Are CSPs back in the game?How policy can stimulate and safeguard profits

ISSN 1745-1736

BIG DATA ANALYTICSDoes big data mean bigmoney? Read ourVanillaPlus Insightat www.vanillaplus.com

BILL & CHARGECSPs at the heart ofthe digital economyVanillaPlus Insightout August 2013

REVENUE & FRAUDNew models raise thestakes for CSPsVanillaPlus Insightout October 2013

CEM CUSTOMER CAREDifferentiate forcompetitive advantageVanillaPlus Insight outDecember 2013

4GHow to spread theinvestment burdenVanillaPlus Insightout February 2014

PLUS: Syniverse divests MACH assets to Starhome • Hardware vendors agree cross-licencing for OSS interfaces • O2 UK selects Tekelec Policy Serverfor 3G and LTE • Amdocs launches Elastic Policy Control for virtualised networks • Subex reports 20% of network assets fail to return their cost of capitalCerillion scores Manx charging deal • Redknee helps Colombian retailer launch MVNO • Read the latest BSS and OSS news online at www.vanillaplus.com

June / July 2013Issue 15 Volume 3

4 EDITOR’S COMMENTShould CSPs manage decline or take a gamble on new revenueexploration, considers George Malim

5 INDUSTRY NEWSStarhome to buy MACH European clearing, equipment vendors agreeOSS interface cross-licencing

6 PRODUCT NEWSAmdocs unveils Elastic Policy Control for virtualised networks

8 CONTRACT NEWSTelefónica UK chooses Tekelec Policy Server, Manx Telecom selectsCerillion online charging

10 THE CONTRACT HOT LISTThe latest vendor deals listed

12 PEOPLE NEWSWho’s on the move

13 EXPERT OPINIONDan Baker says sales-to-order dexterity may decide who wins in the cloud

15 VANILLAPLUS POLICY INSIGHTThe second of our VanillaPlus Insights starts here with 40 pages exploringhow policy is integrating with systems across the back office to help CSPssafeguard and stimulate profits and help put them back in the game.

The Insight contains a VanillaPlus-commissioned analyst report fromanalyst firm Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan and includes features, interviewsand case studies to help you gain a wider understanding of thepossibilities of policy.

56 DIARYWhere to go and what to see

57 CLOCKING OFF!Nick Booth says CSPs would be mad to set policy that downgrades voice

C O N T E N T S

33

40

POLICY FOR 4G

3

IN THISISSUE

Are CSPs backin the game?

POLICY FORNEW SERVICES

INTERVIEW

48

TALKING HEADSJohn Aalbers, the chiefexecutive of Volubill

50

C O M M E N T

EDITORGeorge MalimTel: +44 (0) 0208 292 4036george@vanillaplus.com

DIGITAL EDITORNathalie BisnarTel: +44 (0) 1732 808690nathalie@vanillaplus.com

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTDIRECTORCherisse JamesonTel: +44 (0) 1732 807410cherisse@vanillaplus.com

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER Mark BridgesTel: +44 (0) 1732 807412mark@vanillaplus.com

OPERATIONS DIRECTORCharlie BisnarTel: +44 (0) 1732 807411charlie@vanillaplus.com

PUBLISHERJeremy CowanTel: +44 (0) 1420 588638jc@vanillaplus.com

DISTRIBUTIONUK Postings LtdTel: +44 (0) 8456 444137

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EDITORIAL ADVISORS

John Aalbers,chief executive,Volubill

Dan Baker,ResearchDirector,TechnologyResearchInstitute

AndreasFreund, VPMarketing, OrgaSystems GmbH

Louis Hall, chief executive,CerillionTechnologies

GabrielMatsliach,generalmanager, BSSProduct Line,Comverse

Pat McCarthy, VPof GlobalMarketing,Service DeliverySolutions,Ericsson

SimonMuderack,CEO, Tribold

David Heaps,senior vicepresident,strategy, CSGInternational

Mac Taylor,CEO, TheMoriana Group

Chris Yeadon,director of ProductMarketing,Ericsson

Dr ReinhardZuba, CMO,Vipnet (TelekomAustria)

© Prestige Media Ltd 2013

Manage decline or doubledown for a gusherCSPs are faced with difficult decisions as they look at their operations. Even though some,those in high population density developing markets, manage to turn a modest profit onARPU of about $3, most are finding the costs of building and running networks aren’t keepingin touch with the revenue they can generate.

ew sources of profit are therefore neededif they are to continue to invest in thenetwork and generate a sufficientlyattractive return on capital invested tokeep investors happy. The industrydoesn’t need a wake up call; it has seen

this coming for a decade and it has certainly tried torebase the business model away from commoditisednetwork capacity into value-added services.

The efforts made have been substantial but many havefailed. CSPs as content providers, media companiesand retailers never really delivered the expectedsuccess but they did cost time and money to try out.Now, there’s a feeling that there isn’t another five or tenyears for CSPs to turn things round.

The good news is that it is now recognised that thenetwork is worthy of greater respect than being just adumb pipe and it is also recognised that CSPs havemore to offer. They can bill, they can supportcustomers or third parties and they have significantvaluable data about their users that can bemonetised.

The bad news is that ten years have gone byand substantial, unsuccessful bets havebeen made on new services. That, asseveral delegates at the recentManagement World Conference in Nicetold me, means they are constrained inwhat they can do to transform theirbusinesses today.

Some face the difficult decision ofeither deploying technology toenable new revenues or deploying

systems that create greater operational efficiencies. Inan ideal world, both would go hand in hand but for atleast some CSPs there is neither enough time norenough money available.

Operational efficiency gains seem to be the obviousconservative bet. Costs will be saved, improvingprofitability. However, that’s a finite activity and quitequickly, if done well, efficiency projects will run out ofareas to make more efficient. A good analogy is oilexploration. An oil company can invest in making theexploration and drilling process more and moreefficient but, ultimately, if the well turns out to be dry,there is no profit, only minimised loss.

Conversely, doubling down on investment in newrevenue generative propositions, provides the potentialto hit, in oil terms, a gusher, totally transforming theprofitability of a CSP. It’s higher risk and may hastenthe demise of a company into acquisition orbankruptcy but success could make the same CSPthe acquirer.

The choice for those CSPs that are running out oftime is stark. Act conservatively and focus on

efficiency and you have essentially chosen astrategy of managed decline or take a further

gamble on developing your service portfoliointo adjacent areas and maximising theincome you generate from the functions you

are good at. If it works out, you can alwaysloop back and address the operationalefficiency issues later.

Enjoy the magazine!

George Malim

N

4

I N D U S T R Y N E W S

Syniverse, led by president and chiefexecutive Jeff Gordon, has reached anagreement to sell, almost in its entirety,MACH’s data clearing and NRTRDEbusiness within the European EconomicArea – the European Union countries plusIceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, toStarhome after completing its acquisition ofMACH. The terms of the deal were notdisclosed.

On 29 May, the European Commissiongranted conditional approval of Syniverse’sproposed acquisition of MACH with thecommitment that Syniverse must divestcertain assets supporting MACH’s dataclearing and NRTRDE business in the EEA,including technology platforms, necessaryemployees, customer contracts and theMACH brand.

MACH provides cloud-based managedcommunication services worldwide. Theacquired business is a completelyfunctional, independent entity comprising76 mobile network operator customers, anexperienced management team, dedicatedemployees, a fully operational serviceplatform in Europe, and a research anddevelopment and operations centre inIndia.

The acquisition includes full worldwideownership of all intellectual property rightsof the MACH brand, trademarks and logo;

MACH Data Clearing and NRTRDEprocessing applications and platform;MACH MDS framework layer, MACH Smartincluding MACH Dashboards, MACHRoaming Management Services and theMACH Optimiser. The acquisition iscontingent upon approval of Starhome bythe European Commission and otherapplicable jurisdictions.

During 2013, Starhome and the acquiredbusiness will continue to operate asseparate business units to best serve theirrespective customers. A mutual roadmapwill be developed for 2014 and beyond. The acquisition strengthens Starhome’sposition as a leader in the mobile roamingvalue-added services industry with theaddition of MACH's cloud-based solutions:data clearing, reporting, NRTRDE andbusiness management tools.

“Acquiring the MACH divestment businessis a strategic growth step for Starhome,”said Tal Meirzon, CEO of Starhome. “Thismove will enable us to grow in newdirections and to better assist ourcustomers with their multi-networkchallenges and competitive strategies. Weplan to exploit the synergies betweenStarhome’s network solutions and footprintof over 200 mobile network operatorsworldwide with MACH’s IT services andtechnologies to create an end-to-endsolutions and services portfolio, while

bringing enhanced value to our customerbase. We are very excited about the MACHmanagement and employees who will bejoining Starhome and enriching ourextensive business coverage andinnovation.”

“We are fully committed to the high-qualityservice continuity and expansion of thedata clearing and NRTRDE services forMACH’s 76 divested business customers,as well as for MACH customers in otherregions who wish to remain with theexcellent MACH platform and services,”added Meirzon. “With Starhome’s globalreach, our new MACH business willoperate in all regions.”

Equipment vendors sign memorandum for OSS interoperability initiative

Network equipment vendors Nokia SiemensNetworks, Ericsson and Huawei haveinitiated and signed a memorandum ofunderstanding enabling utilisation of OSSinnovations across the industry. To helpoperators simplify network operations andreduce costs, the companies have agreedto cross-license the OSS interfaces usedfor multi-vendor network management.

By enabling multi-vendor interoperabilitybetween the OSS of all three vendors,OSSii – the OSS interoperability initiative –will promote competition by simplifyingoperations, reducing the overall integrationcosts as well as speeding up the time-to-market of new services. The reciprocalagreement will cover fault, performance,configuration and basic network event andtrace management for the northbound

interfaces from radio access, circuit coreand packet core network managementsystems. Under the terms of the MoU, thesigning parties are committing to bilateralcross licensing agreements for multi-vendor network management.

“The OSS marketplace is a patchwork ofstandards and proprietary interfaces thatare controlled by the IPR owners. Withcross-license agreements, we want to helpoperators take full advantage of the bestavailable products in our industry,” saidPeter Patomella, head of operations supportsystems (OSS) business at Nokia SiemensNetworks. “Openness and fairness havebeen the guiding principles in the agreementof the OSS Interoperability Initiative.”

Jiang Wangcheng, president of Huawei's

OSS & Service Wireless Networks BusinessUnit said: "We at Huawei believe the OSSiiagreement will greatly forward OSSdevelopment, and will provide operators inall markets the ability to fully capitalise on thebest OSS solutions available. We are alsoextremely happy to take part in such animportant initiative that takes transparency,openness and fairness as its guiding values."

Thomas Norén, vice president and head ofProduct Area Radio at Ericsson, added:"As a leader in the OSS industry we arepleased to be part of this initiative that is apractical approach to reducing the hurdlesto OSS interoperability. OSSii shows theindustry commitment to reducing OSSinteroperability costs. It will stimulateinnovation in network management, andcut cost for our customers, which is great."

Jeff Gordon: Divesting MACH assets forCommission approval

Starhome to acquire MACH European dataclearing and NRTRDE business from Syniverse

5

Amdocs has announcedthe industry’s firstcomplete, virtualisednetwork control offering.The new virtualiseddeployment options forAmdocs’ suite of networkcontrol products are set toenable service providers toaccelerate the introduction

of new services while taking full advantageof standard off-the-shelf hardware toreduce costs. The virtualisation solution willbe supported on Amdocs network controlproducts widely deployed, includingAmdocs Policy Controller (PCRF), AmdocsHome Subscriber Server, and AmdocsSubscriber Data Broker.

Amdocs’ modular, virtualised environmentsoffer CSPs improved elasticity aroundperformance and scalability at a lower costby breaking the traditional linkage betweenfunction and hardware. This virtualisedenvironment – characterised by distributedsoftware architecture, self-containedapplication clusters with no scalelimitations, and no dependency oncentralised session/state storage – alsoenables easy expansion, operation and in-service upgrades.

In addition to performance and scalabilitybenefits, Amdocs’ virtualised networkcontrol solutions will enhance serviceagility, allowing for rapid introduction ofservices that can be targeted at specificsubscribers and/or geographies.

Consistent with Amdocs’ approach, theseproducts offer multi-network support andextensive interoperability with networkelements, enabling ease of deployment inmixed vendor heterogeneous network(HetNet) environments.

Rebecca Prudhomme, Amdocs vicepresident for product and solutionsmarketing, added: “As part of the firstcomplete virtualised network control planesuites to reach the market, our elasticpolicy control solution will drive downongoing costs and enable faster time tomarket for new service offerings. Followingthe introduction of Amdocs Elastic OnlineCharging and certification of our customerexperience systems portfolio on VMwareas part of our latest CES 9 release.”

Empirix launches roamingand intercarrier assuranceanalytics suiteEmpirix has announced Roaming andInter-carrier Assurance Analytics, a newsuite that combines service assuranceand network analytics to provideperformance and business intelligenceinsights on inter-carrier traffic. With thesuite, mobile operators can ensure theroaming experience and maximisepartnership revenues for voice, data andSMS traffic.

“Tracking, ensuring and analysing

intercarrier traffic – be it inbound oroutbound, voice, video or data – is vital toextending coverage, maximising CSPprofits and providing a seamlesscustomer experience. However, gainingvisibility into roaming and call routingacross multiple networks andenvironments can be difficult,” saidFranco Messori, chief strategy officer ofEmpirix. “With Empirix Roaming andIntercarrier Assurance Analytics, CSPsbenefit from new insight into quality asthey pass calls, data and roamers topartner networks to assure performanceand capitalise on new revenueopportunities.”

MACH launches My Visualsfor roaming data MACH has launched My Visuals a systemthat provides mobile network operatorswith insight into the behaviour of roamingsubscribers in a graphical format. Bycapturing subscriber activity aroundpreset KPIs in a simple dashboard, MyVisuals claims to help operators avoidlengthy and complex data analysis, toenable fast, informed decisions abouttheir roaming business strategy. CSPsworldwide are increasingly aware of thebusiness value of subscriber data.

NEWS IN BRIEF

P R O D U C T N E W S

Subex has introduced ROC AssetAssurance to address the growingconcerns of CSPs worldwide when itcomes to effectively managing andreducing capex across the lifecycle ofnetwork assets.

The network capex conundrum isbecoming a serious cause for concern with20% of assets failing to return their cost ofcapital. While lack of visibility inunderstanding asset dispositions, poordata integrity and eroding assetcontribution after purchase are some of thereasons for this situation, the key issue hasalways been lack of true governancerequired for a repeatable, sustainableprogramme to work effectively.

Subex has launched the ROC AssetAssurance solution to monitor, manage andoptimise capital expenses throughout theasset lifecycle, which then extends beyondanalytics to drive actions and changes incritical business processes that control orconsume capex.

Vinod Kumar, chief operating officer ofSubex, said: “CSPs are concerned aboutshrinking EBITDA margins and want to notjust focus on revenue, but also on reducingtheir significant annual capex burdens. Withthe launch of the ROC Asset Assurance,we are taking an enterprise programmeapproach to reducing capex. Withpredictive modelling, pattern analysis andquality controls, the solution ensures

deliberate capex control ateach stage of the asset’slifecycle.”

John Brooks, vicepresident of productmanagement at Subex,added: “Network capitalbudgets are the largest line items withvirtually every CSP today, and the greatestassets on every carrier’s books are the to-date network investments that have beenmade. With ROC Asset Assurance’s keyability to give all capex stakeholdersvisibility into true asset optimisation,operators will experience capex savings andfree cash flow increases at levels never beforeseen in other Assurance programmes.”

Subex launches ROC Asset Assurance for reducedcapex across network assets lifecycle

Amdocs unveils Elastic Policy Controlfor virtualised network control

6

RebeccaPrudhomme:System willdrive downcosts andaccelerate timeto market

Vinod Kumar:CSPs areconcernedabout shrinkingEBITDA

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

Manx Telecom, the leading CSP on the Isleof Man, is to procure Cerillion’s real-timeConvergent Charging System (CCS) toenable the monetisation of online datatransactions traversing its next generationLTE infrastructure.

The convergent capabilities of the CerillionCCS will enable Manx Telecom to run bothprepaid and postpaid data transactions inconcert to deliver a real-time experience toboth customer bases. As a part of thissolution, the Cerillion CCS will also beintegrated with a media messagingplatform which will deliver real-timeservice information and opportunities toend consumers.

Cerillion’s Convergent Charging System isthe result of an extensive productdevelopment programme and has beenbuilt, from the ground up, according to thelatest 3GPP standards. The solution hasbeen designed to interoperate with networkelements over Diameter and other industrystandard protocols, as well as downstreamto the BSS/OSS domain with eitherCerillion’s own pre-integrated BSS/OSSproduct suite, or with third party BSS/OSScomponents.

“With the introduction of new data networkelements with native Diameter protocolcapability, this deployment at ManxTelecom will cause very low business

disruption and have a short lead time. Thisis one of the many great advantages ourCCS can deliver to our customers,” saidLouis Hall, CEO of Cerillion.

Mike Dee, CEO of Manx Telecom, added:“We are delighted to be able to capitaliseon Cerillion’s leading edge technology tosupport us in the deployment of ourground-breaking LTE networkinfrastructure, which will deliver significantlong-term benefits to our customers in theIsle of Man. Going forward, we expect touse Cerillion’s solution to maximise thereturn on this significant investment anddeliver a superior customer experience.”

Telefónica UK chooses Tekelec Policy Server for 3G and LTE

Tekelec’s Policy Server product has beenselected by Telefónica UK to provide thePolicy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF)in its 3G and LTE core networks. The PolicyServer will combine with Tekelec’sSubscriber Profile Repository to enableTelefónica UK to offer advanced digitallifestyle services for smartphones, tabletsand other mobile data devices, whilelowering network operating costs.

The Policy Server will help create newmobile data services and tariff plans using avariety of criteria, including volume of data,speed, time and applications. In addition,the CSP could offer personalised loyalty

programmes, mobile advertising and time-based plans.

“Our customers have a huge desire to usemobile technology to help manage theirlives, as evidenced by smartphone uptake.We expect this to grow as we launch 4Gservices in the summer. We’re focused ongiving customers rich content and asuperior mobile data experience across all3G and 4G devices,” said Tim Parker,mobile data product manager – networksfor Telefónica UK. “Tekelec’s Policy Serverhas the innovative features, scalability andflexibility to meet the diverse needs ofnetwork operations, IT and marketing to

easily implement newpolicies.”

Doug Suriano, CTO ofTekelec, added:“Telefónica UK is at theforefront of new uses formobile devices withinnovative services like O2Refresh, O2 Rewards, O2Travel and O2 Wallet.Tekelec’s Policy Servergives them the foundationfor unprecedented uses ofmobile devices as a cornerstone of themobile digital lifestyle.”

Elisa selects Ciqual for4G customer insights Finnish CSP Elisa has chosen Ciqual toprovider its Customer ExperienceMeasurement system. In the deployment,the Ciqual system will be used to ensurecritical user-affecting problems areidentified, prioritised and quickly resolvedthrough correlation of individual customerservice performance measurements andcustomer subjective feedback.

“The Ciqual system has provided insightson 4G end-customer experience that aredifficult to gather from traditional network-based data sources”, said Matias Castrén,the director of Elisa’s BroadbandSubscription Business. “We are already

delivering specific improvements as a resultof using Ciqual, including network softwareenhancements and engagement withindividual customers to improve their userexperience.”

Grupo Éxito deploys Redknee Redknee has launched its cloud-basedconverged billing and customer caresolution for Éxito Mobile, the first MVNO inColombia to be launched by a retailer. ÉxitoMobile is part of Grupo Éxito, and is ownedby the French multi-national corporation,Groupe Casino.

The launch signifies an emerging approachby retailers and consumer brands in the

Latin American market to drive newrevenue and launch innovative servicesthrough an agile Software-as-a-Service-based (SaaS) converged billing andcustomer care solution, which provides alow-risk investment strategy.

Carlos Bedoya Gómez, Éxito Mobile´sDirector commented: “The launch of ÉxitoMobile is a major milestone in Grupo Éxito’sstrategy to develop a one-stop shop for allof our customers’ needs. In order toachieve the best possible launch to themarket, we selected Redknee for itsunparalleled domain expertise, scalabilityand flexibility, and combined technologyand managed services support.”

NEWS IN BRIEF

Manx Telecom selects Cerillion online charging platform

Doug Suriano:Policy Server tosupport digitallifestyle services

8

Comverse DMM Policy Manager (PCRF)leads the way in accelerating broadband profitability

Ready for LTE & M2M deployments with full 3GPP standards compliancy

Unique Marketing Orientation Policy creation tool (Policy Studio) accelerates introduction of innovative data monetization plans

Broadest Solution Modular PCRF-PCEF-BSS solution supports almost any use case out-of the-box

Top Performance Highest independently proven TPS figures in the industry

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H O T L I S T

Vendor(s) Client Country Product/Service Awarded

Aircom International ON Telecom, Brazil Aircom selected to provide software for the design and optimisation of new Brazilian wireless 5.13 broadband access provider’s LTE network

Amdocs Aio Wireless, USA Amdocs Global Strategic Sourcing (GSS) to provide managed services to support new, no-annual- 6.13 contract US mobile provider’s BSS, web portal and mobile applications

AsiaInfo-Linkage Shanghai Mobile, China Deployment of the international version of AsiaInfo-Linkage’s Veris Billing and CRM product suite at 5.13 China mobile operator

Cerillion Manx Telecom, UK Isle of Man CSP chooses Cerillion real-time Convergent Charging System to enable monetisation of 5.13 online data transactions traversing its LTE infrastructure

Ciqual Elisa, Finland Finnish CSP chooses Ciqual customer experience measurement system for 4G customer experience insights

Clarity Axiata Group, pan-Asia Group-wide deal to provide CEM system composed of Clarity’s Unified OSS and Business Quality 5.13 Management products

Comptel Avea, Turkey Turkish mobile CSP deploys Comptel provisioning and activation to automate its order-to-activation processes 6.13

CSG International ALBtelecom, Albania Implementation of CSG International Wholesale Billing Management Solution for ALBtelecom’s fixed line 5.13 business and mobile brand Eagle Mobile

FTS daPhone brand, Romania Provision of Leap billing, customer care and policy control to aid expansion of services of daPhone as an 5.13 MVNO and MVNE provider

Intersec Mauritel, Mauritania Selection of Intersec Loyalty Management Suite to provide real-time promotions for targeted subscribers 6.13 based on actual usage patterns

Intersec Portugal Telecom, Portugal Selection of Igloo geolocation solution to help generate new sources of revenues through location-based services 5.13

Kapsch Telekom Austria Group, Austria Project to prepare Telekom Austria Group core network for operators in Austria, Slovenia and Lichtenstein for 6.13 future convergence requirements

MDS TalkTalk Business, UK MDS selected to deliver wholesale billing system to consolidate CSP’s existing wholesale rating and billing systems 5.13

MDS eircom, Ireland Deployment of next generation managed BSS to support business and government customers in Ireland 4.13

Mycom T-Mobile, Austria Deployment of NIMS-PrOptima performance management system for expansion of T-Mobile LTE network 5.13 across Austria

NetCracker Technology Canal Digital Kabel-TV, Norway Selection of next generation BSS for transformation of billing environment. NetCracker Rating and Billing systems 6.13 to replace existing revenue management system

Nokia Siemens Networks Zain, Kuwait Deployment of Nokia Siemens Networks customer experience management to ensure service experience of 5.13 mobile broadband customers

Nasctech Globe, The Philippines Nasctech Streamline field operation support system chosen to reduce opex and achieve enhanced visibility 5.13 and control over field operations

Netadmin Systems Gigaclear, UK UK rural broadband provider chooses Netadmin OSS platform to accelerate delivery and automate processes 5.13

Openet Mobinil, Egypt Openet Policy Manager and Interaction Gateway selected to deliver advanced user controls and real-time 4.13 usage information for interaction with the 35 million subscriber base

Openet T-Mobile, Netherlands Deployment of Openet Evolved Charging as CSP’s future charging platform for mobile services to enable rich 6.13 customer engagement, real-time control and price plan innovations

Orga Systems Entel, Chile Agreement of four-year contract to manage corporate customers with advanced VPN functions. Extension to 5.13 existing partnership.

PacketFront Com Hem, Sweden PacketFront BECS Network Management System chosen to automate access network roll-out for FTTG programme 6.13

Redknee Grupo Exito, Colombia Deployment of cloud-based converged billing and customer care for the first MVNO in Colombia to be launched 6.13 by a retailer

Sigma Systems Ziggo, Netherlands Dutch cable operator selects Sigma Service Management Platform for service activation and provisioning of 5.13 triple play and value-added services

Sigma Systems Tiscali, Italy Sigma Cloud ServiceBroker selected for the provisioning and management of cloud services for business and 5.13 residential subscribers

Syniverse Idea Cellular, India Multi-year agreement for data clearing, financial clearing and fraud prevention at India’s third largest CSP, which 6.13 has 122 million subscribers

Tekelec Telefónica, UK Tekelec Policy Server chosen by UK CSP to provide Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) in 3G and LTE 5.13 core networks

Telefónica Digital Samsung, global Samsung to integrate directly with Telefónica’s billing capabilities via its Blue Via payment APIs, enabling 5.13 Samsung device users to purchase apps and content

Tribold Com Hem, Sweden Swedish triple play operator implements Tribold Enterprise Product Management (EPM) software to underpin 5.13 service and innovation programme

VanillaPlus Hot List: July/August 2013

The Hot List below shows the companies informing us of recent contract wins or product deployments. If your contract is not listed here email the details to us now marked "Hot List" <editorial@vanillaplus.com>

1 0

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Günther Ottendorfer appointed CTO at Telekom Austria Group The Supervisory Board of Telekom Austriahas unanimously appointed GüntherOttendorfer as chief technology officer ofthe Telekom Austria Group. Ottendorferwill now complement the currentmanagement board which consists of CEOHannes Ametsreiter and CFO Hans Tschuden.

Ottendorfer has enjoyed a successfulinternational career in the telecoms industryover the last 20 years. Between 1987 and1992, he studied computer science at theTechnical University in Vienna, graduatingwith distinction. In 1996, he became afounding member of max.mobil in Austria.He gathered comprehensive managementexperience as CEO and CTO of T-MobileAustria, as CTO of T-Mobile Germany and

as European Technology Director of T-Mobile International at a group level.

Since March 2011, he has been on theBoard of Optus Singtel, the secondlargest telecoms provider in Australia, withmore than 11 million customers.

“With today’s appointment of GüntherOttendorfer, the Supervisory Board hassucceeded in recruiting a top manager withextensive international experience in theareas of technology, convergence, IT andoperations,” said Rudolf Kemler, chairmanof the Supervisory Board of Telekom AustriaAG. “More than ever before, TelekomAustria is operating in a technology-intensive market environment marked by

fierce competition. Theexpansion of theManagement Board’s corecompetencies to include akey area such astechnology is an importantstep for the company andI’m thrilled that theSupervisory Board hasbeen able to appoint such a high-calibercandidate in such a short time.”

Ottendorfer will begin his role as CTO of theTelekom Austria Group in the comingmonths. The exact date will depend on thetermination of his current contract. He hasbeen appointed for a three-year term withthe option to extend it by another two years.

Ottendorfer:Former CTO ofT-MobileGermany

Former Alcatel-Lucent HR director joins executive coachesat Telco Exec recruitment service Telco Exec, the recruitment and careersadvice service for executives in machine-to-machine (M2M) communications, hasadded Andrew Martin to its panel ofExecutive Coaches. Martin is one of thetelecoms industry’s foremost experts inhuman resource (HR) management, andwas until recently HR director for sales atAlcatel-Lucent.

Announcing the news, Telco Exec’smanaging director, Jason Bandy,commented: “Our job board and careers

service offers a unique human touch, and itis vital that our paid candidate membershave access to the best minds intelecommunications talent and careerdevelopment. Having Andrew join us, tosupport our candidates to find and securethe best jobs, is great news. He brings somuch experience and wisdom with him; wevery much look forward to working with himand we know that our candidates willbenefit enormously.”

As Lucent’s UK HR director, Martin led a

team supporting 4,000 employees in R&D,sales, and customer services functions.During difficult times in the telecomsindustry, he played a major role in managingacquisitions, divestments, outsourcingprogrammes, and restructuring projects. Hewas a Board director of Lucent UK from2003 and, as EMEA HR director for Sales,supported the Regional President and hisorganisation across 40 countries. Followingthe creation of Alcatel-Lucent he managedpost-merger restructuring projects inEurope, the CIS, and the Middle East.

Tony Sceales to lead product management at SunTec SunTec, a provider of revenuemanagement and business assurancesystems has appointed Tony Sceales headof product management for digital andcommunications services.

Sceales has developed digital services inboth innovative start-ups and major blue-chip companies in the telecoms, IT andinsurance sectors. In addition to extensiveexperience as a CTO, he founded Celona

Technologies, a leading provider ofinformation control software, and hasworked as a systems architect for Aon, BT,IBM and Prudential Assurance.

“Tony has a deep understanding of howdigitisation is driving convergence acrossthe communications and financial servicessectors, enabling new and disruptivebusiness models,” said Nanda Kumar,president and CEO of SunTec Business

Solutions. “His experience and insights willbe invaluable in guiding the evolution ofSunTec’s products and platforms, therebyenabling the next wave of exciting newdigital services.”

An Executive Committee Member of theTM Forum, Sceales is chair of the Forum’sProduct and Architecture GovernanceWorking Group and a member of theDigital Services Steering Group.

Hubble joins Sigma Systems to lead EMEA and APAC Richard Hubble has joinedSigma Systems as vicepresident and managingdirector for its Europe,Middle East and Africa(EMEA) and Asia-Pacific(APAC) regions. Hubbleassumes full leadershipresponsibility for sales,account management,

partners and alliances.

"Sigma has significantly enhanced ourregional sales, support and servicecapabilities to reflect the global demand forour OSS solutions," said Tim Spencer,Sigma's president and COO. "Richardbrings a wealth of industry and leadershipexperience to the team and will be avaluable resource for our customers

throughout the region as they leverageSigma's solutions to support their evolvingbusiness models."

Hubble has held many international sales,strategic marketing, business developmentand general management roles within theBSS and OSS segments of the globaltelecommunications industry. He joinsSigma from Hewlett-Packard.

1 2

Tim Spencer:Appointmentenhancesregional sales,support andservice

The author,

Dan Baker is

director of the

Technology Research

Institute and has

written this article on

behalf of Netformx

Mobile is the clear focal point of telecom investments today but a few years down the road, willthat still be true? Can communications service providers (CSPs) dominate small cell wirelessas thoroughly as they have big tower wireless? And after the handset and content guys havedevoured most of the smartphone pie, will the leftovers be enough to satisfy the bellies ofhungry telecoms providers, asks Dan Baker

t’s this uncertainty over mobile’s long-termfinancial contribution that’s fueling big telecominvestments in the cloud. And when I say cloud,I refer to the full mix of private and public cloud,managed services, and virtual infrastructure, inshort, the bid by CSPs to become full-fledged

ICT suppliers to large and medium enterprises.

Opportunities and dangers in the cloud for CSPsCSPs see riches to be won as enterprise IT chasesthe cloud. Sadly, the once profitable era of selling CPEboxes and simple connectivity is fast disappearing.That market is now a pure commodity play: theexcitement has instead shifted to the much broaderfield of enterprise clouds and data centre build-outs.

Yet other CSPs are not the only competitors in thisrace to the cloud. They compete just as strongly withcloud providers, such as Amazon, and systemsintegrators such as IBM and Cap Gemini.

Whenever systems integrators become the primeintegrator and control the enterprise account, the CSPis in danger of being relegated to a minor, marginallyprofitable role. The same goes if the roles arereversed. The race is on to see who gets to own theenterprise customer relationship, for the owner is theone who makes the most money and gets to insert itsservices and products into the enterprise’s ICT fabric.

How can CSPs gain an edge?So who will win the battle of the cloud? The richestprizes are likely to go to the CSPs with faster and moreefficient sales-to-order workflows. Here a telecomsprovider must not only synchronise its sales andengineering teams, it needs to speed infrastructureproposals out the door and reduce design errors toeliminate provisioning troubles and customer stress.

Unfortunately, most CSP teams serving enterprises

lack the necessary back office systems to get the jobdone profitably. For instance:• Sales lacks access to the design knowledge needed to fully qualify and guide prospects; • Engineers are slowed by out-of-date product catalogues and design requirements scattered across many spreadsheets; and• Senior design experts are overloaded and lack a mechanism to delegate tasks and guide the work of less-qualified engineers.

The result is that CSPs lose business they shouldrightly win because their designs: take too long tocomplete and quote; lack sufficient accuracy andoptions; and can’t be changed on-the-fly to meet thecustomer’s price point or last minute requirements.

A collaborative design system for cloud When you boil it all down, the complexity of cloudsolutions and much greater competition in sales-to-order point to the need for a superior collaborativedesign system that manages complex projects andenables the sales and engineering team to shareinformation and thereby accelerate the number ofquality proposals it can deliver to prospects.

So what should CSPs be looking for in a collaborativedesign system? Well, getting answers to that questionis the goal of a new paper I’ve authored entitled, ‘TheData Center and Cloud Infrastructure Boom: Is YourSales/Engineering Team Equipped to Win its Share ofthe Business?’. To view the paper visit:www.netformx.com/TRI-Whitepaper

The paper paints a picture of what an ideal collaborativedesign system should look like, narrowing therequirements down to seven key capabilities andexplaining over three dozen specific benefits in aworkflow diagram. The paper serves as a guide fortelecoms providers arming themselves to fight in thebattle for the cloud.

Sales-to-order dexterity maydecide who wins in the cloud

I

www.netformx.com

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DIARY

Upcoming eventsTM Forum Africa Summit 20136-7 August, 2013Johannesburg, South AfricaOrganiser: TM Forumwww.tmforum.org

Middle East Com Telco Summit23-24 September, 2013Dubai, UAEOrganiser: Informame.comworldseries.com

SDP Global Summit 201324-25 September, 2013Rome, ItalyOrganiser: Informasdpsummit.com

Wi-Fi World Summit25-26 September, 2013Barcelona, SpainOrganiser: Informawifiworldsummit.com

M2M E-Healthcare Summit 20139-10 December, 2013Washington DC, USAOrganiser: We Know Media Ltdwww.m2mnowevents.com

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he ranking gives some insight into theperformance of the CSPs but it’s moreinteresting to consider how the companyarrives at this conclusion. All the variablesmeasured are collated to create a valuejudgment about the quality of

communication over mobile.

What if this yardstick was applied to other apps wetake for granted? For example, there is one brilliantapp available that knocks spots off all other forms ofcommunication. It instantly conveys far moreinformation – such as age, gender, identity – betterthan any data service. It also expresses values that notechnologist has ever managed to capture: emotion,nuance and alternative meanings can all beexpressed. It even tells you whether the speaker isstanding or sitting, smiling or frowning, enthusiastic orgoing through the motions.

Yes, the human voice is far and away the mostsophisticated communications protocol that has everbeen produced. It can signal so many things in somany different ways. You can say ‘no’, in such a tonethat the other caller knows you really mean ‘yes’.

If the human voice had only just been invented, everyCSP and broadcaster in the world would be devisingpolicy to give its sound waves priority over their networks.

But instead, it’s been on a slow back burner fordecades. Our ears, vocal chords and brains are theproduct of centuries of development work, involvingbillions of human lives. They’re still a work in progress,with new accents, languages and conversationalstyles being thrown up all the time.

The human voice is a form of biometric security that isvirtually unhackable. The sophistication of human spokenword massively overshadows anything ever achievedin telecoms, IT or even science. The Hadron Collider,by comparison, looks a pretty simplistic bit of kit.

And yet, we seem to do everything possible toundermine the potency of mankind’s most brilliantbusiness tool.

It may be true that there are no margins in sellingvoice, but surely that does not mean there is no value

in it. Maybe we justhaven’t found the right wayto exploit its potential. In themeantime, we treat this legacy as if it’ssome kind of millstone around our neck.

It’s well established that the quality of sound in a voiceconversation makes all the difference in the way theother person is perceived. People who speak tooquickly, or quietly, are judged to be furtive and lackingin confidence and possibly untrustworthy, thanks tocenturies of conditioning in the human brain.

So logically then, you could expect the voice quality ofevery conversation over a network to be of utmostimportance. But it rarely is. How often are businessphone calls conducted over really flakey connections?Maybe it’s just journalists who suffer this treatment,but I often get the impression that half the people Ispeak to during the day really couldn’t be bothered tospeak to me. That’s the immediate conclusion I drawwhen they insist on a conference call, where they’redialing in via some dodgy VoIP connection.

Phone conferences are dreadful for more than justtheir inaudible connections. They also create the allthe right conditions for the ultimate pointless meeting.They are usually packed out with too many people, sonothing gets done, nobody knows who is speakingand whether they ought to agree with them or not.The quality of the sound will always be dreadful andthe most important person in the conference willinevitably have the worst connection. They’re morethan likely to be speaking in their second languagetoo. The majority of the people don’t need to be there,so a similarly large majority of the people on the callwon’t be paying any attention. Someone will inevitablyforget to mute their phone while they are filling thekettle, running a tap or pulling a chain.

Even with a perfect voice quality conditions – if, say,two people are forced to talk to each other over alandline or, more radically, face to face – there are stillways to neutralise the potency of our greatestcommunications tool.

We should take the lead on communicating effectively.After all, we are the communications industry.

What sort of policydowngrades voice?

C L O C K I N G O F F

The author,

Nick Booth,is a contributor to

VanillaPlus and a

technology journalist

T

5 7

EE is now the top ranked communications service provider (CSP) in London, accordingto Rootmetrics. Three has been pushed down to second and Vodafone is last, accordingto the reports. Here, Nick Booth tries to make sense of what that means to users

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