Mrs Kate Quartey-Papafio, an entrepreneur has call on government agencies to take advantage of technology by utilising its benefits in transacting business across all sector of the economy to save time and cost.

She expressed worry about the delay in agencies migrating from analog businesses to online platforms, saying “the country needs to be more proactive and be abreast of current global synergies for business transactions”.

She said the improvement of electronic-commerce has led to the derivation of various internet based activities, such that companies are able to conduct their business activities at all hours, reaching customers in all parts of the world.

In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mrs Quartey-Papafio said online utility bills payment has become the solution for consumers with busy life-styles, since consumers are able to save time, hassle and make their lives much easier.

Mrs Quartey-Papafio, also the Chief Executive Officer of Reroy Cables Limited, a subsidiary of Reroy Group, said although online utility bill payment has become one of the fastest growing trends in the world particularly in the US, the progress of households' adopting to online utility bill payments is rather slothful.

She said it is about time for the country to ‘walk the talk’ by making effective use of these platforms because it has the benefits of avoiding crowds, queuing, parking problems, and cutting their travelling costs and time.

She said as fast-growing economies become exporters of capital, talent and innovation, the direction of capital flows is being adjusted in a way that is quite different from the traditional routes from developed-to-emerging and developed-to-developed countries.

Mrs Quartey-Papafio was of the view that, the power utility sector has a strong track record of making interconnectivity work within power systems.

She said matching internal culture to a new and changing digital customer is key challenge, and the country is filled with engineers but do not necessarily help to orient towards a customer-centric utility mindset.

She said digital transformation is top of company agenda, since more than 80 per cent of CEOs view digital technologies such as data mining and mobile customer engagement as important for their companies.

“An effective digital strategy can revolutionize all areas of the power utility business since it is the heart of the energy transformation challenge. Digital is affecting not just the way companies face their customers, but also bringing deep changes in the core operational activities of utilities”, she added.

Mrs Quartey-Papafio said most companies see smart phones as essential to improve customer relationships while others view it as an opportunity to offer new services beyond the energy spectrum.

“Technology has come to stay, and it behooves companies to take advantage of the opportunity to maximise its potential in improving the effectiveness of businesses.”