40 Million Dollar Company, Paying Dividends, Growing Steadily: 3CInteractive CEO John Duffy (Part 4)

Sramana: Why did you move from a processes-oriented business to a company that developed technologies when there were already other larger companies building communication technologies in the same space?

John Duffy: One of the things we were concerned about when we first got into this business was that the technology would change very quickly. I remember in the late 1980s and the 1990s when there were a lot of different protocols, many of which had capital investments behind them. Then Internet protocol came along and wiped out all of the other protocols.

I was afraid that if we focused too much on technologies like MMS and WAP, we could be rendered obsolete. Our focus has always been on client solutions and their requirements rather than the actual mobile industry technologies. Our technology manages webpage views and text messages and solves the challenges that our customers bring to us.

Sramana: In essence, you focus on helping brands manage and maintain their mobile presence?

John Duffy: Our customer base includes AT&T, Best Buy, Walgreens, Disney, Toyota, and major brands like that. We connect their existing data infrastructure to the mobile network. When you drop off a prescription at Walgreens, they opt you into their mobile program and they can then tell you when your prescription is ready to be picked up via text. They also use that communication channel for other things which are proprietary.

Sramana: What piece of that puzzle do you solve?

John Duffy: We connect their existing enterprise networks, such as Walgreens pharmaceutical network, to our platform. That connection gives them access to the mobile network and allows them to communicate with consumers on mobile devices.

If you think about connecting to the Internet, then you can think about the seamless standards that exist in the space such as TCP/IP. Once you connect to the network, you can do whatever you want. You can send as much data as you would like, and both sides understand what the formats are. Neither side has anyone in the middle controlling what is sent or received. It is a utility.

Mobile communication networks are closed. They are very different. Each carrier has spent billions of dollars building their network and billions of dollars acquiring their customers. They are very specific about what you are allowed to do with their consumers. You cannot send them anything you want, any time you want. There are significant differences in business standards and content standards as well as connectivity standards. To manage an effective mobile program today, you need to work on every carrier and on every device. Our clients hire us to provide that layer of standardization.

Sramana: If I authorize Walgreens to send me a text message, why does the carrier have any say in that matter?

John Duffy: The carrier has required Walgreens in advance to specify the type of communications that you will receive. If Walgreens deviates from that specification, they can lose their access to the mobile networks. The carriers monitor business connections in real time continuously in order to protect their customers and their mobile networks.

This segment is part 4 in the series : 40 Million Dollar Company, Paying Dividends, Growing Steadily: 3CInteractive CEO John Duffy
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