aimm News

Chief Scientific Adviser, Dr. Mike Short appointed by Department for International Trade

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

We are pleased to provide the following press release from the Department of International Trade. Dr. Mike Short has been a strong supporter of aimm’s activities in the charity text environment.

Leading industry expert Dr. Mike Short brings over 40 years of technical expertise to the department

The Department for International Trade (DIT) continues to bolster its team of experts with the appointment of Dr. Mike Short CBE as its new Chief Scientific Adviser.

With over 40 years’ experience in the Electronics and Telecommunications sectors, the former Vice President of Telefonica will take up his post next month.

As Head of the Science and Engineering Profession at DIT, Dr. Short will play a key role in ensuring the department’s policy is informed by the best science, engineering and technical advice and will advise on the technical aspects of future trade deals.

He will also work closely with the UK’s research, development and academic communities to promote British scientific and engineering exports around the world.

Science and technological exports are key sectors for UK trade, with, for example, Pharmaceutical products accounting for more than £25 billion (or 8.3%) of UK goods exports in 2016 alone, making it the UK’s 4th largest goods export.

International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox said:                                                

“As an international economic department, having the best people with the right expertise will guarantee we create and deliver a world class trade policy, whilst at the same time deepening our existing trade relationships around the world.

“An industry leader, Dr. Short’s many decades of experience in technology, innovation and public policy will ensure that cutting-edge scientific and technical know-how is firmly at the core of DIT’s work.”

 

Chief Scientific Adviser, Dr. Mike Short said:

“Joining the department as Chief Scientific Adviser during a period of such great global opportunity is tremendously exciting.

“I look forward to working closely with businesses, research institutions and industry to drive UK economic growth, through a trade policy which champions the best in scientific research and innovation.”

 

Permanent Secretary, Antonia Romeo said:

“Dr. Short brings an impressive breadth of technical and commercial expertise to the department.

“The UK’s science, technology and engineering sectors generate billions in exports and inward investment per year, and I look forward to working closely with Dr. Short in the promotion of our outstanding scientific industries across the globe.”

 

Dr. Short possesses a rich knowledge in research collaboration, global business and international technical standards. Vice President of Telefonica for 17 years, Dr. Short managed the launch of 2G (GSM) and 3G mobile technology in the UK and is a leader in 5G innovation research.

In recent years, he has led business development and university collaborations on technological innovations including Smart Cities, digital healthcare, cybersecurity and driverless vehicles.

Dr. Short’s announcement follows this summer’s appointment of internationally-recognised expert Crawford Falconer, who joined the department in August as Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser and Second Permanent Secretary, with over 25 years of trade and foreign policy experience.

Leading industry expert Dr. Mike Short brings over 40 years of technical expertise to the department

 

The Department for International Trade (DIT) continues to bolster its team of experts with the appointment of Dr. Mike Short CBE as its new Chief Scientific Adviser.

With over 40 years’ experience in the Electronics and Telecommunications sectors, the former Vice President of Telefonica will take up his post next month.

As Head of the Science and Engineering Profession at DIT, Dr. Short will play a key role in ensuring the department’s policy is informed by the best science, engineering and technical advice and will advise on the technical aspects of future trade deals.

He will also work closely with the UK’s research, development and academic communities to promote British scientific and engineering exports around the world.

Science and technological exports are key sectors for UK trade, with, for example, Pharmaceutical products accounting for more than £25 billion (or 8.3%) of UK goods exports in 2016 alone, making it the UK’s 4th largest goods export.

International Trade Secretary, Dr Liam Fox said:                                                

“As an international economic department, having the best people with the right expertise will guarantee we create and deliver a world class trade policy, whilst at the same time deepening our existing trade relationships around the world.

“An industry leader, Dr. Short’s many decades of experience in technology, innovation and public policy will ensure that cutting-edge scientific and technical know-how is firmly at the core of DIT’s work.”

 

Chief Scientific Adviser, Dr. Mike Short said:

“Joining the department as Chief Scientific Adviser during a period of such great global opportunity is tremendously exciting.

“I look forward to working closely with businesses, research institutions and industry to drive UK economic growth, through a trade policy which champions the best in scientific research and innovation.”

 

Permanent Secretary, Antonia Romeo said:

“Dr. Short brings an impressive breadth of technical and commercial expertise to the department.

“The UK’s science, technology and engineering sectors generate billions in exports and inward investment per year, and I look forward to working closely with Dr. Short in the promotion of our outstanding scientific industries across the globe.”

 

Dr. Short possesses a rich knowledge in research collaboration, global business and international technical standards. Vice President of Telefonica for 17 years, Dr. Short managed the launch of 2G (GSM) and 3G mobile technology in the UK and is a leader in 5G innovation research.

In recent years, he has led business development and university collaborations on technological innovations including Smart Cities, digital healthcare, cybersecurity and driverless vehicles.

Dr. Short’s announcement follows this summer’s appointment of internationally-recognised expert Crawford Falconer, who joined the department in August as Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser and Second Permanent Secretary, with over 25 years of trade and foreign policy experience.

aimm launches a new UK call to action for society lotteries

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

26Sept 2017, Farnham.

The Association for Interactive Media and Micropayments (aimm), launched a major new call to action initiative for society lotteries on 22nd September 2017.  This exciting new channel could transform results for society lotteries if it performs anything like it has for charities.

Society lotteries are lotteries and raffles run for charitable benefit, licensed through the Gambling Commission or via local authority licenses. These lotteries and raffles provide a vital income source for charities.

Text short codes, which are 5 digit number starting with a 70 prefix, have been used with phenomenal success by charities over the last three years.  Short codes generate over £115m in donations per annum.  In many cases texting to a short code has become the most popular call to action for donors due to ease and simplicity. They have shown to generate incremental funds rather than cannibalisation from other, more mature, methods to donate such as online or by phone to a call centre. It also attracts a new, often younger, audience.

aimm has been working across its members to develop a similar facility for society lotteries. It works in the following way:  The society lottery manager or charity uses an advertising campaign to draw attention to its lottery with the call to action being text a word (such as WIN) to a short number starting 72 (e.g. 72123).  The advertising will include the price of the entry and the lottery terms.  A consumer sees the campaign and texts their entry using their mobile phone to gain entry into a lottery or raffle.  The lottery manager or charity uses its procedures to check the consumer is over 16 and then the cost of entry is charged to the consumer’s mobile phone bill.  It’s simple, quick and immediate. An efficient communication channel is now established with the consumer for follow up in-service messages and winner information.

With the near 100% penetration of text capable phones in the UK every British consumer over 16 can participate in a society lottery or raffle.  No other engagement and payment product has this penetration.

The launch conference was kindly hosted by Cancer Research UK and sponsored by Dynamic Mobile Billing (both of whom are aimm members), whose sponsorship enabled complimentary tickets to be given to those charities and lottery managers who wished to join us. It was extremely well attended by external lottery managers (ELM’s) and charities with excellent presentations from charity Oxfam, campaign enabler Cymba, Charity Funding and Promoter (CFP), Global’s Make some Noise, regulator Phone-paid Services Authority, payment intermediary Dynamic Mobile Billing (DMB) and mobile network operator EE.

Kevin Dawson, CEO of DMB said “It was great to talk to an audience who were clearly so excited about this new opportunity.  Based on our successful experiences in operating mobile payment lotteries in others markets across the globe, I am totally confident the UK market will be as successful for society lotteries as it has been for charities and giving campaigns, so DMB hope to work with the markets key players and share our experiences to deliver a mutually rewarding commercial partnership. The UK is getting more and more familiar with short code based services. It is positive for the whole ‘charge to mobile’ industry, opening up a new market for everyone up and down the value chain whilst being great for consumers who want to participate. It’s a win-win-win.”

The event showed that there were differing levels of understanding across the society lottery managers about how the text based call to action and mobile payment mechanism could be made to work. It is clear there is a need for enhanced education across this market.  aimm will be working closely with the Gambling Commission and the PSA on behalf of members to ensure that all regulatory requirements are covered.

Overall it is great to see a growth opportunity where the potential is being recognised. There is enormous enthusiasm across the board.  One lottery manager stated “This initiative has been the most exciting development in this industry since the postage stamp!” It is likely society lotteries will be trialling the new short code range before Christmas.

 

Onebip Partners with SLA Digital for  Direct Operator Billing in the Middle East

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

 

Onebip has partnered with SLA Digital to extend their Direct Operator Billing coverage in the Middle East for their portfolio of content partners.

The Direct Operator Billing partnership is now live in the UAE, with plans to further leverage SLA’s mobile operator connectivity across the region.

Ashley O’Kane, Head of Marketing at SLA Digital commented, “We are pleased to have partnered with Onebip to give them access to more customers via Direct Operator Billing in the MENA region. Our capability to connect content partners via one integration into multiple mobile operators across the world is key to entering new markets quickly.”

 

Direct Operator Billing is an alternative mobile payment option to credit and debit card and in markets like the UAE, where mobile penetration is extremely high, this solution is a game changer for content partners as it provides customers with a seamless and secure payment option.

In addition to Onebip, SLA Digital is the trusted Direct Operator Billing partner for an array of global app stores and content partners like Google and Microsoft.

www.sla-digital.com

www.onebip.com

Society Lottery Conference a success

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

The UK mobile operators in conjunction with aimm have created a new shortcode range specifically for society lotteries, taking advantage of the VAT exempt status, to provide society lottery managers and charities who run their own lotteries and raffles with an excellent marketing tool that appeals to the 98% enabled UK population.

On Friday 22nd September we ran our first Society Lottery Conference in London at the premises of Cancer Research UK.

Offered to charities and society lotteries this event  looked at the new 72xxx short-code range and how it could be implement within their business’. With a range of industry specialist speakers, the day focused on  increasing understanding and knowledge of the benefits of using short codes, and the opportunities that could be created from this new range, all supported by case studies and regulatory guidance.

The greatest call to action for any marketing campaign is getting mobile consumers to text a message to a short 5 digit number known as a short code. Charities using short code donations have found this call to action to generate over £140million per annum without cannibalising their other donation channels.

With a full house, and great feedback, this this event was well received, and is such an important and popular topic that it is likely that we may run this again in the future.

We would like to thank all our speakers: Oxfam, Global Radio, EE, Dynamic Mobile Billing, EE, Cymba and PSA. To learn more about our speakers see their bio’s here: aimm Society Lottery Speaker bios 22September2017

We would like to thank our sponsor Dynamic Mobile Billing who’s support helped make this conference possible.

 

 

Winners of the Global Carrier Billing Summit Awards 2017

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

We were pleased to announce the winners of the Global Carrier Billing Summit Awards 2017 at The Amba Hotel, Marble Arch in London 26th September 2017.

The Awards Ceremony was the first ever for the Global Carrier Billing Summit, and was judged by:

  • Rory Maguire, Managing Director, Association for Interactive Media & Entertainment
  • Ruomeng Wang, Lead Analyst, Mobile Money & Financial Services, HIS Market
  • John Abraham, Senior Analyst, Analysys Mason

 

The winners of the following categories are:

  1. BEST DCB CARRIER: “Pay with Orange” service, Direct Carrier Billing for MEA region

Judges’ Comments:

“Orange has been developing and expanding their DCB service in different regions. “Pay with Orange” provides customers in Africa a new alternative way of making payments…Thanks to its large presence in emerging markets, Orange has a head start on improving DCB engagement and monetisation.”

 

  1. BEST DCB AGGREGATOR: Infobip/Centili

Judges’ Comments:

“Centili leads through managing the payment interfaces for Merchants to ensure the roller coaster revenue effect is levelled and enabling Carriers to open billing solutions ahead of their own implementation of Carrier Billings platforms…They have been contributing to DCB service and continually developing new services.”

 

 

  1. MOST INNOVATIVE DCB TECHNOLOGY: The Bango Platform

Judges’ Comments:

“Being able to buy physical goods is the final frontier for DCB and key to unlocking its full potential. Bango’s Amazon Japan use case is a great example of this…. The availability of carrier billing in the Amazon Japan store takes DCB to a new level.”

 

Congratulations to the Winners!

 

If you would like to know more about the Global Carrier Billing Awards visit our website.