I joined INNOVIOR Africa Group as a software engineering intern to work on ERP systems. This is the high-level overview of the role, the team and the ground I covered.
The role
I worked as a Software Engineer intern at INNOVIOR Africa Group from May 2023 to August 2023, based in Nairobi. I reported to Peter Kirui and was mentored by Abel Too, sitting inside the ERP Implementation and Consultancy team of 17 people spread across the Kenya and Nigeria offices.
My time split across the front end and the back end. On the front end I took part in consultancy and demoed our products to end users. On the back end I built full-stack systems, including an MVP web application that presented a database management system to C-suite executives.
The ERP context
The core platforms were Oracle NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics 365, which INNOVIOR implements for clients across East and West Africa as end-to-end ERP and CRM solutions. The areas most relevant to my work were:
| Area | What I touched |
|---|---|
| ERP platforms | Oracle NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics 365 |
| Full-stack build | An MVP web application for presenting a DBMS |
| Edge computing | Data storage and propagation at the edge |
How I worked
Day to day the work fell into a couple of recurring themes:
- Consultancy: demoing products to potential users and breaking concepts down so stakeholders could follow the ideas.
- Engineering: building a full-stack MVP with edge data storage and propagation, backed by relational databases.
Why it mattered
INNOVIOR is an award-winning implementer of business management software across six African countries. Getting the ERP right meant clients could run their operations on systems they trusted. The deeper look at the MVP itself lives in the companion entry.