MFT Customer References
Ubongo International
Edtech has the potential uplift millions of African children
Technology is changing the face of education, with Edtech companies helping millions of children gain access to content that would have otherwise been unobtainable.
As Africa’s leading producer of children’s edutainment, Ubongo is a non-profit social enterprise that creates fun, localised and multi-platform educational content that helps kids learn, and leverage their learning to change their lives.
The company reaches millions of families across Africa through accessible technologies like TV, website, radio, and mobile phones.
Though their cartoon shows, Ubongo Kids and Akili and Me, Ubongo reach more than 32 million children every month with their animated content in multiple local languages.
Children access the content via broadcasters and from Ubongo’s digital channels, which include their websites, apps, Interactive Voice Response and Whatsapp chatbot.
“But getting the content to these widely distributed end-points, in a succinct way, was becoming a major challenge for Ubongo” says Ubongo’s Head of Digital, Stephen Boustred
Original content was stored across the Google Drive and on-premises – Ubongo realised it need to store data in a centralised location from which it could be distributed to its various destinations.
If Ubongo failed to find a seamless and cost-effective solution to this challenge, it would make it harder for them to achieve their mission of using “top quality, localized edutainment to help Africa’s 440 million kids learn”, with broadcasters and users unable to receive the most appropriate content.
“Research has shown that kids who regularly engage with our content have improved learning outcomes. We needed a storage and distribution model that removed restrictions from the number of kids who’s learning we could impact upon” Mr Boustred adds.
Cloud computing offered an elegant solution to these challenges, and MFT presented a value proposition based on AWS services, with benefits and impact they could add to Ubongo’s value proposition.
Services used in the solution include AWS S3, AWS Dynamo DB, API Gateway, Lambda and AWS Elemental.
Now Ubongo has a single source of content and is able to distribute their video content through multiple platforms: broadcasting channels, their website, a mobile app and a WhatsApp chatbot.
Mr Boustred concludes: “The project is iterative, and Ubongo will continue to upload and distribute our data, and also add new features over time.”
Already, the company has identified an opportunity to begin analysis of their user consumption metrics, to make more informed business decisions based on their viewers’ input.
About MFT
MFT is a Level 1 B-BBEE company based in Johannesburg, South Africa. MFT are a Select Tier Consulting Partner. MFT has built a strong track record of developing internationally-benchmarked solutions for best practice in technology management.
The company offers high-touch technology consulting and risk services, customised for each client’s unique and localised requirements.
The value proposition for customers includes: end-to-end business solutions powered by a proven approach; simplicity that scales to the customer at speed; dynamic, configurable and flexible solutions built to drive business performance; embedded analytics for making data-driven business decisions; and a consistent client experience.
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