READING, England, June 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Consolidated messaging platform powers Rich Messaging services with SMS and MMS interworking, IP service integration and up to 70% cost savings on traditional VAS deployments

Acision, the global leader in mobile messaging, today introduces Acision Fusion, a consolidated messaging platform which enables mobile operators to move away from fragmented, silo approaches to deploying Value Add Service (VAS) systems and replace these with a single, converged solution. For operators, this reduces the cost and complexity of their VAS infrastructure, while also enabling the rapid development and deployment of new, seamless IP services such as rich messaging and RCS, alongside SMS, MMS and voice messaging.  For the first time, Acision Fusion will enable MMS interworking, so RCS users can share pictures and videos to those not RCS enabled. This dramatically extends the reach for RCS consumers to use this enhanced messaging service capabilities. Acision Fusion also provides Common Business Logic across all messaging services for a range of functions including real-time charging, service triggering, message routing, volumetric message rate control, service access and monitoring.

In today's fast moving mobile landscape, nowhere are changes more evident than in the messaging space.  As the uptake of over-the-top (OTT) services proliferates and consumers increasingly want an enhanced communications experience, mobile operators now find themselves in a challenging position where they need to add new, innovative services to their portfolio to increase customer loyalty and extend their chances of capturing market share. Building out any services portfolio, can result in excessive levels of complexity across multiple vendors, duplicated resources and numerous integration points, which requires highly specialised staff and high costs.  With Acision Fusion, operators can augment their service offering across one platform to attract customers, while reducing operational complexity, cost, and optimising resources to achieve manageable profitability.

"The launch of Acision Fusion signals our continued commitment to help operators to quickly deliver compelling messaging solutions to their customers and to take advantage of the immense value that the platform delivers. By utilising data mining, analytics and intelligence, operators can ensure that their services and engagements can be tailored to fit consumer behaviour and requirements.  With a choice of deployment options, from cloud delivery without the need for an IMS core, to extending in-network delivery via the operator's own hardware, Acision Fusion provides  mobile operators with a consolidated platform that meets the challenges they face today while enabling them to increase revenues and reduce TCO." said JF Sullivan, EVP Product Management and CMO at Acision.  

Acision Fusion provides a converged solution to deliver innovative new services, alongside a full set of messaging services, including SMS, MMS, voice messaging and the GSMA's Rich Communication Suite (RCS) of services - such as instant messaging, group chat, file transfer and video sharing. In addition, its functionality provides SMS and MMS interworking, the latter being new to Fusion, to ensure maximum reach for the RCS file transfer feature. RCS users can always communicate with those without RCS, and services can integrate with other OTT services - enabling interaction with the global mobile community of over 6 billion SMS and MMS users from day one of service introduction.

Jorgen Nilsson, Chief Executive at Acision, said: "Market trends have shown that there is a high degree of fragmentation in the use of messaging services by consumers. According to Acision's own research^[1] earlier this year, over 77% of Smartphone users in the UK and 72% of those in the US are now utilising a combination of OTT, MMS and SMS to send and receive messages, with three quarters of UK consumers using multiple messaging services simultaneously each day. Researchers also forecast that global mobile messaging revenues could grow to $195.9 billion by 2016, with messaging traffic from these new services likely to double over the next three years. With this in mind, operators are in a unique situation to exploit their market position and tap into this growth.  This can be done by consolidating their messaging platforms, and launching a singular cross network, cross device, IP messaging experience for rich services which breaks the OTT service fragmentation barrier while increasing profitability."

Acision Fusion goes beyond RCS standards, providing truly seamless messaging through interconnect with the global SMS and MMS community, as well as social network chat services. Fusion extends the existing SMS user experience to RCS, monetising existing messaging assets such as premium SMS services and SMS content and applications.

Acision Fusion allows for consolidation of the following services:

• RCS: It provides the full set of Rich Communication Suite (RCS) services based on the CPM (Converged IP Messaging) architecture including full RCS5, SMS/MMS interworking, social networks integration, network presence, policies and a central message store for a multi-device / multi-screen strategy.
• SMS: Acision Fusion provides core network SMS functionality including: SMS routing, SMS home routing (message interception), SMS first delivery attempts, SMS store and forward, SMS spam and fraud protection, prepaid / postpaid billing support, connections from third party applications, MVNO support, flexible rules engine and SMS over IP (IP-SM Gateway).
• MMS: Fusion provides core network MMS functionality including MMS store and forward, MMS third party content push, MMS legacy & email, addressing support, MMS content transcoding, MM4 based RCS interworking, MMS with build-in WAP GW/HTTP proxy, MMS flexible rules engine, spam and fraud and personalised messaging integration, MMS interoperability & roaming awareness, MMS lawful intercept, prepaid / post-paid billing support, MVNO support.
• Voice Messaging Services: Acision Fusion can be used to replace a complex & cumbersome legacy voicemail platform with defined agile voice services including:
  Message Deposit & Retrieve: SIP call termination, voice message deposit & TUI access
  Message Notification: Notification (via SMS, email or MWI icon) including caller's number, date, time and message length.
  Visual Voicemail: Voice message capture and presentation via handset client application.
  Voice to Text: Standardised voice message capture and partner interaction for transcription and notification.
  Voice Push: Standardised voice message capture and push to subscriber via MMS or email.

Acision will be hosting a half day Rich Messaging Forum at 9.30am on Thursday 27^th June, during the GSMA's Mobile Asia Expo 2013 in Shanghai. Based on Acision's recent research, the session will discuss current messaging behaviours and expectations of consumers in the new over-the-top (OTT), IP messaging world, while also showcasing the path to providing a new, enriched end-to-end messaging experience across any network, domain, technology and device. This Forum is free to attend and open to all exhibition visitors. For more information and to register your interest, please click here.

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1. Conducted by Vanson Bourne in January and April 2013, the research is Acision's comprehensive study on the UK and US mobile messaging landscape. It is based on interviews with 1000 Smartphone devices in the UK and US respectively.

About Acision

As the global leader in mobile messaging, Acision connects the world by powering relevant, seamless messaging services, which enrich the mobile communications experience and create new opportunities for carriers and enterprises across the world.  For more information, visit Acision at http://www.acision.com

SOURCE Acision