Tesco.com mobile strategy - credit Angela Maurer and her team!

First of all, may I thank Ronan Shields of New Media Age for his great profile article about me, and  Dawinderpal Sahota of Computing  for his excellent article on the same subject - a great piece of work guys :)

However, I conclude that anyone reading these articles might be forgiven for thinking that I manage Tesco.com’s entire mobile strategy.

Excellent!

Untrue!

I have mentioned Angela Maurer, Senior Marketing Manager and head of Tesco.com’s web and mobile development team, a number of times on this blog. If a name is to be put to management of our mobile strategy, it’s Angela.

I regard Angela as the customer’s champion. She works at this by commissioning research, managing a large group of customer triallists, and creating the groundbreaking designs (using both in-house and external experts such as Ribot and EMC's Paul Dawson & team) for mobile which have given us such great feedback in recent weeks. I've mentioned several members of her team in 'this blog over the past months.

In IT (and particularly in R&D) we work in part to bring Angela’s ideas to life. For example, we created the Application Programming Interface (API) and architecture at the back-end to make the mobile stuff work at the front-end.

We've also created our own mobile applications that are presented to customers under the 'Tesco.com R&D Team banner in, for instance, the Apple App Store. I've taken our R&D mobile work 'public' early to explore with customers what works best for them, as well as deal with any 'devils in the technical detail' that might stop an end-to-end service from working. We have learned a lot and gained much experience as a result and this has, I admit, given us our own reputation in the world of mobile.

In any 'normal' circumstances I would be working quietly behind the scenes providing the technology.

But I am not 'normal', and I make sure that Tesco.com R&D is not 'normal' either! Instead, we work by punching above our weight to excite and engage people with our work through ideas and proofs-of-concepts (PoCs). We do this through networking with peers, attending leadership team meetings, and making the most of our membership of IMRG (the e-tailing industry body), and of course this blog.

We do this because it enables us to bring early versions of implemented ideas to the customers, staff, industry peers, and the leadership team of Tesco. As a result nobody minds that the PoC they have been given is sometimes a little rough. People enjoy being part of something new and I enjoy having them help me through feedback to prove that something does (or occasionally does not) work.

Given that I take responsibility for all that happens in our public-facing R&D projects, I make sure my name gets known and ‘people know where I live’. An up-and-down-side to this is that media articles get written about me, which sometimes drown out the other names who have played their huge part in this work.

I think Angela Maurer’s name, and that of her web and mobile development team, have been drowned out in recent weeks. I hope you now understand my intention to 'correct' the direction of this trend.

Take a look at our new mobile-enabled Tesco Direct web site

Just to show that we haven't all gone app-mad here at Tesco.com, please take a look at our mobile web enabled version of our Tesco Direct web site:

http://m.tesco.com/mt/direct.tesco.com

If you head to www.tescodirect.com on a mobile phone our servers should detect that you are using a mobile browser and redirect you to the mobile version.

My colleagues Rebecca Pate and Lucia Del-Prete worked with technology which takes our standard Tesco Direct web pages and 'adapts' it appropriately for each mobile browser, screen size and even if the browser is being used in landscape or portrait mode. This ensures that customers have a great experience and don't have to scroll around or zoom in and out to navigate the pages successfully. To do this, they create a set of "adaptor" rules that tell the servers how to convert the standard web pages to mobile versions with templates for a list of detectable mobile phone types and browsers.

So give it ago and let me know what you think!

Update: Nice article from New Media Age's Ronan Shields:

Tesco has launched its first transactional mobile website as part of a drive to make all its sites compatible with smartphones, after finding that 7% of its total web users were mobile.

Tesco is kicking off the strategy with a mobile-enabled version of its Tesco Direct site, which sells items such as consumer electronics, in an attempt to attract early adopters of new technology who often make high-value purchases.

Laura Duffy, head of non-food customer development for Tesco Direct, said the mobile site will be an extension of its website.

Visit the "Tesco Mobile Apps Portal" web site

We've just launched our mobile applications portal web site.

The site has essential information about all our applications and it will grow to become your complete guide to our mobile apps, with all kinds of support facilities too.

http://www.tesco.com/apps

Mobile Phone App Stores - Handset Manufacturers vs Cellular Operators

The following post is my own opinion, not necessarily the opinion of my colleagues or anyone else at Tesco. I should also point out that I am project lead for R&D (Research and Development) at Tesco.com, not all of Tesco as some of the media have stated!

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Now maybe it's just me. Maybe I don't "get it". Maybe someone could enlighten me?.. but..

What is the point of a mobile phone 'app store' run by a cellular operator?

As we build up momentum with our mobile strategy, you can imagine that our primary focus is ensuring that our web site will work on the majority of mobile phones. I know that's stating the obvious and I hope to goodness that if you're a web site owner you have a similar strategy in place.

On the other hand, there are a few web site services at Tesco.com that deserve the 'special experience' that a fully-formed application can bring - Grocery and Tesco Clubcard being prime examples. The decision to write a fully-formed app rather than adapt the web is based around how important it is to create a best-of-breed experience on mobile phones that takes account of the challenges of being mobile. For example, the grocery application will be useful because it will allow customers to build up a basket without needing a constant internet connection (say, on a train journey with those annoying signal-free tunnels).

If we write an app rather than adapt the web, then we need to code for particular makes and models of phone, because each handset can have a different operating system, screen size and shape, and amount of processing power. Yes there are 'app adapters' where you write an application once and it can be compiled to work on several handsets, but if we are going to make the 'app' effort then we may as well do it properly and write well-targetted code.

So, we need to work with the manufacturer of each targeted handset model to perform the development process, from obtaining the software development kit right through to placing the finished app in their App store.

The nice thing about this process is that we also get engagement from the handset manufacturer and can access technical support (and I dear-say some marketing opportunities too). The real 'win' is that we can then reach any customer using that particular handset, on whatever cellular network they reside.

All handset manufacturers have - or are getting - this development / support / marketing infrastructure in place, visibly seen by customers through App stores - Apple App Store, Nokia OVI, Android Market, and others.

All this is great: If we want to target, say, a Nokia N97 because we like the interface and think customers would get an engaging experience with a Tesco application on it then that's a decision we can make, and work with Nokia to ensure that all customers who have an N97 can get the app and enjoy a great experience. Placing the app in the Nokia OVI store seems obvious to us - it will reach all Nokia customers with N97s across the UK on whatever cellular network they happen to be on. "Lesser" phones won't see the app on OVI because the system detects their phone and filters out apps that won't work.

So please, help me understand why we would even think about putting an app into a cellular provider's app store?

1. Why would we only target a certain cellular provider's users? We want to reach all customers! Do we then have to go round to all stores? Yes - but would be easier targeting the one store created by the handset manufacturer.
2. What about new unlocked handsets (not tied or branded to a cellular provider)? They only have a choice of their handset manufacturer's store anyway.
3. What if customers change cellular provider? Do apps downloaded from one store get barred from working? Even if they do keep working, is there a possibility that a customer may think they will stop, so feel they are locked in to their current provider (and maybe resent us for apparently forcing this situation?).

The fact is, you need a handset for mobile communication so why not work with the people who built that handset? App stores provided by hardware manufacturers offer a simple message of 'these apps will work on your phone - and we know it because we built your phone and we've tested the app!'

I think cellular providers' app stores will confuse the message for customers and I'm prepared to say so publicly because I'd like to see a debate started somewhere so I can understand whether cellular app stores are any more than a desire by providers to somehow get in on the game for the sake of it.

In my opinion, cellular providers don't want to see the elephant in their room which is that they are becoming just a way of connecting to the internet. They're trying to think up ways of being more than an internet service provider but actually that is what they are. The 'power' is in the handset app/web browser and the content service providers offering web sites and services.

It's not the first time they've tried this - in 2005 I was invited to speak at a conference about mobile payments (where you pay by mobile phone and it goes on your cellular bill). I warned the organisers that I'd be a black sheep and even forwarded the slides of what I was going to say, but they accepted me anyway.

I told the conference that Tesco has a perfectly fine payment system in place on the website already, nice and simple for customers to understand and that all that was needed was to have an internet connection from handset to our web site and customers can type in their credit card just as they always have. Oh, and that every single shopping website in the world works like this - no need for any cellular financial intervention, thank you.

I'll never forget spotting the furious shaking of the head from the back of the room from one of the sponsors of the event. Everyone else was nodding.

I said it then and I'll say it now: All customers need on their handset is an internet connection between their app and our service - and nothing more.

I'll add: Given apps need to target a particular handset model, who is best able to get that app to all customers in the lest confusing manner - a cellular provider or the actual manufacturer of that handset?

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If you are a cellular provider with an App Store, I would be happy for you to guest-write a post for this blog with your counter argument which I will publish un-edited (unless it's an ad of course!). Contact me at nick@lansley.com to take up this opportunity.

Tesco VX1i arrives...

Sanity check!

Just when I might consider that everyone is going in the direction of the smart phone, my colleagues at Tesco Mobile have announced their surprise that their biggest selling phone (just launched) is the one that's totally incapable of doing anything other than "making and receiving phone calls, and texting"!

OK, so it tells you the date and time, allows you set an alarm. Oh and has a useful calculator function.... but it's unlocked for use with any GSM 900 / 1800 /1900 MHz cellular network. In the UK it will work with all mobile phone companies except 3 (because the phone isn't 3G (W-CDMA) compatible). It will work in mainland Europe and USA too if your mobile account permits roaming.

Slip in your SIM card (or get a free one from Tesco Mobile) and you're up and running for the phone's cost of £18.99 from all big Tesco stores.

Tesco Mobile say they have sold over 10,000 of the VX1i phone in the two weeks ending 2009, an extraordinary feat for a single model of phone, according to their press release yesterday.

For all this era of 'Apps' we have entered, it just goes to show that we must not forget to offer our services to customers through texting or even a good old-fashioned phone call!

3G Mobile Broadband could cure rural internet woes

I am typing and publishing this entry in the heart of the Cornish countryside about 8 miles inland from Newquay.

The country cottage that myself and husband Brin rented is miles from anywhere - and that's just how we like it. We're here to enjoy a rural break from our urban home in north London and, being mountain bike fans, hurl ourselves around the hills, lakes and woodlands. The fuzzy analogue TV pictures (and non-existent digital terrestrial TV at least until Cornwall experiences the 'digital switchover' in August 2009) allows us just to view enough picture to see that the excellent weather here will continue. 

Still, the occasional blast of technology is good, so I connect an O2 USB data modem 'dongle' to my trusty Macbook Pro and here I am sat in the garden of this remote cottage, surrounded by lambs, cows, and an ancient hill fort -  yet connected to the internet world.

Except....

I'd forgotten what 'narrow-band' internet connection actually was. The data dongle is currently reporting that the best connection I have is 42Kbps. In London O2 deals me up to 7 Mbps from the same dongle and at home my router happily reports over 11000Kbps (11Mbps). Quite a difference.

My iPhone experiences similar speeds - mostly standard narrowband (GPRS) in Cornwall outside the towns. In the Cornish towns of Newquay and Wadebridge I do get the '3G' symbol appearing.

I hear of rural communities deploring the fact that they don't get access to broadband, and that the government thinking of solving this by digging up the roads to install fibre cable, seeing as how ADSL doesn't work because the phone connections are too far from the exchange.

Surely the best way would be for the government and cellular phone companies working together to upgrade rural cellular transmitter towers to support 3G (HSDPA - High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) and the problem would be solved simply and wirelessly. No roads dug up, far less physical infrastructure to go wrong, and people in transit or on holiday with no access to any wired connection could enjoy broadband speeds as well.

I know that in London (and in Tesco.com HQ in Welwyn Garden City) I get blazing 3G speeds from my same O2 dongle - indeed comparing favourably with my home broadband connection. 

If O2 were given the government incentive to upgrade the cellular transmitter tower I'm connected to right now to 3G, that tower could serve many villages with great broadband internet. Indeed I've looked up on the OFCOM Cellular Tower SiteFinder to discover that the O2 tower I am using is three miles away, north of St.Columb Major, and I'm getting a 4-out-of-5 bar signal sat here. That tower could probably serve a workable 3G/HSDPA 7Mbps signal out to a good 6-to-8 mile radius - that's a lot of rural communities in its zone. If customers helped the signal with a rooftop cellular antenna (my 3G dongle has an antenna socket) it could serve wirelessly out much further.

I talk about O2 for two reasons - firstly I have an O2 3G 'dongle' as I say, and secondly because if O2 did something about this, then magically Tesco Mobile would be able to offer their customers something too... 

It just so happens that I have an unrelated meeting with O2 next week. I think I'll add a subject to the agenda! 

WiFi vs cellular customer access to Tesco service applications

I was intrigued by a response to my blog post about an idea to have customers with smart phones roam onto a Tesco WiFi network in our stores in order to try out various functions such as search for a product and be guided to it.

Andrew Grill of Marcom Professional wrote (see his original blog post here):

On the microsoft video post Adam Cohen-Rose also pointed me to a Tesco blog from Nick Lansley about using dual mode GSM/WiFi phones in store to get latest offers via WiFi.
The thing I think Nick misses in his post is that configuring WiFi access points in any handset is not for the faint hearted. I cringed slightly when Nick said in the post
"OK so the devil is in the detail. But it’s not a big devil. Let’s think of the customer experience here: "….and then he listed FIVE steps consumers had to take to get the offers. NO! Why not let consumers access these “special offers” via their standard mobile internet connection BEFORE they get to the store - and enjoy the full utility of the mobile in their journey and experience on the way to the Tesco store. It’s got to be something my mum could do or your standard Tesco shopper won’t even bother.

So you don't have to go and re-read my original post, the five suggested steps are:

1. They arrive at the front of the store
2. They see a sign that says:

   Use our wifi - start your browser and select 'Tesco' from your Wifi list'.

3. They duly open their browser which causes the phone to list the available access points and they choose 'Tesco'.
4. Their web browser tries to get to whatever home page the customer has set up - but is of course directed to a 'landing page' much the same way that you see a landing page when accessing the internet through a hotel wifi service, and you have to provide your credentials and possible payment details to proceed.
5. The landing page offers services such as 'find a product' and, once marketing get this idea, a whole host of marketing messages.

The first thing I should point out is that the only actually 'teccie' thing that the customer has to do is select the 'Tesco' WiFi signal. Arriving at a store (step 1), reading a sign (step 2), and looking at a web landing page (step 5) are not exactly part of any technical problem! I would even argue that starting the web browser on the phone (step 4) is only slightly technical insofar as you have to select it from the applications on your phone.

As for step 3, if it's a phone such as an iPhone it automatically suggests connecting to unencrypted access points anyway, allowing for a simple Connect? Yes or No question to be answered. I note from a couple of colleagues that Blackberrys and a Nokia E61 do the same thing. It's actually so simple that I think Andrew's mum could do it!

Andrew does point to a question that I didn't answer, which is why is it that I didn't suggest using the cellular network and make the applications available on an internet website rather than an internal service requiring WiFi access?

There are two good reasons:

1. Tesco have used building materials that have accidently turned many of our large stores into 'Faraday cages' which block radio signals. The latest style of our modern spacious Tesco Extra stores with sweeping metallic roofs and walls look inspirational - but unless the Tesco store is next to a cellular tower, the weaker the phone signal becomes as you walk deeper inside away from the entrance door and windows. I find it often peters out half way to the back wall. On the other hand, the WiFi signal is 'locked' inside the store by the same Faraday cage process, giving great coverage thanks to reflections from the structure.
   
2. At this time, cellular internet access can be expensive with low downloads limits (excepting some contracts such O2/iPhone which is 'unlimited'). Although we can author lightweight web pages (bytes wise), we have to ensure that the customer thinks we are good value enough to use some of their bandwidth using our service. I accept that this sounds a little pedantic on my part but we build our brand on trust and I am quite sure that customers will prefer a free service using Wifi to one which costs them part of their monthly bandwidth.

So to summarise - I have recommended Wifi to offer customers a mobile web service in-store in a free and reliable way.

So don't cringe, Andrew: All I have to do is show your mum (and all our other customers) that is it easy, useful, and no hassle. (Actually, between you and me, we will likely offer both cellular and Wifi web-based services).