Analytics drive new mobile wallet

Accenture launched a new mobile wallet platform that features integrated advanced analytics and big data capabilities, recommendation tools, and security elements.

The Accenture Mobile Wallet platform allows end-users to manage and operate all their cards, including credit, debit, transport, loyalty, and gift cards. It also manages all proximity transactions and payments, which can be made through near field communications technology or QR codes, with the relevant enabled cards presented at compatible points of sales. In addition, the Accenture Mobile Wallet allows users to send money to other users or future users, reducing the need for any other tools in financial transactions.

“This platform will help our clients—be they banks, mobile operators, merchants, or a partnership of them all—to understand which offers to extend to which consumers and when,” says Jin Lee, global managing director, Accenture Mobility.  “The platform then provides the functionality with which to pay for those offers, while gathering data to continue the learning and relationship-building process with that individual.”

Building on an existing solution, the new platform includes the Accenture Recommendation Engine, a big data solution delivered via the cloud or on-premise that offers personalized recommendations to customers in real time. With an extensive library of machine-learning algorithms, the engine enables businesses to filter recommendations based on predefined business and merchandising rules. This will automatically suggest which offer should be presented to customers, based on advanced analytics performed on buyer identification data at the point of interaction, such as when they enter a geo-fenced store’s perimeter.

Using Bluetooth Low-Energy Beacons, merchants will be able to define keywords attached to zones in-store, contact the Accenture Mobile Wallet, and find out the preferred offers related to that zone. The Accenture Recommendation Engine then tailors that offer according to existing user data and their registered preferences for its use, to deliver the most relevant offer directly to the consumer’s device.

In addition to availability on all major mobile OS’s, other significant features of the platform include:

• Trusted Service Manager—This allows banks or other service providers to securely send and personalize smartcard applications. A newly requested debit card can be installed with all relevant details saved in the secure zone of a device, ready for use in minutes. This tool also allows for remote removal, blocking and other status actions related to cards stored, in order to protect the user in cases of lost or stolen devices.
• Push Payment Functionality—Reversing the status quo, this puts the power of payment with the consumer, building confidence in digital payments as they no longer need to share account data with merchants. Instead, users can ‘check out’ by ‘pushing’ the money to the merchant before goods are released, as opposed to the ‘pull’ payments typically in use. This will also help remove the risk to merchants of chargebacks or lack of funds, as the user must make the money available.
• Accenture Customer Insight integration—This enables insights and analytics of the wallet users, including custom segmentations based on campaign behaviors and offer preferences for targeting.