Sicap, a specialist in Device Management and over-the-air SIM management, has announced today that its Device and SIM platforms now interact to trigger automatic SIM updates, uniting device capabilities and service profiles.
Interoperability between Device and SIM operations means that when a customer changes his device, the automatic detection feature of the Device Management Center (DMC) checks its capabilities and subsequently triggers a message via OTA-SIM to update the subscriber SIM with the new service options. The whole sequence is handled seamlessly for the customer and in real time, so that new personalized features become immediately available. The potential for converged services is claimed to be huge. DMC is already running on affiliate networks of virtually every major mobile operator group. Designed and built in-house on a sustainable framework, a single database can be shared for both Device and SIM platforms, with updates synchronized on the same hardware.
Operators can leverage the SIM to provide user-friendly and device-compatible service options. New self-care aids such as the dynamic SIM toolkit menu are made available through the IMEI tracking applet in a solution jointly developed by Sicap and Giesecke & Devrient, (G&D), the world's second largest SIM card manufacturer. Markus Moser, Head of International Sales Systems and Services at G&D said "For end-users, perhaps the most visible of benefits is the ability to customize phone menus using options such as choice of language or filter settings to block unsolicited information".
The enhanced backup and restore ability of the converged platforms constitutes an additional benefit. Mobile users store address book details for instance either on the SIM, on the device, or split between the two. Merging Device and SIM platform capabilities enables synchronization of SIM and device address books, thereby guaranteeing a complete backup and restore solution in case of loss. Users can also download configurations or applications to both their device and their SIM from the same Web page.
For operators, gaining and maintaining control over subscriber services via the SIM has never been so important. The recent trend of service branding on handset vendor portals has opened up competition for customer attention. Sicap software is totally vendor-independent and works on any SIM card on the market.
Active membership of the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA DM) ensures that Sicap software roadmaps are able to meet and exceed technological challenges. In the near future, the OMA release of application management standards on devices will open up new opportunities for Sicap's converged offer. Application management for instance will be carried out on both the SIM and the device. In terms of marketing opportunities, the current trend to invest in Near Field Communication (NFC) based applications is one that will be largely helped by simultaneous Device and SIM application management.
According to Sicap Director of Product Marketing Achim Korber who is heading the platform convergence drive, "Combining Device Management with SIM Management is the way ahead. We believe that seamless service updates will be the guarantee that customers get the maximum that their device can offer".