“Tropical Tolerance” is a concept based on the idea that the design of software needs to take into on consideration specific to African challenges: notably, power, communication, labor, pricing.
Interesting insights on how they go about developing software, the tech landscape in Africa, uniting and removing artificial borders with technology.
Herman believes: “Technology is the only way for Africa to get rich. We don’t have proper infrastructure and we can’t compete in manufacturing. But if you put me behind a PC and tell me to write software for a Chinese customer, then I can compete brain for brain with anyone trying to do the same thing in the US.” ”The trick we have discovered is we meet Africa where it is. We do not try and invent anything. What exisits is enough, we have SMS into the bush, internet in the cities. We can innovation around that.”
theSOFTtribe employs around 70 people and has a client base of more than 250 organisations, including major multinationals such as the Ford Foundation, Nestlé, and Unilever; it is also a Microsoft development partner in the region.