Dr. Andreas Gniffke
HEAD OF CLIENT SERVICES & MARKETING
Summary
Sixteen months ago, Roamsys relaunched and became RoamsysNext. Since then, the whole world was turned upside down, but for the company it has been a time of change, renewal and innovation. With the Connectivity Innovation Forum we created a platform to share ideas about innovation and progress, and to invite collaboration in challenging times.
RoamsysNext products were also revamped, optimized for a work-from-home reality and structured even more clearly. Many new features were implemented, most of them based on feedback from our customers.
We also used the new brand to strengthen our partnerships and open up to new opportunities beyond roaming. Together with partners such as the GSMA and Post Luxembourg, fraud- and security-related ideas were driven forward, thus establishing a new, third branch in the product portfolio.
Time flies and for us at RoamsysNext, it seems like only a few weeks have passed since we decided to rebrand from Roamsys to RoamsysNext. After more than ten years in the industry, we thought it was time to reflect our standing in the industry as well as our goals for the future with a new brand name. We wanted to take the Next step forward, and we did.
In RoamsysNext Insights our experts share their views on extensive industry topics and possible solutions we can offer.
Time for Change
We launched the new brand at GSMA’s WAS #10 in Valencia in October 2019. It does not seem too far away, but times have dramatically changed since then, and it was actually the last major congress we attended with a chance to meet our long-time colleagues, customers and friends in person.
WAS #10 was definitely a boost to our vision, with the largest and most beautiful RoamsysNext booth ever, attracting interest and attention like never before. A statement we were able to fulfill in the following months with new projects, increased marketing activities and an even more customer-centric approach to support the industry in difficult times, especially for operators.
The Connectivity Innovation Forum
In January 2020, we launched the Connectivity Innovation Forum, designed as a community for industry experts to meet and discuss hot topics, new technologies and enable collaboration. We managed to host seven forums in 2020 with growing success and a clear message as a conclusion of these events and speeches: The industry is capable of adapting and overcoming critical situations, but it needs to join forces and collaborate, taking into account all available new technologies and the minds behind them.
The forum has been established to enable communication between the industry and technology experts, and we are really proud that we have managed to get a long list of speakers that shed light on industry topics from many different perspectives. Especially in times when there are no proper conferences and events, it is important to bring people together. That is why we have always opened the forum to the GSMA to share what is happening in the working groups, to promote online events and to encourage networking.
Our constant quest to make good things even better
When the pandemic hit the world in March, our customers realized how well our product enabled the smooth transition to a work-from-home reality. Keeping business running in a changed world is especially challenging for operators and operator groups. Roaming decline and loss of revenues, difficult IOT-negotiations, and new Covid-19-related fraud scenarios require sophisticated tools that save time and money and enable working from anywhere.
Our product suite has been on the market for many years, with new features and modules being added regularly, based on feedback from customers and our industry experts. All modules have a specific purpose, but the strength of the suite itself comes from the fact that all modules are connected and work hand in hand. But then, it started to get a bit too complex.
To be clearer and more focused, we reorganized the modules into two main packages that better reflect the reality of our customers. Our Network Configuration Optimizer brings together all the modules needed for a smooth and seamless network configuration process, from task management to full automation if needed. Our Wholesale Roaming Manager provides solutions to streamline service openings, manage roaming footprints, SIM Cards, Tariffs and much more. Now the product suite really feels like a practical suite, rather than a bundle of tools and features.
Strong Partnerships
And what we have claimed in the Connectivity Innovation Forum is now an even stronger part of the RoamsysNext DNA: collaborations and partnerships have strengthened our position in the industry and have helped us to think about new opportunities and products. In particular, our strong relationship with the GSMA led to a new dimension of RAEX compliancy, due to awareness raising projects and joint training sessions. The opening of the standard to MVNOs has taken RAEX to a new level, making it even more important when it comes to reliability, speed and security.
As the Forum is all about new technologies and innovation, we have taken our partnership with Post Luxembourg to a new level. We work closely with the Post Cyberforce project to develop new tools and collaborations, particularly with regard to fighting fraud and increasing cybersecurity.
And we have also opened up to external input on a structural basis. In the newly formed Advisory Board, established industry experts have contributed their inspiring thoughts and helped us to think outside the box even more than before. Gerrit Jan Konijnenberg, Stephen Brewer and Marcus Süllman share their decades of industry knowledge with us to help us take the next big step forward.
What’s Next?
It has become a necessity to work hand in hand, and even in complicated times this approach has been a great motivation to take a step out of the RAEX world into the wider field of fraud and security issues. And we are sure that there will be a big announcement very soon.
Dr. Andreas Gniffke is well known in the community for providing customer support at RoamsysNext since 2012. For more than three years he’s head of client services responsible for all customer related issues such as application support, account management, data capturing and the setup of trials and customer accounts. With a PH.D. in German language history and a background in journalism his experience and skills make him also an essential part of the RoamsysNext marketing team, too.
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