Movial, founded in 2001, focuses on developing IMS client software for PCs, mobiles, set-top-boxes, and other connected devices. The company’s specialty is its laser focus on the end-user experience. Based in Finland, the company has about 130 employees.

Jari Ala-Ruona, CEO of Movial, says the company operates within several business areas, with the two most notable being delivering rich, intuitive IP-communications software and helping handset manufacturers develop IP-based services. 

Ala-Ruona says: “We specialize in the end-user experience and in helping operators make money by building user-friendly solutions for any IP communications services they want to provide to their subscribers.

In 2005, Movial partnered with Ericsson to deliver IMS-based client software for end-user devices. “We saw that Ericsson was more committed to IMS than any other large telecom vendor,” Ala-Ruona says. 

A recent example of a successful joint IMS project for the two companies has been a deployment with mobile operator Optimus in Portugal. At the beginning of 2008, Optimus launched an IP communication service offering mobile communication on a PC, based on an IMS platform, in part provided by Ericsson, and the Movial Communicator PC client. The service allows consumers to use the same phone number on the PC and on the mobile device, and includes VoIP, SMS, MMS, e-mail, presence, instant messaging, video telephony, voice and video-mail, and a network address book. All communication is charged directly from the mobile pre-paid account of the user.

“This offering differentiates Optimus from all other operators, as well as from Skype and similar service providers and has been extremely successful,” Ala-Ruona says. “The PC usage has been beyond all expectations and the SMS and voice call volume generated is significantly higher than anticipated.” 

Rolf Carlsson, head of operations, Ericsson Developer Program, says: “Movial is an important partner in Ericsson’s IMS developer program. The company really helped to improve the end-user experience for terminal-PC interactions based on IMS.” 

Movial decided at an early stage to go for IMS. “We liked the flexibility and scalability of the technology,” Ala-Ruona says. “We wanted to address the telecom operator market, rather than the emerging voice over IP (VoIP) segment, and believed operators also would embrace IMS.”

As a message to the developer community, Ala-Ruona says he sometimes finds the IMS business too technology-centric. “Developers need to turn their focus to the end-user experience and find services that will deliver return on investment for operators,” he says.

By Benny Ritzén

Movial website
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