Imagine this scenario:
6:30 a.m. - Gary wakes up to the alarm on his
mobile-phone. His customized screen displays a high-level view of sports
news (Gary is a sports fanatic) and traffic on highway-46, on which he
travels everyday. He immediately knows which route to avoid. He is reminded
that he has an 8:30 a.m. appointment at his office with Sam who wants Gary
to design his new car showroom. From the buddy list on his phone he can see
that his partner Tom is logged in. He selects Tom and sends him a voice SMS
reminding him to join this important business meeting.
7:30 a.m. - While having breakfast, Gary checks his stocks using
his mobile. He notices that he has an alert about the latest ringback tone
available from his operator. It happens to be one of his favorites, so he
chooses the "buy" option on his handset.
8:30 a.m. - As Gary reaches the office, he gets a call from Tom.
Tom is stuck in traffic and will not be able to join the meeting. Sam and
Gary discuss the plans for the new showroom. Sam likes the interior plans
for his showroom but can't decide whether to use leather couches or
armchairs in the lounge. Gary calls Tom and shares the pictures of the
furniture using the video share feature on his phone. Tom votes for the
black leather couch, which helps Gary's decision making.
9:00 a.m. - Gary suddenly remembers he needs to send a reminder
about this evening's band practice session to fellow jazz community
members. He flips out his phone, chooses "JazzCommunity" from his
buddy list and sends a group voice SMS saying "This evening's music
practice session, Gary's place, 8 pm."
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Sounds futuristic? Well, the new world of personalized, contextual, combinational multimedia mobile services is real and here -- made possible by the all-IP, packed-based multimedia services framework called IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). So what role does IMS play in Gary's daily life and in his interaction with his customers and colleagues?
For users like Gary, IMS, along with its packed-based signaling cousin Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), enables person-to-person and person-to-content communications in a variety of modes -- including voice, text, pictures and video, or any combination of these -- in highly personalized and value-added ways. IMS has a revolutionary vision for the future of the telecommunications industry, leading to new multimedia devices, new network architectures, new business models and new end-user devices with new capabilities.
What is obvious from the example above is that users want multiple services depending on their profile, preference and context. There is no single killer application enabled by IMS. Multiple applications will thrive; some developed by the operators themselves and some by third-party companies.
Let us now explore why everyone has been raving about IMS.
IMS Enables Ground-breaking New Application Revenues
Operators want to launch new services to enhance ARPU, and they need to do this with shorter service creation and deployment cycles. The problem with today's service creation technologies is that every service is "vertical," meaning every service has to be developed and deployed separately from the ground-up. This is inefficient and time consuming.
IMS provides a horizontal, common services framework that provides common capabilities (such as presence, IM, voice and video) for application development. These reusable components provide a programmable interface for development of IMS applications. This leads to dramatically superior time-to-market that both operators as well and third-party developers can exploit. In the above example, Gary used multiple applications (video share, stock alert, sports alert, presence, etc.) that were enabled by the IMS paradigm. Use of multiple applications automatically leads to new revenues for the operator.
IMS Enables Digital Communities
Communities are the cornerstone of modern societies, and mobile subscribers already use their mobile devices to stay in touch with their communities. At the most basic level the other community members are simply entries in your Address Book. The industry has not yet delivered services (beyond voice call) that combine the power of these communities with the power of mobility.
With the advent of IMS, operators and handset manufacturers are waking up to the potential of harnessing these community relationships with new services.
Communities that have grown entirely in the digital medium represent a particularly interesting opportunity. Members are already accustomed to existing within a virtual environment, and there is a consistency to the data collected on each member. In the above example, the IMS paradigm enabled Gary to be in touch with both his business community (Tom) as well as personal community (Jazz band members).
IMS Delivers Combinational Services
One of the biggest advantages of IMS is its ability to deliver combinational and interactive applications to mobile subscribers. A combinational service is one which makes use of two or more applications simultaneously leading to a much richer experience for the subscriber. For example, sharing a video while describing it over a voice call represents a combinational service. In the above example, Gary uses the combinational service of voice and video share.
IMS Enables Personalized and Customized Services
One of the key advantages of IMS is personalization and customization of services depending on criteria set by the subscriber. As an example, a subscriber who likes to play the stock market can have a particular stock ticker as his main screen and can have the latest financial news updates pushed to him every five minutes. A customized UI could also mean that customized information could be made available to the user based on the time of day and his location. In the example given above, at 8:00 a.m., when Gary is about to leave his home, he gets traffic updates pushed to his mobile. Later in the day his preferences could be set to show news, stocks etc. At lunch or dinner time, Gary's mobile could show him the nearest restaurants and special offers.
IMS Enables Easy-to-Use, Common Look & Feel Applications
Cumbersome mobile menu structures and inflexible service discovery mechanisms are some of the key problems leading to subscriber dissatisfaction. Mobile subscribers are forced to learn the disparate functions associated with a myriad of applications that have no relation to their personal preference or profile. Using IMS and SIP, it is possible to design services that provide a Windows-style common look-and-feel across applications that the users can adapt and personalize to their choice. In the above example, all of Gary's applications - traffic alert, stock update, calendar, general SMS alert, ringback tone alerts, etc. -- have a common look and feel.
IMS Services are Complemented by an Intelligent Subscriber Profiling & Campaign Management System
Introducing innovative, in-demand mobile services is half the battle. The real challenge is making it easy and attractive for subscribers to find, purchase and provision all of the content they want -- and to keep them coming back for more. Operators are already looking to double the impact of their IMS services by using IMS in conjunction with an intelligent subscriber data management system that captures subscriber purchase data, preferences and behavior so that operators can segment their customer base in new, innovative ways. This system makes it easy and efficient to target those segments with the specialized content that operators know their customers want. Based on subscriber behavior and preferences, the subscriber data management system can generate direct, 1:1 marketing campaigns using a variety of vehicles including SMS, MMS, email and IVR -- targeting each subscriber with appropriate content. In the above example, the network knew Gary's content purchase history and pushed him an appropriate ringback tone, which he immediately purchased.
Conclusion
Admittedly there is currently a lot of hype around IMS services. However there is also a general industry consensus that it is only a matter of time before IMS becomes main stream. Operators are slowly awarding IMS contracts, and inter-operator interoperability tests are real proof-points of the industry's commitment to the technology. Operators who view IMS as a long-term strategic investment will be winners. These winners will exploit the horizontal IMS framework and provide a full spectrum of applications to their subscribers -- developed both by themselves and by the markets. These winning operators will further stay ahead of the game by using intelligent data analytics to market personalized IMS services to end subscribers.
About
the Author
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Manish Kumar heads the SIP/IMS
Client product marketing at NMS Communications. With over 13 years of
industry experience in sales, marketing and management, Manish also has
a broad range of marketing experience and domain knowledge in global
telecom business. He has been with Openera (recently acquired by NMS
Communications) for 3+ years. Prior to this, Manish worked in the UK
with the European Sales & Marketing group at Nortel Networks in the
areas of Broadband Access, IP Telephony and Wireless Services. He has
also served in various project management capacities and account
management functions at Wipro Technologies. Manish has an MBA from the
London Business School and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science.
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About NMS
Communications
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NMS
Communications is a leading provider of technologies and solutions
for mobile applications and infrastructure. NMS develops products that
enable new mobile voice, data and video applications and improve the
performance and quality of wireless networks, helping our customers grow
their revenues and profits. Visit www.nmscommunications.com for more
information.
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