Agent network companies often struggle to manage and supervise their agents accurately and well. They are also frequently unable to adequately monitor the quantity and quality of work provided by their employees in charge of agent recruitment and supervision. However, digital solutions exist to significantly enhance their agent supervision capabilities.

In 2017, the UN Capital Development Fund programme MM4P partnered with Spargris Zambia (Kazang Zambia) to help the company address challenges associated with agent network training and management as well as to develop its strategy for digital financial services.

Kazang, a leading electronic micropayment processing company, has been in operation in Zambia since 2007. The company distributes point-of-sale (PoS) terminals that are used to sell prepaid airtime, make bill payments, facilitate pay-as-you-go solar and conduct money transfers. Kazang relaunched the money transfer service in October 2016 to better compete with similar services offered by mobile network operators and fintech companies. It has rolled out more than 4,000 PoS terminals, spread across 60+ towns in Zambia, since inception.

Spargris has partnership contracts with all of the major Zambian mobile network operators (Airtel, MTN and Zamtel), pay TV companies (MultiChoice and TopStar), insurance companies and several banks. Kazang is currently working on branchless banking partnerships with microfinance institutions and banks to improve financial inclusion in remote areas.

Kazang distributes its PoS terminals through two types of contracts:

• Owned and operated: The agent buys the PoS terminal at a cost of K2,250 (US$230),[1] and he/she receives support with marketing materials but is not tied to a monthly sales (transaction) target.
• Under placement: The agent is lent the PoS terminal, and he/she needs to generate a monthly sales (transaction) target of no less than K10,000 (US$1,024). The agent is not limited to one business line and can transact in airtime, subscription payments and/or electricity units. The agent receives support from the sales team in the form of branding and advice on how to increase his/her revenue base. If sales drop lower than the agreed-upon target, the agent has a grace period of one month to improve. If poor performance continues, the PoS terminal is usually repossessed.

Before starting the partnership project with MM4P, Kazang struggled with inefficiencies in the management of its distribution network as well as its sales team, which led to a number of critical problems.

1. Management of distribution network
Kazang did not have the actual locations of its agents due to initially poor data integrity, which meant it was unable to do the following:

• Repossess underperforming PoS terminals under placement contract. Repossession was under 10 percent, which caused significant loss of capex.
• Provide support visits to unfocused agents in order to help with their branding and (re)train them.
• Supervise agents, and adjust agent distribution to cover customer needs and to offer a catchment area for each agent.

2. Management of sales team
Kazang was unable to supervise the Direct Sales Representatives (DSRs) who composed its field commercial team in charge of agent recruitment and supervision. DSRs self-declared their productivity (e.g., number of visits completed, training conducted) prior to the project, and most of them overestimated their efforts. As a result, there was neither verification nor proper measurement of sales targets and DSR performance levels.

MM4P helps Kazang Zambia enhance operations

To address the issues described above and to enhance the capacities of Kazang, MM4P compared several digital survey tools to meet the company’s needs before finally selecting Open Data Kit (ODK)[2]. Its website describes it thus:

ODK is a free and open-source set of tools, which help organizations author, field, and manage mobile data collection solutions. ODK provides an out-of-the-box solution for users to:​

• Build a data collection form
• Collect the data on a mobile device and send data to a server
• Aggregate the collected data on a server and extract data in useful formats[3]

It also allows users at Kazang to create dashboards to track productivity of agents and DSRs.

The Kazang ODK system is based on three pillars (see figure I).

Figure I
Kazang Zambia Open Data Kit system

Kazang distributed a low-cost android smartphone with a data bundle to each DSR and configured an app called ‘ODK Collect’ on each phone.

MM4P helped Kazang to define three questionnaire types (i.e., prospection, identification and visit), to configure the server and the surveys, and to train DSRs on how to use the ODK Collect app.

After a two-week pilot, during which 15 DSRs used ODK for their day-to-day activities, MM4P measured acceptance and found that DSRs considered ODK very useful and easy to use.

Subsequently, MM4P and Kazang finalized the questionnaires and asked all DSRs to use the ODK for their daily activities. From now on, Kazang will track all DSR actions through the ODK tools. Figure II illustrates how Kazang is using the app to supervise agents and DSRs.

Figure II
Kazang Zambia usage of Open Data Kit app

Adoption of Open Data Kit improves Kazang Zambia distribution network

The ODK tools have greatly improved Kazang capabilities, as shown in five commercial improvement areas (see table 1), a gap analysis (map 1), a know-your-customer analysis (map 2), a branding analysis (map 3) and a DSR supervision analysis (figure III).

Table 1
Kazang Zambia commercial improvements through Open Data Kit tools

Map 1
Gap analysis of Kazang Zambia coverage and customer needs after Open Data Kit tools implemented

Map 2
Know-your-customer analysis after Kazang Zambia implemented Open Data Kit tools

Map 3
Branding analysis after Kazang Zambia implemented Open Data Kit tools

Figure III
Supervision of Direct Sales Representatives after Kazang implemented Open Data Kit tools

Kazang plans to continue to monitor and improve

Following the pilot, the ODK app was improved based on feedback from the DSRs and from Kazang. It was subsequently rolled out to all 28 DSRs employed by Kazang. Initial feedback and data collected by Kazang suggest that usage of the ODK app has led to marked improvements in the performance of DSRs, specifically their ability to recruit and better manage more agents, along with the volume of transactions conducted by Kazang agents. Kazang plans to continue to monitor data and feedback received from the DSRs through the app in order to improve app functionality as well as its agent network strategy and management.

Want to learn more about the success Kazang and its DSRs have had using the ODK app to track agent performance? Check out the Kazang case study

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[1] Exchange rate: US$1 = K9.7688 (Source:https://treasury.un.org/operationalrates/OperationalRates.php, 1 May 2018). Note: This rate is used wherever United States dollar equivalents are provided for Zambian kwacha.
[2]Mention of any firm or licensed process in this article does not imply endorsement by the United Nations.
[3] Open Data Kit, ‘Home.’ Available from https://opendatakit.org/ (accessed May 2018).