Mobile News #544 August 12th | Page 14

SPEAKERS’ CORNER

Michael Tessler

Deploying LTE is the highest priority for many mobile operators today. They have made significant investment in their LTE networks recently – for example, the LTE spectrum auction in Holland cost € 3.8 billion(£ 3.2 billion), and UK operators paid £ 2.34 billion for similar licences.

Mobile operators need to use the new network standard to cope with the worldwide surge in data consumption, but rolling out LTE networks is an expensive proposition for operators and competing in high-cost spectrum auctions for the necessary airspace. Now mobile operators are turning their attention to strategies to increase revenues and monetise this expenditure.

What is exciting for mobile operators is that enterprises are seeking mobile, ubiquitous and simple-tomanage communication services, creating a nice cross point for mobile operators to recoup their LTE investment while enabling the New Mobile Enterprise.

Demand: mobile, cloud and unified comms The New Mobile Enterprise is being driven from the bottom of the organisation up. Individuals want to work from anywhere, with access to their preferred communication service from their preferred device, whether that is a laptop, tablet or smartphone. Almost every type of worker – even those who self-identified as office workers, who do little or no travel – can be considered‘ mobile’, as well over half work away from the office on a regular basis. With the launch of higher bandwidth networks, this desire will only increase as users expect the reality of anywhere-working with a seamless experience.

The trend of enterprises moving their communications services to the cloud is well documented, but they are also looking to extend these benefits to incorporate mobility. Nearly three in five( 69 per cent) of respondents of a recent survey we conducted identified that‘ extending business applications to mobile devices’ was one of the top three UC services that they deemed to be critical for the workplace. This is supported by a 2012 Infonetics Research survey on enterprise plans for unified communications, which revealed that when choosing a UC solution, 71 per cent of respondents view mobile device integration as‘ very important’.

The survey adds that complexity has displaced cost as the leading barrier affecting UC deployment, a fact not helped by the fragmented landscape of service providers, as well as communications silos for voice, video, instant messaging and collaboration that inhibit employee productivity and mobility.

Powering the New Mobile Enterprise The opportunity for mobile operators lies in enabling enterprises to support this further move into cloud, enabling mobility, while creating a single communications service subscription to address today’ s communication silos. Through a single subscription for employees, enterprises can drive down both telecommunications costs and management complexity. The cloud offers the unifying force that enables mobile operators to provide a consistent experience to end users, with a simplified solution to meet the needs of the New Mobile Enterprise.

The New Mobile Enterprise is a comprehensive fixedmobile convergence offering. By architecting mobility into solutions and integrating these with existing mobile networks, mobile operators can ensure that enterprise users can access the communication service they want to use on their device of choice regardless of their location, including from their desk phone when in the office. The desire for cloud-based mobile unified communications

“ Extending business applications to mobile devices is key for many firms”

enables enterprises to achieve improved employee productivity while reducing costs, as they collapse multiple subscriptions into a single one for every employee.

Synchronising communications within a single cloud-based account also enables the seamless integration for all data and conversations, which can be accessed on a variety of devices, a critical requirement for an enterprise with a high proportion of its workforce considered‘ mobile’. For

example, if a user sends an instant message from a mobile phone, that history will appear on the laptop application upon login. Similarly, instant messages can be sent from a laptop, and will also be visible on the user’ s mobile device.

The time is now Mobile operators are best positioned to meet this demand; experts recognise that mobile operators have more resources than single companies to draw upon, including technical expertise, to create a platform for communications from the cloud. Operators can deliver the superior quality of service enterprise users require in order to efficiently communicate. Thanks to the demand for mobile unified comms now, it is our opinion at BroadSoft that unified communications will be

Michael Tessler is CEO of VoIP software company BroadSoft

“ Users expect the reality of anywhereworking with a seamless experience”

the first applications of volume available over LTE – Gartner predicts that by 2016, 75 per cent of mobile unified comms solutions will be integrated into the enterprise telephony infrastructure.

Mobile operators can easily offer UC to their existing customers today, offering greater value, making the relationship richer and the customer therefore less likely to go elsewhere, while increasing average revenue per user. As a result, mobile operators can make higher margins and therefore more quickly obtain return on investment on their LTE networks, but they must act fast to outrun the competition. The roll-out of LTE will add value to the UC offering but mobile operators need to deliver mobile unified comms today.

SPEAKERS’ CORNER

Phil Bird

In the current climate, it is inevitable that businesses are looking to do more with less. One challenge has been how to dispose of depreciating assets or surplus stock as this can often mean heavy discounts and lower profit margins. Not an ideal situation by any means and one that’ s particularly relevant in the telecoms sector.

Minimising‘ inventory obsolescence’ is critical to

Phil Bird is CEO of electronic auctions company Perfect Channel business success. Inventory can be an asset, if it moves fast enough, but if not it becomes a major liability which ties up cash and decreases in value over time. This is an issue which affects a broad range of business sectors, but especially those in the mobile industry due to the fast pace at which new technology and handsets become available.

For those who work in the mobile phone industry, it’ s not hard to see the problem. Most mobile carriers offer more than 20 models at any one time. The shelf life of a mobile at retail today is typically four months, whereas three years ago, it was nine to 12 months. Here’ s the problem – even though consumers are upgrading faster than ever before, it’ s not fast enough for the mobile handset providers and carriers who are left with a backlog of unsold, ageing stock, dropping in value by the day.

Heavyweight marketing campaigns relentlessly promote new trends and upgraded products, all encouraging consumers to view current offerings as out of date. And in a weaker economic climate, consumers are more reluctant to spend, slowing down the turnover of goods. All of these factors contribute to this backlog of ageing, nonmoving, depreciating goods.

Buying‘ off-price’ is a sensitive thing. Not many brands want to become associated with cut prices and the associated risk of devaluing their brand. Most retailers already use their websites as a clearance tool, an adjunct to their high street presence, but we are seeing a growing trend – the use of auctions to carry out flash sales, or to sell off an inventory to wholesalers and third parties.

Maximum sale value This is just the beginning of a whole new look at how the auction mechanism can help businesses, allowing them to segment their inventory and reach new customers and territories for maximum sale value. While a typical return on an asset might be 40 per cent at a given point in time, we have found that by utilising the auction channel, we can increase that to between 45 per cent and 60 per cent, depending on the type of goods being sold.

“ Auctions are an ideal way of maximising the value of depreciating assets”

“ By utilising the auction channel, the typical return on an asset increases”

Ultimately, technology is playing its part in what we have been doing for years – bartering. However, with businesses looking to manage stock and maximise its value, some fresh thinking is needed and online auction technology is offering a solution. Live auctions are a $ 270 billion(£ 177 billion) a year business in

the US and exceed $ 1 trillion(£ 665 billion) worldwide. Whether its mobile handsets or last season’ s tablet devices, firms are only just beginning to explore the value of auctions – they are an ideal mechanism to reach out to new markets and find new ways to maximise the value of depreciating assets.

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