Mobile Backup Brings Insurance for Social Networks

• Insurance policy for social networks
• Backup of contacts, calendar, tasks
• No additional client required
• Widest range of devices with SyncML
• Mobile signup via Web, WAP, and SMS
• Built-in over-the-air provisioning
• Wipes personal data from lost phones
• Integrates with almost any PIM back-end or database

Consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices as the sole repository for social and business contact information. Subscribers value the data on their phone - contact details, SMS messages, calendar entries, etc. - higher than the device itself. For many, the loss of a phone is much less traumatic than the loss of the precious contact information, a social network, that it held. Thus, a service that promises the return of lost data is increasingly valuable; think of it as an insurance policy for social networks or a lifesaver!

For device manufacturers, the loss of a phone means a loss of revenue. Users will initiate far fewer phone calls and send far fewer text messages during the months it takes to restore a social network to a new phone. By using Mobile Backup from Synchronica, device manufacturers can prevent loss of ARPU and add value to their services by offering insurance for their subscribers' contact information. If a customer loses or upgrades a phone, the service painlessly restores all of the data to the new device - remotely, over the air. This helps reduce churn, too, as customers with new phones return to the provider that is able to restore their social network.

Using the power of synchronization technology, Mobile Backup secures the data stored on mobile phones. It is based entirely on the dominant industry standard SyncML (OMA DS) supported by the majority of phones (1.5 billion of them!) on the market. It works with many mass market feature phones, does not require an additional client, and can be used with ease - clear requirements for a successful product introduction in the consumer market and vital in emerging markets showing up to 25 percent growth each year.

Keeping customers (and revenues) by keeping their valuable data safe is easy with Synchronica's Mobile Backup. Customers register and have their phones automatically configured over the air. They can do this using a WAP interface, a web interface, or just by sending an SMS. If a customer can send a text, that user can setup this vital insurance service. Then, using the phone's native synchronization capabilities, the simple WAP interface, or the intuitive web interface, the customer backs up the phone. Mobile Backup can even initiate this first backup, using the SMS sent to setup the service.

Support costs traditionally associated with the introduction of a new service are virtually erased. By helping customers to help themselves by using Mobile Backup's remote, automatic, over-the-air setup and phone configuration, device manufacturers need not worry about damage to margins. The user doesn't have to touch a callcenter (or even a web site, if the user subscribes in a region where traditional internet access is poor).

So, then a customer loses or upgrades a phone. Disaster strikes? No, the user simply gets a new phone and SIM from the provider, sets up the service again on the new phone using one of the same simple interfaces, and restores the social network using any one of those same synchronization interfaces. Again, there are no support costs and the customer is happy with the provider because that provider has restored the social network.

With Synchronica's Mobile Backup, operators can now offer a new service without increasing support costs, which provides for easy adoption of insurance for social networks through WAP or SMS (or the web) whilst reducing churn and maintaining ARPU.