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In the Digital Workspace Works podcast;
We will cover the ever-strengthened digital workspace. Together and with the help of experts we will unpack this broad term - Digital Workspace.
The ecosystem that blends people, process and technology so that work can get done.
We will focus on the various moving disjointed pieces which need to work together in harmony to enable the user with seamless and highly effective end user experience.
Ryan Purvis 22:34:59
Hello, and welcome to the digital workspace works Podcast. I'm Ryan Purvis, your host supported by producer Heather Bicknell. In this series, you'll hear stories and opinions from experts in the field story from the frontlines. The problems they face, how they solve them. The areas they're focused on from technology, people and processes to the approaches they took, that will help you to get to the scripts with a digital workspace inner workings.
Kevin Macaringue 22:35:20
So my name is Kevin Macaringue. And I'm basically the founder of, of an agritech company in Mozambique called MobizStudio. I mean, generally, we have to have two wings, let's call it one is AgritechMoz, which does this what's the name. But then we also have Mobiz Studio, which is more general software development agency. So I've been working in the agri tech space for for about four or five years now. And yeah, it's just going to use use technology to drive rural development. So that's what we do.
Ryan Purvis 22:36:04
Oh, interesting. Interesting. Well, welcome on the podcast. It's great to chat with you. So tell me a bit about agri tech, because I don't know anything about agri tech. What kind of stuff you guys doing?
Kevin Macaringue 22:36:15
Okay, great. Great. Great. So agri tech mas, what we've been doing is essentially working with, with private sector organizations in Southeast Asia, so mainly in India, and also with, with some NGOs here in Mozambique. And essentially what we do is we use technology development or technology tools, such as mobile applications, websites, and other things like that, to drive to drive certain objectives in in the rural development space. So practically speaking, if you need a software tool that can help you improve the delivery of agronomic extension, track projects in the in the agricultural space or rural development in general, but specifically in agriculture, you need some consultancy. And how do you build software tools that are fit for purpose in the Agricultural Department. That's that's where agri tech model essentially works. And that's just one subset of the whole agri tech domain.
Ryan Purvis 22:37:19
Okay, so tell me some stuff that you guys have felt what kind of problems have you felt with what you're doing?
Kevin Macaringue 22:37:24
Okay, so one of the one of the current on one of our biggest projects currently is essentially developing a software tool that helps transform field business issues, or a field field activities or workflows for people who spray cashew in northern Mozambique, and building a software around around the whole business workflow to help train those users to become more business like, so it's like they do that work anyway, spraying cashew trees, but but it's still very much informal. And, you know, you don't really have that idea of tracking which clients they have leads, you know, registering the type of information that they normally captured, the types of trees, etc, etc, that the farmers that work with have, and turning that into a business. So what we do is we build a software application that sort of copies the workflow that they're doing on the field, but tries to transform it into something that can start to bring them some data visualization, some reports, and we see if that can can can bring digital transformation at to the most rural areas. So that's, that's our flagship project. Yeah,
Ryan Purvis 22:38:37
I love it. I mean, who's funding you to do that? Are you? Is it a commercial model that you don't have to answer if you don't want to? But is it something that they're paying you to do? Or you're getting grants to pay for the technology? Or is the intention that they will generate revenue by using your service, and then you just take a cut? I'm just curious about what the commercial model is.
Kevin Macaringue 22:38:56
Great, great, great. So interestingly, for the commercial model, it's, it's divided into different different business lines. So that one is more. It's more, it's more for our business plan called Mobiz, which is where we just allow software development agency. So we develop that and we leave it with the client, but naturally, you know, we offer some support, some consultancy on how to monetize it, you know, we help them do the bridge between the type of projects they closed and perhaps even some other stakeholders that be interested. But but for agritech mas, what we're doing is where, whereas that's our other business line, just to just draw a distinction, always, what we're doing is where we're picking up the learnings from all of these different, different projects and experiences that we're doing. And we're using them to build one unified sort of SAS tool, specifically for the Ag tech space, because you'll find out that many of these organizations are very similar requirements, and it's not it's not efficient, redeveloping and redeveloping, redeveloping. So what we're doing is we're kind of combining all of that into 1 Stop solution, let's say for most of the ACC techniques, but that's still under development. We're very small team and Bootstrap. So those things take time. Yeah.
Ryan Purvis 22:40:12
And you're building the whole thing yourself are using low code, no code products to to build your
Kevin Macaringue 22:40:17
preferred the bill. We're we're computer computer engineers, so we're gonna build everything ourselves. We are building everything ourselves. We don't really use.
Ryan Purvis 22:40:27
Oh, interesting. Okay. And yourself, Dora? How do you fit into the picture? Kevin and I have been chatting, but tell us about yourself.
Dara Batalha 22:40:34
Hi, Ryan. Hi. I'm Dara Batalha. I'm new at the company. Actually, I was contracted as business developer, I am helping to get more opportunities and to, to get more closer to the clients. And to expand our business is my main goal. It's my main goal. And one of one of my more important tasks is to expand and to look for more, more for I'm talking about national international opportunities.
Ryan Purvis 22:41:15
Interesting. Interesting. That's great. And how I mean, how do you find your customers? I mean, do you go out literally and go to all the farms and talk to them? Or is it through partnerships? And, and that sort of thing?
Dara Batalha 22:41:27
Yes. Partnerships. There are, that is the most important part of our business. Because not all of the opportunities are reachable by ourselves. But with one partner, sometimes it's more, how can I say tangible? More than that, not just the clients. But all the people that may may create a certain how can I say, certain impact in our business, like yourself, like, like, like, like, many other people that that are considered entities to, to, to contribute to our to our kind of work.
Ryan Purvis 22:42:18
So give me an idea of you know, are you? Are you guys actually fulfilling? So you work with a farmer, they do that they're spraying the cashews? As you mentioned? are you connecting them with with purchases of cashews internationally? Or are you just providing them the technology to measure the yield? And they still have to go find the, the market to sell their? Their nuts? That's it. Okay. What about you?
Kevin Macaringue 22:42:42
Sure. Sure. Sure. Good, good, good. So great point, I think it's a very good question. And I mean, it cuts to the heart of what value you deliver in Agra technology, because any intervention, eventually you have to be able to help the person sell. Right. So for this particular, for this particular project that we're discussing, although we obviously can't go into too many details, because we're working with with some NGO partners, but specifically in this project, what we do is we make sure that the to the technology, the purchasers of the eventual output, always have a link to it, right? Because they're very key stakeholders, because they're the ones that bring in the money, eventually, what we do is we provide, we provide a solution for them to be able to go there. But but definitely driving that link and building that link. That's not always our main sector, we really focused on providing the software solution. And then obviously, the deployment process, because one thing is building a tool, I think anybody can build a very nice tool. And, and you don't really need us if you just want to build a tool, but what you do need to know is, is how do I actually embed this tool into the communities? What is the most sustainable way to make sure that people are using them? And obviously, as well with these type of software tools is how do you structure the maintenance. So we're also for example, in discussions with another partner who want to operate something a little bit away from agriculture, but more in the, in the rural development space. And, and one of the one of their main challenges they found is, is how you do the maintenance over time. So that's something that we've been able to debate with them for some time. Because, you know, we've got, we've had different members of our team, and also some of the consultants we work with, have had the opportunities to do these type of projects across different geographies. So that's another point of value where we where we try to work because I mean, I've done it, it's very difficult and the first couple of times I can say, I messed up, but, but after some time, you get to learn and you can always simplify things for whoever you work with,
Ryan Purvis 22:44:49
No, it's definitely important and reducing friction. I mean, I've never been to put you but I've been obviously in Africa a lot. And people I think you'll understand what rural looks like. Good especially if In the post world where, you know, there's roads everywhere, there's addresses and postcodes and, and all that kind of stuff, you know, as me to a Bucha. But I've been to Swaziland, and I've been to parts of western East Africa. And you know that the road can be there one day, it can be gone the next day, you know, because of rain or, or whatever, or the train doesn't come because of the tracks are gone. So I think, you know, a mobile solution is an important solution. And I'm curious to know about connectivity and the devices that people are using, and how they're using devices as well to do that to use your your product.
Kevin Macaringue 22:45:34
Right, right. Right. So that's, that's always one of the main questions that comes up. And I think I think that's where that's where the work experience in this in this sector is important, because it's always going to be a challenge. Look, no matter even I mean, even in the same district, you will have an area which has brilliant connectivity. And another one, which doesn't, I mean, actually, most recently, I spent a little bit of time in, in Malawi, and in the same village, beneath one tree, you could get fantastic internet connectivity. And as soon as you move out of the tree, you cannot even make a direct phone call. So those those are actually the type of conditions that you find, right, it's true. What we generally do is we build our software solutions, in a way that so first of all, they can be used completely offline. Because I mean, you're not doing a technology transfer for yourself. Initially, it's mainly for the people that you work with at the community level. So you need to make sure that if they have access to the software's, they don't need you ever again, right. But then the question is, why will they ever give you any of the data that they're there they're using, so that's where you need to provide some extra value. So for example, in that sense, what we generally do is we put the software offline, but for you to be able to send a message about, let's say, for example, the yield, or the output that you have, or trying to get information about some some good agronomic practices, then what you do is you have to synchronize it, and be able to download that information. And that is one of the ways in which we hope, we hope to communities to make sure that besides providing them a software solution, we also get some feedback from them about whatever we're providing them. Is it useful? Is it making an impact? And are you able to pick up other things of value from our software, because what we don't want to do is, I mean, those are still emerging markets, let's call them right. And agriculture, you're not working with very established markets, unless you're working with a firm, mechanized agriculture. So what you need to do is to first create some value, but then start to build a proof of concept for further value being created, and then somebody putting in money into that. So that's why it's a process. I mean, it takes it takes time. But, but but the main idea is, is that we're in about the devices. Look, I think if you see one of the ingenious ways that people have started working, because agritech those enough many investments in southern Africa, one of the ingenious ways people started tackling that is, I mean, either you go out and buy devices yourself. But again, we're a small startup, we're just we're just kicking off, so we can't do that. But the other solution is identifying people at the community level, because there's always somebody who is who's more literate has more a little bit greater opportunities, identifying those people and seeing and seeing and making value for them to be able to act as points of expansion of your of your solutions into the communities. So that's, that's those are two very common paradigms.
Ryan Purvis 22:48:33
Yeah, it is interesting. And that kind of set of challenges to an extend both for various reasons. And I think you mentioned mean, literally an illiterate, I mean, yeah, I would expect the job. Your solutions are very picture driven, in order to cross that, that gap. And I love you talk about the value proposition, because I think that's important. I think a lot of that gets lost in solutions. Sometimes people were very quick to build something but not actually understand how it's going to be commercialized. Not even for for the company, that building it, but also for the people are going to use it because then it cost you lots of money and you're getting value out of it, you're probably not going to do it. Or you'd be remiss to be doing it to tell me like how do you do you cross the line and educate the users? Or are you building stuff that you believe is so usable, that they can just download the apps, so to speak, and just use it?
Kevin Macaringue 22:49:21
Okay, well, the first challenge is, at that level, nobody's just randomly downloading applications on Play Store. So that's problem number one. So always there's some concept of education but but like I was saying, for us, it's it's very important to leverage partnerships to be able to do that because look, in practice, you need some type of field force that that's supporting these people to a certain extent, and, and and then countries like Mozambique, it will be it will be mainly composed of, of, you know, nongovernmental organizations. It will be mainly composed of civil society and Innovations. So these are some of the partnerships that we're that we're fermenting here in Mozambique and also trying to expand as I said, beyond, but for example, in Southeast Asia and India, although they similarly do do work with NGOs, etc, etc. On that side, our strongest partners have been private sector. So we identify companies that that already have their own networks as well, but also that have that have some field operations. And what we do is so far at this stage, right, we've we've been supporting and building the tools doing some consultancy in how to deploy those tools. But But definitely, it's a market that we would love to we would love to work with. And I probably will be in the next couple of probably by 2024. With with some of our isas tools. But then again, like I said, we've got two major, let's say departments. So one is agri technology, which is really focused on on rural development aspect. And that's the one that obviously has been has been more successful for us just from the profile of our team and, and the experiences we have. But we also look for other, you know, more traditional SAS products, some of them based on AI as well, because you know, that's, that's something we think we can bring value, but always trying to make them for rural and Peri urban development, because that's where that's where our sweet spot is.
Ryan Purvis 22:51:18
Mm hmm. I can understand that. And I'm curious, I mean, are you with what you're doing? Are you using? I suppose, I mean, AI would be like machine learning to predict what the what the crops are going to be for the year and sort of predictive analytics to say, you're gonna get, you know, based on last, the last five years of of cashew volumes you should expect about the same this year, and you're thinking about how weather impacts things? Are you going that far, like connecting all the dots, that help a farmer to understand what the possible income could be what the value could be.
Kevin Macaringue 22:51:53
So we are doing that, but not for agriculture. So we're doing that for for one SME business, like an SME Business Management application, right? We came up with an idea to help solve the business management difficulties that people have, at a Peri urban level, right? They buy and sell stuff in the market, but they can't really tell you, you know, which, which is the best product to sell, which client should they be reaching out to, they don't know, simple concepts, such as sales funnel, so we're actually using AI in that component. But in the agricultural space, like I said, it's really more dependent on on the types of partnerships we have. And that's a requirement. That's something that, you know, personally I have done and and our senior developer as well as also done it personally. But unfortunately, for agri tech, because we haven't yet got a project going that far. So for now, it's still it's still I would say in the in the improvement of the smallholder farmers life and not yet into into the nitty gritty and the science of the economical science. So that's something we've been experiencing, but agriculture was as a business has yet has yet to get to go to that area. But that's something that like I said, we're we're already using AI for, for other application, which is still under development. We've already done some beta tests, we've got a couple of partners looking at it. We've worked with about 30 entrepreneurs in India, Mozambique, and at some parts of South Africa. But but it's still it's still some ways away from from being a fully fledged product. So like I said, probably by the end of this year, I will be sending you a message for you to try it out.
Ryan Purvis 22:53:32
Sounds good. Sounds good. Because I mean, I've seen macadamia nuts I've picked up recently, Tim Ferriss was talking about the other day from South Africa. And so was one of the other guys that are Tom. I think Tom surname. But these are two sort of problems very much on the on the fasting sort of influence influence aside, I guess, you could say, and it doesn't surprise me that cashews would be up there next as a thing we don't do a lot of of cashews is probably other things you guys are doing agrotech. What's the best way to have a look at what you're doing? Is there a demo site? Is there a waiting in contact on LinkedIn? Maybe? I mean, how would you want to be in contact with anybody who's interested?
Kevin Macaringue 22:54:14
Yeah, for sure. I mean, we've got we've got our website, which it's https://agritechmoz.com/. So I will just type that in here from this chat box, but I can show it to you afterwards. Here you go Agritechmoz.com . So that's where anybody can come in and just see some of the impact we've had. We've worked with, with quite a number of farmers in different geographies. We've also got, we've also got obviously our digital portfolio on there, which which anyone if they ever want to access they can speak to us, but but like I said, you know, we're a young organization. So I'm relieved to have experienced to support this, but we really are a very incipient stage one year so far, almost a year. still in a couple of months, but nine months but, but what that means is that we are very fortunate to have people like that on our team who will be very happy to walk you through the kinds of work we've done and etc. So that I think you can also just leave leave there, your contact amount of people will be happy to speak to you
Ryan Purvis 22:55:18
Great super, and you will have a LinkedIn details. So that's great. That's been great chatting with you both and push you out. Keep in contact. I have hope it all goes well.
Kevin Macaringue 22:55:27
Cool. Thank you very much, Ryan. It's been a pleasure.
Ryan Purvis 22:55:32
Thank you for listening to today's episode. Heather Bicknell is our producer and editor. Thank you, Heather, For your hard work on this episode. Please subscribe to the series and rate us on iTunes or the Google Play Store. Follow us on Twitter at the DWWpodcast. The show notes and transcripts will be available on the website www.digitalworkspace.works. Please also visit our website www.digitalworkspace.works and subscribe to our newsletter. And lastly, if you found this episode useful, please share with your friends or colleagues.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai