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Thursday, November 01, 2007
The Urge to Converge: Microsoft Unified Communications Offering Turbo-Charges Software…
Over the past few weeks, unified communications has dominated discussion in the blogosphere as Microsoft officially launched Office Communication Server (OCS) 2007, its VoIP and UC server; and Office Communicator (OC), its UC client. These two tools take UC to the next level, embedding UC tools like instant messaging, conferencing, email, voice and presence into critical business applications.
As Microsoft sees it, UC is “about bringing together all of the different ways to communicate with each other.” That’s best done through a software interface. Capabilities should live or be embedded in applications used every day. By embedding them,…
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Friday, October 26, 2007
24/7 Financial Services Sector Takes The lead In UC…
By definition, Unified Communications (UC) includes a group of technologies that integrate voice with other features such as email, instant messaging, presence and videoconferencing. But it can be much more.
Forrester Research, for example, takes the view that UC has become the inclusive name for a converging set of voice, data and video infrastructure services that integrate with common business applications to reduce typical communication bottlenecks.
In this scenario, Forrester says, UC tools and technologies link communication technologies (such as voice) with collaboration services (email, calendaring, instant messaging and presence) to improve information workers’ ability to…
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Thursday, October 04, 2007
Engaging The Enterprise & Enabling M2M
In the aftermath of ESPN and Disney it’s easy to assume the success of an MVNO rests on its ability to better deliver services in tune with our lives and lifestyles. But there is also a huge opportunity in offering services that have nothing to do with people or personalization. This detailed blog post in Phone+ points out some rather clever companies are taking advantage of a much larger opportunity: connecting inanimate objects in a ubiquitous “Internet of Things.”
MNVOs such as Aeris Wireless and KORE Telematics have found growth in communication between the world’s billions…
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Thursday, September 20, 2007
Unified Communications Takes Off
The term “unified communications” is a commonly used as the integration of telephony and desktop computers, applications, mobility and media. This convergence potentially includes the integration of voice both fixed and mobility, email, instant messaging, desktop and advanced business applications, voicemail, fax, video conferencing into a single environment offering the user a more complete and simple experience.
Until now, the market was dominated by network hardware vendors with the addition of some niche software vendors. Over the past few years however, Microsoft has been building an integrated suite of Unified Communications based around its Windows Server and Exchange…
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Monday, September 17, 2007
Good News For Good Business Models; Tailored MVNOs Reap Success & Receive Funding
Finally, some good news in an MVNO market rocked by failure (case in point: Amp’d Mobile) and dire analyst predictions. Recently, Movida Communications Inc., an MNVO focused on providing prepaid mobile services to Hispanic consumers, announced that a group of new and existing investors had committed $40 million in funding. The move coincided with the news that the MVNO had outpaced even its own projections in terms of subscriber growth, reaching a staggering 250,000 users since its launch in 2005.
How did this particular MVNO manage such a successful track record and reach the growing Hispanic…
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Monday, September 10, 2007
European MVNOs Pick Up On the Trend To Cost-Conscious Offers…
Enough of the MVNO-bashing in the wake of the Amp’d meltdown. There’s excellent reason to believe the MVNO business has never been as good an opportunity as it is now. The outlook is perhaps at its most positive in Europe, where a marked increase in the number of cost-conscious consumers is ushering in a new wave of discount MVNOs. It’s a tectonic shift that could transform the MVNO market forever, as this worthwhile article in the International Herald Tribune (IHT) points out.
It documents the market dynamics that have given rise to a slew of newcomer MVNOs,…
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Thursday, August 16, 2007
New MVNO Models - Advertising Takes Off
To become a successfully MVNO, it is important to differentiate from other MVNOs. Today, MVNO’s are really inventive and playing with different models. Before choosing the right model, MVNOs should really know on which market they want to focus. Looking to the market today, we see different targets:
- Focus on ethnical communities. This people are looking to cheap solutions to call to their motherland.
- Operational focus. People are not interested in the price, but are really looking to specific services.
- Focus on youth markets or special communities (like football clubs, …)
- Focus on low credit customers. Service is…
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Friday, August 10, 2007
The Battle Against Fraud
Where money leads, fraud follows. Mobile communications is no exception and fraudsters are forever seeking new ways to exploit weaknesses in any telecom network. For network operators, this is a huge concern as several millions of Euros are lost each year.
It’s possible to prevent technical fraud, such as SIM cloning and theft, with technical methods such as EMEI blocking. Likewise, social fraud such as unpaid bills, is best countered with social means, such as better customer service and credit control from the MVNO’s side. Thanks to new services and implementing extensible technologies, this kind of revenue leakage…
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Monday, August 06, 2007
MVNO Models Making Revenues
Although small in size, the Benelux region is viewed as a leader in telecoms innovation. Centrally located and home to several EU Administration Centers, Benelux has benefited from an influx of people and also infrastructure investment. Additionally, Benelux telecoms customers are sophisticated and open to new types of offerings; and operators and service providers are flexible and open to catering to niche communities.
These factors have all been beneficial to the MVNO market, creating a hotbed of diverse offerings. In the Netherlands alone, MVNOs account for 17 percent of all mobile connections (source: TelecomPaper). In Benelux,…
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Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Artilium Drives Industry Debate
Let the Blog Begin
Welcome to the Artilium blog. We’re not here to pitch our solutions - although if you’re interested, always happy to discuss
. Rather, the blog is a forum for lively debate on topics that are relevent to our business, and hopefully yours as well. Please share your thoughts. First up: MVNOs. At the Artilium Executive Summit in May where 120 Benelux industry execs met to discuss MVNOs, Convergence and Unified Communications, one senior telecoms executive said that he was surprised at how much nervousness pervades the…