If carriers want customers to pay for cutting-edge technology, they need to be willing to use the highest-end technology themselves to promote such products, said a Texas-based software creator.
“We’ve developed a software program that runs on Windows, has audio and, depending on how good the hardware is, has video that can run at 30 frames per second,” said Len Schermer, president of Video Electronic Marketing Inc. of El Paso.
Three years ago, VEM and CellStar Corp. of Dallas created a marketing alliance to build display systems for mass retailers. VEM has the experience because it has deployed non-cellular kiosk systems for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in the past.
CellStar is a distributor of phones for numerous terminal manufacturers and says it is the largest customer of Motorola Inc. It has photos and information for all the products and an established relationship with wireless carriers.
The company recently sold the in-store promotion centers it had built at Sam’s Club stores nationwide because the manned booths were costly and CellStar wanted to concentrate on its core distribution business.
But the software venture VEM and CellStar now offer can be manned or unmanned, depending on what the promoter wants. It’s called InterAct, for Interactive Assistant for Communication Technology, a concept of CellStar.
“We don’t provide the hardware, but we support carriers with customized applications. They don’t want what the other carrier has, so we can make screens look different. Large carriers want something that is their own,” Schermer said.
InterAct is a non-proprietary base software program, around which special modules can be built.
“We can work very quickly to get a program out, say in three months. You can put all the phones on the screen, with video or audio, and it will be a consistent presentation every time. You could explain the rate plans and the customer can ask questions, either with a touch screen or a mouse. You can still support it with four-color paper brochures,” Schermer said.
The system can be plugged into an electrical socket or a phone line. With a phone line in place, changes in price plans can be sent by modem, instantly updating special offers.
“They can have a button that says `current promotions,’ ” Schermer said. If there’s no phone line to the system, an information disk can be sent overnight with the special changes.
While testing InterAct prototypes during the last two years, CellStar learned that carriers are interested in systems that allow them to rapidly update information, said CellStar Marketing Director Michael King.
“We’ve created a marketing piece that can be updated within 12 to 24 hours,” King said.
With InterAct, carriers can even seek information via modem from the store system, such as a review of which screens shoppers are selecting most often.
“Some carriers don’t want to push the sales person out,” Schermer said. “Some want a person on screen to be the qualified person. Flexibility to support what the carrier wants is most important.”
