News
World leading software wins TUANZ Mobile Application of the Year Award for GFG Group
04 October 2006
Software to enable a mobile phone to make payments in the same way as a credit or EFTPOS card has won New Zealand’s GFG Group the TUANZ Telecommunications Mobile Application of the Year Award.
The TUANZ (Telecommunication Users Association of New Zealand) Innovation Awards 2006 judging panel selected GFG Group from a short list of three, including Telecom New Zealand and Vodafone New Zealand.
GFG Group developed the winning software working with SMART Communications, the largest company in the Philippines and the largest supplier of mobile services. Called SMART MONEY, the solution is now used by more than 80% of SMART’s 22 million subscribers. Many Filipinos do not have bank accounts, and around 90 percent of all transactions are made in cash. GFG’s breakthrough has been to ‘converge’ mobile telephony and electronic funds transfer to bring banking-level payment capability to a largely unbanked population.
GFG Group Sales and Marketing Manager Marie Tamplin-Woods says Smart Money has positioned Smart Communications as the undisputed global leader in mobile electronic payments.
“The emerging mobile payments market is comparable to EFTPOS in its market significance. The fact that GFG Group’s mobile payments software is at the heart of SMART MONEY means we have a major international sales opportunity and we are already receiving a high level of sales enquiry from Telecommunications companies worldwide,” Marie Tamplin-Woods said.
“A number of Mobile operators worldwide – including Vodafone in New Zealand - are already using our software to replace prepaid top-up cards. The SMART MONEY solution shows how this can be easily extended to provide a much wider range of payment services.”
The SMART MONEY service essentially provides a wallet, held at the carrier level, that enables users to buy, trade and remit money. The service operates using text messaging – the most popular cell phone function worldwide. Merchants simply transfer airtime to their customers via SMS text messaging. Pre-paid top-up card production, security and distribution costs have been entirely removed. Because of their high cash value, top-up cards were previously transported around the Philippines in armoured vehicles.
The TUANZ Innovation Awards 2006 judging panel summed up GFG Group’s entry as: “Innovative and simplifies the way money transactions take place – especially in areas where the traditional banking reach is low,” the judges said.
