Mobilution
vritti
May 2017
17 5
Meanwhile, MasterCard made quite a
splash with the announcement of its tie-up
with Oracle. The partnership is aimed at
enhancing the features of the former's retail
and restaurant-based applications. This is,
needless to say, aimed at enhancing the
end-user's experience.
Chatbots:
COMING SOON!
Another interesting revelation uncovered at
MWC 2017 was that chatbots are waiting
in the wings. Permit me to explain-it is no
secret that commerce is steadily increasing
its influence on messaging platforms. Why?
Well, because brands have woken up to
the fact that constant customer
engagement is an important ingredient to
success. Naturally, then, technology
players are going full throttle on creating a
platform for e-commerce and on
monetizing their subscriber bases.
There is a catch, though. Chatbots, indeed,
are chock-full of potential. However, issues
related to easy and secure integration of
payments is the roadblock. This is why
conversational commerce is yet to surprise
us (the industry).
Net, net, these are interesting times for the
global telecom space. Well, on paper, at
least. It remains to be seen how many of
these trends fare well in the real world.
Bets, anyone?
About the author: Srinivas Nidugondi has over 19 years of experience in various
industries including financial services, payments and commerce in a variety of business and
product related roles and most recently with a specific focus on enabling banking, payments
and related services through digital channels. At Mahindra Comviva he heads the Mobile
Financial Solutions business unit, which currently has over 130 deployments globally, providing
services for more than one billion consumers.