|
|
iForce™ Heroes Program Making the Mobile Internet a Reality |
||
|
Click below to see: The Human Side of the Internet Delivering Software as a Service A Mobile Sales Infrastructurre Turning Shipping Ports into Data Ports Conclusion: Quality and Reliability
|
Many
technology watchers automatically equate third-generation wireless with
the mobile Internet, but not Mark Dickelman. “3G is dead, or at
least on life-support,” proclaims the Bank of Montreal vice president
for m-commerce & wireless. “While 3G keeps slipping further
into the future, the mobile Internet is real and here and working.” Dickelman should know.
In the fall of 1999, he spearheaded the launch of Bank of Montreal’s
Veev, a mobile Internet banking, brokerage, and information service.
In seeking to refine its electronic delivery strategy, the bank had
boldly decided to focus on the mobile Internet, and had asked Dickelman,
who had been involved from the outset in the bank’s e-commerce
initiatives, to oversee the development and launch of the new channel. From its web-banking
experience, the bank knew that building core technology from the ground
up was not a winning approach. It therefore chose to partner with Toronto-based
724 Solutions, whose experience and proven technology, Dickelman was
convinced, would enable the bank to reach the marketplace years earlier
than otherwise possible. And so, while the traditional wireless industry
was spending billions of dollars on licenses for spectrum that, Dickelman
believed, had very little hope of being effectively developed, Bank
of Montreal was preparing to launch a practical, working service. And, as it happened,
Veev was soon thriving, and has become increasingly popular since its
public debut. Now available on six networks across Canada and, in the
United States, via Harris Wireless, Veev supports almost every make
and model of cell phone, as well as RIM Blackberry and Palm devices.
Customers have access to real-time banking and brokerage services, market
information, stock-price alerts, links to news, a clipping service,
weather, horoscopes, shopping, and air-mile account management. “Getting Veev off
the ground was a challenge,” Dickelman admits. “We started
off with the only 500 browser-enabled phones on the planet—clunky
devices that people didn’t like—and just a single network.
We had no idea how far ahead of the market we were. It was more than
a year before any of our competitors joined us in this market in Canada.” And while mobile Internet services do not yet constitute a mass market, Dickelman believes that they are quickly headed toward the mainstream. “Availability, which is the single most important factor in adoption, is improving rapidly.” Already, “it’s getting hard to buy a cell phone that doesn’t have a browser. Three years from now,” he predicts, “it will be impossible.” |
