Mobile Device Management
Key enabler for Value Added Services.
The adoption and wide use of mobile value added services require that mobile devices are enabled to support those applications and services. With the exponential number of mobile devices on the market, mobile operators are therefore facing a major challenge with the complexity of managing all the settings of the different devices.
In this paper, we will see how mobile operators can leverage on mobile device management to manage the large number of devices on their network and lead an efficient value-added services strategy and increase the related revenues.
This document is for informational purposes only and MCTEL reserves the right to change any aspect of the products, features or functionality described in this document without notice. Please contact MCTEL for additional information and updates. Solutions and examples are provided for illustration only. Actual implementation of these solutions may vary based on individual needs and circumstances.
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Table of content
INTRODUCTION 3
1. PRESENTATION : MOBILE DEVICE MANAGEMENT AS ENABLER FOR VAS 4
THE GOLDEN PERIOD 4
THE MOBILE VAS PARADOX 4
DEALING WITH THE COMPLEXITY OF MULTIPLE DEVICE SETTINGS 5
THE MOBILE DEVICE DATABASE, A KEY FACTOR OF SUCCESS 5
2. EVALUATION OF THE SOLUTION AND EXPECTED BENEFITS 7
GENERATING ADDITIONAL VAS REVENUE 7
REDUCING HELP DESK COSTS 7
INCREASING CUSTOMER RETENTION 7
INCREASING CUSTOMER RETENTION 8
3. DEVICE MANAGEMENT IN YOUR NETWORK AND VAS ENVIRONMENT 9
WELCOME-TO-ROAMERS 9
ROAMING STEERING 9
CELL BROADCAST SERVICE 9
VALUE ADDED SERVICE PROVIDER (VASP) AND SERVICE DELIVERY PLATFORM (SDP) 9
USSD 10
SIMOTA 10
EQUIPMENT IDENTITY REGISTER 10
MMSCENTER AND WAP GATEWAY 10
CONCLUSION 11
ABOUT MCTEL 12
Introduction
In many regions, mobile penetration is approaching saturation and with increasing competition, margins related to traditional voice and SMS based services are on the decline. To offset the eroding margins from these traditional services, mobile operators are investing in new value added data services.
To achieve the ROI potential of a mobile data network, mobile operators become increasingly aware of the fact that the network has to “touch” the device at different junctures in the subscriber life cycle.
With the proliferation of mobile data services, these touch points are typical for the provision of service maps or APN information to allow the end user to access data services on the mobile network. The challenge that operators face today is to automate this process taking the onus away from the end user and providing altogether a more rewarding and seamless experience.
Historically, the onus was always left to the end user to request for device settings, a process requiring the end user to interface with customer care, a web interface or an SMS service. The success of a pull based service is only as good as the awareness of this process in the subscriber base.
Mobile operators cannot risk the success of a service on a pull based process alone, due to the limited attachment rates that it delivers. A more intelligent and intuitive process needs to be deployed taking the onus away from the end user and can pro-actively deliver service maps or APN information to the end user.
Despite the demand for mobile services, few people can deal with the complexity of configuring their mobile devices to access these services and this causes major revenue shortfalls. To overcome this “mobile VAS paradox”, mobile operators must thus be able to manage and configure their customers’ mobile devices remotely.
1.
Presentation : Mobile Device Management as enabler for VAS
The mobile market is undergoing a huge revolution since a few years with the booming of the mobile services demand. This phenomenon is observed in almost all regions along with the intensification of competition and the fall in voice revenue. To maintain and increase the global income, operators must develop new revenue streams and mobile services offer a very high potential.The Golden Period
When changing of device, mobile users want to be able to use all services immediately. During the first 15mn of use, they try to enjoy their new device, the innovative features, experience the product promise. They expect their handset to be configured instantly so that they can just “plug and play”. This “Golden Period” is a decisive time period during which mobile operators have a key role to play in the process of customer satisfaction and retention.
If his needs and expectations are not fulfilled immediately, the customer gets rapidly frustrated and dissatisfied because the promise for mobile services is not fulfilled.
The mobile VAS paradox
Though there is a sky-scraping demand for mobile services, a large part of consumers use very few mobile services and applications, or none, because of their inability to configure their mobile device in order to access these services. Therefore, the ill or inadequate configuration of devices is the cause of major VAS revenue shortfalls.
Statistics show that a large subsection of mobile subscribers does not return to a service after two failed attempts. To understand the reasons behind this exodus, it is imperative to understand the end user experience and build a solution around improving this experience. Users that experience service failure typically fall into the following three categories:
1) The device is not configured for data services.
2) The device is configured but the user does not know how to access or use the service.
3) The device is configured and the user does know how to access or use the data service but does not have any incentives.
We can draw two conclusions from those statements. Firstly, increased penetration comes from the timely injection of knowledge to the end customer to allow a richer user experience. Secondly, the last two points described above are dependent on the first point being in place.
This paper will therefore address the first point and in doping so, mobile operators will be able to ‘unlock’ potential data revenue and enrich the user experience.
Dealing with the complexity of multiple device settings
The shrinking of mobile devices’ life cycle – with a renewal rate of around 18 months - puts pressure on mobile operators. In addition to this accelerating renewal rate, mobile operators have to deal with the launches of hundreds of new devices on the market each year.
As a consequence, mobile devices are ever more complex and support an increasing volume of services. Unfortunately, the protocols and formats required are often different from one handset to another. This explains why, on a global scale, more than 30% of devices are not correctly configured to access mobile services. This portion can climb up to 90% for some networks. Operators’ ability to deliver the content and services in the adequate format relies on their ability to correctly detect and configure consumer’s devices.
The mobile device database, a key factor of success
Providing value-added services requires a global view of user’s handset database and the ability to provision these handsets rapidly and unobtrusively. To achieve such a challenge, operators should use a mobile device management solution that manages both the automatic detection and configuration of devices. The key factor here is to correctly detect all handsets used in the network, to know all of them and be able to configure them. Mobile device management opens the doors to mobile services and applications and builds the foundations for the launch of new ones. Indeed, the knowledge of the handset base (data-mining) enlightens marketing decision makers for designing and addressing future services.
The timely provision of information requires the detection of the subscribers when their attention span for the knowledge is the highest. This typically occurs when a user has either purchased a new device or a user has just put their existing SIM card into a new device. These events should be the trigger for the knowledge injection or the trigger to send the appropriate device settings to the user.
A good knowledge database of device capabilities also comes with a real-time triggering mechanism for the appropriate knowledge packet. This requires the ability to:
capture networks events related to users turning on their devices and the associated intelligence
compute if that event relates to a new user or a new device for an existing user
trigger the knowledge database to send the appropriate device settings to the user.
MCTEL Automatic Device Detection identifies new handsets and new subscribers on the network as soon as the subscriber inserts the SIM card in a new device. Once detected, MCTEL Automatic Device Configuration configures the device over-the-air in order to correctly enable value-added services or reconfigure the handset if settings have been superseded with competitor settings. Within a few seconds, the device is configured to offer the user the access to the maximum mobile services supported by his device.
MCTEL Device Management Center relies on its exhaustive device database storing 8000+ devices and 30 000+ TACs. New devices are added weekly and the database is updated with new settings and TACs information.
MCTEL Marketing Analysis provides a crystal clear and updated view of the operator’s device database. This provides the essential information on which devices and which functionalities are available on the network to target the audience and push them relevant services. The marketing analysis is real-time which is unique on the market.
2.
Evaluation of the solution and expected benefits
Mobile device management is a mean to address multiple objectives. Indeed, easing device configurations, having a real-time view of the device fleet and adapting mobile content to the right format are just the steps leading on the way to generating additional revenue.
The ultimate objective is fulfilled via the achievement of intermediary objectives that is directly obtained with the deployment of MCTEL Device Management suite.
As an example, for a 5 million subscriber operator, the estimated benefits are presented below for a repartition of the device fleet as follows:
Generating additional VAS revenue
The deployment of MCTEL Device Management solution directly impacts on:
Reducing Help Desk costs
Estimated monthly savings obtained with the deployment of MCTEL Device Management Center = 382 499,70 € / 508 724,60 USD
% of Wap-capable handsets 60% % of misconfigured Wap settings 30% % of MMS-capable handsets 55% % of misconfigured MMS settings 30%
Percentage of time cut in problem solving
with DMC 50%
Percentage of call cuts for misconfigured
settings with DMC 80%
euros dollars a) Monthly Help Desk costs (without DMC) 133 333,00 € 177 332,89 USD b) Monthly Help Desk costs (with DMC) 13 333,30 € 17 733,29 USD Monthly Help Desk savings for settings
(a - b) 119 999,70 € 159 599,60 USD Increase in Wap revenus (monthly) 90 000,00 € Increase in GPRS revenues (monthly) 90 000,00 € Increase in MMS revenues (monthly) 82 500,00 € Total increase in revenues (monthly) 262 500,00 €
Increasing customer retention
A satisfied customer does not leave his operator for a competitor. By directly addressing key factors of satisfaction - enabling value added services without the customer care assistance – mobile device management helps retaining customers and consequently avoiding drastic expenses on customer acquisition.
By providing new sources of satisfaction to mobile end users, MCTEL mobile device management efficiently combats customers’ turnover. Customer retention positively impacts mobile operators’ results since it avoids extra customer acquisition and allows increasing ARPU.
3.
Device Management in your network and VAS environment
As demonstrated above, mobile device management is the mandatory foundation of the VAS ecosystem. It is also an enabler in the network by providing any information about the devices available on the network. The interactions between device management platform and VAS ecosystem is sketched out hereafter:Welcome-to-Roamers
The Automatic Device Detection (ADD) module identifies mobile users attached on the operator’s network in real-time or in near real-time (according to the technology bearers), whether they are domestic subscribers or inbound roamers. This information is used to welcome inbound roamers and to get roamer profile (home country and home network) together with Push USSD device capability, so operator pushes a customized USSD browser towards the handset with valuable information for inbound roamer retention purposes: Embassy contact details, restaurants catering meals from his home country, and so forth. In the same way, information shared by ADD with WB helps at welcoming back outbound roamers.
Roaming Steering
The information provided by the device management is shared with the roaming steering platform to redirect in real-time outbound roamers to the preferred visited operator with the right method (SS7 or OTA) according to the characteristics of the handset.
Cell Broadcast Service
Cell Broadcast (CB) entity (e.g. Yield Zone; Home Zone; Dynamic Discount, emergency Alert Services…) requires Cell Broadcast messages to be properly accepted and displayed by the handset. Mobile device management platform with the ADD module can be used to configure in real-time the way the CB message is handled and displayed by the handset.
Value Added Service Provider (VASP) and Service Delivery Platform
(SDP)
Mobile device management platform shares device characteristics with VASP and the operator SDP allowing them to adapt the content to the subscriber handset capabilities.
USSD
Mobile device Management platform share device characteristics with USSD platform to determine the compatibility of handset with regards to USSD-NI (network initiated) feature (also called Push USSD). It can also enable pay-for-me service.
SIM OTA
The SIM OTA platform is used to fully control and manage SIMs, providing two main functions:
Update elementary files (EF) content, in order to control the subscriber behavior. In this way, for example roaming behavior can be controlled by updating the authorized and forbidden roaming partners’ files EF PLMN and EF HPLMN. It is also possible to change SMSC address, abbreviated numbers, authorized services, Cell Broadcast open channels and numerous other control data.
Download and update applets loaded on the SIM and offering additional functions, such as Roaming applets, IMEI tracks, Home Zone charging, NFC payments and many others.
Equipment Identity Register
The EIR platform combined with the ADD detects prohibited/stolen devices on the network and can bar some SIM boxes terminating gray traffic on the network and enforce an association between a given SIM and a device
MMS Center and Wap Gateway
The MMS Center relies on the external mobile database of the mobile device management platform. It can therefore adapt the multimedia content to the recipient’s handset capabilities. The mobile device management platform automatically provisions the MMS Center and Wap Gateway when a compatible device is detected.
Conclusion
The time when stand-alone mobile device management platforms were simply requested to configure handsets in real-time has gone by.
Today’s mobile device management solution must achieve multiple objectives in order to offer an optimized ROI:
Configure mobile devices attached to the operators’ network
Administrate fleet of handsets (both with OMA protocol suite and proprietary protocols)
Settings profiling according to subscribers identity (e.g. pre-paid, service subscription) and to their handset capabilities
Share information with other key elements of the VAS ecosystem
When simultaneously fulfilling these goals, the integration of mobile device management platforms with the VAS and core network elements efficiently enables and subtends the operator’s global VAS strategy.
Sharing product components with various solutions saves time and money and improves the ROI. MCTEL device management framework can therefore be used to adapt and deploy additional functionalities and customizations.
The MCTEL solutions are smartly thought to comprehensively address mobile operators’ requirements for their VAS ecosystem.
MCTEL Device & SIM Management enables VAS : ADD/ADC, Device handset database, Marketing Analysis, SIM OTA, EIR
MCTEL VAS Management suite allows VAS development and launches: VAS Gateway, VAS Platform, USSD Gateway, Smart Messaging
MCTEL Advanced Messaging ensures message protection and delivery: SMS and MMS Centers, USSD Gateway, SMS Center Hub, SMS Firewall, SMS Router
MCTEL Roamer Manager suite extends VAS : Welcome to Roamers, Roaming Steering, Roaming Border Controller, SMS Hubbing, Inbound Roamer Retention, Bon Voyage
MCTEL products framework allows a short deployment time scale. As a matter of fact, most of MCTEL solutions are available both in turnkey and SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) modes, reducing risk for mobile operators. They can switch from OPEX to CAPEX mode at any time.
About MCTEL
Founded in 1992, MCTEL is a private company owned by its managers with a minority share of the Principality of Monaco.
Combining carrier grade software with fully scalable platforms, MCTEL offers advanced solutions in:
Mobile Device management: Device Management Center, SIM OTA, ADD, EIR, Marketing Analysis, Cell Broadcast Versatile Delivery
Advanced messaging: SMS Center, SMS Firewall, USSD Gateway
Value Added Services: Service Delivery Platform and applications for VAS
Roaming: Roaming Steering, Welcome to Roamers & Bon Voyage, Inbound Roamers Retention
MCTEL has built-up a reputation and an unparalleled know-how in the fields of mobile services and value added services for mobile operators. MCTEL also operates its own International Aggregation Center with its own SMS Hub, SMS Center, USSD Gateway, Device Management / SIM OTA, and Mobile Payment platform connected to the SS7 international signalling backbone.
With its offices in Monaco, France, Dubai, Singapore, Mexico and Buenos Aires, MCTEL counts customers in over fifty countries worldwide. MCTEL is a member of OMA and GSMA.
www.mctel.net
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