By Ofer Wolf, VP & General Manager IP Messaging Division, Comverse
The Time Has Come
Today's changing communications world is requiring operators to adjust all aspects of their business, including their lucrative messaging services.
Mobile, fixed, TV and Internet networks are converging and progressing toward an all-IP/IMS environment. Operators are faced with growing competition from messaging, VoIP and other players from the Internet world.
In addition, today's wide variety of messaging options, including SMS, MMS, email, instant messaging, and video sharing, is creating challenges for users and operators alike.
This new environment requires operators to evolve from maintaining separate messaging service silos, to providing a converged messaging experience.
Smart Messaging for a Converging World
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Converged messaging leverages existing messaging services to provide the messaging experience of tomorrow - today, while paving an evolutionary path towards IMS/IP networks. It provides seamless interworking across various messaging services, networks and terminals enabling users to enjoy a simple and intuitive experience for all messaging needs.
Converged messaging bridges the gap to fully IMS/IP convergent communications, making convergence a reality now and not just a futuristic vision.
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Converged Messaging User Interface
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Industry analysts agree that converged messaging will drive next-generation messaging applications by providing a holistic messaging experience across all types of networks and terminals.
Following are key success factors that can help ensure a successful converged messaging service.
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Make it Simple and Intuitive for the End User
Today's users enjoy a wide variety of messaging experiences - push (immediate), real-time sessions (conversations) or pull (retrieved), with voice, text, video, picture and multimedia content. However, today's separate messaging silos force users to make decisions about what type of service they want to use and to consider whether their intended contact has the capabilities to receive such a message before they even begin composing a message.
A converged messaging client simplifies the user experience by providing a single intuitive interface for all messaging services and modes - preserving the variety of messaging experiences that users currently enjoy while eliminating concern about underlying technologies. A single converged messaging client per device (TV, mobile handset, PC) encourages usage by ensuring a consistent messaging experience over all networks and terminals.
Leverage Existing Services and Infrastructure Investment
While operators need to provide a converged messaging solution to remain competitive, they cannot afford to jeopardize their existing messaging revenues and infrastructure investment.
Since converged messaging is an evolutionary solution that leverages existing messaging services, operators can immediately deploy new converged services such as email to MMS and Mobile IM to SMS - creating a more intuitive experience and generating additional revenues now without cannibalizing existing services or having to wait for all-IP messaging.
For example, operators can start by integrating SMS and Mobile IM. Interoperability |
between SMS and Mobile IM ensures SMS continuity by supporting all devices, and creates a critical mass of Mobile IM users from day one. This converged user experience is a first step towards a comprehensive converged messaging solution.
By ensuring interworking between all-IP/IMS and legacy networks and services, converged messaging enables IP/IMS users to send messages to all their friends, family and co-workers, regardless of the network they are using.
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Converged Messaging Scenarios in
All-IP and Hybrid Environments |
Add Value by Creating a Personalized Experience with New Capabilities
As opposed to messaging providers from the Internet world, operators have the advantage of knowing users' mobile device, network and service capabilities as well as their availability and reachability.
Operators can also provide users with the ability to set personal preferences, such as willingness to be contacted, how and by whom.
Leveraging this information provides users with an unmatched personalized user experience that automatically optimizes messages according to their device, network and service capabilities and preferences.
As users become more sophisticated, they will look for additional features to meet their total messaging needs. Converged messaging does more than combine messaging experiences under one umbrella service. In the all-IP/IMS environment, users will enjoy seamless integration with other communication means such as VoIP, offering new service capabilities and additional value.
The Challenges Ahead
Certainly there will be marketing and technical challenges to overcome as operators march down the path to an all-IP/IMS environment and start to launch converged messaging services.
For example, operators are already divided about the level of user provisioning that should be allowed. Some operators believe that the service should automatically route messages to the device and message type based on the operator information, without additional input from the subscriber. They believe that user provisioning is a drawback to use. Other operators take the opposite view - that user provisioning will make the service more personalized and more attractive - and that for every message sent, users should have the ability to choose if they want to start a conversation or want the message pushed to the contact's handset. If done right, both views can be accommodated by eventually providing a segmented service with different levels of provisioning based on the sophistication desired by the user.
On the technical side, while IMS/IP provides great promise, operators need to protect their considerable investments in today's messaging solutions.
While all-IP/IMS technology looks good on paper, there are always hurdles to be overcome when a new technology hits the field. By following an evolutionary model and ensuring backwards compatibility with existing services, operators can mitigate risks involved and protect their considerable investments in today's messaging solutions.
The Future Is Converged
The move to all-IP/IMS networks is underway. Faced with new capabilities, new competitors and new architectures, operators need a messaging solution that will enable them to defend and grow their existing revenues and become the user's preferred total communication provider.
By integrating messaging solutions now, converged messaging not only enables operators to maximize the revenue of existing technologies, but also enables them to maintain and reinforce customer loyalty.
Comverse Converged Messaging is one of many communication and content services that can run on the Comverse InSight™ Open Services Environment, an open, modular standards-based architecture for the creation and delivery of messaging, communications and content services for circuit-switched, IP, IMS and hybrid environments.
Copyright © 2006 Comverse, Inc. All rights reserved |
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