Unique prepaid cellular international service uses Navision for front- and back-end

Frequent overseas travellers can now budget for their international cellular costs, thanks to a newly developed prepaid service from Wings Mobile, which incorporates the leading ERP solution Navision Financials as well as Web Shop from accounting and business management solution provider Navision South Africa.

"Everybody knows that the cost of using a roaming cellphone overseas is outrageously expensive," says Wings Mobile strategic development manager Alan Witt. "Not only do users pay for the calls they make, but they are also charged for incoming calls, even if their phone is on voice mail. This makes it virtually impossible to budget for international roaming charges."

Consequently, Wings Mobile set about developing a prepaid product that provides a cost-effective and convenient alternative to international roaming.

"The concept is extremely simple," Witt explains. "If a traveller is visiting say, the UK, we provide him with a top brand mobile phone that includes a UK prepaid SIM card as well as prepaid airtime. Before the user leaves SA he can leave a message on his voice mail providing his UK contact number. Some of the benefits of using the Wings service are that the traveller does not pay for the cost of incoming calls, they are paying UK-based call rates and are therefore paying substantially less than international roaming rates and most importantly, they are able to budget for the cost of their international cellular service because they are in control of how much airtime they purchase.

"If the user runs out of airtime while travelling, he can easily purchase top-up vouchers via the Wings Mobile Web site at www.wingsmobile.com or by sending a simple SMS from their phone to the Wings service, specifying the top-up amount required," he continues. "We then debit his South African credit card and send a top-up voucher number back to the phone."

Witt points out that not only is the user paying in South African currency, but also all the costs are deducted from his South African credit card. "He knows exactly what his overseas cellphone costs are going to be and can top up at his convenience. By not having to pay unknown international roaming rates, he is thus always in control of his phone expenses."

Besides the UK, Wings Mobile also provides prepaid services for Mauritius, Australia and SA, and offers a multi-destination prepaid product for world travellers visiting more than one country at a time. "This product works in 121 countries, including the US, and users pay one fixed rate worldwide to make and receive calls," says Witt.

While the Wings Mobile concept is simple, it required a sophisticated back-end system that could capably handle the various financial transactions involved. "Our stock is air time, which is merely a voucher number," Witt explains. "We have to track voucher numbers, and be able to disseminate them in a sequential manner. We also have to calculate tax, which might include a phone, a Wings starter pack, SIM card, airtime voucher number and a travel adapter. Additionally, we are linked to the iVeri Payment Gateway for credit card transactions via Nedbank. Consequently, we needed a financial system that would be able to control all of this in an effective, yet user-friendly manner."

Having investigated several mid-range financial offerings available on the market, the company eventually chose Navision Financials because, says Witt, it offered the most in terms of flexibility and ease of customisation. "The other products were not nearly as flexible as Navision, and the whole look, feel and ease of use of the software just made it a whole lot easier to use than its competitor products. Additionally, almost all our services are outsourced and Navision showed that it could easily handle our various outsourcing arrangements."

Cape Town-based Navision Solution Centre Linc Communications carried out the customisation of the Navision Financials system for Wings Mobile, and also implemented Navision Web Shop as the system`s Internet front-end.

"More than a business management solution, Navision Financials is built on extraordinary technology," says Navision South Africa managing director Keith Mullan. "Linc Communications used the built-in design tools to quickly and easily develop a complete rental system for Wings Mobile.

"With Web Shop, Wings Mobile can create and manage their online Internet catalogue and assure secure transaction processing," he continues. "Because Web Shop is completely integrated with Navision Financials, it completes the circle for efficient Internet commerce by tying Wings Mobile`s Web storefront and its accounting information together. Web Shop saves time and money by automating the sales process. Wings Mobile can thus not only offer their customers fast online service and access to their extensive services, but can also easily handle a high sales volume."

Flexibility was an important prerequisite for Wings Mobile, as the company plans to soon expand its service internationally. "Navision offers multi-currencies and multi-VAT, which will enable us to easily provide the same service to other countries using the same platform," says Witt.

The company also plans to add a postpaid service to its overseas communication offering, and intends to shortly provide prepaid vouchers to local prepaid cell phone, electricity and Telkom users. "Of SA`s total cellphone population, 80% use a prepaid service," says Witt. "With our system, we can deliver any kind of prepaid voucher to any cellphone, as long as that number is registered with us, and the user can specify whether he wants cellphone, electricity or Telkom vouchers. This provides the ideal solution for distributors or resellers located in rural areas, and saves them from having to walk far distances to a shop to purchase vouchers for resale.

"We started out developing a product to as an alternative to international roaming, but in the process we`ve created a platform that enables us to provide all these other services as well, all because of the flexibility of the Navision system," Witt adds. "The product has given us the ability to do much more than what we were originally focused on. There`s no doubt that virtual voucher delivery is going to take off in a big way, both in SA and internationally, and Navision has provided us with a stable platform from which to meet this demand."