We published an article in November 2020, titled “IoT for Africa: Why choose execMobile?”. We believe the customer case study below captures the points raised in that article and demonstrates why you should do your next internet of things (IoT) project with us.

The article addresses issues regarding pan-African Sim management, customer service, technical expertise and, above all, SIMpliCity (aptly the name of our management platform).

The background

Complete Business Services Africa (CBS Africa) supplies world-class workforce management and physical security solutions from industry-leading solutions providers into various industries across Africa, including mining and construction. CBS Africa is trusted by customers throughout Africa for innovative software-as-a-service technology, seamless installation and integration, reliable maintenance, 24/7 monitoring, and insightful analytics. All of this would not be possible without seamless connectivity to all sites being monitored.

The problem

One of CBS Africa’s largest customers in the construction industry has many remote sites where these time and attendance devices are used. The project was in one of the largest countries in Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo. With limited network infrastructure, CBS Africa was reliant on mobile coverage to enable their solution in these remote locations.

The solution/s

Coverage: execMobile’s Sim cards were able to connect devices anywhere, irrespective of which mobile operator had coverage in the area. Multiple IMSI Sim cards are nothing new, but the technology to ensure these identities can be remotely swapped has not been perfected by all, specifically if the network originally provisioned is not present. This is pronounced if the IoT provider can only offer limited network partners per country.
SIMpliCity: Mike Ellison, chief technology officer at CBS Africa explains that the biggest advantage is this: “You don’t have to deal with the local service providers providing permanent/public IP addresses or go through the local APN. As soon as the Sim cards are activated in-country, they are live and report home through our communications software, and we are able to directly communicate with the readers.”
Expertise: Like all IoT projects, this project was not without some potholes along the way. CBS Africa was faced with a traffic routing issue, which took a while to resolve. “It then literally took two Microsoft Teams meetings with the engineering teams from both sides and the issue was isolated to an incorrect text address – this a result of the device configuration screen not having sufficient characters to notice the error at the end,” says Ellison.
Customer service: Critical events happen at any time. The above demonstrates that it is essential to work with a provider equipped to offer 24/7 tech support hubs across time zones and geographies. This assistance will provide more visibility and better control for faster problem identification and resolution to keep your IoT deployments up and running around the clock.

The outcome

Work with a provider that will provide you with a dedicated account team and a single point of contact devoted to helping you grow your business, that has the expertise and online tools to ensure faults are logged to resolution.

“Complete Business Services chose to use execMobile’s Sim and associated management and network services to provide a connectivity solution to assist managing our flagship remote time and attendance solution, used for collection of this data throughout the African region. If we are going to take our customers workforce management solutions to the cloud, we needed a trusted connectivity partner and found that in execMobile’s IoT solution,” Ellison says.

About execMobile
Get ahead of the competition by partnering with a trusted IoT advisor. With more than 11 years’ experience providing mobile data solutions to customers, and eliminating trial and error involved in optimising connectivity for your IoT deployments, you can focus on your core business and reduce your time to market. Visit www.execmobile.co.za for more.