You are on page 1of 63

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

The past ten years its seems, have brought a centurys worth of change in the way humans interact and exchange goods and services. The richest man in the world, bill gates, once said In every one or two decades there comes a technology which changes the way humans carry out their daily lives forever. The television that change human entertainment in the 1950s forever, the computer in the 1960s that change humans work habits and the internet in the late 1970s that changes the way humans would communicate, learn, advertise, conduct business and so on. As a result of this, an important human chore was digitalized, like a number of others, - commerce. Thus, ecommerce or electronic commerce came into pictures. The present day is the witness to the wide reliance of man on M-commerce. Companies can make online catalogs of products and services so that mobile users can access that catalog from their mobile devices. Mobile commerce is still in its early stages. It can potentially provide customer satisfaction, help generate business opportunities, facilitate greater profits, build good relationships with customers and provide quick access to anywhere. Using m-commerce is an efficient method to reach the customer. It is used for various services like financial servicemobile banking or mbanking to access accounts, bill payment and remitting money, brokerage through the phone or mobile brokerage etc. They follow you wherever you go, making it possible to access the Internet while walking down the street with friends and family or while driving, looking for a nearby restaurant or gas station. As the Internet finds its way into our purses or shirt pockets, the devices we use to access it are becoming more personal too. Realizing the plethora of opportunities available, organizations are making a radical shift towards embracing mobile computing in their business practices. Mobile Service Marketer is an SMS-based marketing service that increases the use of the mobile services being advertised, thereby raising the revenue they bring in. For the service providers, Mobile Service Marketer is a useful advertising solution that respects the privacy of the mobile users. Using the Mobile Service Marketer Service has proved to be an excellent experience. Mobile text Messaging, or Short Message Service (SMS), as we all know it, is the ability to send and receive text messages to and from mobile telephones.

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

COMMERCE
Commerce is the trading of something of value between two entities. That something maybe goods services, information, money or anything else the two entities consider to have value. Commerce is the central mechanism from which capitalism and all other economic systems are derived. The process of transforming something into a commercial activity is called commercialization. Commerce has its origin from the very start of communication is prehistoric times. Trading was the main facility of prehistoric people, who bartered what they had for goods & services from each other. Peter Watson dates the history of long- distances commerce from circa 150000 years ago. Later, currency was introduced as standardized money to facilitate a wider exchange of goods & services. Currency solved this problem by allowing values to be assigned to things so that goods & services can in a way be effectively collected & stored for later use, or split amount several providers. Today commerce involves a complex system of companies that try to maximize their profits by offering products & services to the market, which consists both of individuals & other companies at the lowest production cost.

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

E-commerce
Electronic commerce or e-commerce consist primarily of the distributing, buying salving marketing, and servicing of products or services over electronic systems such as the internet and other computer networks. The information technology industry might see it as an electronic business application aimed at commercial transactions. It can involve electronic funds transfer, supply change management; e-marketing, on line marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchanged, automated inventory management systems and automated data collection systems. It typically uses electronic communications technology such as the internet, extranets, e-mail, e-books, data bases and mobile phones. Electronic business or e-business is any business process that is empowered by an information system. Today this is mostly done with the web-based technologies, the term e-business was coined by Lou Gerstner, CEO of IBM. Electronic business methods enables companies to link their internal and external processes more efficiently and flexibly, work more closely with suppliers and partners to better satisfy the needs and expectations of their costumers. In practice, this involves the introduction of new revenue streams through the use of ecommerce, the enhancement of relationships between clients and partners and improving efficiency from using knowledge management system. E-business can be conducted over the public internet, through internal internets and over secure private extranets. It is more than just e-commerce. It covers business processes along the whole value chain: electronic purchasing (e-procurement) & supply chain management, processing orders electronically, Customer service & corporation with business partners. This applies to traditional & virtual organization. Special technical standards e-business facilitates the exchange of data between companies.

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

Strength of E-commerce
In many cases, an e-commerce company will survive not only based on its product, but by having a well-organized business structure and a secure, well designed website. Such factors include:

1. Providing an easy and secure way for customers to order. Credit cards are the most popular means of sending payments on the Internet, accounting for 90%of online purchases. Card numbers are transferred securely between the customer and merchant through independent payment gateways, such as authorize.net. 2. Providing reliability and security. Parallel servers, hardware redundancy, fail-safe technology, information encryption, and firewalls can enhance this requirement. 3. Providing a 360-degree view of the customer relationship, defined as ensuring that all employees, suppliers, and partakers have a complete view, and the same view, of the customer. However, customers may not appreciate the big brother experience. 4. Constructing a commercially sound business model. If this key success factor had appeared in the textbook in 2000, many of the dots COM might not have gone bust. 5. Engineering an electronic value chain in which one focuses on a limited number of core competencies the opposite of a one stop shop.(Electronic stores can appear either specialist or generalist if properly programmed.) 6. Operating on or near the cutting edge of technology and staying there as technology changes (but remembering that the fundamentals of commerce remain indifferent to technology.) 7. Setting up an organization of sufficient alertness and agility to respond quickly to any changes in the economic, social and physical environment.

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

Weakness of E-commerce
Even if a provider of e-commerce goods and services rigorously follows these Ten key factors to device an exemplary e-commerce strategy, problems can still arise. Sources of such problems include: 1. Failure to understand customers, why they buy and how they buy. Even a product with a sound value proposition can fail if producers and retailers do not understand customer habits, expectations and motivations. E-commerce could potentially mitigate this potentially problem with proactive and focused marketing research, just as traditional retailers may do. 2. Failure to consider the competitive situation. One may have the capability to construct a viable book e-tailing business model, but lack the will to compete with Amazon.com. 3. Inability to predict environmental reaction. What will competitors do? Will they introduce competitive brands or competitive Webster. Will they supplement their service offerings? Will they try to sabotage a competitor site? Will price wars break out? What will the government do? Research into competitors, industries and markets may mitigate some consequences here, just as in non-electronic commerce. 4. Over-estimation of resources competence. Can staff, hardware, software, and process handled the proposed strategy? Have e-tailers failed to develop employee and management skills? These issues may call for thorough resources planning and employee training. 5. Failure to coordinate. If existing reporting and control relationship do not suffice, one can move towards a flat, accountable, and flexible organizational structure, which may or may not aid coordination.

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE 6. Failure to obtain senior man Failure to obtain senior management commitment. This often results in a failure to gain sufficient corporate resources to accomplish agreement commitment. This often results in a failure to gain sufficient corporate resources to accomplish a task. It may help to get top management involved right from the start. 7 Failure to obtain employee commitment .If planners do not explain their strategy well to employees, or fail to give employees the whole picture then training and setting up the incentives for worker to embrace the strategy may assist 8 Under estimation of time requirements. Setting up an e-commerce venture can take considerable tome and money, and failure to understand the timing and sequencing of tasks can lead to significant cost overruns. Basic project planning, critical path, critical chain, or pert analysis may mitigate such failings. Profitability may have to wait for the achievement of market share. 9 Failure to follow a plan. Poor follow through after the initial planning and sufficient tracking of progress against a plan can result in problems. One may mitigate such problems with standards tools benchmarking, milestones, variance tracking and penalties and rewards for variances. 10. Becoming the victim of organized crime . Many syndicates have caught on to the potential of the internet as a new revenue stream. Two main methods are as follows: Using identity theft techniques like pishing to order expensive goods and bill them to some innocent person, then liquidating the goods for quick cash; Extortion by using a network of compromised zombie computers to engage in distributed denial of service attacks against the target website until it starts paying protection money.

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

PRODUCT MARKETING STRATEGIES IN E-COMMERCE


The key parameters to be considered when coming up with our own product or services are;

What are we interested in? What are we passionate about? What subject or topic do we have a lot of knowledge about? What are people always coming to us for advice about?

Product marketing strategies involved in E-commerce


1. Develop a new product or services by researching potential competitors in the relevant area of interest to find out what their best selling product is and figure out a way to improve on it. 2. Check out the newsgroups, discussion boards, and chat rooms where the target market hangs out. And accordingly ask their opinion about their expectation from a particular product or services 3 If there is already existing customer base, e-mail survey should be done. Surveys are not only a great way to improve on any existing product or service we may offer, they are also a great way to discover fresh product or services idea. 4 Check out consumer review web sites to find out what people like and dislike about the competitors product. Some of the web sites are: http://www.consumerreview.com http://www.consumersearch.com

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE 5. Join an affiliate program and promote someone else product for a referral fee. . Collecting the money . Packaging the product . Shipping the product . Customer service We just do the promotion and collect our referral fee from the resulting sales.

6. Compile a certain type of information and then package it as an e book. 7. Another really powerful product idea is to locate a problem and then develop a product or service to solve it or in other words conducting NICHE MARKETING ON THE NET 8. A newsletter is a great way to earn a large income very quickly. In fact, if our newsletter covers an in demand topic and we build up a large subscriber base, we could potentially take advantage of numerous streams of revenue including: . Paid subscriptions . Advertising . Product promotion . Selling our customer database 9. Sell unique or hard to find products on auction web sites. We can sell some of the antiques, which are available easily in our area but are hard to find elsewhere and command a good price.

10. Create an online community and sell memberships and advertising. E.g. www.harrycool.com is a cool site for fun loving surfers on the net started just in 2002.

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

MATRIX OF E- COMMERCE

Consumer Consumer C2C EBay Auction Business B2C Amazon ( books, etc) Travelocity ( travel ) C2B

Business

Price line You name the price B2B Ford, GM, DC Mfg. To Suppliers

Internet domains C2C (consumer to consumer)


There is a considerable consumer-to-consumer communication on the web on a whole range of subject. Parentsoap.com is an online community of more than 200000 parent who spend time online gathering information, chatting with other parents, and linking to related sites. On agriculture.com, farmers can find commodity prices, recent farms news, and chat rooms of all types. The site is attractive as many five million hits per month. C2C means that online visitors increasingly create product information, not just consume it. They join internet interest groups to share information, so that word of web is joining word of mouth as an important buying influence. Words about good companies travel fast; and word about bad companies travel even faster. For example EBay is a person to person trading community with more than 23 million registered users.

Internet domains C2B (consumer to business)

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE Consumer is also findings are easier to communicate with the companies. Companies often encourage communication by inviting prospects and customer to send in questions, suggestion, and even complaints wia e mail. Some sites even include a call me button the consumer click on its and his or her phone rings with a customer representative ready to answer a question. Smart online marketers will answer quickly, by sending out newsletter, special product or promotion offers based on purchase histories, reminders of service requirements or warranty, or announcements of special events.

Internet domains B2C (business to consumers)


The popular press has paid the most attention to consumer to consumer web sites. In 2000 more that 106 million Americans went online with the 80 percent looking for information, 73 percent researching a product or a service before buying it 68 percent looking for travel information and 65 percent looking for information on movies, books, and leisure activity. The most frequent online consumer purchase ( in terms of the percentages online buyers saying they have purchase in the category ) have been books (58%), music (50%), software (44%), air tickets (29%), pc peripherals ( 28%) clothing (26%), videos (24%), hotel reservation (20%), toys (20%), flowers (17%) and consumers electronic (12%). Individual are also using the internet to search for others to meet or date on such sites as match.com, Americansingles.com, or virtuallydating.com. Companies must set up and operate their e- commerce shows.

Internet domains B2B (business to business)


Although the popular press has given the most attention to business to consumers web sites, even more activity is being conducted on business to business sites. The b2b sites changing the supplier customers relationships in profound ways. Forester and Gartner, major research firms on online commerce, estimates that B2B commerce is 10 to 15 times greater than B2C commerce. Gartner estimated that by 2005 more than 500000 enterprises will participate in e-markets as buyer, sellers or both. These firms are using B2B auction sites, spot exchange online product categories barter sites and other online 10

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE resources to obtain better prices. Many major enterprises, including Chevron, Ford motor Company, GE and Merck, have invested millions in web procurement system. The results invoices that used to cost $100 to process now cost as little as $20.

COLLABORATIVE COMMERCE
11

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

Collaborative Commerce (C-Commerce) is the name given to commercial relationships carried out over a collaborative framework to integrate enterprises business processes, share customer relationships and manage knowledge across enterprise boundaries. The ultimate aims of C-Commerce initiatives are to maximize return on intellectual capital investment, business agility and the quality of the customer experience. C-Commerce is far more crucial than basic B2B e-commerce that is designed to construct a virtual link for a pre-defined community of trading partners to buy or sell goods and services. Even after the fall of the dot-com era, corporate strategists and venture capitalists are embracing C-Commerce as the next generation of e-commerce and an evolution of the traditional supply chain process.

How Web Services Redefine Collaborative Commerce


So far, we are in a very early stage in the evolution of web business. We have been able to overcome the issue of the standardization of enterprise application programming interfaces around the web, and have managed to undertake tremendous business-tobusiness exchange transactions over the web, albeit with high integration costs. Web Services promise to revolutionize this process.

12

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE In the figure above, we can see the three stages of c-commerce, from bottom-left to topright:

First stage of C-Commerce - web enabled c-commerce, a one dimensional, single e-enabled business process that allows certain internal data to be visible to external trading partners, and vice versa. Typically, this meant implementing a web presentation of the data, and allowing partners access to it. This is a limited form of c-commerce, with very limited value, saving only labor cost. Typical applications would be displaying demand for production materials, showing sales forecasts to suppliers, or presenting bills electronically.

Second stage of C-Commerce - B2B exchanges in markets such as steel, auto parts, chemicals or airline equipment. Buyers, sellers and suppliers are integrated through a web portal. In this stage, each enterprise can reconfigure its supply chain through the marketplace to leverage aggregated buying power and eliminate brokerage fees and middlemen. The first two stages of C-Commerce have never reached the critical mass required for mass adoption by all industries, because of the cost of integration.

Third stage of C-Commerce - will be built on Web Service as a core integration engine to deliver seamless process integration, seamless customer satisfaction integration and seamless product design integration. It is a plug and play sort of C-Commerce rather than a hard-wired, integration driven effort.

13

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

MOBILE COMMERCE
What is Mobile Commerce (m-commerce)? E-commerce will coming soon become Mobile Commerce (m-commerce) because mobile devices are more user friendly than computer. Peoples checking movies details and many other useful information on their mobile devices. Many companies accepting payment by SMS payment system. In future Mobile Commerce (m-commerce) will be sales and marketing showcase, educational application for companies. Why Mobile Commerce (m-commerce)? Companies can use Mobile Commerce (m-commerce) to increase sales of their products and services. Mobile commerce can bring huge buyers for companies. Benefits of Mobile Commerce (m-commerce)

Buyers can access products catalog on their mobile devices. Companies can do promotions Companies can show products. Customers can price details from any place.

How Mobile Commerce (m-commerce) can help Companies? Companies can make websites for mobile devices, which is popularly known as WAP or Wireless Application Protocol. Companies can make online catalogs of products and services so that mobile users can access that catalog from their mobile devices. Does the technology have any limitations? Mobile commerce is still in its early stages. It can potentially provide customer satisfaction, help generate business opportunities, facilitate greater profits, build good relationships with customers and provide quick access to anywhere. There are limitations such as small screen, lesser processing power vis-a-vis PCs, circuit switching technology

14

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE on older cellular networks that increases the cost and causes inconvenience for the subscribers to obtain data on a mobile phone. This will change, as GPRS and 3G have started to move into the mainstream. Have any industries been affected by m-commerce? Using m-commerce is an efficient method to reach the customer. It is used for various services like financial servicemobile banking or m-banking to access accounts, bill payment and remitting money, brokerage through the phone or mobile brokerage etc. Access to stock quotes and trading is possible through phone. In telecommunication services, users can make bill payments and review accounts. Services or retail consumers have the facility to place and pay for orders on-the-fly. Users can also have the access to information like delivery of financial news, sports figures etc. IBM and few other companies are developing speech recognition software to ensure secure m-commerce transactions. What are the kind of transactions that commonly take place via m-commerce? In m-commerce there are three types of transactions. The first is carrier-based service. Users can use carrier billing to purchase something through their wireless device. They bill their purchases to their monthly carrier bill or its deducted from their pre-paid deposit. The second option is to use a credit card over a wireless network connection. Users have the facility to store their credit card data on a mobile phone using their cell phone as a surrogate or a card. Thirdly, financial services can transfer money between accounts and pay bills through wireless transactions. Whats the technology used in m-commerce? Numerous technologies are used in m-commerce like GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) and HSCD High Speed Circuit Switcheddata protocol based on GSM uses four channels to provide four times the radio transmission rates or 57.6 kbps. This technology is outdated due to the introduction of GPRS(General packet Radio Service).

15

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE GPRSwireless service based on GSM, EDGE (Enhanced Data rate for Global Evolution), UMTS (Universal Mobile Television System), microbrowsers, Mobile Commerce, or m-Commerce, is about the explosion of applications and services that are becoming accessible from Internet-enabled mobile devices. It involves new technologies, services and business models. It is quite different from traditional eCommerce. Mobile phones or PDAs impose very different constraints than desktop computers. But they also open the door to a slew of new applications and services. They follow you wherever you go, making it possible to access the Internet while walking down the street with friends and family or while driving, looking for a nearby restaurant or gas station. As the Internet finds its way into our purses or shirt pockets, the devices we use to access it are becoming more personal too. Already today, mobile phones and PDAs know the phone numbers of our friends and colleagues. They are starting to track our location. Tomorrow, they will replace our wallets and credit cards. One day, they may very well turn into intelligent assistants capable of anticipating many of our wishes and needs, such as automatically arranging for taxis to come and pick us up after business meetings or providing us with summaries of relevant news and messages left by colleagues. But, for all these changes to happen, key issues of interoperability, usability, security, and privacy still need to be addressed

16

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

WHY MOBILE SMS/TEXT MESSAGING?


Mobile text Messaging, or Short Message Service (SMS), as we all know it, is the ability to send and receive text messages to and from mobile telephones. The text can comprise words or numbers or an alphanumeric combination. SMS was created as part of the GSM Phase 1 standard. The first short message is believed to have been sent in December 1992 from a Personal Computer (PC) to a mobile phone on the Vodafone GSM network in the UK. Each short message can be up to 160 characters is length when Latin alphabets are used. Customer Usage and Market Growth There is no doubting the success of the Short Message Service - the market in India alone has reached over one billion messages despite little proactive marketing by network operators and phone manufacturers. Key market drivers over the next two years such as the access of cheaper mobile technology to the masses will continue this growth path. Mobile Messaging: How can your business benefit? Enterprise Messaging Enterprise uptake of mobile applications is set for phenomenal growth. By 2005, Gartner anticipates that 65 percent of enterprises will be harnessing the power of wireless applications to efficiently automate the existing business processes and use wireless connectivity for one or more user groups. Statistics are already showing a considerable growth in the enterprise messaging, within the last seven quarters. Where does enterprise messaging fit into your business No matter what the nature or model of your business is, you can effectively exploit the potential of Mobile Messaging. Following are some examples of the application areas where Mobile Messaging is excelling:

17

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE 1. B2B Messaging Mobile terminated and mobile originated SMS and MMS via UCP, XML and PHP interface Benefits: Using industry standard protocols provide easy integration with existing systems as well as a robust and scalable model for future technologies. 2. B2B Campaigns and list processing Permission-based mobile marketing campaign of consumer goods, advertisement campaign, promotions etc. Benefits: Mobile marketing provides unparallel advantage of effectively targeting specific audience level. 3. B2B Applications Customized mobile applications conforming to a business rule and addressing a specific target audience. Example: MIS reports to mobile sales force, critical data to mobile technical work force. The possibilities are unlimited and the flexibility is enormous! How to choose a high quality and reliable service provider for SMS/Text Messaging for your enterprise messaging needs? The first option that comes to one's mind is mobile operators. However, though they have complete control over network infrastructure, they are generally not too keen to service customer for meeting their messaging needs. The prime reasons for this are:

Enterprise

messaging

involves

complex

integration

with

backend

database/applications

The volume of messages is typically not high (except in large B2C companies) The criticality of message delivery is extremely high Operators largely cross subsidise 'voice' with 'data' services.

18

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

It a specific network is down, then the service suffers. The service need extra attention in terms of providing high service levels

There are many independent providers of mobile data services focussed in the domain of enterprise messaging that provide end-to-end SMS/text messaging service. There are several advantages of working with an operator neutral service provider:

Easy and quick integration with back-end application/databases Connections with multiple operators ensure better service quality (i.e. service is continued even if the network of a specific operator fails) Single entry point into the mobile networks. Uniform application access ? no duplicate efforts required Reliability and timeliness - Acknowledged mobile messaging with guaranteed message delivery information available Integrated payment ? one stop shop for all billing aspects and Seamless and secure messaging environment.

19

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

RETAIL MARKETING IN INDIA GOES CELLULAR


"As marketers see a critical mass developing in the mobile subscriber base, brands are opening up to the idea of marketing through the mobile," says Raj Singh, executive director, Active Media Technology India. Marketers are waking up to the power of the mobile handset like never before. With SMS and short codes becoming pass, the ubiquitous handset is offering new opportunities for brands to make inroads into the consumer's mind space. Mobile coupons, location specific services, mobile portals and advertising on the mobile are just few of the tools being deployed by marketers to reach the 90 million strong mobile subscribers base in India. In what could be termed as the second generation of mobile marketing, subscribers can look forward to an array of segmented marketing and advertising initiatives on their mobile screens.

Mobile Coupons
Wireless marketing technology provider Active media Technologies has partnered with mobile operator Hutchison Essar to deliver m-coupons, which can be cashed across 40 retail outlets such as Barista, Domino's Pizza, Lifestyle and Kaya Skin Clinic. Similarly, Airtel has joined with Enpocket, a global leader in intelligent mobile marketing, to give advertisers a convenient, effective way to reach a major cross-section of the country's population. Also, mobile2win is in talks with mobile operators to start location-based services that will enable marketers to reach out to the prospective customer while he is in the vicinity of the outlet by giving various incentives and offers. With richer capability handsets enabled with GPRS and WAP invading the Indian market, it's becoming easier for marketers to reach out to consumers.

20

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE "As marketers see a critical mass developing in the mobile subscriber base, brands are opening up to the idea of marketing through the mobile," says Raj Singh, executive director, ActiveMedia Technology India. ActiveMedia Technology is working with Hutchison Essar to deliver the "Hutch Tuesday" program, wherein Hutch subscribers have exclusive access to offers across retail partners being test marketed in Mumbai. Hutchison Essar hopes to add more partners to the existing 300 as they go along with the scheme. "We intend to give more offers and privileges to our subscribers in the future through these electronic coupons," says company's operations director Harit Nagpal.

Pepsi Reaching Consumers


Pepsi is also getting into the action. It has recently launched a mobile portal called "Pepsi Globe Smart Client." "Mobile marketing for us is about delivering to our consumers engaging and interactive content rather than using it as a reach building device," says Vipul Prakash, executive vice president, marketing, PepsiCo India. Differentiated content from the mainline media is also a key in making mobile campaigns work. Pepsi would be undertaking big cricket campaigns in the future and expects to spend 5 percent of its overall ad spends on mobile and wireless. "Mobile marketing is not a spend intensive industry but a content intesive one," adds Prakash. In the first month, the Pepsi mobile zone has gotten 55,000 downloads, although it is still in the test run stage.

Location-Based Services
Location-based services is another marketing tool being explored by content providers such as mobile2win. "We have the technology ready for location based services. It's the mobile operators who have to give the go-ahead," says Rajiv Hiranandani, country head, mobile2win.

21

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE This service will enable marketers to reach out to the prospective customer while he is in the vicinity of the outlet by giving various incentives and offers." With forecasts of mobile marketing revenues reaching US$3 billion globally, according to RBC Capital markets, Indian mobile operators are also upping their ante to latch on to this revenue generating stream. Airtel recently appointed Enpocket, a global mobile marketing solutions provider, to provide ad serving technology for mobile Internet via the Enpocket marketing engine. The Enpocket solution will enable Airtel to offer mobile advertising opportunities to brands and companies. Worldwide, Enpocket provides mobile marketing technology to Vodafone, Sprint, Alltel, Singtel, Nokia, Samsung, Panasonic, BenQ-Siemens, Trinity Mirror, TNT, Pepsi and Nike.

22

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

THE BIG CHALLENGE THE BUSINESS USERS


Surprisingly, businesses have often failed to create centralized purchasing for mobile devices and operator contracts. This has led to individual departments buying mobile services, rather than this coming under the remit of the IT or telecommunications department. It has also led to the perception of mobile devices as a 'nice-to-have' rather than business-critical tool. The hyping of mobile business solutions has not helped. Enthusiasts have attached an 'M' to existing IT solutions, and foresee a world of M-CRM, M-SCM and so on. However, CIOs need to be clearly convinced of the benefits. Their view of mobile applications is usually based on the current limitations of mobile devices and networks. Hence, they are extremely wary of such offerings. They are also unwilling to pay high premiums as earlyadopters -- a Gartner study of European CIOs found that only 24% would pay extra for 3G. However, the same study found that 82% of CIOs see mobile devices as very important to their businesses, and expect their company's usage to grow substantially in the next three years. The three main benefits were seen as improved customer satisfaction, cost savings and new business opportunities. Thus, the pent-up demand is there if businesses can be convinced of the benefits. They also need to be reassured on implementation issues with security typically being the main worry. They need support in integrating mobile applications into existing business systems, managing new devices and infrastructure, and developing and deploying business applications over wireless links. Their concerns also include softer issues such as training and management issues, asset allocations, virus scanning, and application updates. These issues are now being addressed by the operators, consultancies, systems integrators and outsourcers in supporting enterprise usage of mobile applications. The business community is now perceived as vital to their success. We will start to see far more enterprise-wide agreements to support this. For example, Vodafone and KPMG signed a 23

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE deal in August for Vodafone to provide mobile services to the 30,000 employees of the KPMG European Anchor Practice. This will provide such benefits as centralized management and billing, short code dialing and using the same access codes regardless of location. Some businesses will be surprisingly innovative in using mobile solutions. Such examples of less obvious early adopting vertical markets will include: Retailers -- particularly supermarkets or those dealing with the youth market. The supermarkets have been closely involved in the success of mobile in Europe, as aggressive distributors. A number have already become virtual operators, and others have been assessing the establishment of WLANs in their stores. Internally, mobile scanning devices and workforce management will become widespread. Banks -- are not renowned for their innovation, but they have reacted to the competitive interest shown by mobile operators who have implied they will apply for banking licenses. Despite its problems, they have been among the early adopters of WAP in offering banking services, and using mobile services as an enhanced package to their customers. Utilities -- see clear advantages in reduced costs and improved services in mobile data offerings. For example, in using mobile links for remote monitoring of meters and remote diagnostics. They are also often involved as investors in mobile consortia in Europe. Auto -- with 70% of US mobile calls believed to be made in cars, there has always been a strong relationship between the two industries. NTT DoCoMo believe more than 100 million Japanese cars will be equipped with mobile multimedia devices by 2010. Car journeys also provide a lot of the 'idle time' which is perfect for many mobile applications.

24

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE Forms and convergence Internet, mobile telephony and events constitute the bulk of interactive marketing action. With more than 0.2 million cyber cafes spread across the country, it is no wonder that nearly two-thirds of India's internet users access the web through cyber cafs. But the spread of broadband into households through cable is also well under way, and at affordable monthly charges of about 10 US dollars. There is no dearth of portals dedicated to online games and contests. Interactive advertisements in rich media, with hyperlinked clicks leading to audio-visual commercial messages, are quite common on popular websites. Most of the leading Indian media portals have their hands full in keeping up with the demand for ad space on their web pages. Said Yahoo India's Country General Manager Neville Taraporevalla in a presentation, "Ad inventory is in short supply." As highlighted in the beginning of this article, ecommerce is also growing at a rapid pace in India. More than two-thirds of the mobile subscriber base is youth, with a strong penchant for SMS. Marketers of financial services were among the first in using cell phones to serve their customers. Many banks facilitate balance checks of customers' accounts through SMS messages. ABN Amro and Kelloggs are two of the MNCs to promote their products/services through mobile phones. To further exploit the full potential of SMS in a country with 18 officially recognized languages, Nokia launched many handsets at affordable prices that enable SMS in the most spoken language, Hindi. Both automated and real-time voice calls are also extensively used, in varied contexts of CRM. Media convergence is in full swing, with mobile, TV and internet being complementarily used by marketers. Reality shows on leading TV channels in India thrive on interactive responses from viewers through SMS messages. These either enable participation on the shows or decide the winners on the reality programs telecast. KBC2, the second edition of the Indian equivalent of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", elicited 1.6 million phone calls/SMSes for the first three episodes telecast on Rupert Murdoch owned Star TV in 25

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE August 2005. In early 2006, viewers cast as many as 55 million votes through SMS/telephone/internet to decide the winner of a singing contest "Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2005" on a TV channel. For brand promotion and creating buzz, marketers and advertising agencies regularly use contest websites such as contests2win and Hungama. Sometimes even print and radio media are used in tandem with other media, for crosspromotion. Direct marketing, sales promotion and events are also a regular part of leading Indian marketers' strategies, across different product categories. Almost all of the major advertising agencies have exclusive units to cater to the interactive communication needs of their clients. Ogilvy & Mather and Euro RSCG, for example, have their wings O&M Interactive and Euro RSCG Interactive.

Recent initiatives
The following table lists some of the recent Indian interactive campaigns: Product Marketer Lufthansa Category Airline Brief Description Mobile auction of a few tickets between New Delhi and New York SMS-based Kelloggs Cereals in its cornflakes Sony Entertainment Television Media Identification of a tune (program titled Kuch Kehti Hai Ye Dhun) played on TV, through SMS responses Question/answer SMS contest, Wrigleys Smirnoff Chewing gum to promote its Meetha Fresh flavor of chewing gum Alcoholic SMS-based contest to create 26 contest, to promote Iron Shakti ingredient

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE buzz around a theme party (Smirnoff Experience) Interactive SMS promotion to promote Vanilla Coke Interactive Dominos Pizza Convenience promotion food around Cinnastix Online advergame, to promote Nestle Beverage its instant coffee brand Nescafe Yamaha Automotive Online game, to promote its bikes its to SMS-based create new hype product

Beverage Coca-Cola Soft drink

As is evident from the table, across different product categories marketers are treading the interactive path to consumers' hearts and minds. To elicit proper responses to the contests, marketers dole out attractive prizes, such as mobile phones, T-shirts, CDs, vouchers redeemable at department stores, audio systems, TVs, et cetera.

ENTRY BARRIERS TO MOBILE APPLICATIONS While the mobile market is progressing at a rapid stride, the major components - devices, wireless networks and applications - are constantly evolving at varying speeds. 27

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE Devices The wireless market is developing with a myriad of pervasive devices and it becomes a Herculean task to deploy mobile applications that allow communication between multiple devices. This calls for the development of user-profiles performing intelligent routing capabilities, which help in determining the device configurations and communicate accordingly. The following characteristics are to be determined while designing mobile applications: Form factor or giving area size Browser capabilities, languages supported. Available input methods. Text coverage graphics support etc. Expandability, option and slot Push technology support. Ruggedness. Information storage capability. Device performance calculation and logic. Networks Wireless networks have their own standards in terms of connectivity and functionality aspects. These include gateways, towers and access links that are dependent on an organization's use of network protocols, application logic and device access. The characteristics for wireless networks are defined in terms of: Support to open internet standers and protocol Extent of wireless network coverage. Cost factor. Uniform/forty coverage.

28

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE Data transmission, speed security concern Time taken to service request. Applications While the wireless device market is constantly evolving in areas of field service and sales force automation, vendors are extending their applications to support these new devices. In this scenario, mobile application architecture confined to a single standard or device will experience difficulty in adapting to new technology advancements. Essentially, the mobile application architecture should be robust and flexible in providing user-friendly mobile solutions that are secure, reliable, scalable and manageable. The different characteristics to be considered for mobile applications are: Support interoperable standards; adapt to new technology advances Address bandwidth constraints. Coverage fluctuations, also known as spotty coverage Rapid development of mobile applications Extent of separation between presentation and business logic in delivering wireless data access Continuous growth. Demanding agility in the applications space, the market is maturing from generic middleware into a new generation of multi-channel middleware paradigm. Application vendors are finding means to diversify access to multiple devices and networks with intermittent connectivity.

EXPLORING MOBILE APPLICATIONS TECHNOLOGY

29

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE The first wave of Mobile Application Framework surfaced mainly to support Web applications. The framework handled only a Web browser-processing HTML through a thin-client device. Realizing the need for multi-channel access with rich user-interface capabilities, the current wave extends into product architectures to support multi-client devices. Presently, most application framework vendors are turning to provide wireless application gateways (WAGs) and other mobile-enabling features such as synchronization, event notification etc. A typical mobile environment scenario, wherein, middleware plays a key role involves: * Optimized Communication: Operates through a common set of APIs making it easy to develop and deploy mobile applications that optimize communication over IP-based networks. * Security: Encryption/decryption functionalities using PKI technologies guarantee secure data exchange over wireless networks. * Bandwidth: Features such as compression and transport optimization help in effective data transmission. * Industry-standard protocols: Optimal utilization of TCP/IP protocol to reduce airtime expenses, and to support wireless communications. * Compatibility: Offers compatibility between industry-standard TCP/IP protocols and all wireless networks through its common set of APIs. * Spotty coverage: Automatically adjusts to spotty/fluctuating coverage by minimizing connection loss (possible by slowing down and speeding up), as and when required. * Offline capability: One of the key features of middleware is its ability to support offline functions. Here, the middleware assigns some of the processing capabilities on the

30

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE wireless device so that the user can be connected for a shorter amount of time and manipulate the data on the wireless device while offline. * "Push" Technology: The core functionality to mobile applications is its ability to "Push" data to mobile users' devices as they operate in disconnected and out of coverage modes. This is possible in different ways such as connected, disconnected and prior filtering process capabilities. * Device agnosticism: Allows multiple devices to communicate without the need to know device-specific coding. * Network Connectivity: Facilitates increased geographic coverage across multiple mobile devices that are independent of network providers and carrier technologies. * Personalization: Middleware solutions offer personalization through scripting, markup language, user-interface etc. This includes message alerts, the look-and-feel aspect, historical usage patterns etc. * Application systems integration: Tight integration of traditional databases, legacy systems and voice systems with mobile applications. XML is proven to be the widely accepted choice to operate across multiple systems. * Manageability: As part of the middleware suite, the management software handles clients (i.e., devices) via multiple networks, by updating and synchronizing information from enterprise back-end systems. * Session management: Maintains session integrity across multiple devices and channels by embracing the concept of mobility, transporting a session from one device to another etc. * Database Synchronization: Offers connectivity from any back-end system / database to any device that executes only those specified data transfers. Connectivity is also extended within existing enterprise applications like SCM, ERP etc. Apart from this, the wireless

31

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE communication component in middleware provides access to other peripheral devices like camera, POS, GPS, barcode scanners, fax etc. * Business Rules: Applying business logic and rules, middleware leverages the existing work and code that simplifies workflow, eliminates duplication effort, and saves time and money.

SMSMAP - TECHNOLOGY FOR MOBILE ADVERTISING


SMS Mobile Advertising Platform(SMSMAP) is a carrier grade advertisement server. With SMSMAP network operators and service providers can offer a new mobile media to advertisers creating substantial new revenue from their subscriber base and increasing messaging traffic. SMSMAP makes possible to provide service to customer companies mobile campaigns to send advertisements, information and sponsored content to mobile handsets. With SMSMAP, it is quick and easy to create customizable services from off-the-shelf campaigns. Several different campaigns of several customers can be run and managed simultaneously on SMSMAP. The solution incorporates permission marketing support, mobile user profiling and personalisation, precise targeting mechanism, push and pull mobile messaging, advanced reporting, and billing. The advanced SW technology used in SMSMAP enables functionality expansion to quickly respond to the evolving needs of mobile advertising business. SMSMAP key benefits: Enabler for a new revenue stream Fast campaign Expandable library of mobile campaigns

32

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE Mobile e-commerce and secure payment solutions integration Numerous mechanisms for high-precision advertisement targeting Spamming prevention through personal bandwidth management Advanced campaign monitoring and statistics Comprehensive set of platform management features Permission marketing support

33

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

MOBILE ADVERTISING, THE NEXT BIG WAVE IN INDIA AS THE MARKET MATURES
Hyderabad, August, 2003: OneTele has officially launched Mobile Ad Robot, the Smart Mobile Advertisement Server for wireless network operators and service providers. The product is the first to be publicly released from OneTele's line of robust and scalable back-end software platforms for mobile e-commerce. Mobile Internet analysts predict the revenues from mobile advertising and marketing to top $1 Billion already next year, due to the fact that there are 350 Million existing "adenabled" mobile handset users out there and the number of WAP-devices is increasing rapidly, too. By 2003, mobile advertising will surpass online advertising revenues. "Mobile Advertising market will grow extremely fast within the next 18 months. It will do to value-added services what the web did to the Internet" comments Dr.Venkatesh, Executive Vice President of OneTele. "We are proud to launch Mobile Ad Robot in the series of out Robot wares at this point of time, when the market has not yet taken off as analysts except. We are ready for the heat when it hits us. We are making pioneering efforts in intelligent and self intuitive wares for business applications and advanced research in artificial intelligence" said Group Chairman Dr P.V.Majeed while dedicating the product. One Tele's Mobile Ad Robot is a carrier grade solution enabling operators and service providers to send advertisements to mobile handsets in their network. Mobile Ad Robot supports direct advertisements or sponsored content and rich media such as ring tones as the mobile media. The solution incorporates push and pulls technology, advanced reporting and campaign management. With Mobile Ad Robot operator or service provider can ensure advertisers to reach their target audience. One Tele Communications develops and sells mobile commerce and mobile CRM software technology and related value-added services enabling smart mobile advertising 34

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE and customer communication. The company develops mobile applications for next generation automation technologies for insurance, banking and financial services in workforce automation and customer contact automation. The company founders have professional backgrounds in mobile service development, wireless technology and technology marketing and entertainment. OneTele's strategy is to become market leader and increase our network of partners both in the India, Asia and Europe

35

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

SWOT ANALYSIS OF CELLULAR MOBILE INDUSTRY


Strengths Huge wireless subscriber potential. Fastest growing mobile market in the world. Consumers are ready to pay for cutting edge services. India possesses cheap labor to attract foreign investments. Telecom software, telecom professionals, telecom infrastructure and telecom services are the key players in shaping todays economy. Revenue sharing strategies are leading to mergers and acquisitions, helping companies to enter new business opportunities, and generate employment, boosting the countries economy. Weakness Market strongly regulated by government body the telecom regulatory authority of India. Existence of entry barriers for private companies. High cost of service provision. Low income countries like India can not afford to replicate expensive telecom infrastructure. Opportunities India has Asias third largest economy is adding at least one million new mobile phone users every month Mobile phone users base hitting a saturation point in big cities. Income levels in the rural areas rising due to robust agricultural output. Share of the rural market in the countrys mobile population is, however, less than 15% 36 Government has started relaxing rules for foreign participants Lowest tariff rates in the world

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE Cellular phone now being viewed as a common mans phone Rapid growth expected in the telecom and related services Foreign investment in form of equity or technology Increased availability of bandwidth has open doors to new schemes making efficient usage, providing value added services and generating profits. Threats High level of risk uncertainty and cost associated with the cellular sector Weak intellectual property right protection Software and digital content piracy Political instability Cost of handset also deters a lot of buyers from opting for the service Threat from WLL service providers and also from satellite phones

37

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

CONTRIBUTION OF THE CELLULAR INDUSTRY TO THE INDIAN ECONOMY


1. World class infrastructure: - the Indian industry has been instrumental in bringing to the Indian consumer a world class telecom infrastructure. The industry would have invested over rs 25000 crores to: 2. set up 69 networks Serve over one crore subscribe as of December 2002. Offer services in over 1575 cities and towns and Cover 14000 villages

Reputed Indians business houses and international telecom major The privatization of Indian cellular brought into the arena some of the most reputed business houses of the country as also biggest names in the international telecommunication industry. Included Reputed Indian business houses Birla BPL escort Essar, Reliance, RPG, Tata, and Thapar International telecom majors: single tel, Asia tech, AT&T, Bell Italia NYEX, Millicom first pacific Hutchison Whampoa, telecom Italia, new york life, telecom investment Telesystems, international wire less, cell net and others. Institutional investors AIG, Commonwealth Development Corporation, EMP, Asian infrastructure fund and others

3.

Increased connectivity There are presently 42 networks operating in the country covering over 1350 cities and towns and directly serving over 6.7 million subscriber nation wide. Importantly the connectivity benefits also extend to over 33.5 million PSTN subscriber of BSNL and MTNL who can now reach the cellular subscriber any time and any where

38

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

in addition to the cellular radio waves cover over 28000 villages, where connectivity can be provided at a very short notice at a normal incremental cost. 4. Employment generation As the 3rd and the 4th cellular Licenses would start their operations and with 77 networks (42 presently and 35 new networks) on air the employment generated down the supply chain comprising vendors, infrastructure supplier, contractors, dealers, etc. it is estimated that the total employment generated by the cellular industry would be in the tune of few lakhs once the new networks are rolled in. 5. Increased in FDI flows The telecom sector is the largest attractor of foreign direct investment in the country, accounting for almost a fifth of FDI approvals since 1991. 6. Heavy investments in infrastructure The cellular industry responsible for the single largest chunk of investment by any individual industry. The industry has already invested over Rs 20000 crores and is expected to invest even more in the years to come. 7. Revenue generation for the government of India The cumulative revenues that have flowed to the government are already about Rs 10000 crore from license fee and service tax alone

39

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

SMS USERS ARE OPEN TO BRAND MARKETING


From conveying simple need-based messages to friends and loved ones to going all the way to downloading pictures and tunes and mails we all have seen the role of SMS evolve to reach a dynamic position. Today as consumers, we experience the emerging usage of SMS for brand communication, in the most personalised manner possible. As an advertiser, I am posed with a sea of questions Where does SMS stand in the consumer's perspective as a medium of brand communication? What is the profile of those consumers who are ready to learn about my product by means of a single message on their phone? How do I, as an advertiser, reach out to them using SMS? Intellect, the Research and Technologies Unit of Lintas Media Services in association with Interactions, Lintas Media Services, has conducted an extensive research that probes the psyche and the demographics of the SMS marketing consumers. "We continuously need to explore the relationships of the consumers with these emerging media. We also need to develop aids for the advertisers to target and reach these consumers." The study, conducted in February 2004 covered the SEC A segment of Students and Working Executives/ Businessmen in the top 4 metros - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata & Chennai. This study is a sequel to a recent study by Intellect titled 'Selling Made Smarter' which investigated the growth of advertising through SMS. The aim remains to provide the advertiser with a constructive understanding of his consumer's thought process, experiences, expectations and acceptance of SMS as a medium of brand communication. From here on, we shall see the answers shaping up an insight into the mind of the consumer. To what extent is my consumer exposed to Brand Marketing SMS? A huge potential exists as far as communicating consumers via marketing is concerned and this is evident from the fact that only 14% of the respondents have been exposed to advertising through SMS. An untouched 86% have yet to experience a brand 40

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE communication on their cell phones. Of the ones that have been exposed to such a communication, about 97% have read the actual message before deleting it, A favourable 36% also acted on the message after reading it. This depicts the readiness of the respondents to be a part of the entire communication process. How open is my consumer to the idea of receiving Brand Marketing SMS on her cell phone? Probing their openness to the idea of accepting brand communication on their cell phones, the respondents portrayed a very positive picture. 66% are willing to accept advertising through SMS on their cell phones. The willingness is more amongst students and the younger age group i. e 15-24 years than that amongst working executives and those in the higher age group. Males are more willing to receive marketing SMS than females. Avoidance of SMS (termed as deleting the SMS without reading it carefully) is much lower for this medium compared to the conventional media. 32% are in the habit of reading every SMS that they receive; another 53% hardly ever or only sometimes delete the SMS without reading carefully. In a scenario where television, print, cinema, etc all have high ad-avoidance, this is a very critical media. One more noteworthy fact stays that apart from E-mail, SMS is the only medium that allows Permission Marketing. While the students are open to receiving advertisements through SMS anytime there is a promotion; male working executives/ businessmen between the group 35-44 are open to receiving advertising through SMS but only with prior permission being given. Will the consumer of my product be ready to accept communication by me via SMS? While it is quite exciting to know that today's consumer is welcome to the idea of being exposed to brand communication via SMS, we still need to advertise only certain

41

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE categories using the SMS medium. We need to know the product categories that interest the consumer through SMS. The most preferred categories by the consumers were found to be

Music/Entertainment/Gifting/Toys, Personal Products, Publications/ Books, and Local Hotels/Cinemas/Discs/Events. Not only the product category, but also the nature of information demanded by the respondents regarding a particular category holds considerable importance. Students are more inclined towards being informed on 'offers and promotions' for Music/ Gifting (60%), Cars, (56%), Utilities (56%), Stationary (55%), Book & Publications (53%) and Impulse Foods (50%). Working Executives/ Businessmen show a higher affinity towards 'offer and promotion' information for Household FMCGs (83%), Kitchen Foods (83%), House Fittings (78%), Durables (73%), Pharma (63%), Personal Products (54%), Local Entertainment (51%) and Impulse Foods (50%) While most students prefer 'detailed information' on Music/ Gifts/ Toys; Working Executives demand detailed information on Personal Products Of the information seekers, the male skew is more towards Durables (85%), Impulse foods (80%), Cars (79%), Stationary (68%), Household FMCGs (67%), Utilities (67%), Local Entertainment (66%), Pharma (63%), Books & Publications (62%), Music and Gifting (60%), Personal Products (58%), House Fittings (50%). Females are keener to know about offers and promotions on Kitchen Foods (58%) and House Fittings (50%).

When do I reach my consumer? The timing and frequency of reaching a consumer is very important for any communication planning and the study has explored these areas. About 30% are open to receiving advertisements through SMS anytime there's a promotion. 34% prefer being 42

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE asked before they are sent advertisements through SMS while 34% prefer it not very frequently. While, 17% are open to receiving advertisements through SMS more than 3-4 times a week, on the whole, 86% are open to the idea of receiving brand marketing SMS once a month and more. There is no specific pattern to the timing desired by the consumers. Anytime between morning to evening is acceptable. This is so since finally, the choice of opening the actual message lies with the consumer. Over 66% feel that they do not have to see or answer an SMS immediately when it is received. In a nutshell SMS comes across as a medium which makes the consumer reachable at all times, is personal, allows permission marketing and is interactive. Most importantly it is acceptable to the consumer as a means to communicate information on various products and services. Besides this the study also uncovers the cell phone usage behavior of the segments. The study also covers information on the services used by cell users, billing information; share of SMS in the monthly cell phone spends. It has also established the affinity of consumers to using SMS and the reasons for this affinity. Overall, the study is a wealth of data available for targeting consumers using SMS. When marketers at Doordarshan decide that it is time to embrace this technology, you know it has already made its impact on marketers everywhere else. The magic four digits, which are changing the way brands talk to their audiences have forced Doordarshan out of its slumber and into relationship building exercise with their viewers. You see them everywhere in print advertisements, on hoardings, on your TV screen, on truck backs. The 4-digit numbers that you call from your mobile phone, sometimes,

43

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE forming a word on your key pad (7827 STAR or 6388 NDTV); and sometimes, just easy to remember (8888 India times). These short code numbers are now the rage, allowing companies to easily build relationships with consumers in a super-cluttered media environment Marketers have never had it so good. As understanding of the medium increases and as consumers embrace this new form of targeting, the ubiquitous mobile phone has emerged as the super salesman, the saviour. SMS marketing is hardworking, efficient, measurable and unobtrusive. SMS is now a source of unprojected revenue for a number of services and businesses, especially media and telecom companies. For media companies, SMS is a new distribution channel and a consequent revenue source. For telecom companies, SMS Value Added Services yield higher. margins than simple voice and data products. As mobile phone instrument and usage costs plummet resulting in higher penetration and acceptance SMS, as a primary component of marketing and sales strategies, will continue to grow. These low costs are aided by the fact that technology is freely available and the entry barriers low.

44

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

COMPARISON OF E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE


M-Commerce versus E-Commerce Frequently m-commerce is represented as a "subset of all e-commerce" thus implying that any e-commerce site could and should be made available from a wireless device. We believe that such conclusions are missing leading. M-commerce should be recognized as a unique business opportunity with its own unique characteristics and functions, not just an extension of an organizations Internet-based e-commerce channel. Of course there are similarities between e-commerce and m-commerce from being able to purchase a product or service in a "virtual" vs. a build and mortar environment. Technology Device Operating System Presentation Standards Browser Bearer Networks E-Commerce PC Windows, Linux HTML Microsoft Netscape line Internet M-Commerce Smart phones, pagers, PDAs, Unix, Symbian (EPOC), PalmOS, Pocket PC, proprietary platforms. HTML, WML, HDML, i-Mode Explorer, Phone.com UP Browser, Nokia browser, MS Mobile Explorer and other micro browsers paging networks

TCP/IP & Fixed Wire GSM, GSM/GPRS, TDMA, CDMA, CDPD,

Key Issues

Evolution: Technology and Business models are constantly evolving which will demand flexibility and patience on part of all players.

Customer loyalty: Who will own the customer? Partnerships among players from various industries will be necessary for most, if not all, m-commerce initiatives, and, in turn, will alter the nature of any one company to own their own customers.

45

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

Cross-sector knowledge gulf, where the different parties will need to learn about the functions and limitations of the services provided by the other players, for example, operators will need to know about content and applications.

Moving up the value chain: To respond to market opportunities some companies have develop subsidiaries in order to react more rapidly to market challenges. For example, Sonera has developed Sonera Zed, to provide portal and application management services such as location based mobile yellow pages as well Smart Trust, to develop secure solution for m-commerce transactions. And Citicorp has established e-Citi to develop a wireless access gateway strategy for financial service providers. What is Driving M-Commerce?

Exponential growth of consumer interest and adoption of the Internet and ecommerce. Tremendous growth in mobile telephony; however, voice has become a commodity and will no longer fuel revenue growth for operators. Development of real-time transfer of data over 2.5G and 3G networks will enable faster data transmission and always-on connectivity. The evolution of the handheld devices incorporating WAP and now GPRS. Mobile ecommerce market is worth $3.5 billion in 2000 and will grow to over $200 billion by 2005 (Ovum). Cost of entry into mobile e-commerce is low for most entrants; for example, a bank can implement a sophisticated m-banking solution in under six months for around $1 million.

The unique features of the mobile device such as its compactness for convenience and personalized functions; subsequently, people have become quite attached to their devices. Attracting players from all economic sectors from technology, finance, retail, media, all anticipating that m-commerce will increase customer acquisition and retention and generate new revenue opportunities.

46

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE Products, Services & Applications Suited for M-Commerce The criteria for m-commerce services or products

Limited but precise choice Predictable availability Does not require lengthy and in-depth decision making (appeal to impulsive buying behavior) Convenience Examples:

The New York Times bestseller list meets all three criteria. It would be easy to purchase any of the listed books via a wireless device. Tickets to popular entertainment events, such as concerts, live theatre, movies, sports events, trade shows, public forums Mircro-transactions: purchasing a fast food items, such as a soda pop from a vending machine; Payment of bills, banking, restaurant bill Applications According to Ovums research, there is a lot of uncertainty about which mobile commerce applications will be successful and make money. The research/consulting firm classified m-commerce applications into three categories.

47

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

48

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

MARKETING FOR THE NEW ECONOMY


M commerce opens up new opportunities for marketers Consumers and businesspeople no longer need to be near a computer to send and receive information all they need is cellular phone or PDA such as palm while they are on move they can connect with the internet to check stock price the weather sports scores or send or receive email message they can place an online order by simply using a phone or PDA a whole field called telemetric involves placing a wireless internet connected computers in the dashboards of cars and trucks, and making more home appliances (such as computer) wireless so that they can be used anywhere in or near the home. Many see a big future in what is now called m-commerce. According to IDC a technology research company the market for location based services is forecasted to approach $billion by 2004.Here are some possibilities Getting a coke by pointing and clicking the phone at a vending machine .The bottle drops down and an appropriate amt. is deducted from the owners bank a/c. Using the phone to search for the nearby restaurant that meets the customer entered criteria. Watching stock prices while sitting in the restaurant and deciding to place a purchase order. Clicking the phone to pay the bill for the meal; the cellular phones replaces the credit card. Coming home and clicking a combination of keys on the phones to open the door. Some see positive benefits such as locating people making emergency 911 calls or checking on the whereabouts of ones children late at night. Others worry about privacy issues. What if an employer learns that an employee is being treated for AIDS at a local clinic or a wife finds out her husband is out clubbing? Like so many new technologies, location based services have potential for good or harm and ultimately they will warrant public scrutiny and regulation.

49

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

MOBILE BANKING
The last time that technology had a major impact in helping banks service their customers was with the introduction of the Internet banking. Internet Banking helped give the customer's anytime access to their banks. Customer's could check out their account details, get their bank statements, perform transactions like transferring money to other accounts and pay their bills sitting in the comfort of their homes and offices. However the biggest limitation of Internet banking is the requirement of a PC with an Internet connection, not a big obstacle if we look at the US and the European countries, but definitely a big barrier if we consider most of the developing countries of Asia like China and India. Mobile banking addresses this fundamental limitation of Internet Banking, as it reduces the customer requirement to just a mobile phone. Mobile usage has seen an explosive growth in most of the Asian economies like India, China and Korea. In fact Korea boasts about a 70% mobile penetration rate and with its tech-savvy populace has seen one of the most aggressive rollouts of mobile banking services. Still, the main reason that Mobile Banking scores over Internet Banking is that it enables Anywhere Banking'. Customers now don't need access to a computer terminal to access their banks, they can now do so on the go when they are waiting for their bus to work, when they are traveling or when they are waiting for their orders to come through in a restaurant. The scale at which Mobile banking has the potential to grow can be gauged by looking at the pace users are getting mobile in these big Asian economies. According to the Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) the mobile subscriber base in India hit 40.6 million in the August 2004. In September 2004 it added about 1.85 million more. The explosion as most analysts say, is yet to come as India has about one of the biggest untapped markets. China, which already witnessed the mobile boom, is expected to have about 300 million mobile users by the end of 2004. South Korea is targeted to reach about 42 million mobile users by the end of 2005. All three of these countries have seen

50

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE gradual roll-out of mobile banking services, the most aggressive being Korea which is now witnessing the roll-out of some of the most advanced services like using mobile phones to pay bills in shops and restaurants.

MOBILE BANKING SERVICES


Banks offering mobile access are mostly supporting some or all of the following services: 1. Account Balance Enquiry 2. Account Statement Enquiries. 3. Cheque Status Enquiry. 4. Cheque Book Requests. 5. Fund Transfer between Accounts. 6. Credit/Debit Alerts. 7. Minimum Balance Alerts. 8. Bill Payment Alerts. 9. Bill Payment. 10. Recent Transaction History Requests. 11. Information Requests like Interest Rates/Exchange Rates. One way to classify these services depending on the originator of a service session is the Push/Pull' nature. Push' is when the bank sends out information based upon an agreed set of rules, for example your banks sends out an alert when your account balance goes below a threshold level. Pull' is when the customer explicitly requests a service or information from the bank, so a request for your last five transactions statement is a Pull based offering. . The other way to categorize the mobile banking services, by the nature of the service, gives us two kind of services Transaction based and Enquiry Based. So a request for your bank statement is an enquiry based service and a request for your fund's transfer to some other account is a transaction-based service. Transaction based services are also differentiated from enquiry based services in the sense that they require additional security across the channel from the mobile phone to the banks data servers.

51

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE Based upon the above classifications, we arrive at the following taxonomy of the services listed before.

Push Based Transaction Based

Pull Based

Fund Transfer Bill Payment Other financial services like share trading.

Enquiry Based

Credit/Debit Alerts. Minimum Alerts Balance

Account Balance Enquiry Account Statement Enquiry. Cheque Status Enquiry. Cheque Book Requests. Recent Transaction History.

Bill Payment Alerts

Technologies enabling Mobile Banking Technically speaking most of these services can be deployed using more than one channel. Presently, Mobile Banking is being deployed using mobile applications developed on one of the following four channels. 1. IVR (Interactive Voice Response) 2. SMS (Short Messaging Service) 3. WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) 4. Standalone Mobile Application Clients Advantages of Mobile Banking The biggest advantage that mobile banking offers to banks is that it drastically cuts down the costs of providing service to the customers. For example an average teller or phone transaction costs about $2.36 each, whereas an electronic transaction costs only about 52

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE $0.10 each. Additionally, this new channel gives the bank ability to cross-sell up-sell their other complex banking products and services such as vehicle loans, credit cards etc. For service providers, Mobile banking offers the next surest way to achieve growth. Countries like Korea where mobile penetration is nearing saturation, mobile banking is helping service providers increase revenues from the now static subscriber base. Also service providers are increasingly using the complexity of their supported mobile banking services to attract new customers and retain old ones. Marketing for Mobile Banking Mobile banking is poised to become the big killer mobile application arena. However, Banks going mobile the first time need to tread the path cautiously. The biggest decision that Banks need to make is the channel that they will support their services on. Mobile banking through an SMS based service would require the lowest amount of effort, in terms of cost and time, but will not be able to support the full breath of transactionbased services. However, in markets like India where a bulk of the mobile population users' phones can only support SMS based services, this might be the only option left. On the other hand a market heavily segmented by the type and complexity of mobile phone usage might be good place to roll of WAP based mobile applications. A WAP based service can let go of the need to customize usability to the profile of each mobile phone, the trade-off being that it cannot take advantage of the full breadth of features that a mobile phone might offer. Mobile application standalone clients bring along the burden of supporting multiple mobile device profiles. According to the Gartner Group, a leading wireless computing consulting organization, mobile banking services will have to support a minimum of 50 different device profiles in the near future. However, currently the best user experience, depending on the capabilities of a mobile phone, is possible only by using a Standalone client.

53

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE Mobile banking has the potential to do to the mobile phone what E-mail did to the Internet. Mobile Application based banking is poised to be a big m-commerce feature, and if South Korea's foray into mass mobile banking is any indication, mobile banking could well be the driving factor to increase sales of high-end mobile phones. Nevertheless, Bank's need to take a hard and deep look into the mobile usage patterns among their target customers and enable their mobile services on a technology with reaches out to the majority of their customers. SMS Short Messaging Service SMS uses the popular text-messaging standard to enable mobile application based banking. The way this works is that the customer requests for information by sending an SMS containing a service command to a pre-specified number. The bank responds with a reply SMS containing the specific information. For example, customers of the HDFC Bank in India can get their account balance details by sending the keyword HDFCBAL' and receive their balance information again by SMS. Most of the services rolled out by major banks using SMS have been limited to the Enquiry based ones. However there have been few instances where even transaction-based services have been made available to customer using SMS. For instance, customers of the Bank of Punjab can make fund transfer by sending the SMS TRN(A/c No)(PIN No)(Amount)'. One of the major reasons that transaction based services have not taken of on SMS is because of concerns about security and because SMS doesn't enable the banks to deliver a custom user interface to make it convenient for customers to access more complex services such as transactions. The main advantage of deploying mobile applications over SMS is that almost all mobile phones, including the low end, cheaper one's, which are most popular in countries like India and China are SMS enabled.

54

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE An SMS based service is hosted on a SMS gateway that further connects to the Mobile service providers SMS Centre. There are a couple of hosted IP based SMS gateways available in the market and also some open source ones like Kannel .

Case studies
LG Telecom, South Korea In terms of the evolution of services being offered on mobile applications, South Korea is showing the way. The big push came when LG Telecom Ltd., the smallest of Korea's three mobile service providers teamed up with the Kookmin bank to launch the Bank on' service. Under this scheme mobile users were able to use smart chips embedded in cell phones for accessing all of the transaction and enquiry based services. The chip-based service automated the authentication of users when they accessed their bank's financial services to make the whole process much faster and convenient. The icing on the cake came with the ability of

55

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE these chip enabled cell phones to be used simultaneously as cash cards.By October 2004 there were already about 100,000 infrared readers adapted to take payment directly from mobile phone handsets in Korea. Users can now use their cell phones to pay for everything, from restaurant bills, travel tickets, merchandise and even haircuts. Reliance Infocomm, India When Reliance Infocomm, India rolled out its CDMA network, (at the time the mobile market in India was still in its infancy, and data services were almost never heard off) it made sure that all handsets supported Java.The Reliance application platform, also known as R-World brought Java compatibility even to the lower end phones. Reliance used a novel way to overcome the memory limitations of lower-end mobile phones, which hampered deploying of multiple standalone J2ME based clients. Instead of storing applications statically on their cell phones, users access a single menu based application called R-World, which connects them to the Reliance servers. Using the menu based user interface, mobile users select the application, which they want to run and download them over-the-air to their cell phones. These applications are then executed locally on the mobiles. From mid-2004 Reliance tied up with two of the popular private sector banks, HDFC and ICICI, to provide a host of their enquiry and transaction based mobile banking services through its R-World environment. Are you banking more on your mobile? Imagine being stuck in a traffic jam, unable to reach your bank and get details of the last three transactions. Actually, you needn't worry. You can now 'bank' on your mobile. Send an SMS to your bank's customer service number and within a few seconds get the details. All you need is a mobile phone and a PIN from your bank.

56

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE But there's more to mobile banking than making a query. You can go much beyond that."Shop on your mobiles and pay through your bank account from it," says Jyotsna Sekhri of customer services, ABN Amro. "Tell the merchant that you want to pay with Mpower of ABM Amro Could we see mobiles replace debit/credit cards then? "Mobile banking, a symbiosis of technology and financial services, is the hottest area of development in the banking sector and is expected to replace the debit/credit card system in future," says Anurag Gupta, convener, Zero-Mass Consortium, a project supported by HPCL and ICICI banks to deliver smart card retail service "In the past two years, the number of people using mobiles has increased three times, as compared to the use of debit/credit card holders. And, 85 per cent -90 per cent of mobile users do not own credit cards, say Gupta. Banks like ABN Amro plan to capitalise on this gap to increase penetration. There are 47 million mobile users, with 2 million being added every month. Despite such potential for convenience and business opportunity, few people use mobiles even for simple banking queries. But people have their reasons for not yet lapping up the opportunity. They find many features complex to handle. That apart, there is the issue of sensitising customers. There have been cases where help-desks at banks have not been able to offer much to willing users. "I feel banks have underplayed various features. I have never found a way to details. So, I don't use such services on my own for the fear of making a mess of my account," says Sutapa Majumdar, a social worker.

57

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE Agrees S Menon of Citibank India: "Mobiles have become ubiquitous, and using them for banking is the logical step. But in order for banks to explore full potential, increasing awareness is essential. But there are bigger barriers. Interoperability, fraud and security are other major concerns. To secure interoperability and enhanced usability, versatile chips are a must, which can connect several banks and carriers simultaneously. Mobile banking might take off in India if banks initially offer some services for free.

"Banks and service providers need to work closely to streamline customer interfacing systems and enhance user experience," says Atul Bindal, CMO & director, Bharti TeleVentures. From users' perspective, technology is on its way to aid growth. Koreans, known to be tech-savvy, use mobile banking in a big way. Some of them already avail of double-slot mobiles that have two SIM cards a regular one and another that's a credit/debit card SIM. About 3.3 million transactions were reported by Bank of Korea in 2004. Mobile Banking - The world in the palm of your hand Want to be able to conduct business or make payments in a world where there is no physical infrastructure to do so? Ever needed to make an emergency payment but cant get to the bank before closing time How To Use Mobile Banking will enable you to carry out your Banking Transaction on your Mobile Phone. AirTel/ Essar Configuring SMS (Short Messaging System)

58

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE Mobile Banking operates through Short Messages. So you will first need to activate this function on your mobile phone. If you already activated the Mobile Messaging service, you do not need to do this again. This is a one time activity & has to be done only while activating this service. For more details contact your Cellular Service Provider. How to Send a Transaction Key in the key words for the transaction you want using your Mobile Phone and send it to a number designated by Cellular Service Provider. Prefer using upper cases while punching the message. With in a matter seconds, you will get the reply of your transaction on your mobile phone screen as a text messages. How to Read Replies In a few seconds after sending message you will hear a beep on your mobile phone, it means that the information you want has arrived. To read the information, go through the menu & select the "Read Messages" option. The message will then appear on your Mobile Phone screen. Different types of Transactions Transaction Type SMS/Keyword to be sent

Brief Description Will give you the available balance in the

Balance Inquiry

default/operative accounts that are linked to your customer identification number up to a maximum of five accounts. Will give you information on the last five debits/credits made to your account. Payment of Bills of Companies you have registered

BOPBAL

Costs Transactions Bill Payment

BOPTXN

BOPPAY for with the Bank. Change Primary You have the option of changing your primary BOPNEW Account account and carrying out your transaction on this new

59

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE account number. Book A cheque book will be mailed to your address on records with the bank. This will give you the transaction codes for the various types of transactions

Cheque Request Help

BOPCHQ BOPHLP

Mobile Banking A Strategic Analysis of Opportunities in the Banking Sector Mobile Banking is generally defined as carrying out bank transactions and other related activities via mobile (hand-held) devices. The spectrum of offerable services is listed below: a) Account operation (bill payments, money transfers etc.) b) Account administration (access administration, cheque book requests etc.) c) Account information (balance inquiries, statements of account) d) Financial information (interest- and exchange rates etc.) The services are generally based on technologies offered by Short Messaging Service (SMS), or by Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). Some banks, particularly many in Japan, also offer services based on i-mode. Most of the services can be accessed via several types of mobile (hand-held) devices including cellular phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDA). Additionally client-based applications - that work similar to other Home Banking applications - are reported to be gaining popularity - particularly in Germany. The client (usually a Java MIDlet) can be installed on the mobile device, e.g. a mobile phone or a PDA. If the information available on the web pages of respective banks is an indicator, then Germany seems to be coming out rapidly of its till-now somewhat lukewarm response to the opportunities offered by Mobile Banking. Many German banks that just a few

60

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE months ago seemed to be content with providing account and market information on mobile hand-held devices, if at all, are entering into collaboration with network carriers and software providers to offer client-based Mobile Banking applications, usually called PDA Banking. The term "PDA Banking" is however not really appropriate to describe client-based applications as a PDA can also be employed for browser-based Mobile Banking, e.g. WAP Banking. If you are a busy person on-the-go, here is another great banking service to add greater banking convenience to your banking needs Hong Leong Mobile Banking. With SMS service, on your Mobile Phone, you can perform simple banking transaction fast and conveniently at your fingertips.

61

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

The rapidly changing technology has revolutionized many aspects of modern life. Mobile commerce is witnessing phenomenal growth as new wireless technologies offering improved bandwidth, rapid transmission and cost effective mobile devices hit the market place. It is no longer the voice telephonic that appeals the consumer features like SMS, mobile banking, mobile commerce, astrology, news, live cricket scores, internet and email access through mobile telephones. As competitions in the telecom arena intensify service providers took new initiatives to attract customers. The most important consumer segments in the mobile industry are the youth segments and the business class segments. Business are using technology to provide their employee with more mobility because makes them more productive. Internet service providers are on a price war and the manifold increase in internet usage is a certainty that can work wonders for cellular operators. It will eventually end the rat race in mobile telephony because the worst thing in a rat race is even if you win it you are still a rat.

62

====================================E-COMMERCE TO M-COMMERCE

MARKETING MANAGEMENT: - PHILIP KOTLER PRINCIPLE OF MANAGEMENT: - HAROLD KOONTZ ECONOMIC TIMES

WWW.TELECOMWRITNG.COM WWW.E-COMMERCETIMES.COM WWW.C-COMMERCE.COM WWW.M-COMMERCE.COM WWW.BIZRATE.COM WWW.COAI.COM WWW.TRAI.COM

63

You might also like