IT professional gets award for creating universal mobile phone credit system

MANILA, Philippines - A pilot project that seeks to recognize small mobile entrepreneurs recently awarded a young IT professional for having developed a “universal loading platform" for phone subscribers. Alvin Tan, one of the three co-founders of Technominds Inc., won the grand prize worth P300,000 in the first Nokia Mobile Entrepreneur Awards for their solution called Direct Loads (D-Loads), a system that allows subscribers to transmit mobile credits, landline prepaid, Internet prepaid, and online gaming pins via text messaging. To connect to individual users, GSM modems are used to serve as gateway to members. SMS Commands are sent to access numbers, and then are processed by the servers. In an interview, Tan said that he, along with business partners Dave Lopez and Roland Santos, plan to reinvest their pot money for the expansion of their SMS system so it can include bills payment using mobile-to-mobile cash transfer. Named first runner-up was Oliver Kuy, whose business, Kuydigital Design Consultancy, uses mobile services to cater to the visual design needs of multinational companies, local corporations, and even individuals. He won a P200,000 cash prize. The company utilizes mobile services such as WorldMate, eBuddy messenger, Mobile Gmail-Java, Nokia Mobile Softwares, GPS/GPRS, Bluetooth, WiFi, and Infrared) to create business packages for its clients. The local Nokia office partnered with the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship, better known as Go Negosyo, for the award, which is aimed at encouraging Filipinos to use mobile technology as a primary tool in their enterprise ventures. Nokia Philippines general manager William Hamilton-Whyte said he hopes the awards, which was staged in the Philippines as the pilot site, would spur mobile entrepreneurship among Filipinos. The contest was open to all Filipino citizens with at least 18 years of age, who are entrepreneurs engaged in a thriving business for at least a year, have a business license to operate and utilizes Nokia products or services and other mobile services as its primary business, and were able to show increase in business and submitted audited reports for evaluation. Both the grand prize winner and the first runner up also received a Nokia E51 mobile phone. The award was based on the innovation employed and creativity in the use of mobile service in the business operations, the extent of the usage of mobile service in the business operations given the nature of the business, the impact of the usage of mobile service in the business revenues, and the quality of customer interaction and service. Participants to the search were entrepreneurs from all over the Philippines, some as far as Baguio, Davao, and Dipolog with businesses ranging from Web applications, graphic design, and marketing services. - GMANews.TV