Category 6: Best Technology Awards

6b. - Best Service Delivery Platform

About this category:

Introducing innovative, compelling new mobile services helps operators attract new users, deliver new revenue streams and enhance revenues from existing services. With the wealth of GSM and 3G features available to developers, the scope of opportunities for new services is extremely broad. An important criterion for new service platforms is their ability to coexist in harmony with existing systems and complement the service offerings already available, in order for operators to realise a seamless transition in service roll-out, as well as a seamless user experience.

The Best Service Delivery Platform award has been developed to recognise the contribution that middleware and software application developers - as well as a great variety of Value Added Service providers - make to enhancing the service delivery environment and attracting new mobile users.

Please Note: The presentation of this award will be made during a special Mobile World Congress conference session in Barcelona (16-19 February 2009). Full details of the presentations will be confirmed nearer the time. Summarised highlights of all category 6 awards will be featured during the GSMA’s Awards Night Gala Dinner on the evening of Tuesday 17th February 2009.

Eligibility:

The category is open to middleware and software development organisations, developers or manufacturers of Value Added Service platforms and applications and providers of Value Added Services. Advances in roaming services have been included in this category for this year and roaming has become an established service in its own right.


  • Mobile Operators
  • Middleware and Software developers
  • Consultants
  • M-Commerce, Messaging & Content delivery organisations for Value Added Services
  • Roaming Service innovators
  • IT Providers
  • Providers of Location Based Services and other Value Added platforms

Judging criteria

Entries can only be submitted for products that are commercially available. The product or service entered must have been launched after December 1st 2007 or will be launched before November 28th 2008. The judges will be looking for answers to the question, "How does this Service application or platform enhance the experience to customers?" They will be looking particularly at the following:


  • How does your service delivery platform enhance the range of value added services a (your) network can deliver?
  • To what extent is your service delivery platform scalable, how does it encourage interoperability and how is this beneficial to operators?
  • What techniques or functionality has been developed to make your service delivery platform easy for subscribers to use?
  • From a deployment perspective, how easy is it for a network to simply 'plug-and-play' your service delivery platform with minimum disruption to the rest of the network?
  • What is the anticipated ROI (or if unable to provide, what are the anticipated timescales to break-even or to reach profitability) for this new service?
  • What factors are truly unique or innovative about your service?

Entry Forms

In order to ensure a consistent approach for our judges, entries must be submitted using the Best Service Delivery Platform entry form. Entries not using the web based entry form will not be considered. All entries must be submitted by 5pm (GMT) November 28th 2008.

Specific Entry Form Questions:

On the entry form, in addition to submitting contact and company information, you will be asked to answer the following questions (maximum text/character length for your answers also shown in brackets below):


  • What is the name of your new service? (100 characters = approx 20 words)
  • Entries for this award category must be commercially available. Please provide evidence to support this, specifically launch date of product or service, regions covered and which operators offer your product or service. (500 characters = approx 80 words)
  • How does your service enhance the range of value added services a (your) network can deliver? (1000 characters = approx 170 words)
  • To what extent is your service delivery platform scalable? (500 characters = 80 words)
  • Is it fully interoperable (across multiple handsets) and how is this beneficial to operators? (1000 characters = approx 170 words)
  • What techniques or functionality has been developed to make your service delivery platform easy for subscribers to use? (1000 characters = approx 170 words)
  • What is particularly innovative about your application or service? (500 characters = approx 80 words)
  • What is the anticipated ROI for your new service? (If unable to provide, please explain anticipated timescales to reach break-even or profitability?) (500 characters = approx 80 words)

Please note: Use URLs when they are specific/ relevant to the category and will help judges further understand your entry, but due to the number of entries received, judges will not have time to surf company websites looking for further information on the entered product/service or initiative.