Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Global Directory Award (GDA) Winner: Il Numero!

Thank you to the nine GDA entries and thank you to all those who participated in this year's SMS text voting. This year's People's Choice Award winner is:

892 892 Il Numero!

We congratulate Il Numero and all the other participants, and look forward to more innovation and success in the directory market!

Monday, February 06, 2006

Voting Instructions

Voting for the Global Directory Award (GDA) is being conducted by SMS messaging through February 6th.

Please cast your vote for the entry which you feel is the most innovative product or service in the global search directory marketplace.

To cast your vote:

- Prepare an SMS text message indicating your choice, "entry #1" or "entry #2" or "entry #3" or "entry #4" or "entry #5" or "entry #6" or "entry #7" or "entry #8" or "entry #9."
- Send the message to: +39 338 3767581.

The award will be presented at the Awards dinner in Rome, February 6.

NINE ENTRIES INTO GLOBAL DIRECTORY AWARD COMPETITION

Nine entries have been made into the first Global Directory Award (GDA) competition, and we think that is terrific! The GDA is being introduced by Whitaker Associates at the European Directory Marketplace 2006 (EDM06) conference in order to help stimulate growth and development of the search directory industry by providing greater visibility to, and recognition of, significant products and services.

We believe that innovation is critical to the growth of this industry. Entries were encouraged of innovative directory products and services. We are very excited to have received so many entries involving unique and innovative offerings. The entries are:

#1: 1313 Reverse Lookup (in French, “L’annuaire inversé du 1313”)
#2: 89.24.24 Pronto Pagine Gialle
#3: Midentity Deskbar with Directory Enquiry Plugin
#4: Maponair on the Move
#5: Eniro 118 118
#6: 892 892 Il Numero
#7: LSSi Global Gateway Service
#8: HelloYellow
#9: BTS-Open Middleware

We call GDA a "people's" award because selection of the award recipient is not chosen by a panel of experts but by a much broader group--everyone who chooses to participate in the selection process. While participation in the selection is open to anyone, we have not broadcast the Award to the general public and do not anticipate that thousands of people will participate in this voting. We do anticipate that a limited number of knowledgeable industry participants will participate in the process.

To participate in the selection, visit http://www.whitaker.com/conferences/edm06/awards.htm. Voting ends in the afternoon of February 6th. The Award will be presented in the evening of February 6th.

Details for the entrants follow.


ENTRY #1

1313 Reverse Lookup (“L’annuaire inversé du 1313”)

Description: In Belgium, EDA provides “regular” DA/DQ services on the shortcode 13-13, and in addition offers a Reverse Lookup service. Nicknamed “L’annuaire inversé” (i.e. “The inversed phonebook”), it is fully automated since it makes use of advanced XML and Text-to-Speech technologies.

Also called “number identification,” Reverse Lookup allows a user to find out to whom belongs a specific telephone number. Here, a 13-13 caller simply needs to type the number to-be-identified, by using the touchtone keys of his/her telephone, and the full name & address of the registered owner will be read to him/her immediately in TTS. For instance, on the number 02 333 4444, L’annuaire inversé will reply: “This number belongs to Mr. Alex Gaschard, 1 Europe street, in Brussels”.

EDA’s service is unique in the following 3 key respects:

1. If the caller queries on a number which turns out to be a company direct extension, a “standard” reverse lookup service would often come up with no answer; here, the system is able to come up with one or two answers which actually correspond to the nearest 2 switchboard’s number(s), therefore offering the caller possible answers, rather than no answer at all.

2. The system does not only query the Belgian telephone database, but several other European databases;

3. Finally, if the caller queries on a number that is neither a Belgian number nor a European number, he/she will be told at least about the country of origin, often the city, and sometimes even the neighbourhood.


ENTRY #2

89.24.24 Pronto Pagine Gialle

Description: Seat Pagine Gialle was the first company in Italy to launch in 2000 the DA service 89.24.24 ProntoPagineGialle.

From a simple “Talking Yellow Pages” concept, it has developed into an advanced system based on a very valuable database with a large team of dedicated “personal assistants” on the phone: it is a 24/24h, 365/365d service that gives answers on addresses, locations, opening hours, facilities, products and services offered, etc., on more than 3 million Italian businesses. Besides this, it provides a value-added service, giving information such as weather and road conditions, train and flights, news, TV programmes, information on movies and booking tickets for theatres, concerts and museums and all info can be get in English as well.

89.24.24 Pronto PagineGialle is well known to Italians, thanks to its long-time and famous testimonial, Claudio Bisio, and a catchy advertisement jingle.

Finally, we can say that the success of 892424 is based on a new way of listening to people and solving their problems: Seat’s call center operators are skilled personal assistants skilled to find the ideal solution in order to solve customers' needs.

The result is a number of calls that increases daily (more that 20 million calls per year) along with an increasing number of advertisers.

89.24.24 ProntoPagineGialle has created a new business and a new market, open nowadays to many players.


ENTRY #3

Midentity Deskbar with Directory Enquiry Plugin

Description: Midentity Plugins are a distribution mechanism for new services that interact with users’ calendars and contacts to offer innovative new services tailored to the individual, without compromising their personal data or data protection legislation.

Midentity Plugins are designed to meet the needs of:

- ISPs;
- Fixed line and mobile telephony networks;
- Directory enquiry(DQ) providers;
- Search engines;
- Media and digital content owners;
- Networking service providers

Midentity Plugins fit within the extensible framework of the Midentity Deskbar, which is a component of the Midentity Contacts solution.

Midentity Deskbar and Plugins makes a great contribution to the industry in terms of innovation by allowing DQ providers to integrate directly into PC users' desktops. This integration has a number of significant benefits:

- it creates a significant branding and loyalty opportunity;
- it enables users to ClickDial the numbers that are found;
- it enables DQ providers to generate a new revenue stream by allowing advertisers to pay for calls made to them;
- it enables users to transfer the numbers to their mobile phone using SendToMobile;
- it enables users to easily add the numbers to their personal address books with one click.

To better understand the service, download a demo version (http://deskbar.midentity.com/), try the 118118 Plugin, using 'pizza' in 'CO10' or something else UK based. Or, contact us for a demo and further information.


ENTRY #4

Maponair on the Move

Description: Novasys is a market leader in developing solutions and products in the field of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and is also a value added information content aggregator.

At Novasys, we believe in synergies between content, maps and routes. More specifically, intelligence can be delivered through aggregated information.

We strongly believe that more and more people will need information while on the move. "Maponair on the Move" is therefore an extension of our convergent Geocentric platform Maponair. It includes Value Added content for Enhanced Directory Assistance Services. The content is delivered on any available support using Internet, mobile handsets, PDAs, etc. Thanks to "Maponair on the Move", Operators can increase the level of both the service they offer to their clients and the loyalty they receive.

"Maponair on the Move" is an ASP service which can be easily plugged to the call centre platform. It does not need high investments as the business model is based on revenue sharing.

With "Maponair on the Move", the DIS operator informs the mobile end users about the nearest restaurant according to its type of cuisine, the nearest hotel based on price or number of stars or even the nearest ATM machine according to the bank he uses, etc... Driving directions are also provided over voice or SMS.

For more information, please call Ali Hussein:

+41 216 513 030 or email: ahu@novasys.ch

For special access to a demo link please send us a request and we will forward you a login and password.


ENTRY #5

Eniro 118 118

Description: Eniro 118 118 AB is the leading provider of DA Services in Sweden offering the most innovative and complete DA Services in the world.

In 2004 Eniro 118 118 was awarded “Best European DA Service” and in 2005 “Best Mobile Service” at an industry event organised by 118tracker.com in the UK.

Broad and innovative:

Eniro 118 118 have very successfully made the journey from “looking up telephone numbers” to an innovative cutting edge high quality service that offers directions, distances, nearby search, maps and more.

We offer the mobile customer a premium service with call completion to the enquired number in Sweden or abroad and provide contact details through any preferred medium; voice, SMS, SMS with wap-link, fax or e-mail, all without any extra charge.

Eniro 118 118 is also the only DA service on the Swedish market that offers International DA and access for Swedish mobile customers from abroad.

Excellent content:

Our database contains all available mobile, residential, business and “government” numbers in Sweden from all fixed and mobile networks plus additional information such as www and email addresses, opening hours, cash machines etc. Eniro 118 118 is also the only DA service in Sweden where Eniro Gula Sidorna (Yellow Pages) data is available.

Available to all:

Eniro 118 118 is available from every phone in Sweden regardless of network operator (fixed or mobile). Our customers represent in large the Swedish population and our service portfolio handles around 60 million requests per year.


ENTRY #6

892 892 Il Numero

Description: 892 892 is the pioneering innovative new enhanced DA service in Italy, launched in July 2005 to coincide with deregulation in its first 6 month it has already introduced Italy’s first money back guarantee if you are unhappy with the service for any reason.

892 892 was the first provider in Italy to introduce the only fixed fee for a DA service including unlimited searches and unlimited call completion all for one fixed price.

Just a few month after the launch the 892 892 has become the best known service in Italy offering basic and enhanced information on subscriber listings plus a wide range of value added services such as weather conditions, traffic info, flight info, cinemas, routing and ticketing for social and sports events.

892 892 has the shortest call handling time, waiting time and get through rate and excellent accuracy results, thanks to our long international experience in the DA industry.


ENTRY #7

LSSi Global Gateway Service

Description: An increasing number of regulators in European countries are deregulating DQ services, and independent DQ Service Providers are seizing the opportunity to expand their DQ service offering in multiple countries. Equipping a call center, staffing and training operators, and building a directory database consumes both time and capital.

LSSi’s Global Gateway Service and National Directory Databases enable DQ service providers to enter new DQ markets quickly while controlling costs. The LSSi Global Gateway Service and National Directory Databases provide high-speed access a multitude of foreign telephone listing telco-fresh databases through a single LSSi-brokered agreement, rather than having to set up separate, unique agreements with the individual telecoms around the world. The Global Gateway Service is an integrated solution that provides access to more than 250,000,000 listings in 26 telco-fresh listing databases maintained by LSSi and by carriers in Europe, North America and the Pacific Region. LSSi operates and maintains listing databases in five countries – US, Canada, UK, Ireland and France – built from service-order-level data supplied electronically to LSSi, direct from the carriers on as fast a delivery schedule the carrier can provide – in almost all cases daily.

While DQ service providers expand into a growing number of deregulated DQ markets, the LSSi Global Gateway and LSSi hosted national Databases can provide time-to-market and cost advantages. When using LSSi’s Global Gateway Service and National Directory Databases, DQ service providers can focus their efforts on providing premium customer service and building their brand.


ENTRY #8

HelloYellow

Description: Strategy

Call Genie has pioneered the world’s first voice-enabled search of the Yellow Pages, in partnership with the Yellow Pages Group of Canada. The service boosts Yellow Pages value by giving access through simple voice commands to anyone with a telephone – mobile, landline or VoIP. Consumers use the service by dialing 310-YELO (local toll free number), #YELO on their mobile phone, or selecting “category search” from the 411 Directory Assistance service.

This creates an attractive new medium for merchants to reach consumers, particularly mobile phone users.

Execution

The HelloYellow service was launched in 2005 as an extension of the Yellow Pages brand. State-of-the-art voice technology fully automates the search, but gives an experience close to live operator assistance. The HelloYellow database contains more than 400,000 business listings, the equivalent of the 17 printed Yellow Pages directories. It covers the Greater Toronto Area in Canada, a diverse, multicultural marketplace of 5.5 million people.

Consumers can search all popular consumer headings, browse a list of merchants in their chosen location, listen to merchant information and connect through to the merchant. As well as name, address and phone number, merchants can promote themselves through messages such as directions, promotions, credentials, advertising jingles and more.

HelloYellow lets callers search by city, neighborhood, landmark or street intersection. Need to find the closest Starbucks – no problem. HelloYellow automatically detects the caller’s network location, and suggests this as a default, but callers can override the default with their location of choice.


ENTRY #9

BTS-Open Middleware


Description: BTS-Open Middleware brings DA/DQ and online YP publishers out of the age of isolated and closed systems, and enables them to compete on equal terms with new web-based players by harnessing the power of open standards such as SOAP/XML and J2EE interfaces that have enabled web-based players to rapidly cut into the information services market with new services. BTS-Open enables DA/DQ service providers to quickly and economically add new services including Location Based Services, POI, Driving Directions, Comparison Shopping, even open search through 3rd party search and content provider engines such as eBay and Google.

The service thus introduced can be delivered to the customer using BTS-OpenClient agent desktop, through SMS, MMS, Speech Automation, or even through 3rd party client interfaces developed by other vendors.

BTS-Open not only makes it feasible to introduce new services, it also dramatically cuts the cost and time needed. Additionally BTS-Open also enables the service providers to end the cycle of dependence on a single vendor. Using BTS-Open the services providers can introduce new services using their own IT team, 3rd party IT companies, or BTS-Logic team.

BTS-Open is based on Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE), provides for several points of access to reach information resources connected to the Unified Access Layer. This allows 3rd party clients to connect to the search engine and conduct 2 way searches via an XML/SOAP interface.

 

Powered by Blogger

Conference News via RSS and Email:

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Powered by Blogger