The MVNO Phenomenon
The deployment requirements were significant and the solution needed to be able to be fully deployed in six months, a fraction of the time it would take them to roll-out a solution with their incumbent systems, and have the ability to onboard new MVNOs rapidly. The solution also had a critical CEM component and needed to support the launch of multiple, dynamic offerings and enable new revenue streams through personalized services. The operator cited “flexibility and time-to-market to compete in highly contested markets” as one of the key drivers behind this initiative.
“The limitations of the legacy system were identified as a major roadblock for the success of this MVNE launch,” said Lucas Skoczkowski, Redknee’s CEO. “The network operator had aggressive deployment timeframes in which the operator needed to have their MVNE platform in place and they required a high degree of agility from the solution. We’re seeing this far more frequently as more operators become mobile virtual network enablers [MVNE] and want to be first to market with a seamless MVNE platform.”
Agility also takes on new meaning when compared to legacy systems in an MVNE environment. The Redknee-Microsoft solution was also chosen because of the operators' desire to reduce time and cost associated with training and ongoing customization of the solution. The Redknee-Microsoft solution essentially broke the circular legacy model of depending on engineers to interpret business requirements: design, build, and test the solution; deploy the solution; and then start the whole process over again each time a change was needed or business requirement changed (Fig. 1). The new process is linear so that once the initial system is deployed, customizations and changes can be made on-the-fly, a process this service provider calls “operational hardening". This eliminates vast amounts of time related to subsequent deployment initiatives to customize solutions as the solution is able to change as business requirements evolve without a major engineering or IT effort.
[Fig. 1 – Replacing the Cyclical Legacy Solution Deployment with a Linear Model]
“[The] joint team understands the business they are enabling, versus engineers that can build to your requirements. For example, [our] competitors need to be told that a rate plan change has impacts to notifications, GL [general ledger] code mapping, reporting, interfaces, etcetera. Redknee and Microsoft are working towards connecting those dots proactively for their customers,” said a source at the service provider.
According to the same source, the Redknee/Microsoft platform enables them to test new market solutions, as well as new development and deployment methods, which they state is difficult to do with one-size-fits-all or highly-customized flagship brands.
