, I mean, even your morale just goes down. So we come in and then we help you digitize that and then you remain with just a few decision-making points where you definitely need a human to be able to make a decision. You've mentioned something interesting, just being bundled with tons of papers and I remember our lawyers out here. Yes. It's just too much, it's too much, it's bulky. Yes. You can imagine even the election for 2017 when there was, before the repeat, then there was a challenge in the court and if you remember the tracks that went to the judiciary with a lot of papers just to prove the case. So it would be easy if you just have them in digitized form and then you go to your laptop to present your case. I get you, I really do. So, Maqrid, for someone who's watching this and they still don't get it, where will they choose Salix Data Africa? First, because we are very customer-oriented. We will focus on you and what you want. That's why he said we are going to offer you a free assessment so that we, most people don't even know what they want. They have an idea of what they want but they are really not sure this is exactly what they want. So we are going to offer you a very free assessment so that we can both agree on what exactly you want but then what exactly do you need and what's the way forward. So choose us because we are going to be there to work this journey with you and we are going to advise you on what exactly works and what exactly you need for your organization. Okay, all right. I'm sure they got it now. Vincent, what are some of the challenges that comes with this particular business? It's two first. So there's the people and there's the business. First, when you approach someone and you're trying to sell this product, it's easy to say but you're going to lose jobs. So someone who, someone might stop that in the name of people who lose jobs but on the contrary, it creates jobs. The other challenge is we feel that trying to digitize your processes is a bit costly. Which is sometimes almost true but when you start a process by process, then it becomes easy. And then there are other challenges to do with data security where people are not too sure whether the information will be secure. Secure, yes. Yes, so those are the biggest challenges. All right, and how do you assure your clients that you know what, everything is okay. That the fact that your data is safe and just clearing the perception of that particular challenge? Well, first we have internal software architects where they guarantee and they do programs and deploy them into our storage platforms where they guarantee security of data. At the same time, we have a service where we do, sorry, we protect your data by preventing hacking and we have processes where we constantly check on potential threats to our storage. Yes. That's very interesting. So Margaret, how do you, so far the COVID-19, how has it affected this particular business? I want to say not much but then I'm careful to look like we are private. Yes, but really look for jobs there. Our biggest challenge was us transitioning to work from home. And given that we are 100% transitioned to working from home, we are doing well enough only that now our clients are affected, that means obviously our incomes have gone down. But for us, the biggest challenge was getting people who come from not very privileged backgrounds to get to start working from home. Every day there is power issues and then there's a client who is waiting to get their work done. But it has been pretty, not very easy, but working, that was our biggest challenge, getting people to work from home because we are a computer based. Computer based company. Yes, but COVID for us, apart from the fact that our clients are affected, I think we are doing pretty well. Okay, Vincent, do you have achievement stories? We can sample a couple of them. Personal level, company level, yes. First, I think the biggest achievement which we are proud of is being able to empower the youth. Yes. Being able to see someone from high school develop into a leader. Apart from ourselves, the next leaders after us some of them are now going into tertiary institution and universities. So that means they've never had a chance to be thought either leadership skills or such. All right, so final leadership. Oh, sorry. Oh, sorry. I was going to mention in terms of business. So whenever we start onboarding a customer, we have a customer who came in just to give us a project. But because of our service and the skill set that Kenyans have, that thing has transitioned into a program and we have, with that specific customer, we have nine lines of business with them. So that means with the skills that Kenyans have, with the talent that we have here in Kenya, we have been able to convince that client who would have otherwise said Africa, not for me. Okay. Yes. So finally, as you just about to wind up, so going forward, do we see, where do you see the big business opportunity when we talk about Sandeak's data Africa? It's an open question. There's so much to be done. I think COVID-19 has taught us a lot of things that there are people who not necessarily need an office but they're able to work from home. So what are those things that you can do to enable you, even if you're still working in the office, what are those things that you can do to make you more efficient? So there's a lot to be done, say in insurance firms to automate their systems in the legal sector, in supply chain. And even in a station like this one of yours. So we hope to see ourselves help companies transition into a more digitized, user-friendly and customer-centered platform. Especially right now during the COVID-19 time. Yes, yes, yes. You see, this is a moving online. Sorry, yes. And if you need to access your data, you need to be able to store it and retrieve it whenever you want. Okay. And if you are physically based in the office, that means unless you're in the office, you cannot access that data. So we need to be in a space where wherever you are, as long as you have internet, you're able to access, store, create and retrieve your data. Absolutely, absolutely. Margaret, how can guys find you on social media? Our, we are on not all Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. It's Salix data. All right. Simple as that. And LinkedIn. Yes, Salix data, yes. Oh, one. Yes. Okay. It's obviously our websites. Yes. Absolutely. So as we wind up, our question for the day was Mattis pertaining, if anyone of you out there have been conned, do you have a con story that you've ever been conned about it in business or whatever you, just going around your daily activities and someone just decided to tell you something. Just tried to convince you and you fell for it. I tried to find a channel so you can find us across all our social media platform at Michelle, as she raised her, you can reach out to me. Vincent, do you have a, have you ever been conned? I've been involved with a friend who was conned and I was about to- Oh, are you the one conning? No. No, he was conned in my presence and at some point I was hesitant to tell him, please don't pick this item. And we ended up with a clay phone in the house after paying some money in the streets. Wow. Yes, we ended up with some clay. My great helpers. I have been conned. You have? Yes. Well, what did they, what happened? So, it was just immediately after campus when you're looking for a job. Okay. And then I applied for this job, then got a call and someone asked me to send this money so that they can process stuff and then they gave me an interview date and told me to show up somewhere in industry area. Then when I got there, they stopped picking up and it didn't occur to me that someone had just gotten out of my 3,500. Especially in campus, that's a lot. It still hurts me to date. I'm trying to move on. I celebrate anniversaries for that. So, I'll give you a hug after this. I'll give you a hug after this. For me, I've never been conned but there was a time I was about to be conned. Lucky. So, the two guys who are, they were walking behind me and one dropped a wallet and they're like, hey, here's the wallet. And they're like, I was like, no, these people, I can't trust you. I can't really trust you. So, thank you guys for coming through and talking about matters pertaining to Salik's data. Africa and how you guys have empowered the youth and still doing it. And for that, congratulations. So, let's sample, allow me, allow me to, just sample a couple of comments from our viewers on the story pertaining con, the con men and women in our states. So, we have H.R. Janet Michael saying, back during campus, a friend introduced me to wash, wash. Well, bye. You give money and it gets multiplied times too. Women are pesaduna pendana. So, I gave 6K. Mm-hmm. Niki jua. Hey, ni to toka hapo na at least 12 of G's. Gizila za juh ni za ke. Woi. Nai likua ren.