Nowhere to hide

Mobile telephony has proved to be the tip of the iceberg as convergence begins to bring so much more than mere voice to the mobile device. The corporate market is only now beginning to realise the added value additional cellular applications can bring to the business world.

There are several layers to mobile applications, according to Richard Vester, manager of Internet Solutions` mobile division, with the most utilised and recognisable of these being from the lowest layer.

"When it comes to integrating mobile devices into the office or corporate market, the starting point has always been e-mail and personal information management-type solutions," he says.

"Being able to access your e-mail or have your diary and appointments downloaded to your phone makes life much more simple for the so-called 'road warriors`, as they no longer have to be in the office to do so."

The next layer up in terms of mobile applications, he points out, is that of data and video transmission, which is now coming into the local market with the advent of third generation (3G) technology.

"Personally, I am a little sceptical about the necessity for video calls or the need to be able to access the Internet from one`s phone. Yes, it is a nice technology to have, but the question is, will it really be that big in SA?"

The latency and bandwidth issues associated with 3G technology still need to be properly ironed out, and these increase with each new layer that is added on, Vester adds.

"The final layer is that of file sharing and true data integration - such as taking something like SAP or Siebel and integrating this into your device, with the ultimate aim being to be able to do everything seamlessly, wherever you are in world," says Vester.

"The most important thing in the market right now is middleware - this is a key aspect of integration, because to pull multiple services across a single platform, you need middleware in order to link your back office applications to the device and provide a real-time link to your corporate network."

The direction mobile applications are moving towards means that if users aren`t looking at going mobile, they will be left behind, according to Vester.

"True mobility will radically alter the way business is done, but there are good and bad aspects to this," he says.

"Users are interested in what they can do with their phones today that they weren`t able to do a year or two ago. That`s what it boils down to," says Stephen Nolan, country manager at Motorola Southern Africa and GM for sub-Saharan Africa.

"Although from a business perspective, users are mostly utilising applications such as messaging and SMS in order to get their office to keep up with them wherever they are, the biggest drivers for new and better mobile applications are still those that are for fun, rather than work."

True mobility will radically alter the way business is done.

Richard Vester, mobile division manager, Internet Solutions

Nolan notes that the so-called fun drivers are those that are attractive to the youth market in particular, such as MMS, music downloads and - as it has already been proven with the Internet - mobile porn.

"Of course, at enterprise level it is different, because intelligent mobile workers need to be connected to the office wherever they may be, so it is connectivity that is the key driver in business terms.

"Companies are realising that when one speaks of a mobile workforce, it is no longer just about the 'road warriors`, it`s about using mobility to take your business to your customers."

Organisations, he says, are starting to realise the benefits of communicating with their customers in this manner, whether it is banking alerts or statements sent to a client`s phone, price lists, orders or inventory lists, the fact that there is direct access to the individual customer means that companies are having to rethink their business models.

According to Nolan, it is critically important for SA to be at the forefront of adopting new technology, because for example, during the 2010 FIFA World Cup, fans watching the games won`t simply be SMSing their friends. In all likelihood, they will be sending video clips and MMS in bulk, and service providers need to cater for this.

"This will be whole new ballgame for the regulator, local government and the network operators, and they will need to be firmly on top of their game by then," he believes.

Don`t just rush into it because it is 'cool` technology - make sure there are tangible benefits to your business.

Stephen Nolan, country manager and GM sub-Saharan Africa, Motorola

"It`s for this reason that we advocate a light governance model in terms of the Electronic Communications Act. While we agree that it is a good thing, it needs to be lightly regulated, players will need access to the right types of spectrum and bandwidth, and ultimately it should be driven by the industry."

He claims that although security is always an important issue, organisations should not move into this space with a defensive frame of mind, rather, they should be proactive and embrace the new technology.

"Ultimately the best way is to take a cross-functional approach, consulting not just with the IT department, but with everyone in the organisation who will be affected before deciding if it is the right decision."

While there is massive focus on where mobile applications are going and how best to put these new opportunities to good business use, one of the cornerstone mobile applications - the short message service (SMS) - has quietly and steadily gone about building a reputation as a key business driver.

There is a real and tangible financial reason for companies to look at using SMS technology to improve their business, says Rob Airey, director at SMS Cellular Services.

"The use of a secure and reliable SMS service not only increases an organisation`s communications efficiency, at the same time it decreases the costs of such communication, enabling a company to get in touch with its clients, staff or shareholders in a manner that is both more efficient and cheaper," says Airey.

One of the biggest issues with the adoption of SMS technology on a corporate level lies in the resistance to change, Airey says, as it requires a definite mindset shift to accept its use, in much the same way as many people initially struggled with the concept of e-mail when it was first mooted.

Orion Telecom`s business development manager, Roberto Casso, agrees with Airey, saying that although the market is aware of SMS and understands its uses, much educating still needs to be done before it will reach the status of being a true business tool.

SMS is a fantastic application that will complement other technology coming into the market.

Rob Airey, director, SMS Cellular Services

"It`s all about changing the way people think, because the applications to make life easier are either already here or in development. Also, the teenagers of today who have grown up on a diet of downloaded ringtones, picture messages and the like are the business people of tomorrow, and they will not have a set mindset, because they have grown up with the technology," Casso states.

Airey believes that while more complex applications will come into being, the SMS will probably remain the common denominator and be around for a long time to come, particularly as it is still the cheapest form of mobile communication.

"For what SMS is - namely a message of less than 160 characters - it is a fantastic application, and I feel that, as humble as it may seem, it will complement other technology that is coming into the market."

Even as applications get more sophisticated, they will nevertheless rely on SMS to remain part of the equation, he believes, even down to something like mobile banking, which is still heavily reliant on SMS to be a cog in the wheel as it is the information carrier.

"The beauty of SMS is that it is already so cheap and I believe prices will continue to come down. It`s a bit like airfares - the cheaper they become, the more people fly."

"Most South African citizens have never been in the position where they have had to worry about how to send money home, pay their accounts and so forth because we have great banking infrastructure in this country. However, there are some 13 million other people out there, who are part of the lower end of the market, often referred to as the unbanked," says Brian Richardson, founding director of Wizzit.

Wizzit, which has an alliance relationship with the SA Bank of Athens and operates as a division thereof, was formed about four years ago by a group of marketing people, who approached the problem of catering to this market from the user`s angle - finding out what the market required and then developing the technology to make it happen.

"Wizzit believes that mobile technology provides the ideal solution to this problem, since it is a fact that even within the unbanked sector, people who may not have much else, still have cellphones," says Richardson.

Jenny Hoffmann, CEO of MTN Banking, agrees, saying true mobile banking - the use of the mobile phone as the tool to provide access to a bank account that is not branch-connected - is the new wave and quite possibly the panacea for the small business sector in SA.

According to Richardson, when Wizzit set about developing its technology, there were certain prerequisites that had to be fulfilled, such as it being able to work on all cellular phones (even really old models), work on all SIM cards and across all networks and, most importantly, it needed to be easy to use.

He claims that opening a Wizzit account is a one-stop situation, with the process taking no longer than 20 minutes and the client getting their account in a box - in much the same way as pay-as-you-go cards are bought for airtime.

One of the important advantages lies in the real time nature of the service, since almost everyone has experienced a crisis at some stage where they needed to get money to someone else immediately, Richardson points out. However, with Wizzit, all that is required is the other person`s cell number and a deposit can be made - via cellphone - virtually instantaneously.

Another advantage, Richardson feels, lies in the fact that the Wizzit account can serve as a form of point-of-sale device for informal traders, who generally deal in cash only.

"In the same way that you can send money to someone, you can use the account to transfer money to the trader, thereby making his operation more secure because he has less cash on hand, simultaneously turning the cellphone into a merchant`s tool.

"Much of what we have done is innovative to the extent of being revolutionary - MasterCard, which certifies our technology, has openly acknowledged that it believes Wizzit to be the sexiest technology in the world - and cellphone banking has so much applicability for the developing world that I believe it can play a major role in helping to bridge the digital divide."

While it may appear that the mobile applications market is set for enormous growth in the near future, the real question remains which applications are likely to make their mark and what can we expect to see in the near future?

"With the price of data continuously dropping, we are likely to see an increase in data and user applications, such as mobile directories, that are currently available," says Definity Telecom`s GM, Greg Roodt.

"The uptake of mobile banking will continue to increase and we will continue to see businesses, such as hotel chains and flight centres, offering end-users the ability to book rooms or flights via their cellphones. As consumer confidence in such applications increases, these offerings are not so much a future development as a current reality that is just waiting to be deployed.

"There are, however, still a number of business challenges to be faced, namely cost, cost and cost."

Once the cost of bandwidth is reduced, he believes the uptake of cellular applications will increase substantially, and this will present businesses with the opportunity to implement additional applications, as well as allow them to integrate their existing applications into further services.

It appears that while some in the local marketplace may still debate the viability of mobility, the harsh reality is that organisations need to recognise mobility as the way of the future and rather start understanding how best to utilise these platforms, to ensure they remain competitive.

While governments continue to nurture the decade-old ideal of getting PCs to the masses, it is the simple cellphone, rather than the PC, that will be more likely to bridge the digital divide which separates emerging and developed markets.

That`s the view of Jan Dry, sector manager for public sector and financial services at Sun Microsystems for sub-Saharan Africa, who believes m-government, as opposed to e-government, will catapult Africa over the divide - provided governments make a concerted effort to deliver solutions the masses can use.

The GSM networks currently reach over 90% of the population; the fixed-line network only a fraction of that. The cost of extending the fixed-line network to all parts of the country will be astronomical and - with the advent of 3G with its potential to deliver rich content to handsets - unnecessary.

Cellphone banking has so much applicability for the developing world that I believe it can play a major role in helping to bridge the digital divide.

Brian Richardson, founding director, Wizzit

"While ubiquitous 3G is still a way off, the ability to communicate, enabled by 2G GSM networks, is the first step across the divide. Street vendors, for example, use their cellphones as a point of contact for the world: their handsets empower them to do business anywhere, anytime. They no longer have to rely on fact-to-face transactions," he says.

The advent of secure mobile banking will empower these business people even further, Dry believes. At the same time, while the cellphone can be used to transact, it could also be used as a secure means of identification in addition to being able to transmit information and content to the masses.

"Cellular communications will be a utility. The platform will be used for two-way communication - from government to the people and from the people back to government.

"SARS, for example, has made great strides in using modern technology and introducing electronic filing of tax returns. There is no reason why this can`t be done by the municipalities to deliver services," he says.

However, he points out that it is not just technology alone that will achieve what needs to be done, but rather processes and systems.

"Government departments need to work together to leverage the same platforms that will support their specific processes. Without this cooperation, the bridge that could be built so easily and quickly to cross the digital divide will take far longer."

In response to the need for an industry body to regulate wireless content, the Wireless Application Service Providers` Association (WASPA) was born.

WASPA was launched on 26 August 2004 with the full support of the three main network operators: Cell C, MTN and Vodacom.

In order to uphold public perception of mobile services and to protect against bad practices, it was decided that a strong industry body was needed, with an appropriate code of conduct, representing the interests of its members and consumers by enforcing the good practices established by this code.

The association intends to provide the following additional benefits as it grows and matures:

* A public complaints mechanism managed by persons trusted by both WASPs and the public.
* The option to nominate the industry association as the designated agent upon receipt of a take-down notification as referred to in Section 77 of the Electronic Communications and Transactions Act.
* Industry self-regulation/governance - a WASP sector with strong self-regulation is less likely to be subject to external regulation (from government, networks, etc).
* Establishment of public trust, for example, by the development of advertising guidelines for paid-for content services, or greater publicity of the SMS marketing code of conduct.
* The potential to lobby and represent the WASP industry on matters of mutual interest, in particular legal and regulatory issues that affect WASPs. Lobbying as an industry group is usually more effective than individual representations.

Areas where such activity may take place include:

* Proposed convergence legislation
* The provision of adult content and appropriate protection measures for minors
* Advertising and marketing codes of conduct
* Proposed privacy legislation
* Interaction with the Film and Publication Board on the questions of adult content and child pornography legislation
* Interaction with the Independent Communications Authority of SA
* Interaction with government
* Interaction with the existing and future networks on matters of mutual interest
* The opportunity to network with members and foster support structures as well as special interest groups

(Information courtesy of www.waspa.co.za.)