Page 6 - Helixion-swisscom-tapit-case-study
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how its service is delivered to its customer. The SIM manufacturer also acted as the perso
bureau (personalisation bureau). Helixion as the application developer provided its NFC
payments platform, lok-MPL, as well as systems integration and testing expertise to ensure
successful delivery and deployment to specifications agreed by all parties.
Despite the number of parties involved by having a single
party, in this case Swisscom, driving the project has
definitely contributed to the success of the development
and validated the Swisscom partnering strategy.
If you are considering a mobile wallet development, like Swisscom you should choose your
partners carefully based on their expertise along with considering what value they bring to the
development and commercial offering. No development of this scale is completely smooth
but by choosing the right partners, it can certainly help to overcome the bumps along the
way. In this instance Swisscom set out to build a positive relationship between all the
stakeholders to create a working partnership with clearly defined roles, open dialogue and
trust. How this was achieved is covered later in the case study; but the benefits of Swisscom’s
approach to the project helped the partners work effectively together to ensure issues
encountered were relatively quickly smoothed out. As a result the development has been able
to continue on time and to schedule.
The branding issue
The other key issue in this “co-petative” environment is one of branding. One of the hardest
commercial discussions when convincing a service provider to put their services into
someone else’s wallet is the issue of branding and customer ownership. The service provider
clearly does not wish to lose their branding, the value of which may have been built up over
many years. Branding sets them apart from their competitors and has real tangible benefits to
them – they do not want that brand diluted by having to share the user with someone else.
Whilst branding is challenging, this issue is not insurmountable either commercially or
technically as proven by this development. The unique “template” architecture (discussed in
more detail below) developed by Helixion for the Swisscom wallet resolves this issue: when in
the wallet the user will see Swisscom “Tapit” branding but when they open a service, the
service provider has the freedom to brand their service to their own requirements. This allows
service providers to reach their customers through the Swisscom wallet and potentially
critical mass to be achieved relatively easily.
For most markets, Helixion believes that a joint two party network operator/bank venture
model - such as being seen in Norway between Telenor and DnB, may be the best approach
to successfully deliver mobile wallets to market. The rationale being, this approach makes it
easier to agree the all-important common aim and define each party’s role, whilst still offering
services to enough users to achieve a customer base that can scale. That is not to say that
larger multiple ventures will not succeed, but they will certainly require more effort to agree a
common ambition that all the parties will work towards.
With any venture of this nature, the approach of Swisscom
provides a valuable insight how to drive such a project
successfully.
6 A Helixion Case Study
bureau (personalisation bureau). Helixion as the application developer provided its NFC
payments platform, lok-MPL, as well as systems integration and testing expertise to ensure
successful delivery and deployment to specifications agreed by all parties.
Despite the number of parties involved by having a single
party, in this case Swisscom, driving the project has
definitely contributed to the success of the development
and validated the Swisscom partnering strategy.
If you are considering a mobile wallet development, like Swisscom you should choose your
partners carefully based on their expertise along with considering what value they bring to the
development and commercial offering. No development of this scale is completely smooth
but by choosing the right partners, it can certainly help to overcome the bumps along the
way. In this instance Swisscom set out to build a positive relationship between all the
stakeholders to create a working partnership with clearly defined roles, open dialogue and
trust. How this was achieved is covered later in the case study; but the benefits of Swisscom’s
approach to the project helped the partners work effectively together to ensure issues
encountered were relatively quickly smoothed out. As a result the development has been able
to continue on time and to schedule.
The branding issue
The other key issue in this “co-petative” environment is one of branding. One of the hardest
commercial discussions when convincing a service provider to put their services into
someone else’s wallet is the issue of branding and customer ownership. The service provider
clearly does not wish to lose their branding, the value of which may have been built up over
many years. Branding sets them apart from their competitors and has real tangible benefits to
them – they do not want that brand diluted by having to share the user with someone else.
Whilst branding is challenging, this issue is not insurmountable either commercially or
technically as proven by this development. The unique “template” architecture (discussed in
more detail below) developed by Helixion for the Swisscom wallet resolves this issue: when in
the wallet the user will see Swisscom “Tapit” branding but when they open a service, the
service provider has the freedom to brand their service to their own requirements. This allows
service providers to reach their customers through the Swisscom wallet and potentially
critical mass to be achieved relatively easily.
For most markets, Helixion believes that a joint two party network operator/bank venture
model - such as being seen in Norway between Telenor and DnB, may be the best approach
to successfully deliver mobile wallets to market. The rationale being, this approach makes it
easier to agree the all-important common aim and define each party’s role, whilst still offering
services to enough users to achieve a customer base that can scale. That is not to say that
larger multiple ventures will not succeed, but they will certainly require more effort to agree a
common ambition that all the parties will work towards.
With any venture of this nature, the approach of Swisscom
provides a valuable insight how to drive such a project
successfully.
6 A Helixion Case Study
