Optimus Portugal Selects Gemplus' GemConnect Device Manager to Improve Customer Care and Boost Data Traffic
Luxembourg, November 14 (ots/PRNewswire)
Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), the world's leading provider of smart card based solutions, today announces the selection of its device management solution, GemConnect Device Manager, by Optimus, the third largest mobile operator in Portugal.
Faced with increasing device complexity, Optimus was looking for a solution to reduce the cost and time of customer care for device configuration issues. Data services (MMS, email gateways etc.) require a greater amount of handset configuration and set-up but the majority of users don't know how to proceed or rarely read the instruction manual. Consequently, customers are frustrated that their sophisticated new phones seem complicated to use and operator's customer service costs escalate due to demands on the call centre. This ultimately impacts the revenue that can be generated from new mobile services.
To address this, Gemplus' GemConnect Device Manager enables Optimus to automatically identify the handsets in the field and download the correct configuration over the air. Once in place, the solution will help Optimus' call centre staff to identify and rectify any potential configuration problems. Should a user change to a new handset, the application automatically configures the new handset so users will always get the most out of their mobile device.
Highlighting the level of complexity facing mobile operators today, the solution at Optimus supports 233 different handsets in total, including two 3G handsets, and has already demonstrated its worth by reducing the time needed to resolve customer care issues by a factor of three.
"With data services being one of the main drivers for our growth, we are constantly expanding our data service offering to our customers. To ensure that our customers were able to adopt these services easily, we needed a solution that would make these services simple to access and easy to use. There is a wealth of handsets currently available, all of which differ in many ways. The introduction of GemConnect Device Manager enables a significant improvement in the end-to-end quality of service offered to our customers and we give our customers more freedom to change the handset. Additionally, by being able to remotely configure every handset with the proper settings we ensure that the handsets do not become the roadblock to new services," explained José Pinto Correia, member of the board of Optimus.
GemConnect Device Manager enables customer care personnel to instantly identify the handset model without asking the subscriber, and enables them to configure the user's handset according to the services supported (MMS, email, WAP, GPRS etc.). These services are therefore made immediately accessible with no difficulty on the side of the end-user. Subscribers are also able to use the solution via a simple SMS-based interface, further reducing the number of calls to the operator's call centre.
Philippe Vallée, Executive Vice President, Telecom Business Unit, Gemplus, said "Not only does GemConnect Device Manager reduce the burden on customer services, but it makes the whole mobile experience user friendly for subscribers. They no longer have to manage complicated service set-ups. Even if they change handsets, the Gemplus OTA technology effortlessly makes services available."
About Gemplus
Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 - GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP) is the world's leading player in the smart card industry in both revenue and total shipments (source: Gartner-Dataquest 2005, Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor). It has sold over 5.5 billion smart cards.
Gemplus delivers a wide range of portable, personalised solutions in areas including Identity, Mobile Telecommunications, Public Telephony, Banking, Retail, Transport, Healthcare, WLAN, Pay-TV, e-government, and access control.
Gemplus' revenue in 2004 was 865 million Euros.
www.gemplus.com
About Optimus
From its beginning in 1998, Optimus has been steadily growing in the Portuguese market, having in view a sole objective: to be the leader in the Portuguese telecom market, providing its Customers with high-quality services and mobile phones that improve people's lives because they simplify, bring near and amuse. Optimus had already over 2.1 million customers.
Optimus is the only mobile communications company in the world to have won three consecutive GSM Awards, a distinction that reinforces its international recognition. In Portugal, the new operator has also won a number of important awards; its technological excellence has also been recognised by the Institute of Communications of Portugal by means of the results of a survey carried out by the sector regulator regarding the quality of mobile networks in Portugal.
By constantly launching new products and services in the Portuguese market - mobile portals, SMS news services, entertainment services, GPRS services - Optimus is also the leader in terms of the usage of new technologies.
For further information, please visit www.optimus.pt
(c)2005 Gemplus. All rights reserved. Gemplus, the Gemplus logo, are trademarks and service marks of Gemplus S.A. and are registered in certain countries. All other trademarks and service marks, whether registered or not in specific countries, are the property of their respective owners.
Some of the statements contained in this release constitute forward-looking statements. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause our or our industry's actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activities, performance, or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Actual events or results may differ materially. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those estimated by the forward-looking statements contained in this release include, but are not limited to: trends in wireless communication and mobile commerce markets; our ability to develop new technology, and the effects of competing technologies developed and expected intense competition generally in our main markets; profitability of our expansion strategy; challenges to or loss of our intellectual property rights; our ability to establish and maintain strategic relationships in our major businesses; our ability to develop and take advantage of new software and services; and the effect of future acquisitions and investments on our share price. Moreover, neither we nor any other person assumes responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this release speak only as of this release. We are under no duty to update any of the forward-looking statements after this date to conform such statements to actual results or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated results.
For more information:
Jane Strachey
Gemplus
Tel: +33-442364661/+33-676493593
Email: jane.strachey@gemplus.com
Matthew McGuinness
Edelman
Tel: +44-207-344-1259
Email: matthew.mcguinness@edelman.comContact:
Jane Strachey, Gemplus, Tel: +33-442364661/+33-676493593, Email:
jane.strachey@gemplus.com. Matthew McGuinness, Edelman, Tel:
+44-207-344-1259, Email: matthew.mcguinness@edelman.com