Electrosoft scoops a SABS Prototype Award
Electrosoft, one of start-up companies in the business incubator at The Innovation Hub, has reason to celebrate. A product developed on consignment by the team has scooped one of eleven SABS Prototype Awards at the SABS Design Institute Awards ceremony recently.
Team member Melt Morrison accepted the award from Dr Ben Ngubane, Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, at Gallagher Estate on 30 August. The award ceremony was hosted as part of the SACOB Business Week at the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Celebrating early successes. Electrosoft was a recipient of a SABS Prototype Award for a product, a GSM Phone Shop, developed on consignment for their client Best Phone.
At the back is Dr Johann Holm and Jaco Steenkamp. In front is Melt Morrison, the project engineer that made sure everybody kept to the deadlines.
According to Electrosoft Managing Director, Dr Johann Holm, their success resulted from a dedicated team effort, hard work and the fact that the company has benefited from the infrastructure of the pilot business incubator at The Innovation Hub. "The support structures at the Hub meant that we could really focus our energies on the work at hand, and it has significantly boosted our ability to deliver", he said.
Melt, a University of Pretoria student who is currently doing his masters degree on innovation, was the project engineer responsible for delivering the project on time. The other team members are Johann Holm, Franco Coetzee and Jaco Steenkamp with Zodwa Mahlangu in charge of office administration.
Electrosoft, one of the start-up companies at the high-tech business incubator
at The Innovation Hub, recently won a SABS design award for one of their
products. Seen here are Jaco Steenkamp (seated in front), Zodwa Mahlangu
and Franco Coetzee, working on the GSM phone shop which can operate on
solar power due to is energy-efficient design.
.
The product Electrosoft developed for its client, Best Phone, is a total wireless phone shop with built-in remote SMS management that can operate on solar power due to its energy-efficient design. There are numerous functions built into the system for ease of use, management, and maintenance.
Field research has furthermore indicated that the system is profitable and provides good return on investment for a prospective shop owner. Besides offering business opportunities for entrepreneurs and creating jobs, the phone shops can significantly increase access to telecommunication in rural areas, especially when more telephone lines are installed in these areas by the GSM service providers, in accordance with their licensing agreements with the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA).
According to Ms Adrienne Viljoen, manager of the SABS Design Institute, the SABS Prototype Awards seek to encourage local engineering and industrial designs and the stimulation of economic growth through the development of new designs.
"The working prototypes at the pre-production stage are judged by a panel of highly qualified technical experts from various design disciplines. Technical excellence and innovation are determining factors. This year there were about seventy entries."
[Back to top]
|
