Binary Science, the startup behind a phone backup solution dubbed 6ix Degrees, on Monday launched The Phonebook, a cloud application service for contact storage that features events calendar and free automatic SMS reminders.
Binary Science’s founder Ngugi Gikonyo told HumanIPO that The Phonebook offers a simple way for a user to safely collect and store personal and company phone contacts.
“It allows remote access of the phone contacts by members of a group or a firm,” he said.
Gikonyo launched The Phonebook on Monday after piloting it for nearly two weeks. He added that the public beta version is to allow the public to try it and give feedback ahead of full launch.
Binary Science is focused on creating tailor-made solutions for SME’s and corporate firms in the region.
“Our passion for creating disruptive innovations led us to the next logical step encompassing contact numbers. By building a service riding on top of these numbers, The Phonebook offers a niche product leveraging the power of contacts and sharing,” he said.
According to Gikonyo, they have a vision to make The Phonebook as pervasive in business as email has been. They therefore set a low introductory price of KSh200 per month with a free (non-payment) test period.
Gikonyo says a Women’s Savings Group (Chama) has already integrated their contacts and events calendar in The Phonebook and as long as a firm has phone contacts for clients, suppliers, staff and board of governors, he believes this is the right service for them to use.
The founder added that the set is easy and quick to create.
A firm creates its own account, adds its contacts in categories like supplier, client, ‘loanee.’ Then the firm creates their calendar of events and shares them using the free SMS to all its numbers in various categories automatically as the event or appointment approaches.
The numbers can be updated or managed across a company’s user accounts.
Though The Phonebook was not easy to build, it is versatile and scalable and runs on a world class Amazon Cloud.
A number of firms have replicated the service although Gikonyo says the competition is helping popularise backup services. He added The Phonebook is the future of SMS interactions in a country with nearly 30 million mobile phone subscribers and over 1 billion SMS sent between January and March 2012, according to the CCK.
Binary Science in 2011 founded 6ix Degrees, a personal mobile phone contact backup solution that won an investment fund from 88mph.
