Partnerships are important for WAP, but what should you look for in a content provider, application developer or platform manufacturer?

Deployment of WAP-enabled devices has providers saddling up for a long ride on the information superhighway. Which partners — content providers, applications developers and platform manufacturers — you take along for that ride is an important decision. According to Matt Sopich, Qwest general manager of wireless data, the right partnership can make or break a provider in the new era of WAP.

Sopich said wireless-service providers should first and foremost ask themselves whether the partner has the technology know-how to offer the appropriate support for an integrated solution.

"The first thing we look at is their competency that they bring to the table," Sopich said. "How can they be incorporated into our solution? We are not out there to get as many companies as we can as partners, but we look at their core strengths."

Mark Taguchi, Software.com director of business development and strategic alliances, said his company stays on top of WAP technology by being an active member of the WAP Forum. His company also uses the strengths of its recently acquired companies, Mobility.net and @Mobile, as a way to increase its technical knowledge of WAP and WML. Operating according to the adage that two heads are better than one, Taguchi said that Software.com also uses provider input as a means to keep current.

Rick Coppola, Alltel director of Internet services, said he looked for a company with a commitment to service and other strong partnerships in its past.

Phone.com, a founding member of the WAP Forum, is a partner of Sprint PCS and Nextel, Greg Heuman, Phone.com director of carrier marketing, said new partners often come to Phone.com because of the WAP infrastructure provider's high-profile partnerships and good track record.

"(Providers) have an expectation that their dial-tone quality never breaks down," Heuman said. "That may be something that is acceptable in the PC-Internet realm, but not in wireless."

In the case of content providers, Alltel's Coppola said a partner's ability to customize content is key. Increasing revenue streams hinges on the ability to provide personalization for the customer.

Keith Hall, CenturyTel director of wireless marketing, said his company is using much of the same criterion to select its partners, but added that CenturyTel's strategy doesn't limit the company to only one content-provider partnership.

"We're careful to not get into an exclusive arrangement," he said. "As we see the other customer needs, we will look for those content providers."

According to Hall, the ideal partner is a company that is flexible, understands new technology, such as WAP, and is knowledgeable about market trends. Knowing what type of content the customer is looking for is the most important part of CenturyTel's service, he said.

Custom Content
Choosing the content that fits the customer, whether it's e-mail access, financial information or ski reports, is just the beginning for showing off WAP's core competency.

Qwest's recent $85 billion merger with US West has allowed the company to expand on US West's Internet and wireless strategies, including its "BrowseNow" wireless Web service. The new service is planned to offer customers a personal portal, enabling them to go directly to the content they want.

"The heart of our strategy is not to create another wireless Internet service," Sopich said, "but to give customers access to information and transactions that are the most valuable to them."

Joni Hanson, InfoSpace vice president of communications and investor relations, said that the rules that have been used for other Internet ventures do not apply in the wireless space. Wireless devices offer a unique market; therefore, applications for commerce, communications and content need to address the subscriber and the wireless device he is using to access the Internet on an individual basis.

Following that logic, CenturyTel is investigating what content will best fit its rural customers. Hall said content primarily will be selected based on customer feedback.

"(Feedback indicates) a great need to localize content based on our rural market," he said. "They want not just national content, but news, sports and weather in their communities."

Applications
In July, Alltel chose Software.com, with its WAP-compliant Intermail platform, as a data-applications partner. Marketing research still is being completed to access where to launch the new application, but Alltel plans to roll out Intermail in the third quarter.

The Software.com partnership is just one of the many partnerships Alltel is forging before WAP is unleashed. Alltel's Coppola said when searching out a WAP partnership it's important to make sure the partner's solution complements existing infrastructure and fits with your bundled services plan.

Sopich agreed, saying Qwest's emphasis on finding the solutions that work in tandem with its present services will give customers the thing they want most: Ease of use.

According to him, if a partnership doesn't add value to the customer experience, then it isn't worth continuing.

Who Owns the Customer?
So whose responsibility is it to make sure the customer experience is a good one? Who, in essence, owns the customer? According to Coppola, customers essentially own themselves.

"Anyone who thinks they own the customer won't last long," he said.

On the other hand, Alltel and CenturyTel stated that they own their wireless customers no matter how much the customer interfaces with the vendor.

"The way it's shaking out with partnering behind the scenes, we still own the customer," said Coppola. "If they have a problem or difficulty with the system, they will come to us."

What's Next?
According to Sopich, the next step for partnerships will be working together to offer upgraded capabilities.

"I see a whole unique industry coming out of (WAP)," said Sopich. "This year it's about information access, e-mail, calendar, stock information, and next year, I see a migration to more transaction-oriented capabilities," he said.

Software.com's Taguchi said partnerships between wireless-service providers and several different WAP-solutions vendors will become standard practice. Because deploying WAP service will place tremendous demand on providers, partnerships will be mandatory for providers to scale services and meet that demand.

"What happens when you invite the world, and the world shows up?" Taguchi said. "If you cannot maintain your availability and reliability, your brand and your reputation will suffer and your customers will go away."

Once WAP rolls out, a provider's relationship with its partners will depend upon its desired degree of customer control. Taguchi said most providers want to be more than just a pipe — a data-delivery system — they want to move up the value chain to offer customization and deliver personalized content such as e-mail and filtering services.

Taguchi said the right partnerships will enable providers to transform themselves into "storehouses of personal information," and not just data providers, thereby increasing their value to subscribers, and in turn their revenue.

Haywood (leilani_haywood@yahoo.com) is a freelance writer based in Kansas City, MO.