Deloitte SA Blog

As a result of the mobile device phenomenon, advertising via phones and tablets has emerged as an attractive proposition for global brands to promote their products and services. The mobile device with its high daily use, large audience-reach and media capabilities is now top of mind for many brand managers, agencies organisations looking to influence the digitally connected generation.

Revenues from mobile media are expected to reach $150 billion1 by the end of 2012. Advertisers are starting to utilise the possibilities of mobile advertising with spend expected to jump 85.4% to $11.6 billion by the end of 2012.

With the more intelligent mobile advertising platforms finding their way into market, advertisers are now profiling users with the goal of providing more contextual adverts and increasing the likelihood of consumer engagement with the advert.

Read more . . . .    How to advertise on a mobile phone and tablet

For a more detailed discussion, feel free to contact the Deloitte Technology, Media and Telecommunications Leader, Mark Casey, at mcasey@deloitte.co.za

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Mobile should be top of mind for every organization. Unfortunately, many have co-opted the “Mobile First” mantra – declaring victory in the self-evident proclamation that every IT investment should consider mobile as a potential channel. Instead of layering on a mobile veneer to things you’ve always done, look to do fundamentally new and different things that would not be possible without today’s mobile technologies – devices, connectivity and platforms. Think “Mobile Only”: re-imagining services and processes because of the potential of a truly untethered, connected enterprise. The next wave of mobile stories will be about fundamentally reshaping operations, business and marketplaces – putting people, info and services at the point where decisions are made and transactions occur.

But the enterprise potential of mobile is far greater than smartphone and tablet apps. The mobile landscape is rapidly evolving – emerging trends of voice or gesture-based interactions with mobile devices, the convergence of data, your digital identity now in your pocket and the ubiquity of mobile computing – especially in previously unconnected physical objects. The very definition of mobile is changing, as virtually everything in our lives has embedded connectivity – leading to new patterns of context, interaction and opportunities.

The mobile era is here. The pace of change and evolution in the mobile landscape is staggering. To learn more about Mobile Only (and beyond) and what the future may hold, register now to attend this years  exciting installment of Tech Trends – Deloitte Consulting’s annual review of the leading technology trends impacting business today and into the future.

Please comment below and let us know how and where your organisation has embraced mobile; or what is holding you back!

With the growing impact of smartphones on South Africans, Deloitte recently conducted a Global Mobile Consumer Survey across the world, with South Africa forming part of this global survey. During the survey process, South African mobile consumers were asked about what important considerations they have when selecting a mobile device.

It is now estimated that there are over 10 million active smartphones in South Africa. Many of these smartphone users are opting for mobile handset brands based on numerous socio-economic factors. For example, the aspiration factors and cost sensitivities are driving the purchase decision for certain mobile handset brands among the youth. We will continue to see brand and social recognition driving uptake of handset brands. Leading this will be closed community initiatives like IM chat services.

From the surveyed customers, the top five features which customers consider most important when choosing a mobile, especially smartphone, device, include:

Table 1: Top five attribute for choosing a smartphone

As over the top players become more entrenched in providing, for example, IM chat services across multiple mobile device brands, closed community services will start to lose their effectiveness.  The reality of mobile device ownership is that subscribers will inevitably migrate to a different brand after their second or third device from their current brand category.

Please click on the download link below to access the thought leadership piece.

If you have any questions or require additional information, feel free to contact Mark Casey at mcasey@deloitte.co.za or connect with Mark on Linkedin here alternatively contact Jon Hoehler on jhoehler@deloitte.co.za or connect with Jon on Linkedin here.

The information for this article was sourced from Andre Hugo, head of Deloitte Digital at Deloitte South Africa, and written and published by Finweek.

Born again: financial institutions must drink the elixir of youth

While governments, traditional banking institutions and big businesses have always been the gatekeepers of the financial industry, they now compete against complex, yet nimble virtual platform businesses in low margin, micro-payment ecosystems.

These financial ecosystems embedded in online and mobile social media environments have seemingly leapfrogged the traditional banking business models and are eating away at the markets these institutions have always thrived in.

Many digital financial products available today, over and above banking and payments, mimic professional investing (covestor; eToro), payment and funding (Square; Funding Circle), DIY investing (Alpha Clone; Betterment) as well as external business to consumer products that facilitate impulse purchase of virtual commodities (Facebook; and mobile application market places offered by Apple, Google, RIM (Blackberry), Nokia and Microsoft).

Many of these virtual financial solutions, like PayPal and BitCoin, are free from the confines of current foreign exchange regulatory frameworks and point of access, such as the Internet. Digital commerce has branched out to include mobile currency as the number one enabler, and is spearheading the transformation of trading currencies for the ‘unbanked’ who do not have access to traditional bank accounts or desktop/laptop computers but have access to a mobile device.

Mobile platforms today provide the link between the digital divide of traditional monetary systems for the youth and the unbanked, the most notable being micro-payments using airtime as the de facto entry-point to digital currency.

Enter M-Pesa, a mobile-phone based money transfer and micro-financing service developed by Safaricom in Kenya and deployed through its parent company Vodafone across Africa and Asia.

M-Pesa is touted as the most developed mobile payment system in the developing world and allows users to transact using their secret pin and the recipient’s phone number to deposit and transact using a mobile device. The system later evolved to cater for remittances, where money can be sent across country, or to pay for services rendered. Today, users of M-Pesa can deposit and withdraw money, transfer money between users and non-users across borders, pay bills, purchase airtime and transfer money between the service and a bank account. M-Pesa’s markets now span Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa, Afghanistan and India.

Another success story is Vodafone Qatar, offering the world’s first international mobile financial service, which was developed with Fundamo and clearing house G-Cash. The country has high mobile penetration but lacks ample banking facilities which presented an opportunity to deliver mobile financial services for the unbanked. The service targets migrant workers from the Philippines with a service that enables cheap and efficient cross-border remittance payments via a mobile phone. Users in Qatar can receive their salaries on their mobile phones, send money overseas, transfer money within Qatar, pay bills, buy airtime, make purchases at shops as well as transfer foreign exchange payments, for example.

Opportunities abound

This new economy represents a huge opportunity for bold South African financial institutions that want to step up to the plate to deliver innovative financial products and services to the youth and unbanked.

During 2012, one of South Africa’s largest financial institutions, Standard Bank, partnered with Mxit to bring to market Mxit Money, which allows users in South Africa to transfer money and pay for services as discounted rates. Users can also transfer money to each other and withdraw the funds, through MXit’s virtual currency known as Moola.

Other financial institutions are slowly dipping their toes in the digital currency pond, but it is still a market for the taking.

With this in mind, Deloitte Digital commissioned a survey on popular social media platform Mxit, through independent survey company Pondering Panda, to gauge the youth markets’ understanding of and attitudes towards saving and investment.

Consolidating the results of over 5700 participants, the survey concluded that the youth market has its own ideas when it comes to saving and investing and are mostly risk adverse.

Some of the highlights include:

• The youth markets are very aware of the importance of saving and investing, but want access to funds anytime, anywhere
• As expected, close to half of the same make use of bank accounts
• More than half of the respondents save monthly, followed by those who prefer weekly savings
• Monthly investors prefer restrictions on their once-off withdrawals
• The more savings a person has, the less likely they will keep it in cash
• Education seems to be top of mind for respondents of the survey, either for themselves or their children, followed by money for unforeseen circumstances, events or opportunities rather than direct investing where risk in involved
• Trust in banks decreases slightly as income grows, while alternative sources of investment in different currencies increase. Mobile network operators are also kept in relatively high regard when it comes to trust in storing money, just below MXit
• Insurance companies are only used when a certain threshold of available spending is reached

Think global, Act local

These results show that the mobile youth market offers unprecedented opportunities for those financial players who understand the needs and wants of their consumers.

The digital disruption of financial markets requires a total rethink of how financial institutions fit in and engage in this modern volatile economic conditions. It requires vision. There is no one-size-fits-all approach to tap into the market demographics across the globe. Companies must think global, but act local. Financial products and services must have local cultural and social relevance that resonate with the youth which mostly differ between countries and continents.

To achieve this, I believe financial institutions must seek to partner with trusted industry professionals to pioneer ventures that optimise their business of the future in the digital space. Financial institutions need to gain a deep understanding of the interdependencies between the financial systems and how they interact with each other and the consumer to ensure the right experience for the right device or platform. Those that get the mix right, will be the real game changers in tomorrow’s economy.

If you would like to have a more detailed discussion with Andre Hugo, feel free to contact him at anhugo@deloitte.co.za

We welcome your feedback and comments and please share this article with your network!

Hot on the heels of the FNB Geo Payments application addition launched in the second half of May 2012; Mixit officially launched their own “geo payment” capability. But what do geo payments mean for the man in the street and more importantly, what does this technology mean for businesses that were only just getting to grips with NFC?

Geo payments are defined as payments based on the proximity of “authorised” devices. Geo payments make use of GPS to check how close two devices are to each other; if the two devices are within range (typically set at 500m) the application then authenticates the transaction. FNB launched their geo payments edition to their BlackBerry, Android and Apple versions of their banking application yesterday.

The beauty of geo payments in their current form is that – unlike with NFC payments – you don’t need a reader and a NFC enabled cellphone to complete the transaction. Further to that the paying party also does not need to have a credit card; only a bank account that has the eWallet functionality enabled.

Mixit’s geo payment application – Gust – was launched on May 7 2012.

Gust works when two devices are close to each other. The merchant can then request a payment from the mobile phone user. Unlike other payment systems which use geo-fencing logic, Gust does not need a GPS device or even a GSM connection. Gust rather takes the route of simply using wi-fi, your name and your photo to make a payment with devices on the same wifi network, discovering each other using that basic information. With all communication occurring over the wifi network, the payment process is very fast.

The developer of Gust– TrustFabric CEO Joe Botha says, “The idea with the Gust project was to design a really quick and reliable mobile payment experience without NFC.”

As of writing, Stellenbosch is the only town in South Africa where the Gust payment application is running, and has been doing so for the small group of testers since early April of 2012. Stellenbosch was the perfect test case as it is the only town in South Africa to also offer free wifi to all.

Both these advancements have made the intentions clear that NFC is not going to be the mobile payment option of choice – at least not in South Africa as they are not as restrictive with their barriers to entry as neither the merchant, nor the payer need to have NFC chips or readers.

Mobile payment advances such as these are huge advances for society moving more and more towards being truly cashless. Merchants as a result will become less of a target for crime as there will be virtually no cash on the premises.

Big business and merchants will need to aggressively prepare for the early adopters of this new technology as they will be demanding it the second it becomes slightly more commercially available to the mass market.

Are geo-payments going to take the world by storm or are they going to fade away in to obscurity? We would love to hear your thoughts.

For more information on geo-payments, please contact Reinhard Arndt on rarndt@deloitte.co.za

We welcome any feedback and comments! Please share with your network!

Restore the personal touch with employees by integrating social media and mobile with HR service delivery

Change is happening. Again. As social media and mobile devices quickly become essential parts of our daily lives, they are starting to influence how HR services are delivered and the direction HR transformation efforts take. Beyond just being the next new thing, integrating social media and mobile devices with HR service delivery can provide a real opportunity to restore some of the personal touch that was lost in previous pushes for improved HR efficiency.

Traditionally, HR service delivery has been based on structured and specialized interactions between the services HR provides and its customers (e.g., employees, managers, recruits). Typical scenarios might involve an employee who updates benefit options through an online a self-service system or who contacts an HR call center with specific questions about benefits.

Now, HR has an opportunity to use social media tools to create communities for sharing knowledge — and to support employees through direct, yet informal communication. Additionally, mobile devices can provide convenient, on-demand access to this knowledge and experience from almost anywhere in the world. Instead of contacting a call center, for example, an employee with benefits questions could use a smartphone to view and participate in a discussion thread where specialists and other community members share their own knowledge, opinions and questions.

The introduction of social and mobile technologies is not only expanding HR’s service delivery options, it is also increasing HR’s value to the business. Although social and mobile technologies will not entirely replace traditional HR channels, social and mobile tools are easing the burden while providing customers with a richer experience that is more engaging — and often more convenient.

What’s driving this trend?

Social media and mobile devices are effective tools that can help improve HR’s service and responsiveness.

• Breakthrough technologies. Mobile devices and social media are revolutionizing the way people interact, making it easy to communicate and share knowledge without regard to time, geographic location, or organizational boundaries.
• Business acceptance. Mobile devices and social media have become standard business tools. According to a recent study, less than 15 percent of business executives still view social media in business as a fad^.i
• Rising expectations. In their personal lives, many people have already come to expect the rich, engaging experiences that mobile devices and social media can deliver. Now, they are looking for the same thing from their interactions with current and potential employers. A recent article on Forbes.com featured a how to guide on using social media to land a job.ⁱⁱ

Click Here to download the full article

If you require a more detailed discussion around integrating social media and mobile with your workforce, contact Andre Hugo (Chief Marketing Officer and Director of Innovation at Deloitte South Africa) at anhugo@deloitte.co.za and Kamal Ramsingh (Technology Service Area Leader at Deloitte South Africa) at kramsingh@deloitte.co.za

Did you find this useful? We welcome your comments and feedback. Please share with your network! 

ⁱ “Capgemini Survey Reveals the Rising Importance of Social Media to Customer Care,” www.istockanalyst.com, July 25,
2011, http://www.istockanalyst.com/business/news/5311010/capgemini-survey-reveals-the-rising-importance-of-social-media-to-customer-care.

ⁱⁱ “How to Use Social Media Sites to Land a Job,” www.forbes.com , http://www.forbes.com/pictures/edej45lidk/how-to-use-social-media-sites-to-land-a-job#content.

As used in this document, “Deloitte” means Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Please see www.deloitte.com/us/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries. Certain services may not be available to attest clients under the rules and regulations of public accounting.

The following document is the fourth of a five part series that Deloitte South Africa is publishing regarding mobile payments. The market is rife with activity and we’re taking a deeper look at the inner workings of this market space.

Sharoda Rapeti, a Deloitte Director focused on Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT), gives us her take on the mobile payments debate.

The mobile payments and money industry has doubled in size over the past year and Africa continues to play a dominant role in terms of mobile money adoption*. Mobile phone adoption is high in several African countries in terms of individual mobile phone subscriptions usage (above 75%). For example, South Africa (92.7%), Algeria (93.8%), Botswana (96.1%) and Morocco (79.1%) all have relatively high mobile phone adoption**.

Clearly mobile phones will continue to emerge as Africa’s most popular connection device. Given the falling costs of voice calls and data in Africa, mobile operators will increasingly come under pressure to pursue new revenue streams. As industries converge and the boundaries between financial services and telecommunications erode, MNOs may increasingly find mobile payments lucrative.

MNOs that seek operations in the ‘mobi-payscape’ would be able to speed up the introduction of mobile payment services since they do not have to establish and manage partnerships and they own the mobile channel. However, MNOs should not seek to become a bank as mobile operators have infrastructure that is geared towards accessing the lower and middle markets of the unbanked pyramid in Africa. In other words, MNOs should allow for their infrastructure to be used as a value adding service without becoming a fully fledged bank.

MNOs frequently treat mobile payments as a value-added service and generally take the route of ‘home grown’ products, therefore lacking the agility and ability to scale market demand. Their model is geared to service the prepaid market, while banks have a more formal approach to risk in this market segment.

Mobile payments generally present an opportunity to lower broker commissions as it allows brokers to sell airtime directly to their customers. In general mobile operators see payments as more of a vehicle to cross-sell other services and that they generally play the role of building stronger relationships with the mobile operator’s clients, thereby decreasing customers from deferring to a competing operator.

Source: * GMSA Mobile Money for the Unbanked Annual Report 2011

Source: ** World Economic Forum

We would like to hear your comments regarding mobile payments. Do you agree or disagree with the points above? Use the hashtag #mobipayscape on twitter to contribute your points of view.

Stay tuned for the next part in the mobile payments series where we will be looking at point of view from Alistair Moorhouse, a Deloitte Senior Executive Lead focused on the Retail industry.

To find out how Deloitte can assist you in integrating these please contact us on twitter @DeloitteSA or contact Sharoda Rapeti via email srapeti@deloitte.co.za