Mobile Researcher has been renamed Mobenzi Researcher.
The new name brings Mobile Researcher into the Mobenzi family of products, services and platforms, dedicated to leveraging web and mobile technologies to improve field-based activities.
As the usage and application of Mobile Researcher has expanded and evolved in recent years, the name itself has become somewhat confusing and limiting. The title did not originate from an exhaustive search or branding exercise and was predominantly a descriptive code name for the prototype we developed in 2006.
To address this and plot a course forward, we concluded a rebranding process in mid 2011 which sought to reposition the brand to be more inclusive of our work in related areas as well as provide a simple, strong, home-grown and recognisable identity. We hope we have achieved that goal with the adoption of the Mobenzi® marque.
We originally came up with Mobenzi in 2009 from the words "mobile" and "umsebenzi" (isiZulu for "work" or "task"). It was initially used exclusively for our mobile workforce platform which we deployed in 2010 (now called Mobenzi Intelligence). As we searched for a more eloquent and inclusive brand for Mobile Researcher however, we felt that the Mobenzi label was perfectly suited to describe a range of activities which involve mobile work or tasks – including Mobile Researcher.
In line with this thinking, we have established Mobenzi as the umbrella under which we will provide solutions across four key divisions to begin with: Research, Care, Field Service and Data Processing.
