Eko Overview
Eko brings to us a new world currency, fully convertible all across the globe. Introduces Peer 2 Peer transaction, Innovates Postpaid account as Credit card, ushers in Prepaid account as Debit card.
The essence of Eko lies in the fact that it empowers the mobile phone of a subscriber to be useful for all types of commerce related transactions. Eko banks on the fact that the mobile penetration is far greater than the internet penetration across the globe and hence a mobile phone forms the “identity” of an individual. Also, compared to web access by Laptop, Desktop, Kiosk, or other related systems mandated that a individual goes to such a device. In contrast to this, the mobile is always with the individual.
Business models and transactions around Eko will disrupt web enabled transactions related to B2B, B2C and C2C including bidding, buying low and mid value merchandise (books, flowers, CDs etc) and payment across counters by enabling them over mobiles and other wireless devices.
Eko saves time, brings in efficiency, eases of options and choice.
Eko as a Currency
Eko would evolve as a Global currency wherein a prepaid account balance / postpaid credit limit could be exchanged as any other currency in the world.
Eko, Echoes commerce and enhances Subscriber experience.
Eko will extend a mobile wallet which can draw currency from his prepaid and postpaid accounts apart from credit card and banks accounts. Once the mobile wallet of a subscriber gets refilled it gives the subscriber to use his telephony accounts to the fullest. This account aligns itself with the currency which can be used for payment for any purchase of commodity. Once the subscriber gets familiar with the ways of Eko’s currency transfer across his own accounts the process could then be extended to all the merchandise that he purchases from any merchant. Eko provides subscriber an enriched experience with their mobile phones.
Eko brings to life the postpaid and prepaid accounts of a subscriber and completely redefines the usage for the same. The positioning that Eko provides these two telephony accounts of a subscriber, innovates the usage of the two accounts and lines up these accounts of the subscriber along side with the VISA / MASTERCARD provisioned credit / debit cards.
Eko, is the first step to the convergence of Financial and Service Providers.
Eko’s currency is fully convertible and can be exchanged in terms of any of the other forms of money. Eko can be used to purchase commodity. Eko can be used to clear pending credit card bills. Eko can be used to make purchase between any two subscribers. The merchandise in this case could be anything ranging from a Ring tone, Wall paper, MMS, Video etc.
Eko lets easy cash outlet for a subscriber, Empowers the subscriber to transfer Eko currency to another subscriber and in return receive cash. This reduces the burden of a subscriber from having to use an ATM.
Therefore Eko not only elaborates the canvas for payment by the subscriber, but also gives a new definition to the subscriber itself.
Eko Platform
Eko interacts with prepaid system and the postpaid system at the operator end. It also interconnects with banks. The interface to connect to the banks are industry standard interfaces like IBM MQueue, Web services etc. Once the connectivity to these interfaces is achieved any transaction from any of these entities can be allowed. Eko provides a highly secure ecosystem for transaction to flow. The high security is attained through various hashing and encryption mechanism.
Eko is realized using a platform to ensure extremely reliable and secure solution.
Typical transactions which get provisioned are shown in the map above.
Eko introduces the art to architect assorted roles of a subscriber. Eko enables the subscriber to play various roles in a transaction. It lets the subscriber be the merchant / seller of a commodity as well as be a consumer of some other commodity.
Eko will capitalize on peer-to-peer transactions especially transactions in the low and mid value range. For example, buy flowers from a florist and trade your talk-time in return.
The existing concepts of electronic payment address B2B and B2C scenarios, whereas Eko addresses the C2C business model in addition. It enables a subscriber to resell, distribute and forward ring tones, pictures, MMS clips, Video and Music clips. Any subscriber, if interested, can download the ring tones, pictures, MMS clips, Video and Music clips from the subscriber’s portal and would be granted to pay through any of the Eko’s payment schemes.
Eko’s usage scenarios
Eko carves a new spectrum of usage of Postpaid and Prepaid.
As of now, a postpaid subscriber can use his monthly credit for making all his calls, SMSs and other activities. With Eko we would be furnishing this credit limit of a subscriber to be used as a credit card. This would allow the subscriber to not only use that credit for calls and SMSs but would also be available for any commerce driven transaction, for example, the subscriber could make payments towards any purchases by using his post-paid account like a credit card account. This not only adds value to a postpaid subscriber but also adds value to the operator by increasing the expenditure of the subscriber over the usage of his subscription of postpaid.
Similarly, as mentioned above, a prepaid account on the network can be used for the purpose of debiting. Assume a prepaid subscriber uses his prepaid account balance for the purpose of a transaction of a commodity. Once the commodity is received by the subscriber and the mode of payment chosen by the subscriber is his prepaid account. The account would be debited online and the payment would be delivered to the merchant. The model also empowers a prepaid subscriber for more frequent usage of his account. This results in more revenue for the service provider.
Eko would bring in for both the prepaid as well as the postpaid subscribers the flexibility to transfer talk time and credit limit. A typical transaction between two prepaid subscribers would provision reduction of talk time for the Donor prepaid and addition of time talk for the Acceptor prepaid. This concept can be further extrapolated to the commercial world, wherein such a transaction can be used to encapsulate a payment for a purchase of a commodity.
Eko would also allow the postpaid subscribers to play around with their credit limit on their postpaid accounts. Eko would take into account all the transactions between postpaid to postpaid as well as postpaid to prepaid and would also accommodate prepaid to postpaid. The former cases wherein the postpaid subscriber is a donor, the amount of transaction whether it would be giving talk time to a prepaid subscriber or payment for a commodity through talk time transfer or bill payment for a postpaid in case the acceptor of the credit is postpaid, the amount of transaction would come in the monthly subscription bill of the postpaid subscriber which can be settled as usual as per the contract of the subscriber with the service provider. The settlement for postpaid subscribers is usually at the month end. This allows the postpaid account of a subscriber to be a network bases credit card, which Eko allows to be used all across the spectrum of transactions.
Eko, enables Peer 2 Peer commerce, remodels a subscriber’s mobile phone.
Eko being completely convertible can be exchanged for Bank account balance or can be used to pay the pending bills on ones credit card.
Eko in times to come
Eko will provide mechanism to make payments easier than web or manual swiping of cards. Eko will further empower the payment gateways, credit cards and clearing / settlement houses. Communities will be built around Eko to enable the transactions. These communities will lead to their blogs, hence allow for personalized advertisement to consumers. Content is the king especially personalized content including advertisements.
Eko will enable stitching of all VAS services extended to the subscribers of a mobile service provider around mobile commerce to ensure visible revenue streams and models, not only to the service providers but also to the individual subscribers (consumers) by enabling peer-to-peer transactions around VAS offering; e.g. forwarding, reselling, distributing of content (audio, video, games etc) including user generated content.
Eko will drive a new wave of commerce and enhancements in wireless devices, peer-to-peer transactions, banking systems and commerce.
Eko’s Modular Architecture
Adapters
These are the components which has the specific implementation for each channel. Like in the case of SMS the Adapter will be responsible of obtaining the relevant information from SMS and converts the data into Application specific requirement for Data transfer objects
Subscriber Management
The Subscriber Management is the module which is responsible for maintaining the life cycle details for the subscriber
Financial Settlements
The Financial Settlements module is responsible for the Commission and taxing calculation based on the zones and this has a set of configurations which can be maintained from the system.
Fraud Control and Rollback
Configurable business rules for preventing high-risk transactions, including support for different rules based on account types. Around 54 Fraud rules with additional matrix built from time, payment type, subscriber type, and channel type based.
And the Roll back mechanism allows the Administrator to re initiate the transaction again by sending SMS to the failed transactions.
Functional Integrators
These are the interface which will interact with the Payment gateways and other billing system.
Life Cycle Management
This module is responsible for the Life cycle management of the system like checking the health of the system and the System Configurations
Loyalty Points and Promotions
Management of the loyalty points and the promotion mechanism like Volume based account spending. E.g.: Spend Rs. 2500 in 30 days to get 100 loyalty points
Duration in network– 1 year as a subscriber gets 200 loyalty points
Frequency of denomination purchase. E.g.: Buy two Rs. 1000 cards in a week to get 25 loyalty points. Specific denomination purchase. E.g.: Buy Rs. 1000 card to get 50 loyalty points. Replenishments on specific date and time. E.g.: Valentines’ day special-Replenish any denomination to get additional 10 loyalty points. Cross brand alliance points to promote replenishments along with local brands. E.g.: For each replenishment get 1000 frequent flyer miles, accumulate 300 loyalty points to get a free PIZZA
Reporting and Auditing
Customizable reports to cater the needs of the operator and the subscribers and with extensive Auditing capability at each transaction level.
Eko’s Application Framework
The picture above illustrates the technical realization of Eko.
This architecture brings forth the future technologies that would be prevalent with the usage of Eko like J2ME based hand set phones, WAP enabled phone. The above picture also illustrates the web connectivity to the application which would basically cater to the Customer care. Apart from these channels mentioned above Eko would also provision the familiar technologies like SMS and USSD for the legacy handsets.
Eko has a J2EE compliant architecture wherein it accommodates 8 prevalent design patters of J2EE. Eko has a distributed architecture having a Web tier which caters to all the WAP as well J2ME application on the handset, Middle Tier where in Business Rule Engine of Eko resides and then it has the Database. Eko is compliant with all kinds of Database, though we recommend Oracle Database.
Eko’s Standing
Any of the available M-Commerce solutions offer the following solutions, though they don’t match the level of innovation brought in through Eko,
§ Ring Tones; all the prevalent solutions offer buying of ring tones from the content providers and paying the purchase through a credit card / bank account amount or telephony accounts as such as the prepaid or post paid accounts. Eko, in the space commercial space brings in a lot more for the subscribers than the available solutions in the space. Once a subscriber has downloaded a ring tone from a content provider, Eko allows the subscriber to become a further reseller of the ring tone through the mobile portal again provided by Eko. Eko takes care of the DRM payment and therefore allows further sale of the same commodity through the subscriber. It brings to life C2C transaction between subsribers.
§ Ticketing; this sphere has been relatively untouched as compared to the earlier mentioned market for ring tones. The available solutions in the market allow a subscriber to figure out the cost of tickets whether it is air, train or even movies and again provision the subscriber to pay through their credit cards. Eko’s value add to this sphere is rather unique, where it lets the subscriber decide the mode of payment for the tickets. In case the tickets are for the movie, the subscriber would get tempted to pay through their postpaid or prepaid accounts as the amount wouldn’t be too high rather than using their credit cards. This not only gives the subscriber the freedom of choice but also gives a higher ROI for each subscriber for the network provider. These payment scheme brings to life; “Eko as a new currency”.
§ mRetail; mRetail has be popularized for Amazon.com, Lastminute.com and have enabled the WAP enabled phones of subscribers to use the facility of retail via mobile phones. Eko’s rainbow of features doesn’t restrict the feature of mRetail only to WAP enabled phones, though opens up the arena to legacy phone users through interactive USSD menu and in some cases the commerce is driven through SMS. Apart from the provisioning of subscriber it again gives the flexibility of the user to choose the mode of payment.
This encapsulates the scope of Eko when it comes to some of the most explored areas for the emergence of mCommerce. Eko provides a considerable value add.
Technologies supported by Eko for subscriber provisioning,
§ J2ME applications
§ Symbian
§ Windows Mobile based application
§ SMS
§ USSD
§ STK
Eko as “community builder”
Eko tries to build different communities around itself which further gives value adds to the subscribers. Eko captures the “kind” of transaction that gets authorized by Eko.
Through the transactions the likes of the subscriber can be tracked. For e.g, in case the subscriber is a young subscriber who likes to download ring tones, Eko would trigger ring tone related advertisement. In case the subscriber has been using Eko frequently, Eko would be able to provide discount offer and other kind of offers that can be configured in Eko. Eko is capable to advertise through SMS, MMS which are the prevalent technologies, it could also advertise through ring back tones (CRBT).
Similarly, as stated above different communities can be formed and communities based advertisement can be provisioned through Eko. Since Content and Information is principal, Eko captures the essence and explores the likes of the subscriber.
Once the communities are formed, Eko would allow all the interested subscribers to blog in their community. It would also allow people from other communities to be invited to other different communities.
The convergent world
Eko is the pioneer in bringing to life the concept of convergence of both financial institutions and Network service providers. It not only brings together the different entities involved in a commercial transaction but also enables the convergence of technologies. Eko brings forth a platform which would be encapsulate the following,
• Convergence: wireline-wireless, GSM-CDMA-Fixed-line, SS7-IP
• Evolution from 2G to 3G and beyond
It would not distinguish any subscriber based on the technology and would provision all the services to all the subscribers.
Eko faces certain challenges in binding together Financial and Service providers,
§ Managing money is a difficult business. It involves handling customer-merchant complaints and problems. Operators don't like there customer service to be flooded with those calls.
§ Moving money also involves lot of regulations. It also involves approval banking industry approval. They might not like it, as operators would be entering their space.
§ And customers are also very demanding, in terms of customer service and transactional security. They wouldn't accept if it is slightly unsecured.
§ There is business complexity in dealing with 'n' number of businesses to manage the business network too.
Eko provides answers to the above mentioned conflicts in the area of mCommerce,
§ Eko provides a efficient Customer Care interface which caters to all the problems that a Customer might face while using Eko.
§ In order to make sure that all the transactions are secured enough, Eko using ISO 8583 for all the banking related transactions.
§ The security of transaction made through USSD and SMS are ensured through hashing as well as encrypting algorithm used both at the handset end as well the as the platform end.
§ Eko provides a elaborate Service Creation Platform, wherein the service provider can create and manage any service.
Monday, January 8, 2007
Eko Overview
Eko brings to us a new world currency, fully convertible all across the globe. Introduces Peer 2 Peer transaction, Innovates Postpaid account as Credit card, ushers in Prepaid account as Debit card.
The essence of Eko lies in the fact that it empowers the mobile phone of a subscriber to be useful for all types of commerce related transactions. Eko banks on the fact that the mobile penetration is far greater than the internet penetration across the globe and hence a mobile phone forms the “identity” of an individual. Also, compared to web access by Laptop, Desktop, Kiosk, or other related systems mandated that a individual goes to such a device. In contrast to this, the mobile is always with the individual.
Business models and transactions around Eko will disrupt web enabled transactions related to B2B, B2C and C2C including bidding, buying low and mid value merchandise (books, flowers, CDs etc) and payment across counters by enabling them over mobiles and other wireless devices.
Eko saves time, brings in efficiency, eases of options and choice.
Eko as a Currency
Eko would evolve as a Global currency wherein a prepaid account balance / postpaid credit limit could be exchanged as any other currency in the world.
Eko, Echoes commerce and enhances Subscriber experience.
Eko will extend a mobile wallet which can draw currency from his prepaid and postpaid accounts apart from credit card and banks accounts. Once the mobile wallet of a subscriber gets refilled it gives the subscriber to use his telephony accounts to the fullest. This account aligns itself with the currency which can be used for payment for any purchase of commodity. Once the subscriber gets familiar with the ways of Eko’s currency transfer across his own accounts the process could then be extended to all the merchandise that he purchases from any merchant. Eko provides subscriber an enriched experience with their mobile phones.
Eko brings to life the postpaid and prepaid accounts of a subscriber and completely redefines the usage for the same. The positioning that Eko provides these two telephony accounts of a subscriber, innovates the usage of the two accounts and lines up these accounts of the subscriber along side with the VISA / MASTERCARD provisioned credit / debit cards.
Eko, is the first step to the convergence of Financial and Service Providers.
Eko’s currency is fully convertible and can be exchanged in terms of any of the other forms of money. Eko can be used to purchase commodity. Eko can be used to clear pending credit card bills. Eko can be used to make purchase between any two subscribers. The merchandise in this case could be anything ranging from a Ring tone, Wall paper, MMS, Video etc.
Eko lets easy cash outlet for a subscriber, Empowers the subscriber to transfer Eko currency to another subscriber and in return receive cash. This reduces the burden of a subscriber from having to use an ATM.
Therefore Eko not only elaborates the canvas for payment by the subscriber, but also gives a new definition to the subscriber itself.
Eko Platform
Eko interacts with prepaid system and the postpaid system at the operator end. It also interconnects with banks. The interface to connect to the banks are industry standard interfaces like IBM MQueue, Web services etc. Once the connectivity to these interfaces is achieved any transaction from any of these entities can be allowed. Eko provides a highly secure ecosystem for transaction to flow. The high security is attained through various hashing and encryption mechanism.
Eko is realized using a platform to ensure extremely reliable and secure solution.
Typical transactions which get provisioned are shown in the map above.
Eko introduces the art to architect assorted roles of a subscriber. Eko enables the subscriber to play various roles in a transaction. It lets the subscriber be the merchant / seller of a commodity as well as be a consumer of some other commodity.
Eko will capitalize on peer-to-peer transactions especially transactions in the low and mid value range. For example, buy flowers from a florist and trade your talk-time in return.
The existing concepts of electronic payment address B2B and B2C scenarios, whereas Eko addresses the C2C business model in addition. It enables a subscriber to resell, distribute and forward ring tones, pictures, MMS clips, Video and Music clips. Any subscriber, if interested, can download the ring tones, pictures, MMS clips, Video and Music clips from the subscriber’s portal and would be granted to pay through any of the Eko’s payment schemes.
Eko’s usage scenarios
Eko carves a new spectrum of usage of Postpaid and Prepaid.
As of now, a postpaid subscriber can use his monthly credit for making all his calls, SMSs and other activities. With Eko we would be furnishing this credit limit of a subscriber to be used as a credit card. This would allow the subscriber to not only use that credit for calls and SMSs but would also be available for any commerce driven transaction, for example, the subscriber could make payments towards any purchases by using his post-paid account like a credit card account. This not only adds value to a postpaid subscriber but also adds value to the operator by increasing the expenditure of the subscriber over the usage of his subscription of postpaid.
Similarly, as mentioned above, a prepaid account on the network can be used for the purpose of debiting. Assume a prepaid subscriber uses his prepaid account balance for the purpose of a transaction of a commodity. Once the commodity is received by the subscriber and the mode of payment chosen by the subscriber is his prepaid account. The account would be debited online and the payment would be delivered to the merchant. The model also empowers a prepaid subscriber for more frequent usage of his account. This results in more revenue for the service provider.
Eko would bring in for both the prepaid as well as the postpaid subscribers the flexibility to transfer talk time and credit limit. A typical transaction between two prepaid subscribers would provision reduction of talk time for the Donor prepaid and addition of time talk for the Acceptor prepaid. This concept can be further extrapolated to the commercial world, wherein such a transaction can be used to encapsulate a payment for a purchase of a commodity.
Eko would also allow the postpaid subscribers to play around with their credit limit on their postpaid accounts. Eko would take into account all the transactions between postpaid to postpaid as well as postpaid to prepaid and would also accommodate prepaid to postpaid. The former cases wherein the postpaid subscriber is a donor, the amount of transaction whether it would be giving talk time to a prepaid subscriber or payment for a commodity through talk time transfer or bill payment for a postpaid in case the acceptor of the credit is postpaid, the amount of transaction would come in the monthly subscription bill of the postpaid subscriber which can be settled as usual as per the contract of the subscriber with the service provider. The settlement for postpaid subscribers is usually at the month end. This allows the postpaid account of a subscriber to be a network bases credit card, which Eko allows to be used all across the spectrum of transactions.
Eko, enables Peer 2 Peer commerce, remodels a subscriber’s mobile phone.
Eko being completely convertible can be exchanged for Bank account balance or can be used to pay the pending bills on ones credit card.
Eko in times to come
Eko will provide mechanism to make payments easier than web or manual swiping of cards. Eko will further empower the payment gateways, credit cards and clearing / settlement houses. Communities will be built around Eko to enable the transactions. These communities will lead to their blogs, hence allow for personalized advertisement to consumers. Content is the king especially personalized content including advertisements.
Eko will enable stitching of all VAS services extended to the subscribers of a mobile service provider around mobile commerce to ensure visible revenue streams and models, not only to the service providers but also to the individual subscribers (consumers) by enabling peer-to-peer transactions around VAS offering; e.g. forwarding, reselling, distributing of content (audio, video, games etc) including user generated content.
Eko will drive a new wave of commerce and enhancements in wireless devices, peer-to-peer transactions, banking systems and commerce.
Eko’s Modular Architecture
Adapters
These are the components which has the specific implementation for each channel. Like in the case of SMS the Adapter will be responsible of obtaining the relevant information from SMS and converts the data into Application specific requirement for Data transfer objects
Subscriber Management
The Subscriber Management is the module which is responsible for maintaining the life cycle details for the subscriber
Financial Settlements
The Financial Settlements module is responsible for the Commission and taxing calculation based on the zones and this has a set of configurations which can be maintained from the system.
Fraud Control and Rollback
Configurable business rules for preventing high-risk transactions, including support for different rules based on account types. Around 54 Fraud rules with additional matrix built from time, payment type, subscriber type, and channel type based.
And the Roll back mechanism allows the Administrator to re initiate the transaction again by sending SMS to the failed transactions.
Functional Integrators
These are the interface which will interact with the Payment gateways and other billing system.
Life Cycle Management
This module is responsible for the Life cycle management of the system like checking the health of the system and the System Configurations
Loyalty Points and Promotions
Management of the loyalty points and the promotion mechanism like Volume based account spending. E.g.: Spend Rs. 2500 in 30 days to get 100 loyalty points
Duration in network– 1 year as a subscriber gets 200 loyalty points
Frequency of denomination purchase. E.g.: Buy two Rs. 1000 cards in a week to get 25 loyalty points. Specific denomination purchase. E.g.: Buy Rs. 1000 card to get 50 loyalty points. Replenishments on specific date and time. E.g.: Valentines’ day special-Replenish any denomination to get additional 10 loyalty points. Cross brand alliance points to promote replenishments along with local brands. E.g.: For each replenishment get 1000 frequent flyer miles, accumulate 300 loyalty points to get a free PIZZA
Reporting and Auditing
Customizable reports to cater the needs of the operator and the subscribers and with extensive Auditing capability at each transaction level.
Eko’s Application Framework
The picture above illustrates the technical realization of Eko.
This architecture brings forth the future technologies that would be prevalent with the usage of Eko like J2ME based hand set phones, WAP enabled phone. The above picture also illustrates the web connectivity to the application which would basically cater to the Customer care. Apart from these channels mentioned above Eko would also provision the familiar technologies like SMS and USSD for the legacy handsets.
Eko has a J2EE compliant architecture wherein it accommodates 8 prevalent design patters of J2EE. Eko has a distributed architecture having a Web tier which caters to all the WAP as well J2ME application on the handset, Middle Tier where in Business Rule Engine of Eko resides and then it has the Database. Eko is compliant with all kinds of Database, though we recommend Oracle Database.
Eko’s Standing
Any of the available M-Commerce solutions offer the following solutions, though they don’t match the level of innovation brought in through Eko,
§ Ring Tones; all the prevalent solutions offer buying of ring tones from the content providers and paying the purchase through a credit card / bank account amount or telephony accounts as such as the prepaid or post paid accounts. Eko, in the space commercial space brings in a lot more for the subscribers than the available solutions in the space. Once a subscriber has downloaded a ring tone from a content provider, Eko allows the subscriber to become a further reseller of the ring tone through the mobile portal again provided by Eko. Eko takes care of the DRM payment and therefore allows further sale of the same commodity through the subscriber. It brings to life C2C transaction between subsribers.
§ Ticketing; this sphere has been relatively untouched as compared to the earlier mentioned market for ring tones. The available solutions in the market allow a subscriber to figure out the cost of tickets whether it is air, train or even movies and again provision the subscriber to pay through their credit cards. Eko’s value add to this sphere is rather unique, where it lets the subscriber decide the mode of payment for the tickets. In case the tickets are for the movie, the subscriber would get tempted to pay through their postpaid or prepaid accounts as the amount wouldn’t be too high rather than using their credit cards. This not only gives the subscriber the freedom of choice but also gives a higher ROI for each subscriber for the network provider. These payment scheme brings to life; “Eko as a new currency”.
§ mRetail; mRetail has be popularized for Amazon.com, Lastminute.com and have enabled the WAP enabled phones of subscribers to use the facility of retail via mobile phones. Eko’s rainbow of features doesn’t restrict the feature of mRetail only to WAP enabled phones, though opens up the arena to legacy phone users through interactive USSD menu and in some cases the commerce is driven through SMS. Apart from the provisioning of subscriber it again gives the flexibility of the user to choose the mode of payment.
This encapsulates the scope of Eko when it comes to some of the most explored areas for the emergence of mCommerce. Eko provides a considerable value add.
Technologies supported by Eko for subscriber provisioning,
§ J2ME applications
§ Symbian
§ Windows Mobile based application
§ SMS
§ USSD
§ STK
Eko as “community builder”
Eko tries to build different communities around itself which further gives value adds to the subscribers. Eko captures the “kind” of transaction that gets authorized by Eko.
Through the transactions the likes of the subscriber can be tracked. For e.g, in case the subscriber is a young subscriber who likes to download ring tones, Eko would trigger ring tone related advertisement. In case the subscriber has been using Eko frequently, Eko would be able to provide discount offer and other kind of offers that can be configured in Eko. Eko is capable to advertise through SMS, MMS which are the prevalent technologies, it could also advertise through ring back tones (CRBT).
Similarly, as stated above different communities can be formed and communities based advertisement can be provisioned through Eko. Since Content and Information is principal, Eko captures the essence and explores the likes of the subscriber.
Once the communities are formed, Eko would allow all the interested subscribers to blog in their community. It would also allow people from other communities to be invited to other different communities.
The convergent world
Eko is the pioneer in bringing to life the concept of convergence of both financial institutions and Network service providers. It not only brings together the different entities involved in a commercial transaction but also enables the convergence of technologies. Eko brings forth a platform which would be encapsulate the following,
• Convergence: wireline-wireless, GSM-CDMA-Fixed-line, SS7-IP
• Evolution from 2G to 3G and beyond
It would not distinguish any subscriber based on the technology and would provision all the services to all the subscribers.
Eko faces certain challenges in binding together Financial and Service providers,
§ Managing money is a difficult business. It involves handling customer-merchant complaints and problems. Operators don't like there customer service to be flooded with those calls.
§ Moving money also involves lot of regulations. It also involves approval banking industry approval. They might not like it, as operators would be entering their space.
§ And customers are also very demanding, in terms of customer service and transactional security. They wouldn't accept if it is slightly unsecured.
§ There is business complexity in dealing with 'n' number of businesses to manage the business network too.
Eko provides answers to the above mentioned conflicts in the area of mCommerce,
§ Eko provides a efficient Customer Care interface which caters to all the problems that a Customer might face while using Eko.
§ In order to make sure that all the transactions are secured enough, Eko using ISO 8583 for all the banking related transactions.
§ The security of transaction made through USSD and SMS are ensured through hashing as well as encrypting algorithm used both at the handset end as well the as the platform end.
§ Eko provides a elaborate Service Creation Platform, wherein the service provider can create and manage any service.
Eko brings to us a new world currency, fully convertible all across the globe. Introduces Peer 2 Peer transaction, Innovates Postpaid account as Credit card, ushers in Prepaid account as Debit card.
The essence of Eko lies in the fact that it empowers the mobile phone of a subscriber to be useful for all types of commerce related transactions. Eko banks on the fact that the mobile penetration is far greater than the internet penetration across the globe and hence a mobile phone forms the “identity” of an individual. Also, compared to web access by Laptop, Desktop, Kiosk, or other related systems mandated that a individual goes to such a device. In contrast to this, the mobile is always with the individual.
Business models and transactions around Eko will disrupt web enabled transactions related to B2B, B2C and C2C including bidding, buying low and mid value merchandise (books, flowers, CDs etc) and payment across counters by enabling them over mobiles and other wireless devices.
Eko saves time, brings in efficiency, eases of options and choice.
Eko as a Currency
Eko would evolve as a Global currency wherein a prepaid account balance / postpaid credit limit could be exchanged as any other currency in the world.
Eko, Echoes commerce and enhances Subscriber experience.
Eko will extend a mobile wallet which can draw currency from his prepaid and postpaid accounts apart from credit card and banks accounts. Once the mobile wallet of a subscriber gets refilled it gives the subscriber to use his telephony accounts to the fullest. This account aligns itself with the currency which can be used for payment for any purchase of commodity. Once the subscriber gets familiar with the ways of Eko’s currency transfer across his own accounts the process could then be extended to all the merchandise that he purchases from any merchant. Eko provides subscriber an enriched experience with their mobile phones.
Eko brings to life the postpaid and prepaid accounts of a subscriber and completely redefines the usage for the same. The positioning that Eko provides these two telephony accounts of a subscriber, innovates the usage of the two accounts and lines up these accounts of the subscriber along side with the VISA / MASTERCARD provisioned credit / debit cards.
Eko, is the first step to the convergence of Financial and Service Providers.
Eko’s currency is fully convertible and can be exchanged in terms of any of the other forms of money. Eko can be used to purchase commodity. Eko can be used to clear pending credit card bills. Eko can be used to make purchase between any two subscribers. The merchandise in this case could be anything ranging from a Ring tone, Wall paper, MMS, Video etc.
Eko lets easy cash outlet for a subscriber, Empowers the subscriber to transfer Eko currency to another subscriber and in return receive cash. This reduces the burden of a subscriber from having to use an ATM.
Therefore Eko not only elaborates the canvas for payment by the subscriber, but also gives a new definition to the subscriber itself.
Eko Platform
Eko interacts with prepaid system and the postpaid system at the operator end. It also interconnects with banks. The interface to connect to the banks are industry standard interfaces like IBM MQueue, Web services etc. Once the connectivity to these interfaces is achieved any transaction from any of these entities can be allowed. Eko provides a highly secure ecosystem for transaction to flow. The high security is attained through various hashing and encryption mechanism.
Eko is realized using a platform to ensure extremely reliable and secure solution.
Typical transactions which get provisioned are shown in the map above.
Eko introduces the art to architect assorted roles of a subscriber. Eko enables the subscriber to play various roles in a transaction. It lets the subscriber be the merchant / seller of a commodity as well as be a consumer of some other commodity.
Eko will capitalize on peer-to-peer transactions especially transactions in the low and mid value range. For example, buy flowers from a florist and trade your talk-time in return.
The existing concepts of electronic payment address B2B and B2C scenarios, whereas Eko addresses the C2C business model in addition. It enables a subscriber to resell, distribute and forward ring tones, pictures, MMS clips, Video and Music clips. Any subscriber, if interested, can download the ring tones, pictures, MMS clips, Video and Music clips from the subscriber’s portal and would be granted to pay through any of the Eko’s payment schemes.
Eko’s usage scenarios
Eko carves a new spectrum of usage of Postpaid and Prepaid.
As of now, a postpaid subscriber can use his monthly credit for making all his calls, SMSs and other activities. With Eko we would be furnishing this credit limit of a subscriber to be used as a credit card. This would allow the subscriber to not only use that credit for calls and SMSs but would also be available for any commerce driven transaction, for example, the subscriber could make payments towards any purchases by using his post-paid account like a credit card account. This not only adds value to a postpaid subscriber but also adds value to the operator by increasing the expenditure of the subscriber over the usage of his subscription of postpaid.
Similarly, as mentioned above, a prepaid account on the network can be used for the purpose of debiting. Assume a prepaid subscriber uses his prepaid account balance for the purpose of a transaction of a commodity. Once the commodity is received by the subscriber and the mode of payment chosen by the subscriber is his prepaid account. The account would be debited online and the payment would be delivered to the merchant. The model also empowers a prepaid subscriber for more frequent usage of his account. This results in more revenue for the service provider.
Eko would bring in for both the prepaid as well as the postpaid subscribers the flexibility to transfer talk time and credit limit. A typical transaction between two prepaid subscribers would provision reduction of talk time for the Donor prepaid and addition of time talk for the Acceptor prepaid. This concept can be further extrapolated to the commercial world, wherein such a transaction can be used to encapsulate a payment for a purchase of a commodity.
Eko would also allow the postpaid subscribers to play around with their credit limit on their postpaid accounts. Eko would take into account all the transactions between postpaid to postpaid as well as postpaid to prepaid and would also accommodate prepaid to postpaid. The former cases wherein the postpaid subscriber is a donor, the amount of transaction whether it would be giving talk time to a prepaid subscriber or payment for a commodity through talk time transfer or bill payment for a postpaid in case the acceptor of the credit is postpaid, the amount of transaction would come in the monthly subscription bill of the postpaid subscriber which can be settled as usual as per the contract of the subscriber with the service provider. The settlement for postpaid subscribers is usually at the month end. This allows the postpaid account of a subscriber to be a network bases credit card, which Eko allows to be used all across the spectrum of transactions.
Eko, enables Peer 2 Peer commerce, remodels a subscriber’s mobile phone.
Eko being completely convertible can be exchanged for Bank account balance or can be used to pay the pending bills on ones credit card.
Eko in times to come
Eko will provide mechanism to make payments easier than web or manual swiping of cards. Eko will further empower the payment gateways, credit cards and clearing / settlement houses. Communities will be built around Eko to enable the transactions. These communities will lead to their blogs, hence allow for personalized advertisement to consumers. Content is the king especially personalized content including advertisements.
Eko will enable stitching of all VAS services extended to the subscribers of a mobile service provider around mobile commerce to ensure visible revenue streams and models, not only to the service providers but also to the individual subscribers (consumers) by enabling peer-to-peer transactions around VAS offering; e.g. forwarding, reselling, distributing of content (audio, video, games etc) including user generated content.
Eko will drive a new wave of commerce and enhancements in wireless devices, peer-to-peer transactions, banking systems and commerce.
Eko’s Modular Architecture
Adapters
These are the components which has the specific implementation for each channel. Like in the case of SMS the Adapter will be responsible of obtaining the relevant information from SMS and converts the data into Application specific requirement for Data transfer objects
Subscriber Management
The Subscriber Management is the module which is responsible for maintaining the life cycle details for the subscriber
Financial Settlements
The Financial Settlements module is responsible for the Commission and taxing calculation based on the zones and this has a set of configurations which can be maintained from the system.
Fraud Control and Rollback
Configurable business rules for preventing high-risk transactions, including support for different rules based on account types. Around 54 Fraud rules with additional matrix built from time, payment type, subscriber type, and channel type based.
And the Roll back mechanism allows the Administrator to re initiate the transaction again by sending SMS to the failed transactions.
Functional Integrators
These are the interface which will interact with the Payment gateways and other billing system.
Life Cycle Management
This module is responsible for the Life cycle management of the system like checking the health of the system and the System Configurations
Loyalty Points and Promotions
Management of the loyalty points and the promotion mechanism like Volume based account spending. E.g.: Spend Rs. 2500 in 30 days to get 100 loyalty points
Duration in network– 1 year as a subscriber gets 200 loyalty points
Frequency of denomination purchase. E.g.: Buy two Rs. 1000 cards in a week to get 25 loyalty points. Specific denomination purchase. E.g.: Buy Rs. 1000 card to get 50 loyalty points. Replenishments on specific date and time. E.g.: Valentines’ day special-Replenish any denomination to get additional 10 loyalty points. Cross brand alliance points to promote replenishments along with local brands. E.g.: For each replenishment get 1000 frequent flyer miles, accumulate 300 loyalty points to get a free PIZZA
Reporting and Auditing
Customizable reports to cater the needs of the operator and the subscribers and with extensive Auditing capability at each transaction level.
Eko’s Application Framework
The picture above illustrates the technical realization of Eko.
This architecture brings forth the future technologies that would be prevalent with the usage of Eko like J2ME based hand set phones, WAP enabled phone. The above picture also illustrates the web connectivity to the application which would basically cater to the Customer care. Apart from these channels mentioned above Eko would also provision the familiar technologies like SMS and USSD for the legacy handsets.
Eko has a J2EE compliant architecture wherein it accommodates 8 prevalent design patters of J2EE. Eko has a distributed architecture having a Web tier which caters to all the WAP as well J2ME application on the handset, Middle Tier where in Business Rule Engine of Eko resides and then it has the Database. Eko is compliant with all kinds of Database, though we recommend Oracle Database.
Eko’s Standing
Any of the available M-Commerce solutions offer the following solutions, though they don’t match the level of innovation brought in through Eko,
§ Ring Tones; all the prevalent solutions offer buying of ring tones from the content providers and paying the purchase through a credit card / bank account amount or telephony accounts as such as the prepaid or post paid accounts. Eko, in the space commercial space brings in a lot more for the subscribers than the available solutions in the space. Once a subscriber has downloaded a ring tone from a content provider, Eko allows the subscriber to become a further reseller of the ring tone through the mobile portal again provided by Eko. Eko takes care of the DRM payment and therefore allows further sale of the same commodity through the subscriber. It brings to life C2C transaction between subsribers.
§ Ticketing; this sphere has been relatively untouched as compared to the earlier mentioned market for ring tones. The available solutions in the market allow a subscriber to figure out the cost of tickets whether it is air, train or even movies and again provision the subscriber to pay through their credit cards. Eko’s value add to this sphere is rather unique, where it lets the subscriber decide the mode of payment for the tickets. In case the tickets are for the movie, the subscriber would get tempted to pay through their postpaid or prepaid accounts as the amount wouldn’t be too high rather than using their credit cards. This not only gives the subscriber the freedom of choice but also gives a higher ROI for each subscriber for the network provider. These payment scheme brings to life; “Eko as a new currency”.
§ mRetail; mRetail has be popularized for Amazon.com, Lastminute.com and have enabled the WAP enabled phones of subscribers to use the facility of retail via mobile phones. Eko’s rainbow of features doesn’t restrict the feature of mRetail only to WAP enabled phones, though opens up the arena to legacy phone users through interactive USSD menu and in some cases the commerce is driven through SMS. Apart from the provisioning of subscriber it again gives the flexibility of the user to choose the mode of payment.
This encapsulates the scope of Eko when it comes to some of the most explored areas for the emergence of mCommerce. Eko provides a considerable value add.
Technologies supported by Eko for subscriber provisioning,
§ J2ME applications
§ Symbian
§ Windows Mobile based application
§ SMS
§ USSD
§ STK
Eko as “community builder”
Eko tries to build different communities around itself which further gives value adds to the subscribers. Eko captures the “kind” of transaction that gets authorized by Eko.
Through the transactions the likes of the subscriber can be tracked. For e.g, in case the subscriber is a young subscriber who likes to download ring tones, Eko would trigger ring tone related advertisement. In case the subscriber has been using Eko frequently, Eko would be able to provide discount offer and other kind of offers that can be configured in Eko. Eko is capable to advertise through SMS, MMS which are the prevalent technologies, it could also advertise through ring back tones (CRBT).
Similarly, as stated above different communities can be formed and communities based advertisement can be provisioned through Eko. Since Content and Information is principal, Eko captures the essence and explores the likes of the subscriber.
Once the communities are formed, Eko would allow all the interested subscribers to blog in their community. It would also allow people from other communities to be invited to other different communities.
The convergent world
Eko is the pioneer in bringing to life the concept of convergence of both financial institutions and Network service providers. It not only brings together the different entities involved in a commercial transaction but also enables the convergence of technologies. Eko brings forth a platform which would be encapsulate the following,
• Convergence: wireline-wireless, GSM-CDMA-Fixed-line, SS7-IP
• Evolution from 2G to 3G and beyond
It would not distinguish any subscriber based on the technology and would provision all the services to all the subscribers.
Eko faces certain challenges in binding together Financial and Service providers,
§ Managing money is a difficult business. It involves handling customer-merchant complaints and problems. Operators don't like there customer service to be flooded with those calls.
§ Moving money also involves lot of regulations. It also involves approval banking industry approval. They might not like it, as operators would be entering their space.
§ And customers are also very demanding, in terms of customer service and transactional security. They wouldn't accept if it is slightly unsecured.
§ There is business complexity in dealing with 'n' number of businesses to manage the business network too.
Eko provides answers to the above mentioned conflicts in the area of mCommerce,
§ Eko provides a efficient Customer Care interface which caters to all the problems that a Customer might face while using Eko.
§ In order to make sure that all the transactions are secured enough, Eko using ISO 8583 for all the banking related transactions.
§ The security of transaction made through USSD and SMS are ensured through hashing as well as encrypting algorithm used both at the handset end as well the as the platform end.
§ Eko provides a elaborate Service Creation Platform, wherein the service provider can create and manage any service.
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