The maritime industry is witnessing a lot of changes, and port operators are working out innovative strategies to convert these into opportunities and capitalize them. Customer centricity, containerization, competition, compliance to maritime standards and streamlining are the most vibrant trends prevailing in this space.
Large banks with big in-house IT divisions are often caught in a dilemma -- whether to build or buy the applications they require, keeping in pace with the technological advancements and customer requirements. While in-house development of some generic banking applications -- mainly belonging to the processing side -- could become successful, the same does not work in the case of specialty applications. Hence, large banks sometimes fail to extract the best out of their specialty applications developed in-house! Relationship-based Pricing (RBP) is a classical example of such an application.
Wireless service providers across the globe are looking at options to solve a long-term bedlam. While expanding the physical infrastructure becomes imperative for future growth, the cost involved and the social as well as environmental resistance comes across the plans. Sharing of passive infrastructure has been pointed out as an option to solve this issue in some of the markets. However, operators were a bit hesitant to adopt this option due to various reasons. Today, in the changing business as well as regulatory environment, service providers have started seriously pursuing the option of sharing infrastructure. The need for cost-effectiveness in operations, limited infrastructure availability, the burning need for quick expansion of services and regulatory pressures drive service providers towards this direction. ABI Research asserts that the combined OPEX and CAPEX savings from active infrastructure sharing in the next 5 years will be $60 bn worldwide.
Banks around the globe are striving to find the exact balance between the two sides of a scale. On one side, they have to keep the interests of the customers alive by providing utmost convenience. On the other, they have to keep operational efficiency high, in order to ensure cost-effectiveness in operations.
Mobile Application Stores(MAS) are the latest trend in the mobile communications industry. Mobile service providers and handset providers across the globe are busy jumping into the MAS bandwagon. Gartner predicts $6.2 Billion sales through MAS in 2010, and that is an appealing number for the service providers. Consumers are vigorously exploring application download options available through MAS -- let it be mobile shopping, social networking, mobile utilities, or productivity tools.