O2 UK today announces three inaugural members have been accepted into its Applications Centre of Excellence, following the launch of the scheme last year. Corporate applications developers Asavie, Neverfail and Telmap will become the Centre’s first official members, marking a significant milestone for the programme.

The three partners will now collaborate exclusively with a specialist O2 team, who will support the development and marketing of innovative and bespoke mobile applications. The programme will aid the development of Asavie’s secure mobile access solution AccessMyLan, Neverfail’s business continuity solutions, and Telmap’s satellite navigation solution Telmap Navigator.

O2’s Centre of Excellence programmes have a proven track record for helping corporate customers further develop their services and drive sales. This model, a first for the corporate applications market, will enable Asavie, Neverfail and Telmap to continue their success in an increasingly competitive industry. Membership into the Applications Centre of Excellence allows partners to take advantage of O2’s experience in the corporate sector, and in-depth knowledge of the needs of its customers to help tailor applications for their market.

The solutions provided by the new inductees highlight the wide range of mobile applications that O2’s Applications Centre of Excellence encourages. Asavie will offer hosted secure remote-access services for operators and service providers; Neverfail will ensure seamless connectivity to applications and data for businesses; and Telmap will develop mobile mapping and navigational solutions.

Having achieved set targets and passed revenue and sales performance criteria, each of the new members will benefit from the programme across three key areas:

o Sales support – Dedicated O2 Sales Engagement Resource

o Marketing support – Share of O2 Centre of Excellence marketing funding, based on an agreed marketing plan and to be matched by the partner

o Technical support – Access to O2 devices and visibility of O2’s device roadmap as well access to enhanced technical support and lab testing

“The relationships we have with our partners are first-class and we believe that constant collaboration will help us all move forward in a challenging market. Asavie, Neverfail and Telmap have demonstrated a commitment to O2 and a shared belief in going the extra mile for our customers. They are highly valued partners who thoroughly deserve this recognition for exceptional work. We look forward to helping them achieve even greater success in the future,” said Ben Dowd, Business Sales Director, Telefonica O2 UK.

The Applications Centre of Excellence is a highly desirable accolade within O2’s wider Accelerator programme, reserved for the best performing applications partners. Starting as “Preferred” programme members, partners can be escalated to “Certified” members after working successfully with O2 over a period of time. Only partners who consistently perform at the highest level are then invited into the Applications Centre of Excellence.

The programme follows on from the success of O2’s Data Centre of Excellence, a proven model showing how clear objectives, defined by O2 and the partner, can increase sales and revenue for both parties. By adopting a customer-centric approach, the programme ensures that solutions are released into an appreciative market.

Ralph Shaw, CEO, Asavie, said of the announcement: "Membership of this prestigious programme is a significant endorsement of the success AccessMyLan has achieved to date, and will broaden the opportunities for on-demand business mobility services. We look forward to continued success with O2, which has proven to be a highly effective and responsive partner focused on delivering best in class solutions to its customers."

Mark Lewis, VP Sales, Europe, Neverfail, said: “As a recognised leader in maintaining user productivity 24/7, we are delighted that Neverfail has been selected to be one of the first O2 Applications Centre of Excellence partners. Our relationship brings together a successful combination of O2’s deep understanding of the customer environment with Neverfail’s award-winning continuous availability solutions. This enables us to offer mutual customers the best technical solutions whilst still working with their trusted supplier.”

Oren Nissim, CEO, Telmap, said: “There is clearly high consumer demand for mobile mapping and navigation services, demonstrated by the volume of mobile phones released with an embedded GPS. We are very proud to be working with O2 and believe that, together, we can showcase our Navigator product and perfectly position it to take advantage of this growing market as well as enhance the customer experience.”

The Applications Centre of Excellence is part of O2’s UK business strategy to take a more IT-focused approach to corporate and SME sales. O2 also launched the Enterprise, M2M and Data Centres of Excellence in 2008 which have all been specifically tailored to the area of business they cover, and aim to bring together experts in these areas to offer customers an integrated end-to-end offering.