Danal Unlocks Mobile Commerce For Orange

What’s the quickest path to real-time mobile ID and authentication?

Given the news today (June 17) of Danal’s partnership agreement with Orange, Danal might just be at the top of that list.

Orange, the Paris-based MNO, will allow Danal’s real-time, mobile ID and authentication technology to be made available to their vast network of financial services and online retail customers, while removing the friction from the experience.

“We are proud that after many months of due diligence, Orange chose Danal as a strategic Mobile ID partner,” said Denise Archer, VP of Mobile Network Operator Partnerships at Danal. “We look forward to continued global expansion and to supporting carrier privacy standards around the world – while making the consumer experience effortless and safe.”

Danal’s raison d’etre is to address the increasing fraud in the marketplace by using the mobile device to both authenticate the user and carrier billing information to enable a faster checkout, thereby increasing conversion. Danal is using its MNO partnerships and deep integrations into the MNOs’ networks with its patent pending, proprietary technology to offer real-time mobile ID solutions for companies attempting to bring their consumers a seamless, frictionless and secure commerce experience.

“We’re leveraging information (the carriers) have to enable merchants as well as provide services to the consumer. So it strengthens their relationship with end users — or subscribers as they call them. And it strengthens their relationships with merchants,” Danal CEO Jim Greenwell said.

Danal’s goal is to enable enterprises to access the benefits of mobile ID solutions to make online transactions easier and more secure. Clearly, for a company that has its roots in enabling mobile commerce, this is central to Danal’s value proposition. But in Archer’s words, the partnership with Orange will provide “the first truly global solution to the enterprise marketplace.”

Providing that global service isn’t solving a carrier problem, rather it’s enabling a convenience factor for the consumer and a fraud protection mechanism for the merchant. Greenwell spoke with MPD CEO Karen Webster in an exclusive interview about how Danal plans to execute those services even further through this newly announced partnership. He also discussed what this means for the world of mobile number-based ID and authentication.

“The problem we are solving is two-fold. There’s a mobile inconvenience factor where consumers have to input information on a handset of an input-constrained device,” Greenwell explained to Webster. “If you can imagine typing in a couple hundred different digits on a mobile device, it gets tedious. Then, there is the real fraud issue in the marketplace. We address both of those issues — we make it safe for consumers to process by identifying and authenticating the user on the other end and also helping with completing the information needed to complete a transaction by eliminating the need for the consumer to have to fill out that information. We do that by, essentially, getting permission to access mobile network operators’ databases to access that information.”

Danal understands the high stakes involved in delivering integrated mobile commerce solutions to those mobile-driven consumers who expect their data to be seamlessly entered, but equally as protected. As a digital economy and mobile ID and authentication solutions provider, Danal has worked to develop relationships with mobile network operators to enable those commerce solutions. That relationship now includes Orange, which can now benefit from the services Danal offers.

Mobile security, particularly for mobile commerce, is key — especially because merchants and consumers expect a certain level of security when they are inputting all that data. It’s worth noting, Greenwell said, that even with all the “creative ways fraudsters are penetrating the market,” there is one group that hasn’t been hit by a breach: mobile network operators and SIM cards. And with 7 billion or so smartphones in the marketplace, there’s a lot at stake for Danal to keep safe.

Beyond working with mobile carriers, Greenwell indicated Danal is in contract negotiations with financial institutions to see where the company can work to leverage the powers of its mobile authentication services. But Danal is also looking beyond eCommerce and financial institutions, Greenwell said, which includes tests like a provision for a phone so it can operate as a key for a hotel room. And, as Danal knows, using that device to authenticate the consumer is a pretty busy market, but Greenwell explained what makes his company’s approach — and solutions — different than what is currently on the market, which wasn’t particularly difficult to do since he said he only knows of one other company offering a similar option.

“There are a myriad of solutions out there, but we are really one of the only companies that has the mobile connectivity with operators to truly provide this solution. That is really a key differentiator. There is a lot of technology, a lot of platforms. But what makes this unique is the mobile network operators’ desire and willingness to truly have a fraud-free experience for their consumers,” Greenwell said. “And they are also very sensitive about data rights, data privacy, and so they protect those things vigorously and vigilantly. So they’ve entrusted us to do that. It takes consumer consent to do certain things and we vigorously guard the information of the consumer.”

Danal has gained access to that network data through its 13-plus years of building relationships — with Orange being its newest, of course. Being partners with mobile networks for years (through the carrier billing business) has helped the company clear hurdles that other companies wouldn’t have the same access to. The connectivity to the mobile carriers is what helps enable the mobile commerce solutions for consumers and merchants that it’s taken years to build. And it’s built those solutions to work through more than 80 carriers globally.

Currently, Danal has deployed its mobile ID and authentication solutions with most of the major carriers, as well as Western Union. It’s also “soft launched” with other companies, that couldn’t be publicly discussed. But what Greenwell did share were stats coming back from its carriers. One metric, he said, indicated that Danal’s solutions have helped mitigate $40 million worth of fraud from one company alone.

Of course, inserting the mobile operator into the commerce flow hasn’t always been popular, but Danal thinks that there is tremendous value to the entire ecosystem by having MNOs in the mix.

“We’re aggregating multiple carriers around the globe to the service and standardizing it. And instead of a merchant having to have a contract with [a mobile carrier] they can come through us, and on a global basis and have us provide a standardized service that leverages the carriers,” Greenwell explained. “It’s not that you’re inserting the carrier into the process. You’re really leveraging the information that the carrier can provide.”

And that’s what Orange has set out to do: leverage consumer data between the carrier, the consumer and the merchant to better enable mobile commerce and make that commerce experience as frictionless as possible.

And that’s just the beginning of the use cases brought about by the use of mobile devices in sending and receiving any sort of information. “Anyone using a mobile device in any part of the transaction — we think we’re going to have a very strong effect on that,” he added. “Not just in payments, but validating any type of information.”