Page 40 - ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services – Consumer Experience and Protection

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Consumer Experience and Protection

5.3 Stakeholders

The following is not meant to be a complete analysis of stakeholder structure and their requirements. The point
to be made here is that different stakeholder types exist, and that their concerns and main interests differ. This
will have an impact on the relative weighting of particular QoS metrics and therefore on definition of QoE.

End customers

The main interest of end customers will be to have access to DFS at low cost (which also means without the
need to spend additional on new mobile devices) and with a high degree of reliability, as financial losses due to
service failures will be felt relatively strong, in particular in low-income segments. It is assumed that transaction
speed considerations are (as long as transaction times are within certain reasonable limits) of less importance.

Businesses

With assumedly the same basic need for reliable and affordable transaction, at least larger enterprises will have
an interest in DFS technologies which allow for efficient processing of recurring or larger scale transactions.
It is further assumed that there may be interest in technologies which can be performed from fixed-network
equipment (i.e. computers) without excessive cost. This will in turn affect market acceptance of solutions
with different ways of interfacing. An example would be access to certain gateways or other network based
functions as SMSC.

Network operators

As network operators are, usually, subject to regulation, relevant factors actually can be separated into two
categories. The first category are general technical and commercial requirements, such as cost of operation
of a particular technology in relation to profits which can be generated. The second category may include cost
of noncompliance to legal or regulatory requirements (SLA), or linkages between e.g. licenses and obligations
to provide certain services or service properties.
DFS operators

As far as DFS operators are not identical with network operators, they will basically underlie similar conditions
as network operators with perhaps other governmental entities responsible to set and enforce the rules under
which they operate. Commercially, their market power will probably be large enough as to impose quality
standards (SLA) or other market forces to service providers (network operators).

Governments/Regulators

Assumed that the main objective of governments is economic development, their task is to find a balance
between “carrot and stick”, i.e. a level of rules and regulations which enable technical evolution, leave DFS
operators enough room to run a profitable service, and make sure that cost of DFS services are in an affordable
range. For this stakeholder group, assumption is that the main objectives are stable, reliable services in
combination with a technology which gives the target segment of the population a sufficiently barrier-free
access to DFS.

Furthermore, there are different ways how each of these stakeholder groups have influence on other
stakeholders, for instance in rewarding or sanctioning market offerings or, more general, decisions. The crucial
point to be made here is that beyond the directly visible first-order effects, second-order interactions exist
which do not necessarily have to be weaker, but may work in a “cybernetic” way, i.e. with longer time constants
but with likewise or even stronger effects than first-order dependencies.

5.4 QoS Monitoring

In order to secure the necessary quality level of DFS, respective regulatory guidance and comprehensive
performance targets need to be established. Basically it would be possible to refer to basic performance
measurements of respective carrier services (such as SMS, telephony (for DMTF or IVR) or packet data. Due

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