I recently had a chat with Emarss Technologies. You probably are hearing them for the first time but these guys have a remarkable product range. Let me just get straight into how our chat unfolded.
Who Is Emarss Technologies?
Emarss Technologies is a start-up software company in Zimbabwe, offering digital solutions to Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Zimbabwe. Our main goal as a company is to grow a well-established brand that small business owners can rely on for quality and affordable digital solutions and become the number one partner of small businesses in digitalization in Zimbabwe. The topmost objective of Emarss Tech is to build software products that help small businesses improve operational efficiency, lowering costs of doing business or increasing revenues, thus increasing profits and growing their businesses.
When & How Did Emarss Technologies Start?
Emarss Technologies started as a Digital Marketing Agency in 2018. At the time, our focus was to offer web development services and digital marketing services to small businesses. The interaction we had with small businesses in the early days led us to two critical insights that became the foundation of Emarss Technologies, as it is today.
The first was that: there is an enormous difference between the quality of software solutions available to small businesses and the quality of software solutions available to corporates and enterprises. There are many enterprise-level Customer Relations Management Systems and Enterprise Resource Planning Systems, but one can hardly find similarly effective solutions for small businesses at an affordable price.
The second insight was that: small businesses in Africa do not need cutting-edge technology as much as they need affordable, simple solutions.
These two insights form the basis of the philosophy upon which we have pivoted. Our focus now is to develop technically simple but functionally superb solutions. Examples are the Student Companion app we developed early this year- a concise encyclopaedia for students to enhance their English Language skills and general knowledge on their mobile devices without the internet.
Long-Term Vision?
The long-term vision of Emarss Technologies is to become the leading partner of small businesses in digitalization in the region and the continent at large.
Services Offered?
At Emarss Technologies, we develop software solutions for small businesses. We build custom web apps, mobile apps, and desktop apps that help an organization operate more efficiently. We also develop general software services that are on offer to businesses and end-users. Currently, we have the Business Manager app – an android application for small business owners to manage their inventory, sales, and customer payments as well as creating and sending professional invoices, quotations, and receipts from their phone, with or without internet access. The Business Manager app can be downloaded here.
We also have the Student Companion App, a concise encyclopaedia for students studying English Language. It was primarily developed for primary and secondary students who want to improve their spoken and written English skills. It features sections like grammar, vocabulary, figures of speech, general knowledge, and a dictionary. The Student Companion app is found online here.
We also have the Bar Manager app coming up at the end of this month (July). The Bar Manager is an application for Bar & Night Clubs owners to manage their liquor and empties inventory and to monitor the performance of the business. It will also work offline, though internet access will be required to sync data across devices, enabling all the relevant users of the app to have the most recent information on their device.
We also have some other projects that we have worked on before but are yet to be refined before we can start talking about them, mostly in the advertising and education industries.
Emarss Technologies Team
The Emarss technologies team is made up of two members – Rufaro Sithole and Dillan Renold Kanyongo.
Rufaro is a highly talented software developer, with expertise in Mobile and Web Development. He has more than 5 years of experience as a freelance software developer. He has also worked as a software developer at Equity Axis (equityaxis.net), a highly innovative fintech company in Harare, Zimbabwe. He has also worked as a web developer at Eyetro Digital – one of the top digital marketing agencies in Zimbabwe. To date, Rufaro has worked on and collaborated on more than 100 projects. He is currently completing his BSc in Information Systems at the Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University.
Dillan is a prodigy Digital Marketing expert. He has extensive knowledge of social media marketing, graphics design, search engine optimization, and content creation. He is currently completing his Honours in Marketing at the Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University.
Finances And Resources?
As of late, as we have been working on our main, anchor projects, the Business Manager app and the Bar Manager App, we have also been taking on some small-time web design projects to secure the funds to cater for our day-to-day needs and to keep the long term projects going.
Challenges?
There are two main challenges we are facing – lack of funds to kick start our projects, and lack of exposure for our work.
It has taken us more than six months now to complete the Business Manager app and it is not yet even up to our expected standards. This project should have been completed in three months, but we have been forced to set it aside, sometimes for more than two weeks, as we work on some other small project, just so we can get the funds to bring back to the project.
However, we are almost over this phase now, as both of our two anchor products should be complete before the end of August.
Any Assistance Needed?
To grow our brand, we definitely need more coverage from the media. We have been featured in the Standard Online Newspaper recently, as well as the Zimbabwe Independent Weekly Digest, but that was not effective enough. What would really go a long way to help us grow our brand is having influencers talk about our products and brand. Before that can happen, we will find it difficult to grow.
How Can Anyone Assist Your Brand?
As highlighted above, for those interested in supporting us, the best way to do that is to share and talk about our products and brand on social media. We believe in what we are doing, we have come a long way and we are now ready to help businesses grow through our digital solutions and services. For those who believe in what we do, and are interested in supporting us financially, they can get in touch with us and we are more than ready to share more on our vision.
Additional Remarks:
The message that we, as Emarss Technologies, would want to share with people, particularly, small business owners and entrepreneurs is that they should think about growth and bring it to the top of their priority list.
We strongly believe that it is not enough to do business just to pay the bills, bring food to the table and send kids to school. The whole point of being an entrepreneur, by definition, is to venture into business with the intention of growing the business and make more money while doing it.
It is possible for a black person to build a business that can be left to the children and can last for generations, but that can only happen if business people are growth-minded and are disciplined enough, businesswise, to set proper systems and processes in place. Every business activity or transaction that occurs, for example, must be recorded. An evaluation must be done at regular intervals to find what needs optimization. Helping you, business people to do that is the sole mission of Emarss Technologies. We want to help you build a business that you can leave to your children and grandchildren.
You can contact Emarss Technologies via mobile on +263 77 467 1339. You can email info@emarss.co.zw. You can go to their website here. They are also on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.
