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
Contract News
T-Mobile Germany launches Comverse and Jamba’s Fun Broker off-deck ringback tones
Commercial implementation of the Fun Broker off-deck ringback tone platform at T-Mobile Germany, a unit of Deutsche Telekom has gone live. This was enabled by Comverse, a supplier of software and systems for enhanced communication and billing services, with Jamba, a provider of digital entertainment services, and a joint venture between News Corporation and VeriSign.
Now available globally, Fun Broker allows content providers to sell ringback tones directly from their portals. Integrating ringback tones into the dynamic off-deck content retail market helps subscribers to personalise ringback tones easily from multiple media sources, which can increase the service’s penetration. Fun Dial, Comverse's popular ringback tone service, allows users to personalise ringing and busy signals with music and content to entertain callers waiting for the phone to be answered.
The entry of leading content players like Jamba into the ringback tone service arena will increase user awareness and choice, which can generate substantial new traffic and revenue in ringback tone content.
Lee Fenton, COO at Jamba said: "Operators have too much to do already to successfully take on the entire burden of constant promotion of ringback tones. By turning to Jamba and Comverse, T-Mobile gains energetic and motivated market-savvy content and service delivery partners, and benefits from our highly popular portal fordigital entertainment."
VNO discloses new 3-year Eurosport deal
BARCELONA, 27.2.2008: Vanco, the market-leading global virtual network operator (VNO), has exclusively disclosed to a handful of European media including VanillaPlus, the signature of a 3-year, multi-million Euro contract with sports channel, Eurosport. Eurosport is broadcast to 240 million viewers in 59 countries.
Vanco proposed a hybrid internet virtual private network (VPN) solution with MPLS Matrix and Active Back-up on ADSL using serveral access technologies, Ethernet, leased lines and xDSL. The new network connects a dozen sites globally, including France, the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and China.
Stephane Gaude, Eurosport's infrastructure manager said: "Vanco's solution ... was customised to our needs combining different carriers' solutions and unique technical offers such as the usage of several backbones and local xDSL access. From a financial point of view the solution will allow us to considerably reduce the cost of our network."
"This deal is a great example of how a company has realised the benefits that our VNO model can bring them," said Eric Havette, Vanco's general manager, Southern Europe.
The Active Negotiation Process (ANP) proposed by Vanco allows Eurosport to measure the benefits brought by the VNO model. Said Eurosport's Gaude: "Vanco can work with every technology available on the market. The ANP, a technology and price benchmark, allows us to review our infrastructure costs and migrate our solution if it is appropriate every year. This means we can constantly update to a more convenient solution for our needs which is also cost-effective."
The news comes hard on the heels of recent contract wins for Vanco with Premier Foods (5-year deal for MPLS network connecting 83 UK sites), and Brink's Inc, (US$2m deal for a fully managed back-up network based on IPSec connecting 92 sites in the US and Puerto Rico).
Antel signs fully convergent rating and billing contract with Intec
URUGUAY & UK, March 4, 2008: Intec, a provider of business and operations support systems (BSS/OSS),
has signed a significant multi-million dollar convergent billing contract with Uruguay's government-owned
operator Antel.
Intec’s Convergent Billing solution will reportedly enable Antel to be the first convergent operator in Latin
America to offer network and service convergence, through pre-paid and post-paid wireline, wireless and
broadband services with fully convergent, real-time charging, billing and customer care capabilities, as well
as subscriber self-care and electronic recharge. This is also the largest contract Intec has secured to date
and will be deliverable in 2008 and 2009.
“By providing complete convergence across all payment and subscription types, Antel can now shift from
a service-centric business model to a more customer-centric approach where they can create targeted
campaigns to meet the individual customer’s needs, thus improving the overall customer experience
and giving Antel an edge over its competitors,” said Andrew Taylor, Intec's CEO.
“Antel selected a solution to become fully convergent, giving us the flexibility we need to become more
customer oriented, able to offer our customers a complete portfolio of services through one unified
billing system, thereby supporting our mission to be the leading telecommunications service provider in
the country,” said Edgardo Carvalho, president of Antel. “We underwent a competitive tender process
and selected Intec based on their proposal and their proven experience.”
Antel is the largest operator in Uruguay, which has a population of 3.5 million. It is the only provider to
offer fixed, wireless and broadband services in the country. Between its wireline, mobile and broadband
services Antel has more than 2.5 million subscribers, with 80% of its mobile subscribers being pre-paid.
“Antel’s current pre-paid billing system was no longer able to meet the volume demands of its growing
wireless customer base. Additionally, maintaining three separate billing systems for pre-paid and post-
paid wireless, wireline and broadband customers was costly and prohibited cross-selling and bundling
opportunities due to disjointed views of Antel’s customer base,” said Ian Watterson, Intec’s CALA
regional director. “Intec’s Convergent Billing solution will address these issues by providing scalable
functionality to support all pre-paid and post-paid customer care, charging and billing services in one
platform, using a common subscriber database, thus decreasing operational expenses.”
Cambodians select Redknee billing platform
TORONTO March 19, 2008 -In a multi-million dollar deal, Redknee Solutions Inc
(AIM: RKN), a provider of infrastructure software that monetises and personalises
services and content for mobile operators, has been selected by Cambodia
Advance Communications (CADCOMMS) to provide Redknee's Turnkey
Converged Billing Solution.
As a new entrant in the competitive and high growth market in Cambodia,
CADCOMMS reportedly saw that its opportunity to carve out a majority share of
the market depended on an ability to differentiate itself with flexible, personalised
billing. CADCOMMS has selected Redknee's Turnkey Converged Billing Solution to
enable customer care operations with subscriber-centric, real-time rating,
segmentation and promotion services for both pre-paid and post-paid subscribers.
The flexible platform is also said to help the operator integrate new services and
accelerate their time-to-market. The system provides self-care features that allow
all subscribers to query and modify their attributes, reducing call centre costs.
"As we take our first steps into this market, we have a unique opportunity
to clearly differentiate ourselves from existing telcos and to deliver transparent
pricing models that provide more flexibility for our subscribers," said Don Maclean,
chief information officer at CADCOMMS. "After a thorough evaluation, we
determined that the Redknee Turnkey Converged Billing platform provides the
exceptional flexibility and scalability we require. The simple, open architecture of
their solution promises ease of integration, swift deployment and scalability.
Additionally, Redknee has established a strong Asian development and support
infrastructure, and continuously demonstrates its commitment to working with
CADCOMMS as a strategic, long-term partner."
Delivering a functionally-rich platform that extends beyond basic rating / charging /
billing models, the Redknee Turnkey Converged Billing solution for voice, data and
messaging integrates easily with existing core network elements and offers
out-of-the-box support for 3G+ services. The scalable solution grows with the
subscriber base, allowing operators to meet demands for new service offerings
and to stay ahead of increasing competition.
"In the fiercely competitive environment of high-growth emerging mobile markets,
the realisation of subscriber and service revenue growth hinges on the operators'
capability to offer highly-personalised services," said Lucas Skoczkowski, chief
executive officer of Redknee. "CADCOMMS has taken a significant step toward
establishing itself as a markedly-differentiated leader, uniquely positioned to
realise increasing revenues and subscriber retention enabled by Redknee's
market leading solutions."
TIM awards MVNO billing contract to Orga Systems
Orga Systems has supplied Telecom Italia with its fully convergent real-time
billing platform, OPSC Gold to power mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and enable multi service provider
support. With regards to this growing market opportunity, two elements are
essential: rapid service offerings and top performance.
TIM Italy
is building on Orga Systems’ international real-time billing expertise.
All processes are managed within this one system - whether wholesale or retail
billing; billing of pre-paid, postpaid or convergent subscribers.-
With this new undertaking, TIM is extending its long relationship with Orga Systems. Since 1996 more than 30 million TIM pre-paid subscribers have been rated and
charged with Orga Systems’ billing system. TIM
will continue its growth with this strate4gy geared towards active multiple MVNOs.
For more info visit: www.orga-systems.com
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.
Vodafone New Zealand selects Callidus to manage incentive compensation
London, UK, June 6, 2008 —
Callidus Software Inc. (NASDAQ: CALD), a supplier of sales performance management systems, announced that Vodafone New Zealand, a subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc (NYSE:
VOD), has selected the Callidus TrueComp(R) suite of software solutions to manage sales performance and incentive compensation
programmes for its 2,000 sales personnel, dealers and agents in New Zealand.
Vodafone New Zealand aims to maximise the performance of its enterprise and
distribution channels. The agreement was signed in the first quarter of
2008. "Callidus Software is already
playing an important role for numerous mobile operators of the Vodafone family
in other markets, which provided us with confidence in their ability to provide
the right solution for our business," explained Vodafone New Zealand
spokesperson, Alison Sykora.
TrueComp® software’s ability to
expedite the alignment of sales with corporate objectives while maximising revenue streams and profitability reportedly helps achieve rapid ROI. Additional advantages include the substitution of
costly and time-consuming efforts around sales force and compensation
management, with the automation afforded by the industry's leading SPM software
solution.
The Callidus Software solution
is designed to provide proper audit capabilities and controls for compliance
requirements, thereby resulting in reduced operating expenses. It also allows
for a faster time-to-market with new products and compensation changes, and
streamlines the ability to model and forecast while providing increased
flexibility for the implementation of incentives.
“Vodafone New Zealand recognises
the value of aligning incentive compensation and sales performance with
corporate strategy, affording them a critical advantage in a fiercely
competitive environment,” said Steve Apfelberg, senior vice president of
marketing and business development at Callidus Software. “Our solutions link
execution to corporate objectives and support companies of all sizes in their
goal to drive revenue and profitability. We are extremely pleased to welcome yet
another member of the Vodafone group to our ever-growing list of
customers.”
Guinea's Sotelgui selects new Interconnect system from Cerillion
London, 2nd July 2008 – Guinean telecoms operator, Sotelgui is
set to implement Interconnect Manager from convergent billing
specialist, Cerillion Technologies to support billing, settlement and
least cost routing for all of its interconnect agreements. The new
contract is an expansion of the existing relationship between the two
companies; Sotelgui has been a customer of Cerillion’s CRM and Billing
solution for five years.
Cerillion Interconnect Manager will provide Sotelgui with revenue
assurance by enabling it to bill interconnect partners accurately and
reconcile invoices received. The solution will also allow Sotelgui to
re-rate actual traffic data against individual offers from partners in
seconds, enabling it to choose the most cost-effective route in each
case.
In addition, Cerillion Interconnect Manager provides a universal
formatter for partners’ tariff tables. This will allow Sotelgui to
accept tariff tables in multiple formats, thus dramatically reducing
the time needed to load data and enabling Sotelgui to manage many more
partners than would otherwise have been possible.
Louis Hall, Cerillion’s chief executive, says, “With growth in the
African telecoms market continuing to escalate, the need to have an
efficient interconnect system in place is becoming an increasingly
urgent issue for African operators. By enabling the company to manage
its interconnect partners efficiently and accurately, we are confident
that Interconnect Manager will help Sotelgui to maximise the return on
investment (RoI) for existing network assets and improve overall
profitability.”
Polkomtel uses Intec convergent billing solution to deliver 'unique' set of pre-pay services
London/Warsaw, 2 July, 2008: Intec, a leading BSS/OSS software developer for
fixed, mobile and next-generation networks, has implemented its
Singl.eView convergent billing system and enabled Polkomtel, one of
Poland’s top mobile communications providers, to roll out a range of brand
new innovative services to its pre-pay mobile subscribers.
Polkomtel –
which has over 13 million subscribers in Poland – operates in a fiercely
competitive marketplace. Two years ago, there were three mobile operators in
Poland. Now there are four operators and two more are set to join before the end
of 2009.
Polkomtel purchased Intec’s Singl.eView convergent rating and
billing solution to manage its user base of GSM, 3G and mobile IP access
subscribers. During the past few months it has been working with staff in
Intec’s local Polish office to complete the pre-pay phase of the Singl.eView
installation. This has enabled the company to develop a range of high profile
innovative pre-pay services specifically aimed at the teenage market.
These services – which were officially launched on June 6, 2008 – have
been branded under the 36.6 name. Customers can take advantage of a variety of
offers. If they choose to sign up for the Chill Bill service, they have the
possibility to connect to a free IVR number in order to listen to a
series of advertisements. In return for this, clients receive up to PLN 10
(€3.00) per month added to their account. The Chill Bill service is available also for clients with
zero account balance.
Another service – Esy Floresy – allows users to
send a limited number of on net SMS for 3 PLN monthly. The SMS can also be
sent with a zero credit account.
Subscribers can opt for a third service
– Mowisz Masz – which roughly translates as “just say it and you’ll and get it”.
Every time a user receives a call from another network they get one second of
extra talk time for every two seconds of
received calls, which is credited to the Plus network.
Jaroslaw Bauc, president and general director,
Polkomtel, said: “The introduction of the innovative and first of a series of
services like 36.6 was possible because of the Singl.eView billing platform
being implemented by Intec. The service is one of the most technologically
advanced solutions in the mobile telephony market.”
Said
Gary Bunney, COO at Intec, “This is
the largest implementation we’ve done so far in Central and Eastern Europe and
its success is based on the real partnership we have built with Polkomtel. We are delighted that our
system is already delivering real dividends for the company and helping them win
new customers in the highly competitive Polish market.”
Russia's SMM uses NDS to protect IP and mobile TV content
London, UK. 24
July, 2008 – NDS, a leading provider of technology solutions
for digital pay-TV, today announced that Russian media giant Sistema Mass Media has selected the NDS Unified Headend™ to manage and protect TV content delivery to subscribers
across both IP and mobile networks.
The NDS Unified
Headend™ integrates conditional access (CA), Digital Rights Management (DRM) and
third party applications, allowing operators to deliver secure broadcast and
Video-On-Demand (VOD) services to a variety of devices – set-top boxes (STBs),
mobile phones, PCs, Portable Media Players (PMPs) and digital video recorders
(DVRs). SMM will use the NDS Unified Headend to deliver content to STBs, PCs and
mobile devices with optimum operational efficiency, using a single system to
control content distribution.
SMM’s
deployment will include VideoGuard Mobile™, NDS’ secure mobile TV solution, part of the NDS Unified Headend, to
protect its upcoming DVB-H mobile TV service. Digital Teleradiobroadcasting Ltd (DTB), an SMM
subsidiary, will launch the mobile TV service.
The DVB-H
service will debut in Moscow, which will be followed by a series of launches in
16 other Russian cities with populations of over one million. Unlike most other
DVB-H deployments which are tied to a specific mobile operator and require a
subscription and operator-specific SIM, SMM’s upcoming DVB-H service will be
available to all Russian mobile subscribers regardless of their network service
provider.
VideoGuard
Mobile supports both the Open Security Framework (OSF) and OMA BCAST smartcard
profile standards and offers a clear and seamless migration path between both.
VideoGuard Mobile is fully compliant with DVB-H, DVB-SH, DMB, MediaFLO, CMMB and
STIMI standards.
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.”
Claro Brasil turns to pre-paid Virtual Voucher from Orga Systems
Paderborn, Germany / Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. August 12, 2008: Orga Systems, a leading provider of convergent real-time billing,
is to deliver its award winning, pre-paid top-up system, Virtual
Voucher to Claro Brasil.
With Virtual Voucher any mobile handset can be used as the
vending device to sell pre-paid airtime and communication services in real time.
It provides the sales person with convenient means for direct recharge of a
subscribers’ account. The sales and distribution system is
designed to support a hierarchical network of distributors and retailers, and it
provides comprehensive functionality for all aspects of sales and channel
management in real time. The solution is based on fast and proven
technology.
Compared to recharge systems like scratch cards or POS payment terminals,
Virtual Voucher usually provides a Return On Investment in less then 6 months as well as superior
operational benefits to launch, monitor and control dedicated pre-paid recharge
strategies.
It is said to be ideally suited to target new and existing customer segments, in areas facing logistical challenges as well as in highly populated
metropolitan areas. Orga Systems’ Virtual Voucher won the TMForum Excellence
Award 2008 in the category “Most Innovative Application of Customer Care”.
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.”
Slovenia's Si.mobil launches OPSC billing system
Paderborn, Germany/Vienna, Austria. August 14, 2008: Orga
Systems, a leader in convergent real-time billing solutions, has
supplied Si.mobil with its OPSC real-time billing, making the Slovenian network the latest member of mobilkom austria group, to port to Orga Systems’
real-time billing.
Si.mobil can now meet
the rising demand for advanced customer oriented campaigns and promotions. The
advantages for Si.mobil and mobilkom austria group are, on the one hand the next
step in unifying the group systems environment, and on the other hand the chance to re-use modules for promotion and loyalty campaigns to lower
OPEX.
“Supplying real-time billing, loyalty and promotions management, Orga Systems
is a strategic partner of the mobilkom austria for more than 10 years, and an
ideal partner for Si.mobil. Taking advantage of the group-wide usage of Orga
Systems‘ billing system and loyalty solution, the re-use of campaign modules,
programmed for sister companies and vice versa, will enable Si.mobil to launch
marketing and loyalty campaigns very fast and efficiently”, says Milan Zaletel,
Management Board member at Si.mobil.
The new contract builds upon a long-standing relationship
between mobilkom austria group and Orga Systems in Europe. mobilkom austria has
been using Orga Systems‘ OPSC Billing System since 1997 to handle real-time
billing of its B-FREE and pre-paid Vodafone live! customers in Austria.
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.
Digitania Pakistan to provide services and content to GEO.tv
Islamabad, Pakistan. August 19, 2008. Digitania Pakistan has announced today that it has signed a deal
with GEO TV (www.geo.tv) to provide GEO TV with
- Mobile Service Delivery Platform
- Content Hosting and Management Platform, and its
- WAP Portal System
These systems are
designed on an open architecture giving GEO TV enhanced capabilities to
offer mobile-based interactive products and services to its viewers and
to constantly add new features and products to its existing system.
The solutions provided by
Digitania to GEO TV will significantly reduce time to market and
will make Digitania a one-stop-shop for the content and service delivery needs of the Pakistan TV channel.
The implementation of
this system -- which is expected to be completed by November, 2008 -- is a landmark
achievement of Digitania. It is increasing its
clientele in various industry sectors and its ability to deploy
state of the art, customised and demand-specific systems for companies
like GEO TV, while maintaining performance benchmarks even at places where traffic and
demand are enormously high.
Wild Jack Mobile Casino incorporates Payforit billing on Vodafone UK
London, UK. August 20, 2008: Wild Jack Mobile Casino (www.wjmc.com), has announced a deal which enables
customers of Vodafone UK to
purchase credits easily and charge them directly to their mobile bill to play the
award-winning and exciting casino mobile games.
Before anyone can deposit and play a
Wild Jack Mobile Casino game, Vodafone UK will verify each user’s age through
its customer records, a move that will help prevent minors from gaining access
to the service.
While playing, gamers can view their
balance and should they want to buy more credits, they can easily navigate to
the banking section within the game.
Wild Jack Mobile Casino, which is one
of the first mobile casinos in the UK using Spin3’s award-winning
platform, works on more than a 1,000 mobile handsets and is promoted for its of
ease-of-use, slick graphics and exciting game play. The casino offers 14 games, ranging from Roulette and BlackJack to the progressive jackpot slot Major
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Jack.
Colombians ask Astellia for post-migration network audit
Astellia has been contracted by a tier one operator in Colombia
to perform an audit of its GSM network. The operator wants to benchmark and
check the behaviour of its network after a swap to a new equipment manufacturer
due to next generation network migration.
After giving
a snapshot of the network and delivering a detailed troubleshooting report,
Astellia will make recommendations on how to further optimise and improve network
performance.
This contract consolidates Astellia's position in the region. Since
the beginning of 2008, Astellia has won two major new customers here, one in
Chile and one in Colombia.
A large operator in Chile (also unnamed) appointed Astellia earlier this
year to audit its GSM and UMTS (3G) network.
The Astellia
system is compatible with and complements the operator’s internal tools. It gives
the operational optimisation team a complete picture of the customers’ behaviour
and of quality of service on the network.
The customer reportedly appreciates the fact that a single, non-intrusive and vendor-independent
system provides roaming statistics and information per handset type. With it,
they can monitor the core and the access networks alike.
M2M & telematics company selects Highdeal’s pricing, rating and billing platform
New York, USA. September 8, 2008. Numerex has
selected Highdeal Transactive as its billing platform for the company's suite of Xpress™
network service capabilities. The Highdeal Transactive suite, which is in production,
provides Numerex’s network service business unit with pricing and
packaging flexibility in a dynamic and competitive
marketplace. Transactive is integrated with other internal
application and transaction servers to deliver real-time pre-paid and post-paid
billing, including the use of SMS-based tokens.
Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Numerex makes possible real-time wireless data
communications for remote monitoring and tracking of fixed and mobile assets. Its fully integrated satellite, cellular-based network, hardware and back-end
support services provide machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions for a range of
markets including wireless security, vehicle and fleet tracking, intermodal
shipping, emergency management services, telemedicine, retail/POS monitoring,
automated meter reading (AMR), and other utility monitoring
applications.
"Our industry is rapidly growing and we need quality billing
solutions that allow us to remain competitive in the marketplace.
Highdeal Transactive meets our objectives in every aspect,” commented Stratton
J Nicolaides, chairman and CEO of Numerex. “We also required a secure, pricing and billing platform
that would enable us to innovate and expand, and that is exactly what Highdeal
has delivered.”
“We are pleased to have been selected by a leader in the
burgeoning M2M and telematics market,” said Camilla Dahlen, president, Highdeal
Inc. “We look forward to helping Numerex build on their well established
market leadership.”
Both Highdeal and Numerex are exhibiting at the CTIA
Wireless IT & Entertainment conference in San Francisco, September 10 - 12. To
learn more, please visit Highdeal at stand 1533 or Numerex at stand 1501 on the
second floor of the Moscone
Center.
Smart move for i-conX in Ireland
After a successful
audit of Smart Telecom’s current billing structure, i-conX Solutions has been
appointed by the Irish telecoms operator to provide ongoing outsourced interconnect
billing services.
In a two-year
deal, i-conX will use its own proprietary hardware and software to manage the
costs of Smart’s incoming and outgoing voice and data traffic. The contract was
awarded upon completion of a back-billing and cost control exercise in which
i-conX demonstrated how new measures implemented across the company’s
corporate, residential and payphone services could assist Smart in assuring
that billing relationships with other carriers are both accurate and auditable .
Over recent months
Smart Telecom has undergone a management restructure and has driven operational
and cost efficiencies throughout the organisation. “With robust financial
management one of the key priorities for the new management team, the deal with
i-conX is an important investment and links in with other controls and
automation that we now have in place,” says Pio Murtagh, chief operations
officer for Smart Telecom.
“The back billing
exercise and new interconnect billing functionality introduced by i-conX provides
Smart with valuable commercial visibility and a platform from which to
carefully assess our financial position at any one time. Alongside recent
significant investments in system automation and process control, the new deal will allow us to continue with our plans
for further growth over the next few years.”
i-conX Solutions' annual turnover now stands at
€2.2million. Alongside extensive reach in Europe and the Middle East, the
business continues to win contracts in emerging markets, and is currently
working on site in Sudan and
Palestine
implementing both its outsourced and licensed services.
Of the company’s
new deal with Smart Telecom, CEO at i-conX, Martin Browne commented: “Our new
deal with Smart has proven to be mutually beneficial; its new management team
has introduced fantastic new technology, so not only is it great for us to have
the opportunity to link in our proprietary hardware and software, but we have
also moved our own operations over to Smart’s network to take advantage of its
cutting-edge network.”
Orange World portal launched in Austria with ChangingWorlds
Sept 24, 2008. Dublin, Ireland & Vienna, Austria. The Orange World portal has today been launched for Orange Austria’s two million subscribers, following work done by ChangingWorlds, a leading provider of intelligent mobile portals and data personalisation solutions for mobile operators.
The latest launch extends the Orange World brand to 28 countries worldwide. This is an important strategic step for Orange as it increases the footprint of one of the world’s strongest telecoms brands.
The new Orange World portal offers a wide range of news, music, entertainment and gaming content to subscribers. Based on ChangingWorlds’ ClixSmart Intelligent Portal Platform, it offers a dynamic, multilingual portal, with content presented in an easily accessible layout that enables users to quickly reach topics of interest.
ClixSmart’s intelligent content discovery capabilities ensure that content is relevant to individual users and is optimally presented on the user’s handset by leveraging the device’s capabilities to maximum effect.
ClixSmart’s intuitive multi-portal management features have enabled Orange to create a compelling and user-friendly Orange World service that optimises the user experience for subscribers. It is said to have been easily integrated with Orange’s infrastructure systems and content providers. ClixSmart’s ‘one-click’ publishing capabilities will help to minimise time-to-market with new mobile internet services while simultaneously reducing portal administration overheads.
Speaking today, Günter Lischka, head of marketing from Orange Austria said: “The Orange ethos is to make mobile communications more simple, human and compelling and ChangingWorlds' portal and personalisation solutions are an integral element of this strategy. We are very impressed with how quickly and smoothly we have been able to switch from the old ONE portal to the new Orange World portal and we are excited about the benefits that it will bring to our customers."
Also speaking today, Oliver Cavanagh, ChangingWorlds’ business development director for Central Europe said “Having worked with Orange Austria since May 2007, we are delighted to have contributed to the launch of their new Orange World portal. Orange is an exciting and innovative mobile operator and is a great addition to the very competitive Austrian market. We look forward to helping them deliver an even more compelling mobile internet experience to their customers in the future by leveraging ClixSmart’s leading edge mobile content delivery and personalisation technology.”
Nexus Telecom deploys Adax for load and stress tests
Reading,
UK. October 24, 2008 – Adax Europe, a
high performance signalling infrastructure provider, has announced that its HDCII-PMC
solution is being deployed by Nexus Telecom to enhance its load and stress test system for telecom manufacturers and
operators.
Nexus Telecom specialises in
service assurance, mediation, revenue assurance and network & service
testing solutions. Following rigorous evaluation of available boards from
different suppliers, Nexus chose the Adax HDCII-PMC solution over its
competitors because of its ability to support Vx Works’ real-time operating system, while providing Nexus Telecom
with the integration and flexibility required. The Adax HDCII-PMC is a high-density, high-performance solution ideal for narrowband signalling
applications.
Nexus Telecom believes
Adax is highly competitive on various access technologies in
the telecom market. The HDCII-PMC is said by Adax to provide the ideal foundation for test
systems, with support for multiple protocols and the scalability and high
performance essential to telecom manufacturers and operators conducting intense
and thorough network tests.
According to Roland Reichlin,
business unit director for active test solutions at Nexus
Telecom: “It is paramount that we are able
to supply a single telecom test solution platform for all technologies. In this
context, flexible, scalable and stable hardware components are imperative. The
HDC-II card meets our demand for scalability and flexibility in order to provide
a premium solution to our customers test labs.”
Scorecard adds third European customer for subscriber, service analysis
TORONTO, CANADA. October 16, 2008 – Scorecard Systems, Inc has been selected by UK operator Kingston Communications
to provide the broadband and telecoms provider with a more robust
and rich subscriber and service analysis capability from its traditional fixed line
operations to complicated hosted and
multi-site networking services.
A leader in reporting and analysis solutions for cable, broadband and telecommunications companies, Scorecard’s systems are designed to drive deeper, more accurate
analysis of customer activity and reduce commission and acquisition costs, and put
greater analytical ability directly in the hands of end users.
Kingston Communications is the third European operator to
partner with Scorecard Systems. The company’s subscriber and service analysis system has been deployed at dozens
of carriers and currently measures results for over 100 million subscribers.
Scorecard Systems’ Subscriber Analysis application will provide
KC with increased visibility into customer and service activity, particularly
surrounding upgrade/downgrade paths between various products and bundle
packages, and will ensure “one version of the truth” for reporting throughout
the organisation. The solution will supplement KC’s existing Data Warehouse,
allowing the company to measure customer activity, trends and behaviours using
a table-based, user-configurable business rules approach that leverages
subscriber industry standards customised to its specific needs. The approach enables KC to avoid
“hard-coding,” business rules typical to home-built subscriber analysis
systems. The rules are applied
automatically at the subscriber/service/billing code level, with the results made
available to any number of query, reporting, OLAP or other tools.
“The Subscriber Analysis Application will allow us to integrate
all of our voice, data, mobile and hosting business rules into one application
with the ability to quickly drill down to customer detail a critical advantage
in our competitive marketplace,” said Ben Wrigley, business intelligence manager of Kingston Communications. “The solution will enable us to quickly
evaluate the success of campaigns and new product launches, and ensure all of
our users have one, auditable, accurate source of data for customer activity,
without having to build such a solution in-house.”
“The Scorecard solution allows
companies to rapidly respond to market conditions, determine any challenges
with their business model and maintain low churn rates at both a subscriber and
value added service level,” said Simon Marwood, Scorecard's CEO. “Kingston
Communications has the scale and resilience of a large network operator and the
flexibility and market knowledge of a specialist solutions provider, a valuable
combination in today’s climate.”
Tunisie Telecom selects BSCS iX 2 as its billing platform
Frankfurt/Main, Germany. October 27, 2008 - LHS, a leading provider of telecom billing
and customer care systems across the wireless, wireline, and IP telecom markets
worldwide, today announced that Tunisie Telecom has selected BSCS iX Release 2
as its new pre- & post-paid billing platform for all telecommunication services
offered to its customers (including fixed, mobile, and internet services).
The
new project will include the iX Collections module for the improvement of
revenue collection and for leakage prevention, as well as the LHS bill
presentment solution, which enables customer-oriented billing coupled with
flexible layout design and formatting.
"This project gives us the
opportunity to put all key internal stakeholders together, while the
company-wide business transformation enables us to deliver excellent services in
a more efficient way," said Ms Rula Ammuri, director of Information Technology
at parent company, EITL and CIO at Tunisie Telecom.
"Another key aspect of
this project is the unified customer care. Replacing and unifying several
existing applications will allow us to offer better and more services to Tunisie
Telecom customers. The positive implementation results at 'du' in the UAE,
another EITL company, convinced us that BSCS iX Release 2 is excellently suited
to the future offerings of Tunisie Telecom," she added.
The project has
already been launched and involves Tunisie Telecom staff, local companies, and
Capgemini as the main system integrator.
"We are delighted with this renewed trust
towards our company, technology and products by our long term partner Tunisie
Telecom, and we will offer all our support to the successful rollout of BSCS iX
Release 2," said Parvaiz Ahsan, managing director MEA-APAC at LHS. "Our powerful
solution based on BSCS is deployed across North Africa, and this new win will
reinforce our position as the number one customer care and billing solution
provider in the region," he added.
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.”
UK's First Utility chooses OpenRate open source software
First Utility Ltd, a leading multi-utility provider in the UK has selected OpenRate as a component for its internal billing systems replacement. The new billing system will unify the processing of both telecommunications and smart energy services.
OpenRate is a free, commercial open source rating, mediation and data
manipulation platform which has been created for use in telecommunications and utilities environments. It reportedly
currently offers a stable and mature stand-alone package for performing high
speed (5000 events/second) rating of usage events.
T-Mobile launches personalised service for mobile customers
Manchester, UK. 24 October, 2008 -- T-Mobile is launching the next
stage in its customer service strategy through multi-channelled mobile
personalisation.
The global telecoms provider has announced the
structured deployment of pioneering VoiceObjects technology across European
markets as part of its “self-service in your pocket” customer initiative. This
multi-channel approach ensures that a useful mix of service channels is
available to T-Mobile customers on-demand.
The VoiceObjects “design
once, deploy anywhere” technology approach is important to T-Mobile’s initiative
because it enables the one-time development of an application which can run on
every available phone channel: voice, video, text or mobile Web.
As a
result, T-Mobile customers will experience a fast, personalised self-service
across mobile web, SMS and voice portals, driving the company’s long-term
strategy of developing a complete self-service environment capitalising on the
strengths of each individual channel.
“These days, customer self-service
must fulfil two needs,” stresses Daniel Hendling, program manager at T-Mobile
International. “First, the service must be easy and attractive so that the
customer wants to use it as a preferred channel. Secondly, we have to optimise
efficiency for the company so that ultimately, we can offer affordable services
through a range of channels. With VoiceObjects, we have found an ideal
technology partner to provide us with a simple, yet cost-effective self-service
architecture.”
“VoiceObjects is in a unique position of being able to
deliver personalised phone self-service over popular phone channels, used by
consumers every day,” said Michael Codini, VoiceObjects CTO and managing director EMEA. “With VoiceObjects, T-Mobile can lower costs by having one
development and deployment environment and by deploying applications built for
one channel across multiple channels.”
Cellcom Israel upgrades to ECtel's new revenue assurance platform
Rosh
Ha'ayin, Israel. 28 October,
2008. ECtel Ltd, a leading provider of Integrated Revenue
Management™ (IRM™) solutions for communications service providers, announced
today that Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL), Israel’s largest cellular operator,
has chosen to upgrade its revenue assurance system to ECtel’s new integrated revenue
assurance platform (RAP).
The order strengthens
the companies’ long-standing relationship as Cellcom Israel
has consistently chosen ECtel over the years. “As
Israel’s largest cellular operator, with over three million subscribers, it is
essential to keep updating an effective revenue assurance solution as well as an
all-around answer to the increased threat of revenue leakages”, said Erez
Shalom, the Research and BI department manager of Cellcom Israel.
“After the substantial success of the
previous RAP platform in combating revenue leakages, we are anticipating the
installation of the newer and even more advanced platform in the coming
weeks.”
RAP,
ECtel’s automated and configurable revenue assurance platform, facilitates
cost-effective RA processes and reportedly provides operators with rapid resolution of
critical revenue leakages in wireline, wireless, convergent and next-generation
networks. RAP is the market’s most flexible
revenue assurance offering, enabling both immediate deployment and gradual
expansion over time. The automated system allows non-technical business users to
easily build, revise and add controls and key performance indicators (KPIs).
Through its top-down viewing approach, RAP enables users to rapidly
locate risk points, validate RA processes, prioritise repair actions and fix
leakages.
“The fact that Cellcom
Israel chose to upgrade its existing RAP product framework of ECtel solutions
with RAP version 5 demonstrates the competitive advantage and tangible benefits
that ECtel’s integrated solutions provide,” said Mr Itzik Weinstein, president
and CEO of ECtel. “Our products continue to provide Cellcom Israel and many
other leading operators worldwide with top-of-the-line solutions necessary to
efficiently and competitively run businesses in today’s market
environment.”
Orange Niger calls on Highdeal, Sofrecom to launch convergent services
Paris, France. 6 November, 2008 - Highdeal, a
leading provider of pricing and rating systems, has announced that Orange Niger, a subsidiary of the
France Telecom Group, has deployed Highdeal Transactive(R) as part of its convergent billing platform. This
solution has been selected and successfully integrated with other best-in-class
solutions by Sofrecom, a leader in telecoms consultancy and information
technologies and a subsidiary of the France Telecom – Orange
Group.
“Our
central challenge is to deliver high quality services rapidly and at competitive
prices. Holder of a global licence, we
have decided to differentiate ourselves and innovate by offering our customers a
single invoice. For this reason, and given the ambitious schedule for our
commercial launch, we selected Highdeal Transactive for the platform and
Sofrecom as integrator. The timescale for the launch was met and the customer's
view of an integrated operator was achieved. The final corrective touches and
enhancements are being made in order to reach our target of convergence and the
integration of all the application platforms and services so as to maximise
productivity for our customers' benefit,”
says François Brunet, CEO of Orange
Niger.
With a
population of approximately 13 million and a mobile penetration rate of less
than 8%, Niger is planning for enormous
growth. Recognising this potential, Orange Niger
was looking for a billing platform that combined guaranteed extreme high
performance and scalability with comprehensive pricing and packaging
capabilities. Highdeal was an obvious choice. Orange Niger,
4th operator entering the Nigerian market, launched its mobile,
internet and fixed networks in July 2008. Orange Niger
is differentiating its services by offering quad-play packages
and real-time pre-paid, post-paid and
hybrid payment plans aimed at families and
businesses.
“Orange Niger understands the positive impact
that innovative pricing and time-to-market for new services can have on their
business. We are extremely pleased that our solution was selected and deployed
by such a forward thinking and pioneering telecommunications operator,” says
Eric Pillevesse, CEO of Highdeal.
FireSky to improve relationships with gamers
Cincinnati and Phoenix, USA. 6 November, 2008
-- FireSky, a new video game publisher
dedicated to improving how gamers play together online, has signed a
contract for Convergys’ relationship management solutions.
Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG) will
provide online gaming consumers of the soon-to-be-released Stargate Worlds
massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) with state-of-the-art
inbound customer support services. Convergys’ dedicated contact centre
agents will initially provide customer support to English, French, and
German-speaking customers for general game playing questions as well as
technical, account management, or subscription-related questions.
Stargate Worlds is based on
a popular Stargate television series from MGM. Players who step through the
gate will:
* Feel the Heat – Master the battlefield using
modern tactics and firepower
* Travel Instantly – Dial up the
Stargate to explore dozens of worlds from ancient civilisations to high-tech
planets
* Team Up – Battle devious and powerful enemies
with your friends
* Find the New You – Pick from seven
archetypes with unique skills and styles
* Don’t Fight
It – Simulate translation, repair, and sabotage with minigames as your buddies
battle it out
* Advance With the Story – New
missions, weapons, and loot delivered regularly
“In the online game space, customer service is vital," said
Wendy Dickerman, director of Customer Care, FireSky. "As a new company, FireSky
has found that it makes sense to partner with experienced, proven firms to
provide solutions for distribution and other key business aspects. We intend to
raise the bar in the MMORPG space with a higher calibre of customer service.
Convergys is going to help us get there."
“The online gaming industry continues to grow at a rapid
pace, and a key goal for the industry is to provide consumers with a superior
online gaming experience. Convergys solutions will help FireSky drive more
value from their online customer interactions, giving FireSky a clear,
competitive differentiation in this growing marketplace,” said Jim Boyce,
Convergys president, North America. “Convergys understood FireSky’s business
model and performance challenges and partnered with them to develop a win-win
technology support program for the Stargate Worlds community.”
Convergys provides
comprehensive, outsourced, business and consumer support functions, as well as
services for in-house contact centre operations. Everyday, we handle millions
of customer service interactions such as account service, billing inquiries,
technical support, and service dispatch, enhancing the customer’s experience and
driving more value from the relationship our clients have with their customers.
Convergys’ global delivery model enables us to provide support - on-shore,
offshore, or near-shore, whether in a contact centre or through our home agent
model. We provide our clients with state-of-the-art infrastructure and
self-care automation technology to not only increase customer satisfaction but
also reduce costs.
Telcordia in 'self-healing' battlefield networks for US Army
Piscataway, USA -- 5 November, 2008 - The US Army's Communications - Electronics Research, Development and Engineering Center (CERDEC) has selected
Telcordia to lead the network management portion of its Tactical Information
Technologies for Assured Networks (TITAN) Advanced Technology Objective. The four year, multi-million dollar contract is, says Telcordia, an acknowledgement of its pioneering role in developing advanced, reliable tactical
networks that can automatically route voice, video and data traffic around
damaged nodes in order to keep soldiers and officers connected.
"On the battlefield, communications can mean life or death," said
Ritu Chadha, chief scientist and TITAN Program Manager, Advanced Technology
Solutions, Telcordia. "Self-healing, ad hoc mobile networks are designed
to ensure secure, reliable communications even under the most extreme
conditions, including nodes constantly on the move or destroyed in battle. By
leading the TITAN project, Telcordia is not only helping to ensure that US troops can
stay connected under any conditions, but also developing next generation
technologies that one day can be used to improve the reliability of consumer
and enterprise networks."
Telcordia's work will focus on generating network management policies from
mission specifications; integrated fault and information assurance (IA)
correlation; automated response to diagnosed network faults and IA problems;
adaptive middleware for automated adaptation to network conditions; joint
policy-based network management and software-in-the-loop simulation and
testing.
Working for the Army Research Labs, Telcordia has developed techniques to
analyse mobile network protocols, including various versions of Mobile IP, DNS,
routing and clustering protocols, and recommended improved designs.
Telefónica O2 Czech Republic launches personalised mobile internet
Prague, Czech Republic & Dublin, Ireland. 17 November, 2008: ChangingWorlds, specialists in mobile data personalisation and subscriber intelligence for mobile operators, today announced a new deal that will launch a personalised mobile internet service for Telefónica O2 Czech Republic. ChangingWorlds has worked with O2 UK and O2 Germany for many years but this is their first implementation with O2 Czech Republic.
Consisting of a new O2 internet-like portal and a browser bar that provides intuitive navigation support for users browsing off-portal, this O2 ‘True Internet’ proposition seamlessly integrates mobile internet content services with key services from O2 Active and its partner sites. ChangingWorlds’ ClixSmart system is employed to simplify mobile internet access, engage O2 users and optimise internet usability on the mobile handset.
O2 Czech Republic chose ChangingWorlds’ solution to improve the end user experience and personal value gained from using the mobile internet. ChangingWorld's Personalisation technology achieves this by reducing the information gap and increasing awareness of new relevant services for each O2 user.
The personalisation engine automatically selects new, fresh and relevant content for each user, based on learned user content preferences and behavioural patterns. In addition, the ClixSmart device management system optimises content presentation and screen flows to the specific capabilities of each O2 handset.
ChangingWorlds also provides in-depth reporting of both on- and off-portal activity which enables O2 to recognise, manage and leverage learned browsing trends, both established and emerging. Moreover, intuitive ClixSmart content management applications allow O2 portal managers to assume full control of the service.
Speaking today, Lorcan Jordan, program director for ChangingWorlds said: “O2 Czech Republic sees the delivery of a highly personalised mobile internet experience as an essential step in strengthening its competitive position in the now established mobile internet marketplace. The new personalised mobile internet service powered by ChangingWorlds’ technology improves the internet user experience by delivering relevant content to each individual. ChangingWorlds and O2 will continue to collaborate and extend the mobile internet data service with the ultimate aim of providing a ubiquitous, personalised internet channel for all O2 data users.”
Also speaking today, Jan Karas, marketing director of the residential segment from Telefónica O2 Czech Republic, said: “The launch of a personalised mobile internet service is an integral part of the O2 Czech Republic mobile data strategy to optimise the user experience and to ensure O2 can offer a convincing internet experience to our mobile users. This service will also enable us to monetise off-portal activity and to up-sell key value-add O2 data services. Vitally, it also ensures that we can assume control of the mobile internet browsing experience so that it enhances, rather than detracts from, our O2 Active portal.”
Econet Wireless Kenya set to go live with new pre-integrated, pre-configured CRM
London, UK. 17 November, 2008 – Start-up mobile communications provider, Econet
Wireless Kenya is set to go live with Cerillion Express, the new pre-integrated
and pre-configured CRM and billing
system. The news follows on from Econet’s recent decision
to install Cerillion Technologies ’s Interconnect Manager system.
Cerillion Express provides all the elements required to support a
communication provider’s business in one off-the-shelf package. Utilising core elements of Cerillion’s
bundled component product suite, the solution covers the entire customer
lifecycle from initial sales and order handling to billing and collections.
“We were attracted to Cerillion Express because it facilitates rapid
time to market,” says Jitendra Sharma, general manager, IT at Econet Wireless
Kenya. “Cerillion’s solution can be implemented quickly and cost-effectively
because it is pre-configured and pre-integrated. This has allowed us to accelerate
our service roll-out plans.”
Cerillion Express also supports the integration of pre-paid and post-paid functionality.
This has enabled Econet to achieve competitive edge by offering both types of service
to customers from the first day of their operation.
Michael Foley, CEO, Econet
Wireless Kenya comments: “The mobile-specific nature of Cerillion Express and
the ease of integration it supports have been critical in enabling us to meet
all of our tight project deadlines and we are confident that it will allow us
to provide all our customers with the best possible service from launch.”
Louis Hall, chief executive, Cerillion Technologies
says: “The ability of Cerillion Express to grow in breadth and sophistication
to keep pace with users’ expanding needs makes it ideally suited to a rapidly-growing
operator like Econet. We believe that Econet’s decision to implement Cerillion
Express is particularly significant not only in marking the first installation using
this pioneering new deployment model but also in signalling a further key step
in the growing business relationship between our two companies.”