50-year old programmer changing lifestyle in Uganda
Mr Roland Okello
Are you caught up in the traffic jam and looking to get out of it? Or is it late and you need to get home safely and yet you have no idea how to do it. Or are you stranded in the middle of nowhere and wondering how you can get an accommodation nearby.
Now, you don’t have to be puzzled anymore for a locally-based prescription has been developed to solve such routine frustrations.
The Chief Executive Officer of Place Uganda, Mr Roland Okello in an interview recently said after conducting research he was able to develop a home grown solution that connects supplies to demand and vice versa by a mere click of a mouse.
His website called Place.Ug has been developed in such a way that it can instantly link people who want to do all sort of things including tourists outside Uganda.
He said: “Customers need a source of information that links them effortlessly to businesses. In Europe and other developed countries this is done with adverts, business and internet search engines. Those solutions cannot be readily implemented here.”
He continued: “Place.Ug recommends businesses just like friends (here in Uganda) do it. It brings those recommendations to every smart-phone and to every PC connected with the internet. It then continues to work just like a strategic location would in attracting customers and recommends businesses that offer a desired product or service in a given area.”
Born in Upper Silesia and also armed with a master’s degree in physics from a German University, Mr Okello said his Place.Ug website is a Ugandan invention embedded with the local characteristics, considering that it is tailored on the specific cultural and economic situation of the country.
“Place.Ug directs customers to businesses and refers them to shops, and this is very different from online selling platforms. The effort to run a remotely selling shop with delivery, payment and customer acceptance of ordered items do not come up here,” he said.
He continued: “Through recommendation by friends, customers visit the premise and shop in usual way as they know it and therefore not limiting their choices to products announced online.
He stressed that the website Place.Ug is meant to work as a tool to direct the attention of customers toward a particular shop and further direct the person into it with limited or no hassle at all. This is similar to printed adverts distributed directly to households in Europe.
According to Mr Okello, in Europe, Internet search engines like google are the most popular source of information for customers. Together with maps and street view solutions they guide reliable customers to businesses.
For that to work, you will be required to have your own website, let alone keeping up with relatively high cost of operation, making it unreliable for the vast majority of enterprises in Uganda.
But with Find.Place.Ug website you’re not only stripped of that problem but in many ways you are also saved from relying on physical directories as your source of information regarding locations for things you need without delay.
Place.Ug lists services and product groups that users are looking for. Each enterprise needs just a single entry and get associated with all its products and services.
Cost
Place.Ug is financed by annual subscription fees. The description and other enterprise data are maintained by its employees or owners. Because the customer inflow depends on that information, the owners will have a high interest to keep it accurate and up to date.
Advantages for the Customer Enterprise description, directions and contact data are conveniently available through the internet. Descriptions help to choose a supplier without phone calls saving money. This website—Place.Ug is available round as and when you need to use it.
In Europe fliers with special offers are the primary means directing customers to shops. Those fliers are distributed directly to households. Many people adjust nearly all their shopping according to those fliers. But here there is no reliable way to distribute information about special offers.
In addition to connecting you to boda-boda riders for quick and reliable transport, the website can also promote offers at a fixed annual rate to potential customers. Here customers can make their window shopping conveniently on their mobile or computer instead of physically doing the window shopping from one shop to another.
Boda-Bodas are the most effective means of transport in Uganda.
They operate relatively anonymous and especially after sunset the drivers face the risk being knocked down and robbed by a passenger. The passengers face the same threat from the driver as no data is exchanged between the driver and the customer.
Boda.Place.Ug changes that completely. A phone call verified before a ride gives both, the customer and the driver a higher security, as it is commonly known that in case of any trouble police as first tracks the last phone calls.
Because working drivers can be reached by phone round o'clock, drivers do not need to wait at exposed and risky locations for customers, especially at night.
To find out what's going on in the country could be quite difficult. Only big event companies can afford exhaustive announcements of some. As a result some popular artists encounter empty audiences. Events.Place.Ug is a solution for such challenges.
Caution
However, the success of the website is reliant upon availability of interrupted internet and for users in possession of smart phones and/or having a PC.
Although this seems to be a challenge, the 50-year old programmer says it will not be long before any phones can access the same benefits. And considering that the government is prioritizing ICT infrastructure the future of limitless internet, if this project is implemented, is not far away.
