Vishwak’s Mobile Portal Solution for MSN Hutch GPRS

MSN India, the Indian division of msn.com, is one of the leading information and entertainment portals in India with over one million regular visitors. MSN India has been constantly upgrading its content delivery channels. The strategy focus was to incorporate mobile devices in their content delivery channel mix. MSN India assigned the project to Vishwak Solutions Pvt.Ltd. Vishwak developed a solution using the Microsoft .NET Framework that ensured content delivery across devices with different properties.

MSN India has been constantly upgrading its content delivery channels. The strategy focus was to incorporate mobile devices in their content delivery channel mix.

Different cellular devices have different configurations. The challenge before MSN India was to ensure high-quality and clear content presentation that provided a rich mobile experience to the consumers. So images, logos, special characters, audio and video had to be displayed effectively without sacrificing on quality, size, color, or download time across different cellular devices. They also wanted to have a provision for users to pay for premium content such as games, polyphonic ringtones etc with pre-payment and post-payment options.

Effective delivery of content could only be assured upon identification of the type of cellular device and the mark-up language used by the device.

The mobile site had to be built and web pages had to be coherently integrated. Frequent content updations, new content additions and publishing had to be done.

MSN India assigned the project to Vishwak Solutions Pvt.Ltd., and entered into a mobile platform partnership with Hutchison Telecom, one of India’s leading cellular service operators.

Vishwak rendered mobile web content to the wide range of subscribers of Hutchison Telecom. Content was provided to Vishwak, who, had to convert the live content to mobile web pages and publish them.

The first step was to address the resolution of content across devices. After analyzing cellular phone models and the associated properties, Vishwak developed a solution using Microsoft .NET technologies that ensured standard content delivery across devices with different properties.

A secure payment gateway for premium content was implemented as well.

MSN India provides users with an all-round content experience, thus expanding the MSN brand incidence. Through .NET, MSN India ensures support for special characters, images, audio, and video without any rendering delays, and with optimal quality.

“The avalanche of new models entering the Indian market made it almost impossible to deliver content appropriate to each user,” says T.N.C Venkata Rangan, CMD, Vishwak Solutions Pvt.Ltd. “Thanks to Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit and its write-once application that generates device-specific content, a potentially explosive situation was made easy.”

“It was with the help of Microsoft .NET and Mobile Forms technology that we managed to render the contents in multiple mobile devices in a seamless fashion,” says Lakshmikant Natrajan, GM, Value added Services, Hutchison Telecom. “Only because of this we managed to be the first to market GPRS portals in India, which was a pioneering concept in the country.”

The project was completed on time and all functionalities that seemed ambitious are now out there in the virtual world.

“The avalanche of new models entering the Indian market made it almost impossible to deliver content appropriate to each user. Thanks to Microsoft Mobile Internet Toolkit and its write-once application that generates device-specific content, a potentially explosive situation was made easy.” T.N.C Venkata Rangan, CMD, Vishwak Solutions Pvt.Ltd.

http://www.msn.co.in/
Customer Size : 250 employees

MSN India, the Indian division of msn.com, is one of the leading information and entertainment portals in India, with over one million regular visitors and subscribers to services like Hotmail and MSN Messenger. MSN India is a pioneer in delivery of Internet content for an ultimate online experience for both consumers and advertisers. The portal uses Microsoft technologies and strong content partnerships with other portals with an aim to bring people from around the globe together.

MSN India has been constantly upgrading its content delivery channels. The strategy focus was to incorporate mobile devices in the content delivery channel mix. MSN India assigned the project to Vishwak Solutions Pvt.Ltd.

Vishwak developed a solution using the Microsoft .NET Framework that ensured content delivery across devices with different properties.

Partner(s)
Hutchison Telecom East (Hutch)
Vishwak Solutions Pvt.Ltd.

Software and Services
Microsoft .NET Framework
Microsoft Application Center 2000
Microsoft ASP.NET
Microsoft SQL Server 2000
Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003
Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

Country/Region
India