New InnoPath ActiveCare Targets Growing Smartphone Problem – Puts Service Providers Back in Control with Support for Android, the iPhone, Blackberry, Symbian, and Windows Phone

SUNNVYALE, Calif. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- InnoPath Software, the leader in Over-The-Air (OTA) customer care for mobile devices, today announced the next generation of ActiveCare for mobile service providers, a solution designed specifically to solve support issues associated with smartphone growth. As recent events have demonstrated, handset vendors and service providers must have their support plans in place when launching a new phone. InnoPath’s unique experience positions the company as a trusted partner to both parties.

The company also published key findings from the groundbreaking “Mobile Data Challenge” survey of mobile operator data and smartphone strategies completed by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). The survey brought together for the first time many themes and concerns facing mobile service providers. Full survey results are available here and are summarized in the EIU press release also issued today. InnoPath and the EIU will be jointly hosting a webinar to communicate the results on Wednesday, February the 10^th. Registration is here.

Smartphones are the fastest growing segment in the mobile market. While their users generate higher ARPU, support calls for these devices are more complex, longer and harder to close. With the ability to address these calls, the latest version of ActiveCare puts the service provider back in the driver’s seat, allowing them to regain control of smartphones and other advanced devices on their network. This control results in lower support costs, greater revenue assurance when deploying new services, and ultimately, increased customer satisfaction by painlessly solving support problems the first time a subscriber calls for support.

Already deployed by multiple Tier-1 service providers, ActiveCare offers a rich set of over-the-air management capabilities to address key support issues. These capabilities include the ability to properly configure data services, identify problems, correct configuration settings, manage hardware functionality, update the firmware, and remotely lock and wipe the phone if it is lost or stolen.

“With smartphones proliferating globally, service providers are forced to take a decidedly old-fashioned approach to support that requires committing additional resources within their frontline care organizations,” said John Fazio, President and CEO of InnoPath. “By leveraging InnoPath’s ActiveCare solution, they now have the opportunity to match the intelligence of these new devices by investing in an equally sophisticated solution for their support centers. This directly targets the subscriber experience, improving subscriber loyalty through faster first call resolution.”

InnoPath has enhanced its ActiveCare offering with three capabilities that address today’s smartphone manageability and provisioning requirements:

• Universal Device Support – InnoPath ActiveCare is the first over-the-air care solution available on all smartphone platforms, including Android, Symbian, RIM, Windows Phone, and the iPhone (1H2010). A unified set of end-to-end care capabilities simplifies support, reduces training overhead, and results in a common frontline care experience for the subscriber and the CSR, driving first time resolution. InnoPath’s ActiveCare client can be installed on devices already in the field, ensuring early return on investment, or can be loaded onto the phone at time of manufacture.
• Mobile Update – Smartphones, now reaching critical mass, bring a richer user experience as well as unique challenges when the device must be updated, including update size, complexity, and OS support. Service providers must have a way to take control of Android, Symbian, and Windows Phone updates, while also avoiding separate management silos for these different operating systems. Building on years of experience with firmware updates in production networks, InnoPath’s new Mobile Update Advanced Edition includes enhancements to both the client and the server that ensure the best possible performance with large update packages, sophisticated device file-systems, and scalability to meet the needs of the world’s largest mobile service providers.
• Mobile Activate – Proven at Tata DoCoMo in India, InnoPath’s Mobile Activate offers a better experience for the subscriber by ensuring that high ARPU data services work properly out of the box. Going beyond the capabilities of legacy CP provisioning systems by permitting operators to take control of the total activation flow, Mobile Activate meets key service provider and subscriber needs by ensuring error-free and timely provisioning of high-value data services across any device, facilitating service discovery during the critical ‘golden hour’ of device use. In doing this it acts as a major differentiator framing the service provider’s decision on whether to continue to patch their legacy CP systems or take a clean approach with a true next-generation DM-based solution capable of supporting both GSM and LTE. And, it is the only solution that provides an ‘on-ramp’ to more complete ActiveCare deployments once the operator is ready.

The introduction of this new solution comes at a critical time in the industry, as service providers are preparing for the ‘5^th Wave’ of technology – the rise of the Mobile Internet. Prior waves include the coming of the mainframe, the arrival of Minicomputers, the PC wave and then the Desktop Internet. This 5^th Wave represents a market with 10 times the potential risk and return of the last wave due to the number of users and devices touched. The Mobile Internet is based on data, devices, diversity of applications, and extends anywhere, anytime broadband connectivity into the developing world. Data services are core to the Mobile Internet, but, as recent experiences have illustrated, service providers can have difficulty supporting these services over-the-air in a cost-effective manner.

Recently, InnoPath commissioned a first-ever survey by the EIU to understand these concerns, across areas as diverse as open networks, app stores, customer care, and competition. Findings include:

• Data is critical to survival, and data revenue will help hold the line against falling voice revenue but not drive top-line growth. Service providers must therefore strike a careful balance between network investment, service deployment, and ongoing operational expenses such as those to support email and browsing. Frontline efficiency and customer satisfaction are critical to success, even more-so where unlimited use pricing plans are still common.
• Service providers understand they must operate in world beyond the “walled garden” and must drive revenue by playing an active role in the new open world of smartphones and app stores, building or partnering where appropriate. However, they are still developing their strategy.
• Service assurance and customer satisfaction, based on device and application ease of use, is critical in a world of competition and commoditization. In fact, this may be more important than just the basic investment in next generation networks.

“While it's clear that smartphones are driving wireless growth today, it's also clear that subscribers will choose a service provider based on the quality of the experience,” said Nancee Ruzicka, Analyst at Stratecast (a division of Frost & Sullivan). “As a result, service providers must differentiate themselves based on the usability and performance of mobile data services and applications.”

Availability

ActiveCare from InnoPath is available today for mobile service providers worldwide. InnoPath will be demonstrating its solution at Stand 1F39 at this year’s Mobile World Congress, taking place in Barcelona from Feb. 15-18, 2010. InnoPath will also be distributing copies of the EIU study.

About InnoPath Software

InnoPath, the global leader in Over-the-Air delivery of customer care, helps service providers and mobile device makers reduce support costs while providing a better end-user experience by diagnosing, updating and fixing mobile phones and other devices Over-the-Air. InnoPath products help shorten or prevent support calls and drive first call resolutions. The company’s extensive experience in production Tier-1 networks helps ensure rapid and successful deployments in large, complex environments. With a proven value proposition, the payback time for an operator deploying Innopath ActiveCare is usually less than one year. Our customers include AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Samsung, LG, KDDI, Tata DoCoMo and China Telecom. Discover more at our website, www.innopath.com, and our blog, The CSR, at http://thecsr.blogspot.com/.