NEW YORK—Vivendi Universal has deployed MyNetonomy , developed by U.S.-based Netonomy, as the portal through which customers can purchase, activate and personalize services on Universal Music Mobile (UMM).
Launched commercially in late September, the service delivers Vivendi Universal’s music-oriented content over the GSM network of Cegetel’s SFR, the second-largest mobile network operator in France. Vivendi owns a controlling interest in the wireless operator.
MyNetonomy enables individuals or authorized point-of-sale distributors of UMM to use the UMM Web site for purchase and activation of service. Once activated, subscribers can create a personalized home page within the MyNetonomy portal that includes their account information and the kinds of entertainment options they choose. The individual home page also permits end users to manage their accounts by adding, viewing and changing parameters when they wish.
Call center employees at Vivendi Universal and Cegetel also are using MyNetonomy to manage service calls they receive from UMM customers.
The MyNetonomy solution, which integrates a billing system from Lucent Technologies’ Kenan Systems, was customized for Vivendi Universal in three months.
“We are convinced that music for the mobile phone is a killer application. True market domination in this exciting new business is dependent on two key factors—compelling content and being first to market,” said Jean-Marie Messier, chief executive officer of Vivendi Universal.
“Vivendi Universal brings the content while Netonomy’s lightning fast deployment time gave us a huge jump on the competition, enabling us to be the world’s first mobile music service on the market.”
Targeted at teenagers and young adults, UMM is structured as a package that includes a rate plan and a phone that is either prepaid or has an account spending limit incorporated into it. Based on their preferences, users can personalize their voice mail so their favorite recording artist identifies himself or herself before taking messages for them. Among other features, customers receive advance notice of new releases and concerts coming to their areas, with the option of purchasing them at a discount using mobile commerce.
Vivendi has established joint marketing agreements and alliances with a variety of companies, including Microsoft and Yahoo! for online music. By year-end, Vivendi Universal projects it will have 200,000 customers for UMM. By the end of 2002, the goal is to reach 1 million.
Netonomy, which provides online customer care and electronic commerce solutions for telecommunications carriers, counts among its customers Wind Telecommunicazion of Italy, Bouygues Telecom of France, Mobistar of Belgium, the business-to-business division of the United Kingdom’s Vodafone Group and the wireline division of Telecom Italia, said John Hughes, co-founder.
