Kristall Distillery Product Authenticity Checking via SMS

“Compromise Is Unacceptable” as it comes to drinking Stoli. The world famous vodka brand introduces the Product Authenticity Checking Service based on Eyeline Communications solution. Fans of Russian vodka will be able to validate the authenticity of every bottle straight at a store counter.

Customer

Moscow Distillery Kristall; Mobile TeleSystems.

Goal

Allow customers all over the world instantly checking the authenticity of Kristall products.

Solution

Moscow Distillery Kristall, the largest vodka producer in Russia, utilizing Eyeline Communications’ MT-SMS solution, prompted customers to validate the authenticity of its every bottle straight at a store counter. Kristall put special stickers on its vodka bottles bearing product authenticity code and phone number. Consumers all over the world can check whether vodka they are purchasing is fake or not by texting the authenticity code to the internationally available number – and get an instant reply.

Technology

Eyeline MT-SMS processes Mobile Terminated SMS messages sent to ‘long’ service number and delivers them to the correspondent application server. The processing of the incoming messages goes on the signalling network level, while their delivery to the designated Kristall application server utilizes SMPP protocol. The solution resolves the shortcoming of using ’short’ numbers, which restricts service delivery to one particular network or country. Eyeline Communication deployed its MT SMS solution for Mobile Telesystems, which enabled the global Kristall service by binding it with ‘long’ international format number. SMS centers throughout the world interpret the user’s requests as simple peer-to-peer text messages and deliver them to the MTS signal network. Thus, Kristall Distillery only had to get a single SMS center connectivity to reach its audience in any part of the world.

***

Established in 1901, Moscow Distillery Kristall is the largest vodka producer in Russia. According to Russian Federal State Statistics Service, it produced 7.4 million deciliters in 2006. 51% of the company shares belong to the Government of the Russian Federation. In 2006 the company revenues equaled to 4.5 billion rubles (about 173.1 MUSD); the net profit was 143 million rubles (5.5 MUSD). Major exporting products include Cristall Signature Series (formerly known under the brand name of Stolichnaya Cristall), Staraya Moskva, Cristall Lemon Twist, Cristall Limited Edition and others.

Mobile TeleSystems OJSC («MTS») is the largest mobile phone operator in Russia and the CIS. Together with its subsidiaries, the Company services over 74.64 million subscribers. The regions of Russia, as well as Belarus, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, in which MTS and its associates and subsidiaries are licensed to provide GSM services, have a total population of more than 230 million. Since June 2000, MTS’ Level 3 ADRs have been listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker symbol MBT).

Atos Worldline Global Recharge Solution

Client

Atos Worldline, a 100% subsidiary of Atos Origin, an international IT services company. Its business is turning client vision into results through the application of consulting, systems integration and managed operations. The company’s annual revenues are EUR 5.5 billion and it employs over 47,000 people in 40 countries. Atos Origin is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic Games and has a client base of blue-chip companies across all sectors.

Goal

Enable cross-border airtime transfers whereby (a) travelers could top up their prepaid accounts from abroad; (b) migrant workers living and working in one country would like to support their families at home with airtime.

Solution

The Worldline Global Recharge Solution (GRS) supports the ‘Outbound Roamer’ business scenario whereby a prepaid account in the Home Network can be topped up by a number of payment means in the Visited Network. A number of ‘Migrant Worker’ scenarios allow airtime, balance and fund transfer from the migrant worker country of employment to his/her family and friends’ home country.

Technology

Eyeline used its USSD/SMS Gateway to support two ways of initializing ‘Outbound Roamer’ and ‘Migrant Worker’ scenarios: by sending SMS to ‘short’ number or through USSD menu on the same ‘short’ number. Incoming messages are delivered to Eyeline’s application server via SMPP. The server identifies subscriber’s home and visited network and organizes dialog with user in it’s own language. After receiving all necessary information about the transaction the user want to make, the server sends request to Atos Central System which executes the scenario. The result of operation returns to mobile subscriber in a text message. GRS USSD/SMS gateway has administrative web interface, which allows administrator to edit the gateway parameters, apply them without restarting the gateway, and get statistical reports.

Advantages