Aligned with this, sports is fundamental to PM Connect, with the NBA, WWE and Opta Sports all brand stakeholders we have long-term partnerships with. This underpins the company’s strategy for growth, with the Sports OTT sector itself set to be worth $85 billion in 2024 as highlighted in our white paper on the subject. 

Alongside this, ‘Digital Games’ is considered an even bigger slice of the sector pie by Juniper – with 34% of the total spend, equaling $41.5 billion. This is another sector PM Connect is actively involved in, with our Cloudy Gaming product boasting AAA titles including Fortnite, eFootball PES and PUBG: Battlegrounds.

“Juniper Research’s report not only instills further confidence in mobile payments but places PM Connect at the heart of our industry’s growth story. 

“DCB is maturing into a mainstream payment solution for entertainment, and the fact that our two leading sub-sectors equate to 59% of the forecasted $122 billion is clear evidence that our company strategy is the right one. 

“At PM Connect, we are committed to digital transformation for the digital generation, giving access to premium content to the sports fans of tomorrow via the mobile ecosystem. 

“The future is extremely exciting and we’re just getting started.”

Kevin Dawson – Group CEO

The post Mobile payments spend to hit $122 billion by 2027 appeared first on PM Connect.

Part of this equation is building connections. I strongly believe that informal, non-hierarchical connections go deeper and faster than those shackled by convention.

One effective strategy to foster connections, a boundary-breaking mentality and encourage continuous learning amongst the team is implementing 20% time. This approach enables team members to think outside the box and feel free from traditional constraints and structures – which in turn cultivates a growth mindset.

I initiated this approach in February, and we’re starting to reap the rewards already. But before I discuss these, put simply, what is 20% time?

20% time is where one in five days of an employee’s week is devoted to solving problems that the employee thinks will benefit the company most, rather than the tasks given to them by their bosses in the traditional sense.

Let me break down the benefits into component parts:

Empowering Learning and Personal Growth

By embracing 20% time, businesses cultivate a culture that values continuous learning and empowers employees to tackle problems using their own initiative, therefore becoming independent thinkers and lifelong learners – leading to organic personal development.

Unleashing creativity

20% time allows team members to tap into their creative potential by breaking away from conventional thinking. Consistently exercising this creative muscle pays dividends in the long run, with the payback being a creative team for all 5 days of the week. Providing the freedom to explore, experiment, and take risks leads to groundbreaking ideas and solutions. Sometimes taking risks can be a challenge due to the internal and external rules and pressures we face in a commercial environment. You have to overcome this for a team to thrive.

Encouraging collaboration and cross-pollination

Collaboration in business fuels growth as it allows individuals to learn from one another and expand their perspectives – creating an environment that thrives on collective intelligence. 20% time fosters collaboration, beyond normal operational structures, by providing opportunities for my team to work across departments and share their knowledge and insights.

Nurturing intrapreneurship

This time nurtures intrapreneurship by fostering a growth mindset among employees. A culture of experimentation and embracing failure as a learning opportunity is essential for intrapreneurship. These initiatives enable employees to take ownership of their projects, think like entrepreneurs, and contribute innovative ideas that drive the business forward.

Gaining a Competitive Edge

Organisations that continuously adapt are better equipped to navigate change and seize opportunities. By embracing 20% time, businesses position themselves as pioneers in their sector, attracting top talent and staying ahead of the competition.

Conclusion

20% time has been instrumental in fostering the culture I set out to when I joined PM Connect; one where learning, development and innovation is at the heart of how we work and most importantly self-sustained beyond me. 

However, what have I learned? That we haven’t gone fast or far enough. We still have more to do to unlock our team members’ potential, drive change and nurture the feedback loop. 

It is working, we are getting new ideas and innovative practices – but there are still barriers and people being shy. The reality is that we are still all learning how to make this work, including me! 

We’ve come a long way. I’m sure we will go so much further. Whatever happens, I know it will be fun and I know the learning will never stop

Sanjay Mistry – Group CTO

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Understand the power of mobile.

• Download our white paper Sports OTT: The Big Mobile Opportunity, launched in partnership with SportsPro.
• We explain how mobile operator distribution and payments can revolutionise access to new fans and drive D2C revenue.
• Netflix, Spotify and Deezer have been doing it for many years and sports is the next market that should capitalise on its potential.
• This is demonstrated in our pioneering partnership with the NBA League Pass.

Turbo charge your OTT offering

“We like to stay ahead of the curve at PM Connect – connecting global brands to new audiences through mobile operator partnerships. This model offers a huge opportunity for sports rights holders, as mobile operator distribution and payments are ideally suited to maximise return on the rise of OTT and D2C.

 

“That’s why we’ve put together this white paper to help inspire those who may not be too familiar with how the mobile operator ecosystem works, and how it can turbo charge your OTT offering. Download it here, and get in touch to learn more.”

 

Christopher Purdie, Chief Commercial Officer

The post Landmark white paper launched with SportsPro appeared first on PM Connect.

Big win at Global Carrier Billing Summit Awards

The results are in – we won Best Merchant at the 2020 Global Carrier Billing Summit Awards for the second year running, as voted for by the carrier community!

This coveted award signifies recognition from clients, partners and industry peers alike that PM Connect is building strongly towards our mission to connect global brands to new audiences via carrier partnerships.

“I’m beyond proud that PM Connect has won Best Merchant at the Global Carrier Billing Summit Awards for the second consecutive year. This award is down to the hard work of all our team, and the industry-leading brand and carrier partners we have the pleasure of doing business with. As PM Connect continues to grow, I’m excited for what the future holds.”

 

James MacFarlane, CEO at PM Connect

Movers and shakers: from Johannesburg to Paris

Also, this month we have some exciting internal news as we have further bolstered our commercial team to support our next phase of global growth.

Christopher Purdie has been promoted to Chief Commercial Officer. Chris has presided over a period of phenomenal expansion for PM Connect, within which he grew our reach to over 680M consumers worldwide and to over 10 million payments processed per month.

Joining him are three key strategic Vice President hires, each with different territories under their wing to solidify our ambitious plans.

Senior Vice President, Roger Davies, has come into the fold on a permanent basis to look after the North American, European and Asian markets. Deon Pinetown also joins us from Johannesburg in his role as Vice President for Africa, strengthening the company’s foothold in the African markets and beyond. Finally, Sébastien Givry is leading on our work in France, Belgium and francophone Africa from our newly-opened office in Paris.

“I am thrilled to welcome three strategic new hires into the fold at PM Connect. Deon, Sebastien and Roger are set to play a crucial role in helping us seize the mobile opportunity and solidify our place in the DCB ecosystem. Each brings with him a formidable network and unrivalled expertise, and I am looking forward to continuing to lead the team from strength-to-strength.”

 

Christopher Purdie, Chief Commercial Officer at PM Connect

Tech week talks from our CCO and CTO

This month also saw us take part in two sessions at local tech event Birmingham Tech Week as it went virtual in this year’s celebration of the region’s tech and digital prowess.

Chief Commercial Officer, Chris Purdie spoke on a panel discussing the path to customer success, whilst our Chief Technology Officer Andrew Robins sat on a discussion about how local tech companies can make the leap from start-up to scale-up.

While we missed rubbing shoulders with the local scene, we were thrilled to take part in this year’s virtual events and look forward to seeing everyone next year!

That’s it for this month. Make sure you follow us on LinkedIn to keep up with the team as we continue on our mission to make in-demand content accessible for all.

The post October a month to celebrate at PM Connect appeared first on PM Connect.

Our CTO Andrew Robins reveals 10 of his top books about tech. From design principles that can apply to door handles as well as code, to dispelling DevOps myths. We’ll hand over to him:

I am an avid reader, that’s for sure. So rather than focusing on any one particular subject, I have chosen 10 of my favourite books, and tried to cover a broad range of areas of tech (history, industry, development, management and design).

In no particular order, they are…

1. The Design of Everyday Things — Don Norman (1988)

This is an excellent book, with great significance to software development whilst not actually being about it.

It’s a book about designing things, whatever those things might be — if your job in any way involves making things which other people interact with, whether digital or analogue, you will learn something from this book. You will learn about how to think about design.

The objects studied might be as banal as door handles, kettles or (desk) phones, but the points about user centred design are as valid today as they were 32 years ago.

2. Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software — Charles Petzold (2000)

If you know nothing about computing, you will love this book as it follows the historical ‘journey’ of code from morse through to http, explaining how we got to where we are today.

Along the way, Petzold stops off at numerous important points in history, covering topics such as braille, telegraphs, Boolean logic, electric circuits, peripherals, barcodes and GUIs, explaining them all with brilliant clarity.

This is a great example of a writer doing an excellent job of explaining the evolution of technology in an enjoyable, highly readable way that will entertain both those with and without domain knowledge.

3. The Mythical Man Month and Other Essays on Software Engineering — Frederick P Brooks (1975)

This is one of the most referenced books ever written about computing. If you have worked in software development for any length of time, then it is pretty much unimaginable that you will not have thought about, encountered or suffered from the best-known thesis of this book — ‘adding manpower to a late software project makes it later’.

The failure to fully understand the potential damage of multiple developers treading all over each others’ toes in a desperate race to finish a project is one of the biggest gaps in understanding between developer and manager.

This collection is worth reading for the ‘big ticket’ essay alone, but the wider collection is, in places, still remarkably relevant.

4. Burn Rate — Michael Wolff (1998)

If you want to know how the first dot-com boom happened, and even more so, why it exploded, then you should read this book. This is the story of how, in 1994, while working as a print journalist, Michael Wolff set up Wolff New Media, with a mission to do, well, he didn’t really know what, but it would be online — whatever it was.

A brilliantly funny book, once you’ve read it the only thing that will surprise you is that it took so long for the bubble to burst at all.

5. The Lean Startup — Eric Ries (2011).

This is a succinct, informative summary of a collection of arguments you’ve possibly seen before, only probably not in the same place, and not presented in a way which shows so clearly how they all work together.

Although presented here with reference to startups, pretty much all the points are equally valid in the context of established companies. If you are involved in the planning, execution and delivery of software projects, this is very much worth a read.

6. Head First Design Patterns — Freeman, Robson, Bates, Sierra (2014)

In years of hiring and working with developers, I have learned (sometimes the hard way) that the really good ones are the ones who understand how to design, how to architect a project. Pretty much anyone can commit to memory the syntax of whichever language they work with.

Designing software to be efficient, extensible, maintainable and understandable is much harder. This book explains how to apply design patterns to achieve that.

Although the examples are in Java, they are sufficiently generic to make sense to non-Java people, and help to make this the most accessible guide to a complicated subject you’ll find.

7. The Soul of A New Machine — Tracy Kidder (1981)

One of the truly great books of the early days of computing. Tracy Kidder chronicles what happens when a company called Data General Corporation decides to design a next generation computer.

What we see is a story of competing factions, changing focus, risk-taking, shifting objectives, and desperate changes in direction as the teams struggle to deliver what they see as the future.

Incredible to think that this book was written so long ago, as I suspect many of the challenges, frustrations, failures and battles described remain relevant in the industry today.

8. The Phoenix Project — Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, George Spafford (2013)

Dev Ops manages to combine being one of the most sought-after areas of specialisation in the IT job market today with being something which manages to remain mostly misunderstood.

The Phoenix Project shines a light through the (let’s be honest, slightly weird) medium of a work of fiction based on a bloke called Bill. It is an excellent explanation of the importance of Dev Ops, and how to overcome some of the more common day to day problems you’ll encounter.

9. Peopleware — Tom de Marco, Timothy Lister (1987)

I have long thought that managing development teams is not primarily a technical task. The technical bits are the easy parts to sort out. It is the people that make it challenging.

Peopleware is primarily about creating the environment, culture, teams, skillsets and physical spaces in which to successfully carry out software development.

I have not read another book which has had such an ongoing influence on my career, on how software development works.

10. The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design — Brenda Laurel, ed (1990)

In the early 90s, I did a Masters in Communication in Computing. This entailed learning to develop, as you’d expect, but we also learned about the wider subject, and in particular the growing field of Human Computer Interface design.

If I am honest, this is the bit I enjoyed most, and the very first book we were told to buy was this compendium of articles on interface design, edited by Brenda Laurel.

Although it is out of print now, there are usually second hand copies knocking around on eBay or Amazon (as above). Well worth a read, even if mainly as a museum piece.

So there you have it, 10 suggestions for building a well-rounded technical book collection. A quick shout out, though, for a few other excellent books which almost made the cut — Lab Rats by Dan Lyons, The Innovators by Walter Isaacson, People vs Tech by Jamie Bartlett are several that spring to mind.

Find more of Andrew’s insights on his Medium blog here.

If you feel like the PM Connect team is for you, or just want to drop us a book recommendation, send us a message on our Contact Us page – and keep an eye on our job vacancies.

The post 10 great books about tech, from our CTO Andrew Robins appeared first on PM Connect.

Carried out by Mobilesquared, our independent analysis builds a picture of the future of DCB, and it’s a huge opportunity – helping brands connect with new fans and allowing carriers to unlock revenue streams, through world-class content.

Chris Purdie, Group Commercial Director, commented:

“The past five years have seen mobile content become king, with mobile internet usage now accounting for 52 per cent of web-page views around the world.

 

“Slotting neatly into this ecosystem, DCB is a more universal way to pay – bypassing the need for long sign-up processes or inputting bank account details, alongside transparent direct communication. We hope this research demonstrates what an exciting time it is for our industry, proving it is a payment method on the cusp of hitting the mainstream.”

We found that the most significant consumer sector growth will be in mobile ticketing (mTicketing) and health and fitness, alongside in-demand sport content.

Looking at specific territories, established markets such as the UK will see average revenue per user (ARPU) grow steadily, while in emerging markets such as Africa and the Middle East, more users will become DCB converts.

We hone in on these key growth sectors and markets:

• Emerging market: Africa
• High growth market: Middle East
• mTicketing
• Sports content
• Health + Fitness

Read the full report here, downloadable now here.

The post PM Connect analysis maps the rise of Direct Carrier Billing appeared first on PM Connect.

This is why we’ve worked very closely with the Phone-paid Services Authority (PSA) to improve our customer journey. PM Connect now only offer a two-stage verification process within our services – taking customers to a second page to confirm they would like to sign up – we follow up with a text, where customers again have the option to opt out.

As 90% of texts are read within three minutes of opening, we consider text messaging to be the most effective and reliable way for us to connect with customers. Therefore, we continue to issue monthly text receipts and customers can also cancel their subscription at any time by texting STOP, or via our 24/7 customer service line. Those keen to make the most of the ease and accessibility of mobile payments should ensure they know the provider behind their subscription, choosing those that, like PM Connect, communicate directly with customers – allowing for ultimate transparency and accountability.

Customers can protect themselves from unwanted subscriptions by staying conscious of who has access to their mobile. However, regular texts from providers ensure that, if subscriptions are initially confirmed against the bill-payer’s wishes, consumers will be informed and given multiple opportunities to opt out. Bearing this in mind, we advise customers not to ignore messages they receive from mobile payment providers, as trusted companies use text to put consumers in control.

In the past 12 months, PM Connect has made strides in improving the customer journey, resulting in significantly reduced complaints – but this is something we are constantly working to improve further. However – if customers follow these simple steps it means they can best enjoy the secure and streamlined mobile payments offered by Direct Carrier Billing.

James Macfarlane is Group CEO of PM Connect.

PM Connect customer top tips:

• Don’t ignore text messages from mobile payment providers
• Always ensure you know and control who has access to your mobile
• Only enter into subscriptions where you can identify the mobile payment provider
• Choose mobile payment providers who communicate directly with their customers
• Contact the provider directly first if you are unsure on any element of your subscription
• If a provider is failing to give you the information you require, do contact the PSA

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