Asurion Asia Pacific Announces Success Of First Initiative With Singapore Management University
SINGAPORE, 21 April 2005 - Asurion Asia Pacific, leading provider of value added services to the wireless industry, is pleased to announce the success of the first "Asurion Young Entrepreneurs Challenge", held in collaboration with Singapore Management University (SMU), Singapore's first private university funded by the government.
Created exclusively for SMU, the students were asked to help Asurion develop innovative value added service ideas to address the issue of customer churn in the wireless industry and partner with mobile operators to retain and grow their customer base. The competition saw 16 teams competing to provide the winning solution and through a rigorous selection process, five teams were short-listed for the finals, which was held on 1 April 2005.
The finals involved a panel of four judges, who evaluated and selected the top three teams following a presentation by the finalists. The panel of judges included:
- Paul Kitchin, Vice President, Consumer Marketing, Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel)
- Jonathan Allan, Vice President, Marketing, Asurion Asia Pacific
- Andrew Thomas, Managing Director, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
- Associate Professor Desai Arcot Narasimhalu, Chairperson, SMU Business Innovations Generator and Director Industry Relations, School of Information Systems, Singapore Management University.
The winning team came up with an Internet-to-mobile gaming service called "HYPERwave", which is an extension of online multiplayer games to mobile phones. This will be done through a gaming platform that can seamlessly integrate mobile and Internet technology and enable users to play multiplayer online games on their mobile phones. The team's originality and persuasive analysis, as well as the proposal's commercial viability garnered it the first prize in the competition.
"Asurion is very happy with our collaboration with an institution like SMU who believes as much as we do in the value of creativity and entrepreneurship. The students demonstrated a good understanding of what we were looking for as a company and impressed us with their ingenuity, diligence and quality of the business plan. Their outstanding performance has certainly given us the confidence to run this competition on an annual basis and we look forward to extending internships to some of these remarkable young people." said Jonathan Allan, Vice President of Marketing, Asurion Asia Pacific.
"Most of the time, we deal with industry professionals when it comes to innovative mobile applications and solutions. It was thus a refreshing experience to hear the ideas of our young people. The students have obviously put a lot of effort into coming up with their proposals. I am sure they will be able to make a positive contribution should they decide to enter the world of telecommunications," said Paul Kitchin, Vice President, Consumer Marketing, Singapore Telecommunications Limited.
"We are very privileged to have a partner like Asurion for this new series of annual competitions. It is an integral part of the SMU education that students get to tackle real life business situations and build extensive business networks. The partnership will offer this opportunity. The wireless industry is a burgeoning sector with fast and furious developments. I am sure our students will feel the adrenaline flow doing business consultancy for this sector." said Associate Professor Desai Arcot Narasimhalu, Chairperson, Singapore Management University Business Innovations Generator.
Apart from cash prizes worth up to S$2500, the winning team also stands to be employed as project consultants should Asurion decides to implement their business idea. An internship opportunity will also be offered to outstanding students at Asurion and Ogilvy & Mather, one of the largest communications networks in the world.
About Asurion Asia Pacific
Asurion is the leading provider of mobile protection services to the wireless telecommunications industry with solutions that include handset insurance and data backup to help mobile operators generate additional revenue, reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction. Our wide-ranging expertise includes customer contact, distribution, risk management, product development, repair, reverse logistics and field support. Asurion has the scale and the scope to deliver unsurpassed quality of service. We have over 5,000 employees worldwide and works with operators such as NTT DoCoMo, Korea Telecom Freetel, Cingular,
T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless to serve millions of subscribers.
For more information, please visit www.asurion.com.sg.
About Singapore Management University
Incorporated on 12 January 2000, SMU's aim is to groom outstanding business leaders and creative entrepreneurs capable of excelling in a rapidly changing and dynamic world. A collaboration with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania allows SMU to draw on Wharton's academic and research strengths across all major disciplines. Today, SMU is home to 3,000 students and comprises four schools: the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, the School of Accountancy, the School of Economics & Social Sciences and the School of Information Systems. SMU welcomed its pioneer intake of students in 2000 and now offers bachelor's degree programmes in Business Management, Accountancy, Economics, Information Systems Management and Social Sciences. The university also offers master's programmes in Applied Finance, in Wealth Management and in Accounting, Economics and Finance (by Research), and provides public and customised programmes through Executive Education. Currently located at the historical Bukit Timah campus, SMU will move to its permanent city campus in Singapore's civic and business hub in mid 2005. www.smu.edu.sg