Success Story

Whilst making all reasonable efforts to provide correct information, Pattern Matched Technologies™ (Pty) Ltd cannot and does not warrant or guarantee that the information provided in this newsletter is accurate in every respect. Therefore,

PMT as well as its officers, directors, employees, agents and managers, shall have no liability or responsibility whatsoever no matter whether it is based on contract, tort or any other legal ground for any inaccuracy, incompleteness, omission, lack of timelines or any other error of the information. The contributions of third parties do not necessarily represent the view

or opinions of PMT or its officers, directors, employees, agents and managers.

Econet – International Airtime Distribution and Cross Border Value Transfer

When Econet Wireless South Africa (EWSA) approached PMT in 2009, their aim was to secure a technology partner who can help them reunite tens of thousands of Zimbabweans living in South Africa with their families and loved ones back home with a convenient and affordable method to “send home” Prepaid Airtime and Value to family and friends back home.

The unique “CALL HOME” prepaid SIM is a South African cellular product designed around the needs of expatriate Zimbabweans and their loved ones back in Zimbabwe. Its headline benefit is inexpensive international calls to Econet Zimbabwe. However, various Value Added Services (VAS) are proving key differentiators for the product.

An international “Call Me Back” service now links Econet Wireless customers in Zimbabwe with their compatriots who use the Call Home SIM in South Africa. This vital lifeline service is powered by PMT’s Amber™ USSD Gateway and a customised version of the PMT Call Me Back (CMB) application. These solutions have been integrated with the Econet Wireless Zimbabwe network. The custom CMB application provides functionality such as request authorisation (only allowing CMB’s to Call Home customers) and intelligent response handling including the insertion of marketing messages.“We believe this service is an international first. It has been met with great enthusiasm because it provides a vital lifeline connecting Econet Zimbabwe customers with their loved ones in SA. Even if the Zimbabwe customer happens to be out of airtime, the free Call Me Back request will still go through to the Call Home customer,” an Econet spokesman said.

VAS Services: The “Call Home Zone” Call Home customers can check the latest headline news live from their Call Home line using the USSD portal menu developed, hosted and operated by PMT.

Fully automated news feeds are provided via integration of an RSS feed from news partner, News 24. Other features supported on the “Zone” include rate information, competitions, interactive promotions and a novel airtime voucher transfer function which allows customers to send airtime value from South Africa to Zimbabwe.

When asked about the relationship between EWSA and PMT, EWSA M.D., Jim Courtney, said: “Pattern Matched Technologies™ is a partner that has provided Econet with unrivalled value and extraordinary technical depth. Their flexibility and willingness to share risk have allowed us to experiment with novel commercial initiatives that would otherwise have been cost prohibitive using traditional solution providers. Further, their speed of delivery from idea to introduction is remarkable. We are very pleased with the solutions and services delivered thus far and look forward to introducing many more innovations in the future.”

PMT has also been chosen to supply a “universal” airtime management and transfer solution linking all Econet territories including South Africa. Vouchers or pinless airtime purchased in one market can be used in any other. This solution utilises PMT’s Emerald™ and Crimson™ solutions.

Critical to satisfying this requirement was the introduction of an airtime management solution that could handle both PIN based and PIN-less airtime to support different territory specific distribution practices, that could support the foreign currency denominations of the different distribution markets and which was able to seamlessly handle the conversion of foreign currency vouchers back to US Dollars, presently the official currency of Zimbabwe.

Pattern Matched Technologies specialises in the intersection of the telecommunications and finance industries. PMT and our team of highly skilled engineers, programmers and analysts has over a decade's worth of international telecoms and GSM experience.

PMT provides solutions that span the divide between innovative financial products and cost-effective communications, with products that focus on transaction processing, financial switching, distribution, prepaid services, billing, and mobile banking amongst many others. A sample of PMT’s clients include companies such as Econet, MasterCard, Listed Credit Retail Groups and Banking Institutions. PMT is recogised to be one of the innovator and leading WASPs in South Africa delivering high capacity Financial Institution solutions based on USSD and Secure Web.

PMT is a founding member of the Wireless Application Service Provider Association of South Africa (WASPA). In 2012 Oracle had announced PMT to be one of their Top 40 Partners, and also achived Exadata ready status for some of our major products.

Success Story

Whilst making all reasonable efforts to provide correct information, Pattern Matched Technologies™ (Pty) Ltd cannot and does not warrant or guarantee that the information provided in this newsletter is accurate in every respect. Therefore,

PMT as well as its officers, directors, employees, agents and managers, shall have no liability or responsibility whatsoever no matter whether it is based on contract, tort or any other legal ground for any inaccuracy, incompleteness, omission, lack of timelines or any other error of the information. The contributions of third parties do not necessarily represent the view

or opinions of PMT or its officers, directors, employees, agents and managers.

With minimal customization, a bespoke architecture incorporating a separate foreign currency instance of Emerald connected to Econet’s main Emerald through PMT’s Crimson™ financial switch, PMT was able to deliver a cost effective and scalable solution to Econet’s requirements.

Further, the voucher management functionality within thesystem makes simple work of the tracking and reconciliation of the international airtime sales and redemptions.

A novel solution was proposed whereby the Econet Zimbabwe and Econet South Africa customers would be provided with an integrated virtual airtime wallet system accessible via a USSD menu on their cell phones.

Econet customers in Zimbabwe and South Africa can redeem vouchers into their personal virtual SEND HOME airtime “wallets”. Once the SEND HOME airtime has been redeemed into a South African customer’s wallet, that customer may instantly transfer the airtime value to any Econet Zimbabwe customer at the current system exchange rate. Econet Zimbabwe customers can likewise perform person to person sharing between their wallets and load the SEND HOME airtime onto their prepaid accounts – all via USSD and in real time.

Econet Wireless is Zimbabwe’s leading mobile operator with 5.5 million subscribers and 72% market share.

ECOCASHMoney transfer

CALL HOMEcall me back

TOUCH message and Send Home Airtime accross

borders

ECO-Mailemail

registrations via SMS

Aiddistributions

USSDairtime

application

Multiple IN Integrations

Powering Interoperable GSM and Financial Transactional Solutions