OpenMarket Expands Global Two-Way SMS Reach to 15 New Countries, Adds Google Voice Support

SEATTLE, Sept. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- OpenMarket, a leader in enterprise mobile engagement, today announced the expansion of its global two-way SMS connectivity into 15 countries in Europe and Asia-Pacific, an area that accounts for half of the world's 3.4 billion mobile subscriber base. The company also announced new Google Voice connectivity and capabilities, allowing enterprises to reach a broader set of users via SMS. The expansion in global reach is driven by an increasing enterprise demand from enterprises that want to leverage SMS to optimize their business operations and enhance relationships with their customers and employees globally.

OpenMarket processes more than one billion mobile messaging interactions per month, connecting businesses to over three billion users and six billion devices worldwide. By extending its reach into Asia-Pacific with local short and long codes, the company is adding nearly two billion additional subscribers in one of the largest mobile regions of the world, extending the reach for global enterprises looking to interact with their customers and employees via two-way mobile messaging. Today, OpenMarket services over 400 enterprises globally, including four of the top 10 most respected global brands¹ with mobile messaging use cases like customer service appointment reminders, emergency notifications, company announcements and secure PIN authentication.

The support for Google Voice enables enterprises to reach more users by directly communicating with them via text message notifications like product announcements, promotions, and coupons. According to Juniper Research², SMS messages sent to and from an application like Google Voice (known as Application-to-Person or A2P SMS) will be worth almost $60 billion by 2018, up from $55 billion in 2013. With support for Google Voice, enterprises using OpenMarket's robust mobile engagement platform can now leverage its capabilities to reach a potential market of four million Google Voice subscribers.

The OpenMarket Mobile Engagement Platform is a SaaS-based solution, allowing global enterprises to easily create and deploy smart, interactive mobile engagement services globally with connectivity to over 200 countries. Enterprises can access the platform via a web-based GUI or directly via service APIs. The platform supports features such as personalization, scheduling, logic and decisioning, list management, user segmentation, and reporting. By using the platform, enterprises are able to optimize business operations, automate processes, enhance internal and external communications, improve customer experiences, drive brand awareness and generate new revenue.

"The growth of A2P enterprise mobile messaging is shifting the mobile communications landscape and expanding the way businesses communicate with users," said Jay Emmet, general manager of OpenMarket. "To meet this shift, enterprises are looking for more than a messaging pipe – they are seeking a partner with a flexible mobile engagement platform that can scale with their messaging needs, and one who can provide global customer support, dedicated account management, and consulting and professional services to support their specific business requirements. Our expanded global SMS service and support for Google Voice demonstrates OpenMarket's commitment to solving these needs with a comprehensive enterprise-proven platform."

While alternatives like OTT (Over-the-Top) and mobile applications are perceived as the next big thing for the mobile enterprise landscape – these options fail to meet the ROI and ubiquity SMS offers.  According to Forrester³, text messaging remains strong with users sending or receiving an average of 35 messages per day – more than 6 billion SMS messages sent each day worldwide. These facts coupled with the current usability of SMS on every mobile phone around the globe, make it a tool that mobile users leverage immediately out of the box, offering lower startup and maintenance costs for enterprises over other mobile technologies.

About OpenMarket
OpenMarket, a division of Amdocs, helps enterprises use mobile to transform their business. OpenMarket provides mobile engagement solutions for organizations to optimize their operations and enhance relationships with their customers and employees. Major enterprises choose OpenMarket for our domain expertise, service flexibility, demonstrated performance and reliability, global scale, and corporate maturity. We provide smart, interactive connectivity to more than 200 countries, enabling businesses to engage with nearly every mobile user around the world. Our clients trust us to power their mobile business. For more information, visit www.openmarket.com.

About Amdocs
For more than 30 years, Amdocs has ensured service providers' success and embraced their biggest challenges. To win in the connected world, service providers rely on Amdocs to simplify the customer experience, harness the data explosion, stay ahead with new services and improve operational efficiency. The global company uniquely combines a market-leading BSS, OSS and network control and optimization product portfolio with value-driven professional services and managed services operations. With revenue of $3.3 billion in fiscal 2013, Amdocs and its more than 22,000 employees serve customers in over 80 countries.

Amdocs: Embrace Challenge, Experience Success.

For more information, visit Amdocs at www.amdocs.com.

Amdocs' Forward-Looking Statement
This press release includes information that constitutes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about Amdocs' growth and business results in future quarters. Although we believe the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance that our expectations will be obtained or that any deviations will not be material. Such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause future results to differ from those anticipated. These risks include, but are not limited to, the effects of general economic conditions, Amdocs' ability to grow in the business markets that it serves, Amdocs' ability to successfully integrate acquired businesses, adverse effects of market competition, rapid technological shifts that may render the Company's products and services obsolete, potential loss of a major customer, our ability to develop long-term relationships with our customers, and risks associated with operating businesses in the international market. Amdocs may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future; however, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These and other risks are discussed at greater length in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including in our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2013 filed on December 09, 2013 and our quarterly 6-K forms furnished on February 11,  May 15, 2014 and August 18, 2014.

SOURCE OpenMarket