Our view from past Rich Communication 2011 event in Munich.

Last week we attended the Rich Communication 2011 event in Munich, we participated in a panel defending our view about consider and deploying RCS-e as a platform to enable use cases and not a mere only person to person messaging. We explained our view in the panel, and previously in our demo slot we showed how we are this feasible with APIs and Thin Clients. Also we presented first time the demo of our new product RCS-e Personal Manager.

The G5 representatives from Vodafone, Telefonica, Deustche Telekom, Orange and TIM explained the project and the timeline, with all of them to offer the service by the H1 2012. It seems most of device manufacturers are committed to include RCS-e natively, and GSMA will launch a RCS-e App Client to cover other mainstream platforms (IOs & Android).
There was a lot of discussions about if RCS-e is the SMS replacement or something else (our view), how to monetize, and how to get traction in a very competitive segment with several OTTs (over the top) with interesting solutions.
In our opinion, both, companies creating communication services using the data connectivity (commonly referred as OTT) and telcos may be not considered full antagonists or deadly rivals. We believe in cooperation models and innovation to delight the users. A good communication shared model will allow internet companies with focus on e(m)-commerce, location, etc perhaps try to reach the users using universal communication services rather than creating a new "messenger" only for their use case. The task for telcos is how to design their wholesale offering of API's and perhaps some mediation of API usage to create a powerful model to boost mobility and user/customer engagement.
Finally, from the demos, we may say that there are RCSe available clients from different vendors, device client SDKs, and available server side REST APIs (ours) :-)
The networking was very good with senior representatives from telcos, leading vendors and analysts with different points of view, all of them enriching the discussion.

The technology is here, and time is gold to launch and let the ecosystem work.

GSMA launches the Rich Communication Virtual Exhibition

The GSMA has just launched the Rich Communication Visual Exhibition. It is a virtual exhibition where vendors involved in the RCS / RCS-e technology can have a permanent virtual booth showcasing their portfolios.
Solaiemes is one of the vendors initially exhibiting (the others are Alcatel-Lucent, NSN, Tekelec, Huawei, Wit, Mavenir and Neusoft).
In our stand you can see our ppt evangelizing RCS-e and explaining briefly the 5 platforms to make open, ubiquitous and smartly monetizable  Rich Communication Suite, and several videos of how our technology works and the use cases that could be implemented on top of RCS-e using our approach and portfolio.
We congratulate GSMA, this idea was great and will let carriers to know the full potential of RCS-e, to know exactly what vendor is offering and also will make easier for vendors to find complementarities and search for partnerships/alliances.

See you there, visit our virtual booth :-)

Jose Recio video about Solaiemes.

Jose Recio, talk about Solaiemes story, milestones, product vision, current needs, followed by a portfolio brief review. this video was filmed for the IBM SmartCamp competition.

GSMA video of the RCS DevChallenge Meet

Find below the video shooted during the RCS DevChallenge meet in London held the past december. You can see briefly some demos from several entrants, several entrants and jury members opinions about the Rich Communication Suite potential. Solaiemes co-founder Jose Recio is talking at point 1'10".

Glad to see GSMA pushing RCS awareness not only to the telco but also the ecosystem.

GSMA opens YouTube Channels to promote RCS

Happy to see that GSMA is promoting actively Rich Communication Suite (RCS) and also created a YouTube Channel with videos from the vendors and from the RCS events of past 12 months.
Our demos showcasing the possibilities of RCS through openness and ubiquity have been also included. Thanks  :-)
Hope 2011 will be the year when we could see the MNO's definetively embracing this technology to keep a key role in the communications evolutions, and start seeing MNO's to launch offers more "OTT" like. We will try to help MNO's to in their change !!!

Our keynote at Rich Communication 2010 event.

Just to share our keynote at Rich Communication 2010 event held the past 2 days in Barcelona with carrier and vendors representatives together with analysts.
Our point was about explaining RCS as the natural evolution of SMS as a way to "mobilize" the masses and keep the role of the carrier delighting their customer base. RCS needs to be launched ASAP, and be launched "ubiquitous and open", and our portfolio is complementing the traditional infrastructure vendors to do that. Finally in the slides you will find new revenue models based on RCS opened, very close to internet world, if OTT are making profit of telco-web convergence, also the carriers can do it, innovating.

To speak at 3rd Rich Communication 2010 event

Next week our CEO will be speaking at 3rd Rich Communication 2010 event in Barcelona organized by Informa Telecom & Media. Our keynote is scheduled in the Day 2, 11:45 am, and the tittle is RCS live – the new revenue stream for carriers – act now!
We will explain how a common user experience combining different IP multimedia capabilities will allow the MNO's to keep a leading role in the communications of the future and generating new revenue streams and adapt their business models in the telco-web convergence era.

This event counts with very important speakers and panelist from MNO's, top infrastructure vendors, telecom analysts and academic world, it is a honour for us this chance to share our views with the audience.

Article at Insider Insight section of SIP Mobile Matters blog

Our CEO was invited to post in the Insider Insight section of SIP Mobile Matters. From their about "This media is a news portal and blog that explores the wireless voice services evolution, ranging from femtocells and fixed mobile convergence to IP interactive communications over 3G and 4G. It is sponsored by Acme Packet".
Thanks for the chance to share our views about RCS as opportunity for carriers. You can read the post here:
http://www.sipmobilematters.com/articles/108248/rich-communication-suite-the-killer-enabler-the-ca/

RCS Thin Client Server, our new platform, making RCS ubiquitous

Perhaps you know about it from the videodemos of RCS TV client and RCS Web Client, but it was now officially released as a product itself till now. The RCS Thin Client Server shares the same core RCS "translating protocols" Solaiemes technology running in the RCS Solution Gateway but with a different goal. The RCS Thin Client Server tries to make RCS as ubiquitous and multi-display communicator and RCS Solutions Gateways looks to open RCS to 3rd party developers to create lots of use cases on top (service-users).
The ppt explaining the product, the discloseable :-) is:

Feedback, more than welcomed.

Solaiemes presented its vision & portfolio on RCS at Mobile Brodband Forum 2010.

Last week, we participated in the Mobile Broadband Forum 2010 in Lisbon organized by Hansecom.
We participated in the RCS/IMS day and try to give a new approach about how to explain RCS to the mass market and make realize the carriers about its huge potential. Even most carriers know that RCS is their chance to keep a role and not become mere pipe, they should realize that time is gold and accelerate the deployment and a broad commercial offer linked to access to solutions and cloud communications having the RCS as enabler.
Find below our presentation, including some examples showing how the promised in now real and possible, explaining how our portfolio expand the revenue potential from RCS beyond the initial use cases, and finally compares the telco role with other industries where the incumbent should take care "of the most" and not focus in the "high tier elite".

Feedback, more than welcomed.

Colibria and Solaiemes successfully complete interoperability of RCS portfolios

We are happy to announce that Colibria and Solaiemes announced successful completion of interoperability testing between Colibria’s OMA-compliant RCS enablers and the Solaiemes portfolio including RCS Solution Gateway, RCS Thin Client Server and internal Android RCS Client.

For us it is a great milestone to have a fully interoperated portfolio with a leading vendor of RCS infrastructure including Instant Messaging, Presence and XDM carrier grade servers. Solaiemes is delighted to co-operate with Colibria to increase the availability of these services. It is yet another example of how RCS enables innovation within the ecosystem providing global interoperable new communications experiences for all users. Thanks Colibria :-)

Find the complete PR in both companies websites:

http://colibria.com/media/press-releases/2988 and
http://www.solaiemes.com/index.php?id=99

solaiemes team

Joint Demo. Using RCS as service enabler at RCS Asia Forum

Tomorrow, friday 10/september we are attending RCS Asia Forum in HongKong organized by the GSMA. We will showcasing our portfolio: RCS Solution Gateway and unveiling the RCS Thin Client Server creating RCS web clients, to help RCS to become even more ubiquitous.

We will show the RCS Solution Gateway interoperated in a joint demo (see joint PR) with 4 other companies. The demo will showcase RCS release 2.0, and extensions to Internet-based services such as Google™ weather and currency, in a secure network environment across different device platforms. See diagram and participant roles.



(extracted from the PR)-> "The participating companies are Colibria, providing its carrier-grade OMA and RCS compliant Messaging, Presence and XDM enablers; Acme Packet, providing its industry-leading Net-Net session border controllers for SIP security and control; Solaiemes, providing its innovative RCS Solution Gateway creating value added services on top of RCS using UNI API's; and the client vendors Comneon and Neusoft, bringing the solution together with a rich end-user experience with several different handset operating systems and on PC platform. This marks the first time five such companies have participated in a demo of this nature of the GSMA Rich Communication Suite initiative."

solaiemes team

2 new demos of mashing-up Google APIs with RCS UNI API

Just to show 2 new demos using the Google API's not in web but as a RCS contact instant messaging. Using the Solaiemes RCS Solution Gateway API and the service API (the Google ones in these cases) you may create compelling use cases and test them in a couple of hours.

Google Weather via RCS



Google Currency Converter via RCS



texting rocks !!!
solaiemes team :-)

Texting on the rise! ...the future services user interface

How many calls did you make today? How many texts did you send? And tweets, Skype chats, IM chats…?
More and more often, making a voice call is no longer the first option when we want to quickly contact somebody. It is not a subjective feeling, market research reports by Nielsen[1] & [2] that the trend is there: SMS numbers are raising, voice call usage is going down across all age groups, although for young generations the contrast is even steeper.
Together with the dominance in the desktop of the various instant communication systems (Skype, MSN, Yahoo, GTalk, etc.), the picture is clear: textual communication is the preferred option for quick communication.
Reasons for that are varied; it is not only the price difference between sending a SMS and making a voice call. For many users, the cost difference is not an issue. And, after all, fixed voice minutes are almost free. There are other reasons: a voice call means a time and attention commitment that many are unwilling to warrant unless agreed beforehand; calls do not allow multitasking (is the other party in autopilot, just repeating “ok”? he is probably checking the email or correcting a report); even for the most impersonal calls, carries the risk of an emotional bound with the other party... Many people prefer messaging, asynchronous and impersonal, especially for services whose impersonality are taken for granted, like those that are now carried out in call centres. And young generations take messaging for granted, voice is not even an option for many of them.

Paradoxically this means voice is regaining the status as the really personal medium. Or perhaps not so paradoxically after all, hand written letters are the summit of communication commitment, there are so few people handwriting nowadays. It is just the “mechanic” or “robotic” voice calls that are being replaced.

Our view (shared with other companies, i.e: see this Voxeo ppt) is that real time messaging is the best communication medium for impersonal communication services and, properly developed, will create a huge opportunity for a new ecosystem of text-based services.

RCS messaging enablers, session based and with built-in multimedia support, unlock possibilities beyond SMS and basic IM, until now restricted to users with a given software or client. RCS will, however, be available across handset ranges and on the desktop, opening a truly mass market, interconnected across service providers.

In the next posts, we will uncover a few demo services showcasing the power of RCS to deliver useful and revenue generating services.
Just a basic RCS client and the RCS R2 specs, unmodified core, unmodified clients. And lots of ideas!!!

Jose Recio

RCS to create Voice-Alerts ? Yes, possible & useful

In order to "visualize" all the possibilities of Rich Communication Suite to create a new way of communication and interacting with services we just shot this demo. Combining Android native features as the TTS (text to speech) with our client, even when in background, RCS instant messages received are played as voice, becoming an interesting way to create services based on voice alerts with the advantadge of not needing to transport media and access using a common enabler, the RCS Client.

...in the IMTC Blog, asked about RCS & mobile future?

Jose Recio, one of the Solaiemes co-founders have been asked by IMTC about our vision and approach on/to RCS (Rich Communication Suite) and the future of mobile and posted the answers in their blog.
The International Multimedia Telecommunications Consortium (IMTC) is a global consortium of companies dedicated to the advancement of open standards and multimedia communications through our Activity Group initiatives and annual events that include interoperability forums and workshops. We are pleased to realize that IMTC is listening not only the big brands of the industry, but the communication technology start-ups as we are at this stage. Thanks.

Looking for partners/integrators/resellers in France, Scandinavia & Benelux

During the last months we were quite quiet blogging, sorry, we were fully focused in speeding up our RCS/IMS portfolio, interoperating with IMS core vendors, and trying to present our vision in different trade shows and conferences (MWC2010, IMTC2025, MOBIP).
We have had nice feedback about our vision and how carriers still have the chance of keep a leading role in the enhanced messaging and communication space and avoide the final sentence to be mere dumb pipe :-)
Now, we have packaged 2 concept trials to enhance RCS offer targetting carriers trialing RCS and the ones planning to deploy the service with 2 main goals.

a) showcasing the possibilities of creating non-intrusive services on top of RCS using API's, and allowing to create different use cases as mobile banking or social networking sharing the same using experience, the RCS client.
b) showcasing how RCS can be applied also as communicator in the TV, STB or embedded in a website making feasible a real convergence and a seamless communication experience.

We believe it is better rely on local partners the approach to the carriers and we are eager to partner with telecom focused integrators and IMS core suppliers without this application layer currently working with carriers in France, Benelux and Scandinavia, and also Italy :-), to help them to take the most from previous IMS investments.

looking to hear about you !!!

Our presentation at IMTC 2025 Forum, RCS & Triple Play

Find the slides Jose Recio presented in the IMTC 2025 Forum in the Panel "Triple Play in the Living room" shared with Manuel Vexler (Huawei) and Anatoli Levine (Radvision).
Our point was about with light clients based on current TV widgets or STB frameworks are enough to build more complete communicators based on Rich Communication Suite, keeping the "complexity in a shared cloud based platform".

Feedback, more than welcomed.

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Panel at IMS 2.0 World Forum in Barcelona.

Next week I will be at IMS 2.0 World Forum 2010 in Barcelona and will participate in a panel "How to boost IMS applications" on 29th, April.
We are happy to be there and have the chance of explaining a demo-ing how Rich Communication Suite (RCS) could be the killer app based on IMS and not only "app" but "solutions enabler".
The IMS 2.0 forum is also a chance to be in touch technology and service development representatives from main suppliers and carriers and meet new leads.
This is our second year there as speakers, and it seems finally this year the IMS community will be more optimistical, as RCS is taking off with some important trials, being interoperated with different carriers. Finally carriers are understanding the role of IMS, and also they should work together to offer a "solution" mass market model (as SMS in the past) against the "app" model, not able to arrive to the masses.

juan

Key for success of RCS.

After "evangelizing" posts about RCS technology, own product portfolio explanation and demos, and finally, last week reflections on MWC RCS Seminar, we would like to add our view about key factors to make RCS a huge success and a new way of conceive mobility & unified communications.
The key advantadge of RCS is a type of "SMS enabler", only 1 experience to be learnt, very different use cases to be available using the service, all carriers, all devices compatible. This is the right way to address to the masses, not only geeks of smartphone owners.
On the other hand, unfortunately we are at the beginning of "all carriers, all devices, lots of services using RCS as door". Carriers start trialing RCS, and luckily with a good approach, including interoperability as part of trials (the 3 top carriers in France and Telefonica and Orange in Spain).

But...to run faster...there are a key few points:

a) Affordable core for small carriers, MVNO's and even servive providers trying to offer RCS using agnostic data connectivity. The good new here comes from Acme Packet, launching their new product Net-Net SIP Multimedia-Xpress

b) All devices. The good news come from Genaker with their J2ME RCS Client to enable the boost of RCS service usage before native clients arrive. (It won the RCS Innovation devChallenge).

c) Lots of services on top. The good news here come from us !!! The Solaiemes RCS Solution Gateway, is designed to create services on top of RCS being "content buddies" with no telco experience, the idea is merge internet & telco space, and our platform enablers the service creation based on APIs, being fully interoperated with telco IMS core to create fully compliant content buddies.

Then, even smaller innovative MVNOs looking to differentiate with compelling services, carriers looking for affordable service testing can save time to validate the service, and give a chance to the ecosystem to think about solutions, as it happened with SMS in the past...
And finally, let us remember how we finish our latest post, because it is the key to understand the battler, apps vs services...Devices apps could be the Ferraris, but the real success is the Ford-T, providing a nice experience everybody can afford in terms of cost & usability.

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