Innovation Case Study: Becloud e-commerce by Belgacom. Copyright Ovum. All rights reserved. Ovum is a subsidiary of Informa plc.

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1 Innovation Case Study: Becloud e-commerce by Belgacom 1 Copyright Ovum. All rights reserved. Ovum is a subsidiary of Informa plc.

2 Innovation In March 2013, Belgacom launched its "Becloud e- Commerce", a new product developed for SMEs and selfemployed customers who want to offer products or services online but do not have the specific IT skills or a huge budget. Becloud e-commerce is a cloud application that enables SMEs to build their own customised website/e-shop without much effort and technical knowledge. It also integrates functions such as order, delivery and payments. Becloud e-commerce is available from 20 per month which is suitable for managing appointments and reservations. A basic e-shop is available from 30 per month. However, for more flexible and customizable e- shop SMEs need to pay somewhat higher rates (depending on the package they choose). SMEs can also use payment and product delivery solutions from Becloud e-commerce partners at advantageous rates (For payment option- 15/month + transaction fees). Service Provider Success Matrix Becloud was awarded as the Best Cloud Vendor in Belgium in 2014 Channel Awards (regarded as the 'Oscars' for the distribution of ICT products in Belgium). 2

3 Differentiation An array of secured electronic payment options (Credit card, Bancontact, Paypal etc). Integrated delivery option throughout the region. Ability to build online shop with multiple languages. Optimised for use on smartphone or tablet. Tools to increase presence on web search results and social media such as Facebook and Twitter. 30 day free trial without commitment. Value Generation In 2013, online sales in Belgium grew by 25.66% to reach EUR 1.91 billion. Furthermore, 89% of Belgians prefer to buy online. So from SMEs perspective, there is a huge potential market in the e-commerce space. The value generation for Becloud e-commerce lies in facilitating the SMEs to enter in to the online business. It does this by enabling them to create an innovative and customised multi-language online shop, and to manage product portfolio, order processing and physical delivery. 3

4 Innovation: Uniqueness and Significance The service provides businesses with a cloud-based platform on which they can offer new products and/or services swiftly, while reducing operational cost and without requiring a specific technical skill set. Uniqueness Moderate mass market significance as this is an effort by Belgacom to position itself appropriately to tap into SME opportunities in its market. Significance 4

5 Technical Overview Becloud is Belgacom s cloud platform, which supports a range of managed services such as hosting, housing and backup, web hosting, collaboration and application hosting. The Becloud e-commerce application is built upon this cloud platform. The range of e-commerce products enables the SMEs or self-employed customers to create fully-fledged online shops. Becloud e-reservation is aimed at companies that work with appointments or offer products or services that can be ordered. Becloud e-shop is aimed at companies that want to sell their products online and have them delivered to customers. The products contain a payment module option which allows Internet customers to pay for their purchases online via a wide choice of payment methods (credit card, Bancontact, Paypal, etc.). In addition, a delivery module based on the GLS parcel business in Belgium makes it possible for the purchases to be delivered. The customer can also personalize his website and make it more visible via newsletters, promotion tools, links to social media, and functions for stock management, delivery and billing. It also use Search engine optimization (SEO) to place the website higher in the search results of online search engines. 5

6 Service Provider Belgacom Group, a state owned incumbent, is the leading provider of telecommunications services in Belgium. Belgacom Group offerings include fixed line communication through the Belgacom brand, mobile communications through the Proximus brand and ICT services to the professional market under the Telindus brand. Partners Becloud e-commerce is powered by epages technology. epages provides a platform for online shops and more than 80,000 merchants across 70 countries are running professional websites based on epages products. Belgacom also partnered with Docdata to take care of the online payments and GLS to take care of the shipments. Docdata is a leading European provider of transaction-oriented Internet services. GLS is one of the leading parcel service providers in Belgium. GLS with its own national companies and partners covers 37 European countries and is connected to all the major business centres of the world Further information 6

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