Principal Software Consultant at Enable Digital , Switzerland
An academic background in artificial intelligence and behavioral economics. Six years of experience working as a software engineer and software consultant. The last 3 years spent on digitising Last Mile Distributors in Africa. Believes IT should serve a company’s operational goals without becoming a goal on its own
Session: Fintech & Digitisation for last mile distributors: Lessons Learned
Three years ago Enable Digital started developing it’s own software solution aimed at Last Mile Distributors in Sub Saharan Africa. Mostly Pay-as-you-go solar companies of Middle (1-2m revenue) size. We deployed our solution at around 8 companies. Since the pandemic we have stopped our software development and focus exclusively on consultancy. Here are the lessons we learned and feel every company should be aware of. From going live with our software to doing mobile integrations to getting the customer to buy in your technology vision.
Learning outcomes:
- Deploying a state-of-the-art IT solution will not solve the company’s problems if the people and processes are not in place – Customers did not read our manuals, if there is no onboarding you can forget it
- Companies view IT as cost rather than as value – Almost everyone underspends, Open source solutions are often being picked that end up being more expensive than SaaS
- Mobile money integration is a nightmare and must be done locally. – We have found a ‘workaround’ that allowed us to integrate with any mobile money provider within days by installing an Android app on a dedicated phone. Will share this trick at the conference.
