First exclusive podcast available from January 11th; Hong Kong mobile operator CSL discusses mobile strategy

Cologne, GERMANY – January 11, 2011 - MSearchGroove, the leading source of analysis and commentary on all things mobile, today joins with Amdocs Interactive to showcase a series of Thought Leadership articles and interviews focused on personalization and content discovery for the mobile Internet. Amdocs Interactive is part of the Amdocs CES (customer experience systems) portfolio and offers service providers a complete portal, storefront, commerce, search and advertising platform. 

The combination of Amdocs Interactive's expertise and the media profile enjoyed by MSearchGroove will ensure that this Thought Leadership series becomes an essential read for mobile professionals, practitioners, and the mobile industry at large.

The series will feature commentary and insights about the business value of personalization and context from mobile industry executives and influencers. 

The first podcast, available from today (January 11), features Han Kotterman, Chief Strategy Officer at CSL, the leading mobile operator in Hong Kong with 2.6 million subscribers. The audio interview focuses on the mobile operator's portal strategy and the competitive advantage that can be won by harnessing personalization. 

In the case of CSL, personalization solutions provided by Amdocs Interactive allow the operator to present users with content choices and suggestions based on their preferences and past browsing patterns. According to Kotterman, the ability to personalize the portal – and thus the user's mobile Internet experience – combined with the capability to deliver data services over a high-speed LTE network has led to a "50- fold increase" in the use of mobile data.

"Personalization is extremely important," Kotterman notes. "It creates stickiness, which is what operators need to win in a market that is mature and where growth comes from additional services and products tailored to the customer, and not necessarily from more new customers."

MSearchGroove is also deepening its partnership with Amdocs Interactive to create and curate news, insights and research related to personalization. This information will be available from Amdocs Interactive via a branded microsite on MSearchGroove, known as the Briefing Room. 

These destinations, accessible via the MSearchGroove homepage and mobile website, promote ideas and insights from MSearchGroove partner companies. Topics range from permission-based mobile marketing to mobile retail and shopping. MSearchGroove will announce additional partners in the next weeks. 

"Our customers come to us for guidance on where the market is headed," explains Matt Anderson, Head of Product Marketing, Amdocs Interactive. "They look to us for strategic advice and our ability to meet this requirement by delivering meaningful and useful Thought Leadership earns Amdocs Interactive the trust of our customers. Collaborating with MSearchGroove allows us to achieve our B2B marketing objectives and reach our target audience."

"People want what they want. They have come to expect – even demand – content and services in tune with their lifestyles and life stages. On mobile – the fiercely personal device we take with us everywhere – the requirement for relevancy is even greater, which is why personalization is poised to become a mobile megatrend," Salz observes. 

Together with Amdocs Interactive Salz will take the lead in the creation and production of strategic Thought Leadership content to amplify the increasing importance of personalization and help service providers understand the requirement for useful and relevant content, services and advertising messages. 

In addition to exclusive podcasts with mobile operators, the Thought Leadership series will feature in-depth case studies and interviews with mobile authorities and influencers including Prof. Barry Smyth, the Digital Chair of Computer Science in the of Computer Science and Informatics at University College Dublin. Smyth, an expert in artificial intelligence, personalization and recommender systems, is also the founder of a new social search company, HeyStaks, which recently secured GBP1 million in venture capital funding.