Simple Trace, a solution enabling County Governments save billions of shillings lost due to an inefficient fleet and fuel management system has won this year’s Microsoft ICT Innovation Awards at the Connected Summit 2016 in Diani.
The solution, developed by a Thika based technology firm Simple Trace Systems, emerged the overall winner based on its usability and accessibility. It is made with the National and County Governments in mind by tackling the challenge of fuel inefficiency by automating the monitoring of work tickets, vehicles fuelling process and fuel cards.
It is not hard to imagine the amount of money that the Government loses from fraudulent fuel claims and unauthorised mileage across its ministries, departments and counties. It has a negative fuel efficiency of -24.6 per cent and an average of 10 per cent unauthorised private mileage. The Government is understaffed to monitor over 11,000 vehicles so an automated solution was more than welcome.
Simple Trace platform enables Government officers in charge of transport to efficiently monitor work tickets, vehicle fuelling processes and fuel cards. Launched in 2015, it is already in use in six countries.
Simple Trace also won the County Solutions Category.
Other winners were Sukuul Solutions (Education and Training), Abacus Finance (Financial Services), Sokopepe (Agriculture), New-Edge Technologies (Environmental Management), Nairobits (Gender Youth and Vulnerable Groups) Bunifu Technologies(IT Services), Enchanted Landscapes (Tourism), Nairobi Water and Sewage (Water and Sanitation) and Machakos County (County Initiatives)
The Connected ICT Innovation Awards celebrate Kenyan Entrepreneurs that have launched new ICT products and services. The inaugural awards were held in 2011 at the Connected Kenya Summit; the award has since recognized more than 45 new ICT products and solutions.
An observation was made this year on the increase of participation in innovation by County Governments. This is an improvement from the past where most entries were entirely from businesses in Nairobi and now there are companies based in Nairobi, and in Simple Trace’s case, Thika that are developing solutions focused on all counties.
