Listen to Mr. Carsten's views
Carsten Brinkschulte Chief Executive Officer Synchronica plc (www.synchronica.com)

Synchronica – enabling push mail solutions from class to mass

Synchronica is a software company, headquartered in UK with a development subsidiary in Berlin, Germany, focused on development of push e-mail and synchronisation middleware software. Carsten Brinkschulte, Chief Executive Officer, Synchronica plc, talked to Telecom India Daily about the company’s activities in and out of India.

How has the journey been so far for Synchronica?

Synchronica is a software company, headquartered in UK with a development subsidiary in Berlin, Germany, focused on development of push e-mail and synchronisation middleware software. We are licensing predominantly to mobile operators and device manufactures which then take our product as a white label solution and offer it to end users, consumers, professional consumers or business users. Our flagship product, Mobile Gateway, enables push mail and synchronisation services to be offered end users. If you want, we take the already established concept of push mail which is firmly associated with specific devices such as successful Blackberry and we are taking this concept further, applying it to a much wider range of devices - we are making it independent of devices. Our Mobile Gateway can connect consumer mail boxes like Yahoo, MSN or GoogleMail and also connect business user mailboxes like Microsoft Exchange or Lotus Domino. It delivers push e-mail and synchronisation of calendar and contact data, over the air, to a wide range of devices.

Our solution is different from most competitors as we use exclusively open industry standards. We do not require an additional software client to be downloaded to the handset. Instead, we use the built in e-mail client, calendar and address book that can be found in most of the handsets these days, not just the smartphones but also mass market feature phones. We even support basic phones that cannot connect to the Internet. Unlike most of our competitors, our product literally works on 100% of the devices in the market. We do not require the end user to buy a specific handset or very expensive Smartphone. Our solution works from high end Smartphones to the mid-range feature phones down to low-end basic phones without requiring any additional software to be installed on handset - using industry standards ranging from Push IMAP and SyncML to the low end using Email-to-MMS and Email-to-SMS.

We are very much focussed on emerging economies. Our software has been developed with specific focus, and our roadmap has been adjusted to the specific needs of Africa, Middle-east, Asia, Latin America where almost all of our customers are. We have 12 operators under contract today. In India we have not yet any operator live but we have a partnership with Sify offering our product.

India seems to be a favourable market comparing to what you described. How do you see India as a potential market for your products?

We are very interested in Indian market, we have signed first deal with Sify marking our entry into the Indian Market. We hope to win mobile operators in the future. The Indian market is one of the most important markets in world for Synchronica because of the vast number of users and with our focus towards low-end, we think our product is much better suited for the Indian market then our competitors’.

An interesting aspect of mobile Email, which can be very attractive and important for Indian operators, is that Email is the most popular application of Internet - there are more than 2 billion Email users world-wide. Most people go to cyber café to check Emails in India as the PC and fixed-line penetration remains relatively low. Mobile operators in India now have a unique opportunity to turn the mobile phone into the primary form for accessing the Internet, skipping the PC and fixed line. Mobile Email may be the first and most important horizontal application that applies to large number of users and at the same time it has a high level of stickiness. People are calling the Blackberry also “Crackberry” because it is addictive. So basically, we have a “Crackberry” for the mass market which can be very effective and quickly can reach millions of users. It can have a very positive effect on churn, one of the major issues facing operators in India and other emerging markets today. I belive carriers offering mobile Email can reduce their churn rate by giving users a service that they become dependent upon. This can establish a barrier for end users to churn to another carrier. In particular, if the carrier is combining mobile access with a free Email address provided to end users, which many of our carriers now considering.

There are two aspects to mobile Email; one is to mobilise existing mail boxes like Yahoo, Gmail, MSN or Microsoft Exchange and the second is an interesting opportunity for carriers in emerging markets where e-mail penetration is not high, to give an Email address to end users. If the carriers succeed in providing an Email address along with mobile access through our Mobile Gateway, then they have a very effective weapon against churn, because if users switch carrier, they lose access to their Email.

High growth, lowest tariff with new technologies waiting to enter is how the Indian market can be defined today. How do you see yourself getting synchronised to the existing conditions and the changes coming in the near future in Indian telecom, and how does your product relate to advanced services such as 3G?

Synchronica Mobile Gateway works very well on 3G networks but it does not require 3G. It works very well on 3G networks and delivers a great user experience, but it works very well on GPRS or CDMA network, too. We have got multiple ways of delivering Emails to the device using IMAP for Email on GPRS, 3G, CDMA, and SyncML for calendar or contact synchronisation. We even have Email-to-MMS and Email-to-SMS enabling us to deliver Email to devices that are not data-enabled. Basically, we can deliver push Email on any network and on any device.

What are the other products for Indian operators that you plan to offer enabling them to get back high data revenues or VAS revenues?

We have a mass-market solution called Mobile Backup. Mobile Backup is a complimentary solution which is very easy to use and can be charged for – an insurance policy for your social network. Mobile Backup saves the phone contents, in particular the address book which is most valuable data in the phone, over-the-air and stores it in a safe place. If the user loses his or her phone, or upgrades the phone, then data can be easily restored to the new phone. This is very valuable in case you lose a phone, or the phone is stolen because in this case there is normally no way to back get the data - unless you have back up.

Mobile Backup works independently of the device manufacturer, so if you have a Nokia this year and next year change to a Sony Ericson, Mobile Backup can transfer the data - from one device to another and from one make to another.

Our focus is to deliver simple and easy-to-use solutions applicable to the mass market rather than high-end, complex solutions that only work for a few people.

Social networking on mobiles. How do you support this transformation?

The next version of our Mobile Gateway will connect the user not only to their mailboxes, but will also connect to social networking applications - in particular to the messaging part. Today we are bringing Gmail, Hotmail, MSN and Yahoo to your phone and with the new version, you will be able to subscribe to your Facebook, Twitter, Hi5 or other accounts on social networks. If somebody sends you a message on your social network, we will push an Email to your phone with the message and you will be able to reply, too. Basically we are marrying the concept of mobile Email with social networking. We are not taking social itself network to your mobile, but what we do is to connect to the messages in your social network – we call it social mobile messaging.

Emerging markets have a low affordability so what role you think Synchronica can play in realising this service matching to the pockets of the users there?

We see large interest from the carriers in these markets as we are enabling users with very simple phones to bring their social networks to their phones. Today this is limited to users with a PC or people with Smartphones, but now - using our solution –this can be made available to people with simple handsets. We think, this is going to benefit carriers in Africa, Latin America and obviously India because now, users that do not have Smartphone or a PC have got no way to access the social networks other than going to Internet café. We are enabling our carriers to benefit from the growing communication needs of their users, not just in the high-end, but also from the mid-market or low-end segment.

Device manufacturers and Internet service providers are moving towards developing applications of their own. Google & Nokia have done acquisitions of companies operating in the social networking domain. What do you think about these developments and what will the differentiators?

These companies have the same interest like carriers. If you look at Nokia, they are having the same interest like carriers to connect the user phones to Email or social networks. Nokia is working on similar services like Synchronica, but for their handsets only and that is the main differentiation factor. Nokia is a device manufacturer, so therefore they are offering services only & exclusively for their handsets. It’s the same with Apple - you can use Apple applications and services only on the iPhone and not on other platforms.

Synchronica on the other hand is manufacturer neutral. We enable Email solutions, backup and social network access on Nokia devices but also on Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung, HTC and others. We think mobile operators do not want device specific solutions but they want device-neutral solutions and avoid single-vendor-lock-in. Nokia wants to own the customers, the carriers want to own the customers - there is a growing conflict between them. We are supporting the carriers and our solutions enable them to offer highly valuable mass market value added services independent of the device manufacturer, on much wider range of devices.

The same applies, in a different way, to Google. Although not a hardware manufacturer, with Android they are trying to become one. Google is a portal, and portals are similar to device manufacturers - they want to own the users. The portal wants to be the centre of users’ life. The portal typically offers value added services focussed on and limited to their own portal, while the operators does not want portal-specific solutions, but prefer portal-neutral solutions.

Ideally, the mobile service providers would like a solution that works with as many portals as possible and on as many devices as possible. This is exactly what Synchronica delivers. Google only works with Google, Nokia works only with Nokia, Synchronica works with both Google & Nokia.

There is a strategic battle between operators and Nokia or Google. The battle is who owns the subscriber. If Nokia succeeds with Ovi or Nokia messaging solutions, then the carrier will be reduced to a dumb bit pipe with nothing more to offer then data access. They won’t provide any services as all would come from Nokia - devices and application platforms. This is dangerous for operators as their average revenue per user (ARPU) would go down dramatically if they don’t offer value added services. The same applies to Google – if Google succeeds to win the VAS battle, it will be at the expense of the carriers.

If the carrier wants to protect ARPU or even increase the ARPU, then value added services are the only way. They will have to host and offer their own services and become a smart pipe.

Does Synchronica work with mobile operators only or do you extend your solutions to big enterprises also?

We also work with large enterprises, for example we have one of the largest banks in India using Synchronica Mobile Gateway to provide mobile Email & synchronisation their employees users independent of device manufacturers and carriers.

The competition has moved into the Indian Market with some social networking companies signing up deals with Indian operators. Also India has vast talent in software application development so the local companies will also be coming up with similar services and solutions. How do you see your entry to the Indian market and what will the key points that Synchronica will count upon?

Of course India has big & brilliant talent in software development. There may be local competition as it is a big market. We are ready for it and it’s not the first move to enter India. We already have Sify and one bank using our solutions.

Our product has a unique technical approach with several years of research & development put into it. Of course it is possible that somebody else could develop a similar solution, but today I do not see a mobile Email solution that can deliver push mail from high end smart phones to low end basic phones with the breadth and depth of Mobile Gateway.

Mobile Social Network could be very well India’s 911 or any other county’s 911. What role social networking can play in emergency situations like terror attacks, natural calamities…..?

I think this makes sense. One problem which we see is that in case of such events the mobile networks get saturated and voice services are blocked. People can not use their mobile phones, which will prevent communication in an emergency. Traditional mobile networks are not very well suited for warning the population. I think mobile social networking, mobile Email or SMS are very well suited for such situations where you are requiring simultaneous mass communication. I have seen very innovative use of SMS for warning the population in case of earthquakes or Tsunamis. The advantage of data network is that they can scale better than voice networks. Data networks allow simultaneous mass communication which is not possible with voice where you have a one to one connection. With data network you can have one to many communications so not just 911, where someone alerts the authority, but the other way around where the authorities want to alert the population.

What has been business so far and what are the latest wins of Synchronica?

Synchronica is completely focussed on emerging economies and all our sales & marketing activities are focusing on Middle-East, Africa, Latin America, Russia (CIS) and Asia. We have a very strong pipeline of mobile operators testing our software and we are at various stages of contract negotiations with several operators. We are announcing new customer almost every second week.

Recent wins have been in Africa and Latin America, we have won two mobile operators in Africa and Latin America in past few weeks. In Latin America we have won a carrier in the Dominican Republic & Costa Rica and in Africa it we won in Sudan and Libya.

Synchronica works not only with direct sales activities but we also have strong global partners that have local presence in the regions. This is very important as business with carriers requires local presence in the country for support, sales, pre-sales, project management because of different languages and different cultures. We have big names as partners like Nokia Siemens Networks, which selling our product on global basis. We are also working with Brightstar which is the largest device distributor world-wide and Sun Microsystems, a leading telecom infrastructure supplier.

We may be a small company but with these partners we can reach to any region worldwide. In India we have sold direct. In the future, hopefully, we will be able to announce a mobile operator and may be that would be through our partners.