The paper seeks to justify a Mobile Money Transfer (MMT) as an alternative product for Vodafone Group Plc. The company is multinational with headquarters in London. It is a leading telecommunications company based on 2011 annual revenue and subscriptions (439 million).
Vodafone offers information technology and mobile phone services to its customers in over sixty-five countries. In addition, Vodafone Group has 45 per cent shares in Verizon wireless. Verizon wireless is the leading mobile telecommunications company in the US.
Vodafone has been chosen to implement the MMT product because of its wide customer base and its ability to set a side enough resources to implement, test, launch and market the product. Its wider customer base is important because many people across the world will be able to enjoy the product and its benefits (Morawczynski, 2008).
MMT is an electronic product that helps the consumer to electronically send and receive money on a mobile phone. Consumers will register their simcards with Vodafone using their national IDs or pass ports. After registration, an MMT menu will be up dated on the customer’s phone.
Registered customers will be able to send and receive money, pay bills, loans, and utilities and also buy air time. Customers can also access their commercial bank accounts if they register their mobile numbers with their banks. To withdraw money from a mobile account, the customer approaches an agent and initiates the transaction through an agent code. The customer and the agent then receive a message that a specific amount of money has been withdrawn.
The agent then gives the customer the specified amount of money and the transaction is completed. To deposit the money in the mobile account, the customer approaches the agent with the amount of money they want to deposit, the agent deposits the money and both receive a confirmation message (Hughes & Lonie, 2007).
MMT is a cheap, safe and quick way of sending and receiving money. MMT saves the customer the trouble of having to make long queues in the bank to deposit or withdraw money. Customers are also able to make instant payments for services and goods by using the MMT. The company on the other hand benefits by acquiring and retaining customers, extending the range of its products and improve relationship with consumers.
To successfully launch the product, Vodafone will hire competent IT specialists to update the main server to accommodate MMT. The company will also replace existing simcards with those that have MMT menu. Finally the company will recruit and register agents all over the country. Vodafone should target supermarkets, banks and other places where people mainly handle cash.
MMT is a pretty new idea and very little secondary sources of information are available. However, the company will benefit in a big way by visiting the libraries of affiliated companies like Safaricom. Their websites would provide very important information. Other sources of credible information about feasibility of mobile banking include the websites of Equity Bank Limited. The library and archive of Equity bank are also rich with information.
Information on MMT can be verified by carrying out a research to reveal its practical features and sustainability. As stated earlier, MMT is a relatively new product in the market and not many people could be able to verify though it is highly implementable. The best way to verify MMT is to begin with a small pilot project carried out within the Vodafone staff.
References
Hughes, N. & Lonie, S. (2007). M-PESA: Mobile Money for the “Unbanked”: Turning Cellphones into 24-Hour Tellers in Kenya. Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization. Cape Town University, 2(2), 63–81.
Morawczynski, O. (2008). Surviving in the Dual System: How M-PESA is Fostering Urban-to-Rural Remittances in a Kenyan Slum. HCC8 journal, 12 (3), 1-2.