BRIEF HISTORY OF CIC BOLGATANGA

The Bolgatanga Community Information Centre (CIC) officially began operating in December 2006. And is still conducting business up to date. It has two permanent staff: a manager and a secretary.
It also receives support from the following organizations:

Bolgatanga Municipal AssemblyMinistry of Communications /GIFECUNDPInternational Institute for Communication and Development (IICD)Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO)After opening, the CIC quickly became one of the more popular internet cafes in the Bolgatanga Municipality, which is indicated in its revenues in 2007. However, business at the CIC took a downward turn in 2008 when a lightning strike destroyed many of its PCs. The CIC has never recovered from this incident. The low number of PCs salvaged from the strike has severely crippled the CIC's internet browsing business which is a major draw for other services, such as secretarial services and ICT training. Thus, the CIC no longer enjoys the high patronage it had in 2007 and part of 2008. However, management is confident that the CIC can quickly recover from its current state with an investment in its computer hardware.
Location:
The Bolgatanga Community Information Centre (CIC) is located on the Navrongo-Bolgatanga-Tamale Road near the Junior Staff Quarters and opposite the Bolgatanga High Court. It is also in the near vicinity of the Ministries, Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly and Bolgatanga Municipal Health Insurance. It currently has two permanent staff people: a manager and a secretary.

Within one year, the Bolgatanga CIC will have the ability to offer the following services:

Basic PC, internet and MS Office software training
Specialty training: Train-the-Trainer for ICT school teachers, burning CD s, how
to write exams and calculate grades, Training of how to Create blogspots
Minor hardware repair and servicing
Internet browsing
Secretarial services: typesetting, scanning, photocopying, laminating, binding,
Desktop publishing, color and photo printing
Distribution of free knowledge sharing software and publications
Capacity building workshops
Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) Data Entry Training


Within two years, the Bolgatanga CIC will have the ability to offer the following additional services:

Intermediate and advanced internet and MS Office software training
Training in other types of software such as publishing
Advanced hardware repair
Basic hardware training
Wireless internet browsing
Large-scale photocopying
Entertainment: DSTV satellite programs

Within five years, the Bolgatanga CIC will have the ability to offer the following additional services:
Advanced hardware training
ICT Consultancy Centre

In order to meet these targets, the Bolgatanga CIC will invest its staff capacity through continuing education, National Service Personnel, recruitment of competent staff, attachments and apprenticeships.

BUSINESS PLAN WORKSHOP HELD IN BOLGA CIC,ORGANISED BY IICD

Business Plan Development Workshop for

CIC Managers

Venue: Bolgatanga Municipal Community Information Centre

Date: 10th - 14th August, 2009

This report covers in brief, the main contents of the five day workshop was sponsored by International Institute for Communication and Development, the Hague.
Participants were drawn from all ten (10) selected CICs under the IICD CIC initiative.

To further emphasise the need for CICs to explore newer ways and tools, Open Source Software was used.

Content in brief:

Day One: Understanding a business plan, studying your CIC, identifying potential clients and setting targets.

In order to be sure that all participants had a common understanding of what a business plan entails, we spent the first few minutes, after introductions and other introductory procedures, on discussing the basics of business proposals by way of definition, factors to consider when designing a business plan and the essence of writing/owning a business plan.


Setting Human Resource and Service Targets

Participants were then given some time to set targets for themselves by way of human resource and services to be provided by the CIC. Time lines were based on 1 year, 2 year and 5 year periods. The outcome showed most CIC managers had great ambitions for their CICs and were realistic in their plans mostly. Each CIC took turn to present their targets to the rest for criticism and contribution for the rest. Their final targets based on input from other participants were to be later included in their business plan writeups which they would begin later in the day. However, forecasts and budgets and most of the writeups for the business plans would be based on their targets for the first year. The other periods would serve as a guide for modifying the business plan as time goes by.

Identifying potential clients within localities

With emphasis on first year plans, participants were given time to list potential institutions within their localities that would be likely to need services from the CIC. They then listed the services that such institutions would likely be requiring from the center. We took time to discuss ways to approach and win over such institutions. Most CICs identified public offices, such as GES and Ghana Health Service, NGOs and some private businesses as potential institutional clients. These lists are also included in the individual business plans

Ideas for Cross fertilisation

Having done the introductory parts of the business plans and having set targets for themselves. Some business ideas were thrown on the floor for cross fertilisation and possible adoption by individual CICs.
Some of the ideas that came up on the floor included,
Contacting Basic Schools in our catchment area and training their pupils for fixed a fixed fee
Talking to heads of private basic schools produce their end of term question scripts for them
Compiling relevant and interesting facts about the district and selling this on brochures to tourists and visitors.
Aggressively marketing our CIC as a space for rental for workshops etc

Facilitators decided to play industrial psychology here by getting motivational here and encouraging participants not to fear trying out new ideas.

Studying your CIC

In order to strengthen the business plans being developed and to encourage CIC staff to take a closer look at their CICs, a SWOT analysis was explained and each CIC took time off to work out its analysis. Each CIC performed a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) Analysis after the facilitator explained the analysis. Participants did the external factors (Opportunities and Threats) analysis using the PESTLE acronym as a guide (Political, Economic, Socio-cultural, Technological, Legal Environments).
The detailed SWOT analysis of each CIC is found in it's individual business plan document.

A business plan template which had been prepared in advance was copied unto the desktop of every computer. From day two till the end of the programme, major parts of the business plan would be discussed in class after which participants would be given the time to work on their CIC business plans.

Day 2: Developing Service Menus, Costing/Pricing Services, Marketing and Market Research

Individual CICs presented their service menus based on the exercise of the previous day. These service menus included services currently offered and services they intend to offer within the next 12 months.

The cost of acquiring and maintaining the hardware necessary for the provision of services in their service menus was discussed. Due to the different external factors faced by each centre, these costs varied amongst CICs – something expected by the organisers and facilitators.

Later in the day, the issue of market research was discussed. The advantages, possible challenges, different types and modalities in doing market survey were discussed into detail. Participants then decided for themselves on which methods would be most applicable in their situations and asked to incorporate that into their business plans.

Change in plans

By the plan for the workshop, facilitators and participants were to agree on which methodology to use for practical market research the next day; 1) Talking with potential institutional clients or 2) Researching on the prices of competitors.
The details of the discussions can be summarised as follows;
We can't expect realistic figures from potential clients
Most clients cannot value the service they receive and thus would not be able to price the services they need
Finding out the rates charged by people already in the business would give us a better idea of what people are already used to or prepared to.
Primary market research (talking to potential/existing) clients would be like reinventing the wooden wheel.
In the end, it was agreed it would be best to study the current market prices based on which we, could price ours using premium services to set higher prices or lower prices to take a bigger market share.


Day 3: Budgeting and Income and Expenditure analysis using Spreadsheets

This day was intended for an outdoor market survey/research but due poor weather (there were already heavy clouds gathering at about 9am, a heavy downpour followed) and the anticipated lack of time for working on spreadsheets, the facilitators and participants decided to begin work on the spreadsheet components of their business plans.
To expose participants to spreadsheets using an appropriate approach, we collectively worked on a simple budget. This especially exposed participants to the basics of financial calculations using spreadsheets. Throughout the workshop, spreadsheets were done using OpenOffice Calc.
Later in the day, an income and expenditure spreadsheets were developed together using a hands-on approach. Each CIC was encouraged to fine-tune this spreadsheet to meet their specific situations. All these spreadsheets which are integral parts of the business plans were saved and included in the final product.

The most part of the day was spent working on individual business plans. After lunch however, an hour was spent discussing ways to market the individual CIC. Participants were encouraged to write down the modalities that were applicable in their case and note these in their business plans. The challenge with completing this part of the workshop was that participants could not readily give exact figures for their marketing budgets. However, they were encouraged to give approximate figures for the purposes of the workshop and to refine these figures when back on site. Without any figures to work with, it would be difficult to carry out some of the next day's activities such as a Sales and Expenditure Forecast.

Day 4: What if analysis, Sales and Expenditure Forecast, Developing a sheet for recording daily sales for a one year cycle.

Most of the day concentrated on the use of spreadsheets to complete the business plans. Most participants by today had gone as far as 80% of their business plans writeup.

What-if analysis

Using Calc, we together did a what-if analysis of the budget developed on the first day. This was to enable participants familiarise with the real life situation of budgets never really getting the exact amounts in funding as requested. The what if analysis would enable participants to quickly determine the effects on the entire budget when quantities (or prices) of individual items are changed. We went a step further to plot figures on column charts. Participants had requested this additional effort since some political heads appreciate such diagrammes rather than raw facts and figures.

Sales Records

A day by day sales records spreadsheet book was developed with a sheet to summarise sales and expenditure on monthly basis and a total annual figure was developed. This was an extra document not necessarily part of the business plans but to enable easy accountability to stakeholders. The sales record as developed during the workshop can be used manually in hard copy or in an automated manner in softcopy.

Break even analysis

This was especially treated because individual CICs in their quest to grow had indicated they would request money for specific items. A break even analysis would allow them to inform the assemblies on how soon the investment in such equipment would be recouped. The beak even analyses worked on the assumption that all costs were explicit. Such explicit costs are stated in the analyses.
Participants generally agreed they would always develop two sets of break-even analyses. The optimistic one would be for their personal use to meet targets and the pessimistic one presented to assembly to avoid unnecessary lose of confidence after the equipment are acquired.

Day Five: Finalising Business Plans, Evaluation of Workshop and Presentation of Certificates
The last day of the workshop was for participants to finish as much as work possible on their write-ups and to incorporate all the spreadsheets developed during the workshop into their business plans.

Evaluation
Facilitators had in advance printed out the IICD Capacity Development Part 1 questionnaire. This was given to participants to fill out.

Cross evaluation

Participants took time off to secretly vote, besides themselves, which CIC was most likely to succeed with its business plan. This was done mainly as a tool to remind every participant that others had various expectations of them and so they had the duty to prove a point. Bimbilla and Salaga jointly got the highest vote of confidence (5 votes each). Reasons were that Salaga has the equipment and commitment. Bimbilla had a very aggressive team during the workshop. Yendi and Damongo both got zero votes each. This was not revealed to participants but a possible low capacity of the Yendi team accounted for this. Damongo was represented by only the manager and although he needs more training on the soft skills he appears a very commited and ambitious manager with a high potential to succeed.

We were privileged to have dignitaries present to do the presentation of certificates to participants;
Personalities such as;

Mr. Kuupol
Bolgatanga Municipal Coordinating Director

Hon. Opam Brown
Bolgatanga Member of Parliament

Hon. Harry Epsona
Bolgatanga Municipal Chief Executive

Mr. Michael Takyi
Technical Officer, GIFEC

Hon. Kofi Attoh
Chief Executive Officer, GIFEC

Bolgatana CIC