Daily News & Analysis, Mumbai
Your lunch is now just an SMS away Sachin Kalbag Tuesday, June 20, 2006 23:47 IST
You have to give it to the Six-Sigma certified dabbawalas of Mumbai. Less than two months after they went online, the 4,000-strong food delivery experts have gone mobile, too. Now, you can book your dabbawala through your cell phone just by sending an SMS to 3636.
This is how it is done: Send your name and home and office addresses to the short-code number. Suppose you are Satish and you live in Bandra, you can send message like this to 3636: "Dabba Satish Meghdoot 504 Linking Road Bandra Atlanta 2nd floor Nariman Point."
Raghunath Medge, president, Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust, says, "On receiving this message, a dabbawala will contact you on your cell, and the delivery service can start immediately." Dabbawalas have decided to accept messages from outside the city as well. "Anyone can send us a message from anywhere in India," says Medge. "Interesting messages will be updated on the website under the "Mobile Blog" section."
Medge feels that the mobile platform is just another way for people to access the dabbawala service. "When we launched our web site, mydabbawala.com, we could manage our databases in an organised manner. Now, the mobile phone messages will help us engage more customers, and all those who did not know how to access our services."
He says that the website has been receiving new orders every day, even from management students from around the world. "Two students from Singapore and Scotland contacted us through the website, and are studying the dabbawalas from a logistics point of view. In fact, several people have volunteered to work for us."
Later this week on June 24, the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad has invited Medge and his associates to give a lecture on management strategies and the association's logistical expertise.
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An addendum from the Economic Times (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1679189.cms) by way of background:
The Dabbawalas' accurate and precise system of delivering hot home-cooked meals to more than 2 lakh (200,000) office goers in Mumbai has drawn praise from all over the world, including business schools who want to study their system. Even Prince Charles made it a point to invite them to his second wedding after meeting them in the city in '03 during a visit.