Customer Engagement | Globe Teleservice

Is It Time For The Next-Gen Option To OTP?

Two-factor authentication is now a staple in the business world when it comes to validating customer communications. Allowing businesses to verify user identity through two or more authentication mechanisms, the method has been helping in adding an extra layer of protection to any sign-in process and protecting the business against breaches due to lost or stolen credentials.

While receiving a code or OTP on a registered mobile device for one login or transaction has been one of the most popular authentication mechanisms, it is now time for the next-gen option to OTP: Flash Call!

What are the challenges associated with OTP?

When users try to log into an app or try to make a banking transaction, OTP has been the go-to choice for secure authentication. According to reports, SMS-based authentication revenue will reach$39 billion globally in 2022, representing 5% of total operator-billed revenue.

Although OTPs help adds an additional layer of security, they bring with them their own set of challenges. For instance,

OTPs are known to be inconvenient and not very user-friendly. Users who aren’t very tech-savvy often find the OTP process confusing, unnecessary, or even cumbersome.
OTPs demand a reliable cell phone signal as well as sufficient battery life, which when not guaranteed, can result in delivery failures.
Many times, due to poor network, users fail to receive the OTP or receive it very late, requiring them to reinitiate the authentication process all over again – causing a high level of frustration, especially with banking transactions.
Some OTPs that are sent to the mailbox also tend to be delayed or land in the spam folder, which again leads to lost access.
For apps or transactions that make use of 3rd party messaging providers, users are also likely to incur a per-text charge to access their OTP and go ahead with the authentication process.
When using a mobile application that initiates an OTP process, toggling between the app window and the SMS window isn’t always everyone’s cup of tea; there is also the possibility of the wrong code being entered by the user, which requires users to start over again.
Users who need to authenticate a login while travelling abroad often do not receive an OTP because they do not have the international roaming facility enabled on their device.
For users whose OTP device is lost or stolen, multiple login attempts by bad actors can permanently lock them out of their accounts.

That apart, SMS is also the target of fraud and prone to security issues created by routing through questionable providers and grey routes.

What is Flash Call?

As the latest method for two-factor authentication, Flash Call reduces the widespread dependency on OTP, while helping overcome issues about inconvenience, data security, and lack of user-friendliness. It uses voice – instead of messaging – for authentication and is a far more customer-centric and cost-efficient solution to authenticate users, helping verify a user’s identity – without involving an SMS code. Since it involves no user interaction, Flash Call has the potential to disrupt the highly established A2P SMS market.

For instance, the global messaging app WhatsApp is reportedly working on integrating Flash Call as an alternative to OTP. Instead of making users enter a one-time, 6-digit code that they receive by SMS, the new Flash Call feature will allow WhatsApp to directly make a call to their device and verify the phone number – without users having to take any action. Such authentication will not overcome all the drawbacks of OTP; it will also pave the way for quicker verification and improved customer satisfaction.

How does it help businesses?

Flash Calling authentication is expected to near 128 billion calls globally by 2026; here’s how the new mechanism can aid businesses:

Accelerate the authentication process: Unlike the time-consuming OTP process where users have to open their SMS application to check for the OTP and enter it to authenticate themselves, Flash Call automates this verification process – without users having to do anything. As an automatic call is made – and then rejected – and the last four digits are automatically inserted, the device is instantly verified – thus accelerating the authentication process.
Offer a richer user experience: Flash Call allows businesses to have a greater ability to customize the user interface, the overall user experience is richer and more engaging. Since users no longer have to go back and forth between apps, there is a considerable increase in user satisfaction, which, in the long run, can also lead to better loyalty and retention.
Improve conversion rates: Flash Call is also a great way to improve conversion rates. Since users are no longer distracted by receiving and entering one-time passwords, businesses can pave the way for automatic verification and ensure quicker user signup – which can result in improved conversion rates in the long run.
Enable better security: Flash Calls are also known to more secure and amenable to privacy. Since the mechanism cannot be intercepted or terminated by fraudsters, it results in a higher level of security. At the same time, for apps or transactions that are used across multiple devices, Flash Call will make it easier and safer for users to log in to each device separately.
Reduce operational costs: Businesses today end up spending way too much money running their business for activities that span marketing, online advertising, analytics, and more. Common 2-factor authentication mechanisms like OTP only add to these costs, especially in countries where operators charge high rates for SMS and phone calls. Flash Call is a great alternative to the expensive OTP, allowing businesses to save a considerable sum on the authentication process.

As a new technology that can be used to authenticate users, Flash Call is a great alternative to the traditional, costly, and ineffective OTP authentication method. Not only does it enable quicker and more efficient authentication; it also aids in improving the end-user experience through automated verification. Given the numerous benefits it offers over OTP, Flash Call might just become a hot favourite for commerce, payments, and telecom companies. When that happens, let us show you how a powerful new alternative to OTP could work!

5 “New-Age” Digital Solutions that Could Occupy the Thoughts of Telecom Leaders

The digital revolution, driven by high-speed internet connectivity and a plethora of software products and services has become the backbone of social, economic, and technological prosperity today. Communication systems are evolving. As the technology landscape matures and provides more robust solutions to help enterprises and businesses navigate a complex, dynamic, and competitive business world, new and creative business models, products, and services are emerging to fulfil consumer demands.

The telecom sector has a pivotal role to play in this dynamic new age.
Here is a look at five new-age digital solutions that telecom leaders should care about

CPaaS and telecom

The CPaaS market has been on an incremental and steady rise. The demand for cloud communications expanded use cases and prompted new suppliers to enter the market. CPaaS, or Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS), allows organizations to cherry-pick real-time communications features, such as voice, video, and messaging, and embed them into business apps and services. This delivery model allows organizations to customize their communication stack and allows employees to communicate with each other and with customers on a platform and device they want.

CPaaS is cloud-based and software-driven and allows application developers and product owners to tap into and leverage digital and mobile features without having to build or locate any of the expensive physical network infrastructures.

While API providers and network owners are riding the CPaaS wave, it is time for telecom providers to identify how to cash in as well. Telecom providers often do not partner with CPaaS developers since they offer few APIs. The process infrastructure also tends to increase the time-to-market.

However, telecom leaders have the opportunity to get a share of the CPaaS pie since they have access to mass telephony. The cost and routing control, the database of phone numbers, and SIP or traditional switch infrastructure can be put to use to deliver a value proposition for CPaaS.

That apart, telecom companies can extend their services to a wider range of sectors such as entertainment, gaming, fintech, social media, etc. to advance their projects that blend video, voice, text, data analysis, and interactive communications and help deliver better feature-rich services.

IoT

Forecasts estimate that there will be more than 50 billion connected IoT devices in use across the globe by 2030. The greatest advantage that the telecom companies have is that of the infrastructure that exists with mobile phone towers and internet cables infrastructure serving the groundwork for creating new solutions and services based on 5G and IoT.

The IoT market is also expected to reach $381.16 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 24% as IoT use cases and industry adoption continues to increase rapidly. Apart from the use of IoT in home automation where the role of the telecom providers becomes that of providing exceptional mobile and network connectivity, there are significant opportunities for telecom companies to leverage in industries such as manufacturing, security, agriculture, logistics, smart cities, etc. that run on IoT.

Especially as 5G arrives, there will be a need for IoT specialists to help telecom companies implement the technology into existing infrastructure and business processes. Some telecom companies might need to build their own IoT platforms that aid the development of custom products and services to meet customer needs.

Telecom can not only help organizations adopt IoT to drive better outcomes but can develop IoT-linked products and services. IoT connectivity services and data storage and management are the usual suspects of where telecom providers come into the picture. Telcos can also provide better data and analytics from IoT-generated data and help businesses extract valuable insights from raw metrics.

Telecom leaders can drive real-time asset monitoring by employing extended communications networks in conjunction with cloud computing to collect signals from embedded devices and deliver them to the industry-tailored applications.

By adding IoT to their offering mix, telecom leaders can increase revenues by offering IoT services and solutions, retaining clients, and attracting new ones.

Edge Computing

Edge computing is gradually becoming a mainstay in the digital solutions toolbox especially as 5G explodes onto the scene. Analysts reveal that almost 75% of enterprise-generated data is expected to be created and processed outside the cloud or the traditional data centre by 2025. Most cloud computing giants such as AWS and Google are not ready for operating in massively distributed and remote edge environments.

The need to run edge computing at a massively distributed scale and the increasing reliance on the cloud to enable remote/hybrid work has accelerated the race to 5G adoption. With edge computing coming into the picture, telecom leaders have a greater chance for market dominance. This is because the hyperscale data centre advantage demonstrated by public cloud providers becomes irrelevant at the edge even though the uniform software stack advantage persists.

With 5G, organizations can distribute workloads to run at the Edge and reshape cloud computing and user experiences. 5G offers increased distribution, greater network speed and reliability, and the capability to provide new experiences because of reduced latency. These experiences will be powered by applications running on the network edge in contrast to running in the cloud.

For telcos, this means accelerating their move from a hardware-driven appliance model into a software-defined architecture and developing the capabilities and taking advantage of open-source technologies like Kubernetes as a potential foundation for 5G deployment. Delivering higher performance, lower latency, distributed scale, and stringent SLAs will become essential for telecoms as 5G and Edge become the next cloud disrupters.

Rich Communication Service (RCS)

RCS or Rich Communication Service is now emerging as the successor of SMS services. RCS is a feature-rich messaging service that allows organizations to create richer conversations with their customers. RCS delivers the eye-catching function of OOT applications and also leverages the unbeatable reach of SMS.

WhileRCS is not going to replace OTT applications, native messaging based on RCS is the next evolution of operator-led SMS and will play a big role in the new messaging environment. Customers are also ready to embrace RCS with some major brands already leveraging RCS heavily.

Telecom leaders have to work towards providing fully interoperable, RCS-based cross-operator advanced messaging platforms and develop the right partnerships with aggregators, and connectivity service providers to ride the RCS boom.

AR and VR

AR and VR are attracting a lot of attention today as these technologies are in the next stage of delivering new value propositions. They are now moving out of the realm of gaming and finding real-world applications across industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, worker safety, and compliance, aviation, oil, and gas, etc.

Telecom providers can dip their toes in the AR and VR pool since they are an essential part of the ecosystem. They help with the discovery and delivery segment and help subscribers find differentiated AR experiences.

While telecom companies do not stand great monetization opportunities directly from AR presently, they can leverage AR to drive better operational excellence with improved network inspection/maintenance, repairs, inventory management, workforce training, customer service, etc. using AR-based remote assistance.

Interestingly, the rise of digital solutions and the pursuant push towards digital transformation also demands a convergence between IT and telecom. Whether it is IoT, CPaaS, Edge computing, RCS, or the use of immersive technologies such as AR and VR, the telecom sector has a role to play as the enabler of everything.

The customer onboarding challenge facing telecom companies and a digital solution

Telecom companies might have been expanding at a rapid pace to reach the farthest corners of the world. With that goal achieved there were new challenges to navigate – like plummeting revenues from traditional mainstays like voice calls and a new competitor in the form of OTT services.

For telcos, this was indeed a unique situation where most of the revenue generation was taking place from selling video traffic from streaming services like YouTube or Netflix.

With the demand for financial services also increasing and customers demanding digital solutions to make transactions, telecom companies are adding value-added services to their portfolio of offerings. Among the most popular of these is enabling mobile money and integrating digital payments in telecom. In fact, these seem to be the obvious next step.

The need to enable mobile money

Today mobile money such as e-wallets have become an organic part of customer lives. With mobile money, it becomes easier to transfer money or conduct essential financial transactions even when there are no banks nearby. This increases accessibility, which can especially be a huge advantage in rural areas.

The reduced dependency on cash reduces the inherent risks of cash handling such as loss, theft, or fraud. Lower transaction costs, no dependency on middlemen for money transfers, and the agility and flexibility in financial transactions have been key factors driving the growth of mobile money.

The mobile money system can be accessed even by geographically inaccessible communities and by those falling into the low-income groups. Mobile money platforms can also be accessed by the most basic mobile phones making them more inclusive.

The Mobile Money Challenge

With mobile money offerings, telecom providers get the opportunity to deepen their relationship with the customers and increase customer stickiness. However, launching mobile money offerings demands taking cognizance of not just telecom regulations and compliance but also ensuring adherence with the prevailing regulatory compliance norms of the financial space.

Exhaustive regulatory requirements

KYC norms and the documentation needs of the financial space are more exhaustive and often onerous. The challenge then becomes providing elevated digital experiences without compromising on the regulatory requirements. Strong customer identity verification and onboarding capabilities become essential traits that contribute positively to customer experience. However, this in itself becomes a challenge when these companies do not have a strong technology solution that can serve as a backbone to drive these experiences.

Simplified onboarding to drive better experiences

Developing strong digital capabilities and simplifying customer onboarding and KYC becomes especially important to survive in the post-pandemic world. With customers demanding all interactions be digital, enabling intelligent customer onboarding services not only serves to improve the regulatory compliance posture but significantly drives better customer experiences. Technologies such as AI, image analytics, and powerful automation power such solutions and make digital identity verification and customer onboarding convenient and secure.

Elevated security and fast authentication>

e-KYC solutions also need to be comprehensive and secure. They should be able to create digital identities easily. Digital IDs not only serve verification and authentication processes but help providers deliver a higher degree of security and privacy protection while also providing uniqueness. Digital IDs improve the traditional paper-based experience of authenticating people’s identities via online traditional verification such as passports or driving licenses and use biometrics (iris, face, fingerprint), PINs, security tokens, passwords, geolocation, or online document verification to fulfil these needs.

Accurate and fast processes for greater data accuracy

Looking at a robust and intelligent e-KYC solution also reduces the need to depend on manpower to conduct this task. Manual processes also make it harder to maintain data transparency and make it difficult to leverage data to drive better digital experiences. Telecom providers not only improve customer relationships but also bring in greater transparency to the system with intelligent systems.

Using GPS and OCR technologies coupled with technologies such as AI and Machine Learning can supercharge and optimize the KYC process making it more accurate, useful, and time-efficient. Machine Learning-based document validation that provides country-specific identity document integration, facilitates automated data extraction and enables automated verification and validation integration makes the KYC process smoother, faster, and more secure.

Fraud prevention along with faster data extraction

Machine learning-based face match validation and liveness detection further make the online onboarding process more secure and prevent impersonation fraud. AI-based identity and document validation & verification and geo-location identification capabilities can further help the telecom companies balance regulatory requirements without compromising on security and customer experience.

OCR-based automated data extraction from documents makes the data extraction process faster, accurate, and time-efficient. With the entire process becoming faster, process-driven, and more streamlined, onboarding and acquiring a customer happens at a lower cost and with the least amount of risk. This becomes especially relevant for onboarding low-net-worth customers or for tapping the potential of emerging markets as telcos need to identify ways to lower customer acquisition and onboarding costs to maximize their margins.

In Conclusion

There was once a time when the role of telecom companies was to enable simple telecommunication needs. A clear connection, regular service was all that one asked for. Today, this world has changed dramatically. From shopping to banking and now business, the world has shrunk into the palm of the customer. Rising competition in the telecom sector and increasing customer expectations for differentiated experiences are compelling telecom companies to review their service offerings and deliver whatever the customer wants. And today, the customer wants mobile money.

Telecom companies must look towards enabling robust digital solutions powered by cutting-edge technology to make sure security and customer experience do not stand at loggerheads. With the right solution, robust financial security and customer convenience do not become opposing goals. The right solution that covers all the relevant and essential checkpoints builds greater trust in the digital infrastructure and enhances microlending capabilities. This proves to be immensely helpful to expand the footprint in emerging markets by improving due diligence that usually suffers because of non-standard identity and inconsistent credit scoring.