A method for selecting successful m - business alternatives for I - mode and MMS

2 Preface This thesis is a result of a final graduation project for the courses Business Information Technology and Telematics at the University of Twente. The research project is done in cooperation with Reinder Visser who also graduated on a part of the research project. At the start of this research project in June 2002, MMS and I-mode were just being introduced in the mobile market. Telenor launched the first commercial MMS Service in Norway in April 2002 and KPN Mobile had introduced the mobile internet service I-mode to the Dutch market. CMG was involved in both activities by developing the MMSc for Telenor and the I-mode gateway for KPN. The introduction of these concepts on the European mobile market created many new business opportunities for mobile operators and integration may combine the best of both worlds. CMG saw the potential of integrating the two concepts and wanted to know how to integrate MMS and I-mode on a technical and commercial level in a business model. The original problem formulated by CMG was as follows: What business model and architecture are appropriate for the integration of MMS and I-mode and how can this be implemented and introduced on a global base? This problem fitted well with the master programs of Business Information Technology and Telematics and provided a graduation project for me and Reinder. The orginal problem formulated by CMG was divided in two parts: Reinder Visser focussed on generating alternatives for integrating I-mode and MMS and we focussed on selecting the most successful alternative among these generated alternatives. The combination of both research projects solved the orginal problem formulated by CMG. There are many people who supported me during the writing of this thesis. I would like to seize the opportunity to thank some of them below. Or to say in Japanese: domo arigato gozaimasu! First, I would like to thank Maarten Mes and Boudewijn Pesch from LogicaCMG. They offered me the opportunity to study on the subject of integrating I-mode and MMS and they made it possible to live and study in Tokyo, The opportunity to live and work in Tokyo was one of the best experiences in my live. The city jungle of Tokyo was a marvelous experience, and the Japanese people, culture and food made a big impression on me. I also liked the open culture of LogicaCMG during my work in the small office. The …