“In an industry that is experimenting with agile/lean development on legacy platforms, the Redknee-Microsoft solution affords the opportunity to see and experiment with different ways of doing things.” The source also cited the importance of SaaS and service-centric model, meshing security and architecture standards together and convergent billing as integral to their overarching systems strategy and sees room for growth in these areas. 

The result?  This customer is specifically benefiting from “reduced time-to-serve prepaid clients with Dynamics CRM versus in-house CRM, reduction in order fallout, and an improvement to system uptime and quality.”

“Microsoft is committed to enabling innovation through our partners like Redknee by providing an agile, flexible platform which they can use to build the innovative solutions customers are seeking. We are excited to support leading service providers through strategic partners like Redknee,” said Bob De Haven, General Manager, Worldwide Communications and Media, Microsoft Corp. “The Redknee solution built on the Microsoft platform can help service providers enable new service offerings, enhance the customer experience and improve time to market and business value.”

Microsoft is investing heavily in innovation both internally and as part of its dedication to its vendor ecosystem, both figuratively and literally. Microsoft won Pipeline’s coveted COMET award for Best Ecosystem in 2012 and again in 2013 for Innovations in Cloud and virtualization. This recognition is provided by the esteemed judges’ panel comprised of technical executives from leading service provider organizations around the globe and key industry analysts. This is no doubt a result of the company’s reported nearly 30 billion dollar R&D investment spanning 2010, 2011, and 2012.

The Bottom Line

MNOs have a great opportunity ahead of them by leveraging virtual offerings.  On one hand, they have the ability to specifically address unique regions and particular market segments or even go down market with sub-brands. On the other hand, they have the ability to further monetize their networks by enabling MVNO offerings as an MVNE.  In addition, easing regulation around the globe is opening the door to new markets. But, to capitalize on these opportunities, agility, flexibly, and time-to-market are essential.

The technology underpinnings of MNOs operations must support these capabilities.  There is a fundamental shift where business owners and business value are driving the IT requirements – not the other way around. The game is changing and legacy systems may be at a serious disadvantage.  There is a new breed of solution providers pulling ahead by being inherently nimble, interoperable and providing the flexibility, agility, and adaptability to enable virtual offerings off-the-shelf. But one thing is for sure: the time to take advantage of these trends is right now.