WDSGlobal, in partnership with integrated Mobile Device Management leader InnoPath, has today announced the launch of DeviceUpdate, the mobile industry's first fully managed, pay-per-use FOTA (firmware over-the-air) service. As a hosted solution, including full firmware management, testing and update delivery, DeviceUpdate dramatically lowers the cost of entry for organizations looking to benefit from FOTA capabilities.
FOTA technology allows organizations to deploy firmware updates over-the-air, remotely fixing troublesome handsets, reducing expensive return costs and increasing user adoption of mobile services. DeviceUpdate reshapes the FOTA market by allowing, for the first time, organizations to outsource the entire process of firmware management. This dramatically reduces capex investment and enables organizations to pay only for updates as required.
Uniquely, WDSGlobal, a company with more than ten years of experience supporting mobile users and their devices, will work with DeviceUpdate customers to analyze existing support trends and handset return statistics, helping them to determine the value of initiating a FOTA update against alternative support options.
"As a fully managed service, our job is to help the customer identify exact FOTA requirements based on real-world analysis of support trends, help source the firmware update, test it and then make it available through their existing support channels; such as the contact center or self-serve web portal," explains David Ffoulkes-Jones, CEO at WDSGlobal. "We even analyze risk logs of handset manufacturers' pre-release devices and recommend fixes that should be made available using FOTA at the time of launch. DeviceUpdate is about mobile organizations using FOTA technology to its maximum effect and with maximum efficiency."
DeviceUpdate is fully OMA-DM compliant and utilizes technology from InnoPath, one of the most established players in the FOTA industry. The company pioneered FOTA technology with the world's first commercial deployment and has since conducted tens of millions of firmware upgrades in the field.
"InnoPath, through its Tier 1 operator deployments and handset vendor partnerships, uniquely understands the evolution of the mobile device management space," says John Fazio, CEO of InnoPath. "This announcement focuses on reducing barriers to adoption and is evidence of the leadership role we are playing within OMA-DM, helping to fast-track the deployment of standards-based device management globally."
Within the FOTA market, WDSGlobal believes that efficiencies can be gained from every FOTA session. Information about available FOTA packages is logged and made available to support agents, allowing them to problem solve faster and more efficiently. With easy to use interfaces, DeviceUpdate can also be integrated within self-serve portals. This allows end-users to retrieve their own FOTA updates and manage their own equipment, further reducing ongoing support costs.
"It's important that the use of FOTA technology does not disrupt the user experience and that it overcomes service and device failures quickly and efficiently. Because WDSGlobal operates specialist call centers across four continents, we can apply our expertise to train customers' support agents, ensuring FOTA sessions are performed in-line with end-user expectations for service and quality. That experience is an asset that's simply not available elsewhere within the FOTA market," adds Ffoulkes-Jones.
DeviceUpdate forms part of WDSGlobal's portfolio of mobile device management solutions. The service is available globally to mobile operators (including MVNOs) and handset manufacturers.