Homepage KP Communications Limited newsroom

Soprano Announces Strategic Partnership with Philippines Mobile Network Operator Smart Communications

Announcement posted by KP Communications Limited 12 Mar 2019

Soprano Communication Platform to Power Enterprise Messaging Solutions in the Philippines with Smart Messaging Suite

12 March 2019 – Australian based Soprano Design, a global leader in cloud-based enterprise messaging solutions, has reached a strategic agreement with Smart Communications, the Philippines leading mobile network operator. Entering the Philippines market for the first time, Soprano will be making its Soprano Enterprise Messaging Suite (MEMS) available to Smart’s diverse portfolio of enterprise customers. In the Philippines, the Soprano messaging service will be branded Smart Messaging Suite.

Currently, Smart controls nearly 50 per cent of the estimated 130 million mobile connections in the Philippines, and has rightly earned its reputation for being a market innovator, offering enterprise customers access to a diverse portfolio of Smart Enterprise Business Solutions powered by the latest transformational technologies. By choosing Soprano’s enterprise messaging solutions, Smart can now offer its customers a ‘best-of-breed’ mobile messaging solution that is flexible enough to suit the diverse needs of Philippines enterprise customers, from banks to education providers and Government services to microfinanciers.

Robin Ng, Soprano’s Senior Vice President for APAC, said that this agreement is significant as the Philippines is a strong SMS market with enormous potential. Commenting on the deal, Ng said: “Smart has earned a reputation for delivering the most innovative technologies to its customers. Soprano is proud to be partnering with Smart in the Philippines, enabling its customers to have access to our market leading enterprise-grade mobile messaging application platform.”

Chet Alviz, AVP & Head of PLDT Enterprise’s Wireless Business, said: “Soprano offers a highly flexible and competitive messaging solution, which allows us to provide a differentiated mobile messaging solution for customers in traditional large-enterprise and government sectors, as well as for customers that are underserviced today in the Philippines market such as microfinancing, outsourcing/offshoring, and local retail.”

This agreement with Smart is significant for Soprano Design, entering the Philippines marketplace for the first time, as part of its accelerated growth plans across the Asia Pacific region.

Ng explains: “The Philippines market is technology savvy and like many regions within Asia Pacific, is experiencing a lot of rapid-fire technology change. Businesses are looking for effective enterprise-grade messaging solutions that are flexible, secure and easy to deploy. SMS technology is the principal communication channel in the Philippines and Soprano is expecting to send more than one-billion enterprise messages for Smart customers each year using Smart Messaging Suite.”

Within Asia Pacific, Soprano is seeing a surge in demand for enterprise-grade messaging platforms as businesses look to stay ahead of the digital transformation curve. This agreement with Smart is Soprano’s sixth major APAC telco partnership. Other APAC markets where Soprano is seeing strong growth include Australia and Singapore.

According to a recent market study conducted by Infoholic Research, the Asia Pacific A2P (application to person) SMS market is expected to grow during 2016-2022 at a CAGR of 6.34%.

Soprano Chairman, Richard Favero, added that Soprano has become a leading global expert in Application to Person (A2P) business and government messaging, helping many of the world’s largest mobile network operators including AT&T, BT and Vodafone leverage their size and reputation through a white-label software solution that gives them and their customers a competitive advantage. These international partnerships have seen Soprano’s overseas revenues in the past year grow by nearly 20%.

Soprano MEMS is currently deployed in some of the most complex enterprise and government IT environments in the world, enabling large A2P mobile messaging deployments in a variety of industries including finance, banking, insurance, retail, hospitality, automotive, transport & logistics, workforce management and government.

Smart’s customers in the Philippines will join the more than 1,000 enterprises including 30 plus Fortune 500 companies that benefit from Soprano’s platform and software. Soprano is located in 13 countries worldwide and provides a ‘follow the sun’ technical service and support model.

-ends-

About Soprano Design: Founded in Australia in 1994, Soprano Design is an award-winning global software design firm that delivers trusted mobile interactions via its powerful cloud-based mobile communication platform, which has revolutionised the way enterprises and governments around the globe do business. An array of smart applications, programmable interfaces and sophisticated governance controls allow organisations to integrate using little or no code and to automate communications (and audit all interactions) to become more productive and make life easier and safer for their customers. Over 70% of Soprano’s business is conducted offshore. https://www.sopranodesign.com.