Motive eyes wireless market

AUSTIN, Texas--Motive is bringing its automated customer service and troubleshooting capabilities to the wireless industry.

In addition to helping broadband service providers navigate the more complex world of networked broadband homes, the Austin-based software provider is developing network and client software that enables wireless service providers to more quickly and easily diagnose customer problems with smart phones and other complex handsets.

Like other service providers, wireless companies are increasingly aware of the high-cost of customer support, and as more customers buy fancier phones that do more things, they need more help. Service providers can’t afford to see support costs rise faster than average revenue per user.

“For wireless service providers, the call volumes and requests for help are doubling every month,” said Ben Geller, senior manager of industry marketing at Motive. “They’ve had to add head count to their call centers to handle the volume.”

What Motive is developing is a live agent that sits in a smart phone, gathering information and diagnostics that can be automatically sent to a call service representative when a problem arises. Motive will also provide tools at the help desk level to enable CSRs to automatically correct problems that can be fixed remotely.

“We are in the early stages of the go-to-market process,” Geller said in an interview at Motivation 2005, Motive’s customer conference, being held here this week. “We could have proofs of concept by the end of this year or the beginning of next.”