Africa is now the world’s second largest mobile market by connections after Asia and the fastest-growing mobile market in the world, according to the GSMA, and industry association.

According to the new GSMA Africa Mobile Observatory 2011 report, mobile penetration rates in Africa have reached 649m connections, having first exceeded 50% mobile penetration in 2010.

In the past five years, the number of subscribers across Africa has grown by almost 20%/year and will reach more than 735m by the end of 2012, according to the report.Ninety-six per cent of subscriptions are prepaid, with voice services dominating, although uptake of data services is “increasing steadily”.

There are six live third-generation evolved high-speed packet access, or HSPA+, networks deployed on the continent, with a seventh deployment planned in the near future.
By 2015, next-generation long-term evolution (LTE) networks are predicted to reach 500 000 connections in Kenya, 1,1m connections in Nigeria and 2,5m connections in SA.
The mobile ecosystem in Africa generates about US$56bn or 3,5% of total GDP, with mobile operators alone contributing US$49bn.

The report says the mobile industry contributes $15bn in government revenues. However, the GSMA believes there is still room for strong growth given that 36% of Africans within the 25 largest African mobile markets have no access to mobile services.

Projections indicate that reaching 100% mobile penetration could add more than $35bn in aggregate gross domestic product. Nigeria now has the most mobile subscribers in Africa, with 93m connections. This represents 16% of the continent’s total.

SA, with its more developed infrastructure, leads the way in terms of broadband penetration, at 6%, followed by Morocco at 2,8%. — Staff reporter, TechCentral

Source: TechCentral

Mary recently presented at the Web 2.0 Summit, which since 2004 has brought the intelligence, innovation, and leadership of the Internet industry together in one place at one time. Through incisive plenary sessions, cut-to-the-chase onstage conversations, and rapid-fire “high order bits” presentations, visionaries and executives across key industries present their unique perspective on the Web’s future and how the tools and principles of Web 2.0 are impacting their businesses.

Link to video clip and slides used in the presentation below:

KPCB Internet Trends (2011)

Original article featured on mybroadband.co.za
Author: Pieter Streicher

SMS has shown its ability to act as a catalyst for social change time and time again

SMS has shown its ability to act as a catalyst for social change time and time again. From farming, to healthcare, to education and banking, the ease with which information can be accessed and shared via SMS has levelled the playing fields for marginalised members of society around the world.

Increasingly this applies to employment as well. With the addition of SMS as a recruitment channel, candidates without internet access – especially those based in more rural locations in South Africa – finally get the same opportunity to apply for jobs. This is vitally important in a country with a 24% unemployment rate according to Stats SA. The good news for employers is that SMS can make their recruitment process more streamlined, more efficient, faster and cheaper.

Previously a candidate would have to spend time and money getting online at an internet café, applying for the job online or printing and posting their CVs. They would then have to weigh up the opportunity costs of travelling some distance for an interview for a job that they may or may not get.

On the flipside, companies would get thousands of CVs in differing formats, and have to wade through them in an attempt to sift out the suitable candidates for an interview.

Now, a candidate can simply reply to a short code published in a job advert in a newspaper or elsewhere, and immediately be sent a range of questions via SMS to determine whether or not they are suitable for the role. In a country with 10% internet penetration but with more than 100% mobile penetration, the candidate will definitely have access to a cellphone, even if they don’t own one themselves. This places them on a level footing with candidates anywhere else in the country, it is cheaper for the candidate (and the company) and shortens the interview process.

According to the Gauteng Provincial Government, which has been recruiting via SMS since 2007, its system costs the candidate R7.50 per application, substantially less than the previous system that cost candidates up to R50.

Candidates need to be warned, however, of scammers who use fake job ads to defraud people. Typically they would use a pricey premium rate shortcode in the advert, and then once the candidate has applied via SMS, insist on additional premium rate messages or other payments to proceed. The rule of thumb for candidates is that employers should pick up the bulk of the cost of the application process. They should be sceptical of anyone who demands money upfront, and should always do some research into a company.

SMS recruitment is especially suited to companies needing to hire large numbers of entry-level employees on a regular basis. For instance, Capitec Bank copes with in excess of 60,000 job applications a year using txthire, an SMS recruitment application developed by Graylink. Capitec captures biographical data and minimum requirements via a series of SMS questions. The data is captured in a way that makes it easy to be reviewed and shared with business units using existing back-end tools. The bank said using SMS for recruitment has halved the time it spends on screening candidates and vastly improved its accuracy.

As well as recruiting large numbers of employees, especially in lower LSM ranges, SMS recruitment is ideal for managing a large, mobile, semi-permanent workforce. For instance, Sanctuary Personnel in the UK uses SMS to manage its pool of temporary social workers. Communicating by SMS allows the agency to match vacancies with candidates at short notice, or when they are not in front of a computer.

Similarly, closer to home, Topco, a modelling and talent agency, uses SMS to place talent at short notice or while they are on set and away from their computers.

Companies wanting to incorporate SMS into their recruitment processes can use a PC to SMS messaging application, or turn directly to a mobile messaging aggregator for easy integration with their existing systems.

The bottom line is, both in South Africa and around the world SMS is the only data channel that can level the playing field for job seekers.

‘While many vendors offer some mobile recruiting capability, txthire has been designed to meet the needs of candidates who may not have a PC or a smartphone. Graylink has taken this constraint and innovated with it.’ Gartner

Not all prospective employees have access to the internet, making it difficult to provide an inclusive process for all applicants wishing to apply. Enter txthire, a mobile recruitment solution designed to meet the needs of candidates who may not have a PC or a smartphone. txthire allows companies to automate recruiting workflow, screen applications, gather candidate data and manage candidate engagement – through 2-way SMS, mobile internet and/ or social media. This includes all mobile phones with SMS/ txt capability – providing reach way superior to traditional web channels.

Via txthire’s API, txthire enables connectivty to HRMSs, ERP and third party services. txthire includes report building and distribution services allowing relevant data to be shared with Hiring Managers and recruiters involved in the recruiting process.

“graylink works closely with its customers to identify key recruiting pain points, and develops cloud-software solutions to help overcome them. txthire demonstrates why graylink is recognised as a global innovator in the recruitment software market” says Mark Gray, CEO of graylink.

About graylink

graylink is a cloud-software application development company. graylink develops secure, hosted recruitment software solutions, helping corporate companies recruit quicker, more efficiently and for less. graylink is privately owned and has operations across Africa, Middle East and Europe.

About Gartner

Gartner defines a cool vendor as a company that offers technologies or solutions that are: Innovative, enable users to do things they couldn’t do before; Impactful, have, or will have, business impact (not just technology for the sake of technology); Intriguing, have caught Gartner’s interest or curiosity in approximately the past six months.

For those who have a subscription to Gartner the 2011 “Cool Vendors in Human Capital Management” report is available here.

Original Article

There are a lot of technological innovations coming from Africa as a result of the constraints the continent faces.

So said Thomas Otter, research VP at analyst firm Gartner, in an interview with ITWeb. Otter, based in Germany, is in SA for the Gartner on SAP event to be held on 1 and 2 June, at Sun City.

According to Otter, organisations worldwide are looking at using new technologies in order to bring down costs. In that vein, he said, Gartner is impressed by some innovations emanating from Africa aimed at minimising costs.

“Innovations in technology are happening all over the world – not just in larger markets or among big vendors.”

He gave the example of Graylink, a South African supplier of software-as-a-service (SaaS) e-recruitment applications, which developed txthire, a workflow-driven mobile recruiting solution designed to meet the needs of candidates who may not have a PC or smartphone.

The other example is Ushahidi, which means “testimony” in Swahili, initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya, after the post-election fallout in 2007 and 2008.

Overcoming obstacles

“The Graylink innovation, txthire, enables people who don’t have Web access to access an applicant tracking system (ATS) to apply for a job.

“While many vendors offer some mobile recruiting capability, txthire has been designed to meet the needs of candidates who may not have a PC or smartphone. Graylink has taken this constraint and innovated with it,” he pointed out.

Otter explained that through two-way SMS, txthire can ask questions to gather data and even perform comprehensive applicant screening in an interview process.

Africa has high mobile penetration, he noted, but relatively few PCs. “The solution can also work with social software channels, such as Twitter and Facebook, and can be delivered across a mobile Internet browser.

“Txthire has workflow to route communications between candidates, recruiters and hiring managers.”

He also noted that the open API enables connectivity to core human resource management systems and other ATSes, adding that Graylink plans to expand the footprint of the solution to include other HR-related, self-service processes.

However, Otter stated that international SaaS human capital management vendors are expanding, so Graylink faces increased international competition.

“SMS service providers such as Sybase have not really targeted HR, but may do so in the future. Graylink’s bigger challenge, however, is whether it will step up to the global opportunity in emerging and developed markets beyond sub-Saharan Africa.”

He believes the solution is particularly well-suited to emerging markets, such as Latin America, but will also have potential as an additional channel for recruitment in Europe or the US.

Reaching the masses

“Ushahidi has helped highlight African software development ingenuity and shows that software tools can have a profound societal impact for good.

“It has since developed into a strong platform for the collection, filtering and organisation and visualisation of data, whether social network data, such as Twitter, Web, e-mail, really simple syndication, SMS, or even verbal reports via the telephone,” he explained.

Otter also pointed out that as the use of social software to enable collaborative activities within the enterprise and among enterprises deepens, innovative vendors continue to bring new tools to the market.

He stressed that these tools make use of network dynamics and allow people to engage better with each other in intuitive environments that mirror how real work gets done.

“Ushahidi is now used to track an array of events, ranging from earthquakes and flood relief, to election monitoring and crime levels. Examples include the Haiti earthquake, election violence in Africa and South America, and the ongoing political change in North Africa.”

Otter also explained that the solution is built with open source technologies and is offered under an open source licence.

“Twelve full-time employees, some across Africa, others in the US, curate the solution and there are several dozen active contributors. It is run as a non-profitable organisation.”

For software developers, he added, Ushahidi offers an opportunity to contribute to an open source project with strong links to Africa and social justice

In more than a quarter of SA homes, at least one person has access to the Internet. That’s a finding of Statistics SA’s latest annual general household survey.

According to StatsSA, 26,8% of homes had at least one person that accessed the Internet either from home, at work, university, school or an Internet café.

A provincial breakdown of the survey shows residents of the Western Cape have the highest access to Internet services, topping the list with 44,1%. Gauteng comes a close second with 40,9% access.

The figures in the other provinces are not as promising, with the Free State the next highest at only 27,5%.

According to the survey, 16,7% of household members use the Internet at work, with fewer using it at home and the least at school or university.

The survey also delves into landline and cellular telephony, with some homes still without access to either cellphones or fixed lines. The province with the highest rate of no access is the Northern Cape, where 22,8% of homes have no access to telephony.

The Eastern Cape, Free State and North West follow closely behind.

Residents of Mpumalanga and Limpopo have taken to cellular technology as their primary means of communication, with about 85,2% and 85,5% penetration respectively using only cellphones and not landlines.

The use of a combination of both cellphones and landlines in households is most prevalent in the more affluent provinces, such as the Western Cape, at 34,3%, and Gauteng, at 22,6%.  — Staff reporter, TechCentral

Source: TechCentral

The event started with Dennis Woodside, senior vice president of the Americas at Google, Mountain View, CA, talking about some of the ways that mobile phones are causing a cultural shift. There are so many opportunities in terms of what marketers can do to better connect with the mobilized modern consumer.

Here are the slides from the presentation:

Full Article here

For the full stream of the event click here

Original article here

Research by Informa Telecoms and Media finds that global SMS traffic is expected to increase to 8.7 trillion messages in 2015 from 5 trillion messages in 2010, signaling a big opportunity for retailers and marketers alike.

SMS revenues are expected to reach $136.9 billion in 2015 from $105.5 billion in 2010.

SMS is increasingly being used by banks and financial institutions, brands, retailers and transport providers to deliver alerts, information services, mobile marketing campaigns, appointment reminders, tickets, coupons, banking and payments, and loyalty programs.

Mobile Commerce Daily interviewed Pamela Clark-Dickson, senior analyst at Informa, Inverness, Scotland. Here is what she said.

What is the key finding of the study?
The Mobile Messaging report covers a number of areas, including SMS. I would say that the key finding is simply that SMS traffic and revenues continue to grow on a global basis.

This growth is despite the fact that, in both developed and increasingly in emerging markets, mobile users have access to an increasing number of messaging and communications options on their devices, whether that is email, instant messaging or mobile social networking.

The United States, for example, is the largest single market globally in terms of SMS traffic, ahead of China, according to our forecasts.

In 2010 SMS traffic in the U.S. was expected to total 1.1 trillion messages, ahead of China with 995.3 billion messages.

And this is occurring in a market where smartphone penetration – which could be said to have the propensity to increase the use of data-intensive messaging applications like email, IM and mobile social networks – stood at 51.46 percent in 2010.

We are also seeing the emergence in the U.S. of smartphone applications which enable increased use of messaging, via group messaging and communities, such as Gogii’s TextPlus, which is available for the iPhone and Android devices.

The other important point to make, I think, is that while person-to-person SMS will continue to dominate SMS traffic and revenues for the foreseeable future, application-to-person SMS traffic and revenues is on the rise, due to the increasing use of SMS by the enterprise and government sectors, and I would count social networks also as enterprise customers.

And the reason why the enterprise and government sectors are using SMS to communicate with their customers, employees and the general public, is because they know that if they use SMS, they are going to reach everyone who owns a mobile phone, from low-end basic handsets through to the latest Apple iPhone or Android device. SMS is cheap, it is reliable, it is universal, and it has unrivalled utility as a bearer for communications, information and services.

What is the most surprising finding?
For those not familiar with the SMS market, I guess what might surprise people is the fact that there remain burgeoning use cases for SMS, in both developed and emerging markets.

In developed markets, I guess you could say that the continued, and increased, use of SMS is surprising because of the rising penetration of smartphones. I suppose people think that because we hear a lot about Apple’s iPhone, devices based on Android, applications, and social networking, that SMS is becoming irrelevant. It’s turning out that this is most definitely not the case.

And it’s for the reasons that I mentioned before – not only do the majority of mobile subscribers still find SMS to be the most direct, easy to use and cheap communications bearer on their devices, but enterprises are realizing this too, including social networks.

Enterprises are realizing – again I’m repeating myself here – that SMS has the highest penetration of any communications channel on mobile, and what’s more, using SMS to communicate with customers, employees and the general public is probably a lot cheaper and more likely to get mass-market reach, than using the mobile Internet or an application.

In the U.S., again, as I mentioned earlier, we are seeing an interesting tie-in between applications and messaging, where people are downloading applications that help them to use more text and picture messaging.

In emerging markets, SMS is literally changing people’s lives for the better. In developed markets we are very much spoiled when it comes to access to information, services and content – we have multiple channels/screens by which we can consume information, services and content.

In emerging markets, most people are far more able to afford a mobile phone than they can a PC and a broadband Internet connection, and even Internet cafes are not a hugely viable option.

The mobile phone is turning out to be the means by which mobile subscribers in these markets are improving their economic and social well-being, because they are able to access information that they can use to produce food, or to prevent or treat disease, among others.

They can also access financial services, such as mobile money transfer, micro-finance and payments.

What are the most important factors driving the growth of SMS?
SMS continues to be a relatively cheap form of communications, with transparent pricing.

In many countries, and in the U.S., wireless carriers offer huge bundles of messages, or unlimited messaging, on their tariffs – when people aren’t concerned about how much something costs there is a propensity to use it more, and that is the case with SMS.

I can not stress how important SMS’ universal access is. SMS is literally on every mobile device that is sold in the market today, in every country in the world. Interconnection between wireless carriers means that mobile users can pretty much be guaranteed that any country they go to, they will be able to send and receive SMS to and from their home network, or to and from the networks of the country that they are in.

What advice can you give to brands, marketers, retailers and merchants based on these findings?
The most important advice that I would give to brands, marketers, retailers and merchants is don’t discount the use of SMS in your marketing campaigns and your communications with the mass market, customers and your employees.

Sure, the iPhone and similar devices are much more compelling and applications are a lot more fun and attention-grabbing, but if you want something that is reliable, relatively inexpensive to develop with and that has the widest possible reach, and that will therefore deliver you a good return on your investment or help you to reduce your costs and improve your customer service, then I would say to keep using SMS and keep innovating with SMS.

Giselle Tsirulnik is senior editor at Mobile Commerce Daily and Mobile Marketer. Reach her at giselle@mobilemarketer.com.

Original article here

This has led to an influx of an average of more than 60 000 official job applications per year, rendering it increasingly challenging for recruiters to adhere to strict recruitment turn-around-times.

“The biggest obstacle for us has been the consistent and efficient management of high volumes of applications, especially for entry level positions” says Sharon van Horsten, head of Recruitment & Selection at Capitec Bank. “We had to rethink our traditional recruitment process in order to manage the gaps on a number of levels,” she says.

In line with the use of sophisticated technology at the core of Capitec Bank’s unique banking model, an SMS-based recruitment tool was developed to help the bank manage high-volume recruitment response more efficiently, with the aim to reduce recruitment time

The new mobile recruiting solution txthire, was developed by Graylink, a leading provider of web and mobile recruitment automation solutions. Capitec Bank was the first company to test the solution in selected areas since June this year, followed by national implementation after two months of further refinement.

“With txthire all initial candidate engagement is done via SMS” explains Van Horsten. “Applicants are requested to apply to a vacancy via a premium-rated 2-way SMS number. They are then prompted to answer a series of questions via SMS,” she says.

Critical screening information, such as minimum requirements and biographical details, is automatically captured by txthire in a secure database. Screening questions can be weighted allowing for a % based match to be provided against each application. A bespoke reporting engine allows for data to be extracted from the database in a variety of formats and shared with relevant recruiters and hiring managers quickly and efficiently. Recruiters are able to immediately focus on qualitative telephonic interviewing and background screening, halving the time on this process as most qualifying questions have already been answered via SMS.

“This process eliminates the need for paper screening or electronic CV capturing, enabling a much more accurate candidate tracking and increased turn-around time for placements,” Van Horsten says.

“The greatest spin-offs have been the reduced paper usage and reduced administration, ultimately leading to huge time and cost savings for us. In some of the provinces we receive up to 200 CV’s per day for branch positions, which required several man-hours per day just to collate and distribute these,” she says.

The web-based management interface is delivered through Graylink’s fully managed cloud infrastructure and required no infrastructure of software investment by Capitec. It is accessible via a browser and allows authorised Capitec recruiters to view, manage and report on data effortlessly.

Mark Gray, managing director of Graylink says with the high penetration of mobile devices across all LSM’s in the South African market, SMS is the most prolific form of communication used by Capitec Bank’s target market. This solution also allows for the use of additional channels including instant messaging, social media and web channels in order to further enhance engagement with applicants and employees. Furthermore, an Application Programming Interface (API) allows 3rd party systems – e.g. ERP or HRM system – to interact with txthire and pull data collected via SMS on-demand.

“Currently one of the main concerns with large recruiters such as Capitec Bank is the lack of a centralised application submission and storage platform. With a manual recruiting process, it is practically impossible to eliminate multiple applications and preventing candidates from applying and being considered twice in different regions,” Gray says.

He believes the nett result of this system is the consistency of recruitment response. “With txthire, applications are submitted through a central channel and candidate information is available almost immediately for further processing. Recruiters are able to track specific applications instantly, and provide educated feedback and answers to queries about reasons for regret,” he concludes.

About Capitec Bank
Capitec Bank (JSE: CPI) is South Africa’s fastest growing retail bank. With 2.1 million clients, R1.7 billion in equity and R6.9 billion in assets (excluding cash) as of February 2010, Capitec Bank offers affordable, convenient and simplified banking with personal service. Using innovative technology to drive down costs, increase accessibility and simplify client interactions, Capitec Bank’s Global One facility offers a range of transacting, saving and credit options accessed in real-time using paperless processes and the country’s first in-branch biometric client identification system. In March 2010, Credit Suisse named Capitec Bank one of the ‘27 Great Brands of Tomorrow’, the only South African brand to be named in the international report. In November 2010, Capitec Bank scooped the first place in the Sunday Times Business Times Top 100 Companies in South Africa survey. For further information on Capitec Bank visit www.capitecbank.co.za.

About Graylink
Graylink’s web and mobile recruitment automation solutions help companies recruit the best talent quicker, more efficiently and for less. This privately owned company has operations in Africa, Middle East and Europe and delivers solutions to over 300 corporate and government organisations located across more than 74 countries. For more information on txthire, visit www.txthire.com.

graylink deliver web & mobile recruitment automation solutions to more than 300 corporate customers across Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

Mark Gray, CEO of graylink stated, “Our research into job posting distributors was not taken lightly. We required an international carrier with the ability to service our customers in all parts of the world – particularly Africa and other emerging markets. eQuest was clearly the best choice for what we required and we look forward to working with them well into the future.”

eQuest is the leading international job posting distributor for the Fortune 500.

“Our commitment to serving the international community is key to our success, “said Sean Luitjens, eQuest’s VP of Business Development. “Our service center is ready to provide graylink customers the best delivery service available.”

About graylink

graylink’s web and mobile recruitment automation solutions help companies recruit the best talent quicker, more efficiently and for less.

graylink is privately owned, has operations in Africa, Middle East and Europe and delivers solutions to over 300 corporate and government organizations located across Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Some of these include: Bidvest Group, Capitec Bank, Dept Trade & Industry (South Africa), Discovery, GlaxoSmithKline, Imperial Group, Jamie Oliver’s 15 Foundation, KPMG, McDonald’s, Mercedes, Pfizer, Vodacom and VW. For more information visit www.graylink.biz

About eQuest

eQuest is the global leader in job-posting delivery and job board management services, including candidate sourcing metrics and job board evaluations, job board consultation and planning, job board negotiating, and billing control. Thousands of job boards are supported in the eQuest network reaching over 180 countries and territories worldwide. eQuest is one of the most recognized and admired brands in the human resource industry. eQuest can be reached at www.equest.com