Transcript W3C Position paper

Need and Relevance of Mobile Based Information
Services in Emerging Markets - India
Gnanapriya C ([email protected]) , Principal Architect,
Communications Service Provider Business Unit
Puneet Gupta ([email protected]) , Research Area Leader,
Convergence Lab, SETLabs
Copyright Infosys Technologies Ltd, 2006
India ICT – A SNAP SHOT
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ICT Projects in India
Name of the
Project
Purpose
Future planes
Akshaya
Making a district E-literate, limited
employment generation.
Delivery of multiple service at
Akshaya centers and expand it
to other districts
Bhoomi
Issue of Land title at 177 Bhoomi
kiosks and through privately owned
kiosks
Expand rural kiosk
network
Drishtee
Creating a network of privately owned
kiosks for e access to info,
government and service commercial
Expand Network
to cover new kiosk
E-choupal
The prime target is farmer. Farmers
get information about seeds’ price,
etc
Scale to more users
N-Logue
Multipurpose Internet kiosks based on
WILL
Expand for commercial
utilization
Gyandoot
Connecting rural cyber café catering
the everyday needs of the masses.
Extend for global
Internet
Education
Gram
Pts
Road
Transport
Land
Records
National
ID
Pensions
Central
Excise
India
Portal
GIS
Munici
palities
EDI
e-Posts
e-Courts
e-Office
Insurance
Core
Policies
eBiz
Gateway
e-Procure
Police
Banking
Land
Regn
Common
Service
Centres
Source: Dipankaj G Medhi, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand
Comrl
Taxes
MCA21IncomePassport
Visa Treasuries
Tax
Civil
Supplies
Employment
Exchanges
Agriculture
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Earlier Recommendations …
“GDP can grow only if we concentrate on integrating
agriculture, food processing, education, healthcare,
information and communication technology into
governance."
- Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, President of India
Source: Domestic IT - Broad Based Economic Development ,
HCL at 7th round table conference of Panchayathi Raj
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Better reach out with Mobile Technologies
• Internet usage is more in urban areas where literacy is more, supported by better local
connectivity infrastructures. But for a wider reach, especially to rural India, there is a demand
for other technologies that are more accessible and at suitable price points.
• With monthly subscriptions inching towards six million additions per month - 5.9 million of
them - are new mobile subscriptions, making India’s net addition the highest in the world,
overtaking that of China – though the penetration levels may be lower. India today offers the
lowest telecom tariffs as compared to rest of the world with local mobile call rates at less than
2 US cents a minute.
The combination of the above two facts makes mobile based information
access an extremely practical and attractive value proposition for a country
like India.
• The number of cellular subscribers in the country is expected to treble to 300 million in the
next three to five years
• Every cell phone can technically be used as a data access device. Wireless Technologies
that are used for information services are GSM data bearers, GPRS packet data access,
CDMA, WiFi
Mobile penetration has been successful from this perspective and has not only
been used for networking & communication, but has gained a significant place
in doing business and to stay in touch with latest information.
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Mobile Value Proposition
In India, the primary drivers for mobility are accessibility and less
dependence on the fundamental last mile infrastructure. And
given the near ubiquity of coverage, mobile access has
become/is becoming powerful access medium for internet
access as well
Mobile technologies comes with their inherent advantages not
available with traditional Internet access,
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Location Identification
Higher levels/relevance of presence awareness
Context awareness
Anywhere, Anytime access
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… for enterprise
• A new channel to reach out to customers and employees alike
• Another self service channel: As end users start getting used to
experience a wide range of mobile voice and data services
using mobilizes, an implicit demand to be able to reach out to
your business is emerging- Self service via mobile channel can
be a killer App
• Employee enablement. Providing the right data, applications
and mobile tools to your field service can substantially enhance
productivity and effectiveness, factors that have direct impact
on day to operations and real customer service
• Expanding to far-out and less accessible rural areas where
having a physical presence may not make sense. Very cost
effective in virtually extending your enterprises to wherever your
customers are, also acquisition of new clients
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Mobile technologies for data services in various
segments in India
Industry
segment
Segment details
Access / Information
requirement
Applicability for Mobile
Internet
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Government
executive, legislative and
general government,
justice, public
order and safety, public
finance, taxation, monetary
policy, administration of
HR, environmental
quality, housing, economic
programs, national security
and international affairs,
and all other
Central, international and
local government.
Enable mobility to eGovernance (National eGovernance plan)
Update status, alerts,
notification via SMS
based on which users
can get into the eGovernance portal for
more details
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Agriculture
Harvesting, Marketing, pest
control, crop rotation
Online advice,
transactions,
information retrieval
Alerts, Advice,
transactions can be
handled by SMS based
applications or via thin
client mobile browser
based interfaces
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Health Care
Hospitals, clinics, doctors,
nursing, dentists, medical
and dental laboratories,
And other health services.
Data sharing, Expert
advice, registration for
public health service,
appointment, alerts,
notification
SMS based applications
for information/alerts
and transactions based
on
WiFi / GPRS connectivity
at home and hospitals
for real time heavy data
uploads / downloads
Sl.
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Mobile technologies for data services in various
segments in India
Industry
segment
Segment details
Access / Information
requirement
Applicability for Mobile
Internet
4
Financial
Services
Banking, securities, insurance
(other than health) and
health
Insurance (the payer).
Mobile Banking, Financial
transactions, Micro
finance, Micro
Insurance
Information retrieval
(account, loan inquiry,
status check), Banking
transactions, payments,
requests (DD, Cheque
book etc)
SMS / WAP based
applications. Thin client
mobile browser based
interfaces. J2ME based
thick client apps for
providing online/offline
information access
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Retail
Trade,
Trading
General retailers, specialty
retailers, grocery,
restaurants and hotels.
Interactive communication
/ Financial transactions
/ M-commerce
Online store can leverage
the mobile channel to
deliver instant
information to users,
assisting them to make
informed buying
decisions, while helping
the retailers to
understand and
evaluate consumers'
preferences.
Auctions is another
attractive application
area
SMS / WAP based
applications. Thin client
mobile browser based
interfaces. J2ME based
thick client apps for
providing online/offline
information access
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o.
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Mobile technologies for data services in various
segments in India
Industry
segment
Segment details
Access / Information
requirement
Applicability for Mobile
Internet
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Utilities
Electric, gas, oil, nuclear
power and sanitary
services
Real time Meter reading
updates
Bill payments
Real time info sharing
SMS based applications
WiFi / GPRS for heavy
data uploads
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Communica
tions
Wire line, Wireless, Cable,
Television, Radio
broadcasting
Mobile Content Delivery
News, Alerts, Content
(Music, Video clips),
Gaming
SMS based applications,
Streaming with GPRS /
3G / 4G network
services (XoIP, IPTV
etc)
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Manufacturi
ng
automotive, industrial,
electrical and commercial
equipment,
medical equipment and
supplies, computer and
high-technology,
electronics, transportation
Equipment and all other
discrete manufacturing.
Mobile Field Force , real
time updates, low cost
supply chain
management – info
access
SMS based applications as
well thick client based
models for storing
information for offline
access. Real time data
updates with WiFi and
GPRS networks.
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Transportati
on
water, rail and air
transportation, urban
passenger transit, motor
freight
Transit, pipelines,
warehousing, couriers, and
transportation support
services.
Fleet Management (real
time updates), M
Ticketing, Schedule
updates
SMS based applications
for updates, m
ticketing, schedule
updates, status check
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Mobile technologies for data services in various
segments in India
Sl.
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N
o.
Industry
segment
Segment details
Access / Information
requirement
Applicability for Mobile
Internet
Services
IT service providers, software
publishers, professional,
scientific and technical
services, real estate, and
business and consumer
services.
Real time data access,
mobile Content delivery,
m-trading, m-bookings
SMS based applications,
Streaming with GPRS /
3G / 4G network
services (XoIP, IPTV
etc)
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The mobile Technology Landscape- Appreciating
the options
Native App
Development
Smart Client Using Mobile
Development App Framework
Thin Client
Nokia-WAP
Thick Client
Erricsson
Middleware
Open Wave
Security
Smart Client
Identity
Management
Messaging
Services
Interne
t
Device
Laptop
Mobile
Phones
CRM
Database
SMS
cHTML
SQL Server
SMTP
xHTML
Oracle
HTTP
HTML
DB2
Palm OS
HTTP/S
XML
ODBC
Blackberry
SOAP
WML
PDA
Tablet PC
App Server
Synchronization
Mobile User
Smart
Phone
Device
Management
Enterprise
Access
mechanism
Win CE Pocket IE SQL CE
Symbian
Nokia
GPRS
GSM
WAP
RFiD
TCP/IP
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Challenges with state of art technologies
Fundamental value proposition of mobile access to information
and mobile transactions is clear, key associated challenges are
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Managing Device Diversity
Context sensitivity
Planning for but “not assuming” any-where, any-time connectivity
Right approach to Security
Minimizing the cost and complexity involved with mobilizing apps
Immature standards in content rendering technologies
Aligning to the right set of technologies for the business needs
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Infosys approach to address these challenges ….
Infosys has been looking into these challenges and our effort
have been aligned towards
• development of technology platforms
• solutions that aim to bring the best value from application of
mobile technologies in specific areas
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Infosys mobility solutions with a strong Indian context
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Insurance for Rural India
Microfinance
Application of mobile real time data for dairy professionals
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Insurance for Rural India
• Challenge
– Ability to serve the client base in small towns and in rural areas where it is not
practical to extend the company’s presence by setting up physical infrastructures.
– Many of these places are not well served even from an internet connectivity
perspective.
• Trend
– Even the remotest of these areas are today being served by mobile networks.
• Solution
– We have been working on creating technology platforms that enable creation of
solutions that leverage a low cost mobile device that a local, employed by the
company as its representative, can use to provide several services which were
hitherto possible only when a customer were to visit the nearest office in one of
the towns.
– The field representative can use her/his mobile phone to access services like
getting customer information, receiving alerts related to due dates for renewals
and updation of premium payments received, just to give a few examples.
– Using a low cost mobile device, the field agent can provide all critical services
even in areas where setting up of basic internet infrastructure can be a challenge.
– Advanced synchronization techniques supporting both SMS and wireless data
technologies offered by GPRS as well as CDMA networks, ensure that the cost
per transaction can be kept extremely low.
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microFinance
A credit company providing “micro”loans where the loan amounts are very
small. The cost of transaction per loan sanctioned or payment made should
be low.
With the microFinance application, data is available with the finance company’s
agent to monitor his clients’ loans and their payments.
Transactions are offline and data is synchronized with backend server at a later
time or when connectivity is available.
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Application of mobile real time data for dairy professionals
• Using TruSync, Infosys mobile synchronization
platform, is aimed at enabling field force of a dairy
organization to enable use of mobile device like
PDAs to provide nutrition, animal diet and wellness
services as well as vaccination services to farmers
who have no other effective mechanism to
scientifically deal with animal care to increase net
yields.
• The solution strength lays in the ability of
underlying technology platform to deal with the
complexities of the wireless connectivity
infrastructure.
• The technology enables the application to work in
offline situations when connectivity is not available
or when the cost of connectivity is high.
• The technology involves opportunistic pre-fetching
of data and by masking the disconnectedness
from the end application by fetching the data from
the local database, masking the actual state of
connectedness from the end application.
• The solution is also aimed at demonstrating the
feasibility of such mobile solutions both from
technology and cost perspectives.
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Infosys mobility platforms
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•
Infosys m-Connect platform
True Sync
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Infosys m-Connect platform
• m-Connect is Infosys context aware mobile transactions
platform that enables extension of any web based application to
be made available for access from any web enabled mobile
device in manner that is optimized for each device.
• The platform takes into account factors such as Screen real
estate, Input, Cost of Connectivity, Heterogeneity, Application
Deployment, and Available Bandwidth
• The platform is a web server side middleware that detects
device type and in real time renders a transaction interface
suited for a mobile device.
• One of the critical aspects of the platform is the way existing
back end infrastructure is leverages meaning that an existing
application can be mobile enabled in incredibly short time
frames.
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True Sync
• TruSync is an Infosys platform for building mobile synchronization
based mobile solutions.
• By harnessing the power of “Context” TruSync ensures that optimized
mobility is realized and the solution understands and appropriately
reacts to evolving environment conditions without end-user disruption
• Essentially Trusysnc offers one time architectural foundation doing
away with the need of dependency on the individual mobile
applications to deal with issues such as network connectivity
aberrations, security and transaction prioritization.
• Key Architectural foundations:
– Masking the occasional disconnectedness from the application and
hence the end user
– Ability to differentiate between application contexts
– Removing dependence on both the network level security as well as the
end application security architecture
– Also manages transaction prioritization
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Thanks!!!
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