"VAS market is at around $ 923 million"
Aug 4, 2008

A blend of new technologies, newer platforms, and faster go-to-market strategies is the new mantra of mobile value added service (VAS) providers. ValueFirst is developing and marketing technologies around 2D barcodes to drive the mobile market across verticals. Pankaj Maru delves deeper into the scenario in an interview with Shantanu Singh Chauhan, CTO of ValueFirst

ValueFirst is a blend of technologies to cater to the enterprise customer. Can you give us a glimpse into the platforms used?

Products are developed in Windows.net and win32 environment for integration and user experience. The server is hosted on Linux and uses open source technologies. The idea is to provide better level of data security and RoI on investment. The platform is written in Java, and Java middleware technologies are known for high scalability and fault tolerance.

How do you bridge the divide between the technology platform used during development of solutions and products?

Our product and server communicate using the XML and Web services. Apart from these, various other protocol like SMTP (mailing), FTP (file upload), SMPP (bulk messaging) and HTTP too are supported. All these protocols can be executed over secure data transfer layer. The idea is to let end customer decide what protocol they are comfortable with. We provide same fault tolerance, scalability, and security for all of them.

How do you leverage bar-coded SMS and 2D Barcodes? You have done some joint work with an IIT in this regard?

ValueFirst has developed a technology whereby barcodes read by the standard POS barcode reader, are sent directly to the mobile handset. The beauty of this technology is it does not require MMS and WAP support. Barcode technology can be used for delivering discount coupon and e-tickets. The current technology is capable of delivering up to eight characters data to mobile handset as SMS. However we are currently working on 2d barcode that will be able to delivery up to 117 characters.

Who would be its early adopters?

The biggest implementation of 2D barcode technology could come from adoption by IATA (International Air Transport Association). IATA has mandated that all boarding tickets will be replaced by barcode tickets by 2010. Since we are pioneering this technology, we will surely have the first mover advantage.

Security is a major concern for all enterprises today. What are the measures or security solutions that you offer?

Since we are serving some of the foremost banks and financial institutions, ValueFirst has implemented a multi-layer of security. All data stored in client and server system is encrypted. All communication channels from customer end to operator are secured. Depending on demand, it is also possible to encrypt the data using a public infrastructure. The servers are protected by multi-level firewall and intrusion detection systems. We have an auditing team that audits the server on regularly. We also run intrusive and non-intrusive security scans regularly to identify any loophole that may have been generated due to system patch and updates.

What is the estimated market worth of enterprise mobile solutions and products in India? How will it grow in the coming years?

As of now the complete VAS market is at around $ 923 million of which enterprise mobility market is around 22 % (courtesy BDA analyst). However this scenario is going to change since future growth in VAS will come through enterprise mobility only. By 2010 enterprise mobility will be 35 % of the total market size. The market size itself would be staggering $ 2,744 million.

Can you name some clients from telecom and marketing sectors using your solutions?

ValueFirst services over 850 customers across multiple verticals. Some of the prominent ones are as follows:

Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, ITC, Nortel, HCL Technologies, TCS, P&G, Standard Chartered Bank, ING Vysya Bank, TATA AIG, Bajaj Allianz etc

Can you give us a low down on some of the new technologies that your company is currently working upon?

After having released proximity marketing solution based on Bluetooth, we are in process of releasing location tracking solution that will let parents to know their children's location remotely. It can also be used by transport industry for coaches and trucks movement information.

We are also working on providing web based messaging system. Other than providing same feature as available in our desktop messaging software VelocityPlus, it will have additional advantage of sending messages from anywhere. We have also released India's first desktop based multi-lingual messaging solution that let you integrate and deliver messages in any language.

Email to SMS application, its usage, benefits and technology behind its working?

Email to SMS is a high quality enterprise alert technology provided by ValueFirst. The technology is used by numerous customers of ValueFirst in ITeS vertical to monitor servers. The best thing about this service is its reliability. The service is setup on clustered environment that provides high up-time. There are multiple levels of redundancy setup including operator, server, service, and data-centre.

The application itself is designed to keep running even in the wake of worst possible system problems. Picture this: One of our customers uses our service to monitor the servers of one of the biggest mobile operator in India. This is a great example how ValueFirst service uptime is far better than operator's uptime.