OREANDA-NEWS. December 15, 2010. St. Petersburg, Russia, 16th December 2010. i-Free, a leading provider of mobile content services in Russia and the CIS,* won a prize at World Summit Award Mobile ‘2010 for its “Mobile Vending” project. The prize was awarded at a ceremony in Abu Dhabi, UAE.

World Summit Award Mobile (WSA Mobile) is a high-profile international mobile industry competition featuring the most promising mobile projects from every part of the world. The competition listed over 100 participating countries this year.

i-Free’s “Mobile Vending” was the winner in the mBusiness & Commerce category. “Winning a tough competition like this is no small achievement,” said Andrei Pristinsky, who manages innovation projects at i-Free. “There were lots of really interesting works and advanced solutions. Our win attests that Russian software products and innovative services are relevant worldwide, not just in Russia.”

“Mobile Vending” is a dual-functionality hard- and software package for vending machines that supports both mobile commerce and remote management and auditing of the machine’s key functions. The package comprises a GSM module (installed in the vending machine), a server module (administers the preset work sequence), and a WEB interface (the tool that mediates between the system, the computer and the mobile phone).

“Mobile Vending” functionality in mobile sales management:

- payment for goods without the use of cash via SMS, IVR, NFC or QR Code;
- mobile CRM;
- machine cash balance checking;
- optimized servicing: merchandize balances by item (to make sure the selection is always available), balance of change in the tubes by face value (to make sure change is always available), access to the payment systems (to make sure they are in order); the information goes two ways: the operator’s workstation and the mobile phone of the officer responsible;

- automatic machine maintenance reporting; reporting copy to Accounting; statistics exportable to the company’s internal IT systems;
- adjustable emergency alerts by SMS;
- the WEB interface can be programmed for different levels of access clearance: access to all information (for the managing company), access to some information (local company), and access to one or several vending machines (user/staff).

A “Mobile Vending” module in the vending machine also brings a number of other benefits. For example, the operator can award “frequent shopper” points, run all kinds of consumer loyalty schemes, and obtain priceless marketing data on consumer preferences. The jury of WSA Mobile’2010 commended those functions specifically.

World Summit Award Mobile‘2010 was part of the World Summit on the Information Society, backed by GAID (Global Alliance for ICT & Development), UNESCO and UNIDO.

Some of the world’s foremost mobile industry experts sat on the jury of WSA Mobile‘2010, such as MEF Founder and Honorary Chairman Ralph Simon, founder and CEO of Japan’s Infinita Kay Shimada, founder and CEO of India’s Digital Empowerment Foundation Osama Manzar, and others.

More information on WSA Mobile‘2010 and its winners can be found on http://www.wsa-mobile.org/