The growing adoption of digital tools by Nigerian businesses and organisations is creating a new challenge as customer, member and beneficiary information becomes increasingly distributed across various platforms. This has resulted in difficulties in maintaining accurate records and tracking interactions across different systems. According to Seth Samuel and Obaro Ikoh, founders of Nigerian digital platform Huboly, the challenge is becoming more visible among small and medium-sized organisations.
The founders noted that the proliferation of digital tools has helped organisations solve individual operational problems but has also created difficulties in maintaining accurate records and tracking interactions. They observed that information about customers, members, beneficiaries and other stakeholders could be stored in different locations and managed by different employees. This has led to a situation where organisations have multiple records relating to the same customer, member or beneficiary.
Samuel explained that the problem emerged gradually as organisations adopted different digital applications to address specific operational needs. An organisation could use a spreadsheet for customer records, an online form for registrations, WhatsApp for communication and another service for email campaigns, while SMS messages were handled separately. He added that each tool solved a problem but together, they sometimes created another one.
Ikoh said the problem could become more pronounced as organisations expanded because processes that appeared manageable when a team was small often became difficult to sustain as the volume of information increased. He noted that employees could keep important telephone numbers on personal devices, maintain conversations with customers or members through individual WhatsApp accounts and manage spreadsheets without necessarily sharing them with other members of the organisation.
The founders said the challenge was not limited to commercial businesses, noting that organisations in the education, religious and non-profit sectors could encounter similar difficulties in managing information. A church, for instance, could collect information from first-time visitors after a service without having a coordinated system for subsequent engagement. Schools and non-governmental organisations could also face similar challenges.
The experiences of the founders prompted them to consider whether smaller organisations could manage their relationships with the people they serve from a more connected environment. This question eventually led to the development of Huboly, which is currently in its public beta phase. The platform is designed around contact management, communication, data collection and follow-up processes.
The founders said the platform was being developed with organisations that may not have the financial resources or technical personnel to operate complex enterprise systems in mind. They said more than 50 businesses and organisations had signed up during the beta phase. The objective is not simply to introduce another communication application but to address the broader issue of how organisations maintain institutional knowledge about the people with whom they interact.
Key points
- The growing adoption of digital tools by Nigerian organisations is creating a challenge in maintaining accurate records and tracking interactions.
- The challenge is becoming more visible among small and medium-sized organisations.
- Huboly, a Nigerian digital platform, aims to address the issue of fragmented records by providing a more connected environment for organisations to manage their relationships.
