Bernard Koech Email & Phone Number

Nairobi County, Kenya

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

# Develop a VAS and digital services framework for Safaricom Ethiopia in partnership with the industry stakeholders including the Ethiopia Communication Authority; ECA.# Deployment of the VAS Platforms (Content Service Delivery Platform; SDP & Caller Ring back Tone platform; CRBT)# Product development and launch of relevant VAS and Digital Services within the context of the Ethiopian Market taking into account cultural considerations i.e., on Music, Mobile Games, Mobile Videos, Education, News Services etc.

Nairobi, Kenya

Responsible for the product strategy on VAS products with an annual turnover of 77.6 Mn USD & management of content providersKey Achievements# Steered to success the migration of 300+ content service partners onto a new subscription and billing platform.# Responsible for the product strategy and execution which led to the product launch of two advertising platforms for Safaricom one leveraging on mobile data, the other on voice (CRBT – caller ring back tone service). These advertising products reward Safaricom customers with FREE voice minutes and data bundles every time they view or listen to Ads therefore creating happy customers and an innovative alternative revenue stream for Safaricom.# Safaricom has realized improved customer satisfaction since I conceptualized and was given an opportunity to rollout a tool dubbed "PRS manager" which blocks all promotional messages while allowing sensitive messages like those of banking to be allowed through to the customers. These types of messages had become a nuisance for majority of Safaricom customers. In just under 4 months of launch, 5Mn customers had already expressed their wish to block unwanted promo SMS’s.# I led a team of software development engineers and user experience (UX) experts in digitizing existing content services which historically have been rendered on SMS and USSD. Through business analytics for instance, I have been responsible for justifying a case for digitizing news as a service and this has been achieved by conceptualizing and delivering a Safaricom owned digital newspaper (e-commerce) platform where all media houses in Kenya have an equal opportunity for publishing their newspapers to all prepay and post-pay customers# Through my cross-functional team leadership, we developed a data vending product which allows content providers to buy data bundles in bulk and resell the data offers to organizations downstream for the purpose of gifting and enticing customers to engage with their products.

Nairobi, Kenya

Responsible for business planning and operation management for all content partners.Key Achievements# Ensure competitive analysis on the VAS landscape globally with reference to content services. This has enabled Safaricom extend technical enablers which improve customer journeys and transparency on VAS products. Some of these enhancements reduce the customer journey from a total of six steps to access a product down to two steps to join a service (eliminating need for a One-time Password user journey).# Take a leadership role in joint product management for co-branded partner products. These types of products as per market research have accrued Safaricom brand trust notwithstanding the fact that they are partner products or services. It is therefore my responsibility to ensure the products and journeys work flawlessly and should not generate complaints about the product. # Responsible for sales management and go to market strategies on the digital VAS products in a bid to achieve the set targets for each financial year. The execution strategies include digital marketing, social media marketing and direct marketing techniques on different segments of consumers. # Engagement with internal cross functional support functions on agile methodologies in a bid to improve partner net promoter scores in the partner related areas of support.

Nairobi, Kenya

Responsible for development and execution of the company device strategy. The device ranging principles were based on handset features, the network rollout strategy, inventory management, device subsidy & budgeting considerations, vendor manufacturing & customization capabilities etc.Key Achievements# Program management in the delivery of the Safaricom branded smartphones (Neon devices) which was first launched in 2015. I designed and conceptualized the Neon product to bridge a gap identified in the cost of entry level smartphones. In the first two years, the low-cost Neon smartphone product had sold 1Mn units which contributed to the rapid growth in data usage and resultant data revenues.# In line with the network strategy to rollout the 4G network all over Kenya, I enhanced the 4G devices ranging strategy in December 2014 (all devices sold above 100 USD retail price were mandatory to be 4G ready). The continuous improvement of the ranging strategy allowed us to sell and connect 2Mn 4G devices on the Safaricom network within a period of 3 years. # Onboarded and contracted new vendors to offer a wider variety of smartphones to our customers and address critical gaps in device ranging plans.# Responsible for the quality standards of all devices stocked at the Safaricom Shops; I designed and kept up to date the quality guidelines which were enforced during acquisition of devices. # Responsible for forecasting and planning to ensure optimum availability of all model of devices in all the Safaricom retail shops through vendor supply chain management sessions. These sessions would determine new device ranges, planned marketing campaigns on slow moving models, reorder levels for those running low on stock etc.# Responsible for customer relationship management on aftersales queries by ensuring the support contracts are up to date and service center's are well stocked on service parts for the different type of handsets.

Nairobi, Kenya

Responsible for building internet propositions and campaigns in a bid to grow number of internet users on the Safaricom data network.Key Achievements# To drive performance, I built a justification and introduced new partnerships e.g. with Facebook for recruitment of new Facebook users where all new users were eligible for free 90 day browsing (no data costs) from the Facebook java app on feature phone devices. The initiative ran for one year and grew Facebook users in Kenya by 160%. We similarly did joint campaigns with Google to popularize the Google search functionality and register Gmail accounts on mobile by utilizing the customer mobile number as the user ID.# Responsible for pushing sales on mobile broadband devices aggressively since smartphone prizes were still considered very high and majority of users were still on laptops and personal computers. The modem and Mi-Fi routers also had higher data usage compared to mobile handsets.# Grew internet users from 4.6M to 7.1M and revenues grew by 21% despite tariff reduction during the financial year ending March 2013. The revenue for that year was 84.2 Mn USD for data products and services.# Grew internet users from 7.1M to 9.6M with a revenue growth of 41% during the financial year ending March 2014. The revenue for that year was 118.8 Mn USD for data products

Nairobi, Kenya

Responsible for second line technical resolution of customer queries and training of staff to ensure quality of service is maintained on data products and services all times.

Nairobi, Kenya

Handle the day-to-day customer queries and offer solutions to the challenges identified. Key Achievements# Recognized for exemplary customer service and data products sales initiatives in December 2010 and was offered a special recognition letter under the Safaricom Hero’s program.