Fujitsu, a leading systems integrator and provider of business, information technology and communications solutions, has recently announced a regional partnership with Tribold Limited.

Tribold EPMTM is the first solution certified by the Telecommunications Management Forum (TMF) against the Information Framework (SID). TMF is the world’s leading industry association for service providers and their suppliers to access practical solutions that improves business efficiency. The Forum also provides guidance and leadership to transform the way that a Communication Service Provider (CSP) creates, delivers and charges for product and services.

Tribold EPMTM offers the following to CSPs:
• Product & Service Data Management (PDM) & Centralised Product Catalog (CPC). Normalised and holistic product & service definition, Centralised MDM for product and service catalogue, rationalised and reusable product data and rules
• Product & Service Data Integration (PDI). Control over data distribution and launch, automated integration of product data across the enterprise
• Product & Service Lifecycle Management (PLM). Products managed through a defined, repeatable and measurable process throughout the full lifecycle
• Product & Service Business Intelligence (PBI). Standardised operational product reporting (e.g., price books, BOMs) and enhanced product performance analysis (e.g., unit cost, profitability, penetration)
• Product & Service Channel Management (PCM). Exposing the relevant product catalogue to the various eco-system channels – customer, reseller, partner provider for content, services, devices and networks

Tribold EPMTM is used to create a certified reference definition for a product or service. Without this certified product reference definition, the CSP finds itself using data from many sources which are incomplete, out of date and conflicting. The result is a high order rejection rate in the order management process.

In addition, pricing and product rules are often dispersed within a CSP’s backend systems, which create the challenge of identifying which data within the system is accurate. This causes incorrect offers being extended to customers, which in turn, result in billing errors.

Finally, for historical reasons, order fulfilment processes are typically hard-coded based on the product instance. This method is inefficient such that each time a new product is created, the order fulfilment processes need to be rebuilt from scratch, regardless of how similar the new product is to existing products.

Tribold EPMTM meets these three challenges by creating a single point of product truth for the ordering portal and all backend systems. With this method, the CSP is able to:
1. Ensure that all product reference definitions are always up to date and correct with no data synchronisation issues. This eliminates invalid orders due to data alignment problems.
2. Ensure that all offers and associated pricing is always available to any system or a process that needs it. This eliminates incorrect offers being issued to customers that lead to billing errors.
3. Eliminate hard-coded order fulfilment processes and replace the process with workflows that are easily modified. This promotes a high level of reusability of existing products for new creations, which results in a dramatic time saving in launching new products.

“Fujitsu is proud to partner Tribold because we feel this product represents a new paradigm for CSPs. As CSPs move into an increasingly competitive environment, a major source of differentiation will be derived by the CSPs’ ability to quickly develop and launch new products. Fujitsu sees the Tribold suite of solutions as a critical element required in this new world,” said Mr. David Bowden, Vice President of Strategic Initiatives for Fujitsu.

“Tribold is honoured to tap into Fujitsu’s expertise and presence in Southeast Asia. We are confident that the partnership will allow CSPs in Southeast Asia to radically reduce both Time to Market and Cost to Market for product and service management in line with the ultimate need for driving profitable growth,” said Ernest Margitta, Director of Marketing at Tribold.

Under the agreement, Fujitsu will resell, distribute, promote and market Tribold EPMTM the market leading Enterprise Product Management (EPM) solution. Other companies under the Fujitsu Group will also perform similar roles in regional markets including Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.