InnoPath Software, which specializes in Over The Air (OTA) customer care for mobile devices, has unveiled the next generation of its ActiveCare solution for mobile service providers, which is designed to solve support issues associated with Smartphone growth. As recent events have demonstrated, says InnoPath, handset vendors and service providers must have their support plans in place when launching a new phone. InnoPath says its unique experience positions the company as a trusted partner to both parties.
InnoPath notes that Smartphones are the fastest growing segment in the mobile market. While their users generate higher ARPU, support calls for these devices are more complex, longer and harder to close. With the ability to address these calls, the latest version of ActiveCare puts the service provider back in the drivers seat, allowing them to regain control of Smartphones and other advanced devices on their network, InnoPath says. This control results in lower support costs, greater revenue assurance when deploying new services, and ultimately, increased customer satisfaction by painlessly solving support problems the first time a subscriber calls for support.
ActiveCare offers a rich set of over-the-air management capabilities to address key support issues. These capabilities include the ability to properly configure data services, identify problems, correct configuration settings, manage hardware functionality, update the firmware, and remotely lock and wipe the phone if it is lost or stolen.
With Smartphones proliferating globally, service providers are forced to take a decidedly old-fashioned approach to support that requires committing additional resources within their frontline care organizations, says InnoPath CEO, John Fazio, By leveraging InnoPaths ActiveCare solution, they now have the opportunity to match the intelligence of these new devices by investing in an equally sophisticated solution for their support centers. This directly targets the subscriber experience, improving subscriber loyalty through faster first call resolution.
InnoPath has enhanced its ActiveCare offering with three capabilities that address todays Smartphone manageability and provisioning requirements. The first is universal device support. InnoPath says that ActiveCare is the first over-the-air care solution available on all Smartphone platforms, including Android, Symbian, RIM, Windows Phone, and, by the end of June, the iPhone. A unified set of end-to-end care capabilities simplifies support, reduces training overhead, and results in a common frontline care experience for the subscriber and the CSR, driving first time resolution. InnoPaths ActiveCare client can be installed on devices already in the field, ensuring early return on investment, or can be loaded onto the phone at time of manufacture.
ActiveCare can also take control of Android, Symbian, and Windows Phone updates, while also avoiding separate management silos for these different operating systems. InnoPath says its new Mobile Update Advanced Edition includes enhancements to both the client and the server that ensure the best possible performance with large update packages, sophisticated device file-systems, and scalability to meet the needs of the worlds largest mobile service providers.
Finally, says InnoPath, ActiveCares Mobile Activate facility  offers a better experience for the subscriber by ensuring that high ARPU data services work properly out of the box. Mobile Activate ensures error-free and timely provisioning of high-value data services across any device, facilitating service discovery during the critical golden hour of device use.
The introduction of InnoPaths new solution comes as service providers are preparing for the 5th Wave of technology the rise of the Mobile Internet, following the coming of the mainframe, the arrival of Minicomputers, the PC wave and then the desktop Internet. InnoPath says this 5th Wave represents a market with 10 times the potential risk and return of the last wave due to the number of users and devices touched.
The company notes that the Mobile Internet is based on data, devices, diversity of applications, and extends anywhere, anytime broadband connectivity into the developing world. Data services are core to the Mobile Internet, it points out, but, as recent experiences have illustrated, service providers can have difficulty supporting these services over-the-air in a cost-effective manner.