Business Briefs
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MAHINDRA Comviva, the global leader in providing mobility and financial solutions, has won the prestigious Future Digital Awards 2015 organised by Juniper Research. Its mTicketing service for Bangladesh Railways has been declared winner in the ‘Digital Ticketing’ category. The company was also highly commended in the ‘Contactless Payment’ category for Airtel Money Tanzania NFC Payments.
Bangladesh Railways is the largest provider of mass transit services in the country, serving more than 60 million passengers annually. Mahindra Comviva’s mobiquity Money enables Bangladesh Railways to digitise ticketing transactions, extending greater convenience to consumers whilst improving sales efficiency. Deployed in partnership with leading operators in Bangladesh, the service allows customers to purchase tickets using a prepaid mobile wallet or over-the-counter at an authorised outlet.
Customers now save money by avoiding the journey to the railway station to book their ticket — a saving of time and associated wage loss as well as the cost of transportation to the booking office. About 85 percent of the transactions are performed via agents over the counter demonstrating the dominance of assisted services in an emerging economy. The service has thus contributed towards enriching lives of agents by providing them an alternate source of income through commissions. For operators, mTicketing leads to increase in revenues from mobile financial services.
Commenting on the achievement, Srinivas Nidugondi, senior vice president and head of Mobile Financial Solutions at Mahindra Comviva, said “The award is a validation of our expertise in the mobile payment space. Our mobiquity suite of products is designed with the vision to build a viable, vibrant payments ecosystem enabling businesses and consumers to enter into mutually rewarding relationships. This award from Juniper Research also demonstrates our market leadership in developing innovative digital payment propositions and delivering value, convenience, and a secure, better alternative to cash to consumers and businesses alike.”
On his part, Nitin Bhas, head of Research, Juniper Research, said, “With a strong emphasis and traction in the mobile channel, Mahindra Comviva’s mobiquity Money platform leverages the ubiquity of mobile by deploying a universally accessible technology such as USSD to ensure service reach to enable faster, more cost-effective ticket sales.”
Mahindra Comviva’s NFC payment solution deployed in Airtel Money Tanzania was highly commended by the award panel. The service makes convenient merchant payments a reality, by bringing the convenience of ‘tap and pay’ while addressing adoption challenges for consumers and merchants. The service provides merchants with a low-cost, portable NFC POS linked to their mobile money account and enables a mobile money customer to pay through a linked NFC card.
The Future Digital Awards are given to companies that Juniper believes have made significant progress within their sector, and are now poised to make considerable market impact in the future. The awards were decided by a panel of expert judges based on a number of criteria including: product features and user benefits; innovation; commercial partnerships; commercial launches; certification and compliance; and, potential future business development.
— Sep 7, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT
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