The Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association (WASPA) has recognised some of its members for innovation and excellence at its inaugural awards.
The WASPIES Awards are a peer-recognition ceremony that honours the association’s members by recognising those that made “stellar” contributions to the industryover the last year.
Clickatell, Infobip, Avatar World Group (AWG), SMSPortal and Connect Mobile were named the top honourees.
Anthony Ekerold, chairman of WASPA, says the awards are about industry recognition in the wireless application space and honouring members for their innovation in key industry areas.
According to a statement, there were four key categories: innovation, excellence in content provision, excellence in messaging services and service provider of the year.
Submissions were opened earlier this year for members to nominate their company, product, service or employee for any of the qualifying categories. Alternatively, they could nominate a third-party.
All qualifying nominations and submissions were reviewed and scored by an independent judging panel that included Krishanlall Jagernath, senior manager: VAS and WASP at Cell C, as well as Jason Probert, GM for digital services at MTN.
Clickatell, the mobile communications and chat commerce provider, was crowned the winner of the innovation award.
WASPA says Clickatell was recognised for developing a low/no-code, feature-rich chat commerce platform. “Mobile innovations play a pivotal role in changing the market and stimulating the economy through opportunities, so our innovation award is designed to celebrate those organisations and people who bring new ideas to life.”
AWG won the excellence in content provision award, which recognises a provider that delivers high-quality, valuable content that attracts, informs, engages and retains consumers.
Two winners were crowned for the excellence in messaging services award, notes WASPA.
“The members had a hard time deciding on a victor in this competitive category, eventually naming joint winners – SMSPortal and Connect Mobile.
“SMSPortal is a company that has gone from a garage start-up, to Africa’s largest cloud communications platform as a service aggregator. Connect Mobile is renowned as a key player in the bulk SMS industry, with robust communication gateways, 24-hour monitoring and support services, and strong relationships with the mobile networks.”
The service provider of the year also produced joint winners: AWG and Infobip.
Ekerold states: “The service provider of the year award acknowledges excellence in service delivery within the community, taking into account the organisation’s focus on customer service, community involvement, product flexibility and collaboration.
“WASPA is proud of all the nominees and winners, as these are the players who drive our industry forward. They offer the right culture, products and people to consistently deliver what the end customer wants − be it innovative solutions, richer content, or simply better customer service.”
Sizo Nkosi, regional operator partnership manager at Infobip, says winning the award is a great honour for the company, as it recognises the strong and continuous contribution it is making to the South African market.
“It is very encouraging to see that Infobip’s uniqueness is being recognised. Our company culture is to bring the world together virtually and seamlessly, meaning that as a company, we strive to always keep up with industry standards and ensure innovation is a priority.”
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