IP Communications and Messaging Innovation
for New Revenues

By E. Osstyn, T. Edmunds, S. Chen

Introduction

People once believed that the Earth was the center of the universe and that everything revolved around us. It was not until some out-of-the-box thinking by Copernicus that this perception began to change, with his observation that planets in this part of the universe – including Earth – revolve around the sun. A similar realization is occurring today in the telecommunications arena. The network has long been considered "the center of the universe." It has been a perspective that often forced subscribers to subordinate how and when users accessed and consumed network resources to the requirements of the network provider.

Today, that perspective has changed. It is increasingly recognized that subscribers are at the center of the universe and that the burden is, in fact, on the network to respond to the constantly changing needs of consumers and businesses alike. While different customers want different things, the one thing they do not desire is to be constrained by network silos that have limited them in the past. Consumers expect to make calls, send messages, share pictures and videos, shop, pay bills, and network with communities of interest – all via a single easy-to-use, web-like access.

It begs the question: how can service providers harness advances in technology to provide subscribers with seamless and integrated access to voice, video, data and web communications services using any device they want, at anytime, from any place?

This article explores the key technological developments that are shaping the new look and feel of converged communications. By integrating new messaging technologies with IP communications capabilities, service providers can take an important step in transforming the way people stay connected with friends, family and colleagues. While recent technology developments are already helping service providers offer new services, more must be done if service providers are to meet the demands for higher levels of seamless messaging and communication services and thereby achieve superior customer retention.

The Web Widget Phenomenon

Communications and messaging solutions have traditionally relied on dedicated "Fat Clients" from "Static Servers" to offer end users useful applications. To access these services, end users have typically had to download large software applications that would then be installed on PCs, laptops or PDAs. For many users, this has been a cumbersome affair, and because of the dedicated nature of the applications, it has not been easy to integrate capabilities across different functions. Word processors are a good example of this scenario.

This has all changed with the rapid evolution of the Web 2.0 world. Today, end users increasingly expect to have a single interface to a range of web, communications and messaging services using thin clients which interact with intelligent servers so that only small bits of software code need to be quickly downloaded. Information is also consistently accessed through a browser, eliminating the need to install dedicated clients. Web-based e-mail is a good example of this scenario.

As the next generation of web-based communication and messaging solutions emerges, we are seeing the telecommunications industry embrace similar technology developments. These include:

• Web widgets: Reusable and portable chunks of Web 2.0 code that can be installed and executed within web pages by an end user without requiring additional compilation. This allows end users to mix and match communications with web functions – such as Google maps and weather applications – to create highly personalized services (Figure 1).
  
  
  Figure 1: Integration of communication widgets
  
  
• Webdesk access: Solutions that allow communications and/or messaging services to be delivered from the service provider's portal using a web browser. This method enables service providers to either provide intuitive access to messaging or communication services, or to integrate both services into a single seamless end-user experience with drag-and-drop capabilities (Figure 2).
  
  
  Figure 2: Webdesk browser access
  
  
• Communication/messaging enhanced web pages: Web pages that have icons which represent basic communications and messaging functions. The functions can take the form of presence applications, buddy lists and multimedia mail box views. These can allow users to quickly establish a connection with each other by simply clicking on an icon and then letting the system figure out how to best reach the person to be contacted. Examples include making a mobile or landline call, or alternatively determining that an e-mail or text message is the best and fastest way to reach that person.
  
  Some social networks tend to be small in size and address specific communities or applications. The advertising potential associated with such special interest sites is considered far superior to generic social networking sites. For example LinkedIn – which addresses professionals – is very attractive for prime advertising. This segment of social networking is very dynamic, and there is every reason to believe that service providers could become the supplier of such social networks. Another example could be an information web page such as the Yellow Pages, which is often either owned or closely associated with a service provider. Savvy service providers can use the technology outlined in this article to create a highly dynamic experience with presence, click to and many other services. Service providers who embrace this market not only capture the communication revenue but also gain access to significant revenue which would increase based on the value of their profile data.

All three solutions transcend the traditional client experience of establishing communication links and delivering messages as distinct and discrete activities.

Bringing IT and Telecom Worlds Together

As end-user behaviors change, subscribers are increasingly turning to offers from web and/or over-the-top players who do not actually own telecom networking assets. Instead, they provide services on the networks of existing service providers. This presents a major challenge to the position of traditional network operators. A growing number of service providers are consequently looking at how they can regain control of their customers and address their communication needs in a more comprehensive manner.

This implies that service providers will have to challenge web players. But it will not be easy because web players tend to be very agile and responsive to changing market conditions. They rely on highly flexible tools to create and deploy their offerings.

This contrasts sharply with the traditional options available to service providers. Where it can take weeks or maybe only days to roll out a web-based service, telecom operators often require months and maybe even years to bring a new offering to market. Early attempts to address this challenge focused on developing dedicated service creation solutions for the telecommunications industry. However, this approach contributed further to the siloed and dedicated focus of services rather than the integration of services. Today, more efforts are underway to align telecom service creation practices with state-of-the-art IT practices that have stimulated the rapid development of the Web 2.0 phenomenon.

This allows service providers to acquire the building blocks from their partners to support presence, address book, messaging services, messaging access and legacy interworking services. Moreover, they can offer this by using familiar IT programming tools to support rapid service development. Another key merit to integrating the best IT practices into the service delivery process is that service providers can now seamlessly mix communication and basic web functions.

Monetizing IP and Messaging Convergence

This opens a much broader canvas of opportunities for service providers. Consider the fact that there are currently more than 15,000 distinct applications delivered by application providers for the Facebook social network. Telecom service providers are in an ideal position to contribute communications and messaging as well as many other functions to these communities. In this context, they can either deliver these services to the social networks or decide to share directly with the vast community of application providers. To achieve this, service providers will rely on web widgets.

Additionally, these social networking communities form ideal incubators for advanced service development. Numerous service providers have discovered how hard it is to launch new services. Social networks and other web communities present an ideal early adopter base to successfully launch advanced service offerings. Once the service has been launched, service providers can then consider extensions to other user groups to gain premium revenues.

Web widgets enable this evolution from traditional to next-generation services. But if service providers are to leverage this capability, they will have to consider using the social networking sites as the primary access points for these new services. In this scenario, web widgets can be used by subscribers (or potential subscribers) to self-provision an operator's communications services right from the subscriber's favorite networking site.

It is an effective way to introduce new services in the context of existing social networking sites. When initially offered in a social networking context, these services may be free. But once a critical customer base has been reached, service providers can extend these services beyond the social networking community as a chargeable service.

This may be an ideal way to roll out next-generation services such as videoshare. Here is a service that has been available from 3G mobile handsets for some time but has not been able to garner significant uptake. A service provider who offers calling plans that are enhanced with videoshare through a web widget in a social networking community could well stimulate demand from a group of people who are used to interacting with multiple media already.

Turning Free Voice Mail Service into Revenue-generating
State-of-the-art Messaging Experience

Another application that can be effectively integrated with the web environment to generate new revenue streams is voice mail. Over the years most voice mail services have evolved into free services, which increases traffic and is critical to customer satisfaction, but does not generate direct usage revenue for the service provider.

By moving this service to a highly intuitive web browser environment and allowing voice mail services to be accessed from both PCs and handheld devices, service providers have an opportunity to reexamine their go-to-market strategy.

They can define a basic voice mail experience as a service that is delivered free of charge and up-sell customers to an advanced mail experience in which voice and e-mail messages are converted (for example, to voice-to-text or text-to-voice) and then delivered to the end-user device of choice (such as PC, mobile phone, PDA,). By adding presence information to the experience, users can receive visual prompts on how to best react to an incoming message.

Conclusion

The technological developments outlined in this article are starting to bear fruit, offering new experiences to consumers and enterprises. These are but the first steps in an evolution that will fundamentally change the way people work and relax. At Alcatel-Lucent, we are creating key applications in messaging and IP communications in anticipation of this evolution so that we can prepare service providers to reap the benefits.

Edmond Osstyn is with Strategic Marketing, Application Division, Alcatel-Lucent, Antwerp, Belgium.

Terri Edmunds is with Marketing Planning, Applications Division, Alcatel-Lucent, Naperville, Illinois, USA.

Sharon Chen is with Product Marketing, Messaging Division, Alcatel-Lucent, Naperville, Illinois, USA.

To contact the authors or request additional information, please send e-mail to enrich.editor@alcatel-lucent.com.