ICPay places financial control in the palm of your hand

Ian Poalses, ICPay Director with clients from First Smart Card. Ben Otto Director ICPay. Estelle Cooper, Executive Secretary seen here with Project manager Thapelo Morodi. Megan Hutchinson, Sales Executive ….. with Estelle Cooper Executive Secretarys.

Immediate Cellphone Payment (Pty) Ltd (ICPay), a new tenant at the Hub, is set to revolutionise the financial services market with a unique and innovative cellphone payment solution. Their Mobile-ly™ patent and accompanying software switch, currently in the testing phase, will allow account holders to perform commercial and banking transactions, conveniently and at a much lower cost.

The ICPay idea began four years ago, with the buying and selling of bulk prepaid cellular airtime. The experience highlighted the potential for extending cellphone applications and led to the design, writing and coding of Mobile-ly™ and its accompanying software switch. The plan is to roll-out the technology by the beginning of 2006.

Mobile-ly™ incorporates a multi-tiered approach to transacting value, enabling transfers from a primary account to up to eight sub-account holders. The advantages for account holders are convenience and reduced costs. For the institutions issuing the account, the value lies in being able to grow their customer-base exponentially without the additional administration and risk.

The product can be compared with a debit card. In collaboration with in-store card issuers such as Woolworths or Edgars, the ICPay technology will enable consumers to use their cellphones for any in-store purchase. The account holder's cellphone is linked, through the software switch, to an account with the bank or the store. Mobile-ly™ is a registered trademark in South Africa and is currently being patented internationally.

According to ICPay director, Ian Poalses, the only thing as exciting as Mobile-ly™ at this point is their move to the Hub. "We are surrounded by people moving in similar directions, and the opportunities for synergies between the companies here are tremendous". Poalses illustrates this fact with an anecdote about how, during their recent negotiations with the Nigerian ambassador regarding entry into that country's market, they were referred to a switch provider that turned out to be another Hub tenant, located only a few metres away from their own offices in the Hub precinct.

ICPay is currently testing the Mobile-ly™ method with 60 spaza shop owners in Soweto and their factoring company. Shop owners buy stock from a participating wholesaler through cellphone transactions, which are recorded on the ICPay server through a mobile service provider, and the corresponding deductions are made from the factor's account. According to Poalses, this development is aligned to one of ICPay's aims, which is to "effectively leverage technology in order to help people who are still trading in the traditional manner".

The functionality of the ICPay software has given rise to a number of potential sub-products. Among these is a mobile point of sale device for selling pre-paid airtime. The concept will, for instance, allow roadside vendors to sell airtime. The mobile pre-paid airtime point of sale devices have already gone into live testing and are expected to be available by the end of September this year.

For more information on ICPay, contact Ian Poalses on +27 12 844 0090.

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