Accenture Launches Global Mobility Business to Enable Mobile Operators and Enterprises to Deliver New Mobile Applications to Customers

BARCELONA.– Accenture (NYSE: ACN) has established a global mobility business designed to help both mobile operators and enterprises easily and cost-effectively develop and deploy new, revenue-generating mobile applications to their customers.

The new business, called Accenture Mobility Operated Services, will offer a mobile “services store” that includes the design, delivery and management of a broad portfolio of vertical mobility applications using Accenture’s proven software platform for mobile applications. These are ready-to-deploy mobile applications that encompass money management, voucher and ticketing, mobile data collection, and many other business- and consumer-related services.

A key market differentiator of this new business is Accenture’s Service Delivery Platform (SDP), which reduces the initial high costs of IT and infrastructure setup while minimizing the risk and complexity of managing multiple connections to third parties. An industry-leading platform, Accenture’s SDP is integrated with leading communications service providers’ and business partners’ platforms. Accenture’s SDP combines hardware, software and services into a common architecture that enables cross industry enterprises to create and deliver solutions across different networks.

“Service providers and enterprises are increasingly looking to harness advances in wireless technology to provide a set of high value mobile services to their customers. Accenture Mobile Operated Services provides a flexible platform that enables a variety of industry-specific mobile applications while supporting open APIs for third-party application development.”, said Curtis Price, program vice president, infrastructure services, IDC, a global market research and analysis firm specializing in information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology. "Through its transaction-based delivery model, expertise in enabling mobile applications, and deep vertical industry knowledge, Accenture Mobile Operated Services provides a unique approach to the challenge of developing, deploying, and managing mobile applications in a cost effective manner.”

Accenture has launched the business in Italy, with plans to expand in Europe, the Americas and the Asia Pacific region during 2009. Accenture Mobility Operated Services will initially target the communications, financial services, resources, retail, automotive, and public-service sectors, although Accenture Mobility Operated Services can be used by an enterprise in any industry. Pricing will be transaction- or subscription-based, with costs based on clients’ business volume, such as number of subscribers, devices, or transactions.

“Users no longer want ‘just voice services,’ or ‘just cell phone coverage.’ They are looking for data services to enhance their professional and personal lives – and nearly every industry is looking for a wireless networked device solution,” said Andy Zimmerman, managing director of Accenture’s New Business group, who delivered the opening keynote for the GSMA Mobile Innovation Marketplace at the Mobile World Congress, providing insights on industry players who want to offer wireless links to their customers. GSMA is the global trade association for mobile phone operators, manufacturers and suppliers.

“While most of the traffic over wireless networks is still directed to telephone handsets, we are seeing a huge interest in specialized devices — such as an Accenture-developed digital pen that salespeople at clients’ locations are using to enter data directly into their company’s database — that can also tap into these networks,” Zimmerman said. “Our goal is to make Accenture Mobility Operated Services an integral part of this emergent ‘device superhighway.’ We are working with mobile operators, enterprises, device makers, service providers, content owners, technology partners, trade associations, and developers to make it the platform of choice for anyone who wants to build and deploy a networked application.”

Accenture has a history of enabling clients to launch and manage new mobile services quickly and efficiently. For example, when the Poste Italiane group announced its intention to sell mobile phone services under the name “PosteMobile,” Accenture developed a technology platform that enabled PosteItaliane’s 14,000 postal offices to act as the PosteMobile retail network. In addition to building and maintaining the IT infrastructure to support PosteMobile’s core business processes, Accenture provides operations, management and business process outsourcing services, including service configuration and testing of the handsets and Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards. PosteMobile can now provide its customers with innovative mobile services by integrating and making its traditional offerings (such as national post office network, and bank and certification authority) accessible through any standard handset.

“Time to market and flexibility in an evolving market are absolutely key in these challenging times,” said Michele Marrone, managing director, Accenture Mobility Operating Services. “Providers and enterprises that are using and launching advanced mobility applications as a way to maintain their competitive edge must launch these services at an accelerated pace and in the most economical way possible. We can provide a managed, mobility ‘service store,’ providing clients with a single source for everything from software applications design to enablement, and a ready portfolio of mobility applications tailored to specific industries.”

Accenture Mobility Operated Services will include a core team of specialists with expertise in mobile solution research, development, delivery, and management.

For more information on Accenture Mobility Operated Services visit www.accenture.com/mobility.