Companies:
Thalys International and dotMobi

Campaign:
.mobi Solutions in Action

Challenge:
Thalys International was searching for a way to meet the information needs and expectations of its 6 million passengers. Headquartered in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Brussels, Thalys is the only high-speed European train network that daily connects France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. Thalys International needed a way to provide important information regarding schedules and fares, service disruptions and transportation information to its customers who depend on the network to get them where they need to be. Realizing that customers wanted this information while they’re on the go, Thalys decided that going mobile would be the best way to meet customer demands. Thalys needed a partner to provide customers with the best mobile experience.

Solution:
A .mobi domain was the ideal solution for Thalys to present important, real-time content to customers in a format that was easy to read and navigate on a mobile device. Realizing that the .mobi domain would be a reliable format for the information and take the guessing associated with mobile sites out of the equation, Thalys employed the help of Bytes and Com’s Pascal Debroux to develop thalys.mobi. Thalys.mobi provides up-to-the-minute transportation information to customers in four languages, utilizing a simple, easy to read format outlined by the dotMobi Developer’s Guide.

Results:
Thalys launched thalys.mobi on 9 September 2006, and by 26 September, the site was getting dozens of visits per day. It is now a recognized resource for Thalys’ hundreds of daily travelers. According to Yves Vieux-Pernon, project manager at Thalys, “This is another vehicle for us to communicate with and provide high-quality service to our business and leisure travel customers.” Thalys is currently working on a module for real-time traffic information. Each train is equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology so that delays can be reported immediately to travelers. The service is expected to be available on thalys.mobi by the beginning of 2007. Later, the company will explore making ticketing available via thalys.mobi.

About Thalys International
In 2006, Thalys celebrated its tenth anniversary. Today, more than 50 million passengers have traveled between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne on Thalys trains. It's even possible to travel without a paper ticket with Thalys' "Ticketless" service.

In 2008, Thalys will open hour-and-a-half service on its Brussels-Amsterdam and Brussels-Cologne routes as well as three-hour service on its Paris-Amsterdam and Paris-Cologne routes.

Thalys is a joint subsidiary of SNCB, SNCF, DB AG and NS.

About dotMobi
dotMobi (the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd.), a joint venture company based in Dublin, Ireland with offices in Washington, DC, is leading the development of Internet usage from mobile phones by switching on the .mobi domain name. Unique among domain name providers, dotMobi ensures that services and sites developed around .mobi are optimized for use by mobile devices. On-the-go consumers can have confidence that the Internet site or service will work from their mobile device when using the .mobi address.

dotMobi is backed by leading mobile operators, network and device manufacturers, and Internet content providers, including Ericsson, GSM Association, Hutchison 3, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefonica Moviles, TIM and Vodafone. dotMobi is also a sponsor of W3C's Mobile Web Initiative.

For more information on dotMobi, visit http://dotmobi.mobi and the dotMobi blog at http://blog.mobi. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Company:  Dynetic Mobile Solutions (www.dynetic.net)

Goal: 
eBay Germany wanted a mobile service that would allow users to register to receive SMS alerts for tracking items and auctions on the eBay web-site and then enable them to re-bid directly via SMS whenever they are out-bid. 

Solution:
dynetic mobile solutions developed a unique SMS alerts and rebidding service for eBay.  <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

In this service eBay users can register to receive SMS alerts for items and auctions via the eBay web-site and are able to re-bid directly from their handset via SMS. The service can be registered directly from the eBay web-site at the bidding page after placing a bid.

The SMS application has been developed on the basis of the emoveo UAP technology framework which enables universal development, content optimization and delivery for SMS, MMS, mobile Internet or Java applications. emoveo UAP has been utilized by eBay since 2002 to deliver global mobile applications. The SMS application manages the user registrations and data, controls the alerts and re-bidding processes, data flows as well as offers a real-time reporting tool for all transactions. The application is conceived as a universal SMS interface layer, is ready to be connected to any SMS gateway worldwide and provides a multilingual, mandator-ready framework for eBay. In addition dynetic was responsible for developing the integration of the application into the eBay web-site to enable users to register and configure their alerts settings.

Results:
Many thousands of dedicated eBay users registered for the new SMS alerts and re-bidding service during it’s first month and results are exceeding expectations.

Company:

The Weather Channel

Goal:

Extend The Weather Channel Brand and wireless product offerings so that each consumer can access the weather information needed to make informed weather decisions while on the go.

Solution:

The Weather Channel partnered with Mobile Media North America to provide cross carrier SMS (short messaging service) mobile originated forecasts.  Users simply text any city name or US zip code to the short code “4CAST” (42278) and are sent a 36 hour forecast via text message.  The cost of each delivered forecast is $0.75. The product is initially targeted at business travelers who can get quick, reliable information for any city world wide.  The service is available on most major US carriers.

Additional products will be added to the SMS product catalogue in mid 2005.

Results:

The Weather Channel has successfully expanded its wireless product offerings by allowing each subscriber with a SMS capable handset to get trusted information from The Weather Channel instantly. 

Brand: The Weather Channel

Company:  The Weather Channel

Goals

• Extend The Weather Channel brand and trusted information to wireless devices

Solution

The Weather Channel developed a wireless download application using Brew and Java technologies. Wireless subscribers are now able to access the latest weather reports while away from their televisions and computers. Offered as a subscription product, the application provides current conditions, detailed forecast information, and animated color radar images through an easy-to-use interface. By accessing The Weather Channel information on their wireless devices, subscribers have all the tools to better plan their activities throughout the day. During severe weather events such as hurricanes, the animated radar maps have proven extremely valuable, especially when television and phone lines are hit by outages.

The Weather Channel brand was successfully extended to wireless devices, allowing consumers to access the weather information they need when they need it.