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With the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa on the horizon and schools closing because of the H1N1 influenza, the World Health Organisation has been in talks with the South African government about how to reduce the risk of spreading ‘swine flu’. 

In June and July 2010, close on half a million tourists are expected to travel to our shores for what is soccer’s premier global event. With swine flu infecting young people and causing deaths the world over among pregnant women and the already frail and weak, the South African government would do well to turn to technology as a means of forging solutions to risk-manage the pandemic flu.

Already virologists are calling for our country to build up vaccine production capacity as more than 100 000 cases of swine flu have been detected worldwide. Some 125 cases were declared in South Africa by July. The good news is that technology may provide a practical solution to implementing preventative vaccines.

SMS Health Care Alerts

In India the government has launched an SMS alert facility that will remind women registered with the health department to have their children vaccinated. Part of India’s e-governance initiative, the SMS system is a first for the country.

When women give birth in public hospitals, their details, including their cellphone number, are registered in the pioneering system.

The system will initially be used to send vaccination reminders but will soon be expanded to cover other activities. These will include short form information and education at times of national medical emergencies or during times of epidemics.

“SMS provides the most pervasive, cost-efficient and direct route for health agencies wanting to communicate with the public,” says Botha Lebepe, chief executive officer of Tsoko Information Technology. A player in the field of mobile solutions, customer relationship management (CRM), call centre solutions and systems web development, Tsoko Information Technology believes they are well positioned to service the trend to SMS-based relationship and communication systems.

SMS Pervasive and Cost- Efficient

“Mobile Cellphones are prolific in South Africa and throughout Africa and SMSbased solutions provide the perfect and most direct medium for communicating with staff, customers and other stakeholders,” Lebepe says., adding: “It’s is unbelievable incredible to think that mobile penetration has grown at the significant rate it has.”

According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), few people imagined that cellular phones would become Africa’s communications device of choice when mobile networks were launched on the continentent some two decades ago. The ITU’s Information Society Statistical Profiles 2009 for Africa shows that in 1989, only South Africa had an operative mobile cellular network with less than 4 000 subscriptions. Seven years later, subscriptions for mobile phones bypassed the one million mark.

The ITU says the 100 million subscription barrier was shattered in 2006, and that by the end of 2008, there were some 246 million mobile subscriptions in Africa, of which South Africa made up 45 million.

Says Lebepe: “These statistics show that mobile is the preferred communications medium in South Africa and on the continent, and in a recessionary environment, SMS offers significant communication opportunities for government, public sector agencies and the private sector. What we have done is to develop open source solutions for the public and private sector that offer innovative, scalable and efficient systems for reaching and influencing people en masse.”

Open Source Benefits

Open source software offers a range of significant benefits to both the private and public sector, while it is strongly in keeping with government’s move to this technology. “Our clients appreciate the fact that we develop in open source because it is reliable, scalable, costeffective, flexible and there is good support on these systems,” says Lebepe.

He adds that open source is affordable because of the lack of licensing fees, while dependability is ensured by the fact that open source is driven by a peer review system. “With open source you have a community of experts that develop solutions that will be admired by their peers. The key drivers are clean design, accountability, reliability and maintainability. This as opposed to commercial or closed software systems that are created by software developers motivated by a rush to be first to market and to have marketable features that support the need to charge high licensing fees.”

At the heart of Tsoko Information Technology’s system is a wireless communication solution that can be used by anyone from government to listed businesses, right through to online businesses, groups and endusers. Easy to implement through a Web- based system, the technology offers cross-carrier SMS services that can be implemented by a diverse range of industries to manage communications to individuals, groups, databases and more.

“We utilise a billing SMS service that is the future of micro-payment and means that our customers can increase their branding while driving immediate revenues through these fund generating systems,” says Lebepe. Applications for billed services include ringtones, logos, graphics, picture messaging and MMS. The interactive nature of the solution also makes it perfect for voting, competitions, prize draws, content subscriptions, chatting and the like.

The solutions have strong application for customer relationship building, while growing brand awareness and delivering on customer service. The mobile solutions offered by Tsoko Information Technology are backed by leading industry brand names to ensure that the highest quality products are utilised in delivering bespoke solutions. The key focus is to ensure that implementations are simplified, accessible and affordable.

The solutions have a wide range of applications that range from alerts that can be used for anything from vaccination reminders and health care systems to keeping customers informed on special offers, events, promotions and breaking news. Easily integrated with any type of system, the service is customised to suit each client’s unique needs.

The bulk messaging service enables thousands of SMS notifications to be sent, and these can incorporate a WAP push service that drive people to specific web-sites or online locations. Live chat services are available which have interesting government and private sector applications, and enable remote chatting, knowledge exchange or sharing.

For companies wanting to build brands through promotions, applications enable compelling campaigns. These SMS-based promotions range from multiple-choice quizzes to text-towin competitions that use Tsoko Information Technology’s powerful client administration site. Applications are quick and easy, and can be set up to run within a day. Other services include SMS data lists, SMS location-based services, SMS newsletters, SMS reverse auctions, SMS-to-email, SMS tickets and coupons, and SMS voting.

“The applications for business and government are endless,” says Lebepe. “What they all have in common is that they are quick and easy to use and are a new generation communication that effectively can do anything from notifying health care workers about new vaccines, to communicating with customers about a pending sale, to risk-managing a national epidemic.”

In tandem, Tsoko Information Technology offers ISP, web, portal and graphic solutions, which means that mobile and internet solution integration is seamless and backed by the company’s service support desk.

C O N T A C T

Botha Lebepe

CEO: Tsoko Information Technology [PTY] L.T.D.
Tel: + 27 (12) 440 8860
Fax: 086 561 2869
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: www.tsokosolutions.co.za

PICTURE 2

Botha Lebepe, chief executive officer of Tsoko Information Technology.