Safer, smarter, faster, and responsive. That’s what the modern family wants from their mobile devices. And, with kids now spending more time online than ever before, parents are concerned about their safety – online and off.
With a holistic understanding of the modern family’s digital needs, Smith Micro Software is shaping the future of the mobile family safety landscape by providing easy-to-use tools that help parents and caregivers protect their loved ones in both the online and real world.
Wireless carriers in North America, Europe, and the Middle East rely on Smith Micro’s SafePath® solution – a white-label software platform – to provide on-brand family safety apps to their mobile subscribers. While over-the-top (OTT) and OS-based family safety solutions tend to only focus on one piece of the family safety puzzle, SafePath’s comprehensive feature set – which includes location services, parental controls, and driver safety functionality – enables carriers to offer several family safety services in the same app.
Not only does this super-app approach help wireless carriers differentiate their offerings in an increasingly crowded market, it simplifies digital parenting for end users by providing all family safety features in the same app. SafePath-powered apps also boast cross-platform functionality, which enables end users to manage iOS-based devices with an Android device.
To ensure that it’s always meeting the needs of its carrier customers and staying ahead of the competition, Smith Micro continuously improves its SafePath platform with new features and user experience improvements.
“From intuitive design to feature functionality, customer support to customer success, we are always evaluating and improving our product platform to meet the changing needs of our carriers and their customers,” William W. Smith, Jr., President and CEO of Smith Micro, explained.
Forming the right relationships
In addition to its robust research and development efforts, Smith Micro has also identified the right strategic partners to maintain a best-in-class family safety offering. In February 2020, Smith Micro acquired the operator business of Circle Media Labs Inc., a leading developer of parental controls software. Smith Micro acquired a perpetual source code license to Circle’s market-leading parental controls software as part of the transaction, which has enabled the company to add key functionality to its SafePath platform, such as Pause the Internet, profile-based screen time limits, and age-based content filters. The acquisition also enhanced SafePath with feature parity between iOS and Android, resulting in a homogeneous user experience across both operating systems.
Earlier this month, Smith Micro one-upped itself in the strategic acquisition department when it acquired the Mobile Family Safety business from Avast PLC, a global leader in digital security and privacy technologies. As the largest acquisition in Smith Micro’s history, the deal further strengthens the company’s leadership position in the white-label family safety space by adding multiple wireless carriers to Smith Micro’s customer portfolio and more than 140 extremely talented employees in the U.S. and Europe.
“Gaining these human resources is a huge advantage for us and one of the main reasons we pursued the acquisition in the first place,” Smith said. “The experience, talent, and customer relationships these individuals add to Smith Micro will accelerate current projects, strengthen the long-term vitality of our business case, and open new doors for our sales team.”
Two companies united by a shared vision
Smith Micro’s agreement with Avast also established a go-forward strategic partnership between the two companies whereby they will combine their complementary solution portfolios to offer comprehensive digital protection solutions to wireless carriers.
“This strategic partnership combines Smith Micro’s family safety expertise with Avast’s mobile and IoT security expertise and will increase the effectiveness of both companies’ carrier-focused sales and marketing efforts,” said Smith.
“Mobile subscribers are willing to pay for value added services that simplify daily life, protect loved ones, and safeguard valuable digital assets such as personal data,” Smith continued. “By joining forces with Avast, we are able to offer wireless carriers a comprehensive white-label solution that checks all of the boxes.”
The common denominator
The Avast acquisition added four new carrier contracts to Smith Micro’s family safety customer portfolio. With these acquired contracts factored in, two of the three largest wireless carriers in the United States now rely on Smith Micro technology to power their family safety mobile apps. In addition, Smith Micro counts numerous carriers in Europe and the Middle East as part of its growing family safety portfolio.
The company plays an active role in the success of all customer programs by providing go-to-market support, digital marketing strategy, and app-store based customer service. This hands-on style has led to many of Smith Micro’s carrier customers viewing the software developer more as partner than just another vendor.
Avast’s approach to customer success is much the same. Smith believes this common ground as well as the companies’ shared family safety vision constitutes a strong foundation for future collaboration and joint success.
“Smith Micro and Avast’s partnership really does represent one shared vision,” said Smith. “At the end of the day, our customers are our top priority. We’re in this to help them deliver solutions that improve the quality of life of their mobile subscribers."