Frost & Sullivan Commends Mahindra Comviva's Unique Digital Music Solution that Manages Mobile Service Providers' Entire Infotainment Services Portfolio

CAPE TOWN, South Africa, July 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the online retail services industry, Frost & Sullivan recognises Mahindra Comviva with the 2014 Africa Frost & Sullivan Award for Customer Value Leadership. Mahindra Comviva revolutionised the digital music market in Africa by not only providing a superior technology platform for end users, but also managing the operator's complete roster of music and infotainment services. Its business and marketing expertise enables mobile service providers to optimise cost structures, widen the subscriber base and ultimately, accelerate revenue growth.

Mahindra Comviva is one of the largest content aggregators in Africa; it offers an extensive digital music portfolio that comprises video, voice and text. It has collaborated with 140+ content partners, including local and international content providers/copyright bodies/local artists and production houses. These extensive partnership networks allow it to track the local content in every country it operates in.

Currently, the company owns the rights to over 1M unique music tracks in African, Arabic and international categories, and offers multiple genres in more than 36 languages. Its first of a kind infotainment portal is powered by its 'Recommendation and Analytics Engine', which recommends content based on the end user's profile and consumption patterns.

"Mahindra Comviva's infotainment portal enables subscribers to access infotainment through a single app, irrespective of the choice of bearer channel between mobile client, text and voice," said Frost & Sullivan Information & Communication Technologies Industry Analyst Joanita Roos. "Furthermore, it allows customers to watch and download videos and even share and integrate content with social network websites."

Other innovative offerings from Mahindra Comviva include 'Hi Life' and 'MyTV'. These offerings add a wide range of digital apps, including TV channels, news, health, recipes and astrology over multiple channels. The portal also features artist interviews, concert dates and the number of records sold to the customer. Operators in Africa have seen more than a fourfold rise in their music services penetration and subscriber base, and a significant increase in their music revenues, after switching to Mahindra Comviva's digital services.

To drive adoption, the company has developed innovative micro charging propositions tailored to spend patterns of multiple -segments. Consumers who cannot afford a full services bouquet have the option of a daily or a biweekly infotainment pack. Mahindra Comviva differentiates itself from its competitors by offering billing via mobile money and mobile wallet services, in addition to online payment solutions.  This method has proved to be extremely effective as a large percentage of the African population does not own bank accounts.

Mahindra Comviva not only has world-class solutions, but also has specific processes in place to streamline directional changes and geographical expansion. Whenever the company attempts to enter a new geographical area, stringent procedures are followed in order to ensure the success of the market entry.

"The company creates a complete marketing plan including planning campaigns, segmenting the market, identifying partners,  managing different market participants - labels, content providers and vendors," observed Roos. "It ensures regulatory compliance through best practices in business operations and automated content enablement platforms."

Mahindra Comviva ensures customer value excellence, particularly in the product service value and purchase experience it offers. It guarantees implementation excellence through its superior process design, technology sophistication and company culture.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in implementing strategies that proactively create value for its customers with a focus on improving the return on the investment that customers make in its services or products. The award recognises the company's inordinate focus on enhancing the value that its customers receive, beyond simply good customer service, leading to improved customer retention and ultimately customer base expansion.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognise companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About Mahindra Comviva

Mahindra Comviva is the global leader in providing mobility solutions. It is a subsidiary of Tech Mahindra and a part of the USD 16.5 billion Mahindra Group. With an extensive portfolio spanning mobile finance, content, infotainment, messaging and mobile data solutions, Mahindra Comviva enables service providers to enhance customer experience, rationalize costs and accelerate revenue growth. Its mobility solutions are deployed by over 130 mobile service providers and financial institutions in over 90 countries, transforming the lives of over a billion people across the world. For more information, please visit www.mahindracomviva.com

About Frost & Sullivan

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SOURCE Frost & Sullivan