IBM BOOTED OUT OF KENYA SECURITY PROJECT, NEC PICKED

IT services major, IBM, was reportedly thrown out of the government's Police Security Network where it was supposed to provide back office analytics of data collected from the network including photographs of people, number plates, premises and so on.

The network is being built at a cost of Sh14.9billion by Safaricom and is set for handover to the government in November.

A Command and Control Centre where images from high-resolution Huawei PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom) cameras are monitored on giant wall screens was set up at Jogoo House where the project was allocated one floor of the iconic building.

IBM was supposed to take half of the floor to set up for its analytics where it would receive and synthesize the data before presenting analysis that intelligence authorities could make decisions with (Decison-making support data).

But apparently, according to people with knowledge of Big Blue's ejection, the multinational "messed it up badly". They did not elaborate.

Government is now said to be looking for an alternative analytics company with NEC Systems said to be the front runner.

"NEC offers a highly efficient and user-friendly video analytics solution that monitors behaviors and flags any actions pre-determined as unusual. This software ‘Behavior Analyzer’ automatically detects suspicious behavior such as intrusion, loitering, and object abandonment based on user-defined time and location parameters. It can distinguish between humans, shadows and moving objects," the company says on its website.