With an impeccable track record, MobiMind has built one of the industry’s most fascinating success stories. Naji Bou Harb, CEO of MobiMind had an exclusive discourse with Telecom Review regarding the company’s expansion plans for continuous business and revenue growth, contribution to telcos’ success stories, and above all, the motivation behind their participation in MWC 2022.
As the top revenue-generating master aggregator across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region in mobile value-added services (VAS) and direct carrier billing (DCB), MobiMind offers bespoke solutions to over 35 leading regional telecom operators and 500 partners worldwide.
Aiming for transparency, innovation, and consistency, the power of MobiMind is in its diversity of solutions. These include strategic account management, automated processes, consent gateway, anti-fraud, and dynamic web portal builder, among other features, which ensure that its service delivery platform (SDP) is scalable, fully compliant, and fully secure across all areas.
How was the full-year performance of MobiMind in 2021 and how would this impact the company’s journey for 2022?
We had an excellent performance in 2021 and I’m proud of what we’re continuously achieving. Not only have our financial results exceeded our forecasts, but our expectations as well, which reflects our business’s growth through the years. The impact for 2022 is very positive as it will give us the capability and the flexibility to think bigger and bolder, and move ahead to meet new challenges as we have always done since 2011.
MobiMind offers a wide range of solutions, what improvements do you plan to make that would result in promising business and revenue growth?
Improvement is a continuous process which spans over four elements: personnel, relationships, solutions and platforms, and finally research and development (R&D).
On the personnel level, we always make sure that our team has the required expertise and excellent communication skills in order to meet the expectations of both the operators and our partners. In line with this, our management and the rest of the team are in continuous contact with both parties to boost the relationship level. These involve C-level executives as well as anyone involved in operations. Thus ensuring cutting-edge and state-of-the-art solutions for the operators, and a smooth operation for the partners.
In order to respond to the ever-evolving technology and the ensuing business needs, our solutions and platforms are constantly being upgraded. Since we started, one of our priorities has always been and still remains to keep enhancing our offerings to meet the challenging requirements of being a Master Aggregator for an operator. Furthermore, we do not rely on third-party platforms, and this is an extremely important insight and gap that we found and decided to act upon and fill. Other master aggregators just manage the solution for the operator while their platform is either from the operator’s side or outsourced. This is a limitation because when you need immediate modifications on the platform, you still have to request it from the vendor, resulting in delays, loss of precious time and possible, unaccounted for additional costs. This is why, in our operation, we use our own in-house engineered tools. Therefore, our internal processes are more flexible and agile, and most importantly, they empower us to have full control at any time, as we know very well that we are able to execute based on the set priorities.
A company without R&D is like a body without a brain. Thus, we consider it as the compass of the company that puts us always ahead in the business and the industry. In reality, we carry out the role of an aggregator but it doesn’t stop there. The operator’s expectations include our ability to come up with new ideas based on the previous history and experience we have with them. Hence, R&D follows the business direction set by the senior management and passes it on with the right vision, methodology and resources to the development team to execute it.
Tell us about your participation in MWC 2022 this year. What are you showcasing and the motivation behind this?
We’ve attended MWC since 2011. However, this is our fourth participation with a booth since 2018. Year after year, the event gives us the needed expertise by getting to know more precisely what we need to present. This year, we’ll be focusing more on our core business which is the Master Aggregation.
At MWC 2022, we have two key objectives in mind: An increased awareness and exposure to bolster our partnerships and enhance our relationship with our existing partners, in addition to have the chance to share and discuss future plans.
We are already well-known in the Middle East region, nonetheless, a lot of effort is yet to be deployed to be considered by other operators for a master aggregation. We aim to target new operators and increase our partnerships, both regionally and internationally, as we always look for new partnerships in many verticals for further diversification. Hence we make sure each year to inform our partners about our continuous involvement and active participation in MWC.
On the other hand, we strongly believe that MWC, as one of the most important telecommunications events worldwide, is the right place to be present and meet our existing partners in person. Meeting virtually via Zoom or other applications is still incomparable to physical, face-to-face interactions, based on my experience throughout the years. As we work with them, not only in one but across multiple operations, it becomes extremely important to meet and discuss potential new opportunities while cementing our ongoing partnership and cooperation.
How would MobiMind continue to contribute to the success story of telcos in the current digital era?
As a Master Aggregator, we fully understand the ongoing challenges, increased capabilities, diversified plans, and vision that an operator has. More so, we contribute using our value-added services (VAS), flexibility, and extended expertise on all levels.
MobiMind is, so far, size-wise, within the small-and-medium-sized enterprise (SME) category. We are 40+ strong and counting. Any operator, even the newest in the market, has about thousands of employees which translates into a heavy process of approvals for both modifications or new business ideas alike. In our case, the flexibility of the structure that we have in place is an advantage and a solid proof of our agility and know-how whenever decisions need to be taken and actions implemented dynamically and at a very fast yet sure pace.
In a nutshell, we help operators in a better and manageable way on various levels: increasing revenue targets, enhancing existing business, bringing new business, analyzing and planning together, managing the whole process, and applying telco regulations and cybersecurity measures.
We should bear in mind that enhancing the existing business can translate into an additional income revenue opportunity. This is one of the added values that an operator expects from an aggregator. More importantly, we analyze the data, which is critical not only in the telecom industry but in every industry. Subsequently, we are able to plan ahead on what to do next. On top of that, when we manage the whole process, we give the operator a free hand from the day-to-day operations, allowing them to see the bigger picture and take the right decisions based on data analytics, the market’s dynamics and the information we have provided them with.
Another challenging aspect nowadays is complying with the regulations set by telecom regulatory authorities (TRA), which includes imposing cybersecurity measures on all telecom players — operators, service providers, content providers, etc... We make sure to fully abide by these on behalf of them, given our expertise, to prevent any penalties or damaging conditions.
How do you plan to expand and upgrade MobiMind’s global network coverage?
At MobiMind, we are very proud of our impeccable track-record and the success story we have built hand in hand with our partners across the past years. Looking forward, we’ve set ourselves new targets — businesses, operators, territories, and opportunities. The sky is our limit as we are always ready to conquer challenges. And we are proudly focused to win.
After Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the rest of the Middle East, one of our plans is Africa, wherein we hope to share some good news during MWC. On the long term, we aim to become a globally-recognized international aggregator. This requires persevering with the same solid vision, unflinching will, uncompromising determination, and the right mix of top-notch resources and skills, as we continue to leverage the countless achievements we are so proud of across our journey so far in the Middle East and Africa.
