As ARPUs take a steep fall worldwide, VAS has become a means of survival for telcos. There are several big and established players in the VAS segment, with many new and emerging ones trying to make the scene more competitive.

And this competition demands that VAS players look beyond ABC applications and innovate to meet user expectations. IMImobile made innovation its mantra for success to become the V&D100 Emerging Company of the Year 2008. The company's vision is to optimize the converged value added services by providing managed services on the Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. Going an extra mile for their customers and encouraging a vibrant, creative, and open working atmosphere have been the company's philosophies.

In 1999, after several years of continued growth and success, IMISoft diversified, concentrating on traditional business, while a new division, IMImobile was formed to create intellectual property in the mobile value added services market and to exploit the huge business potential created by the fast emerging mobile data services market. Today, IMImobile has emerged as a leading global end-to-end enabler of mobile VAS for operators.

Chiseling its path as a VAS company, IMIMobile was founded by Vishwanath Alluri (CEO), Shyam Bhatt (CTO), and Bibhu Kumar (COO). The company is an enabler of MVAS or mobile VAS for mobile operators, media companies, and enterprises. Overcoming initial concerns of developing innovative products, meeting the present need of the market, timely delivery, and the right opportunities, IMImobile is a pioneer in the managed service market with technology expertise and SLAs unmatched in the industry.

Recently, the personalized ring-back tone (PRBT) service, a service jointly offered by BSNL and IMIMobile has passed the 2-mn subscribers milestone after being launched just a year ago. Since its partnership with BSNL in April 2007, IMImobile provides a comprehensive technology platform and regional-based content to BSNL in eight circles of the north zone.

IMImobile has 310 employees worldwide, operations in 51 countries, and supports 202 operators and over 400 content partners. The company employs carrier-grade messaging platforms and gateways, content management systems, and voice and video platforms. Services of the company include interactive portals, community and service creation applications, ring-back tones, and video streaming.

Founder and CEO of the company, Vishwanath Alluri believes that if India is to maintain her booming economy, growth must be organic with companies developing their own IPRs. IMImobile has a remarkable portfolio of clients-Google, Yahoo!, Reuters, Vodafone, BSNL, Reliance Communications, MTNL, Airtel, among others.

It's all about Innovation
IMImobile skillfully understood the need of the hour in a nascent VAS market and delivered accordingly. IMImobile's differentiation comes from its unique combination of content management, operational and business model, and wholly owned technology that enables a breadth of quality solutions, cost effective SaaS delivery model and high service availability.

Technology Model: IMImobile has developed a range of platform technologies including carrier grade VAS platform (SMSC, MMSC, WAP Gateway, CRBT, IVR, IMPS), messaging gateways (SMS, MMS, USSD), and a service delivery platform and content management system called DaVinci SDP. This is critical to enable IMI's SaaS model.

Operational Model: IMImobile owns, maintains, and operates the VAS infrastructure on behalf of the operator with the back-end support of its global 24x7 VAS Network Operation Center (VNOC). The operators/portal retains full control of the platform through administrative access delivering improved operational and financial performance for the operator and portal.

Content Management: Acquisition, porting and testing teams work to create, edit, and deploy content. IMImobile currently process over 4,500 content items a day. Accounts have dedicated portal managers and content marketing teams working in tandem to ensure a quality end-user experience.

On the product development front, one of the key innovations of IMImobile in the past one-year is DaVinci Service Delivery Platform. It encompasses all messaging platforms, voice and video platforms, operational support system (OSS), business support system (BSS), gateways, and administration and application interfaces. It can be integrated through open protocols, allowing new technologies and products to be seamlessly incorporated. It covers a range of services for data and voice, content management, delivery and billing integration, promotions, and content building.

Another key innovation by the company is fully integrated mobile advertising platform Ad-Ring. It provides an environment in which multi-format ad campaigns can be created and delivered to consumers via SMS, MMS, voice, WAP portal, CRBT and video streaming. Ad-Ring is the evolutionary development of IMImobile's DaVinci managed service delivery platform.

SS Bhat, CTO, IMImobile said, “Technology is our core strength, and clients from world over come to us for management and development of their mobile VAS. This is very exciting time, as we are making a foray into the mature markets of Europe and the US.”

Technology is our core strength, and clients from the worldover come to us for management and development of their mobile VAS SS Bhat, CTO, IMImobile	The award is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of each and every person at IMImobile Bibhu Kumar, coo, Global Sales, IMImobile

What's Ahead...
Elaborating on the challenges and expansion plans, CEO Vishwanath Alluri said, “We started the mission of being the largest, the fastest and most able. We have met and continue to exceed all customer expectations, ensuring best service standards, and with seamless service and uptime.”

He added, “We are now in a position and plan to make a foray and explore the mature and flourishing markets of Europe, the US, and Africa. We are focusing to tap the tier-1 market.”

IMImobile is doing well in the African countries. It is a pioneer of delivering VAS on a managed business model, enabling operators and service providers to derive significant new revenue streams without having to make any capital investment.

In Africa, the recent endorsement for the managed services model comes from Tigo Tanzania that has seen its ARPU rise significantly after it partnered with IMImobile. Keen to provide innovative value added services for their youth market in Tanzania, Tigo looked to IMImobile to deploy and manage a number of services which would be popular with their subscribers. IMImobile deployed a new ring-back tone (RBT) platform few months ago which saw number of subscribers doubling to 100,000 in March 2008. IMI mobile has also built and deployed a vibrant new WAP platform, specifically for Tigo's young target audience.

Apart from Africa, IMImobile currently deploys VAS for the Millicom Group in Mauritius, and EI Salvador, Gautemala, Honduras, Colombia in Latin America, and Sri Lanka in Asia. The major challenge for IMImobile during its global expansion was to find the right people in the foreign market who actually belong to the Indian culture.

The European market has a huge potential and IMImobile is pretty sure that it is going to repeat the success of India and Africa in the European and US markets as well. Attracting and retaining specialized workforce will be key for its growth in the foreign market.

When asked about the young management team responsible for IMImobile's success, Bibhu Kumar, coo, Global Sales, IMImobile, says, “The award is a reflection of the hard work and dedication of each and every person at IMImobile. It also goes to all our customers whose feedback and support has helped us become what we are today.”

Though the company competes with established VAS players to build a global brand, IMImobile's spirit and commitment will continue to help it achieve that.

Arpita Prem
arpitap@cybermedia.co.in