“Payments and Multi-Channel Retailing” provided the theme for the well-attended event, which was hosted at the Riverside Park Plaza Hotel and featured prominent names such as Visa, CUP and Diners.

In addition to [...]]]> MoPowered formed part of a select corporate alliance of brands and global leaders invited to feature at the WorldPay 2012 Retail Summit.

“Payments and Multi-Channel Retailing” provided the theme for the well-attended event, which was hosted at the Riverside Park Plaza Hotel and featured prominent names such as Visa, CUP and Diners.

In addition to the exclusive selection of exhibitor stands, the event featured an impressive agenda of presentations from industry leaders and guest speakers who shared their expertise on subjects including mCommerce, multi-channel and international payments.

Coverage of the WorldPay Retail Forum can be viewed at: http://www.worldpayretailforum.com/videos.php

Simon-Kucher & Partners is a global strategy and marketing consultancy with 23 offices worldwide. The Economist has referred to us as, “The world’s leading pricing consultancy”, and we are experts at finding and optimising revenue [...]]]> Can you tell us a bit about your background and about Simon Kucher & Partners, the organisation you work for?

Simon-Kucher & Partners is a global strategy and marketing consultancy with 23 offices worldwide. The Economist has referred to us as, “The world’s leading pricing consultancy”, and we are experts at finding and optimising revenue sources. We work in all industries and I lead the UK Banking team. Our clients include many well known brands such as HSBC, Barclays and Deutsche Bank.

Ben Snowman

Simon-Kucher conducted a customer Discovery Panel survey in July 2011 on mobile payments to see which types of mobile payment are attractive to customers and, importantly, whether they would be willing to pay a fee in order to make payments using their mobiles. Given that it was a Discovery Panel, it was designed to open the debate. As I always say, these panels are indicative, not authoritative. There were two headlines. Firstly, there is a much greater willingness to try mobile payments with customers who have smart phones. Secondly, customers would prefer to pay a fixed fee to load a wallet, then make unlimited payments until the funds had expired. This was the preferred pricing metric for 4 of the 5 mobile payments investigated.

We used an open question pricing methodology with our 316 respondents. The methodology was developed in 1976 and is a recognised and systematic way of identifying pricing corridors. It is not suitable for price setting in the market – rather, it gives a range (or corridor) within which you would start using more robust methods to pin-point price levels. This method serves the purpose of the Discovery Panels perfectly as it does not prejudice results with pre-conceived hypotheses of price levels.

An interesting point is that we, VocaLink and Alcatel Lucient all identify the fact that there is a willingness to pay for mobile payments. This is of no surprise given that companies like PayPal make a living this way (they estimate that they will transact $3bn in mPayments this year). Currently, banks give mobile services away for free and are not tapping into customers’ willingness to pay. Is this a missed revenue opportunity?

What are consumers most excited about in the field of mobile commerce and payments?

If you look at the results of our Discovery Panel, customers are most excited about NFC mobile payments. This is not surprising given the buzz surrounding the Olympics and all the rumours about the latest iPhone that (eventually did not) have NFC capabilities. However, 2012 will probably be the year when mobile NFC becomes a mass offering, giving customers exactly what excites them most.

What is your view on the future of mobile technology in financial services?

Mobile banking can be split into three areas: 1) informational services, 2) transactional services and 3) interactive services. In terms of app-based mobile banking, informational services are around and serving basic customer needs. We have research to demonstrate that these core services are the most important from a mobile banking offering. Transactional services are in the midst of developing – payments is the obvious choice of service here. Interactive services, however, are only just starting to emerge. These would include location based confirmations for transactions eg. when a payment goes out of an account, an alert flashes and the customer is requested to confirm that the transaction is legitimate. Some of the factors that would trigger the alert would be location of payee and payer, value of the transaction, history of similar transactions etc. Our research shows that fraud and security are the top concerns of customers and there is a clear opportunity to address this need using technology. Mobile brings location into the game and people expect multi-way, frequent interactions with brands. The technology is out there, it’s just not reached the customer yet…but that’s just a matter of time.

What is your view on who is finally going to impose themselves on the mobile wallet and payments space out of the major players?

You can’t mention mobile wallets without mentioning PayPal. You can’t talk about the UK mobile banking market without mentioning Monitise and RBS. But there is a big distinction between mobile banking and mobile payments and the industry is still finding its feet. The telecoms companies are actively moving into this space, post-Payment Services Directive and O2 has selected Mobinetic to build their wallet. The big banks are still suffering, reputationally, from the backlash of the credit crisis and there is an opportunity for a new brand to become the equivalent of PayPal for banking. This is where a brand like MoBank could make real headway into the UK market – and possibly overseas too.

To find out more go to www.simonkucher.com, click here for access to Simon Kucher’s global benchmark on pricing in consumer payments or here for access to Simon Kucher’s white papers. You can click here for Simon Kucher’s Mobile Payment Report.

It ranked in 2nd place in the retail category. The app was 6th out of 67 applications tested across different sectors, including: Retail, Home Services, Flights, Hotels, Food and Drink, Search and Find, Travel, [...]]]> The application developed by The MoBank Group for Waterstone’s has scored 88% in the latest eDigital research app benchmarking study.

It ranked in 2nd place in the retail category. The app was 6th out of 67 applications tested across different sectors, including: Retail, Home Services, Flights, Hotels, Food and Drink, Search and Find, Travel, News and Media and was within 2% of the top spot. It scored 100% in the ‘Meet Expectations’ category and 0% (the best score) in the ‘Technical Issues’ category.

One tester reported: “The App looked good and was very easy to use. It offered me the ability to shop online, as well as many features, such as the current special offers and new releases. I could access my account on this App, as well as being able to see what the stock levels were on products, and their ratings from other customers.”

The application is part of a suite of mobile properties that The MoBank Group has created for Waterstone’s, including a fully transactional mobile website, and transactional applications for iPad, Android, Windows Phone 7 and Palm Pre.

Can you tell us about Frogtek, and your key product?

Micro-entrepreneurs such as shopkeepers rarely keep detailed accounting [...]]]>

Frogtek is “a for-profit social venture dedicated to creating business tools for micro-entrepreneurs in emerging markets.” We caught up with their CTO, Guillermo Caudevilla, to find out about the company, and the sector that they work in.

Can you tell us about Frogtek, and your key product?

Micro-entrepreneurs such as shopkeepers rarely keep detailed accounting records, since there are no affordable tools designed for their needs. This results in inefficient operations, often leading to bankruptcy, and also raises their borrowing costs. As shopkeepers become agents in mobile payment networks, they need intuitive interfaces to sell the growing range of electronic products and services.

For consumer packaged goods companies (CPGs) and microfinance institutions (MFIs), poor record-keeping means they have little information about their customer and thereby are forced to operate sub-optimally in an opaque market.

TiendaTek, our main product in Frogtek, is a simple and intuitive accounting and inventory management application that allows a shopkeeper to use a smartphone/tablet with a bar-code reader as a point-of-sale device (total hardware cost $250). The data gathered is uploaded to Frogtek servers for backup, analysis, and sale to third parties. The shopkeeper receives education and recommendations to fully benefit from the newfound information. And TiendaTek integrates with mobile payments platforms that let shopkeepers increase revenues by selling mobile minutes and other digital services. In sum, TiendaTek is a disruptive product that connects the shopkeepers to their funders and suppliers while allowing the former to improve their businesses.

You describe your products as aimed at ‘The Base of the Pyramid’ – can you explain this strategy, and your views on how mobile can help this group?

In the area of ​​retail the stores that are feeding more than 4 billion people in underdeveloped and developing countries do not have any technology to run their businesses. This lack of technology is a burden for these small businesses, but also a major operational problem for large companies operating in these markets. In addition the end consumer is the one who ends up paying the price, receiving a poor service and paying more for products they could get cheaper. This is a huge market that can and should use new technologies to improve its operations.

The mobile phone penetration in these markets is enormous. Few people can afford a PC but everyone has a mobile device. The phone is already being used for many interesting applications that really change people’s lives … electronic money transfers (M-PESA), available running water notices vía NextDrop, fraudulent medicines prevention with m-pedigree. These and many other applications really help change the lives of people in areas that are taken for granted in the developed world.

Tienda Tek Product Page

Can you tell us a bit about your team and the background of some of your key personnel?

Our team consists now of 20 people, including David del Ser, our CEO and founder. Prior to founding Frogtek David worked for five years designing mobile applications in Vodafone’s Research & Development group in Spain in partnership with companies such as Nokia, Adobe and Ericsson. David also founded Microlumbia, a student-run fund that provides investment and pro bono consulting services to microfinance institutions around the world.

Another co-founder is Mark Pedersen, (Also COO and CFO). Prior to joining Frogtek Mark was a management consultant for Monitor Group where he worked with leading Fortune 500 companies on a wide range of growth strategy projects in the pharmaceutical, retail, and consumer packaged goods sectors. Mark has also worked in several Latin America countries including Nicaragua where he helped to launch a micro-venture capital fund that invests in early-stage ventures.

I am Guillermo Caudevilla, CTO. Prior to joining Frogtek I worked for over six years in the Research & Development department at Vodafone Group where I was responsible for the design, implementation and deployment of prototypes, technology creation and standards contribution within the Web and mobile browser evolution areas.

What global regions do you think are best suited to your products and why?

Frogtek started in Latin America partly because of cultural affinities, in part because our project began to germinate in Colombia with the Women World Bank. We think, however, that the shopkeepers around the world face the same challenges and our solution (with appropriate changes) may help them improve their management and make more money. We do not see limits on our market but we still have long way to go in Mexico and Colombia.

Tienda Tek Dashboard

Your current products work on ‘Android based Google phones’. Why did you choose that platform in particular, and are you keen to work with other platforms in the future?

At the moment our reference and unique platform is Android, no short-term plans to change that. When we made the decision in 2008 we analized the trade offs between a usable and friendly interface along with the easeness to program and low cost device availability. Android offered a compelling user experience in the short-term with the promise of low cost devices in the medium-term. Fortunately it seems that time is giving us reason and, 3 years later, Android is available on many phones, and some of them begin to be truly affordable for our customers. Moreover Android is also providing support on a platform we did not expect in 2008, tablets, and now we see those as a great opportunity for our solution.

You’re described as a Spanish-American start up. Could you give us an overview of the Spanish mobile technology scene?

The crisis in Spain is being especially cruel, with unemployment rates of over about 20% in general and more than 40% for young people. But the crisis also creates opportunities, and maybe that’s why we’re seeing small start-ups being born in different cities of Spain. It is also interesting to see how different initiatives around the world of software (Agile Spain) show up or how Technology Parks spread throughout the Spanish territory (as Walqa, in a little town as Huesca, where our offices are located) are emerging and gaining momentum. There is still a long way to go for Spain to catch up with other countries in regard to mobile technologies. We believe that the successes (small and large) for Spanish newborn companies can help encourage people and therefore this industry can flourish in our country.

What is your vision for how mobile can help social enterprises and the charitable sector?

Technology is a tool. Technology helps solving problems. It helps traditional enterprises or social, for-profits or non-profits. The big difference is that social enterprises and non-profits face really important and basic issues, critical for individuals and for society.

Currently we can realize clearly how technology (especially mobile) has evolved much faster than the satisfaction of basic and vital problems of many people in the world. It’s time to change the focus and apply this cheap, ubiquitous technology now in developing countries to solve their most pressing challenges.

What is 2012 going to bring for Frogtek?

A lot of work, many challenges… and hopefully many success stories where our solution has helped improve the lives of our shopkeepers.

What has been the most exciting mobile development in 2011?

For us the most exciting stuff happening at global market level has been seeing how Android is starting to reach emerging markets and noticing how tablets may be a new, incredible platform for our products.

You can find out more about Frogtek at www.frogtek.org or @frogtek

Please tell us a bit about Double Dutch, how you’re using mobile to [...]]]> DoubleDutch are described on CrunchBase as “the category leader for geo-social productivity apps for the enterprise. DoubleDutch HYVE is a suite of social, location-aware mobile apps designed to help organizations become more transparent, data-driven, and productive.” Read their full CrunchBase profile here. 

Please tell us a bit about Double Dutch, how you’re using mobile to ‘change the way that people work’ and the different products in your suite.

We think the world is rapidly becoming “mobile first” – and that the primary way people will consume, share, and even publish content will be via their mobile device.  This shift towards mobile is well under way on the consumer side, and the workplace is not far behind.

The app that we are most excited about is something we are calling a CRM replacement.  It basically rethinks what a CRM is capable of when armed with all the contextual information that a smartphone provides.  We will be formally taking the wraps off this product in mid October.

Yes, we are lucky to have amazing, early adopter clients that are willing to try things that haven’t been done before.  TED has been a joy to work with and has been very aggressive in trying experimental features like geofencing (for a Wikipedia article on geofencing, click here).  Cisco is using our software both within their events group, as well as with their Asia PAC sales group and is really pushing the envelope in mobile sales apps.  Adobe has done a lot of neat things with game mechanics using our platform in the context of a conference to enable networking.  HP is another one of our customers who has been extremely innovative.

Consumers are called employees during the day.  It’s the same people, and those people are more and more using the same smartphones at work that they do at home.  We feel that this whole Consumerization of IT movement is being driven by people who are coming to expect a certain level of user experience based on their use of consumer apps and devices, and aren’t finding the same quality at work.  This is an opportunity for companies like us, and a risk for the incumbents.

Geofencing for CRM.  Stay tuned.

1) Start from scratch – don’t just port your website.  2) Think hard about choosing Native over HTML5, if mobile is a crucial differentiator for you.  Native end user experience is better.  3) Take cues from the best mobile, consumer apps.

Growth!  We are seeing 40-50% quarter over quarter growth, and 2012 will be about scaling our small scrappy team, into a larger, scrappy team.

The stunning collapse of BlackBerry, and the stunning rise of Android.

Find out more at www.doubledutch.me or @DoubleDutch