Cell phone networks have confirmed to be an important piece of know-how for Africa. The know-how is enjoying an essential half in bridging the infrastructure divide and helping entrepreneurs and companies to enhance effectivity. The cellular revolution continues to be in its infancy and organizations are slowly adopting new instruments and know-how to conduct enterprise. The not-for-profit sector has been on the forefront of adopting and piloting quite a few initiatives and there are some fascinating studying for the enterprise world.

Communication for the cellular age

One of many main challenges for any operation is maintaining prospects knowledgeable. When conducting customer support surveys in Africa, shops typically complain concerning the lack of communication about product choices and promotions. Many purchasers are additionally pissed off a few lack of well timed data. As one retailer put it to me in Guinea, “by the point we get to know the mechanics of the promotion, the promotion has ended.” Most managers and supervisors are utilizing SMS extensively to speak with prospects and more and more firms are adopting it as an enterprise utility technique. FrontlineSMS created a textual content messaging system for not-for-profit organizations to deal with poor communication, which is seen as a serious barrier for a lot of organizations. The system leverages instruments already accessible to most organizations, specifically computer systems and cellphones. The identical system is being adopted by firms. For instance, firms can use the system to ship out mass SMS messages. Firms can categorize their databases and tailor messages in keeping with commerce channels and profiles. Firms may use the system to collaborate extra successfully with commerce companions and share data.

Cellular studying

In Africa, as in lots of components of the world, persons are spending extra time studying textual content on cellphones and cellular studying has seen some fascinating developments. Initiatives such because the Imfundo Yami/Imfundo Yethu in South Africa is at the moment piloting a challenge to show youngsters arithmetic on the cell phone. The Shuttleworth Basis in South Africa has additionally taken the initiative with the M4lit (Mobiles for literacy) challenge to get kids to learn. In Africa, the place company coaching budgets are sometimes overstretched, mlearning might be viable blended studying choice.

Cellular Search

With restricted money movement, many retailers run out of inventory frequently and supply frequency doesn’t at all times fulfill demand. With low drop sizes (low purchases) rising supply frequency shouldn’t be at all times a viable choice. Shops are typically unaware the place to buy inventory once they run out. Cellular search, akin to utilized by Google’s Utility Laboratory (AppLab) in partnership with the Grameen Basis, fashions fascinating potentialities for enterprise. AppLab builds on the success of one other earlier challenge, Village Cellphone, wherein native entrepreneurs lease cellphone use to villagers. AppLab contains Farmer’s Pal, a searchable database with agricultural recommendation and climate forecasts, Clinic Finder, to find close by well being clinics, and Google Dealer, which matches consumers and sellers of agricultural produce, commodities and different merchandise. Firms can undertake cellular search to supply essential data concerning location and product providing to customers. It can be used to help store house owners in finding the closest provide level. Customers can textual content a question to a brief code and the service will textual content again the consequence.

Mapping stock-outs

Most firms in Africa will let you know that visibility within the provide chain is without doubt one of the greatest challenges they face. With an absence of IT infrastructure it’s troublesome to maintain monitor of inventory ranges and gross sales information; actual time information is only a dream for many. Nonetheless, organizations are more and more beginning to use cellphones for information assortment. Stopstockouts.org at the moment makes use of the Ushahidi web site mashup, online mapping know-how, to trace stock-outs of medical provides with textual content messages in Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia, all in close to actual time. Ushahidi was initially developed to map studies of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout in 2008. Textual content messages are linked with mashups, and create an image of medical out of shares. Companies can use the identical know-how to trace gross sales and inventory ranges and determine downside areas and areas. Online mapping can be used to gather outlet base data and create route maps for distributors and salesmen 폰테크.

SMS for counterfeit

Most African customers can testify that buying remedy is usually a dangerous enterprise. Worldwide Medical Merchandise Anti-Counterfeiting Taskforce (IMPACT) estimates counterfeits comprise round 1% of gross sales in developed nations and greater than 10% in growing nations. Nonetheless, in components of Africa, extra that 30% of the medicines on sale might be counterfeit. MPedigree, a non-profit primarily based in Ghana fights counterfeiting with SMS know-how. Customers can SMS a scratch off panel code to find out if medication is counterfeit. The identical know-how can be utilized by firms within the textile and beverage sectors, the place counterfeit is rampant and a serious barrier for market entry.

Banking for the unbanked

With very low banking penetration in Africa, cellular banking gives nice alternatives for organizations. Many distributors run out of inventory as a result of, as one distributor defined in Zambia, “to go to the financial institution is half a day trip of my buying and selling day. However no money, no supply”. Cellular banking (M-Banking) schemes akin to M-PESA in Kenya and Wizzit in South Africa are receiving elevated consideration. As most cell phone customers make use of pay as you go playing cards, pay as you go calling credit score has emerged as a viable cellular paying system in some nations, notably Kenya. Clients can use M-Banking to pay payments and switch cash. M-PESA can also be getting used as a financial savings account though the scheme doesn’t pay curiosity. Olga Morawszynski’s wonderful analysis on M-Pesa discovered that it saves individuals time that they might in any other case spend touring between their house and metropolis to ship cash. M-banking holds actual potential for organizations in Africa the place money movement and a dependable banking infrastructure stays a relentless headache.

Cell phones have had an unlimited impression on peoples’ lives in Africa and might be counted an unparalleled success when in comparison with some other know-how. As an inexpensive accessible know-how, cellular know-how presents a fantastic alternative and firms ought to seize the chance.