Today, Safaricom Business and Kenya’s Virtual City, a mobility solutions developer announced the launch of M-Distributr an application to help FMCG sector firms to track their orders, sales and deliveries.
M-Distributr is set to enable sales teams and businesses generate sales transactions, place orders, collect returns and enable mobile money payments on the go. Available on Google Play store for Android devices, M-Distributr monitors every sale from the initial point of contact with a customer to close and also from the sales agent in the field to the distributor and back to the guys at the warehouse or store.
The app aims to help sales teams track orders and deliveries in real-time over their phones. It also aims to speed up the ordering process and minize any losses of both money and time.
Speaking to TechMoran, Sylvia Mulinge, General Manager-Safaricom Business said, “M-Distributr was developed by Virtual City and aims to enhance service effeciancy in the FMCG sector. It runs on our already existing platforms such as our cloud infrastructure, data services, M-Pesa among others. We have entered into a revenue share agreement with Virtual City to make M-Distributr available to the FMCG sector.”
Already firms like PZ Cussons and several Safaricom Airtime Dealers are using the service which has been integrated into the pre-existing ERP solutions to help them map their sales teams, distributors and orders or returns.
According to John Waibochi, CEO Virtual City, the firm that has developed and tested M-Distributr for a few years before launch, “Technology’s role in this day and age is to make our lives easier. A lot of opportunities however remain unexploited. Our role is to create a bridge between these two divides.”
Though only available for Android smartphones and tied to Safaricom’s M-PESA, Waibochi told TechMoran M-Distributr can be inegrated to any mobile money platform or configured for any mobile operating system.
“M-Distributr now uses Lipa Na M-PESA which is nearly 99% used by businesses. As a technology firm, we can integrate any mobile money payment platform to it.”
If the uptake is as high as the two firms expect, M-Distributr can be launched in as many country’s in Africa as possible because of its scalability. Before Safaricom believed in M-Dstributr, Nokia saw its potential and supported the firm to develop it further.
IMG:DailyMaverick.co.za
