A technology company that won the Nokia Innovation Challenge Award has placed Kenya on the world map again, as the country continues to curve a niche for itself in designing unique mobile solutions.
Virtual City technology company designs solutions that enable organizations to maximize the value of their IT investment by aligning IT with their business requirements, increasing business agility, managing business risk and optimizing IT infrastructure.
Virtual City developed a solution dubbed Mobile Distributor, aimed at streamlining the supply chain for distributors and retailers of fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) in emerging markets.
Mobile distributor was designed to improve the distribution efficiency of SMEs in the fast moving consumer goods market. The solution aims to boost profitability of SMEs by increasing the number of transactions as well as improving inventory management, the accuracy of records and reporting from the field.
According to Virtual City Managing Director John Waibochi, the technology
enables distributors and retailers to sell in the market using the Nokia mobile phones for their sales, deliveries, orders and we have gone further to help them be able to collect their cash collection.
Waibochi attributed the success to dedicated service born of innovation. He successfully demonstrated to the panel how to fully utilize the potential that a mobile phone has, in terms of adding value to the user.
Waibochi said that Virtual City’s goal is to help companies realize the need for the innovative use of technology that would save them money, instill efficiency in their systems, boost productivity and subsequently improve their bottom-line.
The company beat developers from 54 other countries to emerge as the winners, walking away with a 1 million US $ prize.
From a Nokia Challenge perspective, the award provides a solution that will bring value to a large number of beneficiaries comprising thousands of small and micro enterprises in the FMCG market through the smart application of mobile business and cashless payment technologies,’ read a statement from Nokia
The project will generate revenue for the partners Virtual City and Nokia, while increasing the income levels of the stakeholders in the supply chain by opening up increased product sales.
