In mobile data space we have over 80 deployments in more than 40 countries, with over 800 million subscribers across the globe. (Reuters)
Today, every business is connected through digital platform be it mobile applications, services like mobile wallet, internet banking, mobile education etc. “Innovation has disrupted the traditional ecosystem, transforming it to a digital world—giving people a closer access to technology,” says Manoranjan ‘Mao’ Mohapatra, CEO, Mahindra Comviva, a leading provider of integrated VAS (value added services) solutions. Mao’s career has been dedicated to the development and deployment of innovative software communications solutions in rapidly growing markets. Prior to joining Comviva, Mao was president and COO at Aricent, where he enjoyed a 15 year career and was instrumental in building the company from a relative startup to a globally recognised brand, with over $300 million in revenues. “With improved mobile infrastructure and availability of high-speed 4G connectivity, people are moving to apps and internet for their activities,” he tells Sudhir Chowdhary in a recent interaction. Excerpts:
How has Mahindra Comviva transformed its business from being a VAS player to a leading player in mobility solutions?
Mobile VAS has moved from pure entertainment based to a need-based service with the main pivots centered around the twin aspects of consumer-centric innovations and simplification of user interface for ease of content discovery, and delivering local and regional content in rich formats.
Keeping this in mind, we have integrated mobile innovations at the heart of our business strategy and repositioned ourselves as a leader in mobility solutions with a powerful vision—The Business of Tomorrows. In line with this
vision, we are making mobile payments easier, entertainment better and internet and broadband solutions faster by enhancing the overall experience through customer value management.
Also read | FreeCharge sees 15% growth in monthly transactions
There is a phenomenal rise in internet and mobile users globally as well as in India. How is innovation driving the industry, what is Mahindra Comviva’s contribution to it?
Today, every business is connected through digital platform be it mobile applications, services like mobile wallet, internet banking, mobile education etc. Innovation has disrupted the traditional ecosystem, transforming it to a digital world—giving people a closer access to technology.
Innovation is at the core of our strategy and this forms the cornerstone of the integrated portfolio of mobile financial solutions. Year on year, every year, Mahindra Comviva has been recognised for excellence and innovation by some of the top agencies in the business; a feat that stands as a testament to our domain knowledge, business approach and technological excellence.
We have crossed 120 deployments for our mobile financial and recharge solutions globally.
In mobile data space we have over 80 deployments in more than 40 countries, with over 800 million subscribers across the globe.
Have crossed 40 deployments for customer value solutions across 25 countries, empowering over 400 million customers.
Over 65 deployments for mobile lifestyle solutions across 40 countries, empowering over 250 million subscribers.
We have over 350 deployments for our messaging portfolio across 90 countries with 800 billion messages processed annually.
Mahindra Comviva has an extensive portfolio of solutions which caters to mobile finance, content, data, commerce, and managed VAS service etc. What are key growth areas?
Data, content and commerce are three big things in near future, which will create a huge demand. With improved mobile infrastructure and availability of high-speed 4G connectivity, people are moving to apps and internet for their activities. At Mahindra Comviva, our focus is to enhance the end-user’s mobile experience and improve partners’ business performance through our innovative solutions. Also, considering operator’s massive investments in building new networks, and the corresponding expectations from the end user, we are in a unique
position to leverage our position in data monetisation and CEM to deliver value to operators and their end customers. In the future, we will continue to work towards developing solutions that takes user experience to the next level.
With operators launching 4G aggressively, what opportunities do you see for yourself in VAS segment?
Mahindra Comviva’s strategy has been focused on providing integrated solutions with constant innovation to offer end-to-end solutions and convenience to the user. This year we will be launching mobile solution for Engagement & Learning, a comprehensive smartphone led learning solution bundled with cutting edge features—together in technology and content to solve modern life style challenges.
Mahindra Comviva is collaborating and partnering with companies abroad to hold a strong footprint in international market. What are the major partnerships the company has done so far?
Recently, we have acquired a controlling stake in ATS—Advanced Technology Solutions, a leading provider of mobility solutions to the telecom industry in Latin America.
The company forayed into the direct to consumer space with Zerch. Are you planning to move from a B2B organisation to B2C?
We create solutions as per the market need and B2C is yet another portfolio where we have launched ‘Zerch’, a hyperlocal deal platform here. We have also launched Mooditt, music streaming app and Zoto, a mobile phone recharge solution in Nigeria.
RBI has issued payment bank licences. What market opportunity it has created for you?
With regards to the payment bank initiative, we are looking at all possible options. We can enable banks to offer services to their consumers through a mobile channel through our mobile banking solution or enable, branchless banking with a correspondence model offering assisted services to those at the bottom of the pyramid. In addition to this, we will allow different types of payments, including person to person, merchant and bill payments, salary and government benefit disbursements directly into mobile money account.
Our mobiquity solution is ready to enable payments bank and small finance bank licensees to launch their financial services in India and deliver a host of consumer-centric, mobile financial services, ranging from remittance and payments to savings and insurance, catering to diverse consumer segments in the Indian market.
Source: financialexpress.com