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TALKINGHEADSEricsson's Borgklintsays fast and slowdata extracts CEMvalue for CSPs

D R I V I N G P R O F I T S F O R C O M M U N I C A T I O N S E R V I C E P R O V I D E R S

FEBRUARY /MARCH 2013

V O L U M E 1 5 I S S U E 1

ISSN 1745-1736

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Redknee to buy NSN BSS unit • Cisco acquires BroadHop • Inside Reliance US$1 billionAlcatel-Lucent deal • CenturyLink selects Amdocs for OSS consolidation project • Zain Jordandeploys Astellia monitoring • Read the latest BSS & OSS News at www.vanillaplus.com

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MANAGED SERVICESDoes outsourcing makeyou agile or fragile?

BIG DATA ANALYTICSCSPs must avoid anothermissed opportunity

CLOCKING OFF!Sometimes it’s betterto bring in an expert

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10-pageEnd-to-EndBillingSupplement

10-PAG

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IGHT

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POLICY

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ORLD

CONGRESS

25-28 FEBRUARY, 2013

BARCELONA, SPAIN

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IN THIS ISSUE

5VANILLAPLUS FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013

TALKINGHEADS

13

C O N T E N T S

Per Borgklint

BIG DATAANALYTICS

Ericsson is the world's leadingprovider of communicationstechnology and services. We areenabling the Networked Societywith efficient real-time solutionsthat allow us all to study, work andlive our lives more freely, in sustainable societiesaround the world.

Our offering comprises services, software andinfrastructure within Information andCommunications Technology for telecomoperators and other industries. Today more than40% of the world's mobile traffic goes throughEricsson networks and we support customers'networks servicing more than 2.5 billionsubscribers.

We operate in 180 countries and employ morethan 100,000 people. Founded in 1876, Ericsson isheadquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In 2011 thecompany's net sales were SEK 226.9 billion (US$35.0 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX,Stockholm and NASDAQ, New York stockexchanges.www.ericsson.com

EDITOR’S COMMENT 6George Malim wonders if he’s finally been taken in by the mobilebroadband hype

COMPANY NEWS 7Redknee beats Ericsson to NSN BSS unit; Cisco acquires BroadHop;Basset and TailorMade merge

CONTRACT NEWS 8Reliance chooses Alcatel-Lucent for US$1bn managed servicesdeal; Robi Axiata selects Comptel Social Links

PRODUCT NEWS 10Openet claims doubled transactions per second; MetraTechintroduces real-time commerce decision engine

THE CONTRACT HOT LIST 11VanillaPlus’s round up of the major BSS and OSS contracts recentlyannounced worldwide

PEOPLE NEWS 12Orga Systems appoints Wolfgang Kroh as new CEO;Lloyd Carney to lead Brocade

TALKING HEADS 13Ericsson’s Per Borgklint explains how taking fast and slowapproaches to data intelligence extracts CEM value for CSPs

MANAGED SERVICES 16Outsourcing business support could make you fragile as wellas agile, warns Nick Booth

EXPERT OPINION: MANAGED SERVICES 18Alam Gill says partners can manage your transformationmore efficiently

BIG DATA ANALYTICS 20Analyst Patrick Kelly asks whether big data is the jewel in CSPs’crown or just another missed opportunity

EXPERT OPINION: TELECOMS INTELLIGENCE 21Lyn Cantor explains why green lights don’t provide enoughinsight and CSPs need to consider the four Ds of 4G

VANILLAPLUS SPOTLIGHT ON TOTAL POLICY 2315 pages of policy debate start here

DIARY 35Where to go and what to see

CLOCKING OFF! 37Nick Booth says attempting complex tasks yourself can haveits own rewards

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VANILLAPLUS SPOTLIGHTON TOTAL POLICY23

I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade but the vast majority of the world isn’t servedby decent 3G today, let alone LTE. This isn’t a cause for concern, though. The mobileindustry, led by vendors, has always put the technological cart before the horse ofconsumer demand and that has been fine – until now. The balance is shifting and userdemand is looking like it might overtake CSPs’ network capabilities unless the pace ofdeployment is accelerated.

Having said that, well-performing 3G is probably enough today for most users’ needs.That it is well-performing is important, in many cases it isn’t and that makes it evenmore incongruous to be talking two technology generations ahead of time about LTE-Advanced.

If the consumer climate was the same as 2003, when CSPs were feverishly pushingthe idea of the mobile internet and all the cool apps it would bring on a broadlydisinterested audience, I’d advocate a period of calm reflection in which 3G wasoptimised before attention turned to LTE and LTE Advanced deployment.

Today, though, is very different. CSPs are routinely marketing 4G to their customersand have less work to do in convincing them that they need the speeds available.

For that reason, CSPs do need to address network performance withnew technology. It’s not yet clear exactly why, butapplications such as social video app Vinesuggests users will be uploading anddownloading bandwidth intensive videoservices. Capacity will need to besymmetrical and resilient to deliver theexperiences customers expect.

My provider is trying to sell me a multi-gigabytedata bundle – to do that it needs the networkcapability to support its claims. If it is successful,I’ll try to make certain I use every last byte,consuming as much data capacity as I’mentitled to.

Perhaps it’s just that I’ve finally succumbedand got sucked into this year’s hype cycle.

Enjoy the magazine

George Malim

VANILLAPLUS FEBRUARY/MARCH 20136

It’s easy to get carried away. The mobile industry in particular hasalways done so and, as the announcement tempo gathers pace inthe run up to Mobile World Congress, the cycle of over-excitementis happening again. Ten years ago, the premature buzz was all

about UMTS/3G, five years ago it was about LTE/4G and in between we’ve hadGPRS, HSPA and small cells. This year, network excitement will centre on LTE-Advanced.

C O M M E N T

John Aalbers,chief executive,Volubill

Martin Creaner, president,TM Forum

AndreasFreund, VPMarketing, OrgaSystems GmbH

Louis Hall, chief executive,CerillionTechnologies

Gabriel Matsliach,general manager,BSS Product Line,Comverse

Pat McCarthy,Head of OSS/BSSSolutionsMarketing,Ericsson

Simon Muderack,CEO, Tribold

John Rainger,vice president,EMEA, CSGInternational

Mac Taylor, CEO,The MorianaGroup

Chris Yeadon,director of ProductMarketing, Ericsson

Dr Reinhard Zuba,CMO, Vipnet(Telekom Austria)

EDITORGeorge MalimTel: +44 (0) 0208 292 [email protected]

DIGITAL EDITORNathalie BisnarTel: +44 (0) 1732 [email protected]

BUSINESSDEVELOPMENTDIRECTORCherisse JamesonTel: +44 (0) 1732 [email protected]

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Mark BridgesTel: +44 (0) 1732 [email protected]

OPERATIONS DIRECTORCharlie BisnarTel: +44 (0) 1732 [email protected]

PUBLISHERJeremy CowanTel: +44 (0) 1420 [email protected]

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VanillaPlus is distributed free to selected named individualsworldwide who meet the Publisher's terms of Circulation Control. Ifyou would like to apply for a regular free copy supplied at thePublisher's discretion visit www.vanillaplus.com If you do notqualify for a free subscription, paid subscriptions can be obtained.Subscriptions for 6 issues cost £99.00 worldwide (or US$150 /EUR125) including post and packing. VanillaPlus magazine ispublished 6 times per year.

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EDITORIAL ADVISORS

Dan Baker, ResearchDirector, TechnologyResearch Institute

George Malim,Editor:VanillaPlus

I’m just anothersucker on the vine

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C O M P A N Y N E W S

Hot on the heels of NokiaSiemens Networks'(NSN) disposal of itsoptical networkingbusiness to venturecapital firm Marlin, it hasfound a potentialpurchaser for itsBusiness SupportSystems (BSS) business

in Canadian headquartered billing andcharging software specialist Redknee.

Redknee expects to finance thetransaction through a combination ofcash on its balance sheet and debtfacilities. Such debt facilities are subjectto conditions and will be entered into onand subject to closing of the acquisition.The total consideration paid by Redkneefor the BSS business will include €15million in cash at closing, plus amaximum of €25 million for certainperformance-based cash earn-outsexpected to be paid over 12 to 36months post-closing.

NSN's BSS business, which Ericssonhad been hotly tipped to purchase,provides real-time charging, rating,policy, and customer care solutions tomore than 130 communication serviceproviders, including half of the top 100global mobile operators. NSN stated ina release that it believes Redknee is best

suited to take ownership of the businessbased on the strength of Redknee’smanagement team, continuity of thecurrent BSS portfolio and access toinnovation for Nokia Siemens Networks’BSS customers. Approximately 1,200employees would transfer to Redknee,underpinning current service levels andquality for customers. The plannedacquisition would bring to Redknee acomplementary global footprint thatspans more than 90 countries acrossEurope, Asia Pacific, the Middle Eastand Africa.

Lucas Skoczkowski, Redknee’s CEO,commented: “This planned acquisitionmarks a significant milestone inRedknee’s long-term growth strategy. Itwould add strong long-standingrelationships with new Tier 1 operatorsand expand Redknee’s market share andpresence in high growth markets. Ourexpanded team would drive thecontinued success of our customers, aswe strive to be the provider of choice forreal-time converged billing, customercare, policy and payment solutions inthe communications industry. Ourcommitment to ongoing investment inthe product roadmap will ensure thatour customers will benefit from thecomplementary capabilities, largerscale, and impressive IP portfolio.”

VANILLAPLUS FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013 7

LucasSkoczkowski:Deal addslong-termrelationshipswith tier oneCSPs

Cisco to acquireBroadHop

Cisco plans to acquire Denver,Colorado-based BroadHop, aprovider of next-generation policycontrol and service managementtechnology for carrier networksworldwide. BroadHop’s policy controlsolutions for mobile and fixednetworks will be integrated intoCisco’s Service Provider MobilityGroup to provide service providersthe flexibility to control, monetiseand personalise the types of servicethey choose, on any network.

Cisco says the acquisition ofBroadHop is an evolutionary step insupporting its Open NetworkEnvironment (ONE) for extensiblenetwork programmability. This policyinfrastructure represents the baselineto monetisation of the network andwill enable Cisco to develop softwareservices that empower networkoperators to deliver revenue-generating services, while enhancingthe end-user experience.

Basset andTailorMade merge

Basset AB has merged withTailorMade Consulting GroupSweden AB under the brand Basset.Both companies are owned byModern Holdings Incorporated, a USholding company. The companies arebilling software specialists.

Both companies have their history inthe telecoms industry and whileBasset has stayed in the industry,TailorMade has been focusing on theenergy market, where the need formore complex billing solutionsincreases with the rollout of smartmeters and smart grids.

The merged company will continueto focus on billing solutions for thetelecoms and energy industries.Turnover for 2013 will be more than€11 million and the mergedcompany will have about 80employees. The company has over300 installations in 70 countries.

Redknee beats Ericsson to NSNBSS business purchase

Synchronoss buys RIM subsidiaryNewBay for US$55.5 million Synchronoss Technologies, a providerof activation and mobile contentmanagement systems for connecteddevices, has acquired NewBay, a whollyowned subsidiary of Research inMotion. NewBay delivers cloud services,enabling mobile operators and CSPs todeliver content experiences acrossconnected devices such assmartphones, tablets, PCs and TVs.NewBay’s cloud services are deliveredto millions of users and stores billions ofmedia files for live operator servicesaround the world.

Synchronoss paid US$55.5 million incash to Research in Motion Limited, andthere was no assumption of cash ordebt. The transaction closed at the endof the fourth quarter of 2012.

"By adding NewBay's technology assetsand millions of subscribers, thistransaction further establishesSynchronoss as the clear leader inproviding cloud based mobile contentservices for mobile operators around theworld. By combining our strengths,Synchronoss will deliver the mostcomprehensive, scalable and securecloud platform, and we willsignificantly expand our early marketshare leadership position,” saidStephen Waldis, chief executiveof Synchronoss.

NewBay’s European customers include agroup level implementation at VodafoneGroup, in addition to Orange, Swisscom,T-Mobile; US customers include AT&T,T-Mobile, Verizon and US Cellular.

C O M P A N Y N E W S

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C O N T R A C T N E W S


Indian CSP RelianceCommunications hasannounced an end-to-end network managedservices contract withAlcatel-Lucent. Theagreement is aimed atdelivering superiorcustomer experience inEastern and SouthernIndia from now until2020.

The contract which extends RelianceCommunications’ existing relationshipwith Alcatel-Lucent will be worth morethan US$1 billion. It covers delivery ofseamless voice and datacommunications services to RelianceCommunications customers.

Alcatel-Lucent will enhance RelianceCommunications’ operations anduncover synergies between the CSP’shitherto independent wireless andwireline teams to form a single networkmanagement organisation. Optimisedintegration of resources will helpReliance Communications to

strengthen its focus on growing itsbusiness, with top-of-the-line servicesto customers. Alcatel-Lucent also willdrive a standardisation of the tools,processes and best practices that areapplied across RelianceCommunications’ businesses.

To enable the new model, Alcatel-Lucent will set up and operate next-generation OSS and introduceadvanced real-time optimisation toolsto improve network performanceacross all Reliance’s functions.

Rajeev Singh-Molares, president ofAsia-Pacific at Alcatel-Lucent, added:“This business association is anextension of our long-standingrelationship with RelianceCommunications, and our commitmentto India. It also demonstrates ourrenewed focus on managed services aswe apply greater selectivity on morevalue-added contracts. The enormousscope of this agreement will bring awide variety of skills, expertise andhands-on know-how that we canleverage for the benefit of others.”

Rajeev Singh-Molares:Agreementdemonstratesmanagedservices focus

Reliance agrees US$1 billion managedservices deal with Alcatel-Lucent

Robi Axiata selects Comptel Social Links toautomate customer engagement

Robi Axiata, the Bangladeshi jointventure of Axiata Group and NTTDoCoMo, has chosen Comptel SocialLinks to replace its manual marketingcampaign management and analyticstools. The CSP will use the technologyto automate contextually-relevantinteractions, provide a better customerexperience and drive businessperformance improvements.

Using Comptel Social Links, includingits Social Network Analysis (SNA)capabilities, Robi will be able to step upits micro-campaigning significantly.The CSP will be able to detect andprevent multi-SIM usage, identify andreduce churn, and predict customers’future propensity for product upsells. Inaddition, Comptel’s predictive analyticstechnology will enable Robi to segmentmarketing based on customers’ usage,interests, location, and inclination tochurn and influence, as well as utilise

advanced offer management to upsellproducts and services.

“Customers are at the heart of ourbusiness, and catering to their interestshas always been a key goal for us,”said Pradeep Shiravastava, chiefmarketing officer of market operationat Robi Axiata. “With Comptel SocialLinks, we’re confident that we canachieve an even higher level ofcustomer satisfaction by amplifying ourmarketing campaigns with trulycomprehensive insights into theirbehaviours, needs and desires.”

Timo Koistinen, senior vice president,Asia Pacific, Comptel, added: “CSPsmust make differentiation a priority inorder to stay relevant. One of the keyways to accomplish this is throughcontextually-relevant, and even betterautomated, customer interactions.”

C O N T R A C T N E W S

Zain Jordan deploys Astelliamonitoring system

Astellia, a provider of monitoringsolutions for the optimisation of mobilenetwork QoS and QoE, has announcedthe delivery of its 3G monitoring solutionto Zain Jordan, part of the Zain Group.

Zain Jordan is the dominant player inone of the most deregulated telecommarkets in the MENA region. Jordan’stelecoms sector is booming but with fourCSPs, competition is intense. ThereforeZain Jordan puts a strong focus on highquality demanding subscribers to gaincompetitive advantage. With Astellia’sNeptune probing system, Zain Jordan isable to identify the various applicationsand services being used by itssubscribers and perform thorough QoEanalysis and reporting.

“Astellia’s expertise and the fact that wehave been close partners for the lastthree years made it a clear choice for usto renew our confidence and to call onAstellia’s global experience andindependent advice to answer ournetwork monitoring needs.” said YousefAbu Mutawe, chief technical officer atZain Jordan.

O2 UK selectsMACH direct billing

MACH has been selected by O2 UK as apreferred launch partner to enable directoperator billing on its new Charge toMobile platform. Through MACH’s DirectBilling Gateway, app stores andmerchants will be able to benefit fromfeatures such as flexible pricing, realtime charging and real-time debiting andcrediting capabilities, as well as directrefund capabilities, on the O2 UK network.

Through its integration to O2 UK’sCharge to Mobile platform, MACH willoffer content partners and merchants africtionless payment process whichreduces drop-off rates and increasesconversion rates. MACH’s Direct BillingGateway also provides a real-timecharging process, which ensures instantauthorisation and reduced revenueleakage for both pre-paid and post-paidsubscribers.

P R O D U C T N E W S

Openet, a provider ofreal-time transactionmanagement softwareand services, hasannounced engineeringadvances that haveimproved performance ofall systems within theOpenet productecosystem.

Technical innovation by Openetengineers related to protocol handling,core processing, and memory utilisationhave achieved more than doubled PCRFperformance. Openet claims theadvances have achieved more than200,000 TPS (transactions per second)within a single policy system in labtesting. This measurement includes thein-memory database interaction.

In addition, the company claims it hasachieved more than 25,000 TPS perblade for rating decisions. Openet’sproduct ecosystem includes real-timecharging integrated with policy, essentialto help operators create, manage andsupport modern business models.

“Openet attracts some of the world’sbest technical talent because we solveincredibly complex problems andimprove how operators differentiatetheir services,” said Openet engineeringvice president Shane O’Flynn. “Oursoftware supports more than half a billionsmartphone users across the world andOpenet engineers deliver the architectureand solutions that give operators theflexibility to support their growingsubscriber base and manage the world’slargest and most complex systems.”

Shane O’Flynn:Enablingdifferentiationfor CSPs

Openet claims doubled transactions per second performance

MetraTech introduces real-time commerce decision engine

MetraTech has launched its MetraNetCommerce Decision Engine. The Enginepowered by Metratech’s RAMP (Real-time Aggregate Metrics Processor) isnow embedded in the latest release ofMetraNet.

MetraNet is a monetisation platformbuilt on an extensible metadata-drivenarchitecture that makes it simple forcustomers to model services, introduceservices and pricing plans, and tochange them in rapid response tomarket demands. Billing and multi-partysettlement functionality such ascommissioning, revenue sharing andother B2x compensation schemes issupported on the same powerfulplatform. Partnerships with contentproviders, distributors or any other typeof third party relationship can behandled with accuracy, visibility andcontrol.

All billing events that enter the MetraNetbilling platform have configurableaccount and usage decision criteria thatcan be used to decide which contract,agreement or sales criteria to apply tothe event and all associatedaggregations. There is no limit to thenumber of decisions or business criteriathat can be configured by users. The

Commerce Decision Engine can run inreal-time where the system maintains acontinuous count of each transactiontype through counters or in batch modewhere multiple batches are sent into thesystem for re-evaluation.

MetraNet's Commerce Decision Enginecan be easily configured to executedecisions based upon aggregating anytype of metric across arbitrary products,services, groups of accounts, usagetypes, charge types, utilisation orcommitment tiers, resellers, nationaljurisdictions, and multiple currencies. Itis now possible for a CSP to rundifferent pricing, bundling, discountingand billing cycle rules for any group ofcustomers defined in any way. All billinginformation, including departmentalsummaries, can be made available tocustomers and internal businessintelligence.

Karl Whitelock, director Global OSS BSSStrategy at Stratecast | Frost andSullivan, commented: "The CommerceDecision Engine continues the push withaggregation of any type of metric acrossgroups of accounts, multinationalboundaries, and multiple currencies.This capability is a significant stepforward for service providers."

P R O D U C T N E W S

Mobixell announces LTEvideo optimisation system

Mobixell Networks, a provider of mobilevideo optimisation and webacceleration technologies, hascompleted a successful field test of itsoptimisation solution which it claims isthe first to be integrated into existingLTE access hardware. This type ofsolution will mean that, as mobileoperators deploy new LTE sites, thedeployments can include resource-saving, quality-enhancing data cachingand optimisation without adding anyadditional hardware in the access network.

Mobixell can already integrate itstechnology into existing 2G and 3Gaccess networks, but it has developedthis access-based optimisation andcaching solution specifically for LTE sothat operators already deploying LTEaccess infrastructure could deploy user-experience enhancing data optimisationwithout incurring extra hardware costs.

Amdocs acceleratestime to market withprepackaged BSS

Amdocs has announced the launch ofAmdocs BSS Advance and AmdocsBusiness Building Blocks. Amdocs BSSAdvance is a fully integrated, completebusiness support systems (BSS)offering that provides a holistic view ofthe customer and features anembedded integration andimplementation layer to reduce time toproduction. Designed to work inconjunction with Amdocs BSS Advance,Amdocs Business Building Blocks is acatalogue of pre-tested, pre-integratedinnovative use-case scenarios thatservice providers can deploy to speednew services to market.

“The rapid introduction of newfunctionality through the use of AmdocsBusiness Building Blocks translates oursystem capabilities into tangiblebusiness results, enabling serviceproviders to keep their focus on serviceinnovation and differentiating theirbusiness as Amdocs simplifies theenabling technologies,” said RebeccaPrudhomme, vice product for productand solutions marketing at Amdocs.


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C O N T R A C T H O T L I S T

VanillaPlus Hot List: February/March 2013

Accenture KPN, Netherlands Five year, multi-million dollar (US) contract for development and maintenance of innovative telecoms services 12.12

Alcatel-Lucent Reliance Communications, US$1bn, seven-year managed services agreement to establish common operations support centre forIndia wireless and wireline customers 1.13

Amdocs CenturyLink, USA Consolidated OSS platform to enable service fulfillment automation, optimising network and asset utilisation 12.12

Amdocs Telefónica, Argentina Wireless transformation programme to deliver consistent user experience to 16.7m Movistar brand subscribers 12.12

Astellia Zain, Jordan Delivery of 3G monitoring system including Neptune probing system and VIP Care 1.13

Bango Telefónica Digital, global Partnership to enable direct-to-bill payment for mobile app stores connecting more than 314 millionchargeable customers 1.13

CSG International Time Warner Cable, USA Extension of customer care and billing contract to March 2017 1.13

Comptel Robi Axiata, Bangladesh Comptel Social Links selected to replace manual marketing campaign management and analytics tools 12.12

Comptel Eircom, Ireland Comptel Fulfillment chosen to expedite deployment and launch of new services reducing time to market by 75% 1.13

Interactive Intelligence T-Mobile, Austria Customer Interact Center suite shosen to support Austrian CSP's 500 agents at two sites 1.13

MACH O2, UK Integration of MACH Direct Billing Gateway to O2 UK Charge to Mobile Platform to enable one-click payment 1.13

MACH GlobalCharge, Germany Deployment of MACH Direct Billing Gateway to support direct operator billing service at four CSPs 12.12

NetCracker Technology Alestra, Mexico NetCracker selected to enhance BSS to streamline billing operations and support launch of nextgeneration services 1.13

NetCracker Technology Bell Aliant, Canada Deployment of NetCracker BSS/OSS to support end-to-end management of FibreOP service expansion 12.12

NetCracker Technology Yes, Israel Converged billing and customer care systems to support launch of new services at Israeli pay TV provider 12.12

Neural Technologies Vivacom, Bulgaria Enhanced contract to continue provision of fraud management services for fixed and mobile networks(Guavus) 1.13

Nokia Siemens Guangdong Mobile, NSN Serve at Once Intelligence customer and business analysis suite deployed for signaling data sharing platformNetworks China 12.12

Pontis O2, UK Provision of customer base management and contextual marketing services to UK's second largestmobile operator 12.12

Sigma Systems Tiscali, Italy Deployment of Sigma's Service Management Platform to activate and provision services for mobile subscribers 1.13

Tango Telecom Network Norway Trial deployment of cloud-based policy control system at Tele2 Group property in Norway 12.12

Tellabs Vodafone, Ireland Deployment of Tellabs Insight Analytics Services to analyse data contained in multi-vendor 3G network 12.12

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" <[email protected]>

Vendor(s) Client, Country Product / Service (Duration & Value) Awarded

H O T L I S T

CenturyLink chooses Amdocs for operational support systems consolidation

CenturyLink, the third largest telecoms company in theUnited States, which has grown rapidly throughacquisition, has selected Amdocs for an operationalsupport systems (OSS) consolidation project. The CSP hasbought carrier Qwest and hosting company Savvis in thelast three years.

Amdocs' solution, based on a single inventory repository,provides an automated, scalable platform for planningand managing next-generation services. With the Amdocssolution CenturyLink is expected to drive efficiencies withrapid time to market for new product offers. Theconsolidated OSS platform will also enable servicefulfillment automation, streamlining CenturyLink's orderingprocess, while optimising network and asset utilisation.

"We chose Amdocs based on its proven experience,particularly supporting ethernet and VPN services," said

Bill Bradley, chief information officer atCenturyLink. "As we look to grow ournetwork business, we will leverageAmdocs' experience in deliveringautomated and scalable OSS solutions toquickly achieve a consolidated OSSplatform. Not only will this enableCenturyLink to launch future productsmore rapidly, but it will also reduce costsand shorten the order-to-cash cycle."

"To stay ahead, service providers need to be agile andready for the future," said Rebecca Prudhomme, vicepresident for product and solutions marketing at Amdocs."By consolidating functions across multiple technologiesand lines of business, and providing a single view ofnetwork resources, Amdocs' solution will increaseCenturyLink's flexibility."

RebeccaPrudhomme:Consolidatingfunctionsincreasesflexibility

P E O P L E N E W SVANILLAPLUS FEBRUARY/MARCH 201312

Wolfgang Kroh appointed new chiefexecutive of Orga Systems

Wolfgang Kroh has been appointed as the new chiefexecutive of Orga Systems GmbH. Kroh succeeds RamezYounan who has left the company to pursue otherinterests.

The Executive Board of Orga Systems now consists ofKroh and company CFO Johannes Nussbickel who joined in 2011.

Kroh is an experienced executive from the information and telecomsindustry. As former chief executive of LHS Aktiengesellschaft, a vendor ofcustomer care and billing solutions and a Frankfurt Stock Exchange-listedcompany that was acquired by Ericsson in 2007 and fully integrated intothe Ericsson Group in 2010, Kroh will bring his broad generalmanagement skills and his long-standing international experiences insales and marketing into his new role.

His experience of piloting the successful disposal of LHS is being seen bysome commentators as an indication that he will seek to prepare thecompany for sale.

Younan departs having developed the company over the past three yearsdriving healthy growth, global customer and territory expansion andentrance into new strategic industries.

Brocade names Lloyd Carneychief executive and board member

Networking industry veteran Lloyd Carney has beenappointed chief executive of Brocade with immediateeffect. In addition to his role as CEO, Carney will joinBrocade’s board of directors. Carney succeeds MichaelKlayko, who has served as CEO since 2005.

“After a thorough and robust search process, the Board believes thatLloyd Carney is the ideal leader to take Brocade to the next level,” saidDavid House, the chairman of the Brocade Board of Directors. “He has arelentless passion for driving innovation and operational excellence.These characteristics, combined with his track record of executionincluding delivering growth and increasing shareholder value, make himan outstanding choice to lead Brocade into its next phase.”

Carney has built a distinguished career during his nearly 30 years in thehigh-tech industry including a number of senior leadership positions atvarious networking and semiconductor companies. Most recently, he wasCEO and member of the board of directors at Xsigo Systems, a privatelyheld company specialising in data centre virtualisation, where hepositioned the company to take advantage of emerging technologyopportunities including cloud computing and software-definednetworking.

Previously, Carney was CEO of Micromuse, which specialised in networkmanagement software and later became an integral part of the IBM Tivoliframework. He has also held key senior leadership positions at majornetworking companies including Juniper Networks as its chiefoperating officer and at Nortel Networks as president of its multi-billiondollar Core IP, Wireless Internet and the Enterprise divisions.

“I believe Brocade is poised to leverage its heritage of strong innovationand significantly disrupt the status quo in the data-networking industry,”said Carney. “There are profound changes happening across high techtoday and Brocade has a great opportunity to lead that transformationthrough differentiated products and customer focus.”

Sandvine, a provider of intelligent broadbandnetwork solutions for fixed and mobile operators,has announced that Dermot O’Carroll has joinedits board of directors. O’Carroll has spent almost 40years in the telecoms industry, the last twenty ofwhich as a senior executive in various roles,including with Canadian operator RogersCommunications.

“Sandvine’s customers are some of the mostinnovative communications service providers in theworld. Dermot’s elite experience in the industry willhelp ensure that the company’s strategy and focusare guided by the voice of the customer,” said RogerMaggs, chairman of Sandvine’s Board of Directors.

Prior to his 15 years at Rogers, O’Carroll was withUnitel Communications as vice president ofNetwork Services, where he was responsible for thedeployment of a national advanced voice and dataservices network. Before that, he spent 15 years withBell Canada. O’Carroll was the Canadianrepresentative on the board of the Society of CableTelecommunications Engineers from 2004 to 2010.

Starhome, which provides value-added services(VAS) solutions and services for mobile operators,has appointed Tal Meirzon as its new CEO.

Meirzon spent more than 20 years at varioustelecoms vendors, holding several positions duringhis 13-year tenure with Gilat Satellite Networks,including executive product, marketing and businessdevelopment positions.

For four years, starting in 2008, Meirzon was the CEOof Wavion Wireless Networks, which he grewfrom a start-up in the carrier-grade Wi-Fi market.Following Wavion’s acquisition by Alvarion in 2011,Tal was appointed COO of Alvarion.

KANA has announced several new executivemanagement appointments, expanding its Europeanleadership team. Importantly, all of the recentmanagement appointments are former Ciboodleexecutives who have been retained by KANA to growthe company's operations in Europe. These includeKenny Bain who is now general manager, EMEA;Steven Thurlow, head of worldwide productstrategy; Paul White, sales director for EMEA; andMichael Cairns, head of professional services forEMEA.

Klod Ghez has replaced Amir Aharoni as CEO ofMobixell. Aharoni, who co-founded Mobixell in2000, will remain in the company in an advisoryposition during an indeterminate transition period.This move is a part of a strategic plan to propelMobixell forward through its next phase of growth.

For more than 25 years, Ghez has held senior levelpositions at computer and software companies, bothlarge and small. For the last several years he hasbeen a management consultant for largeinternational corporations. Prior to that he served theboard of directors of Octavian, a software vendor inthe wealth and investment management industryand served as CEO and president of the company.

Appointments in brief

LloydCarney

WolfgangKroh

P E O P L E N E W S

T A L K I N G H E A D S


One year on from acquiring Telcordia for more than US$1 billion and more recently theacquisition of ConceptWave, Ericsson continues to see great potential for CSPs toextract great value from the data they collect and analyse in their OSS and BSSsystems. Here, Per Borgklint, senior vice president and head of Business Unit SupportSolutions at Ericsson, tells George Malim how concepts of fresh and slow data need tobe understood and identified to feed customer experience management systems withthe right information at the right time. Borgklint, who has led retail-based operationsfor fixed and mobile networks at Tele2 and Dutch operator Versatel, says CSPs willserve customers better and more effectively monetise on their network investments ifthey refine their approaches and move from reactive CRM to proactive CEM.

VanillaPlus: CEM seems to be used todescribe all sorts of functions related tothe end user experience. What is the truemeaning of customer experiencemanagement?

Per Borgklint: You’re right that it’s a verybroad abbreviation that is used in a lot ofcases. From the CSP perspective it’s aboutbeing able to provide timely, intelligent inputto deliver actionable insight in real-time. Inaddition, it’s about making sure CSPs canimprove the overall customer experience,drive loyalty and increase ARPU and create avaluable customer perception of the service.It’s more advanced than being only reactive.

A large part of what CSPs are doing today is invoice but in data CEM becomes veryimportant because you are getting into asituation with a very high level ofdifferentiation. If you’re providing video or alive event or addressing services likehealthcare, the ability to ensure quality ofservice is delivered and the ability to informusers in real-time about services and impactscould, if you take it to the extreme, be thedifference between life and death.

More routinely it could make the differencebetween a customer staying or going. Forexample, a video outage or a break in a scenemakes a lot of people very, very annoyed.

Fast and slowdata intelligenceapproachesextract CEMvalue for CSPs

�


When you’re moving from linear to non-linearexperiences CEM becomes even moreimportant and because of that it will graduallyincrease in importance.

VP: Why is CEM more than old-fashionedCRM? What greater value does it bringboth to the customer, in terms ofimproved experience, but also to the CSPas a means to provide services moreefficiently while ensuring usersatisfaction?

PB: I think it’s good you use the descriptionold-fashioned CRM. CRM cements an old wayof working. When you became a customer of aCSP you weren’t able to choose servicesbecause CRM is a logistical tool that isn’t ableto extract experience-related data in a timelyway. As customers ourselves, we’re used tobeing able to have more impact on our owncustomer experience to a greater extent thanCRM will allow. CRM is mainly focused oninternal efficiencies and not necessarily onhow you create the best experience for thecustomer.

CEM focuses on operations and processesbased on customers’ needs in a moreintegrated OSS and BSS environment. It’sabout creating efficiency gains where you canmove the layer of configuration from aninternal thing to an external thing for thebenefit of the customer.

That will demonstrate greater value over time.In the short-term greater value is about havingthe ability to extract aspects of the customerexperience that are not living up to customerexpectations. In the future, it will becomeabout the ability to deliver specific things youknow a certain customer will be interested inbased on their behaviour, their geography,their circumstances and other information youhave.

In reality services will become much moreadvanced and interactions between differentoperations will increase. At the same time,intelligence of solutions will increase and theuser will be able to have a far greater impacton what they do.

VP: Should OSS and BSS continue to beregarded as separate disciplines or is theinterplay between the two now so

intense that traditional demarcations areevolving in a unified approach to theback office? How does CEM fit into thatunification?

PB: The interplay is that they are meltingtogether in terms of how a consumerexperiences the overall offering but, from aninternal perspective they still have differentroles to play. BSS is there to ensure thatrevenue is being charged for in a flexible,controlled manner that gives the CSP theability to capitalise on different types of userbehaviour over the network.

OSS is internal as well as external. Inventorymanagement, for example, gives the CSP avery clear picture of what they can do.Information from inventory management canbe used as a trigger to generate sales leads.For example, if fibre is connected to a 50storey building inventory managementsystems would be able to tell radio plannersthat fibre is there. Sales can be triggered bythe knowledge that fibre will be in thisbuilding by a specific date. You can combineinventory management with other areas ofvalue creation within the CSP. That’s not howit’s being used today, it’s very reactive but itcan become proactive.

VP: CEM isn't only about CSPs'relationships with their customers. Howcan targeted CEM aid and enable newservice development?

PB: I think that if you go from 2G voice andSMS to 3G and the first data services wherethe personalisation was low, when you get to4G the behaviour is very different. A 70-year-old’s behaviour will be very different to a 17-year-old’s. If you can extract this informationin real-time you can create service packagingin very efficient ways in a unified productcatalogue and deliver that to the customer inthe right place at the right time. For anapplication running either over the network orvia an over-the-top (OTT) provider delivery ofself-service capability is based on different[sources of] data that are used to create self-service capability. That’s how CEM enablesany service that needs a specific quality ofservice to be enhanced. That also ties in withextracting the right data to create anecosystem around behaviour andindividual needs.

�


CEM focuses on

operations and

processes based

on customers’

needs in a more

integrated OSS

and BSS

environment


VP: To get the complete picture, CSPs need todraw CEM data from both the network andthe handset. How can they make the mostof combined handset and networkdata? What challenges areinvolved?

PB: Network data is just one part ofthe whole information available.You also need to understand thehandset or terminal capabilities.Serving a specific user who hasa specific device and combiningdifferent services togethermeans you have to understandthe different integrations,service layers and how theyintegrate.

From a theoretical point ofview the challenge is notthat difficult but from apractical point of viewextracting the data isdifficult. There is such alarge volume of data butinstead of talking about bigdata, I’d prefer to focus onfresh data – the data that needsto be extracted quickly andacted on. Slow data that can beextracted later won’t necessarilyimpact customers’ real-timerequirements. Fresh data requiresintelligence on a different level anddiffers from CSP to CSP.

The ability to bring these data assetsout of the network and transform andtransport them in the right way is achallenge and will take time to address. Inpractice that requires you to understand whatdata is valuable. Big data is too wide anapproach you need to assess which data needsto be treated while it is fresh and which data canbe left and treated as slow data. It’s like selling fish –what can’t be sold that day needs to be frozenimmediately. That requires specialist knowledge of thenetwork and of customer behaviour and how youutilise that through policy control all the way through tothe end user device or customer premise equipment.

This is a core area for Ericsson and one that we see as veryimportant. We’re continuing to develop our solutions andservices in OSS/BSS because we see substantial valueextraction potential in these solutions.

From a theoretical

point of view the

challenge is not

that difficult but

from a practical

point of view

extracting the

data is difficult


M A N A G E D S E R V I C E S

CSPs are overcoming their initial reluctance to outsource OSS/BSS but two schools ofthought are emerging. Does outsourcing such a critical function make you agile orfragile, asks Nick Booth?

With the pace of change and sheer scale ofcomplexity being created by the move to 4G,never has a technology – LTE – been moreironically named. There's no time for a LongTerm Evolution, today's communicationsservice providers (CSPs) need to get theirbusiness and operational support systemstogether as soon as possible.

The quickest way to do that is to outsource toa managed service provider, especially whenthe skills to manage BSS/OSS are difficult toacquire in house. But how vulnerable doesthis lack of control make an operator? Is thatvulnerability worse than the problems that

CSPs will face if they don't fine-tune themachinery for delivering data and videoservices to their subscribers?

In Europe, CSPs are about ten years behindthe US when it comes to BSS/OSSoutsourcing, according to the experts below.One of the lessons we can learn is to avoidmaking unrealistic assumptions when strikingcontracts. For example, in many deals, themanaged service provider has no realincentive to use their initiative to solveproblems, because they won't be any morehandsomely rewarded for making theextra effort.

Outsource yourbusiness support systems

– are you serious?

Lyn Cantor:Managedserviceproviders needa 360 degreeview �


At the moment, the CSP client owns anyproblem that isn't legislated for in the serviceagreement. The classic mistake in the pastwas to rely on the legal department being ableto legislate for every nuance in the delivery ofservices – as if it was possible to plan forevery aspect of a challenge that nobody hasever tackled yet. With CSPs moving to acompletely new infrastructure, and level ofservice, the legal underpinning of contractshas to adapt in line with the shifting oftechnology. The problem with this is that thelegal sector moves at glacial speed, incomparison with the lightning developmentsin communications and networking.

Nobody moves slower than a corporate lawyerwho is billing by the hour, while the pace oftechnological change keeps accelerating.

Meanwhile, with LTE being a smartphone onlytechnology, the cost of supporting itsignificantly higher than supporting customersusing regular mobile phones – which supportvoice, messaging and rudimentary dataservices. “Operators will be faced withspiralling customer care costs as LTE usageincreases unless they are able to anticipate,and resolve, network issues before theyimpact on the subscriber,” says Lyn Cantor,CEO at Tektronix Communications.

In addition, they may not be the onlyorganisation using network data and assets."Operators are beginning to share networks,"says Francis Haysom, executive director ofinnovation in Ericsson's support servicesbusiness unit. "Sharing and outsourcingOSS/BSS platforms to an expert vendor iscertainly on the agenda."

Managing BSS/OSS becomes a massiveresponsibility that must be got right. With ashortage of available skills and a market thatjust won't wait, a managed service is the onlyway to keep pace with change, says Alam Gill,CSG International's senior vice president ofmanaged services. “Traditional outsourcingwas based on key performance indicators thatdidn't change,” he says. “That's notsustainable now.”

Service providers need to be more flexible and

not wait until contracts are altered before theyresolve problems that aren't litigated for intheir contract. “The outsourcer has to putsome skin in the game,” adds Gill.

The good news is that the average CSP’sappetite for outsourced managed OSS/BSS isincreasing, as they have to support anincreased rate of change in their businesses,says Matt Hooper, CMO at MDS. Thechallenge of supporting a faster rate of changein their businesses hinges on doing more tointegrate customer and revenue managementsystems. “You need to be able to set-up andlaunch new service in days, not months, whichis a wake-up call for the OSS/BSS vendors,”says Hooper.

The risks need to be appropriately assessedand managed, says Warren Tucker, networklead at Accenture. That calls for a culturechange he warns. “Too often the measure ofsuccess is how hard the provider has beensqueezed,” says Tucker. Instead, contracts needto allow the service provider to make money,while at the same time aligning its interest tothose of the client. “We have seen contractswhere the service provider is obliged to helpthe client identify and implement innovationsor efficiencies, within the main contract or inadjacent business domains. These types ofclauses keep the provider focused on theoverall interests of the client,” says Tucker.

Ultimately, all parties have to be more grownup about every aspect and every variable –whether it's the data or the customerexperience – between the CSP and itsBSS/OSS service provider, says CSG's Gill.“As an industry we have to move to a moremature relationship with joint responsibilityfor delivering business value,” says Gill.

Not everyone has a wide enough perspectiveto provide this argues, warns TektronixCommunications’ Cantor. “The majority ofsolutions providers and network equipmentmanufacturers (NEMs), cannot guarantee a360 degree perspective of network, serviceand subscriber as they only have access to alimited number of data feeds, primarily theirown, also not all equipment or solutions willconform to industry standards.”

Alam Gill:Outsourcershave to put skinin the game

Matt Hooper:Acceleratedservice launchis a wake upcall

The author,Alam Gill, issenior vicepresident ofmanagedservices at CSGInternational


E X P E R T O P I N I O N :

As business models evolve, a wide range of business processes are prime candidates formanaged services. CSPs are evaluating whether any of their numerous businessapplications, processes, infrastructure and operations can be better managed by apartner, writes Alam Gill

Every industry seems to be contending with thesame factor – an accelerating rate of change.Change extends from how businesses are run tohow they interact with customers. Take theexample of the retail industry. Much to thedetriment of long-established retail brands, in-store shoppers use their mobile device to scanbarcodes, compare prices and reviews amongmultiple vendors near, far and virtual, and maketheir purchasing decision with more informationand between more choices than ever before.Technology is now the consumer’s best friend.The pervasiveness of digital information and thedevices to access it anywhere and at any time,stimulates behavioural changes that impact howparties - individuals, businesses and business-to-consumer - interact and engage with each otherin constructive ways.

There are examples in nearly every industry, andin each there are three common enabling factors– and all three of these attributes arecommunications services:

1. Increased network bandwidth in order to deliver unparalleled capacity for high-definition, high-quality digital interactions

2. The predominance of IP networks accelerates the development and adoption of new services from previously separate features that can now be unified as they are digitised

3. Mobility for the masses – not only for people, in all geographies and in all socio-economic classes, but for ‘things’ (devices) as well

Communications service providers (CSPs) are atthe epicentre of enabling this change. Basiccommunications services requirements areembedded in each application that has beenimagined to date: ubiquity, reliability and quality.

This is good news for CSPs as these factors havebeen primary attributes of the network businessfor decades and arguably no other market entrantis as well-positioned to compete in these areas.

If CSPs focus on nothing else, these are theattributes which should remain a top priority astheir business models transform and evolve.CSPs are expected to do this while meetingcustomer experience expectations, retainingprofitability and driving revenue growth.

Applying the three factorsUnder these conditions, every CSP is evaluatingevery part of its business and where it canbenefit from change. Increasingly, they areevaluating whether any of their numerousbusiness applications, processes, infrastructureand operations can be better managed by a partner.

Whether it goes by the name outsourcing ormanaged services, CSPs more frequentlyacknowledge that there are organisations bettersuited to performing these functions, thusfreeing the CSP’s time, resources, energies andcapital for evolving business models, launchingnew services, and bettering their customers’experiences with these new services.

For years the primary drivers for outsourcinghave been cost reductions and increasedtechnical efficiency through staff augmentationand simple out-tasking.

While capex and opex reductions and increasedtechnical efficiencies have remained top prioritiesin recent years, in response to challenging globaleconomic conditions and the change in thecommunications industry, other CSP outsourcingdrivers have advanced in parallel.

Make use of managedservices to transform thenext generation CSP

M A N A G E D S E R V I C E S

�


For example, carriers have built and owned theirown solutions in the past, whereas financialservices firms for example have deployed a moregeneric architecture. CSP staff manage mostapplications and operations, while outsourcingthe occasional simple component or task. Thistraditional approach can often fall short whenrolling out next-generation services enabled byhigh-capacity LTE networks, like m-commerce orhigh-quality video streaming. Many carriers areproving the business case for outsourcing toassist with rapid roll-out and to deliver ongoingimprovements for the services and their businessoverall. The business case delivers to both thetop and bottom line and is an investment in theircustomers as well.

For most CSPs, the back office has beenoptimised to support the legacy part of theirbusiness. A service provider business launchingtoday would begin with the basic principles ofautomation, interoperability and ongoingprocess improvement. CSP organisations remainpeople-intensive and can benefit from anoutsourcer’s business expertise, applicationknowledge and a focus on process optimisation.The outsourcing partner can bring a fresh eye,better utilisation of staff and better perspectivebased upon industry best practices and an eyetowards the future.

To accommodate the speed of change andincreasing globalisation of both service providersand services, enabling flexibility is critical.Historically, seven- or 10-year outsourcingcontracts were the norm, but the averagecontract terms today are three years. The abilityof a CSP to look ahead and see what their costbase is likely to be in the future is a lot harder todo than a decade ago. A ‘lock-in’ for 10 yearsputs carriers at risk. To become that next-generation CSP, you need flexibility andresponsiveness to change.

The role of BSSAs a CSP focuses on developing and executingnew strategies and business models, outsourcingfor reasons other than cost management willbecome dominant. As business models evolve, awide range of business processes from thetraditional Business Support System (BSS)domain are prime candidates for managedservices. Traditional and well-establishedprocesses that don’t require change can bemanaged more effectively in a consolidatedenvironment that an outsourcer can provide.

In addition, the outsourced processes can be

folded in as new services are launched. Forexample, when new services and wallets arelaunched, the need to add another silo ofpayment processing is removed if the paymentprocess has already been decoupled andcentralised by a partner. BSS processes that arecandidates for outsourcing include customercare, billing, payment processing, wallets,receivables management, revenue recognition,disputes and adjustments, partner management,settlement, and finally analytics across alltransactions and each of these functions andprocesses.

Owning and operating these outsourcedprocesses is only the beginning. The managedservices partner of these processes, through acombination of consolidation, expertise andembedded tools, delivers a range of overlayservices that enables these processes to addvalue to the CSP’s business including:

• Administration across all layers, from the facilities in which the applications reside through servers, storage, operating systems, applications, operations and staff

• Monitoring across multiple application and process dimensions, including user activity, security, application performance, process accuracy, and customer-facing metrics like usage patterns and quality KPIs

• Audit logging across those same functions for compliance purposes

• Error correction and trouble-shooting across all processes and functions

• Reporting at the application level, theprocess performance level and the business metrics level

We are also moving towards an environmentwhere managed services are based on businessoutcome based contracts. Previous simple SLAbased contracting is being replaced by anapproach where the partner and the CSP isjoined hip to hip to drive towards successthrough BLAs (Business Level Agreements).

By leveraging managed services, CSPs will befreed to keep pace with network evolution,industry expansion and changing consumerdemands that are filling those networks with newand developing services. Outsourcing themanagement of how the back office isstreamlined is a major step for many, but byfinding the right outsourcing partner thisapproach is the best course of action for CSPswho want to transform their business andbecome the next generation CSP.

To accommodate

the speed of

change and

increasing

globalisation of

both service

providers and

services, enabling

flexibility is critical.

www.csgi.com

B IG DATA ANALYT ICS

The term big data is associated with capturingand analysing consumer behaviour using theweb. The velocity and volume of digitaltransactions captured and processed to achievebusiness value require changes in the softwaresystems to support petabytes of structured andunstructured data. These systems must bedistributed, delivered in a cloud-computingenvironment and need to support in-memorydatabase management. The data can bestructured or unstructured. Structured dataincludes HLR records, IP application flows, geo-positioning and billing detail records.Unstructured data includes tweets, Facebookposts and any other form of social content.

Revenue generation and data monetisation aredriving the market for big data. The vast amountof information that operators hold about theirsubscribers has been largely untapped, but couldbe harvested to answer key questions andpredict future scenarios. Smartphones, theavailability of broadband and maturity ofecommerce enable more cost-effectiveadvertising and big data will play a pivotal role inunderstanding buying behaviour and spurringcustomer demand. However, big data projectswill require real-time data capture and analysis.

Profit from dataCSPs can profit from big data internally and sellit to advertisers. Telefónica's Smart Steps servicetakes this approach: it captures, processes andthen sells the anonymous data of its customersto retailers and public-sector organisations.

Our research has found immediate benefits ofbig data projects that can best be articulated inuse case studies that we have published in ourTelecoms Software Strategies programme.Rotational churn in a prepaid market uses dataanalytics to understand usage patterns, socialnetwork connections and business intelligence topredict churn. This predictive analysis can beused to proactively connect or promote loyaltyoffers before the customer is lost. Other revenue-enhancement strategies focus on yieldoptimisation. CSPs can measure load by cell siteand target high-value users with promotionaloffers that encourage network usage. Thisgenerates incremental revenue without affecting

service quality and uses investment in sunknetwork cost.

In the M2M market, big data can be used toidentify crowd movements and traffic jams usinglocation-based data. This data with analysis canbe sold as a value-add application to redirectcustomers to storefronts or seek alternate routes.M2M instrumentation in the transport andautomotive industry tracks assets andenvironmental conditions, and supports remotesurveillance. Data streams can be processedquickly to alert a parent to the erratic driving oftheir teenage child, for example, or to interactwith electronic billboards to display ads based onthe demographics of drivers passing at specificpoints in time.

The following are the three greatest inhibitors torealising the benefits of big data:

Multinational CSPs operate as independententities, which restricts their ability to unifymarketing campaigns, standardise product sets,and rapidly launch new services.

Security and privacy concerns could spurregulators to enact tougher regulation andincrease churn. Telefónica recently withdrewsupport for its Smart Steps service in Germanybecause of consumer privacy concerns.

Technology-driven projects that do not assessthe business requirements and do not deliveractionable reports.

We recommend that CSPs embarking on a bigdata analytics project identify a specific businessobjective that is well defined in scope. CSPsshould be able to classify the project either asrevenue-generating or productivity-enhancingwith a clear cost-benefit business case to back itup. M2M is revenue-generating, whereasnetwork optimisation is focused on capitalefficiency. Be aware of privacy issues that couldspur regulatory investigations. Understand howunstructured data will be used, which accountsfor a large percentage of the value of big dataanalytics. And finally, use the suppliercommunity where 80% of the solution can beachieved quickly, and customise the remainder.

The legacy cash cow of voice services is disappearingquickly, but new business models are emerging and the dataanalytics gold rush will reward the innovators that act quicklyand deliver compelling business cases, writes Patrick Kelly

The author,Patrick Kelly isresearchdirector atAnalysys Mason

Is big data CSPs’crown jewel or anothermissed opportunity?




There are many mobile operators who regard a green indication for their networkas a sign that it’s not only good to go, but that their subscribers are satisfied.Announcing his company's new, enriched capability as the first TelecomsIntelligence Provider, Lyn Cantor explains why green lights don’t provide enoughinsight and how CSPs can gain far more by taking a four-dimensional approach

Communication services providers (CSPs)routinely encounter problems in areas notalways revealed in the network overview. Inthe bigger scheme of things, they may seemsmall, but to the individual subscriber thesmall things count. Dropped calls, failedhandovers, interrupted videos, delayed receiptof messages, and the many other glitches thatmay have passed unnoticed in the mobileworld of yesteryear are unacceptable today.

The notion that a subscriber might have theirID stolen is untenable, but it happens.

Not any more, if the network hides problemsnow, it’s time to resolve them for the future.Technology-agnostic solutions and tools areavailable that create meaningful observationsfrom data across networks, legacy and newgeneration technologies, services utilisationand subscriber journeys.

The TelecomsIntelligence ProviderA Telecoms Intelligence Provider helpsoperators understand their entire environmentand what goes on in it; the four dimensions, or4D, of 4G: Subscriber behaviour, the Servicesthey consume, the Network environmentitself, and the Technologies in play. Real-timeend-to-end data collection and analysis acrosseach of these dimensions can give operatorsthe visibility they need, to deliver the experienceand services their customers want. They are inan ideal position to do it particularly since theyare not troubled by the security issues oftenaffecting OTT players – such as identity theft -and can ensure greater interoperability throughinitiatives such as Joyn, the commercial brandof the GSMA Rich Communication Suite.

To interpret and monetise the data available tothem mobile operators have to approach it ona micro level, rather than as indicative trenddata. Operators are realigning their businessmodels to offer the same agility as OTTplayers, the same range of exciting userservices and the same thrills of discovery forusers in the new, exciting and enrichingexperiences they access at the device level.The operators can now offer competitivepropositions, but with added security andquality of service.

Hidden problems in the network can now beeasily located to drive better experiences.Without a view of precisely what’s going on,from a user perspective, there can never be atruly end-to-end solution that eradicates theglitches. With the heightened demands of LTE,glitches will become inefficiencies, which willturn into complaints, which will become anegative and time-consuming drain onresources. Such concerns can now sit wherethey belong, back with the OTT providers.

The Telecoms Intelligence Provider is able toleverage network information to drive bettersubscriber experiences. The days of one-dimensional and two-dimensional passivemonitoring are over; the operators need toappreciate the rich insights hidden in thewealth of data stored across their networks. Amiss can be as big as a mile if operators fail tofollow and analyse every path of the datajourney; valuable insights lurk as much inthose parts of the network they can’t currentlysee as in those that may be more obvious, butwill never deliver the full story.

www.tekcomms.com

The network you can seeversus the one you can’t

To interpret andmonetise thedata available tothem mobileoperators have toapproach it on amicro level,rather than asindicative trenddata

TELECOMS INTELLIGENCE

The author, LynCantor, ispresident andchief executiveof TektronixCommunications

www.m2mzone.com

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Policy everywhereWhy policy must integrateinto a starburst of systems

The brains behind the business modelHow policy enables the true digital lifestyle

Policy for LTEEvolutions for the longer-term

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CONTENTS

Right now it is only a matter of a couple ofyears before we will routinely see consumersbuy services, such as a turbo button toaccelerate download of HD TV, on-demand,charged to their bill. That sort of experiencewill need to be supported in real-time.

Equally, as CSPs move away from meteredvoice packages and sell flat-rate datacapacity, users will want to bolt-on additionalservices. That might involve a data top-up, adeal on roaming data for a day or a week, orpaying for premium access to specific content.

It won’t just be a mono-directionalrelationship of CSP to customer. Customersmay select family plans in which they get abundle of devices and data which theyapportion within the family. Parents will applypolicy using online interfaces. Othercustomers may choose to make a gift ofbandwidth to a friend.

Individual applications will also be bundledand sold. Users’ bills won’t be a list of bits andbytes. They’ll be composed of a Facebookbundle, Skype minutes and music streaming.

These services aren’t just consumerphenomena either. Businesses will

participate. Some may partner with CSPs tosubsidise delivery of premium content. Forinstance, a user that subscribes to a premiumsport service, might find the broadcaster isprepared to subsidise the cost of mobiledownload. The consumer gets the contentdelivered for free, the broadcaster pays theCSP for its delivery.

Finally, enterprises will apply policies to theirworkers. That might enable bettersegmentation of private versus work use orenable secure access to corporateapplications and data. Telecoms managerswill use CSP interfaces to set policies forindividual workers.

The common thread with all these newservices and the business models thatsupport them is policy – not as a means tocontrol consumption but as a means toencourage monetised network usage andsupport emerging business model.

VanillaPlus calls this Total Policy and thisSpotlight presents a vision of how policy ismaturing and becoming integral to CSPs’development.

We hope you find the Spotlight informative

25Introduction and contents

26Policy must integrateinto a starburst of systemsGeorge Malim assesses theinfluence policy will have on CSPs’businesses

28More intelligence formobile networksKapsch and Openet strengthenstrategic partnership

30Charging challengesfor policy and LTEJonny Evans complains that littlehas been built for purpose

32Policy is the brains behindfuture business modelsHouck Reed says CSPs need toextend policy’s reach to respondto changing needs

The services, content and applications that communication servicesproviders (CSPs) will provide to their customers and partners areproliferating at such an accelerated rate that it’s sometimes hard to keeptrack. Along with all these new services come radically different businessmodels, new network technologies and a blurring of traditionaldemarcations between service and network.


TOTAL POL ICY

Policy management or control has beenlatched onto with great excitement by CSPs.However, it is now entering a third phase of itsdevelopment. If the first phase viewed policyas a means to protect the network bythrottling back on high data users and thesecond phase extended policy from beingpurely protective to being a stimulus for newrevenue, increased traffic and improvedcustomer satisfaction, we are now ushering inPolicy 3.0 – or Total Policy.

Total Policy is complex because itencompasses everything a user might want todo with their CSP services. All the elements ofPolicy 1.0 and 2.0 are contained within it inaddition to applying policy across the entireservice and network portfolio. There aremultiple complex dimensions to take intoaccount here. These include: policy acrossmultiple network technologies, policy acrossfamily bundles or shared data plans, policy

across the content delivery value chain toencompass third parties, policy that takes intoaccount multiple devices and roaming andpolicy that enterprise customers can access toapply to their own users and services.

The scope of Total Policy is so wide andrequires the narrow PCRF (Policy ControlRules Function) approach to integrate into astarburst of systems and technologies. CSPsaren’t there yet but they recognise the benefitsthey could accrue from revising theirapproaches to policy. For that reason, they’rere-assessing the performance and capabilitiesof what they have in place now so they can putthe flexible platforms that future monetisationopportunities will require in place.

“Capabilities vary very widely from supplier tosupplier,” points out David Knox, seniorproduct manager, integrated charging andpolicy at CSG International. “One PCRF may

Policy control and management was originally all about protecting the networkfrom greedy bandwidth hoggers. Now though, policy is poised to becomeubiquitous and will have influence on CSPs’ entire businesses. George Malimexplores the challenge and the opportunities

Rob Smith: Putcomplexity inthe background

Policy must integrate intoa starburst of systems


”The first stage was about control and the second phase, which is gettingtowards Total Policy, is about getting policy out from the back end into thehands of business customers so they can apply policies to their users”


not have all of the functionality required andearly PCRFs are now being treated as legacyand are up for replacement in order that CSPscan enhance use cases and enable tighterintegration with charging, for example.”

Oisin O’Connor, director of product marketingat Openet, also sees the evolution towardsTotal Policy. “It has migrated from simpleaccess controls and fair usage to serviceinnovation,” he says. “The new wave is aboutpolicy as an innovation platform to enablemore real-time offers. As CSPs increase thesophistication of their service offerings,instead of having 30,40 or 50 different datatariffs, they will have thousands. It’s going toworld that’s fairly sophisticated in terms oftariffing and you can’t present all the tariffsto the end user so you’ll have to segmentthem.”

Beyond consumersIt isn’t just about bringing content and servicesto consumers, though. Rob Smith, director ofmarket development at MDS, which focuseson the small-to-medium enterprise market,says policy is equally applicable as an enablerof SME services, applications and content.“The same rules apply to enterprises as theydo to families and consumers,” he says. “Theneed is to put complexity in the backgroundand make it easy for customers to adopt[complex services and bundles]. The need forpolicy is obvious because it enables CSPs todo that.”

CSPs are experiencing a lightbulb moment asthey realise what Total Policy can enable themto do. “It didn’t make sense so much in 3G butin LTE, the mechanisms are in place at thecore network level. That gives CSPs a goodchance of being able to deliver the experienceas offered,” says Knox. “Suddenly thebusiness case for bandwidth based services,such as higher bandwidth for the next hour orweek, become technically feasible.”

Smith agrees: “The first stage was aboutcontrol and the second phase, which is gettingtowards Total Policy, is about getting policyout from the back end into the hands ofbusiness customers so they can apply policiesto their users,” he says. “For me that’spotentially where things like analytics come in.Users will be able to see if a service has hit abasic service level, for example, or temporarilyupgrade their service. There are lots ofscenarios like that and policy can help tomonetise the opportunties.”

O’Connor thinks flexibility will be the keyenabler. “The key is flexibility so you canbuild the use cases beyond what you seetoday,” he says. “You need to know you cando it in a cost effective manner. CSPs need tobe comfortable that they are buying a platformfor today and tomorrow. At the heart of that isthe integration between policy and chargingand some secure authentication to allow CSPsor third party applications to talk to thepolicy layer.”

David Knox:Deliver theexperienceas offered

A D V E R T I S E M E N T F E A T U R E

Within the strategic partnership, KapschCarrierCom has added Openet’s award winningPolicy Manager and Express Solutions to itsportfolio. Kapsch CarrierCom is a global systemsintegrator of telecoms infrastructure. Openet’sflexible and secure policy solutions provide bothnew and existing customers with enriched andinnovative services that will enhance theirexperience of their network service.

Kapsch CarrierCom has almost three decades ofexperience in the design and system integrationof Operational Support Systems (OSS) andBusiness Support Systems (BSS). Openet, whichhas been voted number one policy provider forthe last two years by Infonetics Research, alsohas experience of working with Tier 1 serviceproviders that spans more than two decades.

Telekom Austria Group was among the firstCommunications Service Providers (CSPs) toselect Kapsch CarrierCom to integrate OpenetPolicy Manager across six mobile operators inEastern Europe. The deal was led by Kapsch,which will serve as the system integrator andprovide regional complimentary services andsupport for the solution. The six networkoperators are to benefit from spam attackdetection and flexible bill shock prevention aswell as the implementation of requirementsrelated to roaming regulation.

The deployment supports approximately 19million mobile subscribers, enabling them tobenefit from enriched and innovative servicesand an enhanced customer experience.

"Kapsch and Telekom Austria Group areconnected through long-term business relations.Through Kapsch's knowledge and experience asour business partner in the area of systemintegration, an efficient integration isguaranteed," says Johann Pichler, CTO ofTelekom Austria Group. "Openet has made iteasy for us to offer our operators within theTelekom Austria Group flexible and secure policyand billing solutions to support the smartphonerevolution, while providing both new andexisting customers with enriched and innovativeservices that will enhance their experience of ournetwork service."

Thomas Schöpf, COO of Kapsch CarrierCom,says: "Kapsch and Telekom Austria Group havebeen cooperating for several years. Theknowledge we have gained through providingregional services and support within ourcooperation with Telekom Austria Group iscrucial for the integration. Openet's PolicyManager delivers exceptional performance andflexibility and is an ideal solution to enable a safemobile experience for Telekom Austria Group'soperating companies."

Kapsch and Openet have worked togetherdeveloping policy-based solutions since 2011.This new partnership further cements theirrelationship. Both companies are now investingtogether to offer a best-of-breed set of solutionsfor their customers in this fast growing market.

Key features of the solutions set include:• fair usage restrictions on data plans

• notifications to prevent bill shock

• tiered data service plans

• service passes for flexible usage charging

• shared data plans

Kapsch CarrierCom and Openet have strengthened their strategic partnership asKapsch CarrierCom becomes a reseller and system integrator for Openet’s software

Openet and Kapsch offermore intelligence for mobilenetworks with Policy Managerand Express Solutions

Telekom Austria

Group was among

the first CSPs to

select Kapsch

CarrierCom to

integrate Openet

Policy Manager

across six mobile

operators in

Eastern Europe

�



Launching LTE servicesAs CSPs continue to roll-out LTE, policymanagement is becoming of even greaterimportance as they seek to monetise effectivelyon the renewed round of capital investment innetwork build and deliver excellent customerexperiences to their users.

“The roll-out of LTE, is driving investments inpolicy and charging control systems to facilitatethe launch of speed-based service pricing and toprepare for more complex network services suchas service passes for data roaming,” adds Schöpf.

The main benefits of Openet’ssolutions to Kapsch’scustomers include:1. Increased data revenue2. Access to real-time information3. Differentiation by offering more tailored plans

to their subscribers4. Faster service introduction and capex savings 5. Reduction in subscriber churn6. Flexibility to modify solutions

7. Improved network control by enforcing fair usage restrictions

8. Real-time notifications to customers on data usage

Benefits of Openet’ssolutions to the subscriber: Policy solutions can improve the subscriberexperience by providing an opportunity forincreased engagement, visibility and control.Subscribers can monitor their data consumptionin real-time, set personal alerts, apply parentalcontrols and purchase services directly from theirSmartphone.

About Kapsch CarrierComKapsch CarrierCom is a global system integrator and supplier of end-to-endtelecommunications solutions for public and railway operators, urban transportorganisations and companies seeking real-time asset management solutions. By providingthe full set of professional services alongside mission- and business-criticaltelecommunications, Kapsch CarrierCom is the trusted partner for clients around the world.Strategic partnerships and a strong focus on innovation in eight R&D centres in Europe andAsia, make Kapsch CarrierCom a market specialist in telecommunications. KapschCarrierCom is part of the Kapsch Group and has its headquarters in Vienna. For moreinformation, please visit www.kapsch.net

About OpenetOpenet is a global leader of high performance transaction management software fornetwork operators, enabling them to innovate how people, machines and services interactwith their network. Openet’s portfolio combines market leading policy and charging controlwith device and third party interaction to deliver innovative charging models, to controloperating cost and to personalise services. More than 80 of the world’s largest serviceproviders in 28 countries use Openet’s high performance software. For more information,please visit www.openet.com

For more Information visit www.openet.com/Kapsch

P O L I C Y F O R L T E


In the long term, Long Term

Evolution (LTE) product

and service

offerings demand effe

ctive union

between policy control; payment and billing sys

tems

and deep analytics solutions at the network co

re.

The problem is that none of these

were built w

ith

this intention in mind, writes

Jonny Evans

The challenge here is that billing systems weren't

developed with the ad hoc service use recognition on which

CSP hopes of personalised service provision on LTE

networks are built.

"You need to combine the revenue management, analytics

and the policy," observes Gordon Rawling, director of

marketing at Oracle Communications. "This is not the

way these were architected," he adds.

David Knox, senior product manager for Integrated

Charging & Policy at CSG International, acknowledges

the scale of the challenge. "Historically one of the areas that

a lot of CSPs have said is most challenging is integrating

policy management with their charging server," he says.

Billing systems must interface with Policy 2.0 servers, and

be equipped – or retro-fitted – with the capacity to

Charging integration

presents greatest

challenge for policy

in LTE

"It is critical

operators deploy

policy solutions

that have proven

interoperability

with a wide range

of vendors," �


differentiate between traffic types anddevice/user-based permissions in real time.

This challenge is an opportunity, with vendorsdeveloping integrated analytics packages thatcan take this load away from billing.

"We are working closely with CSPs toimplement systems on their network whichcan analyse this traffic," says Barry Marron,marketing communications manager at Openet.

Policy is interrogated each time a person ordevice climbs aboard the network. "Policytouches every transaction in thenetwork…every single data session interactswith the PCS, so scalability is essential," saysTekelec CTO, Doug Suriano.

This is a fundamental shift in what policydoes. Current Analysis analyst, David Snowexplains the shift: "While Policy 1.0 wasdefensive, Policy 2.0 enables CSPs to allocateresources better, it's an enabler."

The ability to recognise what's happening inthe network on a per user or per device basisshould help CSPs guarantee QoS to premiumusers while enabling pre-paid subscribers toreceive services they've not seen offered before.

In this case, a premium user's traffic isprioritised at all times, while non-premiumusers may be able to stream their video in HDjust by tapping a Turbo button that appears ontheir iPad, and paying a small fee, for example.

"The end user on a pre-paid contract is notgoing to want to wait for their service toupgrade when they've hit the Turbo buttonwhile streaming a movie," adds Marron.

Ann Hatchell, director of data experiencesolution marketing at Amdocs, emphasisesthe need for speed when it comes to responsetime for policy systems. "It is vital that anypolicy solution chosen for advanced 4Gnetworks has an intelligent policy rulesengine, using real-time and contextual datafrom the network and subscriber, such asusage patterns, service entitlements andnetwork conditions, to create dynamic policyrules that provide premium and guaranteedaccess to certain applications andsubscribers," she says.

Policy systems must be flexible, configurable.They also need to work with efficient analyticstools, says Graham Kunz, product marketingmanager at Empirix. "Without these itbecomes very difficult to charge an enterprisecustomer for QoS and be able to come up witha report showing the service theyexperienced."

Applied correctly, policy should enable CSPs tocheck real-time data on what's happening ontheir network, enabling ad-hoc insight into userneeds and an opportunity to monetise whatevents are taking place across their hithertorelatively dumb data pipes. It is importantstandards are used in deployed solutions.

"It is critical operators deploy policy solutionsthat have proven interoperability with a widerange of vendors," says Hatchell.

LTE is data-centric: not just in how traffic iscarried, but how it might be understood. "LTEis going to drive service innovation, the more[services] CSPs generate, the more they canimprove networks," says Marron.

For most CSPs, the challenge is that of puttinganalytics into the core flow. "This meanscharging can be done in different ways. Thebilling system … doesn't have to understandthe different types of traffic," he explains.

It's also about net neutrality-bustingbandwidth deals between CSPs and contentproviders, who might pay for prioritiseddelivery of their content over the network.How well does policy support this?

"Policy control…allows for mutually beneficialpartnerships with OTT providers such asNetflix," says Hatchell. A recent Amdocssurvey claimed 74% of OTT providers and 70%of CSPs already see each other as potentialservice partners.

In future, CSPs might offer subscribers free orlow-cost Netflix access with guaranteed QoSlevels. They might be notified when apremium service is being used throughintelligent application detection functions andstandards-based Sd and Rx interfaces.

"The OTT vendor, in this case Netflix, wouldpay for the access or they could share costwith the operator," Hatchell says.

CSPs are addressing this challenge, saysRobin Kent, director of operations at AdaxEurope: "I think you're starting to see some ofthis now and you'll see more delivered in thenext 12-months or so."

Less upbeat, Kunz observes: "I don't believeCSPs are ready to do this yet. Their priority isto roll out LTE services. I don't see policy andcontrol being [put in place] for another 12-18months."

"There's a real earnest desire to do thingsdifferently," says Rawling. "To put together thestack that supports the future instead of theone that looks backwards."

GordonRawling: Puttogether thestack thatsupports thefuture

David Knox:Integratingpolicy andcharging is thegreatestchallenge

Doug Suriano:Policy toucheseverytransaction

The author,Houck Reed:The answers liein the treasuretrove ofcontextuallyrich subscriberdata operatorspossess



To make the most of disruptive internet/OTT service models and to become true digitallifestyle providers, mobile operators need to elevate policy and extend its reach acrossnetworks, applications and devices so that networks dynamically respond to changingsubscriber and service needs, writes Houck Reed, vice president of product managementand marketing at Tekelec

Whether VoIP, social networking, big data orover-the-top (OTT) ecosystems, many disruptivetechnologies will galvanise mobile operators totransform from where they are today to theirroles as digital lifestyle providers.

The question is: How intimately can operatorsget to know their subscribers? How can they getclose enough to understand what engages them,what disenchants them, what moves and inspiresthem – not only as individuals, but also asmembers of communities and groups in anincreasingly mobile and social-media-orientedworld?

The answers lie in the treasure trove ofcontextually rich subscriber data operatorspossess, and the ability to monetise that datadepends on the sophistication with whichoperators apply policy to enrich apps andservices.To get the answers, operators willextend the reach of policy beyond core networksto the ever-expanding frontiers of: Smart,connected devices; Machine-to-machine (M2M)devices; and OTT, cloud and service deliveryplatforms. In essence, operators will takepolicy everywhere.

The Policy Everywhere approach meansoperators enforce policy wherever it is needed,including on mobile devices. They define policycentrally within an intelligent, independentcontrol layer to apply policy rules acrossnetworks, devices and applications.

The ability to enforce rules around charging,authentication and authorisation in such anextensive way will elevate policy from itspredominant role of monitoring monthly quotasand fair-use management to a role of enablingnew digital lifestyle services and businessmodels flexible enough to support best effort

internet, OTT subsidised data, M2M, and cloudservices.

The goal is to gain the type of control thatempowers operators to build new use cases, thetype of which can:• Relieve congestion on licensed spectrum

through intelligent Wi-Fi offload, which would be based on preferential network access, subscriber tier or type, device, application, quota, or network conditions.

• Influence subscribers’ data experiences, triggering innovation around subsidised or toll-free data, opt-in mobile advertising, customer loyalty/rewards programmes, and application-based plans with partner ecosystems.

• Engender provisioning of policy as a service to OTT application providers.

In fact, the majority of use cases brought aboutby Policy Everywhere will bring operators’monetisation and personalisation campaignsto life.

Why the time is nowOperators are approaching the last of three mainrevenue waves: voice revenue derived from basicvoice communication and mobility; messagingrevenue generated by peer-to-peer shortmessage service (SMS); and access revenuedriven largely by data demand.

Operators can no longer afford to put offplanning and architecting for a PolicyEverywhere future now that OTT VoIP, socialnetworking, cloud services, and video areaffecting their core revenues. And they have toproceed before current hindrances permanentlyset them back, such as point policy solutions thatonly integrate with specific charging systems,gateways or Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) functions.

Policy Everywhere – thebrains of ‘ThinkingNetworks’and future business models

T O T A L P O L I C Y�


The solution will be policy-directed, software-defined networks.

Policy Everywhere and theanatomy of ThinkingNetworksFor operators, the end game of network design iswhat Tekelec calls ThinkingNetworks – highlyevolved and software-defined networks that thinkfor themselves like a human mind does, yet remainmalleable enough that network architects canreadily troubleshoot and adjust networkresources to meet changing demands in real-time.

ThinkingNetworks self-organise, self-optimise,and self-determine responses to unprecedentedand unpredictable events, enabling operators tobetter anticipate subscribers’ behaviours andfuture preference patterns.

For ThinkingNetworks to successfully orchestratethe subscriber experience and manage virtualnetwork resources, Policy Everywhere comes tofruition as policy gains network, subscriber,device and application awareness.

It does so by working closely with Diameternetwork elements including advanced subscriberdatabases and Diameter signaling routers.

For that reason, the triumvirate of Policy Servers(PCRFs), Diameter Signaling Routers (DSRs) andsubscriber profile databases will becomeharmonised within a dedicated Diameter controllayer through which operators can grow andshrink capacity, and monetise assets according towhat they learn in real-time about subscribers,applications and services.

This dedicated control layer is the New DiameterNetwork (NDN), and it is within the NDN that theanatomy of ThinkingNetworks begins to takeform so that operators gain control of not onlybandwidth, applications, time, and speed, butalso control of signaling, compute resources,devices, and internet protocol (IP) flows.Within the NDN, policy gains awareness of whatthe network, subscribers, applications anddevices are doing at any given time because it ismore centrally defined and independent ofunderlying network infrastructure. Thisawareness and independence affords policy thechance to become the brain of IP networks.

The awareness and hence intelligence is broughton by Diameter signaling, with DSRs becomingthe central nervous system constantlyexchanging messages among policy servers,charging systems, subscriber databases andgateways to monetise services. Dynamicinformation is fed to subscriber profilerepositories. These repositories act as the

memory by storing profile, state, behaviouraland usage data that can be used for furtherpersonalisation of services.

Become a digital lifestyle providerIn the development of ThinkingNetworks, theNDN moves to the cloud, something Tekelec callsCloudXG. It represents a fundamental shift in theway operators improve network scalability andflexibility, as they leverage virtualisation andsoftware-defined network (SDN) technologies todeliver dynamic and elastic scalability in terms ofsessions, transactions, and throughput. Throughcommercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardwaresupported by virtualisation middleware layers orhypervisors, operators reduce capital andoperational expenditures by moving virtualresources to different locations based onchanging traffic levels.

The elastic, stateful cloud architecture sets thestage for lifestyle-oriented MobileSocialenvironments, in which operators don’t justpassively facilitate the flow of services amongsubscribers and OTT service providers, but ratheractively push what, when, where, and howservices are offered to particular subscribers,based on many factors including specific usagebehaviour, preferences, and service agreements.

Though the network remains a criticaldifferentiator in this evolution, it is the unifiedview of dynamic and static subscriber data fromthe network and big data sources that becomeoperators’ biggest asset. It makes them morevaluable as enablers to third parties such as OTTplayers, mobile advertisers, app creators, contentproviders or verticals like healthcare, utilities andautomotive – all of which seek to converge bigdata into something people care about on apersonal level.

It’s at that point that the sky’s the limit for newdigital lifestyle services, as operators will belimited only by their imaginations. For operators,the stakes have never been higher and timingnever more critical as saturation in voice,messaging and access services eats away atprofits, and as OTT players and others race toinnovate.

To secure their claim in the digital lifestyleecosystem and capitalise on the fourth revenuewave, operators must move quickly to transformtheir business models and their networks intoThinkingNetworks. That journey begins withPolicy Everywhere, and as evidenced by thenumber of announcements around policy, thatjourney has already begun.

www.tekelec.com

Highly evolved and

software-defined

networks think for

themselves like a

human mind


Mobile WorldCongress 201325-28 February, 2013Barcelona, SpainOrganiser: GSM Associationwww.mobileworldcongress.com

TM Forum ManagementWorld Asia12-13 March, 2013SingaporeOrganiser: TM Forumwww.tmforum.org

M2M Zone @ CeBIT 5-9 March, 2013Hanover, GermanyOrganiser: Horizon House Publishingwww.m2mzone.com

TM Forum LatinAmerica Summit19-20 March, 2013Sao Paolo, BrazilOrganiser: TM Forumwww.tmforum.org

CEM Conference20 March, 2013London, UKOrganiser: Haymarketwww.customerexperienceconf.com

Policy Control& Data Pricing16-17 April, 2013Berlin, GermanyOrganiser: Informapolicycontrolconference.com

CEM World Congress22-24 April, 2013London, UKOrganiser: informacemcongress.com

IMS World Forum23-25 April, 2013Barcelona, SpainOrganiser: Informaworldforum.imsvision.com

MVNOs World Congress23-25 April, 2013Rome, ItalyOrganiser: Informamvnosworldcongress.com

M2M Now MoneyTalks e-Health20 May, 2013Las Vegas, USAOrganiser: We Know Mediawww.m2mnowevents.com

D I A R Y

The mobile ecosystem is expanding at lightningspeed, with endless innovation and newapplications of mobile technology. Fromcontactless payments and augmented reality toembedded devices and connected cities – mobiletechnology is changing the landscape. Theimpact mobile will have on the world is limitless.

Even the landscape of Mobile World Congressitself will look different. The event has outgrownits traditional site at Montjuic and is relocating toa state-of-the-art facility at Fira Gran Via.

Hihglights of Mobile World Congress 2013include:• CEOs of the world’s most influential

companies will share their visions of the mobile landscape while inspiring attendees in the event’s thought-leadership conference

• More than 1,500 of the industry’s leading suppliers of mobile devices, services and technologies will be part of the exhibition

• More than 12,000 application developers will gather for App Planet to be educated, energised, and challenged

• The world’s largest consumer brands will join the Congress for mPowered Brands, where marketers’ knowledge of mobile as a marketing medium will be accelerated

• The GSMA will recognise the industry’s greatest achievements, new technologies, innovative devices and ideas through the 18th Annual Global Mobile Awards

During the four-day event, more than 70,000senior mobile professionals will network andexchange ideas – one of which may furtherchange the landscape of mobile. The theme ofthis year’s event is the New Mobile Horizon.Barcelona, as usual, will provide the platform toexplore that.

www.mobileworldcongress.com

Mobile World Congress returns to the Mobile World City of Barcelona, Spain on25-28 February 2013. Here, VanillaPlus previews the event.

E V E N T P R E V I E W

MWC 2013 explores 'New MobileHorizons' at new Barcelona venue

LATIN AMERICA

SUMMIT Transforming systems and processes to offer new services faster

March 19-20, 2013São Paulo, Brazil

TM Forum’s Latin America Summit brings together 250+ leading service providers, industry experts and solution vendors to discuss the latest developments in the Latin American communications market. Through a combination of keynote perspectives, case studies, panels, interactive sessions and networking opportunities, participants have the opportunity to network, learn from their peers and generate ideas that can be implemented immediately.

Join the conversation @tmforumorg

The action-packed agenda focuses on:

Business Transformation and Innovation

Driving Service Innovation

Transforming and Optimizing the Network

Leveraging Analytics and Customer Intelligence

Integrating Systems and Processes

TM Forum Training

Learn how conference topics impact you and get practical guidance/information on TM Forum best practices to advance your business via TM Forum Training (offered Monday, March 18)

Featuring keynote presentations from:

José PapoAWS Technical Evangelist – Latin AmericaAmazon

Federico JuarezCIO CableVision Mexico

Vancrei OliveiraRegional Sales Vice President LATAM –Product & InnovationDeutsche Telekom

Carlos Reyes MontañoCEO, Entel Bolivia & PresidentOITA (Organizacion Internacional de Telecomunicaciones de las Americas)

Rodrigo DuclosCIONet Serviços

Brian CappellaniCTOSigma Systems

Dirk Currie CEO Telesur Flavio Lang CMO TIM FiberFollow us at tmforum.org and tweet using #tmflatam

Be part of the action! Learn more and register at:

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CLOCK ING OFF!

They say it's always a false economy to attemptany job where you have no expertise. Buildersoften ask, “Who on earth did this?”, whenexamining my handiwork, before shaking theirheads in sorrow that “this will have to comeout”. Yes, I know, putting the damage right costsfar more than I would have saved. Yes, I knowabout comparative advantage calculations so, yes,I know that hiring an expert works out cheaper,even if their hourly rate exceeds your own.

But you know what? Conventional wisdom iswrong. My DIY failure is money well spent, forone previously unreported reason. It silencesthose awful nagging voices in my head that keeprepeating themselves all day. “You could do this!You'd save a fortune. Why don't you have a go?”.As a sufferer from these voices, let me tell youthis: exorcising these doubts by proving myincompetence is worth every penny that I 'wasted'.

I'm sure I'm not the only person to be troubledby these internal dialogues. Elsewhere in thisissue, we discuss the pros and cons outsourcingBSS/OSS systems. Running these vital services isa rare skill which is highly rewarded. I couldn'tget anyone to admit as much, but I suspect thatin every CSP there's at least one person thinking,“We should be doing this ourselves. I couldintegrate silos. I could knit systems together. Itwould look great on my CV. How hard can it be?”

Those of us who envy techies their mysterious,unachievable skills are shocked to find that, in theirparallel universe, they think the grass is greener onour side. Verizon recently reported that it uncovereda software developer who was outsourcing hisjob to China. If I could develop software to aprofessional level, I'd be happy with that. I'd bedeveloping my “Who Do You Sue” legal gameshow for the iPhone. Not this developer.

His bosses, so the story goes, had no idea hewas sub-contracting out his career. Nobodynoticed because the firm was happy with 'his'work and the rogue delegator spent his daysseeking pleasure on Facebook and eBay. He'dhave got away with it too, if it hadn't been forthose meddling kids from Verizon, who spottedan odd pattern of activity in his Virtual PrivateNetwork (VPN). They reported that the companyhad been infiltrated by a secret outsourcing

genius (as he must have been, to successfullydelegate all his work without a hitch) andsubsequently fired him.

The risk of outsourcing was a US$50,000 fee tothe Chinese developers, so we have to presumehe was rewarded with considerably more in hissalary. The other risk that he hadn't counted onwas that his employers, having discovered hisruse, would be short sighted enough to sack him.Surely any man that can handle an outsourcingproject so faultlessly must be a projectmanagement guru. I can't understand why hisemployers didn't harness this creative talent.Surely they will come to regret this action – whois to say the next developer they take on willachieve any better results? Perhaps they ought toheadhunt the man in China – after all, he knowsall the company secrets now.

I can't help thinking the company handled thiswrong. They didn't do a good risk rewardanalysis. What was the risk of firing him? Prettybig. Wouldn't they have been better off to letthings lie?

I often feel like when I upgrade my phone. Mynew Samsung Galaxy is a case in point. In theoryit creates so many wonderful possibilities, as theman from the mobile operator promised. Sadly,those possibilities haven't turned out to be thingsI really needed.

The rewards of most smartphones are outweighedby the risk that you get a handset that thinks itknows better than you. Until you can tame yourmobile, you end up with a gadget that constantlyinserts the wrong words into your messages,calls people you don't want to speak to and gets inthe way when you want to answer an urgent call.

Maybe this is the mobile operator's revenge, forforcing them to make such a frighteninginvestment in LTE and forcing them to embark onimpossibly difficult BBS/OSS projects. Still, ifthey ever wanted to outsource this job, there's aman in America who is just brilliant at managingoutside contributors. He's so good that nobodywill even notice that the job is being runexternally. He's available too, so he won't needto be handsomely rewarded. His last employerjust sacked him.

Sometimes the false economy of attempting complex tasks yourself, has itsown logic, finds Nick Booth

The author,Nick Booth, is acontributor toVanillaPlus anda technology journalist.

The company

had been

infiltrated by

a secret

outsourcing

genius

There's more tooutsourcing thancost savings

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D R I V I N G P R O F I T S F O R C O M M U N I C A T I O N S E R V I C E P R O V I D E R S

BILLINGSUPPLEMENT

FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013

COMMENTBilling's back onthe CEO agenda

END-TO-ENDBILLINGCan it reallyconnect theentire valuechain?

TALKINGHEADSRedknee chief saysservice innovation isCSPs' top demand

�

�

S3VANILLAPLUS BILLING SUPPLEMENT FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013

S3 Comment & Supplement Contents

S4 Talking HeadsLucas Skoczkowski, chief executive of Redknee

S7 End-to-End Billing

S8 Expert Opinion:Alice Bartram, associate vice president of portfolio marketingat Comverse

CEO GUIDECONTENTS

Billing’s backon the agenda

Billing has changed – it’s moving away from metered voice minutes todata bundles with a range of bolt-on propositions and content-specificdeals to be offered to consumers. Turbo button to accelerate that HDvideo download, madam? Facebook bandwidth monthly subscription,sir? Cloud-based storage service for your smartphone-generatedcontent, anyone?

These are the billing propositions systems must support, if not now,then very soon. Once they’re in place, CSPs will be able to bringinnovative, profitable services to users and make sense of their 4Ginvestments. As Lucas Skoczkowski, chief executive of the soon to beradically enlarged Redknee, emphasises on page S6, CSPs need moreagile solutions so they can personalise the customer experience anddeliver relevant, attractive services.

The C-suite recognises this and that’s why billing is back on the agenda.

Enjoy the supplement!

George Malim

Redknee is a leading global provider ofinnovative communication software products,solutions and services. Redknee's award-winning solutions enable operators tomonetize the value of each subscribertransaction while personalizing the subscriberexperience to meet mainstream, niche andindividual market segment requirements.Redknee's revenue generating solutionsprovide advanced converged billing, rating,charging and policy for voice, messaging andnew generation data services to over 90network operators in over 50 countries.Established in 1999, Redknee Solutions Inc.(TSX: RKN) is the parent of the wholly-ownedoperating subsidiary Redknee Inc. and itsvarious subsidiaries.www.redknee.com

Supplement Cover:

C O M M E N T

In a recent social media exchange with OlivierSuard, a former marketing director ofComptel, we joked about how all billingconcepts I was reporting on and he wasmarketing a decade ago are finally being seenin the market. OK, we’ve had a dotcom bubblebursting and a double, or triple, dip recessionto contend with but, nevertheless, it seems to

have taken an overly long time for the concepts of 2003to emerge into reality.

George Malim,Editor:VanillaPlus

VANILLAPLUS BILLING SUPPLEMENT FEBRUARY/MARCH 2013S4

VanillaPlus: Amid all the changes we’realready experiencing and those that areshortly to arrive, how do you see themobile industry in three years?

Lucas Skoczkowski: To quote a famousCanadian, Wayne Gretzky, we ‘try to skate towhere the puck is going to be and not where ithas been’ in our approach to our businessstrategy and how we support our CSP customersthrough the development of our roadmap for ourproducts and services. In the next three years,we see three key trends which will change themobile market significantly – the continued riseof smartphones, ongoing innovation in dataservices and the proliferation of m-payments.

Firstly, we see that the industry is becoming asmartphone world. We’re already seeing 100%smartphone usage in mature markets and uptakeis increasing in emerging markets with thelaunch of much cheaper smartphone models.The industry has to consider what serving anentirely smartphone owning market means interms of the services CSPs support and also interms of billing and how people will want to usetheir smartphone to interact with their account.The challenge for us is to enable CSPs to delivera great smartphone experience in an easy way.

Another aspect is the ongoing changes in dataservices used by subscribers. We’ve been in thebusiness of monetising data services since 2001,and have seen huge changes in usage, the typesof services available and advances in devicecapabilities through the 2G, 3G and 4G

evolutions. Looking ahead, we see a lot ofupcoming disruption associated with videoapplications and content on the mobile. Vine, thenew video service that Twitter has launched, is agood example of this – where it became the #1social app on iTunes within 24 hours of itlaunching. Although it is too early to gauge itslong-term impact, what is clear is that people willgenerate much more video content and willconsume it on their smartphones.

The third significant trend will be the differentservices that will use the mobile phone as amethod of payment. We saw it first in emergingmarkets, such as Africa, and it’s now appearing indifferent forms in mature markets. We seeapplications and interfaces on the phone thatinteract with the back office infrastructure,provided by billing and customer care solutions,will become the norm. CSPs have a greatcapability around core real-time billing andmaking this available to application providerswill be one of the key things for CSPs to focus onwithin the next three years. For us, enabling ourCSP customers with real-time systems that havehighly configurable monetisation capabilities sothat they can easily set up these application andcontent partnerships and then to be able to adaptto the market quickly as new services becomeavailable will be important.

VP: You mentioned users will generatecontent – what impact do you see thathaving?

LS: It’s important to note that they will not just

Lucas Skoczkowski is chief executive of Redknee, the provider of real-timeconverged billing and customer care software for CSPs. The company recentlyannounced it is to acquire the BSS business of Nokia Siemens Networks whichwill make Redknee the largest, independent and publicly listed real-timemonetisation and subscriber management product company servingmore than two billion subscribers across 200 service providers. Here,Skoczkowski tells VanillaPlus how CSPs are now engaged in a landscape ofconstant change in which systems that support service innovation and newbusiness models are in great demand.

Constant change seesservice innovation becomeCSPs’ top system demand


The challenge for

us is to enable

CSPs to deliver a

great smartphone

experience in an

easy way.

�


be watching or consuming but alsocreating and sharing. What doesthat mean? Obviously there will behuge growth in data traffic withmuch more video and interactivityand also by bringing these differenttypes of content together. Socialmedia is a key driver of this trend.

VP: How can service providersuse social media to benefittheir business?

LS: There are two aspects to this.One is social media as a serviceprovided over the smart phone ordata network. The other is socialmedia as an enabler for CSPs tointeract with their customers innew ways.

I’ve already started to see CSPs usesocial media platforms, such asTwitter and Facebook, as a channelto communicate with theircustomers. There are a largenumber of new opportunities here.For example, the ability to connectFriends and Family tariff plans withsocial media could be compelling.We’re working with Microsoft onleveraging the next release of itsDynamics CRM platform, which willbuild in connectivity to the leadingsocial media platforms. If, forexample, a semi-disgruntled user isbroadcasting that they’re unhappy,we will have the ability to look forthat on Twitter and turn it into acase for the call center to follow up.Previously the primary interactionwith customer care would havebeen via the call center. Customercare agents will now be able toreach out to customers, receivefeedback and provide help throughsocial media.

The other aspect concerns howcustomers use social media. It hasbeen reported that mobile usersspend 30 percent of their timeonline visiting social networks. I’dbe the last to predict what is goingto happen in terms of theapplications that will emerge butsocial media will bring about a new

Lucas Skoczkowski:chief executive,Redknee

�


era of billing and bundling in different ways. Newpartnerships are one way that this will emerge.For example, in some of the Asian markets,network operators provide a bundle composed ofa smart phone and free WhatsApp usage. Asreal-time billing systems are integrated withnetwork capabilities and policy management, wewill see an explosion of innovation in pricing andbundling services and content for subscribers.From our perspective, enabling our CSPcustomers to make innovative, personalisedoffers to their subscribers and communicate inreal-time with these subscribers will be critical.The transparency, also provided through real-time capabilities, when interacting withsubscribers, is another important success factorin enabling CSPs to attract and retain subscribersand ultimately remain effective. The ability toprovide real-time, accurate pictures of usage andthen making new options available will transformtoday’s business models.

VP: What is needed to monetise this?

LS: The WhatsApp example is a good way ofachieving this and it is something Blackberry alsohas done quite well. From a billing perspectivethey offered an unlimited bundle of Blackberryusage per month across BBM and messagingalong with the normal voice, SMS, and datatariffs. If you think about that from a back officeperspective, it means identifying the contentassociated with different applications andintegrating this into the subscriber’s billingprofile. The next step for a CSP is to move thisbilling to real-time by leveraging an integratedconverged billing, customer care, and policymanagement solution. This enables the CSP toeliminate a lot of the headaches of having manydifferent systems which haven’t been integrated,and instead focus on bringing out new offers toaddress the needs of their market segments.

VP: What does this mean for serviceproviders today?

LS: CSPs need more agile solutions topersonalise the subscriber experience andprovide exceptional customer care. Byimplementing a converged end-to-end billingand customer care platform, CSPs can quicklysupport new services, applications and businessmodels and when integrated with real-timerating, CSPs will be able to bring innovative dataservices faster to the market and monetize them.CSPs need to assess whether their existingbilling system can support these new services

and with the flexibility and scalability that will berequired in the future.

In order to do this, CSPs need a technologyroadmap that addresses these new businessrequirements. CSPs can make the challengemore manageable by targeting a segment intheir subscriber base with specific capabilities.We have seen CSPs becoming more willing tolook at different parts of the market that they aretrying to serve and come up with specificsolutions to serve them. For example, one of ourTier 1 customers in North America wanted tolaunch a sub-brand in order to target a newsegment of subscribers. They found that theirlegacy billing solution did not have thecapabilities needed to support the customerexperience it wanted to provide or the services itwanted to launch. In addition, its legacy billingsolution did not provide the flexibility or time-to-market it needed to support a new brandlaunching to the market. Ultimately the businesscase led them to implement a cloud-based,adjunct billing system to support the businessand technological needs and the future sub-brands it wants to launch. This type of businessmodel enables CSPs to have the best of bothworlds – whereby they can leapfrog the barriersto innovation from their legacy billing systemand also obtain a low-risk investment strategy.

VP: How do you think the cloud will impactthe future of communications and commerce?

LS: The cloud will become a key enabler forCSPs to launch and support new services.Infrastructure cloud service providers, such asMicrosoft Azure, are providing the scale andflexibility for new consumer applications to bedeveloped quickly and to reach a globalaudience. In addition, it is creating new ways ofgenerating revenue, such as from M2Msolutions, as well as the ability to charge.

From an enterprise IT application perspective,the cloud can allow CSPs to experiment with newservices. Billing solutions that are implementedvia the cloud or in a Software-as-a-Servicesolution provide greater flexibility and lower therisk for CSPs to target new market segments, likein the case of the Tier 1 North American operator,or for new entrants, such as MVNOs, to launch tothe market quickly – with an investment strategythat they can align with the pace of their business.We are increasingly seeing cloud-based deliveryfor IT applications as a key mechanism thatovercomes the barriers for entry or investment.


CSPs need more

agile solutions to

personalise the

subscriber

experience and

provide

exceptional

customer care

If end-to-end billing is your destination, you really wouldn't want to start from theposition many communications service providers (CSPs) are in now. They face verydifficult journeys with terribly old fashioned vehicles and massive baggage.Meanwhile, their light-footed OTT rivals have been given a head start. As if that wasn'tbad enough, there's some dispute about the map and definitions of terms.

The goal of end-to-end billing can be likened to a futuristic shopping centre, where theretailers – the CSPs – enjoy complete omnipotence over their subscribers. They see everythingsubscribers do, understand it and can control. Old telcos have walled gardens, CSPs have tocreate Eden and constantly tempt the subscribers into consumption. If subscriber A is thinking ofwatching a film, their CSP can put all the right conditions in place to aid their enjoyment andgently move them to a high definition view. Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale, SubscriberZ wants to socialise more aggressively and use these social recommendations to help them shoponline. An omnipotent CSP could help them assemble all the right information, fine tune thenetwork and account for all these transactions accordingly.

You can't have a good business without an all-seeing,omnipotent billing system. That leaves the CSPs with sometough strategy decisions to make, writes Nick Booth

Can the entirevalue chain reallybe connected?


E N D - T O - E N D B I L L I N G

�

Continued on S10


The authorAlice Bartramis associatevice presidentof portfoliomarketing atComverse


We are truly living connected lives – fueled by smart devices, social media, advancedapplications and services, connected home services, increasingly autonomous vehicles,and the like. As providers of most of this connectivity, communication service providers(CSPs) have great opportunities ahead. Underlying the opportunities, however, are well-known challenges, writes Alice Bartram

Monetising network investments, competingwith OTT players, and delivering on increasedcustomer expectations are all big topics to tackle– and have interdependencies. Yet, tackling all ofthese at once can be a daunting or a nearimpossible task for CSPs that have disparateecosystems in place.

It is well known that outdated BSS silos do notsupport the monetisation and customerexperience needs of the connected world, andare hardly efficient. Time to market of newservices and lines of business is certainlyimpeded with multiple systems. In addition, theyfall short in providing actionable real-timeinsights based on usage patterns, services beingaccessed and customer care channels beingutilised as silos typically have their own ways ofaccessing and interpreting data. And, of course,treating policy as an ’add on‘ does not facilitatethe appropriate blending of both subscriber andnetwork information to monetise the influx ofdata - including OTT services - running overCSPs’ networks. Policy must be integral to theBSS solution to facilitate these new needs.

To cut through the clutter and compete in theconnected world, CSPs would be wise toconsider a more holistic approach towardsadvancing their BSS ecosystems to meet the newneeds of the hyper-connected landscape.

Taking stock of the CSPsupporting infrastructure To gauge whether existing BSS infrastructure isup to par, CSPs should ask themselves whethertheir BSS system(s) can:• Share real-time customer and product

data: Across critical business functions and any customer interaction channel

• Combine analytics with real-time insights (network, usage, customer channel): And take appropriate action (personalised

recommendations, campaigns and promotions)• Support policy-enabled charging and

traffic management as a single solution:For any service or business model

• Seamlessly support new business models: Connected - such as M2M or 4G/LTE - and/or convergent, such as multi-service/payment, business models without requiring a forklift upgrade or full system replacement

• Connect CSP business processes and BSS systems to the social media world

If the answer is ‘no’ to most or all of thesequestions, then the current ecosystem isimpeding growth.

Increasing competitiveness,revenues, and customer retentionTo tackle the big items, such as monetisation,competitive differentiation, and customerexperience optimisation, CSPs will need to adopta future-proof BSS solution that supports bothtoday’s and tomorrow’s business needs.

Such a solution must support a large anddynamic services catalogue; enablepersonalisation by sharing a single real-timeview of the subscriber and their account with anability to act on this view via analytics. It needs tobe able to extend this real-time view tocustomers to support account transparency andprovide the tools to better monetise the servicesand content they will need to sell in the future.

In addition, as each CSP has a unique businesssituation and will evolve to address new andemerging business models in its own way, thesolution must be open and modular in nature toaddress the specific needs of today whileproviding the agility to seamlessly add-onfunctionality as needs continue to evolve. Forexample, injection of real-time capabilities and

BSS can be a launchpad ora roadblock as CSPsexpand connected horizons

B I L L I N G S U P P O R T S Y S T E M S�


policy controls into existing postpaidenvironments as a first step can allow CSPs toprotect existing investments while being able toaddress real-time demands such as bill shockprevention, revenue protection, plus increasingconsumer demand for real-time updates andreal-time marketing for their postpaid customers. The ability to later expand this solution to fullconvergence makes this first step future proof.

The proof is in the profitsThe Comverse ONE® Billing & Active CustomerManagement solution shares a real-time view ofcustomer and product information acrossbusiness functions spanning policy to CRM tocharging and billing. The solution’s open andmodular architecture offers varying deploymentmodes to support converged billing, real-timebilling, postpaid billing, and real-time forpostpaid. The solution can also extend accountinformation and case resolution capabilities tosocial media sites via connection with ComverseShare – a service-oriented solution that adds asocial layer to operator services and businessprocesses to cost effectively unlock rich socialmedia opportunities.

Comverse ONE’s unique architecture is anenabler of cross-organisational efficiencies,advanced monetisation, marketing innovationand a superior end-user experience in theconverging, hyper-connected landscape. CSPs allacross the globe are using Comverse ONE tosecure success, examples include: • Real-time credit control: A European CSP

augmented its Comverse Kenan postpaid

billing system with key real-time advantages such as spending control capabilities — resulting in doubling the number of postpaid mobile subscribers.

• Comprehensive CRM & BSS: A CSP in the Middle East selected Comverse ONE with telco-specific CRM (campaign, case and interaction management) to support rapid launch of an entirely new 3G network. Results included a dramatic reduction of average call handling times and faster time to market - configured, tested and launched a complex plan in one week. Another CSP in Western Europe, reduced time-to-market by 50%.

• BSS linked with policy: Tight linkage between BSS and Policy Management enables a northern European CSP to introduce effective segmented/personalised data plans quickly using both network and subscriber dimensions.

• Smooth path to convergence: A CSP became the first in Western Europe to support video on demand services with real-time charging capabilities.The CSP now bundles effectively across cable and mobile lines of business, and has garnered a 44% increase in VOD transactions over the previous year, and a 51% increase in net new subscriber additions.

Whatever your evolution path, Comverse ONEmakes the transition achievable with a provendeployment methodology that leverages deep-rooted expertise in both IT implementations andnetwork complexities to minimize cost and risk. With Comverse ONE, expanding your connectedhorizons, in the hyper-connected landscape isefficiently attainable.

Comverse at MWC: Boosting agility and profitability in the hyper-connected landscape

In presentations, demos and meetings at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2013, Comverse will demonstrate how ComverseONE BSS helps secure business agility and long-term profitability.

See how you can gain seamless entry into new lines of business via convergent architecture:• Advanced policy-enabled charging, marketing & traffic management and advanced analytics for all services and business

models (M2M, Cloud, Data)• Multi-channel (including social), consistent and targeted marketing & customer management

The Comverse MWC booth features over a dozen innovative hand-on demos, including M2M enablement solutions thathighlight how CSPs can morph from connectivity providers into high-value M2M service providers and Actionable Analytics totransform CSPs’ data into actionable intelligence for contextual marketing, support and customer care.

Comverse ONE demos that show how to fuel your entry into new domains include:• Social media extensions to Comverse ONE: Add a social layer to customer communication and management systems,

utilising social channels to drive marketing and sales activities, improve customer care and enrich the user experience with value-added social services.

• End-to-end policy definition, inclusion in an offer and offer presentment: Introduce innovative data plans to market faster and at lower cost. Let your marketers roll out superior revenue-accelerating plans intuitively and quickly.

To learn more about Comverse at MWC 2013, contact us to schedule a meeting and for additional info on Comversepresentations, demos, meetings, networking cocktail and other special events at the Comverse booth (Hall 3 booth 128 (B)).www.comverse.com


In this idyllic trading environment, everysupporting system – CRM, customer analytics,network operations and billing control – mustwork in instant, perfect harmony, according tobilling specialist Redknee. But any CSPs whothink they can reach this point by migratingtheir legacy systems are kidding themselves,according to Marcos Malzone, Redknee’sdirector of business line management inconverged billing solutions.

Many CSPs can't admit their hotch potch ofinformation silos contain barely compatiblecustomer records, prepaid credit information,tariffs and account information. Bringing allthis data together, just to bill retrospectivelyon voice calls and texts alone, requires a superhuman effort. In comparison, processing thefar more complex streams of video, gamesand apps, then rationalising that withnetworking information and regulating it via abilling system, is miraculous. CSPs need tomove to a totally different dimension. Withoutmaking a realistic assessment of the scale ofthe gap in class of service, CSPs will find itdifficult to reach their destination ofomnipotent end-to-end billing, he argues.

“The CSPs need to know more about thecustomers, they need to be able to see whatthey're doing and they need to create policiesfor how they react to whatever the subscriberis doing,” says Malzone. Unless they bite thebullet and recognise the scale of the challengeinvolved in reconfiguring and fine-tuning theirold systems, the CSPs will be givingthemselves too much to do, when there is solittle time to do it. “Until they do this, theycannot get creative in the way they interactwith customers,” says Malzone.

How close are the CSPs? From a technicalperspective the objective is clear and it isdoable, according to Timo Ahomaki,Tecnotree's CTO. “The goal is to create oneprocess throughout the entire chain which istransparent,” he says. There are two obstacles

that must be overcome before 'frictionlessbilling' – his term, is achievable. The first, thebilling technology, is relatively easy. It's thesecond challenge, the business process issue,that will take some time, resources andpolitical will to resolve, as it involves peopleand entrenched practises. “The businessprocesses are much harder to change. Thereare more stakeholders and more unknowns,”he says.

Roaming is a case in point, says Graham Kunz,product marketing manager for Empirix. Ifthere was perfect communication betweenCSPs and subscribers, many of them wouldn'tget stung by massive data bills when they goabroad. “A lot of the data plans for CSPs arebest effort anyway,” says Kunz, “if asubscriber uses Skype or WhatsApp now,there can't be any guarantee over the level ofservice.” So subscribers get the impressionthey are dealing with a dumb pipe provider, afeeling that is reinforced when they try toquery their holiday bill. They don't get thisfeeling from their limited experience withinteracting with OTT players.

In the meantime the newer OTT players areracing ahead, warns Rob Smith, director ofmarket development for billing outsourcer,MDS. The mobile network operators arecreating problems for themselves by trying todo it all, says Smith. The masses ofinformation that could be used for improvingthe customer experience are trapped ininformation silos and systems bottlenecks.

There are historical lessons that CSPs can applyto this current end to end billing crisis, Smithargues. “Vodafone Live is a good example ofwhat happens when a CSP thinks and acts toonetwork centric,” says Smith. His argument isthat CSPs should concentrate on tyingservices in together and that trying to controlevery aspect of the network is a bridge too far.The answer is in the cloud, he argues. “The bigidea now is billing as a service,” says Smith.

Timo Ahomaki:Frictionlessbilling is thegoal

Rob Smith:Billing-as-a-service is thebig idea

E N D - T O - E N D B I L L I N G

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IBM: “Throughout the incredible journey of

the telecom OSS/BSS sector over the last

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of the telecoms OSS/BSS marketevolutions.” Kieran Moynihan, VP & CTO

Telecoms, IBM Tivoli Division.

What others say

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