In this interview with BD HUMAN CAPITAL TEAM, the Creator of The SNIP School Management Software Programm, Omon Ohiro provides insight on the value of the programme.
1. How and when did you come about this SNIP idea?
The SNIP idea was initially conceived 7 years ago because of my frustrations with having to physically drive to or call
my daughters school to access her academic and non academic report/results.
I felt what a great idea it would be if I could access my daughter’s academic records from the comfort of my home/office or even whilst I am away on holiday abroad. This is how www.academyvista.com was born with the task of creating SNIP.
What actually do you do you want to achieve through SNIP? And are there competitive services in our immediate environment?
SNIP was voted the best School Information Management System and came 2nd runners up in the just concluded NITDA eSolve software
competition. SNIP has evolved into a complete School Management software solution with online e-learning toolsand an automated school fees payment Gateway.
Parents can have access in real time to every facet of their children’s education.
We want SNIP to achieve its potential of being the def-actor School Information Management System in Africa.
As with everything our competition is real, but we stand out due to our easy to use friendly user interface, customer care relationship and our data analysis and visualization tools which allows administrators of a school make decisions which in turn increases productivity in the performance of the students.
This is done by identifying failing/improving teachers, best and worst performing teachers and pupils.
We also help the school interpret the vast amount of data using the most advanced Business intelligence tools on earth.
What has been the level of acceptance of this idea among school proprietors and parents?
To be honest the reception has been quite amazing. We have a few standing ovations, a few tears shed by our audiences in
our demo’s. The popular reaction has been like whoa! you guys went through great lengths to make our lives so much easier, they can instantly see the immense benefits to their school and the wider educational community.
The parents are excited because of their ability to now be involved actively in the day to day management of their children’s educational progress.
In just 3 months we have done about 30 demo’s for schools and we have not had any refusal as yet from any school.
Our main challenge is reaching the proprietors themselves. But we are making a head way in this regards.
In a society where data are scarce and institutions generally are not willing to divulge data or even share, do you think this SNIP idea will sail through?
The school or institution is not under any obligation to divulge its data, the data is theirs and we have no direct access to their
data. We host their data in a secure Windows Azure cloud with strict access control and change management control facilities.
The school can generate term or yearly performance reports by themselves using the admin dashboard.
We know the SNIP idea will sail through due to the response on the field and the steadfast belief we have in a
truly genuine and robust software solution.
What really excites your target clientele about your services?
Its the potential of what they can achieve with SNIP that rally excites our clients. They know
they can touch and feel the digital/paperless revolution taking place in Nigerian educational sector.
They know are can become part of this revolution and cement their places in history as some of the first schools in
Africa that truly are paperless.
I was honored to be in the company of Her Majesty Lady Cherry Igbinedion (Igbinedion Educational Centre) and after the SNIP demo you could visibly see how excited she was about this paperless revolution we are introducing.
What really excites your target clientele about your services?
The challenges we face are not necessarily peculiar to the educational system alone, in my judgement they are peculiar to
Nigerian businesses in general. These are lack of access to the key decision makers eg proprietors and head of schools and the reluctance in certain quarters to adapt to change.
This might be a generational problem as the older proprietors and head of schools are more reluctant to change.
The second most challenging factor is a cultural one where some people feel that if is not done abroad in America, India or England it is an inferior product.We guarantee that SNIP can compete with any school management system on the planet and we hope to ship to countries around the world soon.
Tell us about yourself and what really motivates you?
I am former senior consultant(ASP.Net MVC) to David Cameron (Prime Minister UK), current father, and the
current Programmer Extraordinaire at www.academyVista.com.
I am also a failed stand-up comic, adequate corn rower, mediocre book author, and I speak English and Pidgin alone.
I am a software evangelist and an extreme programmer. I live and breathe code, I dream in code and I see everything around me in code.
Some people will argue that there is nothing like perfect code, I completely disagree. With relentless pursuit of perfection you can achieve the perfect code.
My motivation comes from my daughter Afeni and my friend Bime and an ardent believe that I can change the world throughcode.
Almighty God was the very first programmer and changed the world through code. Our DNA is an example of perfect code.
How would you assess Nigeria’s educational system – primary to tertiary, private and public?
The private sector is very competitive which as we know drives up standards. There seems to be a perceived lack of
investment in the public sector, although there seems a marked improvement in recent years thanks to the recent initiatives by the present administration of the President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and the Honorable Minister of Education Mr Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau
It can definitely get better and AcademyVist.com is here to drive that change with SNIP.
Do you have any advice for government, operators in the educational sector, and youths?
Education is definitely the future of this country. The amount of human and capital resources we have is mind boggling.
If the government can tap into this we are looking at a very bright future.
My advice for the government is to put the right people with the right mentality in positions of influence so that this technological revolution can gather pace.If possible the education budget should be increased for the benefit of the rural populace.
My advice to the youths is to please stay free of crime,419, kidnapping, corruption and any other nefarious activities.
Get your education right and the world is your oyster.
