NovaUCD-based company GsmExchange.com has been commissioned by Vodafone to develop a business-to-business platform that enhances the purchase and distribution of their mobile handsets worldwide.
The platform will ensure that Vodafone operating companies encountering unexpected high demands for particular handsets will have an internal exchange or channel to turn to when sourcing stock to meet these demands. In turn, those Vodafone operating companies that find themselves over-stocked will use the platform to promote their stock to other Vodafone operating companies worldwide.
GsmExchange.com will implement an internet-based platform it is calling the ‘Vodafone Spot Market Trading Platform’. It will operate very much like a commodity stock exchange, where offers and requests are matched up and buyer and seller can agree on the terms and conclude their transactions quickly and efficiently online and within hours.
GsmExchange.com has also built a gateway through which outside distributors can enter to participate in e-bids and upload their stock listings and prices.
“We have hit a key milestone in our development and we have had the challenging task of creating a platform that was both easy to use and intuitive and that would also integrate with the existing GsmExchange.com platform to provide a market data feed,” said Essam Bishara, managing director, GsmExchange.com.
“Furthermore, a distributor can quite easily integrate their systems with the platform, ensuring that all their offers and price lists are automatically updated for the benefit of Vodafone operating companies.”
The platform is already servicing selected Vodafone operating companies and the plan is to rollout the service during 2008 across the Vodafone group.
GsmExchange.com was set up by managing director Essam Bishara in 1999, who recognised the need to link industry players such as network operators, distributors and retail chains to form a ‘stock exchange’ for mobile handsets.
Today, GsmExchange.com has over 20,000 members worldwide and approximately 500,000 handsets per day are placed on the site.
The company employs 12 people at NovaUCD’s Belfield site and is currently recruiting personnel in the areas of sales, marketing and customer care.
By Niall Byrne
