Canada’s first conference on mobile financial services, Mobile Money Canada, is just two weeks away! Mobile Money Canada will take place at the Metro Toronto Convention Center on November 10, 2009. Mobile Money Canada will provide the first forum for Canadian industry leaders to discuss, debate, and develop the relationships needed to successfully build and operate profitable Mobile Money Solutions. Mobile Money Canada was founded byDonRiver Inc., Mobile-Financial.com, and our mobile financial services industry partners.

Mobile Money Canada is almost at full capacity, with close to 100 of the visionaries, executives, and decision makers registered to attend that will be the primary drivers of the growth and evolution of this industry in Canada over the next decade. We are thrilled to have received a strong response from the Canadian mobile financial community. We have people participating from almost all of the major Canadian financial institutions, mobile operators, mobile money solution vendors, payment processers, as well as several consulting firms, analysts, and media outlets. 

The Mobile Money Canada Conference agenda has been finalized and we have people from all across the mobile financial services ecosystem attending and speaking. The conference sessions that we have put together cover all aspects of mobile money and include the following: 

• Keynote: "Why Will Mobile Financial Services Matter to Canadians?"
• The Business Case & ROI for Mobile Banking
• What does it take to successfully build and operate profitable mobile banking services?
• Unlocking the Secrets to profitable Mobile and Contactless Payments for Banks and Mobile Operators.
• The Domestic and Cross Border Mobile Money Transfer Opportunity Revealed
• Mobile Banking in Canada: Criteria & Tools for achieving success
• Making the Right Choice...What you need to know to select the right solution and vendor for a Mobile Financial Services deployment?
• What is the right Mobile Money approach for Canada? Bank Centric, Mobile Operator Centric, or Collaboration?
• Mobile Banking & Payments Vendor Showcase

A big part of Mobile Money Canada’s appeal is the group of mobile financial services experts that will share their insights and experiences with conference attendees. Mobile Money Canada is packed with speakers and panelists who have successfully built and launched mobile banking offerings and mobile money payment services in Canada, and around the world. 

The speakers and panelists include the following:

• Robin Dua, President, EnStream LP.
• Brent Ho-Young, Managing Director – Mobile Financial Services, DonRiver Inc.
• Chris Dean, Associate, Western Union Digital Ventures
• Tom Purves, Business Leader – Product Innovation, Visa Inc.
• Antoine Dagher, Director – Product & Marketing Management, Telus
• Matt Krogstad, VP - Business Development, M-Com
• Patrick Kelly, SVP, Business Development, Monitise Americas
• Kate Zilla-Bâ, COO, Mondato
• Eric Feeley, Director of Product Management, Telepin Software
• Ryan Gilbert, Entrepreneur in Residence, Venrock.
• Jaafer Haidar, Principal, Sensidea.
• John-Pierre Kamel, RFID Practice Lead, Excellis Consulting Corp.
• Amar Varma, Partner, Extreme Venture Partners.
• Anant Tailor, Mobile Marketing Manager, DonRiver Inc.
• Long Van, Mobile Banking Architect, DonRiver Inc.
• Hesham Fahmy, Mobile Money Transfer Architect, DonRiver Inc.

We at Mobile Money Canada would like to extend a warm “Thank You!” for the enthusiastic support that we have received from our registered attendees and our partners that have brought Mobile Money Canada together. We only have a few spaces available so if you are interested, please register today at www.mobilemoneycanada.com  

Please note that with such limited space left, we will only be able to accept individuals from Canadian enterprises that are currently operating, or plan to deploy, mobile financial services offerings to retail consumers and enterprise customers. We apologize to those that we have not been able to accommodate, as the demand has been greater than we anticipated. 


Cheers,

Brent Ho-Young

Hello Canada,

Are you ready???  We have exactly two weeks to go until Mobile Money Canada and I cannot wait to meet each of you that were able to register to attend the event.  We have executives from all across the Mobile Money ecosystem coming in from all across North America to discuss, debate, and develop relationships that will help to foster the growth of this industry in Canada.

 

I have some great news to share as well.  I was able to confirm today that Robin Dua will be conducting the Mobile Money Canada Keynote presentation, “Why Will Mobile Financial Services Matter to Canadians?”   

 

For those of you who do not Robin, he is the President of EnStream LP, a mobile commerce joint venture company owned by Canada’s big three mobile operators (Bell, Rogers, & Telus).  Robin was also instrumental in rolling out Canada’s first person to person mobile money transfer and payment service, Zoompass.  

 

Robin is a dynamic speaker, mobile money visionary, with deep experience within the mobile, payments, and internet industries and we are extremely fortunate to have him take time out to share his perspectives on why and what mobile financial services are important to Canadians.

 

Cheers,

Brent

I was lucky enough to have found some time to attend a webinar event held yesterday by M-Com.  The informational session was to discuss some of the key issues or considerations in mobile banking and the attributes of a winning mobile strategy for banks based on M-Com’s industry experience.

To summarize, some of the key issues discussed are:

• What are the access modes for the mobile channel?  Discussions around communication protocols, application platforms, and functional considerations were provided.
• Who is the target market?  What are the demographics of early adopters and what are some of the impacts based on geographic deployments.
• Where do mobile operators fit into the ecosystem? Are they friends or foes?
• What are some of the technology impacts we see in the future?  Will device penetration be evolved from basic handsets to majority smartphones or netbooks and notebooks?

M-Com included many of the data points that were observed in the field.  One set of data point that I found most interesting was the cost reduction opportunity figures which compares channel costs figures within a typical banking operation.   For instance, costs per transaction was found to be approximately $4 for in branch, $3.75 for call center, $1.25 for IVR, $0.85 for ATM, $0.17 for Online and just $0.08 for the mobile channel.  There were no further breakdown of these cost figures, however, if we just take these cost figures at face value, then this suggests that the opportunity for cost savings when using the mobile channel are immense.  Although, I have to wonder how one can reduce online channel cost by more than 50% when migrating to mobile channel.  Was this figure based on the anticipated increase in transactional volume when dealing with the mobile channel?

M-Com also outlined some of the characteristics that they believe are responsible for successful mobile banking strategies.    The following is a summarized list of attributes that were discussed during the webinar:

• Working applications – all too often do you see an application that has been prematurely launched to the market.  Make sure your applications work, and are easy to use.
• Universal reach maximizes adoption – In most geographic deployments target multiple demographics.  Therefore, it is imperative that the target audience is able to access your services, i.e. SMS application for target market using basic mobile devices, whereas custom on-device applications for younger, more tech savvy users.  This point is easier said then done since in most cases, it is very difficult for banks to manage a spread of technologies, and application offerings.
• Strategy for different customer segments require different functions, for instance, SMS applications can be limited to balance inquiries, and simple peer-to-peer transfers, whereas an on-device application can include bill payment, repeat transactions, loan management, etc.
• Over 40 % of mobile banking users are not online bankers based on M-Com live customer data.  This means that the banking strategy must take into account the user’s infamiliarity with the concept of electronic banking.
• One of the attributes that are often overlooked, is the back office integration and the capability to efficiently support customers including:

-  Enrolment and Activation
-  Customer Care
-  Reporting and Analysis
-  Diagnostics and Performance
-  Service Configuration
-  Risk and Security

• Avoid fragmented technology deployments, and multi-vendor solutions should be avoided.  I’m not sure if I agreed with this since this reduces the company’s ability to implement best in class software for different verticals of the mobile financial services, i.e. top up vs, customer care, vs. payments services, processing, etc.
• Include payment services in the strategy since transactional fees introduce a new stream of revenue for banks.  This includes:

-  Billing
-  P2P
-  Remote Retailing
-  Merchants and POS

• Provide a consistent and seamless user experience across all banking channels.
• Deliver a Single View of the Bank, transactions are found in all channels, etc.
• Provide a 360-degree view of the customer so that customer support is seamless and consistent.

Overall, I felt the session was very informational.  Serge van Dam and Edward Massey did an excellent job of aligning M-Com’s real world experience to the guidelines suggested above.  You can find a recording of the webinar at this link here: http://tinyurl.com/oekcub.

Are you Canadian and working in the mobile financial services industry?  Are you interested in learning about mobile banking, mobile money transfer, mobile payments, mobile marketing and more?  If so, you will want to consider attending Mobile Money Canada on November 10, 2009 at the Metro Toronto Convention Center.   

Mobile Money Canada is the first conference exclusively focused on the Canadian mobile financial industry.  Mobile Money Canada was founded by Mobile-Financial.com, DonRiver Inc., and our mobile financial services ecosystem partners to help accelerate the growth of all aspects of this industry in Canada.  In addition, Mobile Money Canada has been organized to foster direct dialogue and networking between Canadian enterprises seeking strategies and solutions from mobile financial experts and service providers.  

The partners that are participating in Mobile Money Canada include the following:

-    Mobile-Financial.com
-    DonRiver Inc.
-    Western Union
-    EnStream
-    Zoompass
-    Monitise Americas
-    M-Com
-    Mondato
-    Telepin
-    Excellis Consulting
-    Extreme Venture Partners
-    Sensidea

In you are interested in attending Mobile Money Canada, please visit the event website at www.moiblemoneycanada.com for more information.  

Cheers,

Brent

This week’s Economist magazine has an excellent set of special reports focused on the impact that mobile phones and mobile applications are having on emerging markets. The reports also cover how mobile applications are being used to provide financial services to millions around the world who had been previously excluded from the financial and banking sector.  If you are interested in mobile financial services, you definitely should take a few moments to read each of the reports...And the best part is that they are free to read online. 

 

If you are a Mobile-Financial.com subscriber and know of any other reports that our readers should know about, please send them to me at brent@mobile-financial.com.  Chris Dean from Western Union Digital brought these reports to my attention...Many thanks Chris!  

 

The Economist reports include the following:

 

The Power of Mobile Money
Poor countries have already benefited hugely from mobile phones. Now get ready for a second round, says Tom Standage

 

Mobile Marvels
Poor countries have already benefited hugely from mobile phones. Now get ready for a second round, says Tom Standage

Eureka Moments
How a luxury item became a tool of global development

The Mother of Invention
Network operators in the poor world are cutting costs and increasing access in innovative ways

Up, Up and Huawei
China has made huge strides in network equipment

Beyond Voice
New uses for mobile phones could launch another wave of development

Finishing the Job
Mobile-phone access will soon be universal. The next task is to do the same for the internet

 

Cheers,

Brent