Throughout the incredible journey of the telecom OSS/BSS sector over
the last 10 years, VanillaPlus has remained a reliable source of both key
news but also informative, objective and thought-provoking assessments of
the key trends which have shaped our industry. I am looking forward to
VanillaPlus and their more recent Stream journal continuing to play a key
role in providing valuable insights as we enter one of the most exciting
phases of the telecoms OSS/BSS market evolutions.
Kieran Moynihan
Vice President & CTO Telecoms
IBM Tivoli Division
OSS
Oracle to acquire BEA for US$8.5bn
Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ: ORCL) and BEA Systems (NASDAQ:
BEAS) have agreed that
Oracle will acquire all outstanding shares of BEA for US$19.375 per share in
cash. The offer is valued at approximately $8.5 billion, or $7.2 billion net of
BEA’s cash on hand of $1.3 billion. Oracle was already the world's largest enterprise software company.
As we reported in the January issue of our html newsletter, VanillaPlus Bites (see below for details of FREE Subcriptions), Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said: "The addition of BEA products and
technology will significantly enhance and extend Oracle’s Fusion
middleware software suite. (It) has an open 'hot-pluggable' architecture that
allows customers the option of coupling BEA’s WebLogic Java Server to
virtually all the components of the Fusion software suite. That’s just
one example of how customers can choose among Oracle and BEA middleware
products, knowing that those products will gracefully interoperate and be supported
for years to come.”
Alfred Chuang, BEA’s chairman and CEO, added: “Over
the past several months our Board of Directors, with the assistance of
independent financial
and legal advisors, has reviewed various ways to maximise stockholder value,
including engaging in discussions with third parties about a possible sale of
the company.” Said Chuang:
“This transaction is the culmination of that diligent and thoughtful
process, and we believe it is in the best interests of our shareholders. I am
confident our innovative products, talented employees and worldwide customer
base will be key contributors to the success of the combined company over the
long term. We look forward to working with Oracle toward a successful
completion of the transaction.”
“BEA is a pioneer in
middleware, and this combination recognises the innovation and customer success
the company has achieved. Our joint customers have consistently suggested this
deal for more than three years,” said Oracle president Charles Phillips.
“This transaction will accelerate the adoption of Java-based middleware
technologies and SOA; advance innovation in enterprise applications
infrastructure software; extend our strategic relationships with customers and
partners; and increase our penetration in key regions like China.”
The Board of Directors
of BEA Systems has unanimously approved the transaction. It is anticipated to
close by mid-2008, subject to BEA stockholder approval, certain regulatory
approvals and customary closing conditions.
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Billing Dictionary launched by Billing College and Althos
A 600-page dictionary covering all areas of billing, including business and operations support systems (BSS & OSS), and customer care, has been published by The Billing College. The Billing Dictionary is edited by Avi Ofrane, the college's president and CEO, along with Lawrence Harte, the president of Althos, a provider of research, training and publishing services.
The dictionary contains over 8,000 of the latest billing terms, more than 2,000 acronyms, and 200 diagrams and pictures to illustrate complex terms. It also lists world currencies and the magazines (including VanillaPlus) that cover this sector. (ISBN: 1-932813-38-1) For more details visit: www.BillingDictionary.com
How dumb is a dumb pipe?, asks Hugh Roberts
In the first of a series of articles in VanillaPlus magazine challenging received
wisdom, Hugh Roberts asks in the April issue (out Monday 7th April), is the
dumb pipe a recipe for disaster… or a clever way to exploit network
infrastructure?
Hugh, a senior strategist at Patni Telecoms Consulting, looks at the reality
behind the industry’s fear of becoming a series of interconnected dumb pipes,
and in particular at the role that the vendor community might need to play if
profitability for network operators is to be assured.
In a communications ecosystem increasingly driven by content revenues, the
nightmare scenario for telecoms operators has often been characterised as that
of relegation to the role of a ‘dumb bit pipe’, living off the scraps of the other
players in the new value chain. Indeed, at this year’s Mobile World Congress,
Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin warned operators against this and stressed the
importance of focusing on delivering content and internet services of their own.
The telco’s position is under threat not only from the ‘X-factor’ companies such
as Google, Yahoo!, Apple and Amazon, but also from other branded horizontal
retailers and hardware manufacturers such as Nokia and even Intel, who are
now taking a much more active role in the provision of content services via both
fixed and mobile.
Martin Dawes Systems speeds new services' time to market
Warrington, UK, 17 April 2008 - Martin Dawes Systems, an
international provider of billing, customer care and business assurance
solutions for the communications market, has announced the launch of its
Business Process Engine (BPE), a new SOA-based solution for service providers
who want to customise their customer service management systems.
The latest addition
to the Martin Dawes Systems product family, BPE is a fully customisable
system that dynamically and efficiently automates labour-intensive processes,
including fixed-line and broadband provisioning, sales order processing and
e-commerce order fulfilment. Using BPE will reportedly help service providers achieve
their goal of bringing complex offerings to market much faster, more
cost-effectively and successfully.
Based on a service-orientated architecture (SOA), BPE allows a service provider to encapsulate key business
processes, such as new subscriptions or contract upgrades, into individual
reusable modules. Customer service agents can activate and link these together
using a graphical interface, quickly and easily automating complex functions. This
delivers considerable operational benefits with the costs per transaction
significantly reduced because processes are much more streamlined and require
less manual intervention to complete routine tasks.
The modularity of
the BPE relieves the pressure on service providers who must customise their
subscriber management systems to keep pace with a succession of new product and
service roll-outs. BPE allows for the rapid adaptation of processes to take
account of changing business requirements and the strategic migration of
systems.
Designed to be
integrated with third party systems, BPE automatically performs a range of data
integration functions, such as creating new customer records or updating
inventory levels in real-time. Combined with how it tracks individual orders
using the administrative console view, customer service agents can use BPE to
simplify common and complex tasks such as identifying the status of an order
through to doing a credit check.
BPE is available as
a stand alone product or pre-integrated within diseMP, the end-to-end subscriber management solution from Martin Dawes Systems.
Gary Steen, technology director, Martin Dawes Systems said: “Operators have to bring new
services and products to market much faster than ever before. And with each
new service innovation, a positive customer experience must be delivered every
time or the marketing opportunity is lost. Achieving this presents a real
challenge and one that BPE is built to overcome by enabling operators to adapt
processes and systems without compromising on service quality and systems integration.”
Comptel buys Axiom Systems to strengthen IP service suite
Comptel
is strengthening its position as a leading provider of fulfilment solutions for
broadband, mobile and next-generation IP networks by acquiring Axiom Systems
(Axiom), a UK-based software product company focusing on broadband fulfilment. The acquisition will help Comptel to capitalise on service providers' growing investments in new IP-based services, like VoIP and IPTV.
Axiom Systems is a
specialist in IP fulfilment with a good market position in Europe as well as key customers in Asia-Pacific. Its net sales last year were £7.8 million (€11.5 million) and the company was
EBITDA negative in 2007. Axiom currently has 87 employees.
The net sales in 2008 are estimated to grow about 15%. Consolidation
of Axiom is estimated to increase Comptel net sales around 10% in 2008. Axiom’s EBITDA
impact to Comptel in 2008 is expected to be neutral before one-off items, which
are estimated to be €1 million.
Mr Sami Erviö, president and CEO of Comptel, commented: “I am
enthusiastic about this acquisition, since now Comptel is uniquely strongly
positioned to support its customers in automating the delivery and management
of new IP-based services like IPTV. With Axiom we are a leading provider of
service fulfilment solutions for fixed, mobile and convergent
operators and service providers. Axiom has excellent IP network competencies
and has proven capabilities for next generation service fulfilment. Together we are well positioned globally
and especially strong in Europe, Asia-Pacific and Middle East. We now have the right
competencies, the leading customers and the presence to gain market share in
the emerging all-IP network based fixed-mobile convergent telecom
industry.”
Comptel Corporation is acquiring Axiom Systems Holdings Ltd for a
cash consideration of £7.0 million (€8.9 million). Comptel Corp pays an additional purchase price if Axiom
Group’s audited net sales in 2008 are more than €13.5 million. The
additional price may vary between £4 million and £16 million. The maximum amount will
be paid if Axiom Group’s audited net sales in 2008 reach €21.6
million. The additional purchase price is comprised of both cash and Comptel
shares.
Axiom Group’s balance sheet will be free of interest-bearing debt
and will have a positive net working capital balance. The acquisition is
financed through Comptel Corporation’s liquid assets and by raising
approximately €5.0 million of debt. If the additional purchase price is
paid, a maximum of 4.8 million new Comptel shares will be issued.
The acquisition is completed on 21 April 2008 from which Axiom Group
will be consolidated. The main selling shareholders are private equity funds
managed by Geocapital Partners, Hg Capital and Axiom’s management.
The annual cost synergies from the transaction are estimated to be €2 million starting from 2009. One-off items of restructuring and integration
costs are estimated to be €1 million in 2008. Furthermore, Comptel expects
revenue synergies to realise 2009 onwards from cross-selling the convergent
dynamic OSS
solution to existing Axiom and Comptel customer bases and by leveraging
Comptel’s stronger market position outside Europe to increase Axiom’s solution
sales. The project for integrating the businesses is estimated to be completed
by the end of 2008.
Gareth Senior, the CEO and CTO of Axiom Systems, will continue in his
role as CEO of Axiom. He has been also nominated as a member of Comptel Group’s Executive Board.
Telcordia appoints Pat Donnelly as VP, India, Service Delivery Solutions
Telcordia has named Pat Donnelly as vice president, India, Service Delivery Solutions to be based in
New Delhi,
India. He assumed charge on May 1, 2008. In this role Pat, formerly a member of VanillaPlus's Editorial Advisory Board, will lead regional
initiatives including working with marquee customers such as IDEA and Tata. He
will also be responsible for driving corporate growth in the rapidly emerging
Indian region.
In
addition, under Pat’s direction, Telcordia will build on its executive
relationships with leaders of Indian carriers, the Indian Telecom Ministry and
Indian R&D organisations, while expanding presence in the technical and
service delivery fields.
Hyper
growth and service differentiation are some of the major initiatives Pat is
addressing with Indian carriers. Applications beyond voice messaging such as
sophisticated content, eCommerce applications, lifestyle enablers and
advertising supported applications will also be part of the agenda Telcordia has
positioned for the Indian market.
Telekom Austria selects Tribold for centralised product catalog platform
Telekom Austria AG has chosen Tribold to provide a centralised product
catalog and management capability, a move that will centralise the disparate
product catalogs currently in place at Austria's leading communications
services provider. The new platform will allow for the creation of new products
and services across product lines and feature configurable products and
add-ons to allow Telekom Austria's marketing team to create customised
service offerings. The centralised product catalog will ensure
operational savings and efficiencies and reduce the time to market for
new services.
Tribold's Product Portfolio Manager(TM) suite will integrate fully into
Telekom Austria's BSS/OSS applications, providing a single,
comprehensive view of product information across Telekom Austria's
service offerings and automating the process of product management
end-to-end.
Helmut Leopold, managing director, Platform and Technology Management,
Telekom Austria, commented: "A centralised catalog is essential in
effective product management in the increasingly competitive world of
communications. Frequent and rapid new product introduction is central
to retaining a competitive advantage, acquiring new customers and
retaining existing ones. The disparate nature of our existing product
related information in different BSS/OSS systems was clearly having an
impact on our ability to deliver new services quickly and
cost-effectively. Centralised product catalog plays one of the
cornerstone roles in the transformation of our comprehensive BSS/OSS
landscape."
Vodafone UK signs managed service agreement with Alcatel-Lucent
Vodafone UK has signed a managed
service agreement with Alcatel-Lucent to support, maintain and upgrade a range
of technical platforms delivering key services. The work is primarily designed to enhance customers’ mobile
experience.
The agreement is expected to deliver a
range of benefits to both Vodafone UK and its customers including greater cost
efficiency, faster time to market for new products such as innovative tariffs and offers, as well as Vodafone UK’s access to Alcatel-Lucent’s research
and development facilities to ensure a programme of continuing
improvement.
Under the five year agreement,
Alcatel-Lucent will carry out maintenance and operations for Vodafone UK’s
Intelligent Network & Core Applications (INCA)1 platforms, as
well as transition current systems to standardised Alcatel-Lucent platforms to
enhance levels of service delivery.
The
initiative is expected to help accelerate the introduction of new pre-pay and
enterprise offers to both consumers and businesses to give customers even more
convenience and value.
“We are confident that this agreement
with Alcatel-Lucent will help Vodafone UK to operate more efficiently as well as
enhance levels of service to customers,” said Jeni Mundy, CTO of Vodafone UK.
“By accessing Alcatel-Lucent’s standardised product range and strategic services
architecture, we also expect to lower the cost and accelerate the roll out of
new products by reducing the amount of system customisation required.”
1 The INCA platforms cover the Home
Location Register (HLR) which contains information on customers, the Prepayment
system and the Intelligent Nodes which control Virtual Private Network (VPN)
services. Together the INCA platforms manage the mobility, authentication and
incoming call activity of subscribers, they perform real time rating and control
of prepay calls, and they allow advanced call scenarios used extensively in VPN
and enterprise services.
Japan's NEC surprises market with acquisition of US-based OSS vendor NetCracker
Tokyo, June 27,
2008 - NEC Corporation (NEC) today
announced a definitive agreement to acquire NetCracker Technology Corp.
(NetCracker), a US-based software and solutions company delivering operations support systems (OSS) transformation to
communications service providers across the globe.
NEC reports that this strategic acquisition
underscores its "long-standing commitment" to offer innovative solutions to the
communications industry, enabling them to transform their business, and rapidly
deploy new infrastructure and services. It does, however, represent a significant change of direction into OSS for the Japanese company, that is better known for its device-side products. The terms of the deal have not yet been publicised.
With this acquisition NEC adds a
key element of software and services to its market leading portfolio of mobile
and fixed infrastructure products. NetCracker’s products, services and domain
expertise will be integral to
leveraging complementary assets within both companies.
“NetCracker has distinguished itself
with a record of successful OSS transformations and exceptional software
solutions and professional services for leading communications service
providers,” said Mr Kaoru Yano, president of NEC. “The acquisition of
NetCracker strengthens NEC’s offerings and brings even greater value to the
global communications industry.”
“NEC and NetCracker share a vision
of operations and business support systems being critical to communications
service providers, enabling them to build a sustainable competitive advantage,”
said Andrew Feinberg, CEO of NetCracker. “NEC’s scale and solution offering will
help us extend our core application and services footprint and continue to
broaden the solutions we offer to our global customers.”
NEC’s communications carrier
business is continually expanding and the company’s superior line-up of
telecommunication products includes full line and full layer support; the early
adoption of next generation network-related business and globally competitive business models such
as Pasolink and submarine cable systems.
NEC will now leverage the
acquisition of NetCracker to strengthen its existing business foundations and to
provide total solutions for communications businesses whose IP and service
diversification needs continue to grow. The company anticipates that OSS will represent a key element to new international growth that is
expected to generate approximately 200 billion yen over the next five years.
NetCracker’s know-how in
transforming OSS enables communications service providers
to deploy new services, as well as build operational excellence and closer customer
relationships. As service providers move to an all-IP environment and become
more diversified, the company’s expertise becomes an increasingly essential
element of their success. Furthermore, the ongoing debut of innovative new
services, including IPTV, Triple-Play, 3G and others, provides exciting new
opportunities for deploying the next generation of OSS. NetCracker employs
approximately 1,000 people worldwide and its customers include France Telecom,
MTS, Sprint, TELUS, Telstra, UPC and other leading communications service
providers (CSPs) globally.
The new business relationship is
expected to foster innovative solutions that address the needs of CSPs and accelerate NEC’s international software
business. NEC is committed to retaining the relationships and go-to-market
strategies that NetCracker has developed. When the transaction closes
NetCracker will operate as an independent business unit led by its current
management team, and will become the centrepiece of NEC’s communications service
provider software business.
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ariesoGEO aims for faster, more accurate subscriber data collection
Current subscriber data monitoring techniques often provide data
that is incomplete or imprecise, leading to unnecessary and ineffective
expenditure without solving the real network issues. Now, wireless
network optimisation provider, Arieso has launched a geo-location event
observer, ariesoGEO, for network performance monitoring and
optimisation.
Using the new software, which is compatible with
both UMTS and CDMA2000 networks, operators will be able to pinpoint
technical performance issues as and when they occur, based on the
subscribers’ experience.
Through the real-time, automated
collection and analysis of existing data, ariesoGEO enables operators
to solve potential network faults before subscribers are aware of them,
thus reducing churn and minimising operating costs.
ariesoGEO
collects data transmitted by mobiles in the normal course of conducting
a call and requires no additional hardware, such as GPS handsets. By
geo-locating tens of millions of calls per minute, ariesoGEO reportedly
creates a true-to-life picture of network performance as witnessed by
the networks’ subscribers, whether they are indoors or outdoors, or in
business or residential areas, and at any time of the day, any day of
the week.
ariesoGEO was recently used by a tier-1 US operator to
identify critical problem areas within its network, in order to gain
the maximum return from a limited budget. The outcome was said to be a
dramatic improvement in all of the operator's strategic KPIs, including
a 24% reduction in dropped calls.
Shirin Dehghan, CEO of Arieso, commented: “By providing access to more accurate
and timely data, ariesoGEO will enable operators to focus their resources and
drastically reduce their CapEx and OpEx for both current and future network
developments. ariesoGEO will, for the first time, enable operators to really
know how their network is functioning at any given time or
location.”
Dehghan added: “Access to information of this quality that
allows you to spot and correct the kinds of faults that lead to unhappy
customers and increased churn is unprecedented. Knowing what the subscriber is
experiencing, without the need to invest in expensive probes, will give
operators a huge competitive advantage.”
ariesoGEO estimates the
geographical location of mobile subscribers, and identifies the spatial
characteristics of the subscriber profile and network performance, enabling
operators to visualize a diverse set of metrics in the form of high-resolution
maps and detailed charts or reports. These metrics may range from explicitly
financial (e.g. revenue and ROI) to technical (e.g. interference and call drops)
Key Performance Indicators.
KPN deploys Amdocs OSS to speed broadband roll outs
St Louis,
USA - KPN, the largest
service provider in the Netherlands, has deployed Amdocs Operations Support
Systems (OSS) to accelerate the fulfilment of its broadband services.
KPN has already deployed several
products from the Amdocs Cramer OSS Suite. To accelerate the roll out of its
residential broadband services, KPN has deployed Amdocs Automation and
Activation Packs. These packs have enabled KPN to productise the business
processes associated with the broadband component of its triple-play roll out, decreasing time to market for deploying new broadband elements and reducing on-going
operational costs.
KPN
can now automate the service fulfilment process which will be used to deliver
the large number of broadband orders it receives every hour. In addition, the packs support specific network devices such as IP DSLAMs (Internet Protocol
Digital
Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) to deliver faster broadband
connections to customers.
“KPN
understands the need to further simplify and consolidate fulfilment and service
processes. To achieve this, we needed a single centralised architecture and
Amdocs OSS fulfilment solutions play an important role in the roadmap towards
that simplified and consolidated architecture,” said John Quist,
vice president of All-IP at KPN. “Amdocs pre-integrated solution for broadband
fulfilment offers a great advantage for faster and more accurate service
deployment, and the Broadband Automation Pack provided more than 85% of
the required broadband process functionality out of the box.”
Said
Charles Born, vice president of
corporate communications for Amdocs: “As service providers build and deploy new
next generation networks, they need integrated OSS that can automate processes that span the
customer order through to activation on the network. This automation reduces
the long-term cost of ownership of the OSS and helps deliver a high-quality customer
experience.”
US-based Evolve IP selects Highdeal for pricing, rating and billing
New York, NY, USA. August 12, 2008. Highdeal, a leading provider of pricing and rating systems, announced today that Evolve IP, a Managed Technology
Provider based in Philadelphia, USA, has selected Highdeal
Transactive® for its business infrastructure. Combined with
leading solutions from SAP, IBM and Broadsoft, Transactive is said to provide Evolve IP
with robust service pricing, rating and billing
capabilities.
Evolve IP built its business
infrastructure in a 100% green field environment enabling a selection of
best-in-class solutions integrated in an SOA-based environment. A web
services framework manages the flow of data between Transactive and the other
business and service delivery applications.
Transactive delivers
comprehensive pricing and packaging capabilities for Evolve IP’s managed
technology solutions ranging from managed telephony and network services to
hosted applications and security. Working with CRM and other applications in
the Evolve IP portfolio, Transactive manages complex subscriptions and a growing
list of service offerings.
“We selected Highdeal after a
comprehensive search of the leading rating and billing solutions in the
marketplace,” commented Mark Soma, SVP Information Technology, Evolve IP. “Now,
having implemented the solution, Transactive has actually exceeded our
expectations. The ease and speed with which we were able to integrate it with
our service platforms and other back office solutions was
extraordinary.”
“We are delighted to be selected
by Evolve IP,” commented Camilla Dahlen, president, Highdeal Inc. “As the
industry’s first true ‘Managed Technology Provider’, Evolve IP is defining an
exciting new market that enables organisations to increase their productivity
through the cost-effective use of communications technology. We are committed
to helping them succeed in their vision and reach their
goals.”
OSS contract to extend Clarity's support for NGN services by PT Telkom
Clarity has won a third contract with Indonesia’s Tier 1 incumbent
telecoms service provider, PT Telkomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom). Clarity
currently provides PT Telkom with a single strategic OSS platform used for
inventory, provisioning and assurance of all its networks and services, based on
a hybrid of next generation networks (NGN), IP/ MPLS and legacy
technologies.
The new contract
will see Clarity’s solution
supporting PT Telkom’s Metro-Ethernet services that are currently being rolled
out within its heterogeneous NGN network. The system will be integrated
with other equipment providers involved in the project, including Cisco,
Juniper, Alcatel-Lucent, Tellabs and Huawei.
Clarity’s
Metro-Ethernet solution will offer complete lifecycle management for delivery
and support of next-generation applications and services such as IPTV, Video on
Demand, Voice over IP, storage extension and disaster recovery. It will also
enable a higher level of customer service while controlling operational
expenditures as demand increases.
Indra Utoyo, director of Information Technology at PT Telkom Indonesia, commented:
“Clarity’s solution was
chosen as it was superior to anything else on the market. It supports Quality of
Service provisioning for triple play (voice, video and data) services that will
run over a converged network. In addition, any network event or fault can be
quickly identified, assessed immediately and resolved promptly before any of our
customer’s Service Level Agreements are impacted. We see this as essential in
being able to offer our customers the best possible experience and in supporting
our uninterrupted subscriber connectivity. It is a very flexible solution that
also offers scalability.”
Raj
Thangiah, vice president of Sales and Marketing at Clarity, added “Service Level
Agreements are the cornerstone of differentiating carriers’ service offerings. A
Unified OSS solution allows for a powerful link to be created between the network, the service and the end users, and it returns strong business benefits
in terms of simple integration, cost savings and improved customer experience.
With deep visibility across the network and powerful management tools, Clarity’s
Metro-Ethernet solution enables service providers to guarantee superior
performance and prepares them for future network
developments.”
Clarity is the
first Next Generation OSS to be deployed end-to-end, across all lines of
business, by leading Tier 1 service providers. Clarity’s installed base includes
such operators as Hutchison, Telekom Malaysia, as well as India’s
giant Reliance Communications.
Comptel delivers Axiom broadband licenses in India
OSS vendor, Comptel has
signed an agreement to deliver and maintain the AXIOSS suite for
broadband services at a leading telecom operator in India.
Comptel announced in April that it was strengthening its position in broadband and IP fulfilment by acquiring Axiom Systems, developers of the AXIOSS product suite. (For more details see our April report: http://www.vanillaplus.com/news/view/23 )
The
total value of the agreement is put at US$4.0 million. Comptel estimates that US$2.2
million of this will be recognised as revenue during 2008.
“This is a major
broadband service fulfilment delivery for us,
following our recent acquisition of Axiom Systems. The deal further strengthens
our established position in the fast growing Indian telecom market”, said
Sami Erviö, president and CEO of Comptel.
Australia's Powerlan wins control of Omnix Software
London, UK. September 3, 2008 – Omnix Software, a
privately-held
UK-based provider of software systems for telecoms
operators which help organisations to plan, launch and manage their wireless
networks, today announced that Powerlan, the specialist Australian-based information
technology group, has purchased a 51% interest in the
company for an undisclosed sum.
Powerlan's UK-based European general manager,
William Tickner, has been appointed as Omnix Software’s CEO
with immediate effect. The company’s founder and current owner, Martin Coates, will remain as chairman. Omnix Software
assists mobile operators to deliver complex network projects and manage
network assets. It has a global customer base which includes major operators
such as Vodafone, Orange, O2/Telefonica, Millicom, Celtel-Zain,
Orascom and Mobilkom. Omnix Software will shortly complete its next generation
product roll-out at Vodafone Ireland.
The Omnix
software platform is an OSS resource and workflow management tool, specifically
designed to provide today's 2G, 2.5G and 3G mobile telecoms operators with a
comprehensive solution to manage all aspects of planning, building, and
operating a wireless network. Omnix Software focuses on helping mobile network
operators realise operational efficiency across the entire network lifecycle,
creating demonstrable savings within the engineering and infrastructure function
and driving large potential reductions in the capital requirement for
infrastructure rollout.
The acquisition
of the majority shareholding in Omnix Software directly complements the
activities of one of Powerlan’s other businesses, Clarity, a specialist in unified operational support systems (OSS). Clarity provides proven,
pre-integrated inventory, fulfilment and assurance applications on a single
SID-based database, enabling real-time executive visibility of the network's
impact on revenues and customer experience. Clarity has offices in, Asia, Europe
the Middle East and Africa. Strong synergies
are expected between Clarity and Omnix.
William Tickner commented:
“Omnix Software’s solutions and global mobile customer base creates a new market
opportunity for Powerlan as well as being a complementary extension to sister
company, Clarity’s OSS product portfolio. We are planning to expand our operations in several geographies. In Asia Pacific in
particular we see significant potential for Omnix within Clarity’s established
Tier 1 mobile client base, to seamlessly extend existing network inventory
solutions into the asset management domain.”
Formerly Andrew Network Solutions, Omnix Software is headquartered in Bristol and was founded in 1998. Its products address the key business
issues facing mobile operators in the planning, rollout and management of 2G,
2.5G and 3G networks. Its flagship product, Omnix is a
modular OSS
resource and workflow management solution, comprising infrastructure project
delivery, property management and asset management.
Clarity buys business and assets of Dot Communications
Sydney, Australia. October 7, 2008 -- Clarity, a leader in Unified Operational Support
Systems (OSS), today announced it has acquired certain customer contracts and
assets of Dot Communications Pty Ltd relating to their Viper business,
including a source code license to use Dot’s Viper Wholesale Service Delivery
Platform. The sale (for an undisclosed sum) involves a combination of an upfront cash payment and
success-based royalty payments over three years.
The acquisition of Dot’s Viper Business will strengthen
Clarity’s ability to deliver customer self-service and wholesale IP
provisioning capability.
Tony Kalcina (above), founder and executive director of Clarity
comments, “We are strengthening our position in the market with this
acquisition and will not only be better placed to provide superior customer
solutions for our clients but offer an additional accountability tool to ensure
strong results. It is our belief that empowering our customers is the surest
way to success."
Rory Brennan, CEO of Dot Communications adds, "Viper has
been an extremely successful product for us in recent years, albeit in a local
ANZ context, so we are delighted with this new partnership with such a strong
market leader. We look forward to continued success, helping Clarity to build
on their existing customer base and taking Viper into the broader international
arena”.
Convergys ups its BSS/OSS investment by buying Ceon
Cincinatti, USA. October 6 2008 -- Convergys Corporation is expanding the breadth
of its business and operations support systems (BSS/OSS) offered to clients through
the acquisition of Ceon Corporation. Ceon develops product lifecycle management
and multi-play fulfilment software for communications service providers.
Ceon, a privately held company founded in 1999, maintains a principal office in
Redwood City, California,
with satellite offices in France
and the UK.
Last January, Convergys and Ceon announced a strategic alliance for which
Convergys issued convertible debt with the right to acquire the company.
VanillaPlus questioned Ceon’s Yogen Patel at Mobile World Congress in February
about the financial position taken in the company by Convergys, and the
prospects of an early takeover. His partial answer then was that “there is a
financial, OEM, joint development and joint integration relationship between the
two companies”.
The new capabilities, delivered as Convergys Enterprise Product Management
Solutions, are designed to enable Convergys’ clients to more effectively manage
their product lifecycle across all network domains, shortening time to market
for new convergent offers, improving quality, and reducing the costs associated
with managing a large product portfolio. Convergys now aims to enable service
providers to better construct, manage, and deploy a layered catalogue that
includes the full technical and commercial definition of products and services.
“As service providers launch new convergent services to differentiate
themselves from their competitors, their product management requirements become
increasingly complex,” said Bob Lento, president of Information Management for
Convergys. “Ceon’s product management assets are at the heart of our strategy
to help our clients more effectively manage new and advanced value-added
services, introduce these services quickly, and evolve these new offers at market
speed.”
Ari Banerjee, director, Enabling Technologies for Yankee Group said: “In our
opinion, Convergys' acquisition of Ceon is a great decision that will enable it
to empower carriers to transition to a centralised catalogue strategy, bringing
order to the chaotic product management process that is so inherent in carrier's
OSS and BSS
environments.”
Telecom operators, such as ice.net (formerly Nordisk Mobiltelefon), are
leveraging the product lifecycle management solution to more rapidly launch new
products, and streamline ordering and fulfilment processes for their clients. “Ceon Product
Control Center
is enabling us to rapidly define and launch new offerings, in some cases in a
matter of hours,” said Thomas Norberg, CIO of ice.net.
Comptel extends its Latin America footprint
Helsinki, Finland. October 23, 2008 -- Comptel Corporation has now established representations in Mexico City and Buenos Aires, Argentina to support the
growing Latin American market. These representations complement Comptel’s main office in the region in Sao Paulo (Brazil),
which has been the bridgehead for Comptel since 2002, and has been central to the
company’s success in the region.
Comptel, a leading vendor of dynamic operations support system (OSS) software, has achieved considerable success across Latin
America in recent years. It
now has over ten customers in the region, including major
communications service providers in Mexico,
Argentina, Brazil, Peru,
Venezuela and Ecuador.
Comptel also sees tremendous
potential in extending existing strong partnerships with global system
integrators as well as creating new alliances with local partners as key
drivers for growth in the region.
“As adoption rates for new telecom,
mobile and broadband technologies increase, Latin American communications
service providers face a lot of challenges, but they also have a tremendous
opportunity,” said Mr Alexandre Troise, VP Latin America at Comptel.
“As an international company that
has worked with over 280 customers worldwide, Comptel
has specific experience in helping service providers optimise their OSS and increase
revenues from new advanced wireless services leveraged by the introduction of
3G and WiMax, as well as those generated by new content-driven technologies
like IPTV, mobile TV and VoIP. The growing adoption of IP in the region,
especially in corporate segments, will also bring new challenges to operators
making a dynamic OSS layer essential to help them improving time to market,” Troise concluded.
Mexico's Axtel uses dynamic OSS for number portability
Comptel Corporation, a leading
vendor of dynamic operations support system (OSS) software, announced today that
Mexico’s Axtel is using mediation, provisioning and activation solutions to
support the newly launched number portability. Comptel Convergent Mediation
Solution supports the correct recording and billing of new subscribers ported
into Axtel’s network; Comptel Provisioning and Activation Solution manages both
the process of porting in (new subscribers to Axtel's network) as well as
porting out (subscribers choosing to take their number to another service
provider).
Mexico, a country with 19 million fixed
line users and 71 million mobile users, launched Number Portability (NP) in July
2008, leading the way in Latin America.
Brazil is planning to bring NP soon,
and many other countries in the region are considering it as a way to increase the level of competition.
A recent poll carried out by Telesemana on behalf of a
select group of independent solution vendors including Comptel found that Latin
American operators believed almost unanimously (92%) that Wireless Number
Portability (WNP) was needed by 2010. Forty-three per cent of the respondents
have either implemented or intend to implement the portability functionality in
the next 12 to 18 months. At the same time, 72% of respondents
considered it necessary to make some changes to their current OSS/BSS systems to
support WNP.
Alexandre Troise, VP for Comptel in Latin America
explains: “Number Portability is a very important issue in Latin America right
now, and operators are rightly concerned about the ability of their OSS to support this. At
Comptel we have gained experience in Number Portability around the world, and
were able to apply this at Axtel to meet our customer’s
objectives.”
Ignacio Muraira, IT Director for Axtel says, "We have
always relied on Comptel's state-of-the art mediation and provisioning solution
to help Axtel react quickly to new market demands. The introduction of Number
Portability here in Mexico was no exception. Changes at
the OSS layer
can be complex and time-consuming, but thanks in part to the flexibility and
reliability of Comptel's solutions, Axtel was able to implement Number
Portability on schedule".
Troise concludes: “Over the years, Comptel and Axtel
have worked together to introduce new technologies and services such as WiMAX
and now Number Portability. We are proud of the great partnership we have built
with Axtel.”