Technological solutions to everyday problems
Mar 31, 2014
Only a foreteller could see that one day the old woman in the village would stop relying on her neighbour’s bank account to receive money sent by her children in Kampala.
By Gilbert Kidimu
Only a foreteller could see that one day the old woman in the village would stop relying on her neighbour’s bank account to receive money sent by her children in Kampala. That era where to send and receive money, one had to go through the painstaking bank process of filling leaves is virtually dead and gone. That’s not forgetting villages traced 20 kilometres from the nearest bank branch, sometimes further.
The torture is no more. Leading the pack in finding technological solutions to everyday problems is Yo Uganda, an eight-year-old software company.
The company develops software products with a focus on software for telecommunications services, billing systems, mobile applications, web applications among others. Gerald Begumisa, managing director Yo Uganda says, these technological solutions are meant to provide efficiency and reduce costs in everyday life. “We work with people who carry out surveys on various subjects; for example stock levels of drugs in government hospitals, schools, etcetera,” he explains. In a typical situation, a team of people is hired and sent to the field to do research.
They are transported, provided with accommodation and meals for days. It is quite expensive. But the same surveys, according to Begumisa can be done electronically, i.e. sent by SMS to say the manager of a health centre about the availability of drugs and a reply is sent instantly. Time and costs are cut significantly, and efficiency is increased. “This is called a technology solution. We package technology and offer it as a solution,” he guarantees.
“Also instead of carrying loads of money to pay people at a workshop, there is the bulk payment solution, which enables the organisation to make payments to beneficiaries by mobile money,” reveals Begumisa. “Just make a list of names and numbers and put them in our system.” It is flexible as it includes the authorisation process, where money is not distributed until authorised. At the end the system gives a report function where you can download the report. The client accesses the system through the computer to make their payments and get a report. Begumisa says it is fully in the client’s control. You don’t have to look for change.
MOBILE BANKING
This is a technological solution sold to banks to allow the bank offer their customers a way of accessing their bank account using their mobile phones (not necessarily a smart phone). It enables them to access bank services without physically visiting an ATM or bank. They get alerts in the form of SMS regarding any activity in their account. “This helps control cases of theft, by ringing the bells for you to take action,” adds Begumisa. Another solution under Mobile Money is the ability to deposit money in their bank account using the mobile money service. Instead of walking to the agent and then to the bank or the reverse; one does it in the comfort of their seat.
ONLINE PAYMENT
This enables a merchant selling goods or services, to receive payments for their service through their website (electronic commerce). Someone pays using mobile money, especially small amounts for example paying for classified adverts in the New Vision. You don’t need to drive miles to make a payment of sh40, 000. Another example of a business utilising this service is Body Care Centre a cosmetics shop at Pioneer Mall.
SMS JAJA Here you go to their website, open an account with them, load money using Mobile Money, send out bulk SMS and do the entire transaction online. USPEAK This technological solution is used to prompt communication between constituents and their members of Parliament. Using this solution enables constituents communicate directly with MPs using SMS. “This bridges the gap that exists, as messages go directly to the mailbox of their MP’s computer and he can reply by SMS,” suggests Begumisa.
TECHNOLOGY IMPROVES LIVES
Besides convenience, these technological solutions have reduced on the expenditure on things such as transportation costs. Instead of travelling an incurring transport costs, all one does is type codes and figures. “Through mobile banking, the culture of saving is being promoted,” argues Begumisa. “It is an easy way of banking money, so people are more likely to save smaller amounts than usual, the electronic transactions are cashless thus enable people to develop a credit history which can be used for accessing loans,” he adds.
“The transactions create a record of the average amount one receives, uses, and etcetera,” he explains. He reveals that in future there will be a product called mobile loans, where someone borrows against his history. “It is key for people with bank accounts but more importantly the majority who are unbanked.
They are brought to the financial services loop.” It has opened opportunities to entrepreneurs to grow their business; with simple tools like a laptop and mobile phone, someone provides a tool useful to all Ugandans. We are looking at going towards a cashless economy, where one pays for all goods and services through the mobile phone. One can request for a loan via mobile phone, taxi fare, market grocery, supermarket shopping, are paid for through phone. Begumisa however admits there is still a lot of ground to cover. Yo Uganda develops software products
Technology spreads banking horizons
true Can you imagine a world without an ATM? Wouldn’t it be fun to see how today’s generation could live without them? Or how tellers would balance their books without a computer? Without doubt, technology has made banking much easier and things keep looking brighter as technology clings to advancing the banking business. Having had success with the Equinox banking system for over a decade, Neptune Software identified the need for a banking solution with the capacity to break virtually all barriers in banking technology, so they developed the Rubikon Banking System.
This new technology takes into consideration the need for banks to improve operational efficiency with increased automation without compromising performance or scalability cost effectively. Rubikon comes with event-triggered alert mechanisms that send e-mail, sms to account holders, internal control team whenever certain actions are taken on customer accounts or restricted internal bank accounts. “Fraud is thus reduced to a bare minimum if any.” “With its web-based technology, setting up service centres is much cheaper and faster.
The system is agile when it comes to unique product definition and offering for various target markets,” says Victor Kerunga, the executive director Neptune. The security features embedded meet today’s complex technology threats and IT-related frauds facing the banking industry such as biometrics for staff and clients, embedded workflows and business rules engine. Its outreach is incredible; financial institutions can now take services closer to their clients through the mobile branch capabilities that is accessible even over the thinnest of networks (GPRS),” he adds.
Kerunga explains that using these mobile devices, the bank is not limited to the brick and motor service points. As an account holder, you can access your bank using mobile banking, Internet banking and self-service points where available on a real time basis hence improving turnaround time.
The financial institutions can mobilise savings due to the increased outreach, save costs on infrastructure requirements owing to the use of centralised nature of deployment as opposed to client server arrangement. The business intelligence module enables bank executives to gain access to critical information necessary for decision making on a real time basis. Access to the system can be through portable devices such as tablets; so the management is able to easily identify non performing service centres or products, bank profitability and take action timely.
“The Rubikon Banking system comes with a unique group lending functionality tailored to suite the microfinance industry, an innovation meant to take care of the increasing Microfinance Banks.” says Kerunga. Neptune Software is a UK-based company with a rich history in delivering mission-critical core systems to the banking and financial services sector since inception in 1999.
With headquarters in UK, Neptune has regional and country offices in Kenya, Nigeria, India, Uganda, Ethiopia and Tanzania. Neptune Software entered the Uganda market in 2002, with Equinox as the flagship product then, while full-scale operations commenced in 2006.
In addition to supplying banking software, Neptune engages in ICT consultancy, training and development of other peripheral interfaces such as Utility Bill Payment (Umeme, Water, PayTv) and statutory remittance (E-Tax, NSSF). Kerunga says Neptune is proud to be the only international core banking system provider with local presence, boasting of 10 Financial institutions in Uganda and other 20 in the region. In the past six months, Neptune has registered eight new clients in the East African region.
ThoughtWorks brings Agile to Uganda
They solve complex problems for their clients using technology.ThoughtWorks Uganda is part of a global family of passionate, agile software developers that are relentlessly pushing boundaries to revolutionise software design. Steven Musoke, the ThoughtWorks Uganda general manager says it is the positive attitude to new challenges, and eagerness to innovate for clients with missions that makes them love what they do.
ThoughtWorks Uganda began operation in late 2012 and is one of the 29 offices in 12 countries. The Uganda office is the second in Africa after Johannesburg, South Africa. The first ThoughtWorks office was opened for business in 1993, in Chicago, Illinois, in the US by Roy Singham, the Thought Works global founder and Chairman. ThoughtWorks is known for software delivery, consulting and its products. Their mission is to better humanity through software. Musoke says ThoughtWorks believes in being reflective and inclusive of the society that they serve by following the motto: “Coded In Africa, for Africa, by Africans”
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A day in the life of a ThoughtWorker
ThoughtWorks is focused on helping the software industry improve and believe in sharing what they learn. They are champions of open source software. ThoughtWorks Uganda has ‘Geek nights’ once every month as well as ‘Ruby Friday’ on Friday evenings to keep the rich, technical minds in Uganda engaged. ThoughtWorks is committed to help organisations improve and deliver quality software for their changing business needs and the agile way.
Agile software development is a set of methods based on incremental development; each solution evolves through collaboration between the client and self-organising, cross-functional teams. In agile software development, it is possible to start a project without planning either in time or resource, all the steps of delivery. It is more of a ‘start and adjust’ model, than a fixed plan. Today’s hyper competitive business environment requires rapid innovation and maintaining a steady flow of the most important work between all roles.
ThoughtWorks enables businesses to get ahead of the rest. Edith Namuganga, a business analyst at ThoughtWorks Uganda says each client’s software need (interactive website, mobile or i-Pad app, healthcare systems, inventory or invoice platform) is dissected to the tiniest detail. “We want to deliver value to the client. The clients’ vision and dream is our priority. It is important that the every single aspect of that vision is met in the best way,” she adds. After the ThoughtWorks business analyst dissects a solution into tiny detail, the software developers work on each individual component, which is part of the bigger solution.
ThoughtWorks ensures that the client is kept up to speed on tiny developments, while the bigger picture takes shape. ThoughtWorkers (the name used for employees of ThoughtWorks) ensure that they use a programming language that is best suited to arrive at the client’s solution, instead of building a solution based on a programming language of choice. Nimrod Wandera, a software developer at ThoughtWorks says that flexibility is the key ingredient in their solutions. “In case the client needs to change anything, at any point in the development stage, we can do that,” Wandera says. “We maintain synchrony between developments of the small features.
At every stage, a quality analyst uses automated testing to ensure that the small pieces of software that is built work synchronously with the other parts and the client gets high quality, working software. “As code is being developed, small tests are done to ensure that the software meets the high standards we stand for,” Clayton Nyakaana, a ThoughtWorks Uganda quality analyst says. Globally, ThoughtWorks has worked with organisations across industries like Woolworths, Grameen Foundation, Siemens, Nokia, National Health Services — the kind of clients that have ambitious plans to impact many people
