Stake
THE GSMA (world association of cell phone operators and manufacturers) asked Sofrecom to aggregate the lessons learned from recent interoperability initiatives launched in several markets.
The project had 4 primary objectives:
- Map out the existing interoperability initiatives,
- Categorize the models based on their technical infrastructure, governance and business models,
- Create a rubric to evaluate the performance of the different models based on different criteria,
- Provide recommendations on the choice of a model, as well as a set of best practices for successful deployment.
Methodology
A 3-step methodology:
- Secondary research was conducted using data from public reports, databases and press articles to provide a preliminary map of interoperability initiatives.
- Extensive research was carried out across a selection of 6 countries.
- Interviews with more than 30 key informants from the mobile money and interoperability ecosystem were conducted in the 6 short-listed countries.
Results
In summary, our client obtained two reports thanks to this project:
- An initial report lays out the origins of different interoperability models, draws conclusions in terms of best practices for the deployment of interoperability and offers some opinions on the trends that are likely to be observed in the coming years.
- A second report categorizes the interoperability models based on their governance, technical solutions and business models, and analyses the appropriateness of each model depending on the different objectives of the stakeholders.
These reports have enabled:
- The GSMA to identify challenges for mobile money providers committed to interoperability projects and to formalize recommendations for the industry.
- The mobile money providers and central banks to collect a set of best practices for designing an interoperability model and to understand the implications of each model.
Sofrecom has been able to develop a method for evaluating interoperability models.
