Vanillaplus October-November 2010

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Innovative thinking from NetCracker leads to dramatic TOMS growth BUSINESS ANALYTICS Telecoms under attack!

CARRIERS WORLD No clear response to the OTT threat CLOCKING OFF! Blue Chips see red at Execs’ colourful moves BSS/OSS DIRECTORY Latest Industry Listings inside SPECIAL OFFER FT Telecoms Conference: 25% OFF for VP readers!

WITH THIS ISSUE 16-Page Supplement Management World Americas, Orlando

OPERATOR CEO INTERVIEW: Virgin on being the contender?

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PLUS!

Openet replies to Amdocs Lawsuit • NSN takes stake in OpenCloud Netezza sold to IBM, Intec to CSG • ZTE launches SDP as a Service

Parallels enables Communication Service Providers to rapidly become proďŹ table providers of Cloud services. With our services automation software that integrates with OSS/BSS systems, Parallels makes it easy to launch and manage Cloud services.

www.parallels.com/csp

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13 TALKING HEADS Andrew Feinberg, CEO, NetCracker

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IN THIS ISSUE EDITOR’S COMMENT

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NEWS Company, Product, Contract News and our new People News column.

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CONTRACT HOT LIST Major contracts awarded globally.

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TALKING HEADS NetCracker’s CEO, Andrew Feinberg, describes the extraordinary journey NetCracker has taken to become one of the world’s largest OSS providers.

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EXPERT OPINION: BUSINESS ANALYTICS Dr Alastair Hanlon and Michael Lightfoot talk over cost savings and service differentiation.

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TELECOMS UNDER ATTACK! Alun Lewis asks if business analytics can help CSPs fight off the encroaching internet and entertainment sectors.

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EXPERT OPINION: SERVICE ASSURANCE 20 Cyril Doussau de Bazignan tells why CSPs’ service and performance assurance spending are increasing.

EXPERT OPINION: CLOUD SERVICES Service providers take note: Alain Decartes has a big revenue opportunity to put to you.

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ENTERPRISES NEED A HAND TO HOLD IN THE CLOUD 24 George Malim explores what providers of PaaS, IaaS, and SaaS can do to guide cloud services.

18 TELECOMS UNDER ATTACK!

24 A HAND TO HOLD IN THE CLOUD

30 REAL-TIME BILLING

NetCracker Technology, a subsidiary of NEC Corporation, is the leading provider of Telecom Operations and Management Systems (TOMS) to Communications Service Providers (CSPs) worldwide. Its comprehensive software and services capabilities enable CSPs to successfully undertake Business Transformations and evolve their business models to match changing competitive and customer requirements. NetCracker’s TOMS software and services are used to rapidly monetise network infrastructure, deliver and manage content-rich offerings, reduce cost of operations, and deliver a superior customer experience. Founded in 1993, NetCracker was acquired by NEC Corporation in 2008. Visit www.NetCracker.com for more information.

EXPERT OPINION: CLOUD SERVICES Service providers can’t afford to miss out SMEs in their cloud offering, says Seth Nesbitt.

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OPERATOR INTERVIEW: VIRGIN MEDIA BUSINESS Is this the bit of the company that Virgin didn’t want? Not now (if ever) says its CEO.

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EXPERT OPINION: REAL-TIME BILLING Why convergent real-time billing systems are vital for future operator growth.

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EXPERT OPINION: POLICY & CHARGING Rafi Kretchmer and Guy Hilton say it takes two to tango if the dance is data monetisation.

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WEBINAR PREVIEW: REAL-TIME CHARGING Dave Labuda and Dan Baker discuss the market forces driving operators towards real-time systems.

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EXPERT OPINION: PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS 37 How can predictive analytics improve your subscribers’ experience? Chris Smith can tell you.

WEBINAR PREVIEW: TRANSFORM FOR CLOUD SERVICES 38 Hamid Modarressi tells how to transform your OSS, BSS and processes to enable cloud services.

WEBINAR PREVIEW: BETTER END USER EXPERIENCES Join us on November 25 to find out about the business models for enhancing next gen communications user experiences.

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EVENT PREVIEWS What’s On and Where to Go!

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EVENT REVIEW Carriers see no clear response to the OTT threat.

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EXPERT OPINION: 3rd PARTY APPS Fergus O’Reilly takes the long view on building platforms for the hyper-connected world.

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PARTNER MANAGEMENT Mark Dye reports on the value of location, presence and preference data.

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WEBINAR REVIEW: BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION Responding quickly to change with innovative cloud services was the message from Microsoft and MetraTech’s recent webinar.

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VIDEO PREVIEW: LTE SERVICES A warning is coming from Paul Gowans of the perils of failing to prepare your LTE trial.

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OPINION: MANAGED SERVICES 50 The new ‘service innovation’ layer is a critical enabler for mobile operators, says Pat McCarthy.

2011 VANILLAPLUS DIRECTORY The annual VanillaPlus Directory of BSS & OSS providers for communication services.

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CLOCKING OFF! George Malim is baffled by the Blue Chips’ inability to manage succession at the top.

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MANAGEMENT WORLD AMERICAS, ORLANDO SUPPLEMENT See our Special Supplement, wrapped with this issue - 16 pages of unrivalled information on an event that comes at a critical time for telcos.

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EDITORIAL ADVISORS

Fighting for Virgin-ity

Jeremy Cowan, Editor: See the Special Supplement on Management World Americas, and our annual 500-company BSS / OSS Directory (starts page 51).

A PR executive – who hadn’t done her homework very well – told me recently it was a shame we don’t cover mergers and acquisitions. Lately, we’ve been doing little else. For independent observers like ourselves they are among the clearest indicators of the state of Comms, Media & Entertainment. So, in this issue you will find reports (page 12) of IBM’s acquisition of data analytics firm, Netezza, and CSG Systems’ purchase of Intec, a story we broke in VanillaPlus in April. CSG only sold its Global Software and Services Division assets to Comverse late in 2005, enabling CSG “to intensify its focus on core competencies in the cable and DBS markets”. Meanwhile, Nokia Siemens Networks has taken a stake in its partner OpenCloud (page 5), but as George Malim points out in Clocking Off! (page 62) NSN may find its own future under scrutiny now that Nokia has a new man from Microsoft at the helm.

A deal with a difference is the one between NetCracker and NEC. The former, a fastgrowing OSS vendor but still quite small compared to NEC, was acquired by the Japanese technology giant in 2008. On pages 13-15 you can read from the CEO’s lips what made NEC place all its telecoms operations & management systems under NetCracker’s and his control. It’s not like any other merger I’ve reported.

There was some sniggering among service providers when Virgin Entertainment acquired the under-performing cable companies ntl and Telewest. The newly joined cableco was noted for poor customer care which hampered the reputation of its enviable fibre network. Even after the consumer business was re-branded as Virgin Media, the corporate business was still treated as a ‘country cousin’, part of the family but not yet deserving the valued Virgin brand. Well, all that’s changed and in an Exclusive and candid interview with VanillaPlus the CEO of the re-branded Virgin Media Business tells us of his team’s work to earn the Virgin label, and his goals for the business.

John Aalbers, chief executive, Volubill

Dan Baker, Research Director, Technology Research Institute

Martin Creaner, president, TM Forum

Andreas Freund, VP Marketing, Orga Systems GmbH

Louis Hall, chief executive, Cerillion Technologies

Barbara Lancaster, president, LTC International

Gaby Matsliach, general manager, BSS Product Line, Comverse

Pat McCarthy, VP of Global Marketing, Service Delivery Solutions, Telcordia

Simon Muderack, COO, Tribold

Andrew Taylor, CEO, Intec

Mac Taylor, CEO, The Moriana Group

Andrew Wyatt, head of Solutions Management, Subscriber Data Management, Nokia Siemens Networks

Chris Yeadon, director of Product Marketing, LHS

Doug Zone, chief technology officer, MetraTech

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Virgin Media Business’s CEO, Mark Heraghty talks exclusively to VanillaPlus about what it took to win the Virgin name (page 27).

EDITOR & PUBLISHER Jeremy Cowan Tel: +44 (0) 1420 588638 editorial@vanillaplus.com DIGITAL EDITOR Nathalie Bisnar Tel: +44 (0) 1732 808690 nathalie@vanillaplus.com

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BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Cherisse Draper Tel: +44 (0) 1732 897646 cherisse@vanillaplus.com SALES EXECUTIVE Lydia Harris Tel: +44 (0) 1732 897648 lydia@vanillaplus.com

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Openet CEO agrees to meet Amdocs execs in lawsuit over alleged ‘patent infringement’ Amdocs is suing Openet for alleged infringement of two US patents and the “substantial damages” it says have been caused as a result.

Contacting both parties for their Niall Norton, comments, Niall Openet CEO told VanillaPlus Norton, Openet he is surprised Telecom’s Chief at the Executive Officer, allegations told VanillaPlus that (as at 4 October) no papers have been served by Amdocs.

However, Openet has received a letter from Amdocs’ lawyers asking for a meeting to discuss the alleged infringements.

The patents, issued in 2004 and 2009 refer, respectively, to the “System, Method and Computer Program Product for Network Record Synthesis” and “System, Method, and Computer Program Product for Merging Data in a Network-Based Filtering and Aggregating Platform”.

The action covers, but is not limited to, Openet’s FusionWorks system.

An Amdocs spokesperson would only say: "Amdocs is the owner of several key technology patents around mediation and core event processing that it alleges Openet is knowingly and unlawfully infringing upon. As stated in the lawsuit, this infringement has caused and continues to cause substantial damages to Amdocs."

Openet’s CEO replied: “We’re very surprised at this development.

Amdocs have applied with the court in Virginia to have a court hearing. They haven’t actually served any papers on Openet, their lawyers have written us a letter saying they believe there may be grounds for patent infringement and that they’d like to have a conversation with us. We’ve responded saying, ‘Sure, let us know when you’d like to meet and who you’d like to have at the table’.”

“We work on the basis that if Amdocs really believe there’s something there they’ll press ahead with it. And if they don’t they won’t. I think it’s fair to say that we’re not hugely intimidated by this. We’re surprised at it from a technology perspective,” said Norton.

“It’s kind of flattering, because for years Amdocs has been hugely dismissive of Openet and companies like Openet. We’d been dismissed as ‘mediation-only’ and totally irrelevant, but Openet is suddenly worthy of initiating all this excitement. In a weird kind of way, and not necessarily in a way that I enjoy, it is quite a compliment.”

Norton added, “I remain open-minded as to where the conversation with these guys goes – it’s nice validation that we’re an industry player, acknowledged by one of the other industry players.”

“It (legal action) is very common amongst the bigger players. One of the advantages of having quite seasoned Board members on our side is that none of these guys are particularly shocked or awed by it,” Norton concluded.

Subscribe FREE to VanillaPlus Bites News updates at www.vanillaplus.com

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Nokia Siemens and VCs invest €6m in NZ’s OpenCloud New Zealand-based OpenCloud Ltd, a supplier of real-time application server software for next-generation convergent telecoms services, has received an investment of £4 million from Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), one of the world’s largest telecoms hardware, software and services companies, plus an additional £1 million from its existing venture capital (VC) investors Advent Venture Partners and No 8 Ventures.

In addition, OpenCloud has secured an OEM agreement that will see its Rhino Telecom Application Server and Service Interaction Server being integrated into NSN’s charge@once unified product suite. This is said to create a modular, scalable and flexible convergent charging system. For the last two years, OpenCloud and NSN have enjoyed an increasingly successful working partnership, securing 13 joint customers in that time. As a spokesman told VanillaPlus, this represents roughly 30% of all OpenCloud's orders in that period.

The £5m (€6.1m) investment will be used

by OpenCloud to expand globally, and to extend its partner and application portfolios, and will assist the development of future products.

OpenCloud’s revenues have tripled year-on-year and it now includes BT, Vodafone and T-Mobile among its current customer base of over 30 mobile and fixed network telecom operators.

“This investment will allow NSN to address the considerable converged charging and service delivery platform opportunities in the market,” says Rick Centeno, Head of Charging, Billing and Care, Nokia Siemens Networks. “We will be able to better provide our customers with an integrated offering to fit their end-to-end needs around service development, delivery, control and charging”.

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SDP as a Service launched at Summit by ZTE to support multi-domain service convergence, or an environment where developers can collaborate and share innovative services.

New Convergys patent for billing simultaneous events Cincinnati, Ohio-based Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG) has received a new patent from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a breakthrough that Vinay Mehta redefines the way CSPs can rate and bill realtime, pre-paid and postpaid subscriber events.

The USPTO awarded the formal patent to Convergys for new system of computerised processing and billing of pre- and post-paid simultaneous events. Convergys created this system to enable CSPs to process, charge, and bill concurrent events performed by the customer, such as taking a call, downloading a song, and sending a text message, all in real time.

According to Vinay Mehta, Convergys Senior Vice President, Software Development, “Making this advanced functionality available can give carriers all over the world enhanced revenue assurance capabilities that directly impact their bottom line.”

Basset unveils RevUp Interconnect v3.0 to maximise revenues Sweden’s Basset has launched version 3.0 of RevUp Interconnect, with a toolset that the company says you can easily recognise and integrate. It gives access to functions and processing for instant payback. Delivered ready for full use from day one, it reportedly demands a minimal learning curve.

This complete interconnect billing system aims to help operators maximise their revenues within this important domain. The features of RevUp Interconnect 3.0 also include: A claimed best-in-class business intelligence tool and reporting capabilities and a streamlined and optimised user interface that considers repetitive tasks and limits user errors.

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Through the abstraction of network service capabilities and the introduction of new service capabilities, the CSN provides service integration and realises convergence of capabilities offered by different networks. Innovative applications can be supported with easily manageable and chargeable service capabilities, reportedly accelerating the development cycle of converged services. By expanding the service delivery process of the traditional SDP, the CSN not only supports service capability operations, but also provides a platform for application developers, enabling an end-to-end service.

ZTE’s CSN incorporates traditional SDP architecture and cloud computing features

ZTE launched its Converged Service Network (CSN) at the SDP Global Summit in London in September. ZTE’s CSN incorporates traditional SDP architecture and cloud computing features, enabling an SDPaaS (SDP as a Service) solution for the first time. The CSN provides an efficient and stable service network platform to operators, third-party application providers, and individual or group application developers.

“In today's mobile broadband market when operators rely on service innovations as their key competitive edge, ‘crowd sourcing’ has become the best solution to enable service innovation. With a new service network as enabled by CSN, operators can support co-operation by developers and individuals, and enable service development and customisation by using simple, practical, and graphical development tools. Moreover, operators can easily manage service capabilities, deployment and operations of services, as well as development cycle management,” said Kong Dechun, ZTE's VAS Software Chief Engineer.

The CSN is a new service network platform integrating mobile and fixed network infrastructure onto a basic platform that supports both internet and telecoms services, providing a flexible solution with efficient management and control features. Traditional SDPs also provide the flexibility to support and manage different services, but are not able

HP helps telcos provide businesses with cloud-based mobile device management A system that helps wireless and broadband service providers generate new revenue by offering mid-sized businesses cloud-based mobile device management services has been announced by HP.

systems and applications. With HP CSE for DMaaS, CSPs can provide businesses with an efficient, flexible, services-on-demand solution. Through a secure, customisable web portal, IT staff can manage mobile devices and PCs via the cloud. Using overthe-air technology they can configure devices, distribute applications, diagnose problems, enforce security policies and protect data with full back-up and restore capability.

With HP Cloud Services Enablement for Device Management as a Service (HP CSE for DMaaS), communications service providers (CSPs) can help businesses solve a costly and burdensome problem: managing employee smartphones, notebooks and other mobile devices.

The benefits for businesses are: reduced cost, complexity and risk; access to stateof-the-art mobile device management technology; reduced capital investment; and the ability to extend high-value productivity applications to mobile workers.

As work moves outside the office, businesses must support a wide array of mobile devices, networks, operating

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NEWS IN BRIEF

Chip and PIN payment app soon in use on BlackBerryTM

MGt aims to simplify micropayments with launch of one-click pre-paid PayWizard™ MGt, a provider of software and solutions for billing and customer management to complex, multiplatform media businesses has launched a new micropayments Stephen Petheram, MGt: system called PayWizard™ that Multi-device, one-click offers single-click use micropayments for content consumers, and greater profitability and functionality for service providers. It is designed to revolutionise how micropayments for digital content are monetised, by enabling content owners, broadcasters and service providers to build more profitable long-term relationships with their content users and viewers.

connected TVs. The PayWizard user interface on all devices is said to be intuitive, enabling viewers to complete their transactions quickly and easily.

PayWizard account holders can securely manage all of their account details and preferences through the PayWizard website.

For content owners, broadcasters and service providers, PayWizard offers a ‘per transaction’ business model that can be considerably more cost-effective than incumbent payment service provider (PSP) systems. It also displays customer-specific transaction data on a dashboard in real-time across a large range of variables such as device used, transaction size, location, customer identity and demographics.

This can provide valuable marketing information and data on viewer behaviour, to assist marketing managers to create campaigns and monitor their effectiveness. The dashboard gives the content owner, broadcaster or service provider instant feedback on transactions, consumption patterns, revenues and information on the content being purchased. PayWizard facilitates the creation of personalised promotions and offers as well as informed cross-device revenue opportunities.

At the core of the new PayWizard system is a pre-paid e-wallet that securely supports micropayment transactions in multiple currencies (currently Euros, US dollars and Pounds Sterling). The e-wallet can be topped up in a variety of ways, including direct debit, one-off or periodic credit card payments, and via automated payments based on a user-defined threshold.

PayWizard can also manage all traditional subscription-based pay-TV billing.

MGt’s client list for its existing products includes providers of content and services such as BT Retail, BT Vision, Discovery Networks, Freeview, Sony Entertainment, and Top Up TV.

A key feature of the PayWizard e-wallet is its ability to support continual card authorisation, thereby enabling singleclick buying. The viewer can avoid timeconsuming logins which often lead to consumer frustration and incomplete transactions. He or she can gain immediate access to their chosen content, improving customer satisfaction and increasing loyalty to the service provider.

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The card is read and the user’s PIN entered on a separate Bluetooth-linked PIN pad that can be paired to the smartphone. The data is encrypted while in transit and on a smartphone, then sent over a wireless network to authorise the transaction. A receipt can then be sent to the customer by email, SMS or in paper format from an optional printer.

Truly mobile payment solutions are typically used by field service technicians and mobile traders, as well as for queue-busting in busy retail environments.

Although CardEase Mobile can be used as a standalone application, such as selling clothing and merchandise at a festival, it is aimed at third-party developers who can integrate with other smartphone apps such as retail order-taking or field service.

CreditCall reports that an easy-touse API will be available as well.

For the latest BSS/OSS news go to: www.vanillaplus.com

“We believe that PayWizard fulfils the need for an independent, commercially attractive, multi-device micropayment solution. In the increasingly diverse and fragmented world of digital media, attracting and retaining viewers is more challenging than ever and requires a sophisticated set of tools,” commented Stephen Petheram, Marketing Director at MGt.

PayWizard supports transactions made on any device, including mobile devices, PCs, digital set-top boxes, and

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CreditCall is developing a payment app called CardEase Mobile that allows fully secured Chip & PIN (EMV) or magneticstripe transactions to take place on BlackBerry and other smartphones. The service will be available soon from the usual online resources.

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www.comptel.com

Take Charge of Your Services!

Policy Control & Charging Meet Meet Comptel Comptel at at Management Management World World Orlando, Orlando, 9-11 9-11 November November 2010, 2010, Booth Booth:#28 28

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ICE Costa Rica launches push email service Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), Costa Rica’s incumbent telecoms provider, has launched its mass-market push email service. The service is based on Mobile Gateway middleware from Synchronica plc, an international provider of next-generation mobile messaging services.

compatibility by using the built-in email and synchronisation clients found in a wide range of handsets, in addition to email-toMMS and email-to-SMS for basic handsets.

Oscar Arias, Director, Services Division at ICE, commented: “For a push email service to succeed in Costa Rica it needs to be affordable and to work on any handset, from high-end smartphones down to entry-level devices. Synchronica’s solution ticked both boxes.”

The ICE service, branded Syncronizate, will add new push functionality to the existing ICE webmail service – Acelera. The Syncronizate service will be provided free of charge to any Acelera or internet GPRS subscriber.

Carsten Brinkschulte, CEO of Synchronica, added: “Mobile operators are looking at data services to shore up declining revenues caused by falling voice tariffs. Mobile email has proven to be a very appealing data service, which can help to reduce churn and improve ARPU.”

Syncronizate allows Costa Rican consumer and business subscribers to enjoy push email and synchronisation services, without upgrading or replacing their existing mobile handsets. Synchronica’s Mobile Gateway reportedly provides 100% device

TELUS inks multi-year deal with Acision for advanced messaging solution TELUS has signed a multi-year agreement to use Acision’s advanced messaging system across the operator’s multiple mobile network technologies, including CDMA 2000, UMTS, HSPA+ and iDEN. With Canadian text traffic growing in 2009 at a year-on-year rate of 70% (source: Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association), TELUS has turned to Acision for help in serving the traffic surge.

Acision’s advanced messaging system is also designed to enable operators to scale easily and launch additional mobile data services such as MMS, as well as innovative and personalised messaging services.

Interconnection for two new i-conX clients in Fiji

Asiacell chooses Movius for Missed Call service

i-conX Solutions, an inter-carrier billing and routing optimisation systems vendor, reports that two new customers have entered live service with its v9 interconnect billing system. The customers are Vodafone Fiji, Fiji’s leading mobile carrier by market share, and Fintel, an international carrier linking Fiji and the Pacific islands to the world.

Launched in 1994, Vodafone Fiji was the first mobile telco to offer 3G services. The operator has deployed the system in response to Fijian national telecoms deregulation, enacted in July 2009. The telco is using the i-conX a-s-p service, a webbased, hosted solution, under which the i-conX interconnect billing system is accessed remotely and securely by onsite users.

Iraqi mobile operator, Asiacell has chosen Movius Interactive Corporation to provide missed call services for its eight million customers across the country.

Movius will provide Missed Call Notification and also Call Back Now capabilities.

“These new services will improve (the customer) experience and will allow us to increase revenues and improve customer loyalty still further,” said Jamal Omer, Products & Service Manager at Asiacell. “Our Movius Versera ICE platform also gives us the scope to introduce further revenuegenerating applications as we move forward.”

The deal provides Vodafone Fiji with an endto-end, fully integrated interconnect billing solution to facilitate the accurate rating, charging and settlement of their domestic and international interconnect business. i-conX has also added value through its EDR File Importation capabilities.

Fintel is licensing i-conX’s v9 interconnect billing system

an international gateway linking Fiji and the Pacific islands to the world. The carrier selected i-conX to execute “Project Fix”, replacing its obsolete interconnect billing and settlement solution. As part of Project Fix, the previous mediation device was also de-commissioned and replaced by i-conX’s CDR automated File Import engine.

Fintel, in which the Fijian Government and Cable & Wireless are major shareholders, occupies a strategic profile within the region

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These new notification services are ideal for scenarios where subscribers regularly power off to save battery life or, in the case of prepay customers, to control usage due to low balances.

Additionally, it provides a solution for areas where there are regular gaps in network coverage or where voicemail usage is low due to cultural or personal preferences.

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Welcome to our regular new Jobs column, brought to you by Kineticom, sponsors of People News NeoMedia Europe AG appoints Lenselink to Supervisory Board

Frank H Lenselink

NeoMedia Technologies, Inc., a mobile barcode scanning solutions provider, reports that Frank H Lenselink has joined the supervisory board of NeoMedia Europe AG, its wholly-owned subsidiary, based in Würselen, Germany. The company provides technology for barcode reading systems and software for mobile communications applications.

“There has never been a better time to be at the heart of the mobile barcode industry. NeoMedia Europe has and continues to be very active and focused on helping to bring 2d barcode services to businesses and consumers to harness the potential of mobile marketing,” said Lenselink.

With more than 20 years’ experience of working with US and European multinationals, Frank is the Director of Channel Sales and a member of the Retail Board at Wincor-Nixdorf, where he has developed a new Global Partner Model.

Tina Taylor is the new commercial director at 4th Screen Advertising Mobile advertising agency, 4th Screen Advertising has appointed Tina Taylor as its commercial director in the UK. With over 10 years of commercial digital experience and strengths in delivering branded content and video, Tina will take responsibility for championing sales, direct brand and agency relationships, as well as growing 4th Screen’s premium publisher network which includes Bauer Media, Virgin, Shazam, Voucher Cloud, Global Radio, Vodafone, Tesco Mobile, the Guardian and others.

Prior to joining 4th Screen Tina was digital director at brand partnerships agency, Kameleon Worldwide, part of the All3 Media group and at Channel 4 New Media as a commercial manager. At Channel 4 she worked across display, branded content and 4OD offering multiple digital engagement opportunities for advertisers.

VanillaPlus builds new services with Bridges VanillaPlus has appointed Mark Bridges as its new Business Development Manager. Mark joins the rapidly growing team at VanillaPlus from the post of Advertising Manager at Datateam Media. He will have responsibility for developing digital and print services, that now include Video Talking Heads, VanillaPlus Bites, vanillaplus.com, VanillaPlus magazine, and the Thought Leadership Webinar series.

Mark Bridges: Growing range of VanillaPlus services

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Business Development Director, Cherisse Draper, said: “This is a key appointment for VanillaPlus.

Mark’s experience and enthusiasm will help us to deliver the growing range of services from VanillaPlus, a range of services that is about to get even broader.”

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

Talent war is brewing Dear VanillaPlus reader, As the Managing Director of a specialist OSS/BSS recruitment firm, Kineticom Ltd, I have provided telecoms resource solutions to virtually every major carrier, vendor and systems integrator over the last 20 years.

Jason Bandy The need for organisations to attract the best talent and the desire for individuals to further their careers has always remained constant – but that’s about to change!

A recent survey showed that over 80% of Europe’s OSS/BSS talent pool is actively looking or will consider a career move in the coming year. There’s a significant rise in the number of live vacancies, and 2011 will see far greater people movement than most organisations anticipate. Companies need to prepare for extreme levels of churn.

I listened recently to OSS/BSS speakers talking about the demand for bandwidth and new data services, the need for enhanced billing and rating solutions, and the cloud computing fanfare. Many speakers rightly touched on the importance of their people.

Most technology companies don’t do recruitment very well. However, the world’s two fastest growing and richest technology companies stand out as exemplary hirers. They invest well, treat every candidate as a customer (smart thinking); give fast, open feedback; develop their own candidate networks and do more than keep in touch. They work with recruiters to clarify, identify and assess the talent pool in ways that are far superior to less successful organisations.

Whatever size your organisation may be, I suggest you must make “RECRUIT BRILLIANTLY” your mantra for 2011, or you may find yourselves with significant holes in your organogram.

Jason Bandy, Director, Kineticom Ltd. Jason.Bandy@kineticom.co.uk Tel: +44(0)845 370 2900 Mobile: +44 (0)7500 013084 www.kineticom.co.uk Thank you to Kineticom, sponsors of VanillaPlus People News

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VanillaPlus Hot List: VanillaPlus October/ November 2010 The Hot List below shows the companies informing us of recent contract wins or product deployments.

If your contract is not listed here email the details to us now marked "Hot List" <editorial@vanillaplus.com> Vendor(s)

Client, Country

Product / Service (Duration & Value)

Acision

Telus, Canada

Messaging service to support 70% annual national growth in SMS traffic

Basset

INWI, Morocco

Installation in three months of RevUp roaming billing product

Deployed 9.2010 10.2010

Capgemini

Nokia Siemens Networks, Global

BPO of order management including the transfer of 400 employees

9.2010

Cisco

Cable& Wireless, UK

Platform for enterprise cloud computing system hosted within the WAN

9.2010

Comptel

SmarTone-Vodafone, Hong Kong

Product customisation to provide centralised, generic user profile system

9.2010

Comverse

Vietnamobile, Vietnam

BSS product expansion to support high growth in pre-paid subscriber base

9.2010

Convergys

TMN, Portugal

BSS upgrade to expand capability to run targeted subscriber campaigns

8.2010

Convergys

Unknown Operator, APAC

Consolidation of disparate billing platforms and system upgrade

9.2010

Convergys

Vodafone, Australia

Two components deployed from the Revenue Management Solutions suite

8.2010

Convergys

Unnamed National Lottery, Europe

Multi-year licensing, support, maintenance deal for billing & commissioning

8.2010

Convergys

Unnamed Online Consulting co.

3-year contract for the use of Convergys' Rating and Billing Manager

8.2010

Convergys

Kabel Deutschland, Germany

System to support digital TV, broadband internet and telephony triple play

9.2010

Flash Networks

Network Norway, Norway

Harmony Video Optimisation to manage mobile data traffic surge

9.2010

i-conX Solutions

Vodafone & Fintel, Fiji

Deployment of v9 interconnect billing product to two new clients

9.2010

IBM

Zon Multimedia, Portugal

Software to aggregate infrastructure components into a centralised view

7.2010

Intec

Telekom Malaysia, Malaysia

Legacy replaced with mediation to underpin high-speed broadband service

9.2010

JDSU

Chungwa Telecom, Taiwan

Labs use Signalling Analyzer Real Time to monitor network performance

9.2010

Junifer Systems

EMT, Estonia

System implementation to manage interconnect and wholesale agreements

9.2010

Movius Interactive

Asiacell, Iraq

Delivery of missed call services for 8 million subscribers

9.2010

Siemens Enterprise

Fed Employment Agency, Germany

€100m+ deal for connecting 1,900 sites and 165,000 end-user devices

9.2010

Openwave

Telfonica Espana, Spain

Integra upgrade to service 80% increase in mobile data traffic since 2001

9.2010

Orga Systems

life:), Ukraine

Supplying new active mediation and charging platform

0.2010

Scorecard Systems

Alltel Wireless, USA

Subscriber usage reporting and a commission calculation product

Sierra Wireless

Telus, Canada

Delivery of M2M services management

9.2010 10.2010

Subex

Unnamed CSO, Malaysia

3-year renewal of ROC Revenue Assurance contract

8.201

Subex

Econet Group, 3 African countries

Implement ROC Fraud Management & Revenue Assurance systems

8.2010

Subex

Eagle Mobile, Albania

Signs on for ROC (Revenue Operations Center) for fraud management

8.2010

Subex

Unnamed CSP, Peru

To deploy its ROC Fraud Management system

9.2010

Subex

Telekom Slovenije, Slovenia

CEMM product to create a dynamic credit risk limit to prevent bill shock

9.2010

Synchronica

ICE, Costa Rica

Push email & synchronisation launched without need for handset upgrades

8.2010

Synchronica

Unnamed mobile device maker

To certify and license all IMPS client to be installed on 6 handset models

9.2010

Teligent

BT Wholesale, UK

IVR deployed to Europe's largest in-network call termination platform

9.2010

ZTE

Telekomsel, Indonesia

Deployment of LTE trial network

9.2010

Key BPO: CEMM: CSP:

Business Process Optimisation Credit Exposure Management Module Communication Service Provider

IMPS: IVR: M2M:

Instant Messaging & Presence Services Interactive Voice Response Machine to Machine

BREAKING NEWS • BREAKING NEWS • BREAKING NEWS • BREAKING NEWS IBM pays US$1.7bn for Netezza

CSG to acquire Intec for £236m

The purchase of Netezza Corporation (NYSE: NZ) by IBM (NYSE: IBM) has been announced, with a sale price of $27 per share, valuing the company at $1.7 billion. The acquisition, which is subject to approvals, is expected to close in Q4, 2010. The boards have agreed that IBM will acquire Netezza, a publicly held company based in Marlborough, Massachusetts, in a cash transaction.

The boards of directors of CSG Systems International, Inc. and Intec Telecom Systems PLC have reached agreement on the terms of a recommended cash offer, to be made by a whollyowned subsidiary undertaking of CSG, for all issued (and to be issued) share capital of Intec. Scheme shareholders will receive 72.0 pence (82 Euro cents) in cash for each Intec share. The acquisition values Intec’s entire share capital at approximately £236.7 million (€270.8 million).

Netezza will expand IBM's business analytics initiatives to help clients gain faster insights into their business information, with increased performance at a lower cost. Netezza is a provider of high-performance analytics in a data warehousing appliance that reportedly can be up and running in a matter of hours, handling complex analytic queries 10 to 100 times faster than traditional systems.

For BSS/OSS News go to www.vanillaplus.com

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Commenting on the acquisition of Intec, Peter E Kalan, CEO of CSG, said: “Consumers have more choices for content, devices and providers. This has created an opportunity for service providers to differentiate their offerings by being more flexible and responsive to the end consumers. We believe that both Intec’s broad suite of solutions aimed at fixed mobile and next generation networks and CSG’s extensive customer interaction management suite will be attractive to one another’s customer base as well as service providers worldwide."

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Innovative thinking from NetCracker leads to dramatic TOMS growth An unusual go-to-market strategy from the start, zero borrowings, and consistent profitability are enough by themselves to mark out NetCracker among telecom ISVs of the last two decades. But throw in the extraordinary backing of Japanese technology giant and parent company, NEC and you have an intriguing story from a still-bullish CEO.

Andrew Feinberg is President and CEO of NetCracker Technology where he shapes the company’s corporate strategy and worldwide operations. Under him, NetCracker has grown to a leading position in Telecom Operations and Management Systems (TOMS), with customers in over 40 countries.

NetCracker was acquired by NEC Corporation in 2008, and since then he has assumed a global leadership role for NEC, including responsibility for a multibillion dollar services and software expansion. He holds a B.S. from Bentley University and an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

VanillaPlus: What was NetCracker’s history and development prior to the 2008 merger with NEC? Was it organic?

Andrew Feinberg: NetCracker started in 1993 with a vision that customers would evolve from network or access providers to service providers, the technology would move to IP and NGN, that IT and networks would converge, and that business and operational software solutions would be at the core of that transformation.

To that vision we added some innovation, creating the architecture for a flexible, scalable, end-to-end footprint, and finally we created a winning business model, delivering success through best products and complimentary services. All our growth (and there were years when we were more than doubling in size) was organic. The fact that we never raised any venture capital kept us extremely focused on flawless execution as, quite frankly, we really could not afford to make mistakes or pay for failures.

We worked very closely with our customers to do whatever was needed to get the job done and that dedication, and eventually our successful track record, earned us a strong reputation in the industry. We re-invested every penny into the business as we continued to grow. Most importantly perhaps, we attracted some of the most talented people around the world who are still with us and continue to make us successful.

NetCracker Technology’s President and CEO, Andrew Feinberg: “We could deliver greater benefits to our customers (with) a broader fulfillment footprint.”

We were early adopters of web technologies and adamant supporters of open architecture. We knew that carriers needed flexible and modular solutions, and designed our products that way from the beginning. We also understood the performance demands that carriers faced, and invested to make sure that our solutions could scale to meet those demands.

It sounds very obvious to you and me today, but remember this was a decade ago when everyone was promoting ‘plug and play’ architecture and it was very fashionable to have hundreds of best of breed products in an OSS / BSS footprint.

Finally, and equally importantly, we went against every conventional wisdom of the time and

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VP: Most independent systems vendors pursue a sales strategy that starts with Tier 2 and 3 communication service providers (CSPs). But that isn’t how you did it, is it?

AF: Well, it’s not like we entirely skipped that stage and I would never dismiss the contribution that Tier 2 and 3 players made to NetCracker along the way, as well as to the telecommunication industry as a whole. Many of those players brought to market some new, powerful services, great technologies and innovative business models.

Having said that, the world of Tier 1 is very different from the world of smaller players. To be a successful partner to a Tier 1 carrier one needs to accomplish two very difficult objectives, and this would come as no surprise to you. We needed to scale the technology and the organisation. We knew this from Day One, and made no compromises in achieving and investing in those two objectives. We invested heavily so that we’d have a carrier-class application, both from a software architecture and a functionality standpoint.

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“We went against insisted on delivering our products ourselves. every conventional wisdom of the time and insisted on delivering our products ourselves.”

Remember, these were the times when ISVs were supposed to be invisible creatures sitting behind system integrators. We believed, however, that working closely with our customers would help us ensure successful implementations as well as understand the true needs, both now and in the future. This highly unusual decision – whilst it made us very unpopular with a number of SIs in the market – earned us a 100% successful implementation track record. And, just like with our products, we invested heavily in our solution delivery capabilities along the way to make sure that we built a scalable and efficient organisation.

VP: You say that it made you unpopular with SIs at the time; are these fences that you have mended since?

AF: We have, and it’s fair to say that we’ve worked with every system integrator around the world, and worked with them very successfully.

However, our strategy has always been to look at our customer as the centre of the universe, and to work within the eco-system that is important to that customer. We never deployed a strategy that many other vendors in the industry did, which is to bet on a particular system integrator as a sales and delivery channel.

VP: You’ve talked publicly before about the different nature of your business model. You are, to use the jargon, a ‘boot-strapped’ company.

Can you explain for those not familiar with the term what you mean by that, and how you differ from your competitors?

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• Our customers, where we focus on delivering quantifiable results and value, and becoming a trusted strategic partner • Our technology, where we invest in the framework, applications, and solutions to maintain technological leadership • Our people, where we focus on growing, supporting, and investing in what we call the best IT network solutions workforce in the world • Financial results, coming back to our bootstrapped mentality, where we continue to grow the business while always ensuring profitability • Infrastructure, where we invest in training, processes, systems, and facilities to sustain our high growth rate on a global basis So, this has been our mantra for many years, and whatever we do, we come back to these five core values.

VP: We now come to the fascinating moment when the deal came about with NEC. How did it first appear to you and what were the drivers that made it happen, particularly when it did?

AF: Well, the few years prior to the NEC merger were extremely productive for NetCracker; we maintained a remarkable growth rate and profitability. At that point, Jeremy, we started looking at various growth options to satisfy demand for our solutions while maintaining our autonomy. We kept coming back to our core values and testing every option against them.

Let me remind you that NEC is a global entity with US$40 billion in annual revenues and over $3 billion of annual commitment to R&D. So, conducting that test told us that merging with NEC was the right strategy for us to accelerate our growth, gain access to other innovative technologies, increase our solution footprint, and gain access to additional sales channels and delivery resources.

Now, two years later looking back, we can say that the merger enabled us to expand in all of

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AF: Boot-strapping simply means that we never raised capital, so we always had to remain profitable, and we always made sure that our implementations were successful and delivered a return on investment to us and – just as importantly – to our customers. Our core values remained the same for almost two decades.

Since the very early days we had five priorities:

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those areas and solidify our position as market leader in the industry.

VP: You say market leadership, how do you assess that?

AF: That’s a very good question. I guess there are many ways of looking at leadership. To me a lot of this comes down to our customers, to brand recognition, and the reputation we enjoy around the globe. I don’t think there are many telecoms people today in North America and Europe – and increasingly in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America – who do not know what NetCracker does. The NetCracker name is synonymous with results, with delivering, with going an extra mile to make the customer successful. That to me is probably the most important, if intangible, measure of leadership.

But then you look at the quantitative results on revenues and the size of portfolio that you bring to market, you look at thought leadership and innovation, as well as investment that you make into future technologies. As we look at all these factors, I truly believe that NetCracker now – with the gigantic and highly innovative parent sitting behind us and supporting every move we make – has achieved that industry leadership.

VP: Why was NetCracker so important to NEC? AF: NEC is a very large company with a strong brand recognition in a number of areas, but is primarily known for its hardware (both Network and IT) and its strong position in the Japanese market.

Around the time of the acquisition NEC went to market with a strategy of moving more towards the solution space from the pure hardware space, as well as to become a dominant global player with diversified holdings outside Japan. So, NEC looked at NetCracker as a strong agent to help it achieve those objectives, with our solution

approach that combines software and services, and our global footprint where we had a significant customer base that was well diversified, not only from the type of customer standpoint (be they Tier 1 carriers, wireless, alternative operators, utilities, cable companies, etc.) but also geographically.

“We never raised

NEC clearly saw NetCracker not only as a channel outside Japan, and a significant move to the solutions business, but potentially as a strong transformational agent that would enable NEC to accelerate the execution of that strategy. We always talked (with NEC) of bringing key assets outside of Japan. Over time, following the acquisition (of NetCracker) we started executing this. Finally, in February this year we announced a major transfer of assets that included an end-to-end TOMS footprint, assets valued in billions of dollars under the NetCracker umbrella. That action was driven by our customers.

made sure that our

capital, so we always had to remain profitable, and we always implementations were successful.”

NetCracker has been involved in the largest number of transformational programmes in the industry. Given our successful track record and the fact that communication service providers are constantly looking to become more efficient and consolidate their supplier base, we were constantly being asked to offer a broader application footprint and end-to-end services portfolio.

NEC recognised that NetCracker brand awareness and customer loyalty is very high, and that it made most sense to drive our success. So those assets that included applications, product and service platforms, as well as services were consolidated under NetCracker.

VP: Where does NetCracker go from here?

AF: This is a remarkably exciting time for the company, as well as for me personally to be heading up NetCracker. The conventional notion of communication providers and devices is undergoing a fundamental shift. CSPs have gone from being basic connectivity providers to entities that store, process, and manage information. They’ve gone from being phone companies to entities that enable mobile commerce and transactions. NetCracker sits at the brink of this innovation, as our solutions enable CSPs to find ways to help drive new revenue and business models. As we leverage the additional resources and continue to build out this expanded footprint, we will continue to nurture the values that have made our company a success. We will remain 100% committed to our customers, and we will continue to have the same results-focused entrepreneurial culture that we have always had. So, despite the new responsibilities and bells and whistles that come with this large-scale expansion, we are the same NetCracker.

VanillaPlus Jargon Buster CSP: Communication Service Provider ISV: Independent Software Vendor NGN: Next Generation Network OSS / BSS: Operations / Business Support System TOMS: Telecom Operations & Management Systems

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EXPERT OPINION:

Business analytics deliver differentiation and cost savings Provision of business analytics tools is now becoming a means for operators to differentiate as well as to drive cost from their operations. However, the operator sector is recognising the value of such propositions as large corporate customers are increasingly demanding richer and deeper insight into their complex contracts.

Dr Alastair Hanlon, Convergys Smart Revenue Solutions

Michael Lightfoot, CTI Group: “There is a real return to core billing analysis and reporting in the market.”

Michael Lightfoot, CTI Group

Until recently, large corporations have been provided with remarkably little in terms of analytical capability by their communications services providers (CSPs). Applications such as ebilling and telecoms expense management tools have been provided by operators to enable their customers to gain some insight into their usage and costs, but there is now scope for more efficient processes and greater functionality. Too often in the past, effective business analysis of telecoms consumption has been confined to the provision of historical data on CD or even paper spreadsheet print-outs.

Now, as corporations select increasingly complex portfolios of services from operators, they are demanding greater granularity of analysis into their contracts. They want easy-to-use, online business analytics tools that provide real-time reporting into their usage. For operators, massive, long-term deals are at stake if they fail to provide this.

Clients want control “Clients are demanding these types of applications to control their expenditure and have visibility into their usage,” says Dr Alastair Hanlon, Global Director of Telecommunications, Convergys Smart Revenue Solutions. “In the multinational corporate (MNC) market in particular, the services margins are large enough for service providers to offer this greater analytical capability.”

For Michael Lightfoot, Director of Business Development and Strategic Alliances at CTI Group, there is a real return to core billing analysis and reporting in the market. “The reason why that’s happening is that operators across the globe are having to deal with more services and more data hits on their networks.

Businesses consuming those services are becoming increasingly demanding and want to understand their spend better,” he says.

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Hanlon points out that approximately 80% of operator revenue from business customers comes from about 3% of their customers, so there are a small number of very high value customers that operators need to address with a differentiated proposition to retain or win new business.

Telefónica’s deal maker A classic example of business analytics being used to underpin a high value customer win was last year’s successful bid by Telefónica International to run an international logistic firm’s European communications. That saw Telefónica awarded a contract for fixed and mobile services in more than 20 countries. The Spanish operator used the ability to provide business analytics as a differentiator to help it win the deal.

“From the logistic firm’s point of view, the advantage of single sourcing from Telefónica is that they can get economies of scale,” adds Hanlon. “Our billing is part of the solution delivered by Telefónica and it supports the opportunity for an operator to offer promotions and global pricing. So the operator, for example, can get price records from a single country operator and apply the ‘customer’s price’ to them. Equally, a customer can have the ability to identify where its costs are higher and lower, and fine tune accordingly.”

That deal, whilst boosting the profile of analytics across the industry, also saw Convergys take up the data analytics self-care application, Analysis 7, from CTI Group. “The CTI solution adds a lot of value as a data analysis front end,” says Hanlon.

“We’ve signed a global reseller agreement with CTI and we are now in the process of integrating the products together for enterprise clients and making a productised proposition.”

Lightfoot thinks the integration will address market demands effectively. “Convergys sees the

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“Every RFP or tender contains a significant area around online reporting and analytics, and the market is stepping out of the ebilling paradigm now – everyone expects it and it is ubiquitous, so

vendors that can provide the complexity of analysis across the operator’s entire estate have the advantage,” he adds

same things we see in terms of the heightened desire for reporting and analysis,” he says. “The work we did together at Telefónica has really been the blueprint and, in the longer term, we want our solution to be essentially totally whitelabelled within their solution.”

Reduced OpEx That productised approach will move the market on from its traditional approach to analytics solutions. “In the past there have been one-off, custom solutions and, while the data has always been supplied or been available to customers, the challenge has been in how easy it is to use,” says Hanlon. “Having an easy-to-use, online tool makes the capability accessible to more people within the client community and also reduces the cost of operations for the service provider because it is a self-care solution.”

That’s an important point from the perspective of operators’ cost of operations. Not only does providing analytical tools enable operators to differentiate, it means that they no longer need to maintain large teams to help customers understand and analyse their bills. “Online analysis is utterly essential because without it you will be swamped in the CSR environment and your customers will leave,” says Lightfoot.

“These are where the real cost savings are.”

Nevertheless, Hanlon cautions that the market remains at an early stage. “There is still a gap within service providers between the theory and the reality,” he says. “The data is very much available and as a billing vendor we hold huge amounts of it, but very little is being used other than via the classic data warehousing approach.

When I speak to operators, in spite of having huge amounts of information, they still have limited insight into that data, and the talk has been about understanding what a small sector of the customer base does.”

“The evolutionary path is in how providers of these solutions and services get up into areas such as the cloud,” he says. “It will also be critical to enable reporting to a smartphone or smart device application. Pushing out to new platforms is key to the development of analytics and reporting in the next 16-18 months.”

Dr Alastair Hanlon, Convergys: “A customer can identify where its costs are higher and lower, and fine tune accordingly.”

Hanlon would like to see that widen to the retail and smaller business sectors of the market but thinks the market is still some way away from that. “I can see the analytics capability we are providing quickly becoming sought after in the business sector, but in retail the market is bigger and broader and it is not clear to me that people understand the value of analytical tools yet. It is not just about technology, it is about the way operator businesses are run today,” he adds.

“The technology exists but do the marketing processes? Do the people in operators have the mindset that allows value to be maximised?”

For Lightfoot, providing analytics in the cloud and the development of analytics applications for smartphones are the future development paths that CTI Group will progress along.

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Telecoms under attack!

The world of telecoms has long felt itself under attack by outside forces. Traditionally stable business models quickly became eroded and bypassed by newer technologies, customer choice and opened markets inevitably led to higher rates of churn, while new services from the internet, IT and entertainment and broadcast sectors continue to challenge the status quo. Alun Lewis reports.

The author, Alun Lewis, is a freelance telecoms consultant and writer

The answer – as is fast becoming clear for many operators – lies in that other vital asset that telcos hold apart from their networks; the terabytes of data stored in back office systems

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on customers and calls, traffic and transactions. Long neglected in practice for a variety of reasons – despite large amounts of industry hype over the years about ‘customercentric networking’ – attention is once more turning to analyse and exploit this data in more creative ways to regain strategic advantage in an ever more complex value chain.

For Martin Creaner, President of the TM Forum, an increasing focus on the key strategic roles that analytics can play has become evident in just the last year or so.

“We’ve been running a number of Catalyst projects recently focused on the analytics

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As ever, the defining fear was one of being reduced to dumb bit-pipes – ending up hauling gigabytes for companies in these other sectors who could take the bulk of the revenues and, it seemed, understood customers and marketing in much better ways than the telecoms community. Engineering excellence and high reliability are all very well, but how can telecoms service providers compete more effectively in this world of fast disappearing boundaries?

“If a customer can directly access their billing and service records, they’re far less likely to need to call a help desk.” - Michael Lightfoot, CTI Group area, that show how service providers can not only compete against the Googles and Apples of this world, but also drive new business relationships and revenue streams through advertising and other promotions. One Catalyst project, for example, is concentrating on analytics in a mobile apps store environment, while other aspects of the analytics story relate to areas like revenue assurance.

He adds, “We’re certainly seeing a shift amongst many of our service provider members away from the concept of continually trying to add new services to try and grow business, and towards better exploiting what assets they already have – and analytics obviously plays a crucial part in this.

Telcos have to become Kings of the Data Mountain – and concentrate on what their data can bring to their business and those of their partners. Google and others obviously have their own data to exploit, but telcos have vitally important data on devices, billing and location, for example, that can become incredibly powerful business enablers.”

Feedback needed When examining the role that analytics can play in the overall business, it’s vital to remember its importance in enhancing external customer relationships as well as those internal processes such as marketing, network optimisation and investment planning that all require constant feedback.

Alistair Hanlon, Director Product Marketing at billing system vendor Convergys – which recently partnered with CTI Group specifically to focus more on analytics – comments, “One area where billing analytics has a very powerful part to play lies in supporting multinational enterprise customers. A good example of this is our project with Telefonica’s International Wholesale Services operation.

“Here, in conjunction with CTI Group, we deployed a system that allows Telefonica to provide its customers with highly sophisticated billing, reporting and analytics tools that allow them to plan and manage their own communications activity far more efficiently and effectively than would otherwise be the case.

“While that’s a powerful selling point,” he adds, “it also enables Telefonica itself to identify further opportunities to sell new services and packages based on real need amongst their customer base and quickly and easily model different options for potential new customers.”

For Michael Lightfoot, Director of Business Development and Strategic Alliances at CTI Group, there have been two major technical developments that are making analytics systems like this much more attractive and powerful. “Firstly, there are a number of improvements that we’ve been able to exploit in terms of advanced database technologies to speed access and analysis, eliminate latency problems and support the kinds of real-time management processes and decision making that our industry increasingly needs. In this context though it’s always important to apply appropriate technologies in appropriate places and very often reporting structures and data can be streamlined to further improve efficiencies.

Dai Clegg, Netezza: Also relevant in the digital media and content worlds

“Secondly,” he says, “it’s much easier now to expose data to other systems and portals thanks to XML and Java. If a customer can directly access their billing and service records, they’re far less likely to need to call a help desk with all the extra overheads that implies for the service provider.”

Relevance in the cloud That issue of increasing the scope and exposure of analytics systems and processes has an especial relevance in the growing world of cloud services, as well as in the more traditional fields of e-billing. Dai Clegg, EMEA Marketing Director for data warehousing specialist Netezza, explains, “While there will always be a need for ever more efficient ways of dealing with larger and larger amounts of data for financial, network engineering and marketing purposes – especially in the last area where social network analysis can help target new offerings more effectively – exposing that analytical data in some form to third parties could be problematic without the right technologies and processes.

“For a start,” he continues, “there’s the issue of security, confidentiality and legal compliance – hence we have a specific product called Mantra that allows users to control and track access to sensitive data. As far as the wider issue of dealing with data from increasingly disparate sources that’s driven by cloud strategies, we’re for example already exploiting a software framework called Apache Hadoop that’s been specifically created to resolve the scale and highly distributed nature of this new environment.”

Alastair Hanlon, Convergys: Telefonica can provide its customers with sophisticated billing, reporting and analytics tools

Michael Lightfoot, CTI Group: Easier now to expose data to other systems and portals

Clegg adds, “This is also going to be extremely relevant in the digital media and content worlds with streaming services, where there are a host of additional factors to consider that go far beyond the relatively simple and straightforward world of basic voice services.”

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EXPERT OPINION:

Leveraging service performance assurance to gain from existing and future market transitions In his recent research, Service Assurance Systems: Worldwide Forecast 2010-2014, Patrick Kelly of Analysys Mason states, “The capital investment headwinds of 2008 and 2009 are shifting as we enter a technology upgrade cycle. 4G upgrades and convergence in the core network will generate greater demand and push forward investments that improve the customer experience.” Here, Cyril Doussau de Bazignan explains why service and performance assurance spending are increasing among CSPs, and what to look for in a performance assurance platform.

The author, Cyril Doussau de Bazignan, is Product Marketing Director, InfoVista. cdoussau@ infovista.com

The need for service assurance is growing, as this category of solutions empowers service providers to assess the health of their networks and the quality of the customer experience en route to delivering unquestionable service quality. InfoVista sees this increase in the importance of service assurance solutions extending across three major market transformations: The move by business service providers from basic VPN services to application-aware VPN services Because enterprises need to satisfy their business users’ requirements for new collaborative solutions that provide a competitive edge, while also ensuring high quality on existing business-critical applications, demand for visibility at the application and end-user levels continues to grow significantly. In this context, the performance visibility offered by a conventional VPN service is no longer enough.

Whether you’re enterprise IT or a managed service provider (MSP), it is now critical to offer real-time insight into the end user quality of experience (QoE). As such, MSPs are launching value-added VPN reporting services that entail visibility into business applications and unified communications performance by leveraging performance analytics based on DPI, packet flow, or xDR data sources. These new services allow large enterprises to assure

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that the expected QoE is offered to their lines of business customers and is in line with contracted SLAs – a successful example being the application monitoring service recently launched by Telstra.

The move by mobile operators from flat-rate to usage-based billing Aggressive pricing to fight competition and capture market share have been pushing down the average revenue per user (ARPU). At the same time, revenue is shifting from voice to data while mobile data services are experiencing some traffic explosion, mainly due to the increased use of video. Also, mobile service providers are required to deliver on the stringent performance objectives of their private APN SLAs demanded by business customers.

To secure profitability, there is little choice but to evolve data plans from a flat-rate approach to usage-based billing. This requires a better understanding of how subscribers and business customers consume data services – such as what applications they use, how much, and when. Without this insight it is difficult, if not impossible, to strategically upgrade network capacity or to participate in policy-shaping discussions. This shift also comes with a requisite transformation in OSS capabilities, which some service assurance providers are poised to address for their mobile service provider customers.

In addition, mobile service providers are investigating ways to enable subscribers to delay their usage of the service in exchange for a bandwidth credit. This is similar to an airline offering an incentive to passengers on an overbooked flight to take a later one. This practice will allow mobile service providers to provide an acceptable choice to customers in situations where there is some data service saturation, and will lead to an increase in customer satisfaction without having to invest in all silos of the mobile infrastructure. But, once again, this requires visibility at the subscriber level and the ability to communicate with customers concerning their specific usage through customer portals.

The data centre migration to private clouds As enterprises are building their private cloud or outsourcing their data centres to MSPs, they will need to ensure application service QoE to their internal business users.

Performance, security, and SLA warranties are some of the most important concerns raised by enterprises considering whether to adopt service provider cloud offerings to speed up the delivery of critical business operations and reduce their OpEx and CapEx. Service providers are therefore leveraging their existing service performance assurance platform or partnering with an eco-system of providers in order to secure their cloud service levels and differentiate from their competition.

How service performance assurance enables the profitable capture of market transitions In a competitive market, price erosion makes it difficult to get an acceptable return on investment and targeting the late adopters is not the optimal way to generate profits. To maximise company profitability it’s not enough to follow the herd. Instead, it is critical to launch services ahead of the curve. The real challenge for every product manager has become launching a unique service, ahead of their competition, so it can be charged with a premium and result in comfortable margins.

Recently, InfoVista conducted a survey with

business services executives. Participants included product marketing, product management, and OSS executives from tier one and tier two service providers worldwide.

The results demonstrated that time to market is their main concern, and when selecting a performance assurance solution for a new service, solution tailoring and scalability are their main criteria.

We all know that operating a new service is a complex exercise. Our industry is evolving towards offering performance-based SLAs, sometimes tailored per customer, which increases the challenge to quickly productise those services. As such, to accelerate the adoption of innovative technologies, it is even more critical to be equipped with a flexible OSS platform that provides the ability to easily and quickly provision services, and measure and report on today’s performance-based SLAs.

“This is similar to an airline offering an incentive to passengers on an overbooked flight to take a later one.”

- Cyril Doussau de Bazignan, InfoVista

To profitably capitalise on new market transitions, service providers should ensure they are equipped with a performance assurance platform that offers: • QoE and QoS assurance • The ability to differentiate from their competition with innovative customer portals • Carrier-grade scalability at low cost • Multi-service and multi-tenant support to lower OSS TCO • Real-time performance data access and alarming for fast troubleshooting • Automation mechanism enabling the solution to be resilient to configuration and provisioning changes • Support for virtualisation Such a platform will make it possible for the creative thinking of the service provider’s product marketing and product management teams to launch timely and successful products offered at premium pricing.

VanillaPlus Jargon Buster APN: Adaptive Private Networking CSP: Communication Service Provider DPI: Deep Packet Inspection OSS: Operations Support System SLA: Service Level Agreement TCO: Total Cost of Ownership VPN: Virtual Private Network xDR: Call/Event Data Records

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

21

C L O U D

S E R V I C E S

EXPERT OPINION:

MDM + SMB + AAS = $$$ > CSP Mobile Device Management …Delivered to Small and Midsize Businesses …as a Service through the cloud … is a Big Opportunity for Communications Service Providers to create new revenue, explains Alain Decartes.

Communications service providers (CSPs) have a huge opportunity to generate new revenue in the enterprise market – among their small, medium and even large business customers.

The author, Alain Decartes, is a Senior Manager in HP’s Communications and Media Solutions business unit.

He handles worldwide marketing programmes for the HP Cloud Services Enablement portfolio for CSPs.

The world, especially business, is moving to an ‘on-demand service’ model – and cloud has arrived as the enabling technology. And just at the right time for CSPs. But they must act quickly.

Beset by challenges from over-the-top (OTT) providers, CSPs are serious about transformation. They are re-examining their core business models, finding new ways to leverage network assets, and in general, trying to reclaim a top rung in the value chain.

Becoming a cloud services provider to business is a transformational strategy that can lead to break-out success in new markets.

CSPs understand service models better than anyone. They have presence in the business community. Research shows they are trusted by business. And now cloud services technologies have emerged that enable CSPs to get to market quickly with many offerings.

Communications as a service. Infrastructure as a service (compute capacity on demand), device management as a service, and soon, business applications as a service.

Device Management as a Service Device Management as a service (DMaaS) is a particularly promising cloud offering for CSPs. Right at the intersection of telecom and IT, mobile device management plays to CSPs’ strengths. And the market need is growing rapidly.

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It’s wonderful for everyone – except the IT organisations that are faced with mushrooming complexity and cost. They must extend corporate applications, data, and services to workers on the road… contending with a patchwork of different devices, operating systems, and networks. Many companies, especially SMBs, are not willing or able to invest in the robust device management infrastructure that is needed.

Enter CSPs. And advanced cloud-based DMaaS solutions – from companies like HP. In a complete solution, there is an ‘aggregation platform’ that functions as a mediation layer between the device management solutions, such as mobile device management, mobile data back-up or PC data back-up, and the CSP’s OSS and BSS – and the business customer’s environment.

Through a secure, customisable web portal, IT staff can manage employees’ mobile devices and PCs efficiently – on a services-on-demand basis. Using over-the-air (OTA) technology, they can configure device settings, diagnose device problems, enforce IT security policies, back-up and restore device data, and of course, distribute, update and manage enterprise applications remotely.

What’s important in device management Let’s look more closely at the device management needs of SMBs and midsize companies: Security: Protecting sensitive business information, achieving compliance with industry regulatory requirements, and

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Increasingly, work is occurring outside the office. Smartphones are proliferating. Network

connectivity is pervasive and fast. Mobile workers are highly productive.

protecting data are now at the top of most IT managers’ checklists. Companies are concerned about the security of both client and company information and data if a device is lost or stolen, and they need to prevent unauthorised access via smartphones.

Compatibility: As applications proliferate and standards and technologies evolve, standardising on a single operating system will become increasingly impractical. Device management solutions will need to support a range of platforms and enterprise systems to give IT managers the flexibility they need to manage all smartphones running on all company networks. And as SMBs expand into multinational markets, the need for compatibility will intensify.

Simplicity: SMBs, many of whom lack inhouse IT expertise or infrastructure, need user-friendly, flexible solutions that place a minimal load on IT personnel while still supporting a high level of service quality.

Control: IT managers want to manage smartphones the same way PCs are monitored, using policies and rules to make sure devices behave predictably. But for smartphones, which have fast network connectivity and in many cases GPS, Wi-Fi, and digital cameras built in, the use cases are far more complex than they are for PCs. This creates a need for greater granularity of application and hardware management functions.

Integrity: Finally, business users need to be able to back up information – such as phonebook entries, bookmarks, applications, calendars, and settings – and restore it to new devices when equipment is stolen, damaged, or upgraded. The more easily this can be done, the fewer resources the SMB has to expend, and the more quickly users get back to work.

Cloud enables ‘win-win’ for both CSPs and business customers DMaaS, a set of cloud delivery solutions, allows CSPs to meet all these device management requirements of businesses. It allows companies to activate devices quickly without IT involvement, by choosing the configuration that matches their business needs and the

level of support that matches their budgets.

Companies can put business-critical mobile productivity devices into action and perform management functions more quickly. They can provision new mobile applications – beyond mobile email – for enterprise software suites such as enterprise resources planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and human resources (HR).

“It’s wonderful for everyone – except IT organisations faced with mushrooming complexity and cost.”

- Alain Decartes,

These new IT solutions can be automatically launched through the CSP-provided web portal.

CSPs can take advantage of easy servicebundle definition and manage the entire product lifecycle via automated end-user service discovery, subscription, use, and billing.

HP

The bottom line result is that businesses can – at a low cost and without extensive IT involvement – assure that devices will be configured to company requirements before being granted access to company assets.

Cloud delivery also enables businesses to take advantage of economies of scale when deploying and updating remote devices.

They can have data security if a device is lost or stolen. Access to company data can be protected through network and device authentication and data encryption.

Software and operating systems can be easily updated for policy compliance. Long-term system health can be effectively monitored to improve and optimise performance, and can be tracked to help ensure uptime and process efficiency. Finally, automation can be applied to improve service quality through systematic remediation of service issues.

In summary, the benefits for the CSPs’ business customers are: almost no capital investment; reduced operating cost; reduced complexity and risk; access to state-of-the-art mobile device management technology; and the ability to extend high-value productivity applications to mobile workers.

By delivering these benefits for their business customers, CSPs will become the ‘trusted provider’ of highly efficient cloud services.

They will build customer loyalty – and of course, create a new source of revenue.

VanillaPlus Jargon Buster BSS: Business Support System DMaaS: Device Management as a Service MDM: Mobile Device Management OSS: Operations Support System SMB: Small / Mediumsized Business

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

23

CLOUD SERVICES

Enterprises need a hand to hold in the cloud The benefits of cloud services for enterprise users are well-rehearsed: enabling innovative services, often at little or no capital outlay, and sometimes reducing operational expenditure. But for operators attracted by high profit margins and the prospect of clients in every industry, delivering and monetising robust services in the cloud can be quite a challenge. George Malim explores what providers of platforms, infrastructure and software as a service (XaaS) can do to guide new users.

With Microsoft’s Chief Executive, Steve Ballmer publicly committing to spending “billions” on data centre infrastructure specifically to support cloud computing, it is becoming clear that the technology is here to stay, and is maturing to become applicable to enterprises of all scales as concerns around security and resilience fade.

Hal Steger, Funambol: Cost/benefit model needed

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However, it is easy to get carried away by the benefits of cloud computing and ignore that the road to the consistent, widespread cloud uptake is long and those core concerns remain. “The cloud is not new; in one form or another, network service providers have been offering cloud services for a number of years,” points out Tom Stockwell, Business Manager at Cable & Wireless Worldwide. “It must be remembered, however, that businesses run and operate a variety of applications, with each having the potential for a different set of technical, security, availability and performance requirements that need to be considered when

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

For David Howorth, Regional Vice-President of Global Services at Verizon Business, a measured approach to cloud computing is needed. “It is very important to start the conversation about what it is that you want to achieve,” he says. “It’s important to understand that the cloud isn’t a magic pill. It requires a sensible conversation to understand the [users’] business requirements and all the complex interdependencies that exist.”

Hal Steger, Vice-President of Marketing at Funambol, feels that more needs to be done to enable users to develop a better, more concrete understanding of the benefits of cloud propositions. “A cost/benefit model should be applied to guide new users in adopting and implementing enterprise cloud services,” he says. “For example, if you are offering cloud servers and your users are technically adroit IT personnel – and you plan to sell thousands of systems – then it pays to invest in self-service functions for provisioning, monitoring, maintenance, billing and support.”

That leaves a gap in the market for an organisation that can bring a range of XaaS

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Seth Nesbitt, Parallels: Operators at an advantage

“Cloud services are definitely taking off,” says Tim Marsden, CMS Next Generation Service Delivery Director at HP. “There has been a lot of hype and potential but cloud and SaaS are now on the agenda for most large, but also small to medium-sized, organisations.”

investigating cloud-based services.”

propositions to enterprises over the cloud, and some think that is a natural role for telecoms operators. “Operators have a huge advantage because they answer the issues for the enterprise,” says Marsden.

“The service provider can become the aggregator of SaaS propositions and the major operators are doing that now. Customers are getting used to their operator being their cloud provider. Instead of doing their own sourcing, they can get the operator and be told what their options are,” he says.

Howorth at Verizon, inevitably agrees: “This is a huge opportunity for operators,” he says. “They have traditionally been very good at scale and this game is all about scale and utility at an infrastructure level.”

The ability to bill and the trusted relationship operators already have with their customers gives them a route into the cloud market. “The well trusted, complex billing system is what operators have and it generates revenue streams for them,” says Martin Creaner, President and CTO of the TM Forum. “That makes them a really good channel to market.”

SMEs the greatest opportunity Marsden points out that operators can add value and deliver a complete package to enterprises. He thinks that the small to mediumsized enterprise (SME) market is the greatest opportunity, because such companies don’t have the resources to access technology in the same way as large corporates.

HP is working with French operator SFR and provides the end-to-end infrastructure, encompassing hardware and software and the end user portal for the operator’s 150,000 SME customers. “The operator has a huge opportunity and has a massive installed base of these users,” he adds.

For Seth Nesbitt, Vice-President of Service Product Marketing at Parallels, small to medium sized enterprises present the most ready market for operators. “Small businesses could be the low hanging fruit for operators,” he says. “The ability to adapt enterprise applications that were previously unavailable to this market makes the move into the cloud extremely appealing.”

However, to many in the industry it seems strange to identify the telecoms operator as the provider of enterprise IT as a service. After all, operators have been almost exclusively network people up until the last five years.

“Operators’ basic skills and capabilities put them at an advantage, they have the existing business relationship, they have the billing and they provide the network to the end users,”

says Nesbitt. “However, they need partners, business models and technologies that enable them to provide these offerings effectively. The traditional telecoms product introduction cycle of 12-18 months won’t work here – customers won’t wait.”

Big decision for enterprises Even so, it is a giant step for an enterprise to adopt the cloud strategy – regardless of whether they use their operator to help them on the path – and something needs to be done to improve the comfort level of enterprises walking the migration path to cloud computing. “I don’t think there are any industry-accepted standards around cloud services yet,” says Marsden.

Nesbitt says some work is going on, but it is more focused on developing standards within the telecoms industry than on providing end users with a kite-marked cloud quality standard to look for. In any case, it is unclear how applicable that sort of accreditation would be to the variety of cloud propositions on offer, and whether it could be set up and delivered in time for the mass market who may have already made their cloud decisions.

Andy Burton, Chairman of the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), is working on standardisation and his forum launches a Code of Practice this month. “Today there are no formal standards to guide users in regard to cloud services, though there have been, and remain, a number of industry initiatives redressing some of the technical challenges that put users off the cloud, such as those relating to security of data stored in the cloud, and, interoperability between operator solutions,” he says.

“It was this very lack of standards for end users to reference that drove the formation of CIF which aims to help improve transparency between CSPs and end users, by enabling potential customers to make informed decisions about which operators they work with based upon access to information about the providers business, operations, capability and accountability,” he adds.

Tim Marsden, HP: Cloud services are taking off

Andy Burton, CIF: Lack of standards led to CIF

“I don’t think there are any industryaccepted standards around cloud services yet.”

– Tim Marsden, HP

Creaner at the TM Forum is working both on establishing standards for operator provision of cloud services and with Computer Associates and Carnegie-Mellon University to develop a means of rating cloud services based on quality and reliability. That is very much a work in progress but process definitions, service level agreements and communications protocols for the cloud are all starting development.

The clarity such initiatives will bring will undoubtedly be useful, but there is a feeling that many have already started their cloud journey in the absence of such metrics – the benefits are too compelling to wait.

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

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THE

CLOUD

EXPERT OPINION:

CSPs can’t afford to miss the Cloud It could be argued that communication service providers (CSPs) missed some opportunities in the last 10 years, says Seth Nesbitt. They certainly didn’t lead the market in the mobile application revolution. The next big opportunity is with Cloud services. And, simply put, CSPs cannot afford to miss the Cloud.

The author is Seth Nesbitt, Vice President, Service Provider Marketing, Parallels.

The good news is CSPs are in a fantastic position to capitalise on Cloud services for two main reasons: First, they own the network infrastructure, and second, they have existing commercial relationships with millions of customers. While some CSPs already offer certain Cloud services, very few have invested enough to generate meaningful revenues relative to their traditional network and voice services.

Difference in Churn* for Small Businesses Web Hosting Service With (vs Without) Email

The small business opportunity

First Year

Virtually all customer segments will adopt Cloud services, and CSPs must provide Cloud offerings that align with the specific market being addressed. While the Cloud opportunity in the enterprise is exciting in terms of deal size, in this article I’d like to draw attention to another market – small businesses.

Small businesses have very little in terms of IT resources and they can benefit the most from the Cloud services. There are over 73.5 million small businesses worldwide and easily another 100 million home or small offices. Virtually all need a ‘web presence’ and email. The majority of them will also greatly benefit from a range of applications, some which were traditionally available only to bigger organisations, such as messaging and collaboration, back-up, CRM, and hosted PBX.

VanillaPlus Jargon Buster CRM: Customer Relationship Management SaaS: Software as a Service

For more information go to: www.parallels.com 26

Small businesses are (and will be) adopting these Cloud services quickly, partly because it improves productivity, and partly out of necessity, since they do not have an IT department. Cloud services also make the most financial sense for small businesses, as there are no capital outlays required and they can pay for just the services they need, easily adjusting for both good and bad times.

55.0% 28.7%

Second Year

19.9%

20.3%

Third Year

Fourth Year

*Based on all Parallels Panel Licenses shipped in Q4 2005 and reporting <5 mailboxes

How to rapidly offer Cloud services to small businesses CSPs can rapidly get to market offering Cloud services by deploying a solution built on open, multi-tenant standards, security, and licence tracking. Such a solution must: 1) Offer a broad catalogue of SaaS applications 2) Provide a flexible framework for easily adding new services and applications 3) Enable the syndication or sell-through of third party cloud services (e.g., Microsoft BPOS).

It is critical that a CSP’s Cloud platform is extensible and enables the rapid roll-out of new Cloud services. Just as automation is critical to profitability for traditional voice and data services, every aspect of purchasing, provisioning, billing, and customer self-service for Cloud services should be automated. This is critical to keeping ‘book to bill’ days low, support costs down, and creating the highest possible margins.

The future of Cloud services for CSPs

Cloud services reduce churn Let’s look at some data from Parallels that shows the impact in churn rates among small business who use one cloud service (web hosting) versus two services (web hosting and email hosting):

Over the past few decades, communications have become ubiquitous. We no longer call a place, we call people. Cloud services take this trend to the next level. Documents, contacts, applications and other IT services are moving into the Cloud.

In short, small businesses that subscribe to web hosting services and also use the hosted email services remain a customer almost three times longer than if web hosting without email is consumed. This positive impact to churn increases as additional Cloud services are added and bundled together.

CSPs that leverage their network assets, put the right Cloud automation systems in place, and aggressively target small businesses will be positioned for success in the years to come. After all, close to 40% of overall IT spent is coming from small businesses and this spend is moving to the Cloud very quickly.

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

EXCLUSIVE OPERATOR CEO INTERVIEW

Virgin on being the contender?

Faced with poor reputations for service quality and customer care earned by UK cable companies, ntl and Telewest, many people would have shrunk from the job of turning around the newly merged operator, ntl Telewest Business. But CEO, Mark Heraghty relishes a challenge, and he certainly found one. Since 2009 he has steered the company into a far healthier state, so that last year Richard Branson allowed the business network operator to swop its old overalls for a crisp new Virgin uniform. Editor, Jeremy Cowan talks to Mark Heraghty about the ongoing changes.

VanillaPlus: Why did you take on the challenge of Virgin Media Business?

Mark Heraghty: Potted history: I’m Irish, an engineer who went into the oil industry for six years, mostly in the North Sea, got married, had a first child, didn’t want to spend 20 days a month offshore, decided to do something different, and did an MBA. I went into telecommunications in ’92 with Mercury Communications.

Telecoms at the time was fairly unsexy, it was before the big boom and a utility-ish environment. It was before the internet was popularised, data communications was a fraction of the size of the voice business, and in the UK we were still in the early stages of a duopoly. I ended up staying at Cable & Wireless for 12 years, and did everything up to running Europe and the UK.

Over the last 20 years, value has gone from the international bit all the way back to the closest connection with the customer you can get. In the mid-’90s when I was in a competitive wholesale business – selling to cable operators, ironically – a wholesale voice minute to the US was 54 pence per minute (€0.64), now it’s a fraction of a penny.

I’ve been a supplier to all of the cable industries for many years – Telewest, ntl, Diamond Cable, you name it – and I always reckoned that once it got sorted out (which it did through various stages of Chapter 11 and bankruptcy), if it could find a way to come together, then it could be a real player both in the consumer and B2B areas.

If you just look at the industrial logic, my view is you’ll always have an incumbent, there should be a strong No. 2, and then the rest. That tends to be what happens in most asset-intensive industries.

Mark Heraghty, CEO, Virgin Media Business: PSN is at the core of getting cost out of the business

“Some people perceived us as the bit of the company that Virgin didn’t want.”

- Mark Heraghty, Virgin Media Business

The advantage that we have in Virgin Media is, not only did we come together as one company but we’ve also got a mobile play as well. The

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Then I left and lived in France for a few years before joining FLAG Telecom (now Reliance Communications) as their President of EMEA for two years. But I’d been looking for a reason to come back to London, and wanted the next job I had to be with a company that controlled, owned and operated its infrastructure – particularly the

last mile – because that is the last redoubt of the traditional operator, with control over customer access.

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

27

EXCLUSIVE OPERATOR CEO INTERVIEW

“‘Why isn’t this company the No. 2 already?’ is almost the question to ask.”

- Mark Heraghty, Virgin Media Business

coming together of two halves of the UK cable industry – Telewest and ntl – together with Virgin Mobile was a stroke of genius, because it immediately gave you a quad-play that was integrated and fibre-oriented. ‘Why isn’t this company the No. 2 already?’ is almost the question to ask. And with the (Virgin) brand as well, even in the B2B area, it’s critically important.

VP: Where have you got to now with Virgin Media Business?

MH: Coming in, I wanted to do four things: complete the integration, address the weaknesses we had in terms of service quality (and that required some investment that I’ll come back to), the third is to differentiate ourselves (in terms of our product and sales capability), and the fourth thing is to grow the business, particularly the top line.

The business had been flat or declining for a number of years, and it’s fair to say that the majority of our companies (consumer- and mobile-oriented) weren’t quite sure what to do with the B2B bit. It didn’t seem to fit. But I fundamentally believe that B2B and B2C in a fixed cost telecommunication business are very complementary. That was true in the voice world when you had busy hours at different times of the day. In the data world, arguably, it’s even more important. If you look at me as a consumer at home, I have a LAN in my house, I’ve got 7 Macs, my various teenage daughters are on Facebook, YouTube, iPlayer, I’ve got two HDTVs. The amount of content coming in and out of our homes is mind-boggling.

Then we go into school, university or business and do the same sort of thing, but at a different time of day yet over the same infrastructure. So our group has a huge evening peak over our network, yet it’s relatively quiet during the day.

There’s a huge opportunity for the business to leverage the fact that it has a different network profile in voice, data and IP. And we’ll be talking about that in a few weeks’ time. All I’m saying for now is that there’s a big advantage in being the B2B part of a company that’s fundamentally B2C. Integration had largely happened, the final step on that was the (Virgin) brand; we had been left as what some people perceived as the bit of the company that Virgin didn’t want. Genuinely, that was said to me when I arrived. In my first interview for the job, I said ‘Why on earth do we still have the ntl Telewest brand? Shouldn’t it be Virgin something?’ I wasn’t the first person to ask that question, but my timing was just right.

So, one of the first discussions I had when I joined was with Virgin Entertainment Ltd, the owners of the brand, on the re-branding of our company.

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VP: Why were you expecting that?

MH: Because the Virgin brand is consumeroriented, by and large, although we’re not the only B2B company in the Virgin Group; there’s Virgin Cargo and others. They are clearly a large shareholder, but a contract is in place that is very specific on the SLAs that we have to warrant, on our complaints procedures; they are very careful.

It’s right across the spectrum from the provision and assurance of service, to the way in which we handle things when they go wrong, it’s absolutely ‘open book’ with them; we sit down with them every quarter and review all of our operational metrics. We (use) a customer satisfaction company, and have fairly robust discussions around some of the metrics. That does keep us on our toes. It’s one of the big changes, because customers’ expectations have risen considerably now that we’re called Virgin Media Business.

VP: Did you have targets to hit before you could adopt the Virgin name?

MH: Yes, for example, we had a healthy debate around the way in which we handle complaints, how quickly they get closed, and what the response time is. Even on complaint handling there are probably four or five metrics we have to measure and report against, and we have hit targets that in all cases were improvements on where we were.

We give a good level of service, excellent in many cases, not good enough in others. I’m comfortable with where we’re going, but we need to make some improvements.

One of the other problems, if you take 26 franchises which went through various stages of financial difficulty, they come together as one, what you’re left with is not as homogeneous, it doesn’t have the industrial strength, carrier grade capability that you would want (I’m talking about two or three years ago). There was already quite a lot of investment post-merger. But when I first looked at some of the problems we were having, I was insistent that before we started re-branding or changing the focus of our sales activity and growing the business, we needed to make some large investments in the basic capability. In things like power infrastructure in our network, having people monitoring alarms, making sure the alarms are working, the generators have diesel in them, that the generators are tested regularly, that the UPSs work, and the batteries are replaced.

When we did a review what we discovered was not very pretty. Power problems were one of the root causes of downtime in our network and the problems we were creating for our customers.

So we spent tens of millions of pounds between

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VP: What was the reception you got?

MH: Actually, very positive. I was expecting some difficult discussions.

last year and this year just on the power infrastructure. And we’ve created a 24x7 team of power engineers sitting in our Network Management Centre whose only job is to monitor the power estate. The minute there’s a power problem or alarm, our contractors are sent to site to fix the power problem before it turns into a network problem.

The number of failures that we had between last year and this year halved. The main reason for that was significant reductions in power-related problems. This had a quick and dramatic effect. I was very enthusiastic (about this investment), but I thought I had a real, deep-seated problem, and it got fixed relatively quickly. It’s one of the reasons our SLAs have improved.

This was a pre-condition for us delivering on the growth plan. Because we deliver services to airlines, hospitals, to 40% of (UK) police forces and 60% of emergency services around the country. A carrier-grade industrial strength capability is particularly important for a business customer. You can argue that nobody’s happy when their TV goes down either, or their broadband doesn’t work, but if you’re a hospital it’s a whole different consideration.

VP: And differentiating the offering in products and sales?

MH: If you pull back and look at the rest of the company (Virgin Media), it focused initially on broadband. Now it focuses on maintaining the broadband leadership position, and increasingly focuses on TV and mobile. We’d like to adopt a similar position. The fibre-based network capability that we have gives us an Ethernet footprint that is better than most, if not all. We launched a dedicated Ethernet, high capacity service, and Ethernet extensions which are different versions of high capacity Ethernet capability, which is what most companies are looking for these days. And we can deliver services that other operators just haven’t done yet, because we already have 186,000km of fibre around the country.

That’s been particularly important, not just for

Virgin Media Business network at a glance • • • • • • • • •

UK-wide fibre optic network 186,000km long 157 phone switches 38,000 breakout points Handling 70,000 calls a minute Carrying 35% of UK broadband traffic Carrying 40% of UK mobile traffic Connecting 1,500 corporate customers And 30,000 public sector sites

end customers but for operators. We’re a big supplier to other carriers, resellers, mobile operators, systems integrators, as well as our traditional core which has been around the public sector – especially local authorities, emergency services, health and the corporate mid-market.

VP: Over the last few months we’ve heard a lot from the UK government about plans for cost reduction. Does this mean a retrenchment of your business and reduced earnings?

MH: The honest answer is it’s too early to tell for us. But I would genuinely see this as more of an opportunity than a threat, for two reasons. What we’re doing, in contrast to other operators, is providing services which take cost out of the equation. If you look at the contract we signed with Hampshire County Council and the Isle of Wight last year, which is partly a government initiative as well, the whole public sector networking (PSN) concept is around framework agreements with shared services and infrastructure across different parts of the public sector.

In simple terms, you put in one big network and a framework contract that surrounds that, other district or unitary authorities, schools, Primary Care Trusts, can all opt into it if they want to.

We’ve tried to ignore the politics of it, agree something that makes sense from an engineering standpoint, and then if people want to opt into it, well and good. PSN is a core part of the government’s ICT strategy, it’s at the core of getting cost out of the business. And if we can do lots of that we’ll be moving forward very strongly.

“Government spending cuts?

We’re part of the solution rather than part of the problem.”

- Mark Heraghty, Virgin Media Business

Hampshire is being held up as a poster child for how local governments can refresh their IT infrastructure, taking huge cost out of their operations. For that reason, I’d argue that we’re part of the solution rather than part of the problem. And the more that we can do to put in fibre-based, shared infrastructure which different London boroughs, counties or unitary authorities can use, the better. Public sector is still the core of what we want to do.

VanillaPlus Jargon Buster

Services offered • • • • • • • + •

Broadband & internet Ethernet connectivity VPN solutions Telephony Secure & remote working LAN solutions Hosting Cloud services – from late 2010

B2B: Business to Business B2C: Business to Consumer PSN: Public Sector Networking SLA: Service Level Agreement UPS: Uninterruptible Power Supply

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

29

R E A L - T I M E

B I L L I N G

EXPERT OPINION:

Why the world cannot be flat Convergent real-time billing systems for future growth Flat-rate offerings will not be an efficient business strategy in the future. The global mobile industry has been extremely successful in the past decade, with an average year-on-year subscriber growth of 24%. Despite a contraction in the mobile handset market in 2009, smartphone shipments grew by 15%. Due to smartphones’ increasing market share and a rise in application focus by handset manufacturers, MNOs are predicted to grow yearly app revenues from US$1.94 billion (2009) to US$15.65 billion (2015). The application market's growth is driven both by the rising number of smartphones in use and a more and more connected global subscriber base. This trend will continue, seeing global smartphone users numbering 970 million by the end of 2013. To manage this, Orga Systems provides fully integrated charging and rating within a real-time policy management solution, enabling CSPs to monetise the value of their network assets.

“Build a closer How to earn money relationship with each customer, with online realtime offerings based on the preferences of each subscriber.”

with mobile data services Today, many operators are finding that the price they are selling mobile broadband for is approximately 50% below the price it is costing them to produce that volume of mobile data.

The sophistication of smartphones, the explosion of peer-to-peer traffic (P2P), video and gaming applications running on these devices have created a serious dilemma for service providers trying to accommodate exponential increases in the traffic on fixed and mobile networks.

Data is traversing the core networks of all service providers globally. As a result, analysts estimate that more than 60% of mobile data revenue in 2012 will come from developed markets like Europe, 71% of subscriptions will use 3G handsets in 2012.

Subscriber management is the way out of unprofitable flat rates To move away from unprofitable flat-rate pricing, operators have to identify their customers and their habits: which customer uses which service and at what rate? They should also use all historical data available as a basis for future planning. In addition, they must take into account a new generation of subscribers, those who grew up with internet and mobile. This generation of subscribers interacts much more with devices than former generations.

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VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

Real-time solutions as key enabler Charging and rating must done in real time and relevant in the context of the customer. By fully integrating charging and rating within a policy management solution, service providers can monetise the value of their network assets. They can enhance revenue with in-session up-selling, customised bundling and tiered pricing packages – all this while enhancing the customer experience. The key to deal with increasing data traffic is a customer network service differentiation rather than flat-rate pricing.

Operators need to prioritise access to deal with data volume based on pricing rates. A real-time solution is essential, one that can define and enforce policy rules to both network and service delivery platforms (SDPs) based on customerdefined service usage limits, service agreement definitions and network considerations.

Highly personalised and customercentric policy management for customer satisfaction The key to a more profitable service offering and delivery, lies in the utilisation of a highly personalised and customer-centric policy management process. This must enable and encourage direct/instant one-to-one selling opportunities. Similar to the established online

▲

Therefore operators need to migrate all subscribers to a single platform where they can

measure what these customers need. This way they can build a closer relationship with each customer, with online real-time offerings based on the individual preferences of each subscriber.

shopping recommendations (Amazon style) the telecoms industry must learn to adopt a more targeted, up-selling approach based on real usage information and actual customer preferences and interests (i.e. gaming, music, social networking, etc).

In this context an intelligent subscriber data management system is needed to precisely identify the subscriber and his or her actual service usage, in order to offer attractive and profitable service options on top of or instead of flat-rate pricing models. Here Orga Systems sees great opportunities to capitalise on intelligent and web-based re-direct and self-care offerings.

In addition, Orga Systems sees that quality of service will become an important asset that customers – especially high-end customers – are willing to pay a premium for. This vital subscriber data parameter needs to be managed with the highest priority and care in order to avoid a frustrating user experience.

Therefore, dynamic policy functions and subscriber management must be effectively integrated (tightly coupled) with the real-time charging and billing environment.

Customer network service differentiation User interaction and real-time charging will be the way ahead. Convergent real-time billing platforms, charging and billing applications and

dynamic policy management are needed. They allow for customers’ flexibility and minimise internal operating costs and improve customer satisfaction. Operators need to prioritise access to deal with data volume: Customer network service differentiation is the best way ahead not flat-rate pricing.

“Operators are

That is why successful convergent billing systems will need to cope with handling far more subscribers within one system; even 100 million. And it’s also why the telecommunication industry will have to cope with smart metering and new industries stepping into the market.

companies at the

much more (than pipe providers): they have to partner with the other end of the pipe.”

Entering a partnership with content-oriented services, finally Operators understand themselves as providers of a pipe that links their customers to the network. But operators are much more: they have to partner with the companies at the other end of the pipe.

Those companies, such as social networks or search engines, rely on the pipe that operators provide to bring their innovations to the customer. Those new applications and services drain the pipe and increase demand for high speed connections. Thus, a partnership could be mutually beneficial, just like a symbiosis between operators and content-oriented services.

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

31

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P O L I C Y

M A N A G E M E N T

EXPERT OPINION:

It takes two to tango How policy management and charging enable data monetisation The combination of powerful mobile devices and the always-on lifestyle leads to an evergrowing demand for mobile broadband. Better networks allow us to consume and produce more content; improved devices allow us to do more than merely make a voice call, while the opening up of the mobile eco-systems allows application developers to offer more compelling services for various portable platforms.

The introduction of the iPhone and its successors, coupled with flat-rate data pricing models, paved the way to an explosive growth in data traffic that is challenging service providers who need to ensure the capacity on their networks. This is having a dramatic impact on their financial bottom line and in their future ability to turn data into a profitable business.

The authors are Rafi Kretchmer, Product Marketing Director, Revenue Management, Amdocs (above) and Guy Hilton, Product Marketing Manager, Revenue Management, Amdocs (below)

Traffic Voice Dominant

Mobile operator revenue & traffic de-coupled

Revenues Data Dominant

Time

So, how can service providers optimise their monetisation capabilities when it comes to data?

The first intuitive answer we hear all around us is, “We have to use policy management to better manage the network and optimise the resources we have.” But wait: Should a policy management solution, advanced as it may be, be solely responsible for the challenges of monetisation?

Policy management can optimise network traffic and facilitate better network operations, but when it comes to monetization it’s all about charging systems and how flexible and sophisticated they are.

Policy management and charging need to work together in order to really monetise data services. But integrating the two is not easy.

34

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

Why? Integrated charging and policy management adds the ability to provide flexible, dynamic rating based on multi-dimensional characteristics such as time, location, type of service consumed and – last but not least – subscriber information.

Couple this with policy management capabilities on the network side and you now have a set of tools that allows you to effectively monetise data services.

Here’s an example: Mark is a ‘bandwidth hog’.

For the same flat rate that other subscribers are paying, he consumes more network resources and bandwidth. This leads to congestion on the network, an inferior customer experience for other subscribers, and could lead to additional costs for service providers as they need to upgrade their networks to support the Marks of the world without being able to charge additional fees.

Integrating policy management with charging capabilities can overcome this problem in several ways. Mark could be offered a package in which he gets more bandwidth at lower rates during off-peak hours or he could be offered a premium data package which guarantees high bandwidth throughout the day, but at a higher price than a standard data package. In both cases charging and policy management need to work together.

Competing in the new world of data through price differentiation Most service providers today deploy simple pricing strategies for data services, namely flatrate usage plans or ‘all-you-can-eat’ and this is where the challenges lie. First, these plans create network congestion and may lead to a price war in which prices will fall dramatically. Flat-rate plans also make it difficult for service providers to assure their profitability.

▲

The greatest challenge In a recent study from Heavy Reading* on the * Heavy Reading’s Next- evolving nature of policy management, service Generation Policy providers rated the integration between policy Management, July 2010 management and charging as the single biggest

challenge for data monetisation. The ability to have one solution that spans both policy aspects and still offers advanced charging capabilities is highly sought after.

In fact, service providers need to ask themselves whether they should just supply the connection to the connected world or whether there is a way for them to have a much more significant role in this new world of data?

Indeed, service providers may be leaving money on the table by ignoring the potential for generating more revenues from high-bandwidth subscribers – consumers who are willing to pay a premium for better service.

But this could be a very different story when you have policy management and charging integrated and working together. Service providers will be able to create advanced pricing models and schemes for their data services and offer packages to various subscriber profiles, from the standard casual surfer all the way up to a power user needing high bandwidth at his or her fingertips.

Let’s look at some usage scenarios to better understand how policy management and charging can improve data monetisation capabilities: • Tiered pricing. One of the most discussed paths to data monetisation is tiered pricing. It revolves around the idea that data plans pricing should be a combination of several elements; usage (200 megabyte vs. 2 gigabyte), speed (of either download or upload) time (day, month, week, peak/off-peak…), priority or type of customer (consumer, business, VIP, government…), type of application (P2P, streaming, video…) and device type (smartphone, broadband modem, e-book reader…).

The various combinations create multiple possibilities of new pricing schemes and business models, and all depend solely on the fact that there's a tight integration between the charging engine that will rate these schemes and the policy management element that will execute it on the network level.

• On-demand bandwidth boost. Just imagine the following scenario: You have subscribers who are watching movies on their mobile handsets. Most of the time this is not HD quality.

But what if you could engage with them and

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6pm-6am

offer, in real-time, to upgrade their viewing experience to an HD level based on your network resources for a one-time fee. And this could either be a proactive offer from the service provider or emanate from a subscriber request.

Once the offer is accepted, the customer is charged accordingly and the network allocates the required bandwidth to make sure the HD movie is viewed correctly.

“Service providers may be leaving money on the table.”

• Dynamic pricing. How about letting the price be determined dynamically based on network congestion and the demand for the service?

Service providers could dynamically take into account various parameters when setting prices, before offering them to customers in real-time.

Advice of charge, willingness to pay and network congestion can affect the price that is offered at any given time. For example, watching the new season of House during peak times will be priced differently than watching the same episode at off-peak times.

Final thoughts On the road to data profitability service provides need to manage data consumption more intelligently. Coupling charging and policy management is the solution for operators, as long as it goes hand in hand with customer targeting, personalisation and satisfaction.

Taking a customer-centric approach rather than network-centric approach by focusing on services rather than traffic patterns is the key.

About Amdocs charging and policy management solution Amdocs charging and policy management solution is part of Amdocs convergent charging. As such, it takes advantage of Amdocs’ robust event processing capabilities and adds a comprehensive policy layer upon it.

Amdocs charging with its unique configuration capabilities is already handling today diverse policy scenarios in prepaid, post-paid and converged environments. The policy management functionality, being part of Amdocs Charging is applicable across LOBs and payment methods, enabling subscriber/user level policies.

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

35

WEBINAR PREVIEW

Are mobile operators charging towards real-time?

In the era of instant information, twitter, 24-hour news channels, and near ubiquitous internet connectivity – subscribers should expect the same visibility and access to information about their spending on communications services as they do on their credit card or iTunes accounts. So, what’s preventing mobile operators implementing real-time rating and charging across their subscriber base?

This real-time charging webinar will give you answers to 5 key questions: 1.

What market forces and business needs are driving operators towards real-time solutions?

2.

How does real-time bring value to the business? What should the Return on Investment be?

3.

Will real-time systems be pushed to their limits as data services continue to surge?

4.

What are the challenges with implementing real-time charging solutions?

5.

How can operators overcome these hurdles?

The first thing that comes to mind for Dave Labuda of MATRIXX Software is business case.

What is driving operators towards real-time and how can the benefits of real-time be quantified?

The most relevant business issue in the news today is ‘bill shock’ and billing transparency for mobile data services. The explosion of mobile data usage has caused much confusion and customer mistrust in how mobile data is priced and charged for. The result is that operators are suffering from increased call centre traffic and costs, billing disputes, customer churn and large write-offs due to uncollectable receivables.

At the same time, data usage has increased enough that the flat-rate tariffs and all-you-caneat business models are no longer feasible or profitable for service providers. Globally, service providers are moving towards segmented and tiered pricing models that include quality of service (QoS) levels and overage charges.

Register for the Free Webinar: 21 October, 2010 14.00 London; 15.00 Paris; 09.00 New York; 17.00 Dubai; 21.00 Singapore For information or to register Free go to: www.vanillaplus.com

In order to launch these pricing models, real-time charging becomes intrinsic to their success – not only by enabling the business to charge and track usage, enforce caps, charge based on QoS, assess overage charges and other technical aspects of the business model – but also to ensure the longer term customer acceptance and ultimate success of metered data pricing models.

Pay for what you want Vodafone CEO, Vittorio Colao expressed this just last month at Nokia World by saying “Every class

of service must have its own price, and every customer must be able to pay for what they want.” And he added, “Pricing should be adjusted to reflect usage and load. We are approaching the end of the free era.”

This has generated some backlash among mobile subscribers who have gorged on flat-rate tariffs and are resistant to change, for fear of being over-charged or from a lack of understanding of data pricing. The only way to gain market acceptance is to provide subscribers with a clear, real-time view of what they are spending, how much things will cost, spending controls and notifications, service class options and an interactive, transparent experience.

This issue alone builds a strong business case for real-time charging, says Labuda. And there are other factors such as the growth of pre-paid service models, LTE roll-outs, third party content and applications, that also drive the need for real-time rating and charging. Yet most service providers still operate in a distinctly batch mode.

So where do the issues and challenges lie? Are they technical, political or financial?

In the webinar, VanillaPlus will explore the challenges of moving to a real-time environment.

We will discuss the business and technical hurdles and what operators should be planning for to make sure that real-time is not only successful operationally but also brings value to the business and provides a quick and measurable return on investment.

Key Speaker: Dave Labuda, Founder & CEO MATRIXX Software Dave Labuda co-founded Portal Software in 1994, creating the first real-time billing solution for internet and communications service providers. He successfully sold the company to Oracle in 2006, then served as CTO of Oracle's Communications Global Business Unit. Dave holds Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Computer Engineering from Case Western Reserve University, and has 11 patents issued, with more pending.

Independent Analysis: Dan Baker, Founder, TRI Dan Baker is the Founder and Senior Analyst at the Technology Research Institute (TRI), and a regular author in the telecoms sector and a speaker at the VanillaPlus Thought Leadership Webinar series. Dan recently joined VanillaPlus’s Editorial Advisory Board.

36

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

PREDICTIVE

A N A LY T I C S

EXPERT OPINION:

Using predictive analytics to improve subscriber experience What would you do if you knew your subscribers’ intentions before they did? How would you act if you knew which subscribers were going to churn before they told you?

What campaigns would you run if you knew which subscribers were going to take advantage of a new service before they even knew the service existed? Chris Smith helps us with some answers.

Predictive analytics gives you the insight to determine what your subscribers will do before they know themselves. It allows you to run your business based upon what will happen, rather than what has happened. Organisations already use business intelligence like a rear-view mirror to see what has happened; they can now use predictive analytics to direct their activities by looking at the road ahead.

Know subscribers’ next moves So how does predictive analytics give you insight into what will happen in the future? How could predictive analytics help you identify who will leave your network or take up new services before they know themselves?

If your subscribers were exposed to a competitive deal from another network, which ones would move? Industry data suggests that if a subscriber is more that 25% away from their optimal plan they are twice as likely to churn.

Advanced data warehousing enables operators to store multiple months of usage data at a detailed call and subscriber level and then recalculate historical billing amounts using alternative and competitive price plans.

Predictive algorithms use this data to score each subscriber based on the competitiveness of their rate plans – plus their activation and account history – to determine the probability that they will churn within the next three months.

If you had this insight wouldn’t you use it to drive a marketing campaign focused on just those subscribers that have the highest probability of churning? Even though the subscribers have not yet made the decision to churn?

Social influence Which of your subscribers recommend services and plans to others? Which of your subscribers act upon those recommendations? The process of making and receiving everyday

recommendations is referred to as ‘social influence’. Not based merely on frequency of communication, social influence is determined by modelling social interaction and analysing attributes of service uptake to build a complex map of subscriber interaction.

Predictive analytics can then model the probable uptake of a new service across the subscriber community, identifying likely early adopters who in turn influence their network of contacts. With this insight you might drive a time-sequenced campaign, first targeting key influencers so you accelerate and amplify the progressive service uptake by riding that network of everyday recommendations.

Improve subscriber experience Where are dropped calls or blocked calls having an impact on your subscribers’ experiences and their propensity to churn? Advanced data warehousing allows operators to collect network event and usage data to build an understanding of the subscriber experience at the network level. Business analytics uses this mass of data to build a picture of changes to calling patterns and can identify the associations with network quality. Then predictive analytics can model the subscriber experience and identify negatively-impacted users who are likely to leave the network. But with this insight you could take corrective action before the subscriber experience triggers a churn.

The author, Chris Smith, heads the EMEA Telco group at Netezza and is responsible for the Netezza Telco Solution Strategy which enables many of the world’s telecoms operators to make better, datadriven decisions and to enhance service quality. Chris has worked in telecoms for many years, formerly at Oracle and then at Volantis.

Effective predictive analytics needs immense volumes of detailed data, spanning long periods of time, accessible in near real time. Netezza TwinFin is engineered – storage, processors and database – to handle just that requirement.

TwinFin is the new generation of data warehouse and business analytics appliance that enables predictive analytics to deliver genuinely actionable insights that make a difference to the business.

You might say Netezza allows you to lift your eyes from your dashboard to the road ahead.

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

37

WEBINAR PREVIEW

Are you prepared for the roll-out of cloud services?

Most communication service providers (CSPs) have already identified cloud services as a key strategic driver for a new revenue stream that enhances their existing managed network solutions. Hamid Modarressi of Aricent previews the debate in a forthcoming VanillaPlus webinar.

THE WEBINAR IN BRIEF Title: Speaker: Moderator: Date: Duration: Time:

Transform Your OSS/BSS Systems And Processes To Enable Cloud Services Hamid Modarressi, Vice President, Business Process Innovation Group at Aricent Jeremy Cowan, Editor & Founder, VanillaPlus Thursday 4 November, 2010 60 minutes 09.00 hours Los Angeles; 12.00 New York; 16.00 London; 17.00 Madrid; 20.00 Dubai Registration: FREE at www.vanillaplus.com There are numerous initiatives to develop offerings in cloud services such as Infrastructure, Platform, and Software as a Service (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS). Already, there are offerings by many major CSPs in the computing and storage areas (IaaS). However, the true competitive advantage for CSPs is their ability to provide an end-to-end service quality guarantee that spans the network, transport, and applications performance in a more complete SaaS offering – essential for uninterrupted services of mission-critical IT applications.

Using the eTOM (enhanced Telecom Operations Map) model as a reference, we investigate the impact of cloud services in three critical areas fulfillment, service assurance, and billing to provide a list of key considerations.

1. Fulfillment considerations: • Providing a comprehensive self-service capability through a secure user interface which addresses enterprise-specific requirements such as user hierarchy.

• Delivering on-demand fulfillment of service requests.

• Integrating network and IT services where users are provided with intelligent solutions instead of individual products and services.

• Administrative user interface for desktops and smart mobile devices, with flow-through integration with back-end systems.

To learn more about the Aricent Cloud Services Operations Optimization (CSOO) offer visit www.aricent.com/bpi/csoo

2. Service assurance considerations: • Integrating network and IT monitoring and fault management systems to create a realtime end-to-end view of service performance.

• Developing fault isolation and troubleshooting between user environment, network, IT platform, and applications with real-time data

correlation and analysis to pinpoint root causes and provide remedial actions.

• Delivering SLA with associated proactive monitoring of key performance parameters.

• Providing online access to real-time performance and usage data in a meaningful and rich presentation format.

3. Billing considerations: • Providing the ability to purchase product and services online with accurate pricing and clear contractual terms.

• Enhancing mediation and billing capabilities to enable per-use (utility).

• Billing settlements with third party providers/partners.

Aricent Cloud Services Operations Optimization (CSOO) Offer Aricent Cloud Services Operations Optimization (CSOO) offer helps CSPs roll out cloud services on large-scale basis by helping them to develop a holistic view of the entire system and process changes.

Aricent’s strategy, design and integration skills in user experience, OSS/BSS systems architecture, and IT assess the existing operations environment; develop a comprehensive roadmap for transforming the CSP’s infrastructure to enable rapid rollout and delivery of innovative new services efficiently and competitively.

• Assess the impact of cloud services on IT systems and processes • Transform OSS and BSS infrastructure to enable cloud services • Optimise cloud services management to deliver compelling subscriber experiences and Open new revenue streams.

Hamid Modarressi is Vice President, Business Process Innovation Group at Aricent, providing expert consulting services to CSPs in process, systems, and organisational transformation and optimisation.

He is responsible for supporting short and long term OSS/BSS architecture and development planning in support of customers’ business objectives. Hamid was previously a founder and the CIO of Everest Broadband Networks, and served as VP and CIO of Bell Atlantic (now Verizon) Global Networks, Inc. He holds a BSEE and an MBA both from Columbia University, USA. 38

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

WEBINAR PREVIEW

New OSS/BSS models for next generation communications business and user experience THE WEBINAR IN BRIEF Title: Speakers:

New OSS/BSS models for next gen communications business and user experience Chris Yeadon, Director Product Marketing, LHS Veronika Olsson, Director Marketing, Strategic Marketing and Research, LHS Moderator: Jeremy Cowan, Founder & Editor, VanillaPlus Date: Thursday 25 November, 2010 Duration: 60 minutes Time: 09.00 hours New York; 14.00 London; 15.00 Berlin, Stockholm; 17.00 Dubai; 21.00 Singapore Registration: FREE online at www.vanillaplus.com 4 Key reasons to attend this webcast: • Understand the drivers and trends behind OSS/BBS transformation in the next decade • Learn about business model choices that CSPs will have to make to thrive in the next decade Over the last decade the telecommunications landscape has evolved at a rapid pace. The line between telecoms and the internet is becoming increasing unclear. ‘Being online’ has become a normal part of people’s day-to-day life and the means of ‘getting on line,’ whether via a home PC, wireless-enabled laptop or mobile smart phone, is becoming increasingly irrelevant.

• What are the guiding business principles behind OSS/BSS transformation • What will be the OSS/BSS architectural principles required to support next generation communications business they must adapt in order to thrive.

Ericsson estimates that by 2020, 50 billion devices will benefit from a network connection.

These will range from today’s handheld devices to energy meters, vending machines, household appliances and transportation.

Communications will change from person to person (P2P) towards machine to machine (M2M). Growth drivers for mobile connections in the next decade will thus be applications to enable all kinds of machines to communicate in an intelligent way, and by these M2M communications creating value to consumers and verticals. This will require a streamlined and holistic approach to designing OSS/ BSS architectures that, for a great number of CSPs, will involve transforming their current environments.

Recent studies show that very soon 80% of all people accessing the internet will be using a mobile device. Today, mobile networks already carry more data traffic than traffic generated from voice services. But this trend towards ubiquitous connectivity means that communication service providers (CSPs) will face unprecedented business change to which

This webcast, led by speakers from LHS, will examine the inter-dependent guiding business principles that will drive changes in the key operational and business processes and systems. It will also look at the architectural principles behind the OSS/BSS transformation necessary to support the next generation of communications models.

“When electricity came to the home, everyone thought it was for one thing — to light the home. Today in the home everything is connected to electricity. A similar story will be told about mobile communications.

When the technology started, people thought it was just for mobile phones.”

Hans Vestberg, CEO, Ericsson

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS Chris Yeadon has 10 years sales and marketing experience in IT and telecommunications. Prior to joining LHS, he was Head of Sales and Marketing at mobile applications company Cellus in the UK, before moving to global business intelligence software vendor, SAS Institute.

Veronika Olsson has over 15 years of hands-on experience in IT and communications. Combining billing and customer care consulting background with business process strategy expertise Veronika brings to the table a holistic approach to the telecoms market, considering jointly technical, and business aspects.

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

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EVENT PREVIEWS

Transform your OSS/BSS systems and processes to enable Cloud Services - Webinar Sponsored by Aricent 4 November, 2010 09.00 hours Los Angeles; 12.00 New York; 16.00 London; 17.00 Madrid; 20.00 Dubai Stay ahead of the competition, capitalise on new opportunities and learn how to address the biggest operational challenges faced by the Communication Service Providers rolling out Cloud Services.

For information or to Register FREE go to: www.vanillaplus.com

New OSS/BSS models for next generation communications business and user experience - LHS Ericsson Webinar 25 November, 2010 09.00 New York • 14.00 London 15.00 Paris • 17.00 Dubai 21.00 Singapore For information or to register FREE go to: www.vanillaplus.com

Customer Segmentation and Intelligence 25–28 October, 2010 Radisson Blu Portman Hotel, London, UK www.iir-telecoms.com/event/segmentation Attendees will learn how to develop actionable customer segmentation and intelligence strategies; moving beyond data collection to the practical and tangible application of customer insights to CRM, churn prevention, product development,

pricing and marketing initiatives. Drawing together a global panel of experts, the event offers four days of experience-based insights into how data can be translated into practical strategies.

North Africa Com 26-27 October, 2010 The JW Marriott, Cairo, Egypt http://nafrica.comworldseries.com

In this its fifth year, North Africa Com has become an established communications congress dedicated solely to the North African region. The annual two-day conference has so far confirmed more than 30 speakers including 12 operator CxOs, and it gathers over 600 regional telco decision-makers yearly.

Broadband World Forum 26–28 October, 2010 CNIT, La Defense, Paris, France www.broadbandworldforum.com

This year’s conference programme includes global executive keynote sessions from Deutsche Telekom, KT, Verizon, Orange France Telecom Group, Chunghwa Telecom and BT, with more besides. A further 200 speakers including 125 service providers will address the hottest topics across four tracks covering Transport, Intelligence, Access and Services. The exhibition includes 280 exhibitors.

Planet of the Apps 2–4 November, 2010 Le Meridien Piccadilly, London, UK www.terrapinn.com/planetoftheapps Planet of the Apps Europe 2010 brings together the world’s major consumer brands, media businesses, social networking sites, mobile operators, device manufacturers, platform owners and the app developer community. They will meet to discuss how to make the most of the opportunities provided by the rapid rise of mobile apps.

What to expect:

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VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

• Meet hundreds of senior level directors from the world’s leading brands, developers, operators and device manufacturers • Bring home an extensive list of business leads, and develop the partnerships you need for success • Find out how your peers and competitors are achieving commercial success, through case studies from Coca-Cola, Telefonica 02 and Facebook

EVENT PREVIEWS

Management World Americas 2010 Beating the Revenue Crunch 9-11 November, Orlando, Florida, USA www.tmforum.org/mwa10/vanilla Management World Americas offers you the inspiration, access to knowledge and real-world experiences needed to beat the revenue crunch. Invest wisely, cut costs and diversify your revenue portfolio by attending the only conference challenging the major issues head on. For more information, see our dedicated Management World Americas 2010 supplement supplied with this issue.

Africa Com 10-11 November, 2010 Cape Town Convention Centre, South Africa http://africa.comworldseries.com/ AfricaCom is one of the premier communications events on the African continent. With an attendance level now reaching more than 4,000 delegates and speakers, it’s big on content, interactivity and networking opportunities and most of all it’s big on decision-making attendees. This year, say the organisers, you’ll be spoilt for choice in the conference with eight special focus sessions, four strategic keynotes, a separate two-day conference dedicated to Capacity & Wholesale, a pre-event seminar and a breakfast briefing.

FT World Telecoms Conference 2010 16-17 November, 2010 Marriott Grosvenor Square, London, UK www.ftconferences.com/telecoms

The FT World Telecoms Conference 2010 will feature a series of in-depth interviews and thought-provoking panel debates with global industry leaders. They will discuss how telecoms players can adapt their businesses to thrive in this time of significant change.

Fresh competitive challenges, innovative technologies and evolving business models are all putting pressure on telecoms players to scrutinise their commercial strategies more closely.

Rivalry is also intensifying around the globe. Identifying the world's newest investment hotspots, while implementing the strategies that make it possible to capitalise on the opportunities available in emerging markets, has become crucial to keeping one step ahead of competitors.

Efficiencies: What are the cost-optimisation initiatives that will still allow telecoms businesses to focus on their strategic goals?

Value-added services: How can the telecoms sector contribute to the major emerging growth areas within digital entertainment?

The new digital consumer: How is consumer behaviour changing as new platforms and digital channels open up, and what does this mean for companies attempting to build relationships with consumers?

Discussion topics at the Financial Times' World Telecoms Conference 2010 will include: Regulation: How will regulatory approaches shape the future of the global telecoms marketplace, and what effect will they have on commercial strategies and revenues?

Re-inventing next generation networks: How can the industry ensure fixed and mobile networks offer optimum speed, performance and accessibility via the various available devices?

Emerging markets: Which markets will be the key to growth over the next three to five years, and which strategies will allow businesses to capitalise on the opportunities available?

CEO insights: What lessons have industry leaders learned over the past 12 months and what opportunities and threats do they foresee on the road ahead?

VanillaPlus readers receive a 25% discount – Just quote 1CEH0-VP when booking

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

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EVENT PREVIEWS

4th European CxO Dialog Telco Strategy: Web 2.0 Social Media, Mobile, Broadband or Cloud Computing for the Telco industry 22–23 November, 2010, Berlin, Germany http://summits.econique.com/telco_4.html?L=0 The 4th European CxO Dialog Telco Strategy will gather senior executives, VPs, CEOs, CFOs and Heads of Strategy from the telecommunications industryThe telecoms industry is undergoing a major shift from voice-driven to data-driven services. New services, changing business models, mergers and

acquisitions are everyday business in the telco industry today.

Join the 4th European CxO Dialog Telco Strategy for a regional debate on telecom mergers and acquisitions, strategy, wireless broadband, mobile applications, web 2.0 and cloud computing.

ECTA’s 11th Annual Regulatory Conference 29 November – 1 December, 2010 Crowne Plaza Brussels Europa, Brussels, Belgium www.ectaportal.com/regulatory10 As the European Commission sets ambitious targets for 100Mbit/s broadband services across Europe, this year’s ECTA conference focuses on delivery. What does industry need to deliver broadband Europe and how can governments and regulators meet the challenge?

ECTA will review the long-awaited Commission

recommendation on next generation access, and examine how access rules and prices will be set, as we transition from legacy copper to fibre/IP networks. This year will also see important new debates on Net Neutrality, the potential extension of universal service to broadband and permanent solutions to achieve roaming-free Europe as well as political negotiations on spectrum management.

GSM 3G Middle East 30 November – 1 December, 2010 Dubai, UAE http://me.comworldseries.com/ GSM 3G Middle East is the longest established communications event in the Middle Eastern region. With an attendance totaling more than 2,000 delegates, it is said to be big on content, interactivity and networking opportunities and, most of all, big on decision-making attendees.

focus sessions, four strategic keynotes, a separate stream dedicated to LTE, the MENA Telecoms HR & Recruitment Summit, and much more. You'll meet and network not only with your peers but also The Middle East's most significant business leaders. This year you'll learn from 80 visionary speakers including 40+ operators and 28 of them at CxO level.

This year there are brand new agenda features - with 11 special

Mobile Cloud Computing World Forum 1 December, 2010 RIBA Headquarters, London, UK www.mobilecloudcomputingforum.com The conference will provide a full perspective of mobile cloud computing and software as a service (SaaS), from business value through integration and implementation, to the industry’s emergent trends. Get the scoop on the latest products, meet with clients and drum up new business with valuable leads. Meet some of the best known mobile cloud computing and SaaS professionals in person, and exchange your experiences. Show highlights include:

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VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

• One-day conference and exhibition on Enterprise Mobile Cloud Computing and Enterprise Apps • Leading case studies on how they have integrated mobile into their working practices • Learn from the key players offering mobile products and services • Benefit from our pre-show online meeting planner • Network in our combined exhibition and catering area • Enjoy an evening networking party for all attendees

CARRIERS WORLD REVIEW

Carriers see no clear response by operators to OTT providers Wholesale carriers meeting in London last month looked for a clear response from operators to the threat from content and over-the-top (OTT) service providers. And they failed to find it. Editor, Jeremy Cowan, reports from another stimulating and wellattended Carriers World event, but one that showed that operators and their wholesale providers are still struggling with a major industry threat.

Agreement was not in short supply. Speaker after speaker at Carriers World had slides to show how grave the threat is to service providers from declining voice revenues, as customers switch to Voice over IP (VoIP) services. And while several still referred to voice revenues as the industry’s ‘cash cow’, it was evident that the ‘milk’ is now in shorter supply.

While margins on voice were falling, data traffic in 2009 rose by 70%. Yet data service revenues only rose by 1% (source: Ovum). But this picture of declining operator revenues and rising costs is already familiar to readers of VanillaPlus. So, what do carriers recommend?

It’s hard to know. Most of the speakers bemoaned the attitude of content providers “who want to have a free ride” (without offering a solution), or ducked the issue when questioned publicly by VanillaPlus.

Here, honourable mentions should go to Sally Davis, CEO of BT Wholesale and Ole Hvelplund, CEO of TDC Wholesale, both of whom outlined a little of their response. Asked what new business models were coming through that might assist the operator cause, Davis was candid saying that she’d been optimistic on the same stage two years ago that a new business model would emerge.

She said: “I have no crystal ball. Data (traffic) is increasing, and we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.”

providers and end users to get across networks without paying.”

Mobile payments may be one key to unlocking a more profitable future, said Hvelplund. “If we could just get one Euro cent for every transaction across the network that would be good. We are working with credit card providers and content providers now,” he added.

Can operators build strong app communities?

Many doubt it. Said one senior analyst, Mac Taylor of The Moriana Group: “When it comes to carriers' ability to execute on creating developer communities, there is a cultural block, a business model block, and a technical block. Although WAC (the Wholesale Applications Community) and OneAPI are valiant attempts they will probably not be the answer. At least this is the feedback from developers.

“Although some operators in the past 10 years, have tried to foster developer communities, none have really succeeded. Especially when compared with Apple, Google, Microsoft or Facebook et al. Operators simply don’t have this kind of innovation culture. Moreover, to claim they are now at a disadvantage because of the success of these players, is just special pleading.

Rather,they are at a disadvantage because of their own organisational constraints and past performance,” he concluded.

“Some operators have tried to foster developer communities, (but) none have really succeeded.”

- Mac Taylor, The Moriana Group

“There’s value in latency management, and in content distribution if we ... cut backhaul costs.

Delivering quality, for example for (movie) studios is crucial but it must be measurable,” she said. “There are opportunities to help content providers with billing services, and there are opportunities in the advertising model and in data collection, management and processing. Of course, there are strict data protection regulations, and you can’t divulge individual statistics but you can aggregate data usefully for content providers,” said Davis.

Another panellist, TDC’s Hvelplund, told the conference: “Ten years ago (operator) margins used to be like the banks. Now they’re more like retail. There’s an alliance between content

David James, Principal Analyst at Ovum, opens Carriers World.

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

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3 R D

P A R T Y

A P P

P L A T F O R M S

EXPERT OPINION:

3rd Party Application Platforms:

Taking the long view Mobile CSPs have mostly sat on the sidelines as the smartphone industry, led by Apple, showed how selling apps could create great interest from both consumer and application developers. Smartphone app stores are a textbook example of a successful multi-sided market, says Fergus O’Reilly.

The author is Fergus O’Reilly, Chief Solution Expert for SAP Consume to Cash

These apps, and the mobile internet capabilities of the smartphones themselves, have however led to massive increases in data traffic on operator networks. Operators have moved to monetise this traffic, mostly by selling ‘unlimited’ mobile broadband subscriptions. But the applications revenue has eluded the operators, as have the tight relationships it implies with consumers and developers.

The communication service providers (CSP) community’s best effort to get back in the game here is the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC). Whereas the smartphone App Stores are each mono-device and multioperator, the WAC promises to be multi-device and multi-operator. This is an ambitious goal, providing a platform that works across multiple device and operating system combinations is a very hard problem. But, if it can be solved, it is very attractive for developers who want to reach the largest possible number of consumers.

A market of 3 billion users If a developer deploys on an individual smartphone vendor platform they can reach a market of hundreds of millions of consumers using the smartphones from that vendor. If, on the other hand, they deploy through the WAC, they can reach three billion consumers.

“Consumer app platforms constitute today’s battleground

So, how does the WAC get to claim a figure of three billion potential customers even though the total number of smartphones out there is less than one billion?

and enterprise apps is tomorrow’s.”

- Fergus O’Reilly,

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This wide coverage is a key strength for the WAC since it extends from the high-end with tablets and smartphones, down to the lower end with basic phones that are already out there in huge volume. If the WAC can successfully leverage this strength then they can greatly extend the revenue opportunity for developers.

The WAC, as a consortium of major operators worldwide, knows that business is not done in a uniform way worldwide. There is enough flexibility in the model to allow for regional variation when necessary. And such countryby-country variation is definitely required, there is interplay in the business model amongst elements such as customer ability to pay, payment-instrument preferences, creditrisk policies for prepaid-dominant versus postpaid-dominant countries, and developer revenue share percentages. The WAC will be able to adapt to local requirements by leveraging the deep in-country expertise of their member operators.

So the WAC comes into the market with some challenges and some key advantages. For the WAC model to really succeed, however, they will need to push much more on two areas of differentiation with the smartphone vendor app stores.

WAC cloud capability?

First, the WAC needs to push much more capability into the cloud in a standard, crossoperator way. Smartphone vendors are all about the intelligent endpoints in the network, for smartphone vendors the platform is the phone or tablet.

▲

SAP

That is because the WAC can draw a wider net than just smartphones. They can, for example, include feature phones: phones that are not quite as open to fancy apps as smartphones,

but still have some WAP/Internet capability and can download small apps or widgets.

But many apps today, and probably all the most interesting apps going forward, are not just apps in isolation. The apps on the device need to communicate back with a central service, to leverage a social network, to communicate with other users of the app, and to interact with data and applications running in the cloud.

Instead corporations should be able to preapprove different sets of applications for their employees by functional role. And they should be able to negotiate pricing and discounting for the apps at a global level, paying by number of deployed seats, or based on service-level agreements, or based on measured usage of the application.

So CSPs can also provide developers with feature-rich platforms not only on the enddevices but also running in the operator’s data centre. Such a platform should include the regular list of core network capabilities like messaging, voice call integration, location and presence. But it can also be extended to allow compute capacity on-demand for a developer to quickly scale the server side of their applications.

These different pricing models also need to flow through to a corresponding level of sophistication in the revenue share model, so that all parties to the business can be fairly rewarded: the app developer themselves, perhaps a systems integrator, a reseller and the WAC and CSPs.

“Devices will be smart, brimming with software and connected to other devices and services in the cloud.”

- Fergus O’Reilly,

It can include provisioning and device management systems so that developers can administer the different devices that have deployed their apps and what features they have enabled. It could also include rich ondemand analytics and reporting capabilities, so that developers can gain insight into the usage patterns of their applications and benchmark their performance against their peers.

The total platform should also allow for complete pricing flexibility for developers to bill for their apps in the way that they deem fit.

The current app store model is quite constrained with only a fixed price per app and limited in-app purchases/upgrades. This kind of billing model is fine for games and low-value apps for consumers.

Monetising corporate apps But better pricing models are required so that developers can capture the potentially much larger and currently untapped market for corporate apps. As enterprise software moves off the desktop and onto mobile devices there is a role for application stores to play in helping monetise that transition. But the only way to do so today would be for each employee to pay for and download the corporate app individually and then to submit an expense report to their employer. Clearly, this is a broken model.

SAP

Such enterprise billing and revenue sharing processes and systems are existing capabilities for most CSPs, so leveraging those strengths quickly for the emerging market of enterprise mobility apps makes perfect sense. Doing so would allow CSPs to leapfrog the smartphone vendors in this domain.

If consumer app platforms constitute today’s battleground and enterprise apps is tomorrow’s, then both are maybe just warmup matches for the future competition around monetising the hyperconnected world.

Today, third-party developers are looking at getting apps onto phones and tablets, tomorrow they will want to do the same with cars, household consumer electronics, smart meters for energy and water, healthcare equipment in hospitals, remote monitoring devices for industrial equipment, the list goes on. Devices will be smart, brimming with software and connected to other devices and services in the cloud.

The challenges developers will face with these smart devices are very similar to what they face today with smartphones and tablets: how to deploy applications across them widely, how to provision, manage and scale the service, how to monetise it and share revenue throughout the value chain.

Whatever CSPs and the WAC are building today should be built with an eye to the near future to build a platform for the hyperconnected world.

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

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P A R T N E R

M A N A G E M E N T

Bringing something to the table To secure better revenue share in the future CSPs need to react to the changing telecoms landscape and make networks more accessible to third party providers.

Mark Dye reports on the value of location, presence and preference data, as well as obstacles en route to a better subscriber experience.

Stretched to breaking point by waves of industry transformations and disruptive players, communications service providers (CSPs) have been left feeling frustrated seeing data service revenues going over the top of their networks to the likes of Amazon, Apple and Google (also see Carriers World review, page 43).

Lukasz Mendyk, Comarch: Include data usage charges in the application price

Fergus O’Reilly, SAP: Service pricing requires packaging, bundles, and discounts

CSPs hold ‘key assets’ Recent research by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) appears to back this up. In its report, Fighting smart - Strategy options for telecoms operators, it is suggested there remains a bright, profitable future for those CSPs that react to the changing telecoms landscape by working alongside the over-the-top companies. After all, CSPs hold several key assets including the customer base, the billing platforms and the network itself.

As David Sharpley, Senior Vice President of Product Management and Marketing, Bridgewater Systems explains, operators have long been vocal that they shouldn’t be relegated to the role of bit-provider, but haven't had a strategy for staying relevant. “Exposing

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

While we’ve seen the opening up of application eco-systems to third party providers in Europe, Asia and North America, the opening of APIs into the eco-system does not necessarily mean developers are adopting these.

As Sharpley explains, the popularity of the Android OS and Apple APIs (Application Programme Interfaces) has so far seen more developers building applications and content based on these environments rather than those of operators.

“Yet, with the operator offering a channel to market to customers, there should be a growing incentive for these application providers to use a mobile operator’s eco-system,” he adds. “This is where the location, presence and preference data fold in. Once the operator is able to consistently provide that data in a meaningful way to application developers, there will be value for them in using that data.”

There could be another reason, too.

According to Pinch Media, a company helping developers track the use of iPhone apps, among users downloading applications from the Apple App Store, only 20% continue to use them the next day, while 1% use them long-term.

Service-driven approach Such statistics appear to suggest that operators

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As a result many are seeking a return to the status quo of a space which they once dominated. While this will require more applications and innovation on their part, all hope is not lost. Carriers are still best placed when it comes to service delivery and monetisation and, as such, have a real opportunity to fight back against those currently delivering application stores.

interfaces and putting themselves in the money chain for application developers is key,” he says.

do have a part to play when it comes to improving take-up and longevity of these, perhaps via a service-driven rather than productbased approach.

As Fergus O’Reilly, CTO, SAP Convergent Charging Solutions, explains, “Service pricing would depend on who you were, how you use the service, whether you bought related services or optional extras. So service pricing requires packaging, bundles, cross-product discounts, rewards and discounts for regular users.”

Should carriers start selling applications themselves, Lukasz Mendyk, OSS Product Manager, at Comarch’s Telecommunications Business Unit, says the price for data usage generated by the purchased application could be included within the application price.

“Combining the application with data services enables operators to attain their share of application revenues,” he says. “Additionally, this approach facilitates differentiating between high and low data-intensive applications, thus enabling differentiation of price. The low data flat-rate may be limited purely for web browsing applications.”

Carriers looking attractive?

Mendyk says the huge advantage here for customers is that when they purchase applications via carriers’ app stores they needn’t worry about data tariffs. “Augmenting the carriers’ application platforms with access to their billing systems, and with provided serverside Network APIs plus possible hosting services, may render carriers’ platforms extremely appealing to the developer community,” he adds.

Sharpley believes that rather than attempting to build the applications themselves, operators should embrace what their customers are already doing with Google and Apple and add value to it by exposing network-based information to enhance the experience.

overlooking smart billing. Indeed, only one in six was able to provide insight into individual customer behaviour, while less than a fifth were able to automatically run analyses of customer behaviour to spot trends.

“Only 20% (of Apple

Of course, with 24 of the largest phone operators having already joined forces to create the Wholesale Applications Community, CSPs have already made a bid to regain some control of the market by making it easier for developers to build and sell apps, ‘irrespective of device or technology’ on a single open platform. Indeed, the group, supported by the likes of LG, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and the GSM Association hopes to develop a common standard for applications in the next 12 months.

1% use them long-

app downloaders) continue to use them the next day, while

term.”

- Pinch Media

While this sounds like just the ticket, it is worth noting the sheer effort needed to bring this all smoothly together and prevent further fragmentation within the marketplace. As it stands, not all carriers and device manufacturers are in the same place even if they’re on the same platform. So the WAC could present further problems for developers in terms of changes to apps, thereby exacerbating the problem in the process.

What is the answer?

“Finding the right partners to deliver the right content to the right subscribers and being able to nurture them is key,” explains Balaji Srinivasan, Strategic Product Director, Intec. “Treat partners as you would treat a customer.”

Srinivasan says that by taking care of the subscriber side of the equation and the partner side of the equation in a better way, carriers are able to demand a larger share of the revenue as they are playing a much more active role in content delivery.

Martin Creaner, President of the TM Forum, agrees. “If they offer good platforms that the content providers want to use they gain additional revenue share,” he says. “If they can additionally provide valuable customer behaviour data back to the content providers, then they can secure another chunk of revenue. It's all about becoming more and more valuable to the content providers as part of their solution.”

“Certainly, all parties will benefit from a simplified and co-operative business model which is secure and based on shared value chains,” adds Judi Gill, Director of Market Analysis and Strategy, Clarity.

“CSPs are in a position to enter this chain as trusted suppliers, leveraging their existing customer relationships, subscriber knowledge and service quality assurance capability.

However, they will also rely on partnerships with other players in the value chain to deliver both content and a stable revenue stream.

Research from Oracle in a report entitled State of Readiness adds further weight to this argument by pointing out that media firms focused on deepening customer intimacy and richer content were hindered by lack of insight into customer behaviour, whilst also

“In the same way department stores can profitably provide a one-stop-shop for thousands of manufacturers, with shared payments and product guarantees, CSPs can do the same in the online world,” she says.

Martin Creaner, TM Forum: Offer customer behaviour data to content providers

Balaji Srinivasan, Intec: Treat partners as you would treat a customer

The author, Mark Dye, is a freelance telecoms writer

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W E B I N A R

R E V I E W

Business transformation and monetisation: Responding quickly to change with innovative cloud service offerings The plug in and pay-per-use options enabled by the cloud could supersede the traditional Build Your Own system. Cloud computing offers new ways to deliver on customer service expectation and consequential satisfaction. It can also help suppliers earn sought after respect – and loyalty – regarding a subscriber’s investment decision.

However, businesses may need to consider a technological business transformation in order to stay abreast of their customer’s changing needs. Here Georgina Firth, freelance telecoms journalist, reviews the recent webinar.

Microsoft’s Ganga Venkatasubramanian

If you are still considering, or are in the process of, seeking new revenue from wider markets by projecting your business through the cloud then take a look at the latest podcast in the VanillaPlus Thought Leadership Webinar Series.

Ganga Venkatasubramanian, Product Manager for the Microsoft Online Commerce Platform, was joined by Scott Swartz, CEO of MetraTech Corporation, to present a case study on how Microsoft’s cloud-based billing system reacts quickly to change. The session was hosted by VanillaPlus’ Editorial Director, Jeremy Cowan.

To find out more, go to www.vanillaplus.com and click on Microsoft Online Services Case Study: Responding Quickly To Change With Innovative New Cloud Service Offering 48 26

Delegates from around the world were treated to an early glimpse of MetraTech’s collaboration with Microsoft in a special webinar on 30 September, 2010. A presentation delivered

by Ganga and Scott looked deep into the journey that Microsoft took to advance the response to market dynamics by implementing cloud initiatives and tailored offerings that transform and monetise billing systems.

The presentation clearly defines the key components of the cloud commerce platform.

Commerce is a critical piece in the process of business transformation and Ganga addressed five areas for primary consideration during the session. The audience was also privy to

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

Microsoft’s insight around developments in the customer purchasing and invoicing experience.

A live, interactive poll collected responses from the delegates who were asked in which areas they were experiencing the most impact regarding their own business transformation. The results indicated a peak in the realignment of existing business models.

New ways to reach customers The challenge here, according to Ganga, is in implementing new ways to reach out to wider customers and markets, at the same time as maintaining a competitive advantage. Due to the global nature of the cloud a set of personalisation considerations must be addressed if a business is to succeed across multiple services internationally. Delivering such personalisation is a technology-based intricacy.

Ganga conveyed that companies undertaking a transformation through the cloud need to address the complexity of global delivery. In order to fulfil that delivery regional elements must also be implemented to attain a successful, local, go to market strategy.

He then shared a breakdown of potential challenges which those looking at business transformation may face. These included providing intricate purchase and billing flexibility as well as addressing the numerous permutations for compliance relating to localised legalities and taxes. Other considerations covered data centres and latency, the localisation of UX and support, dealing with worldwide currencies and payment methods, and implementing multilanguage notifications.

Companies feeling the pressure to deliver more dynamic and flexible global billing options, especially within existing account subscriptions, may benefit from viewing the recording of this insightful session.

VIDEO PREVIEW

LTE trials: Readiness is all It is hard to overestimate the value of well-planned, well-executed LTE trials, especially for mobile operators who want an improved understanding of LTE before they develop deployment strategies, and who have yet to select their equipment vendors. In a new video interview coming soon to VanillaPlus.com, Paul Gowans of JDSU warns of the perils of failing to prepare your LTE trial.

Video Talking Heads: Paul Gowans, JDSU Paul Gowans is Regional Marketing Manager at JDSU Solutions Division. A 25-year veteran of the communications industry, he leads the regional marketing team responsible for JDSU's Assurance and Diagnostic solutions portfolio, focusing on mobile and wireline network equipment manufacturers and service providers worldwide. With expertise in telephony, IP, mobile, VoIP, IMS and IPTV, Paul is a graduate of Edinburgh University with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Management Science.

So much is new, including huge opportunities to offer lucrative new services enabled by an exponential increase in network capacity, speed and control. And so much is at stake, since overall service variety and the initial quality of customer experience will be major determinants of market share.

Before even setting out the assurance requirements, trials allow service providers to anticipate and prevent start-up problems and develop effective coping strategies for issues that do arise. Trials also set the stage for an efficient network that can be installed at a reasonable expense and that permits the deployment of new services with lower operating costs — a critical consideration when revenue-per-byte is falling.

Vigorous vendor competition in trials not only enables operators to fully evaluate equipment, but can motivate vendors to lower prices and accommodate operators’ technology needs.

Paul Gowans emphasises the phrase “wellplanned, well-executed LTE trials.” The testing is technically and logistically complex, and incomplete or inaccurate results can mislead as much as inform, he says. Trials can also be needlessly expensive and can delay deployment when time-to-market is crucial.

If operators are not fully confident in their LTE trial expertise, they can consult outside experts with real-world experience. Regardless, advance planning is critical to ensure that trials are thorough, fair, cost-effective and fast. Extra effort and expense for preparation can prevent huge headaches and save millions once the network becomes operational. In this endeavour, “readiness is all”.

End-to-end testing The trial team should plan for comprehensive end-to-end performance testing – from base station to air/edge interface to network core – across fully integrated test platforms that enable

on-the-fly adjustments. Tests should be conducted in as many scenarios and environments as practical, for all relevant standards and on different frequency bands.

“In LTE details really do matter.”

Trials need to verify all functions that are critical (and even not so critical) to future LTE services, including data capacity, throughput, handover from 2G and 3G networks, RF coverage, latency, inter-operability of multi-vendor devices and quality of service. Test equipment should support all LSTI Field Trial Test Cases, the right key performance indicators, correlation of user plane and control plane data, interactive measurements with preferred UE devices and the latest permutations of LTE standards.

One hallmark of an effective trial is neutrality toward vendors, Gowans believes. Test tools must work for all vendor equipment and enable defensible “apple to apple” comparisons.

Neutrality is not only fair but very much in the interest of operators, who must make critical purchasing decisions based on clear and objective criteria.

Ample preparation and the right tools can make trials efficient, fast and cost-effective. Test equipment should enable 100% capture at LTE data rates and still deliver real-time results. Also, if the architecture allows multi-user access, the trial team can be far more productive and all trial participants can determine at a glance what procedures are occurring, whether they are occurring correctly, and if not, which devices are at fault and why. Finally, a capacity for centralised configuration enables one person to make changes, and other participants need only to copy the changes for the testing to proceed.

All of this preparation is a tall order, but in LTE details really do matter. Planning is the key to effective trials, and if you fail to prepare, then prepare to fail.

The LTE readiness video interview with Paul Gowans can be seen at vanillaplus.com from November 29

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

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OPINION: MANAGED SERVICES

Managed services – not just about IT and the network Managed services are evolving with managed service innovation. Here Pat McCarthy looks at how managed services has moved from the traditional two-layered model that only encompassed network and IT outsourcing, to embrace service innovation. The new complementary ‘service innovation’ layer is seen by Pat as a critical enabler for mobile operators (and also Mobile Virtual Network Operators) to differentiate their service offerings, win more business and decrease time-to-market.

We all know what benefits managed services brings to the table – a way of producing effective and efficient operations by outsourcing day-to-day management responsibility – or leveraging partners to complement your business and bring their expertise to help your overall objectives.

The author, Pat McCarthy, is Vice President Marketing, Telcordia Service Delivery Solutions and a member of VanillaPlus’s Editorial Board

“This trend started in emerging markets such as Brazil and India.”

The traditional two-layered approach to managed services was restricted to network or IT outsourcing. With increasing focus on services and innovative offers, a new service layer is emerging, creating opportunities to partner with service providers to bring new offers to market, reduce churn and keep multi-SIM users onnetwork, and to stand out from the crowd.

Beat the competition Managed services, done right, should help you to stay ahead of the competition in an increasingly crowded marketplace. An onsite service creation team working in a dedicated environment in partnership with service planning, can translate marketing requirements and ideas into offered services. This means agility, flexibility and reliability – with a managed cost model.

This essential third layer works in collaboration with the marketing team to help support campaigns and react quickly to changing market conditions, such as replicating an offering from a competitor or a new service that can give you a lead in the market.

This means real-time service innovation. The marketing department achieves shortened development cycles and thereby maintains the flow of new services, helping improve customer retention (whether pre-paid, post-paid or hybrid accounts).

VanillaPlus Jargon Buster MVNO: Mobile Virtual Network Operator 50

Attract and retain customers Think about incentives and promotions – some are regular events in the diary (such as Christmas), others may need to be rolled out in response to a significant event or a competitor’s promotion.

The offer could be for a short-term cheap rate for one specific number around, for example, Mother’s Day. This would improve customer

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

loyalty while reducing churn, encourage more usage and therefore drive revenue.

By adopting this outsourced service creation approach, marketing staff are freed up to focus on developing a richer, more diverse customer experience implemented when they want, how they want and to who they want.

It’s the future The managed service creation team can rapidly create, test and deploy advanced services. Some providers – in particular those in emerging markets – combine managed service with operations, so the team is responsible for taking the idea and introducing the service on to the network.

It’s a given that managed services provide the ability to make operators more efficient and cut costs, but this is based on three major factors: service levels, skills and relationships. And it’s the relationship side where things often fall down – an onsite team means a true partnership can be formed with the operator, that reacts to feedback and demands in real-time, and builds a real relationship that ultimately helps the bottom line.

This trend started in emerging markets such as Brazil and India, and was taken up by MVNOs in North America, where smaller players and new entrants needed to complement their market insight with experienced realisation and delivery expertise to respond to a rapidly changing and highly competitive environment.

As service providers look to the challenge of mobile broadband and the gap between exponential cost growth of delivering data services versus the actual revenues, managed service innovation that brings together the skills of service creation, policy and charging will have a key role to play.

Telcordia believes that this is the future of telco managed service innovation, a win-win partnership for both operator and supplier. It is certainly a business model that drives innovation, rapid service delivery, and managed costs, while focusing on the holy grail of customer retention and revenue growth.

e lus 11 Th laP 20 l ni ory Va ct e ir D

Directory 2011

What a difference a year makes!

If you never once felt the stress levels climbing off the scale in 2009 you may consider yourself fortunate. Or you work for a bank. In most businesses 2009 was a year to concentrate on doing what you do best, a bit of an annus horribilis. But what a difference the last 12 months have made.

It’s not quite the comic-book story, “With one bound he was free” but, after years spent under-performing the financial markets as a whole, the communications industry has shown genuine resilience.

Many network operators, service providers and suppliers are once again posting strong growth figures, and profit margins are being re-built.

The challenges are out there, but so are the opportunities As regular readers of VanillaPlus will know, there is no room for complacency – indeed, this issue points out some major risks. But next generation networks have it in their power (as the CEO of Virgin Media Business tells VanillaPlus exclusively on pages 27-29) to be “part of the solution not part of the problem” in cost reduction and margin growth.

That may be one reason why – despite the inevitability of continued mergers and acquisitions – the annual VanillaPlus Directory of business and operations support systems (B/OSS) providers has grown once again. In 1999 there were just over 250 companies serving this sector, mainly software vendors, consultancies and system integrators. Today we list Jeremy Cowan, Editor, VanillaPlus almost 500 organisations worldwide, and the list keeps growing. Now, we talk about everything as a Service (XaaS); and personalisation, charging and pricing are among the greatest challenges and opportunities for service providers in 2011. Welcome to the 2011 Directory, available here in print and online at www.vanillaplus.com

Jeremy Cowan, Editor, VanillaPlus VANILLAPLUS DIRECTORY 2011

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Acision

Bridgewater Systems

www.acision.com contact@acision.com 1430 Arlington Business Park, Theale, Reading RG7 4SA, UK Tel: +44 845 003 7151 As a world leader in mobile data, Acision powers innovation and profitable growth in mobile data services. As the pioneer of mobile messaging, Acision’s real time mobile data solutions enable customers worldwide to drive new revenues with innovative services while controlling, optimising and monetising data traffic. Acision's proven products and services, experienced people and service innovation allows organisations to meet the challenges in today’s converging telecommunications market. Acision is at the heart of its customers’ strategic business services, working together to achieve profitable and sustainable growth. Acision’s recognised expertise extends across a portfolio of propositions, products and services and is based upon a global track record, business insight and leading edge technology platforms.

Mobile Advertising; Fraud Control & Prevention; LocationBased Services; Loyalty & Churn Management; Messaging; Rating & Charging; Service Optimisation;

Arantech

www.bridgewatersystems.com marketing@bridgewatersystems.com 303 Terry Fox Drive, Suite 500, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K2K 3J1 Tel: +1 613 591 6655 Bridgewater Systems, the mobile personalisation company, enables service providers to efficiently manage and profit from mobile data services, content and commerce. The company's market leading mobile personalisation suite provides a realtime, unified view of subscribers including entitlements, devices, networks, billing profiles, preferences and context.

Anchored by Bridgewater's Subscriber Data Broker, the portfolio of standards-based products includes the Bridgewater Service Controller (AAA), the Bridgewater Policy Controller (PCRF) and the Bridgewater Home Subscriber Server (HSS).

More than 150 leading service providers use Bridgewater's solutions to rapidly deliver innovative mobile services to over 150 million subscribers.

Personalisation; Policy Management; Professional Services; Subscriber Data Management;

www.arantech.com info@arantech.com Unit 6, Blackrock Business Park, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland Tel: +353 (0) 1 2100 100 Fax: +353 (0) 1 2100 101 Arantech’s CEM solutions provide mobile operators with a unique customer insight, a rich experience discovery that enables them to take proactive management action on real time experience events. All solutions deliver a rapid and strong RoI by identifying customer-centric issues (‘the experience gap’) in real time and enable behavioural segmentation of a customer base which today is not possible through existing business and operational support systems (B/OSS). Arantech has 39 customers including mobile operators from four out of the six largest mobile operator groups in the world.

Customer Experience Management

Cerillion Technologies www.cerillion.com info@cerillion.com 15 Adeline Place, London WC1B 3AJ, UK Tel: +44 20 7927 6000 Fax: +44 20 7927 6006 Cerillion Technologies provides convergent CRM and billing, charging, interconnect, mediation and provisioning solutions to fixed, mobile, cable and multi-service convergent communications providers worldwide. The Cerillion bundled component solution suite supports any deployment model: as

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COMPANY

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2Ergo 4th Screen Advertising ABITEL Consulting GmbH Accanto Systems Accedian Networks Accenture Accipia Ltd ACES Acision ACL Acme Packet acoreus AG ACS Actix Adapt Adare Aepona Affiniti Aicent AIRCOM International Ltd

2ergo.com 4th-screen.com abitel.de accantosystems.com accedian.com accenture.com accipia.com aces-co.com acision.com acl.com acmepacket.com acoreus.com acsdallas.com actix.com adaptplc.com adare.com aepona.com affiniti.com aicent.net aircominternational.com

Airwide Solutions Aito Technologies Oy Aktavara Aladdin Knowledge Systems Co. Albany Software Alcatel-Lucent Allot Communications Allround Amdocs Amdocs Interactive Analysys Mason Anritsu A/S Apex CoVantage Arantech Argogroup (an Ascom company) Aricent Arieso Arkipelago ARRIS arvato finance

airwidesolutions.com aitotechnologies.com aktavara.se aladdin.com albany.co.uk alcatel-lucent.com allot.com allround.net amdocs.com changingworlds.com analysysmason.com eu.anritsu.com apexcovantage.com arantech.com argogroup.com aricent.com arieso.com arkipelago.com arrisi.com arvatofinance.com

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THE VANILLAPLUS DIRECTORY 2011

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an end-to-end pre-integrated business support system, managing the complete lifecycle of customers, products, services and revenues; in a mixed deployment, where selected modules may be replaced by third party applications; or in a pure best-of-breed solution. The system is also fully operational as a complete managed service solution. Cerillion solutions deliver the business agility needed to respond quickly and effectively in a highly competitive environment.

Billing (Interconnect, Carrier Access), Billing (Multiplay), Billing (Outsourced/Managed Service), Billing (Retail), Billing (Split), Billing & Charging (Real-Time), Billing & Customer Care (Combined), Convergent Pre-/Post-paid, Corporate Call Management, Customer Relationship Management, Documentation or Bill Design, Mediation / Collection, Order Management, Outsourcing or Hosting, Pricing, Rating, Charging, Roaming Settlement & Clearing, Rules-based Discounting, Service Provisioning & Activation, Web-based Self-Care, Web Billing/Payment/Presentment

CTI Group www.ctigroup.com info@ctigroup.com Unit 504, Daisyfield Business Centre, Appleby Street, Blackburn BB1 3BL, UK Tel: +44 1252 291500 Fax: +44 1254 291504 CTI Group is an international provider of e-billing with analytics, call recording and call management solutions to converged, fixed, mobile and hosted VoIP service providers. It provides telecoms and communications management applications so service providers can offer their customers a detailed view of their spend and activity. A dedication to providing the most user-friendly, feature-rich applications is evidenced by an enviable customer base that includes many of the world’s largest service providers and enterprises, including Verizon Business, Vodafone, T-Mobile, BT, Orange and Hutchison 3G. Headquartered in the United States, its operations span North, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Billing (Multiplay), Billing (Outsourced/Managed Service), Billing & Customer Care (Combined), Call Accounting or Recording, Convergent Pre-/Post-paid, Corporate Call Management, Customer Relationship Management, Loyalty & Churn Management, Telemanagement, Web Billing/Payment/Presentment

Comptel www.comptel.com info@comptel.com P.O. Box 1000, FI-00181 Helsinki, Finland Tel: +358 9 700 1131 Comptel is a leading provider of OSS (operations support systems) software to the telecoms market. Since 1986, it has delivered its solutions to 280 customers in 85 countries serving in their turn over 800 million subscribers. Comptel customers include leading operators, such as América Móvil, Bharti, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, O2, Swift, Telefónica and Vodafone.

Its Comptel Dynamic OSS products and solutions focus on fulfillment, provisioning, activation, convergent mediation, charging and policy control. Its expertise allows communications service providers (CSPs) to focus on their core business: developing, delivering and charging for innovative and profitable services.

eGain www.egain.com telco@egain.com 258 Bath Road, Slough, Berkshire, SL1 4DX, UK Tel: +44 1753 464646

Billing (Interconnect, Carrier Access), Billing (Multiplay), Billing (Retail), Billing & Charging (Real-Time), Billing & Customer Care (Combined), Inventory & Element Management, Mediation / Collection, Network & Frequency Planning, Prepaid Management, Pricing, Rating, Charging, Service Delivery, Assurance & QoS, Service Provisioning & Activation

eGain is the leading provider of multichannel customer service and knowledge management software solutions for in-house or on-demand deployment. Ranked highly in 2009 by leading analysts Gartner Group and Forrester Research, eGain has become the preferred solution for many global and regional telecommunications companies. The eGain proposition assists organisations to: improve customer experience and increase their choice of interaction channels; increase call deflection rates through effective 24x7 self service; reduce contact centre and supply chain operating costs; fully utilise valuable knowledge assets across channels; and harness the power of social networking to reach, support and influence customers.

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Ascom Group Aspect Software, Inc Aspiro Astellia ATDI SA ATIO Atlas Interactive Germany Atos Origin Audilog Groupe Ericsson Autonomy etalk Averox Azoft (a division of DonRiver, Inc) Barcoding, Inc BaseN Bercut Ltd Billing Components GmbH Bivio Networks Blue Coat Blue Star Infotech Bluestreak Technology

ascom.com aspect.com aspiro.com astellia.com atdi.com atio.com atlasinteractivegroup.de atosorigin.com audilog.com etalk.com averox.com azoft.com barcoding.com basen.net bercut.com billing-components.com bivio.net bluecoat.com bsil.com bluestreaktech.com

Bluetab BMC Solutions Boku Bridgewater Systems Brighterion BroadVision BT Business Logic Systems Bytemobile Capgemini CBOSS Corporation CellVision AS Celona Technologies Centile Ceragon Networks Cerillion Technologies Ltd CGI Check Point Software Technologies Ltd Clarity

bluetab.net bmcsolutions.co.uk boku.com bridgewatersystems.com brighterion.com broadvision.com http://business.bt.com businesslogicsystems.com bytemobile.com capgemini.com cbossgroup.com cellvision.com celona.com centile.com ceragon.com cerillion.com cgi.com

THE VANILLAPLUS DIRECTORY 2011

checkpoint.com clarity.com

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Contact Centres & Hubs; Customer Interaction Management; Data Management; Web Self-Care;

Elitecore Technologies www.elitecore.com/telecompractices sales@elitecore.com 904, Silicon Tower, Off. C.G. Road, Ahmedabad - 380 006, India Tel: +91-79-6606 5606 Fax: +91-79-2640 7640 Elitecore is a Carlyle investee IT Product Company having presence across 78 countries with focus in telecoms (billing revenue management and core network session control), networks (24Online-billing and bandwidth management solution) and security (Cyberoam network and end point data security). Elitecore offers NG BSS and session control solutions and allied professional services. Elitecore has a presence with tier 1 to tier 3 operators for NGN deployments, 3G, WiMAX 16e and 16d deployments, IMS/packet core deployment, VoIP roll outs, converged data networks roll outs, convergent prepaid and postpaid roll out, and turnkey deployment. The company has offices in Boston, New Jersey, Dubai, Bahrain, Johannesburg and India and has its R&D and global support management centre in India.

Authentication, Authorisation & Accounting; Billing; Rating & Charging; Policy Control; Revenue Management;

the reach of the distribution network. The company helps meet the growing demand for SIM cards, reduce SIM card distribution costs, optimise MSISDN ranges and core network capacity, and enable number choice and service up-sell.

Founded in 1985, the company has headquarters in Colorado, with offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, India and Malaysia.

Business Intelligence & Process Management, Data Control & Integrity Management, Mediation / Collection, Number Management, Number Portability Management, Partner Relationship Management, Revenue Assurance & Audit, Service Provisioning & Activation, Workflow Management

FTS www.fts-soft.com info@fts-soft.com 8 Maskit St., 46120, Israel Tel: +972-9-9 526500 Fax: +972-3-7600606 FTS is a provider of billing, customer care and policy control solutions for communications and content service providers.

By analysing events from a business standpoint rather than just billing them, FTS allows providers to better understand their customer base and leverage business value from every event and interaction. FTS deploys its full range of solutions to customers in over 40 countries and has implemented solutions in wireless, wireline, cable, content and broadband markets, including cross-network installations. Serving the evolving needs of traditional and next-generation service providers, FTSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; operations comprise international R&D locations and strategically-located sales support offices worldwide.

Evolving Systems is a provider of software and services to more than 70 network operators in over 40 countries worldwide. Its portfolio includes solutions for activation, dynamic SIM allocation, numbering and mediation. Dynamic SIM Allocation makes SIM supply more efficient and extends

Billing (Interconnect, Carrier Access), Billing (Multiplay), Billing (Retail), Billing (Split), Billing (Utility), Billing & Charging (RealTime), Billing & Customer Care (Combined), Convergent Pre/Post-paid, Customer Experience Management, Customer Relationship Management, Credit, Cost & Debt Management, Inventory & Element Management, Mediation / Collection, Messaging Aggregation & Billing, Number Management, Order Management, Partner Relationship Management, Prepaid Management, Pricing, Rating, Charging, Product Lifecycle Management, Roaming Settlement & Clearing, Rulesbased Discounting, Service Provisioning & Activation, Subscriber Policy Management, Supplier Partner Settlement, Web-based Self-Care, Web Billing/Payment/Presentment, Workflow Management

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Clarity Integration Ltd Clarity International Ltd Classifeye Clearswift Comarch AS

clarity-integration.com clarity-international.com classifeye.com clearswift.com

CopperEye Cordys Creanord Ltd CRM Technologies CSG Systems CSR CTI Group Current Analysis Customer Value Partners cVidya Networks CyberSource Devoteam Data Track Technology PLC Dataflow Communications Ltd deCarta, Inc Dialogic Corporation Diginotar Digital Fuel Technologies, Inc DigitalRoute Dimension Data

coppereye.com cordys.com creanord.com crmtechnologies.com csgsystems.com csr.com ctigroupuk.com currentanalysis.com cvpcorp.com cvidya.com cybersource.com devoteam.com datatrackplc.com dataflow.net decarta.com dialogic.com diginotar.com digitalfuel.com digitalroute.com dimensiondata.com

Evolving Systems www.evolving.com marketing@evolving.com One Angel Square, Torrens Street, London EC1V 1PL, UK Tel: +44 20 7843 4000 Fax: +44 20 7843 4001

CommScope CommSolv Communications Fraud Control Assoc Comptel Corporation Compuware Comsearch (a Commscope co.)

Comverse ConceptWave Condico Connectiva Systems, Inc Consona CRM Consult-Hyperion Continuous Computing Convergys

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comarch.com/telecommunications commscope.com commsolv.com cfca.org comptel.com compuware.com comsearch.com comverse.com conceptwave.com condicomobile.com connectivasystems.com consona.com chyp.com ccpu.com convergys.com

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Infonova

www.infonova.com infonova@infonova.com Seering 6, 8141 Unterpremstätten, Austria Tel: +43 316 8003 Fax: +43 316 8003 1480 Infonova was founded in 1989 and delivers highly automated IT solutions for telco, media, utility and other companies that need to partner around communications and cloud capabilities to deliver their customers the right experience – which increasingly requires sophisticated orchestration, monetisation and automated revenue sharing. Infonova’s BSS solutions have been implemented for incumbents, attackers and cable operators supporting triple and quadruple play service portfolios. Encapsulating decades of knowledge, Infonova’s latest BSS product, Release 6, is a fully J2EE order-to-cash platform that supports real multi-tenant and partnering orderto-cash operations for fully convergent and complex business models.

Billing (Multiplay), Billing (Outsourced/Managed Service), Billing (Retail), Billing (Split), Billing (Utility), Billing & Customer Care (Combined), Convergent Pre-/Post-paid, Corporate Call Management, Customer Experience Management, Credit, Cost & Debt Management, Mediation / Collection, Order Management, Partner Relationship Management, Pricing, Rating, Charging, Product Lifecycle Management, Rules-based Discounting, Service Provisioning & Activation, Systems Integration, Web-based Self-Care, Web Billing/Payment/Presentment, Workflow Management

InfoVista

www.infovista.com mlippe@infovista.com 6 rue de la Terre de Feu, 91952 Courtaboeuf Cedex, Les Ulis, France Tel: +33 1 64 86 85 56

assurance by offering a new level of visibility and control across the all-IP network, with unified network and application performance management, self-service customer and operational reporting, and the intelligence to process customised and actionable information in real-time. InfoVista solutions help telecoms providers to rapidly and efficiently launch and manage competitive services. Convergent, holistic and visionary monitoring of service quality across converging domains enables telecoms providers to identify and resolve quality issues before customers are impacted, and extends SLA monitoring to better meet customer experience expectations, regardless of where their customers may be.

Customer Experience Management, Network Performance Management, Service Delivery, Assurance & QoS

Intec Telecom Systems www.intecbilling.com info@intecbilling.com Wells Court, Albert Drive, Woking, Surrey GU21 5UB, UK Tel: + 44 1483 745800 Intec supplies its software solutions to over 60 of the world’s top 100 network operators and is one of the world’s leading suppliers of business support system (BSS) solutions. Since Intec was founded in 1997, the business has grown into a global organisation, both organically and by acquisition. Today Intec products and solutions are deployed by over 400 of the world’s largest communications companies including AT&T, Best Buy, China Unicom, France Telecom, Hutchison 3G, Reliance and Telecom New Zealand. Working at the heart of its customers’ operations, Intec enables them to manage and bill their inter-operator – ie ‘interconnect’ calls – with maximum precision and, along with convergent retail billing management, enables its customers to take charge of the commercial and technical complexity in their business environments and differentiate themselves in their markets through innovative product offerings, while improving operational efficiency.

InfoVista simplifies mobile, business and broadband service

Billing (Interconnect, Carrier Access), Billing (Multiplay), Billing (Outsourced/Managed Service), Billing (Retail), Billing (Split),

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DNS DragonWave EastWind Easynet eGain Elitecore Technologies Ltd Eltel Networks EMC Ionix Emida Empirix, Inc empolis arvato End2End Endace Ltd ENTEREST GmbH Entuity Equinox IS Ergon Ericsson eServGlobal ESKADENIA Software

dns.co.uk dragonwaveinc.com eastwind.ru easynet.com egain.com elitecore.com eltelnetworks.com emc.com emida.net empirix.com empolis.com end2end.net endace.com enterest.eu entuity.com equinoxis.com ergon.ch/en/telecom ericsson.com eservgobal.com eskadenia.com

ETI Software Solutions, Inc EuroMACC Ltd European Computer Telecoms Group Eurotime Solutions Ltd Evidian (a Groupe Bull co.)

Evistel Evolved Intelligence Ltd Evolving Systems Excentis EXFO Service Assurance Experian Experian Payments EyeBill Interactive Solutions F5 Networks FICO FIQAS Software BV Fiserv Flash Networks Fluke Networks, Inc FML

etisoftware.com euromacc.com ect-telecoms.com eurotimesolutions.co.uk evidian.com evistel.com evolved-intelligence.com evolving.com excentis.com exfo.com experianplc.com experianpayments.com eyebill.net f5.com fico.com fiqas.nl fiserv.com flashnetworks.com flukenetworks.com fmlsolutions.com

THE VANILLAPLUS DIRECTORY 2011

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Billing & Charging (Real-Time), Billing & Customer Care (Combined), Convergent Pre-/Post-paid, Customer Relationship Management, Mediation / Collection, Messaging Aggregation & Billing, Partner Relationship Management, Pricing, Rating, Charging, Revenue Assurance & Audit, Revenue & Risk Management, Roaming Settlement & Clearing, Rules-based Discounting, Service Provisioning & Activation, Subscriber Policy Management, Supplier Partner Settlement, Systems Integration, Workflow Management

Ixia www.ixiacom.com mchaplain@ixiacom.com 26601 Agoura Rd, Calabasas, CA 91302, USA Tel: US: +1 818-444-3141 Tel: UK: +44 1628 405750 Ixia is a leading provider of converged wired and wireless IP network test solutions. Service providers, network managers, network equipment manufacturers, governments and enterprises use Ixia's test systems to validate the functionality, conformance, performance and reliability of complex networks, devices and applications. Ixia's highly scalable solutions generate, capture, characterise and emulate network and application traffic, establishing definitive performance and conformance metrics. Ixia's test systems specialise in cuttingedge technology such as 4G-LTE, 10/40/100 Gigabit Ethernet, and use a wide range of industry-standard interfaces, including Ethernet, Sonet, ATM and wireless connectivity. Ixia is a public company operating worldwide.

Test & Measurement Systems

are widely recognised in the industry, and awards include Informa’s 2010 Best Network/Device Testing Product for LTE.

Network Test & Measurement; Service Assurance; Training; VoIP Applications;

LHS Telekommunikation GmbH & Co. KG www.lhsgroup.com info@lhsgroup.com Herriotstr. 1, Frankfurt, 65527, Germany Tel: +49 69 2383 3000 LHS, part of the Ericsson Group, is a leading independent software vendor (ISV) of billing and customer care systems in the telecoms industry. LHS Business Support Systems offers full convergence on various levels, supporting the complete range of business models both across the mix of fixed and mobile services, as well as prepaid and postpaid services. LHS’ headquarters are located in Frankfurt, Germany, with main offices in Brazil, France, Malaysia and the UAE. LHS Aktiengesellschaft as the Group’s Holding is a public company listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (LHS400).

Billing (Multiplay), Billing (Retail), Billing (Split), Billing & Charging (Real-Time), Billing & Customer Care (Combined), Business Intelligence & Process Management, Convergent Pre-/Postpaid, Documentation or Bill Design, Education, Information & Training, Mediation / Collection, Number Management, Number Portability Management, Order Management, Partner Relationship Management, Prepaid Management, Pricing, Rating, Charging, Service Provisioning & Activation, Webbased Self-Care, Web Billing/Payment/Presentment

JDSU www.jdsu.com paul.gowans@jdsu.com 7 Lochside View, Edinburgh Park, Edinburgh EH12 9DH, UK Tel : +44 131 666 6150

MACH

JDSU offers cutting-edge capabilities to measure, monitor, report and troubleshoot the quality of service, quality of customer experience and performance of the entire range of wireless and wireline telecommunications networks, including evolving technologies such as LTE, femtocell, VoIP, IMS, Ethernet and IPTV. The wireless, LTE and 4G test capabilities

www.mach.com info@mach.com 15 Rue Edmond Reuter, L-5326 Contern, G.D. of Luxembourg Tel: +352 27 756 280 MACH is a provider of hub-based mobile communications exchange solutions, uniting the global telecommunications marketplace. MACH solutions accelerate operators’ and providers’ time to market, optimise service delivery to the

COMPANY

URL

COMPANY

URL

FROX communication FTS Gemalto GENBAND Generic Software Consultants Ltd Genesys (an Alcatel-Lucent co.)

Gensym (a Versata Enterprises co.)

GeoCentric Getronics NV Gintel Global 360, Inc Google GRUPO DELAWARE Harris Stratex Networks HP Horsebridge Networks Huawei i-conX solutions Ltd i2 (a Silver Lake Sumeru co.)

IBM Corp

frox.com fts-soft.com gemalto.com genband.com generic-software.com genesyslab.com gensym.com geocentric.com getronics.com gintel.com global360.com google.com grupodelaware.com harrisstratex.com hp.com horsebridge.net huawei.com iconxsolutions.com i2.co.uk ibm.com

ICare ILOG Incognito Software Indra Sistemas Info Directions Infonova Infor Informa Telecoms & Media Informatica Corp Information Engineers Infosys Technologies InfoVista Ingenico Ingres Corp Inline Telecom Solutions InnoPath Software Innopay Intec Integralis AG Integration Consortium

icare.it ilog.com incognito.com indra.es infodirections.com infonova.com infor.co.uk informatm.com informatica.com idest.co.uk infosys.com infovista.com ingenico.com ingres.com inlinetelecom.ru innopath.com innopay.com intecbilling.com integralis.com integrationconsortium.org

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mobile end-user, and accelerate the settlement of interoperator financial liabilities. MACH HUB-XC, a unique suite of integrated hubbing applications and managed services, connects any provider of any mobile application over any technology to build, deliver and monetise customer-centric mobile business models. HUB-XC connects communications service providers (CSPs) at every stage of the mobile application value chain and enables the efficient flow of mobile traffic, of service validation, delivery and billing information, and of settlement transactions.

Billing (Mobile Applications); Fraud Control & Prevention; Outsourcing; Revenue Assurance; Roaming Clearing & Settlement;

Tel: +44 1223 228490 Fax: +44 1223 228491 OpenCloud, formed in 2000, is a VC-funded company. It provides the telecommunications industry with a suite of products for agile development, deployment and efficient management of person-to-person communications services for SS7 and IP-based networks. OpenCloud delivers three inter-locking next generation IN solutions: Rhino telecoms application server (TAS) for agile delivery of traditional and Telco 2.0 telecoms services; Rhino Service Interaction Server for convergent service broking; and Charging Sentinel provides session control for real-time convergent charging systems.

Billing & Charging (Real-Time), Call Accounting or Recording, Convergent Pre-/Post-paid, Infrastructure Platforms (IMS, Web 2.0), Pricing, Rating, Charging, Service Delivery, Assurance & QoS, Systems Integration

Netezza www.netezza.com chrissmith@netezza.com The Quadrant, 55-57 High Street, Windsor, Berkshire SL4 1LP, UK Tel: +44 7802 266395

Openet

Netezza manufactures and sells a new breed of data warehouse and analytics appliance that leads the market in terms of performance and total cost of ownership. Today, data volumes well beyond that which most people can even comprehend need to be analysed for trends, correlations, thresholds and other critical insights. The speed and performance of Netezza enables these insights to be gained in areas such as revenue assurance, service assurance, network analytics, subscriber experience and operational business intelligence. The available data have never been so comprehensive â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Netezza enables operators to extract insights, run predictive algorithms and compete on analytics.

Behaviour Analytics; Business Analysis & Intelligence; Data Analysis; Data Warehousing; Loyalty & Churn Management; Network Intelligence & Optimisation; Revenue Assurance;

OpenCloud www.opencloud.com Edinburgh House, St Johnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Innovation Park, Cowley Road, Cambridge CB1 0WS, UK

www.openet.com info@openet.com 6 Beckett Way, Park West Business Park, Dublin 12, Ireland Tel: +353 1 620 4600 Openet is the largest provider of subscriber optimisation software (SOS) to Tier 1 telecommunications operators, cable operators and media service providers. Openet's offerings are engineered to enable operators to maximise every subscriber relationship, transforming their business by harnessing the transactional intelligence in their networks. Openet delivers this transformative value through two distinct and inter-related architectures: policy and charging control for customised network control and service monetisation; and subscriber data management for analytics, reporting and enablement of personalised services. With customers across the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Middle East, Openet is meeting the needs of operators worldwide.

Billing & Charging (Real-Time), Convergent Pre-/Postpaid, Loyalty & Churn Management, Mediation / Collection, Parental & Access Control, Prepaid Management, Pricing, Rating, Charging, Revenue Assurance & Audit, Subscriber Policy Management

COMPANY

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COMPANY

URL

Inteligentis Intelliden, Inc. Interactive Intelligence, Inc International Turnkey Systems (ITS) InterSystems Corp INTRACOM TELECOM Invivo Ipanema Technologies iPass ITU IXIA Ixonos JDSU Jones Cyber Solutions Ltd Junifer Systems Juniper Networks Kabira Technologies Kalido KANA Kansys Inc

inteligentis.com intelliden.com inin.com its.ws intersystems.com intracom-telecom.com invivosoft.com ipanematech.com ipass.com itu.int ixiacom.com ixonos.com jdsu.com jonescyber.com junifersystems.com juniper.net kabira.com kalido.com kana.com kansys.com

Kcom Keynote Kineto Wireless Kineticom Kobil Kognitio Kroll Ontrack KXEN Leostream LHS Telekommunikation GmbH & Co. KG Lionbridge Logica LogicManse LogiSense LogNet Systems Loyalty Partner Solutions GmbH MACH Mahindra Satyam Mala Communications Maporama International

kcom.com keynote.com kineto.com kineticom.com kobil.com kognitio.com krollontrack.co.uk kxen.com leostream.com lhsgroup.com lionbridge.com logica.co.uk logicmanse.com logisense.com lognet-systems.com lpsolutions.com mach.com mahindrasatyam.net mala-communications.co.uk http://world.maporama.com

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interconnect billing, customer care, real-time rating, charging and policy for voice, messaging and new generation data services to over 90 network operators in over 50 countries.

Established in 1999, Redknee's award-winning solutions enable operators to monetise the value of each subscriber transaction while personalising the subscriber experience to meet mainstream, niche and individual market segmentation requirements.

Orga Systems www.orga-systems.com EHeumann@orgasystems.com Am Hoppenhof 33, 33104 Paderborn, Germany Tel: +49 5251 8749 3067 Mobile: +49 177 7052 851 As the pioneer of GSM billing, Orga Systems has gained highly qualified expertise in real-time charging and billing. Orga Systems focuses on real-time based solutions for customer billing and administration in mobile telecommunication services. It sets important milestones for the industry regularly to further expanded its leading position. Orga Systemsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; highperformance database, InCore, is currently the fastest data technology worldwide with regards to access speed. Mobile operators need future-proof billing systems which offer clear service and cost benefits. The fully convergent real-time billing platform OPSC Gold guarantees their profitable future growth.

Billing (Multiplay), Billing (Outsourced/Managed Service), Billing (Retail), Billing & Charging (Real-Time), Billing & Customer Care (Combined), Business Intelligence & Process Management, Convergent Pre-/Post-paid, Corporate Call Management, Customer Experience Management, Customer Relationship Management, Documentation or Bill Design, Infrastructure Platforms (IMS, Web 2.0), Loyalty & Churn Management, Mediation / Collection, Pre-paid Management, Pricing, Rating, Charging, Revenue Assurance & Audit, Service Delivery, Assurance & QoS, Systems Integration, Web Billing/Payment/Presentment

Redknee www.redknee.com info@redknee.com 2560 Matheson Blvd East, Suite 500, Mississauga, ON, Canada L4W 4Y9 Tel: +1 905.625.2622

Billing (Interconnect, Carrier Access), Billing (Multiplay), Billing (Outsourced/Managed Service), Billing & Charging (Real-Time), Billing & Customer Care (Combined), Convergent Pre-/Postpaid, Customer Experience Management, Customer Relationship Management, Loyalty & Churn Management, Mediation / Collection, Messaging Aggregation & Billing, Parental & Access Control, Partner Relationship Management, Predictive Customer Analytics, Prepaid Management, Pricing, Rating, Charging, Service Delivery, Assurance & QoS, Service Provisioning & Activation, Subscriber Policy Management, Web-based Self-Care, Web Billing/Payment/Presentment

SAP www.sap.com/industries/telecom Dietmar-Hopp-Allee 16, 69190 Walldorf, Germany Tel: + 49 6277 7 47474 SAP for telecommunications provides service providers with a world class, industry specific business process platform that helps them quickly adapt to market demands and embrace new business models in a fast changing convergent landscape. SAP solutions for telecommunications provide support for end-to-end business processes across the industry value chain ranging from CRM and order management, dealer and point-of-sale management to customer financials management and high volume convergent billing. With over 1300 customers in telco and media segments, SAP for telecommunications has delivered strong business results and is the leading business process platform for the telecommunications industry. Through the recent acquisitions of Highdeal and of Business Objects, SAP's market leadership is further strengthened in the areas of high volume consume to cash.

Redknee is a leading global provider of revenue generating software products, solutions and services to some of the largest network operators throughout the world, including wireless, wireline, broadband and satellite. Redknee delivers solutions in the areas of advanced converged billing,

Billing (Multiplay), Billing (Retail), Billing (Split), Billing (Utility), Billing & Charging (Real-Time), Billing & Customer Care (Combined), Business Intelligence & Process Management, Convergent Pre-/Postpaid, Parental &

COMPANY

URL

COMPANY

URL

Martin Dawes Analytics Martin Dawes Systems MaxBill Ltd mBlox MegaSys Computer Technologies Metastorm Metracom MetraTech Corp MGt plc Micro Focus International Microsoft MIND CTI Mi-Pay Moba Consulting Mobile Distillery Mobilis Networks Ltd Mobipay International SA mobivention Mojiva Moneybookers

mda-data.com martindawessystems.com maxbill.com mblox.com megasys.com metastorm.com metracom.fr metratech.com mgtplc.com microfocus.com microsoft.com mindcti.com mi-pay.com mobaconsulting.com mobile-distillery.com mobilis.com mobipay.es mobivention.com mojiva.com moneybookers.com

MoreMagic Solutions, Inc Moriana Group Motive (an Alcatel-Lucent co.)

Motorola, Inc MTS Ltd MYCOM Myriad Group Nagravision Nakina Systems Narus, Inc NEC NeoMedia Neptuny NetCracker Technology NetEvidence Netezza Corp NetNumber NetQoS NetScout Systems Netsize

moremagic.com morianagroup.com motive.com motorola.com mtsint.com mycom-int.com myriadgroup.com nagravision.com nakinasystems.com narus.com nec.com neom.com neptuny.com netcracker.com net-evidence.com netezza.com netnumber.com netqos.com netscout.com netsize.com

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Access Control, Partner Relationship Management, Predictive Customer Analytics, Pricing, Rating, Charging, Roaming Settlement & Clearing, Rules-based Discounting, Subscriber Policy Management, Supplier Partner Settlement, Web-based Self-Care, Web Billing/Payment/Presentment

of test, measurement and monitoring product offerings support current and advanced protocols, applications and architectures. Tektronix Communications’ systems manage more than 30 per cent of the world’s calls, and its network diagnostic and performance monitoring solutions are installed in more than 100 carrier and cable networks in over 40 countries across the globe.

Customer Experience Management; Network Discovery & Optimisation; Network & Service Test & Measurement; Network Security; Roaming & Interconnect Assurance; Service Assurance;

Tekelec www.tekelec.com 5200 Paramount Parkway, Morrisville, North Carolina 27560, USA Tel: +1 919 460 5500 Fax: +1 919 460 0877

Telcordia

Tekelec, the session and mobile data management company, enables billions of people and devices to surf, talk and text. Our solutions allow service providers to dynamically manage network resources and services, while providing end users with a consistent and personalised customer experience. We handle the complexity of today’s multi-generational and multi-vendor networks by enabling devices, protocols, services and databases to securely and efficiently communicate with each other. Tekelec has more than 25 offices around the world serving hundreds of customers in more than 100 countries.

Application Management; Customer Experience Management; Inventory, Asset & Element Management; Messaging; Policy Control; Subscriber Data Management;

Tektronix Communications

www.telcordia.com One Telcordia Drive, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA Tel: +44 20 7632 4450 Tel: +1-732-699-5800 Telcordia is the industry’s go-to expert for solving the most complex communications challenges. As the global leader in mobile, broadband and enterprise communications software and services, Telcordia is known for having the depth of expertise to fully understand our customers’ situation, respond appropriately and deliver as promised. Telcordia enables communications service providers, suppliers and governments to achieve brand differentiation, drive revenue and deploy innovative, advanced services through its consulting, next generation OSS, network and application interconnection, service delivery and charging, industry research, and new technology development solutions.

Telcordia has offices throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Central and Latin America.

Tektronix Communications enables the world’s largest network operators, network equipment manufacturers and cable companies to design, build, deploy and manage today’s communications network infrastructure, including fixed, mobile, IP and converged multi-service networks. Its portfolio

Billing & Charging (Real-Time), Convergent Pre-/Postpaid, Customer Experience Management, Device Management (Over The Air), Inventory & Element Management, Network Configuration Management, Network Performance Management, Network Risk & Trouble Management, Network & Frequency Planning, Number Management, Number Portability Management, Order Management, Outsourcing or Hosting, Parental & Access Control, Prepaid Management, Product Lifecycle Management, Service Delivery, Assurance & QoS, Service Provisioning & Activation, Subscriber Policy Management, Systems Integration, Test & Measurement Systems, Workflow Management

COMPANY

URL

COMPANY

URL

NetSocket Network Equipment Technologies (NET) Network Cadence Neural Technologies NeuStar Nexagent (an EDS business) Nexus Telecom AG nicholson Search & Selection NMS Communications Noetica Nokia Siemens Networks Nortel Novarra NTG Clarity Networks Nuance Communications, Inc OASIS Systems Objective System Integrators (OSI) On Demand Group OneAccess OneVu

netsocket.com net.com networkcadence.com neuralt.com neustar.biz nexagent.com nexustelecom.com nicholsonintl.com nmscommunications.com noetica.com nokiasiemensnetworks.com nortel.com novarra.com ntgclarity.com nuance.com oasissystems.com osi.com ondemand.co.uk oneaccess-net.com onevu.com

Ontology Systems Onyx Software Open Text Corp OpenCloud Ltd Openet OpenTrust OpenWave Opteq International Opus Advance Business Solutions Oracle Orga Systems GmbH Ovum Panviva Partner Telecom Passlogix Patni Persistent Systems Pilat Media Global PLC Pitney Bowes Business Insight Pivetal

ontology.com onyx.com opentext.com opencloud.com openet-telecom.com opentrust.com openwave.com opteqint.net opusabs.net oracle.com orga-systems.com ovum.com panviva.com partnertelecom.com passlogix.com patni.com persistentsys.com pilatmedia.com pbinsight.com pivetal.com

www.tektronixcommunications.com 3033 W President George Bush Highway, Plano, TX 75075, USA Tel: +1 469-330-4000 Fax: +1 469-330-4001

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VanillaPlus www.vanillaplus.com Prestige Media Ltd, Suite 28, 30 Churchill Square, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent ME19 4YU, UK. Cherisse Draper, Business Development Director Tel: +44 1732 897646 cherisse@vanillaplus.com Mark Bridges, Business Development Manager Tel: +44 1732 897645 mark@vanillaplus.com Lydia St Pierre Harris, Business Development Executive Tel: +44 1732 897648 lydia@vanillaplus.com Nathalie Bisnar, Digital Editor Tel: +44 1732 808690 nathalie@vanillaplus.com Jeremy Cowan, Editorial Director & Publisher Tel: +44 1420 588638 editorial@vanillaplus.com VanillaPlus is the only magazine in EMEA dedicated to communications BSS and OSS, including billing, customer care, fraud control, network, service and revenue management.

Now in its 12th year of publication, it provides news, views and features on systems for profitable communications, digital media and entertainment. It is available on free subscription to qualifying telco readers in EMEA, and on paid subscription to all others. The print edition is circulated six times per year to 8,341 named communications directors and senior managers.

VanillaPlus.com provides information for network operators plus communications and digital service providers worldwide.

This includes digital editions of VanillaPlus magazine, video interviews with C-Level telco executives, free article downloads, an event diary, the online directory, webinar podcasts, and a subscription form to receive the magazine and VanillaPlus Bites, the free monthly email news service.

Authentication & Identity Management, Billing (Interconnect, Carrier Access), Billing (Multiplay), Billing (Outsourced/Managed Service), Billing (Retail), Billing (Split), Billing (Utility), Billing & Charging (Real-Time), Billing & Customer Care (Combined), Business Intelligence & Process

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Management, Call Accounting or Recording, Convergent Pre/Postpaid, Corporate Call Management, Customer Experience Management, Customer Relationship Management, Credit, Cost & Debt Management, Data Control & Integrity Management, Data Warehousing, Device Management (Over The Air), Documentation or Bill Design, Digital Rights Management, ERP & Application Integration, Fraud Control Services & Consultancy, Fraud Prevention Systems, Infrastructure Platforms (IMS, Web 2.0), Inventory & Element Management, Loyalty & Churn Management, Mediation / Collection, Messaging Aggregation & Billing, Network Configuration Management, Network Performance Management, Network Risk & Trouble Management, Network & Frequency Planning, Number Management, Number Portability Management, Order Management, Outsourcing or Hosting, Parental & Access Control, Partner Relationship Management, Predictive Customer Analytics, Prepaid Management, Pricing, Rating, Charging, Product Lifecycle Management, Recruitment, Search & Selection, Revenue Assurance & Audit, Revenue & Risk Management, Revenue Lifecycle Management, Roaming Settlement & Clearing, Rulesbased Discounting, Service Delivery, Assurance & QoS, Service Provisioning & Activation, Subscriber Policy Management, Supplier Partner Settlement, Systems Integration, Telemanagement, Test & Measurement Systems, Web-based Self-Care, Web Billing/Payment/Presentment, Workflow Management

Volubill

www.volubill.com info@volubill.com 1st Floor, 20 Little Portland Street, London W1W 8BS, UK Tel: +44 207 436 8055 Volubill provides policy management, policy enforcement and charging solutions to telecommunications service providers.

With the exponential growth in the volume of mobile data traffic and increasing customer expectation, Volubillâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s solutions enable operators to maximise revenues, and eliminate revenue leakage and fraud while delivering a personalised service

COMPANY

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COMPANY

URL

Polystar Pontis Portrait Software Praesidium (a division of WeDo) PRAGMATEK Consulting Group PRD Technologies PricewaterhouseCoopers Pride Spa (an Ericsson Group company) Primal Solutions, Inc Prime Carrier Ltd Prior Analytics Ltd Prism Technology Pro:Atria Ltd Progress Software Pronto Networks PSD PSI AG Psytechnics Ltd Qualcomm Qualitative Change

polystar.com pontis.com portraitsoftware.com praesidium.com pragmatek.com prdtechnologies.co.uk pwc.com/gx/en/communications pride.it/EN http://primalsolutions.net primecarrier.com prior-analytics.com prismtechnology.net proatria.com http://web.progress.com prontonetworks.com psdgroup.com psi.de/en psytechnics.com qualcomm.com qualitativechange.com

Quova Radialpoint RadioFrame Networks Rapid Mobile RateIntegration, Inc Red Bend Redknee Redwood Systems Ltd Roamware Rodopi Software Round (UK) Ltd RR Donnelly Sandvine SAP Sapient SAS Scorecard Systems Seeker Wireless Segala Service2Media

quova.com radialpoint.com radioframenetworks.com rapid-mobile.com rateintegation.com redbend.com redknee.com redwoodsystems.co.uk roamware.com rodopi.com round.co.uk rrdonnelley.com sandvine.com sap.com sapient.com sas.com scorecardsystems.com seekerwireless.com http://segala.com service2media.com

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experience. Volubill’s CHARGE IT and CONTROL IT manage bandwidth based on subscriber and service centric usage policies and quotas; offer real-time granular charging for any data, content, VoIP or messaging service; and enable service providers to differentiate themselves through innovation.

Volubill is global, with over 80 operator customers worldwide.

Billing (Retail), Billing & Charging (Real-Time), Billing & Customer Care (Combined), Convergent Pre-/Postpaid, Data Control & Integrity Management, Mediation / Collection, Network Performance Management, Parental & Access Control, Pricing, Rating, Charging, Rules-based Discounting, Subscriber Policy Management, Web-based Self-Care

WeDo Technologies www.wedotechnologies.com customerservices@wedotechnologies.com

Edifício Picoas Plaza, Rua do Viriato, 13E núcleo 6 - 4º andar, 1050-233 Lisboa, Portugal Tel: + 351 210 111 400 Fax: + 351 210 111 401 WeDo Technologies is the leading supplier of revenue assurance solutions for the global telecoms industry. Business Assurance RAID, the company's revenue assurance and fraud product, has been implemented across the five continents.

With an international presence in Portugal, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, France, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, Panama, Poland, Singapore, Spain, UK and USA, WeDo Technologies is also a member of the GSM Association and the TM Forum.

Alliances Management, Credit & Collections, Data Retention, Incentives Management, Process Management, Roaming Management, Revenue Assurance

COMPANY

URL

COMPANY

URL

Servista Shenick Sicap Sierra Wireless Sigma Systems Simon Kucher & Partners Singularity SITRONICS Telecom Solutions Skuku SL Corporation Sofrecom (a France TelecomOrange Group co.)

Software AG Solera Networks Sonus Networks Sopra Group Spirent Communications plc Starhome Steria Stork Ltd Strand Consult StreamServe Subex Sun Microsystems Sunrise Telecom SunTec Business Solutions Suntech Technologies, Inc. SurfKitchen Sword ciboodle Swyx Sybase (an SAP company) Sygnity Symantec Corp Symsoft Synchronoss Technologies, Inc Syniverse Technologies T-Systems Tail-F Systems Talisma Corp (an nGenera company) Tango Telecom Tanla Solutions Ltd Tata Tech Mahindra Technology Research Institute Tecnotree Tekelec Tektronix Communications Telarix, Inc Telchemy, Inc Telcordia Telcotec TeleBilling TelecityGroup Telecom Inventory LLC Telehouse Europe Telemac Corporation Telepin Teligent Telecom Group

servista.com shenick.com sicap.com sierrawireless.com sigma-systems.com www2.simon-kucher.com singularity.co.uk sitronicsts.com skuku.com sl.com

Telmap Telsis Tempest Technology Teneo Ltd TEOCO Corporation Teradata Tescom Tevron Thales The Billing College Theta Networks TIBCO Tieto Tilgin TM Forum TM Solutions Ltd TMNG Global TNS, Inc Tollgrade Communications, Inc Transverse Triad Tribold Trigyn Technologies Ltd TTI Telecom (a TEOCO Corp company) TUFF – Telecoms UK Fraud Forum Ukash Ulticom Upaid UshaComm Valimo (a Gemalto company) Value Team VanillaPlus Velti Ventraq Verax Systems Veraz Networks SARL Verimatrix Verint VeriSign, Inc Verizon Business Vertek Corp VISA Visionael Corporation Visiongain Vistorm (an EDS company) Vitria Technology, Inc Voice Objects Volubill WeDo Technologies Wipro XAL Xelas Software XINTEC XIUS-bcgi xwave (a division of Bell Aliant) Yahoo!

ZOHO Corp ZTE Corporation

telmap.com telsis.com tempest-technology.com teneo.co.uk teoco.com teradata.com tescom-intl.com tevron.com thalesgroup.com billingcollege.com thetanetworks.com tibco.com tieto.com tilgin.com tmforum.org tmsols.co.uk tmng.com tnsi.com tollgrade.com gotransverse.com triad.co.uk tribold.com trigyn.com tti-telecom.com tuff.co.uk ukash.com ulticom.com upaid.net ushacomm.com valimo.com valueteam.com vanillaplus.com velti.com ventraq.com veraxsystems.com veraznetworks.com verimatrix.com http://verint.com verisign.com verizonbusiness.com http://vertek.com visa.com visionael.com visiongain.com vistorm.com vitria.com voiceobjects.com volubill.com wedotechnologies.com wipro.com xal.co.uk xelas.com xintec.com xius-bcgi.com xwave.com yahoo.com zohocorp.com zte.com.cn/en/

sofrecom.com softwareag.com soleranetworks.com sonusnet.com sopragroup.com spirent.com starhome.com steria.com storkltd.com strandconsult.dk streamserve.com subexworld.com sun.com sunrisetelecom.com suntecgroup.com suntechtechnologies.com surfkitchen.com sword-ciboodle.com swyx.com sybase.com signity.pl symantec.com symsoft.com synchronoss.com syniverse.com t-systems.com tail-f.com talisma.com tango.ie tanlasolutions.com tatacommunications.com techmahindra.com technology-research.com tecnotree.com tekelec.com tektronixcommunications.com telarix.com telchemy.com telcordia.com telcotec.com tele-billing.com telecitygroup.com telecominventory.com telehouse.net telemac.com telepin.com teligent.se

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C L O C K I N G

O F F !

Blue chips see red at top execs’ colourful moves Oracle adopts Hurd mentality; Vanjoki fails to see the funny side of Elop appointment

Mark Hurd hurdled the net to join Larry Ellison’s Oracle

Stephen Elop is taking over at troubled Nokia

“The crime, while not heinous merited a €116,000 fine.”

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Management machinations in the boardrooms of the telecom industry’s top vendors have led to an aura of amazement surrounding these gifts for journalists. Chop and change at Nokia and the Hurd saga at HP have delivered an abundance of side stories, rumour and the pleasure of recollecting nuggets of colourful information as careers are capped, sidelined and reinvigorated.

What has amazed me is the amateur ways in which these shifts have been presented to the market. Senior changes at enormous public companies have been laid before the markets and the media in ways that even the smallest OSS/BSS developer would never consider.

The Hurd saga seemed difficult to top but, in many respects, was over before it began. CEO, Mark Hurd was fired by HP for inconsistencies in his expenses uncovered during an apparently baseless (yet adequately salacious) investigation into a non-relationship with a female marketing contractor at the IT giant. We then saw him jump almost immediately into a co-presidency role at Oracle, just as it brings hardware into its portfolio following last year’s Sun Microsystems acquisition.

Oracle, Chief Executive, Larry Ellison, sprang immediately to his tennis partner’s defence, offering his friend Hurd the job, branding HP ‘idiots’ and asking: “What kind of CEO does his own expenses?” Shall we call that ‘Advantage Ellison’?

Was Hurd already on the move?

This is not the considered headhunting process we’re used to seeing in the technology sector, and Hurd’s apparently seamless shift to Oracle gives me the feeling that his move might have been served up over Ellison’s tennis net well in advance of the controversy. HP might be thinking along the same lines, it immediately launched a case against Hurd for breach of non-compete clauses in his contract. In California, the case is unlikely to hold water, but there is a distinct feeling that HP might be having regrets. Hurd’s

VANILLAPLUS OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

just the man to integrate hardware and software operations and his achievements at HP speak for themselves. It will be interesting to watch how Oracle’s communications business unit handles the convergence of hard and software and whether the company is able to push that concept through to the industry.

Next up in the game of boardroom musical chairs is Nokia which appointed Canadian formerMicrosoft executive Stephen Elop as its Chief Executive. Elop, who has led Microsoft’s enterprise unit, is the company’s first non-Finnish CEO. He joins Nokia at a difficult time as it seeks to reverse a downward trend in its smartphone supremacy. Questions also remain about what will happen to its holding in Nokia Siemens Networks, the equipment and services joint venture it owns with Siemens. With an appetite for mergers and acquisition back on the telecoms agenda, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the latter divesting its NSN interests in the coming months.

Elop’s appointment meant that Nokia executive, Anssi Vanjoki, who had headed up its smartphone division, was effectively passed over for a role he may well have considered due to him. A 19-year veteran of the company, Vanjoki resigned within 24 hours of Elop’s appointment.

He’s not a patient man – one of his claims to fame is having been hit with what was until recently the largest speeding fine ever. Riding his Harley through Helsinki in 2001, he was clocked at 47mph while in a 30mph zone. The crime, while not heinous, merited a €116,000 fine – in Finland a complicated formula, based on earnings is used to determine fines. Following his notice period it is unlikely that Vanjoki will be out of work for long, and he won’t want to spend too much time on his motorbike.

Nokia investors will be hoping that London newspaper City AM’s headline regarding his appointment doesn’t come true: It read, ‘Vanjoki is to leave Nokia as Flop hired’.

_ we enable growth real-time convergent billing real-time policy management real-time top-up and voucher

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D U O L C E H T O T N I G N RACI oadmap r n io t a m r o f s trans s e in s u b r u Here's yo

Is your industry undergoing a strategic business model shift?

Is the Cloud opportunity changing the way you do business?

Then listen to Ganga Venkatasubramanian, product manager of Microsoft Online Services and Scott Swartz, CEO of Metra Tech Corp. presenting a Case Study that’ll show you how to maximize your own chances of Cloud success.

You’ll learn how Microsoft implemented a cloud computing business model, including a dynamic billing system, that reacts quickly to change and improves the customer purchasing and invoicing experience.

It’s free! Simply download your copy of the Case Study recording today.

It’s available at: www.metratech.com/microsoft North America +1 781 839 8300

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EX H IN FL IB SI & OO ITO DE AG RP R EN LA LIS D N T, A

MANAGEMENT WORLD AMERICAS SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010 VOLUME 12 ISSUE 5

B E AT I N G T H E R E V E N U E C R U N C H • N O V E M B E R 9 - 1 1 , 2 0 1 0 , O R L A N D O , F L O R I D A , U S A

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EXCLUSIVE TALKING HEADS INTERVIEW Arantech shows you how to get the best out of your data CONVENTION AGENDA Top Speaker line-up for Orlando Keynotes

ROAMING REVENUES Tariff transparency will unlock data revenues COMING SOON! 4 More Videos from VanillaPlus in the USA and South Africa Sneak Previews Inside

PLUS! Full List of Management World Americas Exhibitors, With VanillaPlus Booth Guide and Expo Floorplan

Orlando Welcome to

www.comptel.com

Head in the clouds?

OSS for Cloud

Meet Comptel at Management World Orlando, 9-11 November Booth Booth: 28 Management World Nice, France, 18-20 May, Hall 22010, Booth: 21 #28

W E L C O M E

&

C O N T E N T S

Communications industry in talks to avert revenue crisis At VanillaPlus we don’t do tabloid newspaper headlines, so the line above is used only after careful reflection. No, the industry is not in crisis yet, but constructive talks are vital in Orlando, Florida this month at TM Forum’s Management World Americas if the industry is to avert one. The VanillaPlus team have been travelling widely in Europe and North America, taking soundings from network operators, service providers, system vendors, and analysts. And it’s become clear that all sectors are seeing a growing revenue crunch that, for some organisations, may prove terminal. Yet, for many of those who plan ahead, this could instead be a time of great opportunity. It’s really up to each of us.

If we’re ready to listen and learn from it, a wealth of talent has been assembled for us at the annual Management World Americas event. Reflecting the growing importance of this North American meeting, for the first time in our 12-year history VanillaPlus will not only be on-site in numbers, but we have produced this MW Americas Supplement to the main magazine describing who will be attending the event and what delegates can expect from them.

Here, you’ll find a summary of the Convention Agenda and a list of the Key Speakers. Plus, we list the Exhibitors and give you a map of where to find them. Also inside is an interview with Arantech’s Brian Carroll and James Doyle, two business leaders who are helping to define a new approach to customer experience management.

Finally, when we’re not attending conference sessions or visiting booths you might find us filming videos, to bring you news and views from Florida. Take a look inside at two sneak previews of videos coming soon to www.vanillaplus.com . We look forward to seeing you in Orlando – and if you need cheering up there’s another 210 things to do here (according to www.orlandoinfo.com ) ranging from swimming with Beluga whales at SeaWorld® to surfing at Daytona Beach. If I see you on the beach, I won’t tell if you won’t.

Jeremy Cowan, Editor, VanillaPlus

SUPPLEMENT CONTENTS S4

Tough talking on the Agenda

S5

Get the best use out of your data!

S9

Unlock the revenue potential of data roaming

S10 Exhibitors List S11 Exhibition Floorplan S13 3 keys to cost-effective, real-time charging S15 Prepare for coming challenges in 4G

Conference venue: Rosen Shingle Creek

(Cover Photo: Arantech’s Brian Carroll, CEO (Seated), and James Doyle, VP Product Management & Marketing, are interviewed on pages S5-S8). Arantech’s CEM solutions are said to provide mobile operators with a unique customer insight, and a rich experience discovery. They also enable operators to take proactive management action on real-time experience events. All solutions deliver a rapid and strong RoI by identifying customer-centric issues (‘the experience gap’) in real time, and they enable behavioural segmentation of a customer base which today is not possible through existing business and operational support systems (B/OSS). Arantech has 39 customers including mobile operators from four of the six largest mobile operator groups in the world. For more information visit www.arantech.com

PUBLISHED BY Prestige Media Ltd. Suite 28, 30 Churchill Square.

Kings Hill, West Malling Kent ME19 4YU, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1732 844017

© Prestige Media Ltd 2010 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, stored, published or in any way reproduced without the prior written consent of the Publisher

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Matt Bross

Pascal Viginier

Ralph Brown

Keith Willetts

Henry Sienkeiwicz

Dan Burrier

Mike Hill

Lucy Hood

Franz Kurath

Chris Ancell

Adan Pope

Chris Weitz

Brian Levy

Eric Bozich

Tough talking on the agenda at Management World Americas C-level executives from Orange, DISA, Huawei and Ogilvy join the keynote line-up at the TM Forum’s annual US event to debate the future of communications.

New Jersey-based TM Forum has announced the keynote line-up for its Management World Americas conference which is being held in Orlando, Florida from November 9-11. As the communications industry faces the potential of a global ‘revenue crunch’, Management World is there to get ‘down and dirty’, as the organisers put it, on practical tactics and real technologies.

Featuring global leaders from across the technology, media and communications sector, Management World Americas Keynote Perspectives session will feature industry leaders including: • Matt Bross, CTO, Huawei and formerly CTO, BT • Pascal Viginier, Group CIO, Orange • Ralph Brown, CTO, CableLabs • Keith Willetts, Chairman and CEO, TM Forum • Henry Sienkeiwicz, CIO, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) • Dan Burrier, Chief Innovation Officer, Ogilvy & Mather • Mike Hill, VP Enterprise Initiatives, IBM Corporation • Lucy Hood, ex-President, Fox Mobile & Executive Director, USC CTM • Franz Kurath, Executive Director, AT&T • Chris Ancell, Executive and Vice President, Qwest Business Markets Group • Adan Pope, CTO & CSO, Telcordia • Chris Weitz, Director Technology Integration, Deloitte TM Forum With more than 700 corporate members in 195 countries, TM Forum is the leading industry association focused on enabling best-in-class IT for service providers in the communications, media and cloud service markets.

Debating the future of the industry through a mix of interactive presentations, executive debates and interactive panel sessions, these industry leaders will cover such topics as: • Beating the revenue crunch: What is the future of the communications industry?

• Smart services, smart business: Transforming the industry • Executive debate: Smart pipes: Cloud – Who is the service provider?

• Brand meets telecom: Convergence or collision?

“Management World Americas is the only conference in the US to tackle the tough issues facing our industry from every angle, and present real-world innovations. As industry changes take place across the globe, we as an industry conference and an organisation are ensuring that our members and attendees are armed with the latest information at their fingertips in order to make the right decisions for their business,” said Nik Willetts, Senior Vice President, Communications, TM Forum.

The rest of the conference programme includes exclusive case studies, presentations, panel discussions and intensive debates across four conference summits: • The Cloud Summit – Turning the Cloud Promise Into Business Reality • The Operational Excellence Summit – Doing More with Less • The New Services and Business Models Summit – Diversifying Your Revenue Portfolio • The Customer Experience Summit – Capitalising on your Most Valuable Asset The event at a glance: • The event will also feature TM Forum training designed to help participants conquer integration problems, improve operational and business agility and take costs and risk out of their current projects.

• Catalyst Multi-Company Live Demonstrations will run continually, where attendees can see the concepts and strategies talked about in the conference put into practice with live collaborative demonstrations in ‘Forumville’. The catalyst projects featured span cloud services, revenue management, customer experience, operational excellence, defence and government.

• Visitors will also be able to meet experts who are implementing TM Forum’s Frameworx standard and learn more about how to get involved in TM Forum initiatives.

For more information visit: www.tmforum.org/ManagementWorldAmericas/8061/home.html S4

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Get the best use out of your data!

Arantech defines customer experience management (CEM) as “the ability to proactively monitor and manage, in real-time, the lifecycle experience of every customer that comes into contact with ... a communications provider”. Founded in 1999 and acquired

by Tektronix Communications in 2008, Arantech is a leading provider of CEM systems to communications service providers worldwide. VanillaPlus recently caught up with Brian Carroll, CEO, and James Doyle, VP Product Management & Marketing, to hear the company’s latest initiative to enhance user experiences for CSP customers.

VanillaPlus: What is Arantech’s OpenPlatform™ strategy and what are its components?

James Doyle: The idea of OpenPlatform™ is to drive the unique CEM data source out into business stake-holders. The original driver of touchpoint™ as an application was very OSSfocused.

Our stake-holders were network optimisation, and quality of service management. Although we have developed a number of use cases with others in the business, the problem we’ve been finding is that our data structure and our application were focused on voice technology.

OpenPlatform is about two things: Accepting the fact that we are not going to be able to address all of the needs of CEM across all stake-holders, but also making sure our data is structured to ensure that we can answer questions coming from the business. OpenPlatform is a set of components acting on our data in slightly different ways, depending on needs.

The first component that we have already delivered on OpenPlatform is an element called ProAction™. That is a capability to take extreme real-time data from our heavy-lift aggregation engine, which is the bottom part of touchpoint™, and allow the right business rules on top of it for the customer to write business rules and implement what we call the ‘find and fix’, eventtriggered use cases.

supports open business intelligence tools like IBM Cognos or SAP Business Objects. The data will be structured so that a business analyst can interact with it themselves and write reports.

So the first business-focused part of OpenPlatform is a data mart; we call it ProData™.

There’s touchpoint ProData and there are a set of letters after ProData to define the different sorts of conditioning we do. ProData M is a data mart.

We’re taking the raw data set out of touchpoint and conditioning it so that the tools we allow on top of it will be open business intelligence tools like IBM Cognos or SAP Business Objects. The data will be structured so that a business analyst can interact with it themselves and write reports.

Brian Carroll: Looking at data warehouse providers as partners

VP: What were the drivers behind this?

JD: The issues we were getting from our customers were that they could extract value using our existing tool from a reporting perspective, but the data was structured so that it was technologically based which made it complex.

ProData allows data to be structured to meet very specific reporting requirements - it might be a set of data to support handset use cases, or it might be a set to support VIP users.

Driven by this, the next component we will release within OpenPlatform, ProData, is much more business-focused. ProData allows raw data to be extracted from touchpoint, and to be conditioned in different ways to meet the needs of multiple different BSS stake-holders. For example, for a business analyst within the operator with specific reporting needs, ProData

ProData is currently targeted at users who know the questions they want to ask of the data, so when they do the ETL (extract, transform and load) of the data marts they can answer a set of questions like ‘Give me my top worst performing handsets’. These are the questions that business analysts want to ask, and yet leave the data in such a way that they can ask more questions.

▲

It had a strong business case and drove good RoI use cases, but no-one could interact with it from a business perspective, they had to write a use case on top of it and write the rules.

So we’ve created these individual data marts which will address certain areas for our customers; it might be a set of data to support handset use cases, or it might be a set to support VIP users. We’re going to develop this in an incremental, agile way to drop out data marts, and we hope that by the end of 2011 we will have re-conditioned our data to be businessconsumable.

James Doyle: A structure of the data laid out in a logical way

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“What it allows us to do is segment the CEM value proposition.”

- James Doyle, Arantech

There are other use cases that CEM needs to address, where the users themselves don’t really know the question they want to ask. They are looking at the data in such a way that they can find problems. The technology that’s best suited for that is OLAP cubing of the data. One of the challenges of our data set is that it represents the customer experience of all the network’s subscribers, so it’s a huge amount of data. You clearly can’t put all of that into a cube and if you did you wouldn’t put it in the way a customer wants it.

ProData will support this type of use-case in the future – data will be extracted and transformed on a case-by-case basis so that the customer will choose the dimensions of the data they want to put into the cube.

ProData O, the third component including ProAction, is the way of extracting the data and transforming it on a case-by-case basis so that the customer will choose the dimensions of the data they want to put into the cube. They can then analyse that data to get some answers that they didn’t know. You might put in a set of dimensions and look at it and say how are my iPhone users consuming voice or data, or what network are they browsing onto. You might come up with a picture that they were trespassing from 3G to 2G. If you didn’t know you were trying to ask that question of the data, you might be putting a set of data in about iPhones and network type and say, I’ve got a problem.

You’re providing a data set to allow businessoriented users to ask questions of the data that they didn’t know they had by putting stuff into a cube. We’re not fixing that, with DataMart you’re fixing it around a set of known questions. With OLAP cubing we have to make sure the selection of dimensions that you put into the cube are straightforward for business users to select.

There is one other use case that requires slightly different data conditioning, which is a Google-like query where you’ve got raw data and you want to ask it a bunch of questions. We don’t believe again that you can develop the CEM proposition with all raw data; it will have a set of queries because the data’s too much. But there may be chunks of data that you can put in in a raw state, like error events. Then you can ask very specific questions of it.

▲

The idea of the raw piece which is ProData R – so you’ve got M, O and R as different structures – is that it is a pure export utility, that is OpenPlatform. OpenPlatform can offer this type of pure export utility by us conditioning the data that we have already lifted into our database from this heavy-lift aggregation engine and, instead of putting it into the format S6

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“With OpenPlatform we can open up a new area of usage.”

- Brian Carroll, Arantech

that it is today with our touchpoint application on top, we’re going to extract, transform and load it directly from the collection engine into different data stores. The goal is to make that data consumable by a new audience, and have it conditioned in such a way that the interaction with it is straightforward to get to value quicker.

Today, we sell consultancy services to our customers when we sell CEM, and that helps our customers extract value from the data and use it.

What we’re doing in some of these cases is enabling our customers to do it themselves.

VP: So is that going to cut your consultancy revenue?

Brian Carroll: We think it’s going to do the opposite. We haven’t delivered our consultancy business into the BSS space yet; we’ve been helping existing customers to extract value from the deployment and uses they’ve got. With OpenPlatform we can open up a new area of usage. It’s placing the experience data set where it might not have been placed before, and we think that’s going to drive our consultancy revenue.

VP: So it might stimulate further CEM system sales rather than cannibalising them?

BC: Yes, we’ve always talked about CEM being a business tool and I suppose this is a recognition and an access method to make the data consumable by that set of stake-holders. We had two choices; either build an application for business users and put it on their desk top, or find a way for our data to be more consumable.

We decided on the latter.

The data mart, ProData M, is something that business analysts will understand. That will be self-help. In terms of the OLAP piece, which is the structuring of data into a cube and profiling it, it is more of a challenge because we have to look for an application function to condition the data and make it useable.

VP: What obstacles to existing business processes will you and your customers have to overcome?

JD: The challenge with this is that it’s a new data set and it comes from the OSS space. I think there’s got to be trust built between the stakeholders in an Op Co to allow that to happen. The questions need to be answered and the experience set that CEM provides is one data set that can help. It will require operators working together in a cross-functional way.

▲

If you look at data transition from the OSS to BSS siloes, this is going to take time and be driven from C-level down. There are many problems; I mean common KPIs if you are reporting across multiple Op Cos, and then validity of data, and making sure it’s representational.

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It’ll be looking for things like ‘bill shock’, maybe adding value to churn propensity models. It will be taking the usage data, the negative experience of what your customers are doing, rather than just the positive stuff that’s extracted out of CDRs at the moment. It will add depth to existing stakeholders like marketing, sales, key corporate account management and the insights guys.

VP: Does this all raise the importance of data warehousing and mining within telcos?

BC: There’s a lot of data warehousing and data mining going on with the CRM data set; inventory, handset, tariff planning, future sets bought, and it’s over-lapping those two things.

We will be looking at existing data warehouse providers as partners, for instance, for our data.

VP: That sounds like a quick route at last to significant improvement in the customer experience and reduced churn.

JD: Well, that’s the holy grail. If you are driving a marketing campaign by doing two or three months of data mining using the existing data set, that might convert to some more microcampaigning that’s more targeted, or it might provide data about subscribers who dial in to allow (operators) to route the call quicker so call holding times go down.

VP: What has their response been so far?

BC: Very positive. They are driven by the customer so the customer sees that this data set can provide insight into things they are looking for already, so having that data set now in their existing data marts or data warehouses allows them to do more.

VP: Is this in trial anywhere yet, if so where?

JD: The first component of OpenPlatform is ProAction, and we’ve got that in three customers at the moment. So that’s commercially available this year.

We are going to be trialling ProData with a customer in November. For this customer, we are delivering different subsets of our data to meet their very specific reporting needs in a highly efficient manner. The data will be formatted to support open business intelligence tools, and our customer will use these tools to rapidly and easily extract value.

We are going to be trialling Data Mart with a customer we hope in October. If you imagine a data warehouse as a total data set, then individual data marts are really sub-sections of a data warehouse. We will trial our first set of data marts this year, with data formatted so that you can deliver a business intelligence access method on top of that data set, and give it to our customers to extract value.

VanillaPlus Jargon Buster BO: Business Optimisation BSS: Business Support System CEM: Customer Experience Management Op Co: Operating Company RoI: Return on Investment SAN: Storage Area Network

S8

We haven’t done a lot of statistical analysis on our data. There’s a lot of value locked up in it.

ProData could offer, for example, a regional view of data that’s consumed by a small part of the business; it’s a way of ring-fencing a large data set to address a specific set of needs.

VP: Can ProData deliver flexible business reporting?

BC: Yes. With open, standard industry tools, like Business Objects or Cognos, ProData can offer a structure of the data laid out in a way that it makes logical sense. It’s presenting the data in terms that you as a business analyst understand.

You understand handsets, you don’t understand PDP context activation or detailed KPIs, so it will present the data in a sort of logical way. So, when you are building a report it’s straightforward to pick and mix. I want to see a report with all my iPhone users that are in this location and using 3G.

MANAGEMENT WORLD SUPPLEMENT OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

VP: And will this service be available on a license basis or in the cloud?

JD: The way we are approaching it is as an optional extension of touchpoint. It’s using the existing collection engine, and licensing the OpenPlatform components so that our customers can add on licence capabilities to condition and export the data in these various ways. You could theoretically put the whole of touchpoint into the cloud, but you’re exporting a lot of valuable and secure data, and I don’t think our customers would want to do that.

VP: Clearly, you are working from an existing customer base, but does it provide additional advantages by following the licence model?

JD: It does. What it allows us to do is to segment the CEM value proposition. CEM is a very misunderstood term in the industry; it means a lot of things to a lot of people. Whereas our existing proposition, touchpoint, was a very specific heavy-lift aggregation engine providing insight into customer uses with a set of tools on top of it, and provided a very broad access to the data – what we are doing with OpenPlatform is almost narrowing the usage of that data.

We foresee being able to almost package those use cases and deliver them as a one-off play, so not necessarily as an optional add-on to an existing touchpoint customer, but actually just providing a data mart and component into a new customer as a stand-alone value proposition to deliver a set of specific use cases. As CEM becomes more segmented and understood these will act as value propositions in each of those segments.

VP: And what does this make of your relationship with the likes of Cognos and Business Objects?

BC: It should make it clearer, in that those sorts of tools were always bolt-on. There were bolt-on ways of competing with our own native reporting capability and our own dash-boarding capability.

What we are saying is let’s format our data and allow those guys to sit on top and deliver what they do best. It should make the relationship clearer, certainly from the customer’s perspective, making it easier for them to gain access and value using those tools.

D ATA

ROAMING

Unlock the potential of data roaming Tariff transparency will open up the revenue potential of data roaming for mobile network operators. Here Guy Reiffer discusses how.

The fears of ‘bill shock’ for consumers and businesses alike has meant that for too long data roaming has not achieved its full potential as a source of revenue for mobile network operators (MNOs). In fact, operator statistics indicate that around 40% of travellers switch off their data connection while abroad, preferring to use WiFi and other access methods rather than running the risk of a large phone bill greeting their return.

In a highly saturated mobile market where every item of revenue counts, if MNOs cannot encourage mobile data roaming on their networks they will lose out on a vital and lucrative source of revenue. Yet MNOs have struggled to do this to date and many users are still scared of the potential cost of accessing data services using their mobile devices when they travel. As long as this fear of bill shock remains how can MNOs make data roaming seem attractive?

Understand your customers The key lies in gaining an intimate understanding about customer behaviour. If data roaming is to be a success, MNOs will need to achieve a granular view of subscriber roaming behaviour, right down to the IMSI, or even the IMEI level.

This is a level of business intelligence granularity that is only now becoming available to MNOs, and it ushers in a new age of micro-segmentation for mobile roaming tariffs.

Such detailed roaming data will prove vital in helping MNOs understand key information about user behaviour – about which individuals within a company travel the most, where they travel and how much mobile data they consume, for example.

This information allows operators to create

highly tailored retail roaming tariffs based on the actual needs of individual customers.

Develop tailored packages For example, if a particular company’s executives travel to the US regularly, the MNO will be able to develop a roaming package for voice or data roaming that includes USA roaming ‘day packs’ for example. Alternatively, it could be that certain employees have iPhonesTM or BlackBerrysTM and the MNO could create specific plans to ensure users can enjoy the full functionality of their devices without it becoming too costly. It is through such tailored tariffs and loyalty reward schemes that MNOs will be able to encourage roaming take-up and thereby drive up revenues.

Running alongside this micro-segmentation, it is important that there is a mechanism for setting strict usage thresholds, beyond which several levels and types of intervention occur. These interventions could range from sending alert messages as thresholds are approached, through to barring the subscriber from further activity.

This can, moreover, be scaled to each individual user (certain job grades, for example, may require greater access to data services when abroad).

Such an approach applies the concept of pre-paid data services to post-paid customers – giving them the peace of mind to roam without concern when abroad – and is essential for generating the confidence needed to unlock roaming revenues.

The author, Guy Reiffer, is Vice-President, Marketing at MACH

“It is important that there is a mechanism for setting strict usage thresholds.”

Data roaming is coming of age. We are increasingly living and working globally and require the services that roaming can provide.

For the first time now, the tools are available to create flexible tariffs that encourage users to take advantage of the full functionalities of their phones when abroad. More importantly, the saturated market conditions we are facing in developed economies are creating the right conditions for MNOs to focus on their data roaming businesses.

Quite simply, as new subscriptions dry up it will be in areas such as roaming that MNOs can secure continued growth. The revenues promised by an effective mobile roaming strategy are too good to ignore and the MNO that can launch first stands to gain the most.

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Exhibitors List Management World Americas 2010 Orlando, Florida 9-11 November, 2010

Amdocs

Forumville, Sponsor

Microsoft

Forumville

AranTech

20, EAS

Nakina

30, EAS

Aricent

31, EAS

NATO C3

Forumville

Ascom

7

Netcracker

Platinum Sponsor, 24

AT&T Mobility

Forumville

Netformx,

Forumville, Sponsor

BT

Forumville

Nexus

5

CA

Gold Sponsor, 1, EAS

OpenNMS

Forumville

Cariden Technologies

Forumville

oracle

Sponsor

Casewise

23

Parallels

3, EAS

Cisco

Forumville, Sponsor

Pega Systems

22, EAS

cognizant

EAS

Portugal Telecom Inovacao, SA Forumville

Comptel

28, EAS, Forumville

Progress Software

11, EAS

Comverse

Sponsor

Protiviti,

Forumville

ConceptWave

Silver Sponsor, EAS

QOSMOS

Forumville

Connectiva Systems

Forumville

Qwest

Forumville

Convergys

Sponsor

Rogers Communications

Forumville

cVidya

8, Forumville

Salesforce.com

Forumville

Cycle 30

17

Service Pilot

18

EMC

Gold Sponsor, 16

SevOne

6

Ericsson

Sponsor

Sterling Commerce

Silver Sponsor, 13, EAS

HP

Silver Sponsor, 9, EAS,

Subex

26, Forumville

Tech Mahindra

2

Forumville Huawei

Sponsor

Tektronix

21,EAS

IBM

St John 1 &3,

telcordia

EAS

Telefonica

Forumville 25

Forumville

S10

Infonova

Forumville

Tribold

InfoVista

29

UK MOD

Forumville

Layer 7

Forumville

Varaha Systems

Forumville

Martin Dawes

EAS

Volubill

Gold Sponsor, 27, EAS

Matrixx

Sponsor, EAS

WeDo

12

MetraTech

15

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Exhibition Floorplan Management World Americas 2010 Orlando, Florida 9-11 November, 2010

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P R E V I E W

Video shows three keys to unlocking cost-effective, real-time charging Current market dynamics have forever changed the mobile broadband landscape.

A single smartphone can create 30 times more billable transactions than a traditional handset, raising the cost for operators to process those transactions.

Meanwhile, flat-rate data plans, while predictable, are becoming economically unviable as there is no additional revenue associated with additional usage such as HD video and other high bandwidth applications. In a video interview coming soon to VanillaPlus.com, the CEO of MATRIXX Software, Dave Labuda tells how operators can achieve new levels of profitability.

Dave Labuda of MATRIXX Software: Operators can move rapidly and profitably into the realtime era

“Without realtime charging, issues such as bill shock, bad debt and customer satisfaction will worsen.”

In order for subscribers to accept non-flat-rate tariffs, charging needs to be transparent and instant – and this requires operators to move to a real-time charging environment. Without realtime charging, pressing issues such as bill shock, bad debt and customer satisfaction will worsen, further eating into operator margins.

Consequently, operators need to cross the realtime charging chasm to profit from mobile data traffic rises.

On average, real-time charging platforms cost 7 – 10 times more to operate than their batch equivalents. While most operators understand the tremendous business advantages of realtime, this huge additional cost makes it difficult to justify migrating to a real-time solution, and impossible to afford in an environment where usage volumes double every 6 – 12 months.

It’s become clear that an entirely new approach to real-time is needed. As data services continue to explode, operators face the daunting challenge of finding real-time charging solutions that meet three critical, but generally conflicting goals – flexibility, scalability and predictability.

Flexible Flexibility is required to satisfy the constantly expanding business requirements and support the rapid deployment of new services, prices, and business models. As operators move away from ‘all-you-can-eat’ pricing, subscribers are suffering from general distrust and confusion about data services pricing; they don’t understand how much they are consuming (and therefore spending).

Operators need to establish real-time financial relationships with subscribers which are more dynamic, and their pricing models need to evolve to become more intuitive and better represent the value of the service to the subscriber. This further drives the need for flexibility so different business models and personalised pricing can be quickly configured and deployed.

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MANAGEMENT WORLD SUPPLEMENT OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

Scalable At the same time, the volume of data traffic is growing exponentially, while ARPU is not. For operators to maintain or increase their margins in this environment, charging solutions must process huge transaction volumes on a very modest hardware infrastructure. Systems that run on large, power-hungry servers simply cannot scale cost-effectively to meet this demand.

Scalability today is not just about raw throughput, but also how efficiently and costeffectively a system scales. To be a competitive weapon in the operator’s arsenal, a quantum leap forward is required to drastically reduce the Cost Per Transaction (CPT) of their charging solution.

Predictable Finally, as operators move their charging infrastructure from the batch world to transactional real-time, it is critical that the solution be predictable. Key business requirements such as bill shock prevention, billing transparency, and real-time up-selling and discounting all require the charging platform to interact with the network as part of session initialisation and management.

This means the charging platform must have guaranteed uptime, throughput and latency, much like the network elements themselves.

However, the charging solution must support this predictability while still providing a completely configurable, flexible business solution – no simple task.

It’s the combination of flexibility, scalability, and predictability that will enable operators to implement real-time charging solutions that are cost-effective and have a measurable and quick return on investment. With this competitive weapon, operators can move rapidly into a new real-time era where the subscriber is king, data services are exploding profitably, and new business models are successful.

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V I D E O

P R E V I E W

Deliver enhanced customer experiences … and prepare for the upcoming challenges in the evolution to 4G? Today’s mobile networks were engineered and deployed long before iPhonesTM and YouTubeTM. Subscribers are increasingly frustrated with service and performance issues with their mobile networks. Subscriber experience goes beyond call drop rates and coverage issues, as VanillaPlus finds in a new video interview with Tom Lybarger of Aricent, coming soon to VanillaPlus.com.

Tom Lybarger of Aricent is interviewed by VanillaPlus

VIDEO TALKING HEADS An Assistant Vice President at Aricent, Tom Lybarger has 24 years experience in delivering advanced telecoms OSS and BSS solutions to service providers, with a focus on evolving technologies, services, and their impact on evolving operations environments.

Aricent’s Mobile Service Assurance approach and solutions aim to enable service providers to optimise existing service assurance investments and prepare for the upcoming challenges of 4G.

The customer experience video with Aricent’s Tom Lybarger can be viewed at: www.vanillaplus.com from November 29.

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Measuring customer experience and satisfaction requires a new approach to service assurance along with new tools and techniques. But how can service providers effectively manage the quality of experience (QoE) while preparing for 4G – and still remain cost-competitive?

Lybarger says, we must develop a holistic picture of the issues that are severely impacting mobile services and the quality expectations across the entire value chain from network and services to devices and applications. These issues include: • Explosion in data traffic – Demand for mobile broadband is doubling each year, according to Gartner, and there is no sign of abatement.

• Growth in real-time traffic – The growing trend of real-time services like video, online gaming and social networking, is continuing to drive demand for differentiated treatment of traffic streams.

• Increase in device diversity – Ovum forecasts smartphone shipments will grow by 32% in 2010. The sale of non-voice devices, including e-book readers, iPads, and M2M devices are also accelerating.

Deliver enhanced user experiences – Close the ‘experience gaps’ Growing consumer expectations are leading forward-thinking service providers to continuously optimise their networks and improve their services by implementing new customer experience management solutions.

‘Experience gaps’ exist when subscribers receive something other than what was expected – the key is to determine the level of expectation and then effectively measure what is delivered and received.

Most service assurance solutions today lack the comprehensive, end-to-end ability to determine the experience gaps, and are not ready for the increased importance with 4G

MANAGEMENT WORLD SUPPLEMENT OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2010

services, Lybarger believes. Aricent has defined a quantitative approach to determine the number and severity of gaps in a service provider’s environments, and the associated solutions to address them.

1. Evaluate the current mobile service assurance maturity level and readiness for 4G. 2. Develop a documented KPI/KQI model and include the network, service, device and application monitoring capabilities as part of a fully integrated operations capability.

3. Fully integrate network and service inventory management solutions to enable more effective problem identification and service modeling.

4. Automate Trouble or Incident Management solutions – including workforce management solutions.

5. Create a central KPI/KQI (Key Performance / Quality Indicators) repository for solutionindependent collection, and availability of service quality data.

6. Integrate an end-to-end service quality management (SQM) system to ensure quality service delivery and continual improvement.

7. Determine the ‘right fit’ customer experience management (CEM) system – based on stake-holder requirements and service objectives.

8. Integrate policy management into service assurance to effectively manage service levels.

9. Prepare for 4G – including adaptation of existing architecture to include changing service quality and customer experience expectations.

10. Create or update processes for continual improvement of service quality and customer experience. This includes incorporation of news tools as required, and further integration and optimisation as part of standard operations.

BEATING THE REVENUE CRUNCH SMART PIPES. SMART SERVICES. SMART BUSINESS. The rules of the game have changed. There’s money to be made, but you’ve got to move fast. You need the right combination – of technology, architecture, business culture and customer experience – to deliver new services and unlock new profits.

TM Forum’s Management World Americas is the only conference for the Americas to bring together world-class leaders in communications, media and cloud services markets to tackle the tough questions. Sign up now: www.tmforum.org/mwa10/vanillaplus

Management World Americas 2010 NOV. 9-11, 2010 | ORLANDO

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