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Experts from ���Ƕ���Ƶ, Network Media Group, Verizon and GSMA discuss how omni-channel and international verification enables consistent and secure business-to-consumer engagement

• What’s the News: Industry webinars available now that address the role of service providers, aggregators, regulators and businesses that are enabling verification and providing a trusted communications ecosystem.
• Why it Matters: During this period of social distancing and remote engagement, businesses are relying on telecommunications and technology to reach and serve their customers. At the same time, fraudsters are evolving their tactics with increased robocalls and spoofed texts, which undermine valid business communication and global commerce.
• Who’s it for: Businesses, technology vendors, service providers, messaging providers, enterprises and regulators.

BRIDGEWATER, N.J – January 13, 2020 – Sales generated from mobile commerce were projected to reach $2.91 trillion in 2020, according to , which is a 25.4 percent increase over 2019. In fact, mobile commerce growth has consistently generated an average year-over-year increase of 33.8 percent since 2016. But, with that type of revenue generation comes the threat of bad actors looking to take advantage of consumer trust. In 2019, Americans received more than 58 billion robocalls and 4.5 billion spam text messages , demonstrating the need for the industry to implement a verification strategy across voice, text and digital communication channels to increase trust.

Re-establishing trust was the focus of two recent executive panels presented by the Network Media Group (NMG). Featuring experts from ���Ƕ���Ƶ, Verizon and GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications), the sessions explored what communication service providers, regulators and enterprises can do to establish a unified verification process.

In the first webinar, ���Ƕ���Ƶ’s Chief Product Officer Michael O’Brien was joined by Cary Cusumano, a customer experience design expert for Verizon, to address the growing importance for “” as businesses expand their consumer engagement strategy across multiple communication channels. The discussion included how collaboration across the entire ecosystem—from technology vendors and messaging providers to regulators and enterprises—can help improve the consumer experience and educate brands. This allows for the authentication of communications across all touchpoints while providing a consistent brand experience for the consumer.

“A unified verification process will drive dependability regardless of the communication channel,” O’Brien stated. “This means using a single identity to communicate with a customer. Toll-Free numbers are a great example. These numbers can be used not only for voice but also text messaging, with all communication from the business branded via a caller ID to ensure veracity.”

Click to watch the session.

The second session focused on how verification protocols such as STIR/SHAKEN-based frameworks that are being implemented in the U.S. and Canada are impacting international call traffic and what the industry needs to consider to ensure businesses are not at a disadvantage.

During this session, ���Ƕ���Ƶ Director of Product Management Bob Grant and GSMA Senior Director of Technology and Product, David Pollington, highlighted the need for clear and authoritative guidelines that apply to international service providers when handling calls so global commerce doesn’t experience a significant disruption. This included looking at how conversational and transactional mobile commerce is driving the need for verification authorities and how aggregators and mobile network operators can implement collaborative strategies for protecting consumer trust—especially for voice and messaging channels. Selected by GSMA as one of the first verification authorities for Rich Business Messaging, ���Ƕ���Ƶ’s Grant provided a unique perspective on this role, as well as how a centralized registry approach can establish trust in business-to-consumer messaging.

“It’s important that we not only establish standards for verification on an international level but also address how they can be handled for new channels such as Rich Communication Services (RCS),” said Grant. “Ninety-five percent of text messages from businesses are being read within three minutes. When combined with the RCS engagement component, it’s even higher. Therefore, verification is critical to ensure these global engagements and transactions can happen.”

Click to watch the session.