|
By Tim
Young
Once again, Pipeline takes a moment
to look at the news that has been bouncing
around the OSS world over the last month.
Some of it makes larger waves, and some
of it makes smaller ripples, but everything
has a way of affecting the industry.
Here’s your OSS Newswatch for March
2007.
Convergys popped up on our radar a
few times this month. It started out
by posting record revenue at around
$2.8 billion, up 8 percent. Fourth
quarter earnings were likewise up 8
percent, with customer care revenue
up ten percent. Straight off of this
announcement, the company spread the
word about upcoming facilities expansions.
In addition to the previously announced
Albuquerque, NM location, Convergys
will be employing 600 people in the
greater Cincinnati area with its Erlanger,
Kentucky facility, and 550 people at
its Longview, Texas facility. All facilities
should be open within the first two
quarters of this year. Finally, Convergys
has teamed with Tribold to deliver
a consolidated enterprise catalog for
single customer view. Looks like Convergys
is trying to top those revenue numbers
in ‘07.
Ectel balanced announcements of customer
wins at O2 and Portugal Telecom with an
announcement that the firm is concluding
its association with the Israeli Office
of the Chief Scientist R&D Grant program.
The company has $2.8 million in outstanding
grants, but those will be repaid in installments
through 2007. The grants aided the company
in developing Fraudview, which is the same
solution that O2 and PT picked up in the
same timeframe. Who needs grants when you
have cashflow?
A study released by the Comptel Corporation
(the vendor, not the industry association),
showed that 34-36% of the 500 consumers
polled were using non-voice/SMS based mobile
services and would like more control over
their mobile service package. Only 24%
of the 25 operators polled believe that
their order management and provisioning
software
|
|
Some
of it makes larger waves, and some
of it makes smaller ripples, but
everything has a way of affecting
the industry. |
|
is able to support the control
users expect as a part of the
new services. Looks like its
time to evolve faster or lose
out.
We mentioned Joost, the internet
tv application from the makers of
Skype. It was announced that Viacom
will be licensing content to Joost.
They’ve got the software. They’ve
got the content. They’ve got
a base of freeware-loving users worldwide.
I’m listening.
Narus has announced the release
of NarusInsight Secure Suite 6, its
latest security suite. One of the
big advances with this one is that
it’s designed to work with
IBM’s BladeCenter.
“IBM BladeCenter is the world’s
most popular blade computing system,
with more than half a million systems
installed, and boasts a growing ecosystem
of solutions for customers developed
in collaboration with Blade.org partners
such as Narus,”
said Jim Pertzborn, vice president,
Telecommunications Industry, IBM.
Not a bad market niche to capitalize
on, Narus.
cVidya has launched a revenue assurance
solution for mobile content based
on its MoneyMap product. MoneyMap
itself, however, has some changes
in store, as cVidya has partnered
with Highdeal to incorporate Highdeal’s
pricing solutions into MoneyMap.
The combined product has already
been deployed by Swisscom Mobile,
and represents a positive move for
both companies.
Redknee has touted a customer win
with a US Tier One, which will be
using Redknee’s personalization
products to “offer convenient
and secure Location-Based Services
(LBS) with 24 hour customer care
support to both enterprises and consumers.
Redknee’s portfolio of solutions
including Enhanced Location Services
(ELS) and Unified Profile Server
(UPS) offers personalization tools
to the subscriber and will be used
to deliver LBS.”
|
|
|
|
