By Idd Salim Kithinji,
CTO – Symbiotic Media Consortium

Last week, alot of Kenyan investors were met by the sad news that yet another broker was about to become bankrupt and close shop. The plight of Discount Securities LTD is a sad one mainly because they were in the right track, The Expansion Track. But they focused more on mass physical presence that actual expansion, as we know it in this 21st century.

The Expansion strategy (that led to the downfall of Discount Securities Limited) is a classic case study of Kenyans choosing to employ traditional business models in a modern-day business. It is also a sad example of a culture that is ready to spend alot of money using physical expansion to symbolize and catalyze growth rather than employ affordable technology.

One of our clients – a stock brokerage company, is about to open 70, 000 new branches. (Yes, SEVENTY THOUSAND). And a good number we have approached to will soon follow suit.

How?
One Word. Technology. Gone are the days when to have presence in Isiolo, you had to open a branch there. Gone are the days when clients had to make trips to your office. Now, the office goes to the client.

The Esplanade Advantage
Esplanade 2.0 is the latest version of a Kenyan-made software that addresses this issue flawlessly. It is a Virtual Office System that takes the office to the client’s sitting room rather than have them break their schedule, spend and PLAN to come to you.

The Stock Broker Version of Esplanade enables clients to buy shares, sell shares, cancel orders, hold and release orders, check their statements, balance, portfolio balance and tonnes of other functions, from the comfort of their sitting room, car, office, in a lift, cafe, outing or while in transit.

There are no opening times, closing times, queues or travel involved. A user with an Esplanade-enabled account at their stock brokerage firm just needs Internet access, Email Access or Enough credit to send an SMS, and all their investment become available instantly.

A broker with 20, 000 clients will now have 20, 000 virtual offices. Each client gets served in under 5 seconds.

Esplanade 2.0 ensures a win-win situation for the client and the broker by employing the latest technlogies in Security, Accessibility, Data Processing and messaging. Everyone is a winner.

This is the time for Technological Expansion. Not Physical Expansion.