Kenyan software firm Bernsoft has launched an online mobile app that has been taken up across the country's media to run live polls of viewers and listeners.
As a one-station project, Bernsoft developed a pioneering SMS service that made it possible to send SMS texts to computers for Capital FM, one of Kenya's largest radio stations, to interact with its listeners. But the service has swiftly been taken up by the rest of the media industry, and is now being used by all of the country's major radio stations and even TV stations.
The service enables quick replies from viewers and listeners to any programme on multiple phone services and for different programmes simultaneously. It also allows the automatic filtering of received messages, automatic reply and storage.
The full-screen views, which can also be displayed on multiple monitors, enable authentication of opinion polls and surveys. The service also allows message text censoring and live radio or TV chat.
Bernsoft was founded by Bernard Kioko, now 36 and pursuing an IT degree, when he was in secondary school, in 1992. Kioko calls himself a gadget guy, with six laptops, two iPads and several phones, and has now established an arm of the company in the UK as well.
The Kenyan firm rolled out the country's first ever online ticketing service, which has seen more than 250 travel agents selling their tickets online. The EasyTravelPoint Airline Reservations System, a Web-based distribution system, enables small- and medium-sized airlines to serve their clients by providing booking interfaces to travel agencies and direct customers for East African Safari Air Express, ALS, African Express Airways, Fly 540, Aero Kenya Airlines, and others.
The IT firm has also developed music sharing applications in partnership with Easy FM, called mymusic, enabling people to download music, and it has a string of other software in the offing.
Its latest live SMS service has also been taken up by companies as a way of communicating with their clients and as a marketing service. The service uses a short code system that allows firms to register and send text in bulk. Another application by the firm is Suavegate, which enables the sending of SMS texts across networks from PCs.
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