Member News

Mobile messaging and payments provider OpenMarket has once again providing the mobile engagement platform and billing services for this year’s Big Egg Hunt charity event, sponsored by master chocolatier Lindt.

Full service fundraising agency Open Fundraising returns as the organiser of this year’s Big Egg Hunt, which has grown from a London-only event into a six-week tour of the UK. It kicked off in Covent Garden on February 12, and visited Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester and Glasgow, before returning to London on March 22. All money raised goes to children’s charity Action for Children.

For all six weeks of the Lindt Big Egg Hunt, OpenMarket’s Mobile Engagement Platform powered an SMS-based daily prize draw to win a year’s supply of Lindt chocolate, which participants entered by sending a text message to a shortcode. Participants in all five cities searched for 101 hidden giant Easter eggs that featured some of the UK’s best loved children’s characters as well as unique designs by leading artists. Participants also looked for the Humpty Dumpty egg, which had the key information needed to enter the prize draw to win a year’s supply of Lindt chocolate.

To enter the competition, they had to text ‘LINDT’ to the number on the egg’s plinth, the SMS being charged at the entrant’s standard network rate.
Even though taking part in the competition was free, participants in the Big Egg Hunt had the option to donate £3 to Action for Children directly, without entering the prize draw, by texting the word “FOOD” to 70123.
“Despite the various other mobile technologies available, SMS is still the number one method for effective engagement with people on their mobile device,” said Paul de Gregorio, Head of Mobile at Open Fundraising. “The OpenMarket platform enables us to quickly and easily create and manage an interactive messaging and donation campaign, for people to engage within each of the five cities hosting the egg hunt. OpenMarket’s ability to support our expanded event across the UK is testament to the reliability, scalability and reach of their solutions.”

This year’s expanded egg hunt follows the success of last year’s London-based event, also powered by OpenMarket, which broke the Guinness World Record for the world’s biggest Easter egg hunt and generated tens of thousands of pounds in donations for charity.

Open Fundraising used the OpenMarket Mobile Engagement Platform to manage the Lindt Big Egg Hunt’s SMS-based prize draw and donations. The platform’s reliability, flexibility and ease-of-use, together with its intuitive and user-friendly web interface, meant that Open Fundraising could build, roll out and manage the Lindt Big Egg Hunt’s SMS prize draw and donation system in a fast and affordable way.

The OpenMarket Mobile Engagement Platform manages incoming messages and generates automatic responses, while also administering the daily automated prize draw entry process.

“SMS is ideal for engaging and interacting with large numbers of people, in a way that is intuitive, familiar and also affordable,” said Adrian Sarosi, Head of Sales and Marketing for OpenMarket in EMEA. “This year’s hunt is bigger than ever and we’re delighted that OpenFundraising and Action for Children continue to trust OpenMarket’s expertise to power this high profile charity event.”

Cable & Wireless Communications is a leading international telecommunications company with customers in over 38 countries, including the Channel Islands, where it delivers mobile, broadband, fixed line, data centre and enterprise solutions to a diverse customer base of consumer and corporate clients.

For more than 130 years, Cable & Wireless has constantly reinvented itself to embrace the latest technological advances, and has maintained investment in its service culture – always striving for excellence by listening to its customers’ needs.
It was with this commitment to customer service in mind that Cable & Wireless went out to tender in 2010 for an enhanced messaging solution that would bring next generation messaging services to subscribers across the Channel Islands and Isle of Man.

Following a competitive bid process, the company chose C3’s Network Messaging Platform.

C3’s carrier grade messaging platform, which supports SIP and TDM connectivity to mobile and fixed line users, has enabled Cable & Wireless to roll out a broad range of highly personalised messaging services to its subscribers across the Channel Islands and Isle of Man. Customers now manage both their home and mobile voicemail through one single inbox, through an interface that can be accessed via any web enabled PC, mobile or landline.

The platform also enables customers to ‘personalise’ their voicemail with enhanced features such as time-specific personal greetings; CLI-based personal greetings; multiple phone numbers per mailbox and alarm call management. This ability to personalise and manage messaging services inevitably leads to better uptake of the system, higher customer usage figures and a reduction in churn. In the five months since Cable & Wireless installed C3 network messaging, the company has seen voicemail usage figures increase by 50%.

C3’s Network Messaging platform is capable of processing hundreds of messaging applications simultaneously, whilst streamlining the administration function by automatically configuring mailboxes on a first use basis. The vast portfolio of applications supported by the platform future-proofs the company’s investment, whilst providing the ability to generate new revenue streams through additional services, such as own-brand speaking clock. Since moving the speaking clock service from BT onto its network messaging platform, Cable & Wireless has seen revenue from this service increase by 70% – at absolutely no extra cost to its customer base.

“We are pleased to be working with C3, whose technology not only allows us to develop new revenue generating opportunities within our message management service but also harness efficiency savings right across board,” said Andy Bridson, Chief Commercial Officer, Cable & Wireless Communications Channel Islands and Isle of Man.
“We have been very impressed with the C3 platform, as well as the ongoing technical support from the team who are incredibly responsive to our requirements.”

John Wood, Director of Sales & Marketing, C3, added: “Our broad application portfolio and ability to provide better ROI for new customers such as Cable & Wireless Communications has meant that after 20 years C3 has come of age.”

MACH, the world leader in direct operator billing, today announced that Skype now supports a new mobile payment option for Skype Credit in Russia, and soon the U.S. and Canada, using its direct operator billing service. With this new payment option, Skype users can now purchase Skype Credit from their mobile devices through a browser-based transaction that is secure, seamless and convenient. They can pay for this transaction either as part of their monthly cell phone bill or using their mobile carrier’s pre-paid account balance.

Using direct operator billing enables Skype to offer a vital alternative payment method to its users, allowing them to enjoy a frictionless user experience. This new payment option will reflect the same prices for Skype Credit as current payment methods. The rollout of direct operator billing in additional countries, and as a payment option for Skype users that are purchasing Skype Credit through a browser on their desktop, will continue through 2013, enabling Skype to create new revenue streams by attracting new users of Skype premium products.

MACH’s partnership with payvia, a leading mobile and online payments company with direct agreements with the main U.S. mobile operators, connects the technology behind MACH’s service, its Direct Billing Gateway, with U.S. mobile operators. It is also connected to the leading mobile operators in Canada and Russia, enabling the delivery of an operator billing service that dramatically improves user experience.

Jason Macklin, Director Billing and Payments, Skype Division – Microsoft, Skype, commented: “We are proud of our heritage in delivering a strong user experience and are pleased that our direct operator billing payment option is now live! As well as our existing users benefitting from this new payment option, we expect direct operator billing to attract new customers who are looking for more convenient ways to manage their spend. Since the announcement of our partnership with MACH in September last year, we have seen direct operator billing gather momentum in North America and Russia, and we are looking forward to rolling the solution out in additional markets in the near future.”

Michael De Jongh, Global Head of Sales, Mobile Billing & Payments, MACH, said: With MACH’s Direct Operator Billing service, Skype now has a flexible, secure and reliable billing solution with a range of benefits for its customers. Its users will be able to charge their Skype Credit to their mobile phone bill or pre-paid account balance, and enjoy the frictionless user experience gained from this payment method. We are very excited to continue working with Skype to roll this out in addtional countries.”

Direct Operator Billing service for mobile applications, content and mobile internet services allows providers to charge subscribers for services direct to their mobile phone bill or pre-paid balance. This creates a significantly improved user-experience through the enhanced frictionless purchase process and delivers greatly enhanced transaction completion rates. By removing the need for cumbersome Premium SMS or credit card payments, it increases the likelihood of customers continuing through to purchase.

According to a survey conducted by MACH, the leading provider of cloud-based managed communication services, the majority of mobile operators ( 62% ) have not yet implemented any form of bill-shock prevention to protect their customers against unexpectedly high data roaming bills. Furthermore, only 24% of mobile operators worldwide have a solution that can monitor subscriber data usage habits in real-time, thus complying with the GSMA Data Roaming Transparency Initiative launched last year. Such solutions, that consider the subscribers’ data roaming experience first and foremost, boost uptake of data roaming services, leading to more revenue for operators and increased customer satisfaction.
On average, 70% of roamers turn off data roaming while travelling due to the fear of bill-shock. Furthermore, bill disputes resulting from bill-shock cost operators up to 30% of their data roaming revenue, and they have had to pay the wholesale fees to carry that data. Eliminating the fear of bill-shock and unleashing potential data roamers is the most attractive growth opportunity for mobile operators worldwide. The GSMA’s Data Roaming Transparency Initiative is designed to do just that by ensuring that customers are notified in real-time about their data usage while roaming. MACH’s cloud-based, real-time Bill Shock Prevention solution ensures compliance with the GSMA guidelines and can be implemented in just 10 weeks, making it possible for operators to meet the GSMA’s tight implementation timescales. It is currently the preferred bill-shock prevention solution by mobile operators worldwide.
Tue From Hermansen, Director, Mobile Data and Advanced Networks, MACH, commented: “Compliance with the GSMA initiative will only be achieved by those who can take proactive steps to ensure customers are notified about their data usage in real-time.

As the preferred Bill Shock Prevention provider, MACH gives operators the kind of granular, real-time insight into data usage that they need, playing a vital role in helping them to grow roaming revenues through increased usage and improved customer retention. Operators that fail to implement an effective solution to prevent bill-shock will face unhappy subscribers, increased churn and disputed bills that remain unpaid, directly impacting revenues. Operators who fail to follow the GSMA’s initiative on bill-shock may soon find themselves out manoeuvred by competitors that prioritise the subscriber experience”.
MACH’s Bill Shock Prevention solution is a cloud-based service that delivers a comprehensive subscriber experience with real-time service alerts and suspension upon reaching thresholds. It also offers carrier branded portals/sms and cloud-based integration with any existing carrier infrastructure. Leading mobile operators in Asia, NA, Middle East and Africa are currently deploying MACH’s solution, while a further 60 mobile operators worldwide are in discussions with the company. The solution is part of MACH’s
M Serve cloud-based portfolio of fast-to-market mobile data monetization services, which the company estimates now benefit almost a quarter of a billion mobile subscribers globally.

Consumer engagement specialists Spoke are proud to have won the tender for a two year contract with STV. Spoke has been tasked with creatively increasing interaction between STV and its consumers, to help them build relationships and connect with communities on air and online.

Spoke, who offer social TV and other interactive services for numerous broadcasters, will become STV’s partner for the provision of mobile and other interactive services.

STV broadcasts on Channel 3 in Scotland, reaching over 4 million viewers each month with first class programming including soaps Emmerdale and Coronation Street, big drama productions, entertainment hits The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent, strong home-grown productions and the most comprehensive local news service in the UK.
STV has also recently been awarded Local TV licenses for Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Elizabeth Partyka, Deputy Director of Channels at STV, said: “We understand the importance of engaging with our consumers across multiple platforms. We chose to partner with Spoke because of their experience providing interactive services to other broadcasters and digital media companies but also because of their creative ability and deep understanding of cross-platform consumer engagement.”

Jane Thomas, Interactive Services Director for Broadcast at Spoke, commented on the win: “We’re delighted to add STV to our portfolio of broadcast clients. Being creative partner and service provider will allow Spoke to demonstrate our creativity and trusted service delivery and we look forward to implementing innovative ideas to increase interaction between STV and their consumers.”