Anything Answered Answer Technology Using sophisticated call centre technology; the AnythingAnswered platform is scaleable, network independent and does not require any configuration or investment in software for our customers or their users. Only a mobile phone is needed to access this service, with Switchfire supplying and managing hosting services from a secure server centre in London. Everything Answered? Although the service is designed to answer any question, there may be occasions where Anything Answered is unable to provide an illustrative answer due to confidentiality and privacy laws. Anything Answered is designed to be available to everyone and to this extent we have put measures in place to make sure we do not cause offence to any person, living or dead, so we will not answer questions that contain cruel, incriminating or violent material. We will also not answer questions that contain excessive use of profanity. Anything Answered will not provide answers that result in any unreasonable invasion of privacy; provoke fear or anxiety; encourage any person to engage in harmful practices for example promote racial disharmony; personal offence; debase, or promote prostitution or substance abuse. Users will be informed of this if our operators receive such questions. For more information contact: Anything Answered Anything Answered Anything Answered aims to provide mobile users with the answer to any question at any time. It’s a simple, fast mechanism that offers and informative service that can provide answers in minutes to questions such as What time is my next train? How many numbers ones did the Beatles have in the UK? What is the meaning of life? Who Wants Answers? So many questions are left unanswered in Work Environments, Student Halls, Pubs and Restaurants, and so many information services are hard to access. Switchfire can provide a universal service, which fulfils all these needs and provides that elusive answer or solution! How We Answer? We have trained operators around the world who are on hand to take questions at any time of the day or night, no matter where in the world the question is coming from. Our target time is 10 minutes. Our operators are highly skilled and adept at research and fact-finding. If an operator undertakes a question and can't answer it within that time, they are given the opportunity to request extended time. If they run out of time or press 'can't answer', the question is returned to the queue where another researcher can pick it up. The researcher can allocate a tag to it - for example, if this question is based on knowledge of accountancy, an operator with more experience in this field will pick it up. The answers are held in an extensive online database, to which all our researchers have access, as well as using the World Wide Web for more practical answers, such as stock prices, exchange rates or weather reports. Wap Subscription Comprehensive complaint management facilities are provided through the Switchfire help desk tool. Our Partners are provided with first pass security measures, automated language filtration modules and flagging systems for unwanted messages - and full set-up, training and implementation services are available through Switchfire. Please contact us on Wap Chat Switchfire offers an established and proven person–to–person text chat platform, successfully utilised in several countries and by multiple operators. Switchfire’s text and WAP services are by far the most successful in the UK, with fifty million messages a year being processed, and rising every month. The company’s WAP solution is rich in functionality, as well as being simple and addictive for users. The system has multiple uses – examples being for chat, dating, flirting or as a scoring platform, whereby users (or the managing organisation) can place a photograph for users to vote on for a preset, but usually premium, rate. To register, users will be requested to send a text to a defined shortcode. A WAP PUSH will then be used to send them a URL address. This address will be sent with details of terms and conditions, and a 'tick box' to confirm acceptance. Once confirmed users will be sent a system password, which will give them the ability to create and edit their profile, and communicate with others on the site. The architecture of the site means it can be easily customised or white labelled to reflect branding and different user environments. The User Perspective Utilisation of the Switchfire system is based on three essential steps. First, each new user must register – for which they can upload a picture of themselves by MMS and forward a profile of themselves. Their personal details including free text descriptions of their interests and qualities they seek in chat or dating partners can be entered using their phones. They can then be are introduced to others with whom a fruitful conversation is likely to occur, being sent matches based on locality and personal characteristics, as defined by the users themselves. Finally, individuals are able to message other users anonymously, and interactively search for matches. We also filter undesirable profiles, images and language, and offer extensive information on how to maximise the benefit from the service. Wap Subscription - Timed Billing Timed options allow a Reverse Billing message to be sent at the end of a (defined) period: this could be daily, 24/36 hours or at the end of a week – for access to interactive content, it could be smaller denominations. An example of how this can aid marketing is by charging a set amount per day, and billing every few days, providing new content whilst the user continues to subscribe to the service. - Billing through Interactive content This option can be used when the accessed content is, for example, a game. An example could be Poker, where the player is billed each time a new game is downloaded. Switchfire offer Price Averaging whereby some messages may be free, meaning the average price of a message can be set at, as examples, 20p, 40p, 50p or 75p. This operates in exactly the same way in any local currency. The user Experience and Up –Selling Opportunities Once a user is in within the WAP environment, they can be presented with a host of options. These could include access to additional content at premium rates, games, or links to other sites. This variety, and a perception of high value, mean customer retention is strong, with users tending to explore multiple options that are presented to them as upsells. This offers an ideal opportunity for marketing additional content to an “opted – in” group who are already customers - and have proved their willingness to subscribe to, and pay for, content. Marketing Programmes Switchfire offer a wide range of affiliate and marketing partnership programmes for organisations wishing to define and market WAP, SMS Dating and Chat services. For further information, please contact us on Wap Subscription WAP Image Marketing A recognised leader in services for mobiles, Switchfire offer a versatile and proven WAP solution that has many applications. A pioneer of SMS Chat, Dating and image based services, Switchfire processes over fifty million messages annually. The company markets through successful partnerships into geographies including the USA, Australia and mainland Europe. Our WAP platform is highly flexible, offering multiple billing options and making content available to mobile users anywhere. Pictures to Mobile – how it works When an individual registers for a WAP service, they are sent a WAP push. This is an SMS message that incorporates a link to a WAP address within its header. Once received, the compatible mobile handset gives the user the option to access the WAP content. The WAP Push directs the end-user to an address where content is stored ready for viewing or downloading onto the ‘phone. Content of almost any type can be sourced, and managed/billed as required. Typically an individual will text a message to a defined short code for access, after which a link will be sent to their ‘phone. The content they wish to view is then made available to them. Billing A typical implementation of the subscription site invokes billing via premium reverse message, sometimes using a subscriber model. Commercial results from our service have been extremely strong. Billing criteria is flexible and configurable, and can be triggered by one of a number of actions including pre–set timing, access to content, or completion of a process such as a poker game. Users will receive billing messages - which debit funds from their telephone account - based upon the terms and conditions of the service to which they are subscribed. Options include: - Billing by Content Users can browse a page or number of pages, and will be billed based on the number of pages they have accessed. Within a service there may be multiple pages, which could be individually billable; or a defined link could offer access to a number of im Switchfire launches Chat and Date in the United States 15 May 2005: Switchfire has launched it’s successful chat and date services across the United States. Increasing its reach and number of subscribers around the globe. 12 March 2005: Switchfire announce the opening of their new office in Australia, aimed at strengthening the company’s profile in Australia and providing local resource for Switchfire marketing partners 13 December 2004: Switchfire today announced that they processed in excess of 1,500,000 premium SMS messages. This astonishing figure reflects steady month – on – month growth since the company was formed in 2002 11 October 2004: Switchfire announce a partnership with Consumer First of Sydney, Australia. Switchfire will be providing Consumer First with Dating and Chat services to compliment their existing IVR business 8 September 2004: Switchfire announce a partnership with Eckoh technology, IVR and media specialists. Switchfire will provide Eckoh and their customers with SMS and image capability and a range of complimentary services 8 August 2004: Switchfire announce their new picture dating service. This unique service allows users to send messages, view photos of potential dates and deliver images of themselves to other “chatters” via web input or MMS. 6 July 2004: Today Switchfire launched a new WAP service. This enables the delivery of any content to users of GPRS/WAP enabled handsets. Delivery can be on demand, or on a subscription basis. Switchfire will be offering this service to their resellers in addition to marketing under their own brands. Switchfire markets a range of mobile services, setting the standard for Dating, Chat, WAP and other Interactive products. Our platform is extremely flexible, enabling us to rapidly create new products, and significantly reducing time to market. In addition to marketing our products – both directly and through partners – in the UK, we are now represented in multiple additional geographies which include the USA, UK and mainland Europe. Within the UK we are connected to every network through all major aggregators. We have existing connections throughout Europe, the USA and Australia – and have the ability to rapidly establish a connection to any Network in the world. The architecture of the platform which forms the basis of all our premium SMS services lends itself to any language; likewise the matching capabilities of our Natural Language processor and Fuzzy Logic systems. We can therefore offer our premium services, localised to adhere to any local regulations, language and pricing. For more information please contact info@switchfire.com Switchfire proved to be the missing link in our plans to launch a PSMS based peer to peer dating service in Australia. The platform's Natural Language Processor (NLP) and fuzzy logic matching algorithms have enabled us to successfully bring to the Australian market a unique and intelligent SMS based dating service. With the recent incorporation of Switchfire, Australia we are looking forward to building this already successful partnership, and further developing our suite of product offerings in this market. George Lamb, Manager Sales & Marketing, Consumer First Pty Ltd. Switchfire are one of our key partners in providing mobile content. Their technology solutions, professionalism and service are of the highest calibre and their successful SMS and WAP integration has helped to grow our mobile content business. The Eckoh-Switchfire partnership has meant that we have enhanced our traditional IVR products to encompass SMS and WAP functionality bringing additional revenue streams for Eckoh and our customers Bridget Devlin Head of SMS Division Eckoh Technologues Switchfire is one of the UK’s primary providers of visual and data services, processing a million premium rate SMS messages each month. Formed in 2001 in London, UK, the company is also enjoying sustained growth in Mainland Europe, Australia and the USA. Switchfire has achieved this astonishing growth through provision of an expanding range of best of breed services, which include Peer to Peer Dating, Operator Chat and WAP - based image services. These are developed in-house, utilising a multi skilled research and development capability. Switchfire is predominantly a technology company – reflected in the wealth of features in our services - but the company’s products have evolved through an understanding of user needs. From a commercial perspective, the company markets its products through several channels; directly and through a wide variety of partnerships including technical and media organisations. To find out more about any of our services or programmes, please contact us on info@switchfire.com Switchfire operates and manages sophisticated Dating, Operator–based and WAP platforms, all hosted from our secure server centre in London. The services differ in their nature but all can be t ailored to meet changing regulatory and commercial needs, offering the ability to rapidly tailor (for example) billing criteria or frequency, systems messages and warnings. Dating Switchfire’s technology solutions have been developed from the user’s perspective rather than forcing the user to understand our technology. Within our Dating platform, these solutions involve two key pieces of technology A Natural Language Processor Written in Java, our Natural language Processor, is designed to 'read' inbound messages, extract the relevant data and input this data into the database that is used for finding matches for people looking for other people or information. Fuzzy Logic Matching Software This means the user is presented with the person or piece of information they are looking for quickly and efficiently and in the format they would like to view it. In personal terms, this means users can be matched with others with whom an extended dialogue is likely. For more information about Partner Programmes or any of these services, please email