Openet, a supplier of real-time business support systems (BSS) to communication service providers, has announced the results of an exclusive global survey of mobile operators.
The study revealed that the vast majority of operator respondents expect real-time contextual offers sent to subscribers, that can be immediately activated with the help of next generation BSS and purchased from the device. This would increase global data revenues by 15 per cent – a staggering $47 billion in untapped revenue for the operator community.
Despite the scope of this lucrative opportunity, more than three quarters of operators surveyed (77 per cent) believe that the majority of potential new revenue is wasted as a result of slow time to market for new offers. Roughly the same numbers of operators (74 per cent) believe the solution lies in creating, managing and updating offers from one central place – a move that is estimated to reduce current time to market by half.
In reaction to this market demand, Openet today launches its new Real-time Offer Management (RTOM) solution. This new system enables operators to instantly present contextually relevant and appropriate offers and promotions direct to subscribers’ devices in real-time. The RTOM solution uses a variety of sources of information to create context around each user. For example, average monthly spend, remaining data allowance, score on the churn risk index, or prepaid or post-paid to name a few.
An offer can be presented to the subscriber following a trigger event, for example either an inbound subscriber query, or a pre-defined network event (e.g. subscriber accesses Facebook). RTOM can decide which offers to present to the subscriber, by first verifying their context across multiple control points. If the context is determined suitable, one or more offers can be sent. The current uptake rate when upselling offers directly to a customer device is estimated to be 8% versus 14% with real-time contextual offers.
“The results of our survey show a clear desire from operators to have the flexibility and agility to offer contextually relevant offers to subscribers to increase upsell opportunities,” says Philip Hogan, GVP Sales and Services at Openet. “That’s precisely what we now offer thanks to the availability of our RTOM solution. We’ve already secured two major orders for RTOM, which shows that there is a clear demand for this solution.”
