Targets adverts as entry point
Indian VAS provider IMImobile is set to make a move on the European market in 2008, pushing its vision of managed and monitored value added services, content management and mobile applications.
Currently active in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and with 200 operators on board and 500 million users of IMI services, the services provider expects to be well positioned to take advantage of a cultural shift in European markets towards managed services.
A R Vishwanath, ceo of IMImobile, which provides VAS as a managed service, pointed out that in terms of scale and technical knowledge, IMI has more than enough heft. His challenge is more to convince European operators that a managed services approach is what they need to increase flexibility and innovation, whilst controlling cost and complexity. And he sayd that is not really a technical discussion, but one about service vision.
"It is the CMOs I would like to convince, more than the CTOs," he said, "because they have the people who can actually get things started to make something happen. Really this should not be a technical discussion, but a strategic one." Asked if there was one entry point that he sees that could ease IMI's path into a European market that is already heaving with managed services providers from Nokia to Systems Integrators, to point product providers, Vishwanath highlighted mobile advertising.
Providing banner ads on WAP sites is inefficient and doesn't make the best use of the mobile medium, he argued. IMImobile, with its combination of network based services platforms, content management a system and subscriber management, is ideally placed to take mobile advertising down a truly personalised path, delivering individual adverts to users 'on the fly'.
"This will be far more attractive to advertisers and really open an new opportunity for operators," Vishwanath said.
He also stated that IMImobile' DaVinci Technology Platform gives operators the means to interface with the third party and web developers that are currently the target of forward thinking operators hoping to harness web applications to mobile. But it also gives them control and comfort that the services will work as intended on individual mobiles and interfaces.
"We have deep knowledge on how content works on different platforms and devices, and deep knowledge of content management, that even Nokia can't match at the moment," he said. "This is why it is essential that operators work with a specialist provider of value added services, but also that they work with someone who has a breadth of knowledge across different content areas, not just music, for example."
IMImobile is backed by two institutional private investors, and last year received a $10 million round of funding from Peqot. But Vishwanath said the company is profitable and fully funded to its current market strategy. It manages services hosted on servers across the world from a central NOC in Hyderabad, hooked up through its own MPLS network. IMS / SIP is on the progression path for all its software services, Vishwanath added.
Current services supported included messaging, ring back tones, content sharing and mobile marketing applications such as polls and competitions.