Sub-Saharan Africa is the fastest-growing mobile region in the world and has been for a few years now. What does that mean for your business? It means you have access to just under 750 million people – almost nine percent of the global mobile population! This is a massive market you simply can’t afford to ignore. However, there is one very important fact to bear in mind: only around a third of all mobile subscribers in Africa have a [...]
Hands up those who still remember the jingle that the Yellow Pages put out to create customer awareness? “Let your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages” - you can likely still hum the tune. USSD codes are to business owners what fingers are to the Yellow Pages. “Let the USSD coding work while you’re home in bed” could well be the new mantra for today’s business owners. What wouldn’t you do to have your business run for you [...]
Retailers, large and small, are always on the lookout for ways to increase margins and expand their offerings in the simplest and most cost-effective way possible. This is one of the reasons why franchises are such efficient business models; the hard work has been done for you. The same applies to the Value-Added Reseller (VAR) model. What are the benefits of becoming a VAR in today’s market? Key Benefits of the VAR Business Model The benefits of becoming a VAR are essentially [...]
Where were you in 2007? Did you know that while you were enjoying a business retreat or starting an exciting new venture, the world was in a state of upheaval – only, no-one knew it at the time. Yes, 2007 was the “Year of the Smartphone” when Apple launched their first iPhone and changed the face of the industry forever. What started out as a simple hand-held device for making calls and sending messages has turned many industry sectors on [...]
There’s an old saying that goes something along the lines of, “Let he who shouts the loudest be heard first.” And when month end creeps around and payday is just around the corner, this is very often the case for those of us who are expecting payments in. In these uncertain economic times, how will you make sure that your clients remember their debts and make their payment on time? While this challenge remains true of almost every business, it [...]
Few things are more important to a parent than their child’s wellbeing while at school. Good schools, pre-schools, and day care centres recognise that effective and timely communication with parents is one of the most important aspects of their business. The methods of school communication used to pass on important information to parents have changed over the years, and especially with the advent of mobile devices, even though the information itself remains very much the same. What information is important? [...]
Louis Freeh, former U.S. judge and Director of the FBI once said, “Ask the American public if they want a wiretap and they'll say 'No.' If you ask them do they want a feature on their phone that helps the FBI find their missing child, they'll say, 'Yes.” Indeed, tracking and monitoring of our movements via our mobile apps elicits mixed emotions from people. Some despise the Big Brother mentality and resist the idea of being tracked, and others embrace [...]
If you were offered the opportunity to save money, increase security and make your staff just that little bit happier, would you investigate it? Without sounding like some over-enthusiastic multilevel marketing recruit, this is exactly what companies who make the switch to mobile payslips experience. Bryan Collins wrote an article for Sage discussing the value of online payslips in which he says, “Employees who enter the workplace now expect whatever they want at the touch of a button which is [...]
“Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you.” These words spoken on 10th March 1876 on the world’s first telephone by Alexander Graham Bell, marked the foundational link in a chain of technical advances in the incredible world of distance communication. Fast-forward 116 years to 3rd December 1992, which saw the very first SMS message sent by test engineer Neil Papworth which simply read, “Merry Christmas.” Back at you Mr Papworth – look how far we’ve come! Instant messaging has [...]
The term ‘teenager’ has become synonymous with the image of groups of semi-adults hunched over mobile devices for hours at a time – and rightly so. According to some (frankly, pretty scary) stats from Safe Search Kids, 77 percent of teens (12 – 17), and 56 percent of tweens (8 – 12) own a cell phone. Further research shows us that the average age for kids to get their first smartphone is 11, and teenagers spend around six hours [...]
