Inmarsat Launches OneFi Customer Experience Platform to Monetize IFC
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Inmarsat Aviation has launched OneFi, a customer experience platform that brings a plethora of onboard services together within a single portal interface to more successfully monetize in-flight connectivity (IFC) for airlines.
Nathan Clapton, VP Inflight Media at Inmarsat Aviation, said the company’s new OneFi platform has been “designed with connectivity at its core,” as opposed to being part of “a disconnected wireless in-flight entertainment portal with connectivity bolted on as an afterthought.”
It was built in partnership with Paris-based company Display Interactive as a “single-page application that you scroll through.” Clapton explained, “We wanted it to be like a voyage of discovery, to have an Instagram kind of feel that’s personal to passengers.”
The platform is flexible and modular, so as well as being branded with an airlines’ own look and feel, they can choose to integrate services such as food and beverage ordering, seat upgrades, moving maps, retail, entertainment and more. “As you’re scrolling through, you can book a taxi from the airport or a sightseeing tour. These can be paid for live with IFC, and that generates an additional revenue stream.”
“It offers a huge range of off-the-shelf capabilities, with a built-in ad server and sponsorship real estate, as well as the ability to integrate frequent flyer programmes,” Clapton said. It also fosters what he calls “contextual commerce,” with the ability to enable calls to action designed by the airline based on analytics regarding the most relevant products and services for an individual passenger.
Importantly, OneFi uses open architecture software, which means it can be integrated with other third party services. “Over the last six months, we’ve been testing that with some of the architectures that we use with different airlines, and everything has been working well.”
“Our internet service provider functionality supports an interface and vouchering system enabling our connectivity to be sold by other vendors, be that iPass or Boingo, for example, and authenticated.” he continued. “We’re also making connectivity available via roaming through mobile network operators, and if an airline wants to pre-sell the IFC, they can do that. We can associate the connectivity with a ticket type or with certain passengers, assuming there’s frequent flyer program integration.”
“Airlines want connectivity and they want simplicity. We’re just trying to make it easier for airlines by bringing all the different elements of this together under one platform with Wi-Fi: OneFi,” Clapton concluded.
Inmarsat Aviation is currently in discussions about the product with airlines and is hoping to launch the portal with its first customer by the end of the year.