Malaysia's U Mobile transforms its business support systems - Ericsson

Malaysia's U Mobile transforms its business support systems

U Mobile Sdn Bhd, a Malaysian telecom service provider, today announced that it has signed a five-year business support systems (BSS) transformation and managed services contract with Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC). Under the terms of the agreement, U Mobile's complete BSS architecture will be transformed into a real-time convergent environment.

The five-year managed services contract will allow U Mobile to focus its efforts on product development and at the same time have clearer visibility and more control over capital and operating expense. Upon completion of the transformation, U Mobile will become the first Malaysian operator to offer full-fledged convergent support to its subscribers. U Mobile will also be in a position to offer its customers more innovative services.

The convergent charging solution, based on Ericsson's Charging System and BSCS iX, will be deployed and integrated with the existing U Mobile infrastructure. Leveraging on the new BSS, U Mobile will expand its unique services - such as real-time promotions and notifications, product and services cross bundling, real-time cost control for postpaid subscriptions, subscriber personalization and flexible mobile wallets - which will become the key differentiators for U Mobile in the Malaysian market.

More than 1 million U Mobile prepaid, postpaid and hybrid customers will soon be migrated onto the new platform. By then, customers will be empowered to pick and choose what interests them the most and, at the same time, U Mobile will be able to design and offer promotions and campaigns in real time and in accordance with subscribers' interests.

Kaizad Heerjee, U Mobile CEO, says: "We are delighted to partner with Ericsson. With their expertise in delivering complex transformation projects and convergent-ready architecture, U Mobile will realize a complete standardization and modernization of billing architecture that will ultimately allow us to offer our subscribers more personalized products and, therefore, a higher quality of user experience."

Janne Laitala, Head of Ericsson Malaysia and Sri Lanka, says: "We are pleased to be U Mobile's transformation partner in bringing fully converged business and customer support to its subscribers. U Mobile customers should look forward to new and unique offerings, and an even better customer service experience."

Ericsson will be responsible for business process consulting, competence development, solution design, deployment and systems integration of the convergent billing solution, as well as managed services.

DOCOMO and Disney to Jointly Offer Smartphones and Mobile Services Under New “Disney Mobile on docomo” Brand | Press Center | NTT DOCOMO Global

DOCOMO and Disney to Jointly Offer Smartphones and Mobile Services Under New “Disney Mobile on docomo” Brand | Press Center | NTT DOCOMO Global:

TOKYO, JAPAN, February 1, 2012 --- NTT DOCOMO, INC. and The Walt Disney Company (Japan) Ltd. jointly announced today that they will introduce an exclusive smartphone brand, “Disney Mobile on docomo,” beginning with the launch of one model in late February and a second model in March.

Smartphones developed by the two companies will be sold by DOCOMO under the “Disney Mobile on docomo” brand.

A variety of exclusive benefits and special services and content will enable users of these smartphones, including adult women and others, to encounter unique Disney experiences.

Exclusive content and services will include:

Access to Disney full-length animations, live actions and overseas dramas.

Digital content from Disney, such as puzzle and music game applications for children and family-entertainment.

Original Disney applications, live wallpapers and more.

Various customer benefits in cooperation with Tokyo Disney Resort.

SingTel breakthrough enables mobile device management across the region - SingTel

SingTel breakthrough enables mobile device management across the region - SingTel:

Singapore, 1 February 2012 - Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel) today announced the launch of a global cloud-based service that enables companies to secure, control and manage corporate data and mobile devices of their employees, regardless of their location.

With the SingTel Mobility Device Manager (MDM) service, companies are able to manage devices of different mobile OS and ensure information security for mobile devices used by their workforce. This includes company-issued devices, as well as those belonging to employees.

Mr Bill Chang, SingTel’s Executive Vice President, Business Group said: “We are seeing a surge in the number of companies that allow their employees to bring their own mobile devices for work. In fact, the use of smartphones for business activities worldwide is projected to grow by 116% by 2014[1]. This opens up new security issues, particularly for companies with regional operations. With SingTel MDM, companies can now secure data through security policy settings and governance, control on devices, manage apps deployment and control cost through usage policy management. These can all be done via the simple-to-use web-based portal.”

In the event of the loss or theft of an employee’s mobile device, an administrator can remotely lock the device or selectively erase corporate data to prevent market sensitive information from falling into the wrong hands. Administrators can determine the location of the missing devices and remotely deploy and track apps downloads within the enterprise. They are also able to configure and provision the devices over-the-air.

SingTel MDM is compatible with all mobile OS platforms including iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone, Symbian and Windows Mobile. In addition, it is independent of the location and mobile network, thus facilitating the seamless control of mobile devices globally.

With the apps management and in-house apps publishing features, companies can publish their in-house apps separately from public apps. This ensures that only a company’s employees have access to the company’s apps such as sales, marketing or HR-related applications. Analysts believe that more companies will develop and deploy their own in-house apps for their workforce. The mobile device management market is expected to grow to US$6.6 billion by 2015[2].

With the ability to disable selected data-intensive applications, cost will also be controlled and managed, especially when a user is roaming. Furthermore, companies are also able to manage roaming costs by setting roaming alerts.

Mr Chang said: “As SingTel MDM is offered on a monthly subscription basis, companies do not need to make upfront investments in equipment and can avoid the ongoing costs of managing and maintaining complex systems and hardware. This allows them to improve their productivity, increase business agility and reduce their operating costs significantly.”

“We are gaining strong traction in Singapore and the region with this cloud-based service as we are able to help enterprises scale and roll out the service very quickly. This includes offering companies the option of hosting the service on their own premises. We will continue to offer a full suite of mobility IT services that help to address different customer needs,” he said.

SingTel MDM is collaboration between SingTel and MobileIron, a leading global MDM service provider.

“Over the last two years, we’ve seen global business running more and more often on mobile devices and demand for MobileIron is exploding globally,” said Bob Tinker, CEO of MobileIron. “We are very pleased to have SingTel, Asia Pacific’s leading communications group, as a major partner and to work with them to meet the needs of enterprise customers in the region.”