E-Services as Building Blocks in
Community Development
By: Behshad Hastibakhsh
“Our mission
is to build communities”. With this groundbreaking announcement, Hamed
Shahbazi, Chairman and CEO of Info Technologies, states the company’s
commitment to enhance people’s quality of life.
Shahbazi,
28, reflects on personal experiences with local charities and involvement in
non-profit organizations, such as UNICEF, to explain his vision of
e-services as building blocks in community development.
“Virtual
technology provides creative avenues to improve the quality of life, even in
less privileged neighborhoods. Through the delivery of e-services
applications, Info Touch creates the backbone infrastructure for worldwide
communication and services network. Surfnet connects people from Auckland,
New Zealand, across small villages in India, to remote towns in South
Africa, cyber cafés in Germany, and c-store chains in North America. With
Surfnet technology, we bring the concept of ‘global village’ into reality”,
said Shahbazi.
Info Touch
has identified meaningful solutions to empower citizens across
socio-economic spectrums, and partnered with well established businesses and
organizations to deploy public access kiosk networks for easy and convenient
public access to web-based applications.
Info Touch’s
community development initiative now includes enabling large segments of
unbanked and credit challenged population to use e-services kiosks like a
‘Super ATMs’ for instant account payment and activation at neighborhood
convenience stores.
Info Touch’s
latest success story comes from Phoenix, Arizona, where ZapLink branded
kiosks
provide alternative payment
options to wireless phone customers
at select Circle K outlets. The
new
generation of self-serve automated bill pay solutions is a welcome addition
to neighborhoods where low income families, new immigrants and ethnic
minorities can purchase pay-per-use wireless phones and activate their
service, all within just a few minutes and at a single location.
Aside
instant payments to their wireless accounts, Circle K customers follow
intuitive instructions (in English and Spanish) to renew their auto
insurance, print e-coupons for their favorite soft drink, print or e-mail
maps, transfer money, read the latest news on the media panel above the
cashier’s counter, send a video e-mail, etc.
“Almost
everyday, we receive thank you e-mails with detailed stories of consumers’
experience”, Shahbazi explains in a gentle gesture.
Shahbazi
then reads couple of e-mails at random.
One Circle K customer writes:
I just wanted to drop a thank you for having internet link
available at one's/a local grocery mart. This kiosk/internet station is
very helpful for those on the go or in need of a fast/last minute hookup to
the internet, item of information, document left behind, etc. Please place
more of these throughout your Circle K stores.......they're great. And,
you're likely already getting a jumpstart for things to come. Thanks,
again.
Another
customer writes in broken English:
If there were more Circle K's to pay the bills at you would
probably have more people using them due to closer locations to home or
work. Thank you Kindly.
With such
encouraging feedbacks, Info Touch and Circle K have launched the second
phase expansion of ZapLink kiosk network into 500 new locations across
Western United States.
These
e-mails may be grammatically imperfect, but they convey a personal message
of gratitude and satisfaction reflecting ZapLink’s positive impact on
individuals and communities. ZapLink’s success is a reflection of Info
Touch’s continuing commitment to provide tangible solutions for fostering
sustainable community development.
Shahbazi
talks proudly about the secret to Info Touch’s success: “We utilize a
secure, scalable, managed, and robust
technology to deliver valuable services to end
users, and in the process replicate a successful and highly profitable
business model.”
Info Touch
is now well on the way to fulfill its mission of building communities.
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