Mobilkom Austria Group, a mobile operator in Central and Eastern Europe, has selected Openmind Networks as the Group's preferred provider for next generation messaging platforms.
The move is said to signal a new trend that is gaining ground with mobile operators globally, namely the replacement of legacy SMSC systems with a new breed of technologies that address three critical business issues with one fully integrated messaging platform.
"Today, mobile operators across the world are faced with similar challenges in the SMS market", explains Wolfgang Fleischer, Group Director, Core Service Network at Mobilkom Austria Group. "In a nutshell, as margins continue to be squeezed on SMS traffic, we need to find more cost effective ways to route our messages while still delivering high levels of service to our subscribers. Secondly, we need to replace the revenue that is being eroded in the SMS market with new sources and to do that we need to be able to design, build and launch new messaging services quickly and easily – simple in theory but complex in reality".
Unlike many legacy SMSC systems, says Openmind, which tend to be closed and proprietary, the Openmind messaging platform is open, flexible and fully integrated. Using one platform Mobilkom Austria Group can address three critical issues: reduce the cost of routing their SMS traffic with no impact on subscribers' service levels; access a wide range of new message personalization services – pre built and out of the box – that they can launch quickly to subscribers; and design build and launch new messaging services, unique to their subscribers, that will positively impact both revenue and customer churn.
"What really convinced us to select Openmind as our preferred supplier was the fact that they have one fully integrated messaging platform – we can route all our messages and launch and create new services for our subscribers – quickly and easily", adds Fleischer. "Historically we would have needed several systems coupled with significant IT development, and long lead times, to do this. That drives up hardware costs, support and maintenance costs and operational costs. Extrapolate the impact across eight operators and very soon you have a hefty impact on the balance sheet".
Mobilkom Austria Group have deployed Openmind's messaging platform across six of its operators which include mobilkom austria, Mobiltel Bulgaria, SiMobil Slovenia , Velcom Belarus , VIP Macedonia and VIP Serbia.
Commenting on the deal Alex Duncan, CEO of Openmind Networks explains, "Naturally we are delighted with our group deal with Mobilkom. It is good to genuinely be able to help solve some of our clients' challenges. We are able to do this because we designed our platform differently; we focused on the future needs of mobile operators and made it open and flexible to accommodate changes in market dynamics. We are seeing the reality of that play out in the market today – the SMS market dynamics have changed but some of the legacy SMS platforms are hindering operators from reacting to those changes. We are glad we have a solution to that."