Panamax Helps Make Money Mobile

Anyone who watches even a little television has likely seen commercials where co-workers each pay their part of a restaurant bill using a mobile phone or a couple pays a babysitter from a movie theater with mobile banking. These are certainly interesting use cases that make for cute advertisements, but Panamax Inc., the technology unit of the international Bankai Group, is looking to take mobile finance to an entirely new level.

Earlier this month, Panamax Inc. released an enhanced Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module for its powerful interconnect billing solution, BillCall, a carrier management tool for telecom operators that provides accurate billing, pricing, routing and financial management information. The solution also allows users to manage contact details with carriers and process billing information according to carrier type and is one of the few telecom billing solutions that include cost-based routing. Additionally, BillCall assists telecoms in complying with industry regulations with alerts, notifications and detailed reports.

“Everything is included in one box, which hasn’t been the case for carrier solutions in the past,” Mahavir Shah, Chief Business Development Office for Panamax told TMC (News - Alert) at Editor’s Day on January, 27 at ITEXPO Miami. 

Panamax is making a push in the mobile finance space because the company sees an opportunity to take advantage of some potentially game-changing use cases. For instance, Shah believes the practice of waiting in a long line at a counter in a convenience store to buy a lottery ticket is archaic.

“People are still playing lottery through traditional methods. Why?” he asked rhetorically. “Everything can be done with a mobile phone.”

Shah also sees mobile finance playing a large role in the evolution of charitable giving in the years to come. He pointed specifically to individuals who like to make small, monthly contributions to their favorite organizations. Rather than spending valuable time to send a donation of just a few dollars, these small donors could choose to automatically have money taken out of their accounts each month and sent directly to a charity.

“Nobody wants to have to take the time to get up and go to the bank, write a check or enter a large amount of information online to give a few dollars,” Shah said.

Shah expressed excitement about an announcement Panamax will make during the second week of February regarding a new joint venture with a leading IT distribution company in Africa.

More than that, however, he said Panamax looks forward to playing its part in creating a world where mobile finance becomes the norm. He went on to discuss several other interesting use cases around mobile finance including: mobile money exchange; bill pay; banking; agency banking; digital goods and services; and m-commerce.

In other words, as Shah explained, the potential applications for mobile finance are nearly limitless.