Initiative | What’s New (Released in Previous Month) | Coming Soon (What’s Likely to be Released over the Next Month) | | Blockers (Issues getting in the way or slowing things down) |
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bPower20 | bPower 20 pilot in Kenya (Sept) bPower20 testing in Rwanda (Sept) Shipped bPower20 to Togo (Sept) Shipped bPower20 in DRC (Sept) | Bpower20 testing in DRC bPower20 test in Togo Resumption of b20 sales in Kenya | bPower20 sales was suspended due to activation issue: Assigning stock to the technician was not working in ERP Recording the installation was not working in both ERP and pulse Credit to the units was not working
All those issue listed above are now fixed by the development team | |
bP300 | N/A | N/A | Fridge Found 2 failure points for the fridge Temperature sensor gets disconnected during usage. This is fixed by reconnecting. The supplier has been informed and will move its location Rusty Thermostat connectors: Supplier has been informed and is working on a solution Iron- Mold is ready for production and we might have it available for pilots in November.
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bP50 | N/A | Over-voltage Alert - Rollout KE What it is: An alert that checks for products that are over charging. Why it is important: These products are risky and must removed from the customers through a technician Visit. Tiger 12 PCBA: What it is: An improved bPower50 PCBA with better performance and protection. Why It is important: it is the precursor to bPower50 Lithium. It will be piloted on 200 CU assembled in the repair center. Piloting subwoofer Subwoofer are being piloted in Kenya We have 400 Subwoofers in China for NGUs Subwoofer’s mass production in October 32”TVs Pilot will start by the end of October in DRC Parabolic antenna Three sourced samples from different supply to be tested by DRC team so that we might let sourcing team know the antenna that perform the best and access most channels Dimmable light Dimmable lights are now being sourced | | |
Next Generation Pulse Initiative (@Andrew Kent (Unlicensed) ) | Create customer in Pulse Web App: What it is: Pulse users can now create a customer and sell products in the Web App Why it’s important: Allows shop staff to create customers for walk-in clients without having to call the call centre. Agents can also contact the shop to create a customer to avoid CSCC call queues
| Call Centre Actions in Web App (Phase 1): Upgrades & Adding/Removing Ontime What it is: begin moving the Call Centre to manage its activities in the Web App rather than ERP. We will take this one action at a time (i.e. record a call, add manual ontime, upgrade a customer, etc), likely starting with Creating a Customer, Adding & Removing Ontime, and Upgrades. The whole project will take several months, so you will be getting new actions in the Web App on a rolling basis. Why it’s important: besides improving speed and user-friendliness compared to the slow and unfriendly ERP, this is important as we move to Next Gen Pulse. We aim to shut down the ERP in 6-12 months. A key step will be, for the people currently using ERP as a front-end (especially the call centre), to move them to the Web App so they don’t need to log into ERP on a daily basis. This way when we turn off the ERP, nothing will change for the user: they will continue using the Web App, and the Web App will just be connected to the new database behind the scenes. NOTE: We will not be disabling actions in the ERP until you are ready to make the switch. However, by having a few actions, it allows you to already test out the features one by one and provide feedback. So we recommend that as these are released, to ask your call operators to try using Pulse Web App for those specific actions.
| Overall: We received formal approval from Investment Committee to move forward with the new Pulse We have started redesigning the customer account to allow for multiple products. Key work over the coming weeks will be to complete this design and agree on the architectural “boundaries” between Pulse, Inventory System, and Finance Systems, so we can start building the databases. We will be setting up meetings with NGU users over the next month to understand the importance of different features within the current system. When we “switch on” the new Pulse, it will be simpler to use and have new features not available to day, but it may also be missing some things currently available in the ERP. We need to understand which of those are truly critical, and which you can live without for a while, so we can limit the scope of the initial release of the new Pulse and shorten delivery timelines.
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Fighting Fraud and Preventing Loss Initiative (@Anthony Mabonga ) | Control Units Disabled by Default: What it is: control unit won’t switch on until stock has been assigned. We have begun rolling this out in all markets. Why it’s important: This prevents loss, by preventing people from taking out perfectly functioning CU’s from the shop without first assigning them to a customer. For example, the technician can no longer forget to record an installation: it won’t switch on until stock is assigned.
| Credit score for upgrades: What it is: agent app will use a “machine learning” predictive model to determine which customers qualify for upgrade or not. Why it’s important: Currently upgrades are a net loss for the company. This will make them a net gain. So will be a huge improvement for NGU profitability
Generic Product for Repo: allow staff to record a generic product during repo Collection Rate introduction in retail dashboard: adding an improved metric for measuring cash collection | Credit score for upgrades: the initial version, in the agent app, will be released soon. The next step will be to include the credit score in the Pulse Web App. Once this happens, you will be able to turn off the “contract performance” credit score in the ERP back-end. Repo decision algorithm: we have built an algorithm that predicts which defaulters are likelier to recover and which should be repossessed, based on previous behavior. This should help to prioritize repossessions to the customers least likely to recover. We are assessing the business case for this, and if it looks good, would like to do a pilot in Excel, where for some shops, we send a list in Excel prioritized according to the algorithm, to see if it leads to better collections. Switch on/off: this month we plan to analyze the causes of customers getting stuck in pending enable/disable, to make a list of potential improvements Free Stock Assignment and Same Day Installations: we completed the design this month, which will allow you to assign stock to a technician even before knowing the customer. Development is beginning this month. | |
Growing through Integrations Initiative (@Davis Nteziryayo (Unlicensed) ) | | Safaricom Kenya integration Vodacom DRC integration Canal+ VPN setup What it is: allow DRC and Togo switch on/off canal+ customers by uploading excel files in canal+ platform Why it’s important: NGU will be able to sell canal+ satellite services to Bboxx customers and use PAYG model
| Bboxx USSD application MTN Rwanda integration Integration is ongoing but there were delays due to slow response from MTN. When MTN team got back to us, resources had been reallocated to work on Safaricom integration MTN integration is expect to resume soon now that we have extra developers from 10pearls
SunCulture integration What it is: add water pump customers to ERP and be able to switch on/off manually by uploading excel file to SunCulture sentinel system Why it’s important: Togo NGU will be able to sell solar water pumps to non Bboxx customers. Also SunCulture water pumps are going to be the first non Bboxx product that will be sold and managed in pulse which make is first market place product. Update: we have finished the design for Phase 1, which is to allow a customer to sign up without a Bboxx serial number (the key step to allowing a SunCulture sale to be registered in the system). Development has started, although no clear sense yet of how long it will take. Phase 2 will be to integrate the switch on/off, so Bboxx can directly control a SunCulture device
Canal+ the step for SunCulture of not needing a Bboxx serial number is the first step to allowing SunCulture. Next step is manual downgrades solution, so a customer can downgrade a Canal+. We are working on the design, although lots of input still needed from Finance
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Managing Field Staff Initiative (@Jacques Kagabo (Unlicensed) ) | New Customer Information Screen: What it is: Pulse users can see the customer information in a new interactive view (that is compatible with smartphones). Why it’s important: it allows the user to view the customer information without the stress of zooming in/out because it’s one scrollable page.
Manual Bulk update of SA commission stages (amount & date) not invoiced What it is: NGUs Sales Agent admins can be able to update in bulk the commissions that are not yet been invoiced Why it’s important: allows the Agent Admin to update the commissions in bulk, without opening and editing one by one.
| Customer payment page updates: What it is: It’s a page in the customer information screen that is reserved for the payment details. Why it’s important: it gives the user much customer payment details that were requested by the NGUs such as (days-to-ESF, the amount required to reach ESF, Payment status, performance band, amount due, customer balance, transaction history)
| Rebuild Agent App with New Format | None |
Optional ESF (@Gilbert Ishimwe (Unlicensed) ) | | Flexible Depreciation: what is it: It’s a feature that permits to flexibly customize the product depreciation and configure the contract length based on the asset useful life Why it’s important: This feature allows NGUs To allow optional ESF (e.g. customer can opt-in again with a 1 year CU contract) To align product contract length to asset useful life To customize asset depreciation based on package contract length, for instance, NGU can sell upgrades over 1year or 3 years
| Marking Customer as an opt-out: What it is: it’s a feature that will allow marking customers as opt-out so that their CUs are enabled all the time, can’t get swap without opting in again after opting out, and help monitor ESF customers Vs Opt-out Updates: | |
BAU / Other (All) | | Shop Manager can create a technical issue in Pulse: What it is: This is an incremental feature on the pulse which will give the shop manager an ability to create a technical issue (1) once a customer walks into the shop looking for a swap/replacements (2) once the customer call the shop to explain his/her product issue and (3) If an NGU has configured an alert which should generate a technician visit (typically something that could happen for 'pending disable' customers or for 'tampering' alert) why it’s important: This helps to service customer quickly (for instance if a customer walks into the shop with the product that needs a replacement, the shop manager could be able to record the issue and if he has a stock a customer can get swap immediately) Customers can get their issues solved without needing to call the call center to create the issue into the system because SM will be able to do that.
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Complete Care & Repairs | | | | |
Supply Chain Integrated Tool | | | | |
