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A voice application for contract farmingJul 12, 2010 (Mint - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Voice ERP, a mobile phone application, is helping farmers manage contract farming without being physically present on their farms. Farmers make a call to their organization's central Voice ERP system and feed in information they want to share with tillers. The information gets stored in the database and gets converted into text. The system then generates an SMS, which is sent to the mobile phones of the tillers. "Most people in rural India use the mobile phone to call their acquaintances and talk in the local language. We saw an opportunity to transform the phone and the habit of talking into a productivity tool, which could add value to all the stakeholders," said Umesh Sachdev, chief executive of Uniphone Software Systems. "Hence we came out with Voice ERP, which uses voice as a channel and mobile phones as a medium for local language communication." The service is available in almost all major Indian languages, including Hindi, Gujarati, Assamese, Punjabi, Marathi and Bengali, and is being used in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Users are provided unique identity codes to ensure only authorized people access an organization's Voice ERP database. For additional security, Uniphone can also provide a voice biometrics check. Manufacturing and retail businesses operating in rural India can also put it to good use. Manufacturers can offer product details such as the material used, price and quantity, and receive orders specifying delivery time etc. through automated calls. Once the order is ready, the manufacturers notify the head office using their unique identity codes. Dispatch and delivery details are taken in after user verification through voice biometrics. The company is incubated by the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras' rural technology and business incubator . It has received funds from the National Research Development Corpation, and has recently taken a loan from Villgro Foundation, a funding organization, to scale up the product. With literacy still a major concern in rural India, Sachdev said Voice ERP can help villagers get into retail and manufacturing. "This way," he said, "they will also explore the options of business apart from the traditional agriculture, which can prove significant for the growth and development of the country." To see more of Mint, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.livemint.com. Copyright (c) 2010, Mint, New Delhi Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail [email protected], or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United States, call +1 312-222-4544). |