Releases virtual SIM-based solutions to BYOD mobile phone number ownership problem
Movirtu, provider of identity solutions for mobile operators, has unveiled Movirtu WorkLife and ManyMe, virtual SIM-based solutions that solve the bring your own device (BYOD) mobile phone number ownership problem, the company claimed.
With Movirtu WorkLife, mobile operators can help businesses to overcome the most significant remaining barrier to widespread BYOD smartphone adoption by assigning a business number as a second mobile number to employees' own handsets.
Vice versa, Movirtu has also announced the launch of ManyMe, a solution that adds a 'Bring Your Own Number' capability to corporate mobile phones. With ManyMe, employees of companies that adopt a corporate owned, personally enabled mobility model can add their existing personal number, as a secondary number, to their corporate device and remove the need to carry and maintain two devices.
With Movirtu ManyMe, subscribers can use multiple numbers from a single device and SIM card, removing the need to switch SIM cards or buy a dual-SIM phone. For mobile operators, ManyMe helps to address subscriber inactivity problems caused by users switching between two or more SIMs on competing networks.
The solutions, which will be initially available for Apple iOS and Android phones, will be demonstrated at Mobile World Congress 2013.
WorkLife is designed for sales teams and other mobile employees handling sensitive contacts as it safeguards business phone numbers as a corporate asset, while allowing employees to benefit from using their own smartphones at work. When an employee leaves the organisation, the corporate phone number can be remotely removed from the employee's device quickly and securely.
Additionally, the SIM solution facilitates separate personal and business billing by allowing employees to switch quickly and easily between corporate and private profiles to initiate outgoing calls and text messages. As a result, personal and business charges are automatically separated and businesses' HeatherMcLeanistrative overheads are minimised. Movirtu WorkLife also reduces an organisation's smartphone-related lifecycle asset management costs.
Unlike other solutions, it is based on standard network technology and does not rely on VoIP, which is prone to poor voice quality, patchy mobile broadband coverage and international data roaming issues. WorkLife works anywhere there is a mobile phone signal and provides the same voice quality as regular phone calls, Movirtu stated.
Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO at Movirtu, said: 'BYOD is rapidly gaining traction among businesses because of all the tangible benefits it brings in terms of cost reduction and productivity improvements, but widespread adoption has been stymied by the lack of an elegant solution to the critical problem of who owns the mobile phone number. Businesses cannot risk losing their customer contacts when a salesman moves to a competitor; likewise, employees don't want to carry two phones or give up their phone numbers every time they switch jobs. With Movirtu WorkLife, mobile operators can offer their high-ARPU corporate customers a valuable, virtual SIM-based service that assigns a second, corporate phone number to the employees' personal phone and apportions mobile phone charges accurately between the two phone numbers.'
Movirtu WorkLife is based on Movirtu's patented Virtual SIM platform, which enables multiple numbers to be active on a single, standard SIM card. The company's server platform is based on standard mobile network technology and, when integrated into the operator's network, provides the basis for a variety of innovative service offerings. Movirtu WorkLife uses existing network infrastructure, without the need for VoIP, a second or replacement SIM, or OS virtualisation.
