Subscribe

Mobile app bridges supply-chain gap

Michelle Avenant
By Michelle Avenant, portals journalist.
Johannesburg, 18 May 2015

A mobile app bridging a significant supply-chain gap is combating socio-economic disadvantage in Kgautswane, a rural community in the Limpopo Valley.

The Kgautswane Virtual Buying Cooperative (KVBC), established by the Kgautswane Community Development Centre (KCDC), the German Red Cross, Volunta and SAP, is a business network partnership between small-scale retailers such as spaza shops in Kgautswane and large-scale retailers in nearby towns.

The partnership is facilitated with a mobile app of the same name, which enables the registration of shops on a geo-interface, cataloguing of local and supplier stock and sales records, deliveries management, real-time transaction analysis, and financial accounting features.

Spaza shop owners in Kgautswane are disadvantaged by remote location and lack of infrastructure, including lack of physical address or bank account, explains Clara Basentjeng Masinga, director of the Kgautswane Community Development Centre.

Before the introduction of the KVBC app, each spaza shop sourced goods independently from nearby towns such as Burgersfort and Lydenburg, explains a KCDC spokesperson. Due to limited buying power, stock purchases were small and resale price was high, as transportation cost per product was excessive, KCDC continues.

The mobile app has enabled lower goods pricing, as transportation costs are reduced by a central delivery system, and these reduced costs increase buying power, leading to more bulk discounts, says KCDC.

"In addition to informal spaza shops, other community institutions such as cr`eches are benefiting," KCDC adds.

The app is a prototype that runs on most Android smartphones, explains a SAP representative. SAP has also provided community members with mobile devices equipped with SAP software prototypes for running small businesses.

"SAP is currently investigating the opportunity to roll out the system in further pilot sites in a partnership model," says SAP, urging parties interested in participating to contact the software company.

Share