CeBIT interview with Comverse:
Monday , Mar 13, 2000 Sun-Thu at 18:00 (GMT+2)
High Tech Features
We Built a Suite
By Efi Landau
In an interview with "Globes" at the CeBIT
exhibition, Michael Zevadi presented Comverse's
newest developments. The vice president for
strategic marketing and business development
adds that they form part of the "Comverse
suite".
"Globes": Where does Comverse position
itself?
Zevadi: "We're trying to assess the biggest
risks communications carriers currently face.
Their greatest fear is of becoming a pipeline. On
the one hand, there are the terminals - mostly
mobile phones - that are smarter and stronger.
On the other, there's the Internet and all those
who provide services other than on the network.
Carriers are afraid they will be passed over,
they're afraid of being abandoned.
"At the moment, abandonment is about 30%.
Every European country, however, already has a
target date for introducing the portable numbers
method, in which each customer will be entitled
to work with different carriers using his
telephone number. It took place in Britain and in
the Netherlands in 1999, and a number of other
countries will introduce the method this year and
in 2001.
"Abandonment will be felt mostly in the cellular
market where it's technically easier to change
from one operator to another. To illustrate what
can be expected, here is an interesting fact: in
Italy, where portable numbers do not yet exist, 5
million mobile operators hold more than one SIM
card, and some hold three. In GSM technology,
the handset is merely the "wires": the SIM card
can be transferred from one handset to another,
making it into a personal instrument. It is also
possible to change one SIM card for another in
the same handset to change operators, and this
is what is happening in Italy.
"Of course, for this to work, all operators must
use GSM technology, and a customer needs to
subscribe to two or more operators. This is not
the case in Israel, for example, but it appears to
be worthwhile. Just as an international call
consumer can choose the services of competing
companies, based on the destination country
and the different companies' offers, the same
can be done in mobile phone calls if you have a
SIM card.
"The problem today is that each SIM card has a
different number. When Italy Italy introduces
portable numbers, the problem will be solved.
The customer's telephone number will be
identical for each SIM card, and evidently for his
land-line telephone too."
What do you expect will happen?
"The operators need to replace selling air time
with close customer relations. From their
viewpoint, this means changing into a marketing
company, aimed at signing up the customer in a
long-term contract. Partner is currently offering
anyone spending more than a certain, not very
high, amount a free handset at the SuperSol
outlets, on condition that he joins one of their
offers that require long-term commitments,
usually three years.
"The model everyone wants to adopt is the AOL
model, known as the 'world garden'. Whoever is
in the garden doesn't want to leave, while those
outside want to enter. According to AOL data,
80% of its 30 million subscribers never leave
AOL when they surf the Internet. All the sites
they visit are stored in AOL. Even those who
venture out from time to time spend most of their
time in AOL.
"Communications operators want to reach a
long-term relationship with customers. In such a
situation the telephony model of paying for the
service you use is a very convenient model. On
the other hand, the personal touch, according
warmth to the customer, is possible on the
Internet."
Is this where Comverse enters the picture?
"Comverse is trying to help operators in their
future marketing battle, while at the same time
offer them a work environment similar to the one
Microsoft provided for the PC. This means
'obliging' the customer to work in your work
environment due to the applications you provide
him with, and it ties him to you."
"We regard ourselves as a wireless network
software company. We want to build an entire
suite of applications, which first of all talk with
one another, and even more importantly, work in
a homogenous environment.
"We regard WAP as one of the gateways for
reaching the applications base. We want to be
an environment with a common infrastructure,
above which there's an applications suite."
Zevadi says extremely cautiously that this is
like Windows software. Comverse wants to be
the Windows of the wireless network.
"Today, we're the leading provider of wireless
services. As such, our customers, wireless
communications companies, offer us various
partnerships.
Published by Israel's Business Arena on 9
March, 2000
globes.co.il |
