Mobile Commerce (Non-NFC) Vendor Matrix

ABI Research evaluates vendors on the basis of Innovation and Implementation by selecting multiple criteria related to product/company characteristics that serve as proxies for the vendors' performance in these two areas. Vendors are assigned numerical scores that are aggregated and analyzed to provide overall rankings for each vendor on the Innovation and Implementation axes.

For the evaluation of mobile commerce (Non-NFC) vendors, relevant criteria for implementation included: financial services companies relationships (including card payment companies, merchant gateway processors, banks, etc.), MNO relationships, physical merchant relationships (merchants who have physical locations), e-commerce merchant relationships (no brick and mortar locations), solution breadth (does the solution include SMS, mobile Internet, and downloadable applications?), complementary products (loyalty and gift card solutions, e-commerce solutions, mobile banking, etc.), and financial and organizational health. For innovation, relevant criteria included: SMS functionality and security, mobile Internet functionality and security, downloadable application functionality and security, and NFC-readiness.

Vendors receive a “rating score” for each ABI Research–defined criterion under Implementation and Innovation. These scores range from 0-100 and are based on available information as well as ABI Research assumptions. The number of criteria for Implementation and Innovation may vary; however, this does not impact vendor ranking.

The rating scores assigned for each criterion are added to determine a “raw total score” for Implementation and Innovation. A mathematical formula is then applied to adjust for the 0-9 rating system and the number of criteria so that vendors can be positioned along the x- and y-axes (with a maximum score of 100 for Implementation and Innovation). The mathematical formula does not impact vendor ranking. There is also a weighting system used, so different criteria carry different weightings.

Rankings

After individual scores are established for Innovation and Implementation using the above criteria, an overall company score is established using the Root Mean Square (RMS) method:

The resulting overall scores are then ranked and used for percentile comparisons.

The RMS method, in comparison with a straight summation or average of individual innovation and implementation values, rewards companies for standout performance.

For example, using this method a company with an innovation score of 9 and an implementation score of 1 would score considerably higher than a company with a score of 5 in both areas, despite the mean score being the same. ABI Research believes this is appropriate as the goal of these matrices is to highlight those companies that stand out from the others.