Vodacom Business is a leading provider of converged communication solutions and provides an extensive range of mobile, communication-based solutions that are customer-centric, technology-driven, cost-effective, innovative and generate sustainable value. Vodacom Business is constantly seeking joint business opportunities with new partners to add value to customers in all industries.
The Partner
Mobile Gateway Solutions (Pty) Ltd. was established in 2005 and has a combined experience of 44 years in the mobile sales force application market. Mobile Gateway Solutions is also a preferred business partner of Vodacom Business.
The Business Challenge
South African commuters are coming to terms with dramatic increases in transit times due to increased pressure on the road system as a result of power outages and a burgeoning urban population. In this context, the need for convenient, automated travel-logging tools and services becomes increasingly important to business people who need to claim back travel expenses, or sales managers who need accurate and up-to-date records of travel expenses incurred by their mobile sales teams.
While manual solutions can be used, they are limited in their effectiveness and are often impractical. At the crucial moment, the driver may not be able to find a pen – or find the logbook. The logbook may even be lost when the vehicle goes in for a service. More specific challenges experienced by specific business sectors include:
For individuals who claim back travel expenses from South African Revenue Services (SARS), tax rules have made a detailed logbook imperative. With effect from 1 March 2007, for individuals without a detailed logbook, the first 18 000km are automatically deemed private travel. For a typical businessperson who might travel 29 000km in a year – where only 10 000km are private, for example – the individual would automatically lose out on 8 000km when it comes to claiming a rebate if a logbook is not available.
For SMMEs with anything from five to 500 mobile staff (sales, technical, consultants, etc.) that require their teams to log business-related travel, the lack of an automated electronic travel-logging system would mean irregular, limited and inaccurate reports dogged by human error and open to abuse.
In this context, Vodacom Business has partnered with Mobile Gateway Solutions to provide the market with mobiletripsheet – a hassle-free solution to the challenges created by the need to log travel details on a daily basis.
The Solution
mobiletripsheet is a painless, paperless vehicle travel-logging solution, which enables users to record:
- all business and personal mileage;
- all fuel purchased; and
- all associated travel expenses incurred.
The solution was developed by Mobile Gateway Solutions, now a preferred partner of Vodacom Business, which brings significant added value to the application. Apart from its considerable technical infrastructure and 24-hour support capabilities, mobiletripsheetwill be available in all countries where Vodafone has a business presence through Vodafone Application Services. This forms part of the converged applications component of Vodacom Business’ strategy. In addition, Vodacom Business’ billing infrastructure affords customers the opportunity to test the product risk-free. Users subscribe to the service on a monthly billing model and can cancel at a month's notice.
The Benefits
Instead of tiresome month-end reconciliations, sales teams and fleet managers can now look forward to push-button convenience when it comes to accessing reports and reconciling travel expenses, which are presented via a web interface and can be printed if necessary. With a simple
12 to 15-keystroke procedure each time a trip is logged, vehicle expense management is now much easier. Web-based backups mean that travel log data is never lost or damaged, even when the cellular phones used to capture the data are.
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Vodacom Business Help Desk for existing customers 082 1940*
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