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
Pre-paid/Post-paid
EXCLUSIVE: Ericsson & LHS explain merger plans
In an exclusive interview with VanillaPlus magazine (Feb 2008 issue),
Jan Wäreby, head of Ericsson's Business Unit Multimedia and Wolfgang
Kroh, CEO of LHS have described the reasons behind the Swedish giant's
surprise acquisition of LHS, a leading billing and customer care
systems provider.
VanillaPlus asked: "Why did Ericsson need to acquire LHS and why now?"
"LHS' leading billing and customer care solutions, together with Ericsson's leadership in real-time charging and mediation, make us a leading player in revenue management and strengthen our overall multimedia offering," replied Wäreby. "We feel very strongly that convergent charging and billing solutions with real-time charging capabilities will become a standard requirement for operators to support the products and services that subscribers increasingly expect.
The interview went on to investigate what will now change and how the combination of LHS' billing and customer care solutions with Ericsson's real-time charging and mediation offering will benefit their operator customers?
What, we wondered, has been the response of LHS’ customers, operators and partners?
"The response from our customers has been extremely positive," said Kroh. "I believe most of our customers recognise the expertise and also the stability that a company of Ericsson’s size brings. For our partners that compete with Ericsson, such as the other major network equipment vendors, the news of the acquisition was understandably greeted with caution. However, we have given assurances that LHS and Ericsson are committed to an open approach and that all such partners will be treated fairly and with an even hand. While discussions are still ongoing with some of these partners, we are continuing to engage in new partner projects. By way of example, Alcatel-Lucent has won three new customers for LHS since the announcement of the Ericsson acquisition.
"The response from our integrator partners has also been very positive. They recognise the additional growth and number of projects that an organisation like Ericsson brings to the table, and wish to participate in the new opportunities and growth that the acquisition will generate," added Kroh.
The two men are well known in the telecoms industry. Jan Wäreby is SVP of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson and head of Business Unit Multimedia. From 2002 to 2006, Wäreby was Corporate EVP, and head of Sales & Marketing, for Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications and played an integral role in establishing the joint venture.
From 2000 to 2001 Wolfgang Kroh held senior positions at Digiquant Deutschland, in Neu-Isenburg, and subsequently became managing director at EMC² Deutschland. In 2006, he returned to LHS having previously worked there from 1997 to 2000, and was named CEO in July of that year.
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
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."
Openet loyalty app allows Tier 1s to enhance customer experience
April
18, 2008 – Openet, a provider of transactional intelligence for the world’s largest and most diverse service providers, has launched its new Loyalty Programs application.
Through the Openet FusionWorks
Product Suite™, Openet is
enabling service providers to more effectively leverage their existing
transactional data to enhance and extend customer relationships.
According to Openet, telecom
operators are finally realising that service innovation and convergence
are not the only ways to increase revenue and ARPU (average revenue per
user). Instead, they are shifting their primary focus from customer
acquisition to customer loyalty — innovating creative loyalty and affinity
programmes to increase “stickiness” and improve customer satisfaction and
brand perception. Innovative loyalty programmes can stimulate service usage
and the deployment of new opportunities, however they must be timely,
targeted and relevant in order for customers to see and appreciate the
value.
“Service
provider marketers are racing to keep up with customer expectations for
personalised services and
enhancements, and well-designed loyalty programmes are a tremendous
opportunity to communicate directly with enticing offers that will keep
customers coming back,” said Openet CMO, Mike Manzo. “The key is accurate and
real-time data on usage, thresholds and style of account to ensure you’re
targeting the right offer to the right customer. Leveraging FusionWorks
together with our Loyalty Programs application gives marketers the
real-time visibility and actionable information to capture and retain
customer attention and revenue, now and in the
future.”
Some
of the enhancements more readily possible with
Openet’s Loyalty Programs
application include:
•
Awarding points based on usage, tenure or transaction thresholds
• Points
programmes that allow customers to take advantage of service provider and
third-party offerings
• Free initial usage of new or existing services,
such as SMS, video downloads and ringtones. For example, service providers
can offer long-time customers a free month of text messages to coincide
with a user’s birthday month.
Tier
1s are constantly faced with high churn rates for pre-paid, hybrid and contract
subscribers. The ability to segment customer data brings service providers
the chance to identify the right situations where loyalty programmes can
either enhance a relationship or counteract the timing when users might
consider another provider, such as when a pre-paid customer is about to
top off and extend minutes. As service providers focus on extending
customer relationships and revenue for next generation services, capturing
and keeping customer attention is paramount, and targeted loyalty
offerings — such as these enabled by Openet — are
a direct way to positively impact lifetime subscriber value, improve
satisfaction and brand perception, and stimulate new services usage.
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
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.
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.”
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”.
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.
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.
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.”