The Nigerian team SOP and South African team
WorkMode at the weekend emerged first prize winners in their various categories
in the 2014 Ericsson’s App awards, ITRealms
reports.
Also ITRealms
reports that SOP from Nigeria won its first prize in company category for the
app that monitors electricity supply, while South Africa’s team WorkMode won
first prize position in the student category with its collaboration app.
ITRealms
recalls that both teams were selected out of 300 teams from over 63 countries
from all over the globe and selected semi-finalist apps were reviewed by a panel of global
representatives and they decided on the two winning teams, who will each
receive €25,000, about N5544331.36 in prize money.
Announcing the winners of
the 2014 Ericsson Application Awards at a ceremony at Ericsson Studio in Kista,
Sweden, the Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Ericsson, Bina
Chaurasia, while congratulating the winners, noted that the honours in the
student category, Team WorkMode from South Africa created an app that helps
workers collaborate by allowing them to see the real-time work context and
tasks of colleagues.
According to the jury remarks
made available to ITRealms, “We felt that Team
WorkMode showed a strong business potential, and their focus on design and
usability helped them when it came to innovation and addressing the theme of
Apps for working life.”
Responding, Jacques Marais
of Team WorkMode said, ”This award will help us to build our business and allow
us to develop not only this app but also some ideas we have around education in
South Africa. It will also enable us to purchase hardware so we can expand to
different platforms. It’s a real boost.”
On the company category won
by Team SOP from Nigeria, who created an app that analyses the availability of
electricity in a given area, the jury outlined their reasons for choosing SOP,
saying in a joint statement that “Team SOP presented a strong case of
using technology in a way that anyone could understand, value and would invest
in.
“They cleverly combined
consumer, society and business benefits around lifting transparency of
power delivery in a well designed package,” the jury said.
Reacting, Toks Ogun of
Team SOP said, “This award means we can continue to expand and develop our app,
which monitors electricity supplies. We can see a market in parts of North
America, in South America and in India and we will continue to develop our
idea.”
The RSSA Technology for
Good Award also went to Africa, with Sowertech’s Afta Robot app receiving the
award for their smart solution for public transportation.
The jury motivated their
choice by saying: “Every day 15 million people in Africa face long walks and
sometimes longer waits as they make their daily journeys by taxi. Sowertech has
helped connect taxis and their customers by providing information on location
and much more through their Afta Robot mobile app.”
No comments:
Post a Comment