OSS News Review

Timely OSS industry news since 2002.

Home Archives for oss

LecStar Telecom Signs Customer Service Management Agreement with Lightyear Network Solutions

Posted on Written by

LecStar Telecom Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Fonix(R) Corp. (OTCBB: FNIX) offering a full array of fixed wire-line voice, data, Internet and operator services to business and residential customers in the Southeast, has entered into a management agreement with Lightyear Network Solutions, LLC (“Lightyear”) in order to decrease LecStar operating and related costs.

“Outsourcing LecStar Telecom’s telecommunications and customer service functions to Lightyear significantly reduces the company’s operating costs in the wake of recent regulatory actions that have negatively impacted small CLECs,” explained Thomas A. Murdock, chairman and CEO, Fonix Corp. “This change further enhances the company’s financial and competitive positions, while better enabling us to focus on developing and deploying integrated communication technologies.”

Under the terms of the agreement, effective July 1, 2006, Lightyear will manage all operating support services for LecStar including billing, provisioning, customer relationship management systems and telecommunications services under the terms of LecStar’s commercial agreements with wholesale telecom providers. Lightyear will receive specified fees from LecStar for these services. [Read more…]

Coastal Technologies Group Appoints Former US Representative Tauzin and Dr Peter Diamandis as New Board Members

Posted on Written by

Coastal Technologies Group Inc. (CTGi), a leader in call detail processing, back-office accounting process and OSS support for the telecommunications industry, today announced the appointments of W.J. “Billy” Tauzin, former U.S. Representative from Louisiana and House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman and Dr. Peter Diamandis, Chairman and CEO of the X PRIZE Foundation and Zero Gravity Corp., to its board of directors.

“Coastal Technologies Group is at an exciting point in its development, and we are thrilled to add both Congressman Tauzin and Dr. Diamandis to our board of directors at this time,” said Richard Kane, president and CEO for Coastal Technologies Group. “Representative Tauzin has been a staunch supporter of the telecommunications sector and led the way to develop key legislation during his tenure as the Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Likewise, Dr. Diamandis is a brilliant entrepreneur who has successfully founded and grown multiple space technology and communications companies over the last 20 years. Both of these men will provide critical guidance and influence as we look to expand our operations and customer set worldwide.”

Former Congressman W.J. “Billy” Tauzin was one of the most powerful Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives and served 12 terms in the U.S Congress representing Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District before retiring in 2004. Tauzin was Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications, Trade, and Consumer Protection in 1997 and was involved in much of the legislation affecting telecommunications and the Internet. Tauzin holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Nicholls State University and a Law Degree from Louisiana State University. [Read more…]

Highdeal Receives Most Innovative Billing Product Award at World Billing Awards 2006

Posted on Written by

Highdeal has received the Most Innovative Billing Product award at the World Billing Awards 2006. The award recognises the innovation and functionality of the Highdeal Transactive® convergent pricing, rating and charging solution. Highdeal Transactive enables service providers to gain pricing, rating, and packaging flexibility while ensuring a future proof solution which delivers high performance, low TCO and proven easy integration with networks and business systems.

The World Billing Awards are widely regarded as the highest industry recognition of billing excellence, rewarding billing best practice and raising awareness of the importance of billing to the communications industry, as Hugh Roberts, Chairman of the Awards Judging Panel and Consultant Director for IIR’s BSS/OSS and RM events explains:

“The projects and products we assessed clearly demonstrated the broadening scope of billing and information management within the increasingly complex communications value chain, and the ability of service providers, consultants and ISVs to identify and implement innovative business models and approaches to markets in far-from-traditional telecoms environments.”

The award is the latest in a series of accolades for Highdeal and demonstrates Highdeal’s continued success. [Read more…]

Highdeal Achieves 55 Percent Growth in 2006

Posted on Written by

Highdeal, a provider of Pricing and Rating solutions, has announced an unprecedented an “over 55 percent growth in the first half of 2006”. This dramatic growth reflects increasing recognition among the service provider community of the critical role that Pricing & Rating plays in the marketplace.

“This signing is confirmation of Highdeal’s strategic decision to address the market for convergent charging within the context of IMS and aligning ourselves with the 3GPP standards for convergent charging,” said Eric Pillevesse, CEO of Highdeal. “Through our extensive partnerships and alliances with leading network equipment vendors and multi-service operators we are gaining considerable momentum world-wide.”

Highdeal increased its global footprint in 2006 considerably with 15 new customer wins across Europe, the Americas, North Africa and the Middle East. Highdeal now has over 150 customer deployments in over 40 countries world-wide, supporting a wide range of services including Triple-play, VoIP, mobile and on-demand services. [Read more…]

Comverse Asia Pacific Group Honored As Telecom BSS Vendor Of The Year

Posted on Written by

Comverse, a subsidiary of Comverse Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: CMVT), and the world’s leading supplier of software and systems enabling network-based multimedia enhanced communication and billing services, has announced that Comverse Asia Pacific has been conferred the 2006 Telecom BSS Vendor of the Year Award by global growth consulting company Frost & Sullivan for its outstanding performance in 2005.

Sin Siew Teyew, head of telecoms research at Frost & Sullivan, said, “Comverse has done extremely well in positioning itself as a trusted vendor amongst service providers in Asia Pacific. The company is playing a key role in enabling the transformation of service providers towards delivering next-generation services. It is a clear leader with the largest customer base in the region and a strong position in high-growth markets.”

The award was one of a series of prestigious titles conferred at the 2006 Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific ICT Awards, held annually to recognize outstanding performance and best practices by companies in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry across Asia Pacific. [Read more…]

Swisscom Mobile and cVidya Networks Initiate a Partnership on Revenue Assurance

Posted on Written by

Swisscom Mobile and cVidya Networks have announced a partnership in the field of Revenue Assurance. The goal of the partnership is to engage in activities to develop and improve next generation Revenue Assurance best practice and solutions while integrating principles of, for example, business intelligence. The two companies will use the installation of the MoneyMap® at Swisscom Mobile for the development and validation of new and innovative Revenue Assurance technologies, methodologies and principles.

“cVidya has proven to go the extra mile when it comes to Revenue Assurance and understands the requirements of an operator that has a mature Revenue Assurance process. At Swisscom Mobile we believe that Revenue Assurance is to take a different turn, especially in the light of eroding monopolies, hostile markets and continuous market and product innovation. In cVidya we have found a partner who will face the next level of Revenue Assurance challenges successfully and we hope to provide a stimulus to the industry as a whole” said Kurt Meyer, Chief Risk Officer.

“We see Swisscom Mobile’s decision to join efforts with cVidya as a major vote of confidence in our approach to Revenue Assurance,” remarked Alon Aginsky, CEO of cVidya Networks. [Read more…]

TelecomIQ Next Generation OSS Integration Summit

Posted on Written by

TelecomIQ, a division of IQPC (International Quality & Productivity Center) have recently announced their upcoming Next Generation OSS Integration Summit titled “People, Process and Systems in the Migration to IP-Based Services”, which will be held on September 25-27, 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts.

“Today, an increasing number of IT executives in the telecom OSS space are recognizing the value of process-oriented thinking and a service orientation in dealing with the migration to IP based services. The OSS Summit in September will provide case studies from the Service Providers on dealing with implementing SOA, Web Services, business process management, and Quality of Service initiatives for improving the efficiency, quality and flexibility of the organization’s Operational Support Systems.”

At the summit, you can learn about defining the right approaches and tools for this service orientation using Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). You can also learn about the key factors for successful integration of the SOA into Enterprise Architecture and obtaining organizational buy-in (demonstrating the value and ROI of SOA to management). Other topics include “How OSS business case can aid or hinder production of new services”. [Read more…]

Billing Components Acquired by Sobha Renaissance Information Technology SRIT

Posted on Written by

Sobha Renaissance Information Technology, providers of outsourced IT business services and software products in HealthCare, Telecoms and the Enterprise space, has acquired Munich-based Billing Components AG. This strengthens SRIT’s offering in the Telecoms Operational and Business domain.

Billing Components AG are the creators of software components for the telecoms market in the areas of customer care, billing & collections, rating, usage collection, provisioning and inter-carrier reconciliation and settlements. The exact value of the acquisition was, however, not revealed. [Read more…]

AsiaInfo to Develop Phase II Prepaid Service Management Platform For Shanghai Netcom

Posted on Written by

AsiaInfo Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: ASIA), a provider of telecom software solutions and security products and services in China, announced today it has entered into a contract with Shanghai Netcom to construct a phase II prepaid service management platform.

”Through AsiaInfo’s enhanced prepaid service management platform, Shanghai Netcom will be able to increase their prepaid service offerings and improve the quality and speed of customer services,” said Steve Zhang, President and Chief Executive Officer of AsiaInfo. ”The platform will also integrate their support functions and increase general operating efficiency.”

The phase II prepaid service management platform will allow Shanghai Netcom to provide a greater variety of prepaid services to customers and improve the management of all prepaid service data. In addition, it will connect the process management system to the integrated accounting system. It will also reduce complicated system interfaces and enhance the real-time performance and accuracy of information transfer. [Read more…]

Telecom Cost Management Survey Finds that Mid-Market Enterprises Average 2 Percent Late Payment Penalties

Posted on Written by

As a result of inefficient processes to manage telecom expenses, late payment penalties, carrier billing errors, and inadequate visibility into spend, mid-market enterprises are forfeiting opportunities to reduce telecom expenses by an average of 3% to 10%. AberdeenGroup’s new report, ‘The Challenge in Total Telecom Cost Management’ found that mid-size enterprises must address the following issues:

– Inefficient manual processes with 64% of bills were being received in paper format.
– Late payment penalties that are 2% of telecom spend.
– Complex carrier services, contracts, and legacy billing systems produce invoices with error rates of 7% to 12%.
– Eighty percent of the respondents have no formal program to audit for contract compliance.

Telecom costs are difficult to track because they include tangible assets with decentralized inventory spread over multiple locations and intangible services. Move Add Change, Disconnect service order activity creates a moving target that enterprises must reconcile. [Read more…]

LHS Appoints Wolfgang Kroh as new CEO

Posted on Written by

LHS, a leading provider of telecommunications and billing software, has today announced the appointment of its new CEO, Wolfgang Kroh. Previous CEO, Hartmut Lademacher, is to resume his position as Chairman of the Board.

“I was very excited when I came back to work for LHS, because of the immediate acceptance of employees and customers, the affinity I held with the company, and because I knew that it has great potential in the market place,” said Wolfgang Kroh. “The last six months have been extremely prosperous and now as CEO, I will build on that and continue to make this potential a reality.”

Kroh, whose LHS history with the company stems back to 1997, had been Senior Vice President and Managing Director for EMEA from 1997-2000. He rejoined the company as Chief Operating Officer six months ago, and brings with him a wealth of more than 25 years knowledge and experience in IT and telecommunications. [Read more…]

Filed Under: LHS

COLT Purchases cVidya Networks’ MoneyMap® for Revenue Assurance and Data Integrity

Posted on Written by

cVidya Networks, a leader of Telecom Data Integrity and Revenue Assurance Systems, has announced that COLT, a leading European provider of business communications, has purchased cVidya Networks’ MoneyMap® as its Revenue Assurance solution for leased lines and data services. COLT will implement the MoneyMap® solution and software along with cVidya Networks’ professional services. The project will be centrally managed across COLT’s operation that spans 13 European countries.

“We are very excited that COLT has selected cVidya Networks for Revenue Assurance and Data Integrity; this deal represents another one of our ‘recent wins’ in Europe,” said Alon Aginsky, CEO of cVidya Networks. “MoneyMap® will help COLT maintain cost leadership and revenue recovery throughout their European operation, ultimately improving their customer satisfaction.”

COLT will use the revenue assurance solution to ensure that the actual revenue stream for these services matches the expected revenue stream. One of the main drivers for selecting MoneyMap® was to enhance the company’s existing manual based revenue assurance processes. [Read more…]

Amdocs Selected by TELMEX Mexican Directory Publisher ADSA

Posted on Written by

Amdocs (NYSE: DOX – News), a provider of software and services to enable integrated customer management and the intentional customer experience(TM), and Anuncios en Directorios S.A. de C.V. (ADSA), the directory publishing subsidiary of Telefonos de Mexico S.A. de C.V. (TELMEX), has announced that ADSA chose Amdocs to deliver software and associated services to update ADSA’s online yellow pages directories to ensure a better customer experience to consumers and better business value to advertisers.

“Amdocs is already providing us with a centralized, customer-centric online infrastructure that addresses all aspects of the directory publishing process — including online yellow pages — and helps us offer a unique and intentional experience to our customers,” said Benjamin Podoswa Schwaycer, chief executive officer at ADSA.

Amdocs will be the prime systems integrator to replace ADSA’s online search engine software using ApproxiMatch online search engine as a key component of this initiative, and will also provide maintenance services to support the implementation under a six-year contract. [Read more…]

TTI Telecom Announces Special General Meeting of Shareholders

Posted on Written by

TTI Team Telecom International Ltd. (NASDAQ: TTIL), a global supplier of Operations Support Systems (OSS) to communications service providers, has announced that it will hold a Special General Meeting of Shareholders on Thursday, August 10, 2006 at 5:00 p.m. Israel time, at the offices of the Company, located at 7 Martin Gehl Street, Kiryat Aryeh, Petach Tikva, Israel. [Read more…]

Cerillion Implements Broadband Billing Solution for Bulldog Communications

Posted on Written by

Convergent Billing specialist, Cerillion Technologies, has announced the successful implementation of the Cerillion CRM and Billing solution for Bulldog Communications Ltd, a subsidiary of Cable and Wireless in the UK. Cerillion have implemented their Revenue Manager, CRM Plus, Mediator and Information Manager products to support Bulldog’s VoIP and metered broadband services business, and performed the migration of the existing customer base to the new system. [Read more…]

BSG Clearing Solutions Acquires Business Unit From VoiceLog

Posted on Written by

BSG Clearing Solutions North America, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Billing Services Group Limited (AIM: BILL), a leading clearing and settlement, payment and financial risk management solutions group, has announced the acquisition of VoiceLog, LLC’s third party verification (TPV) business. VoiceLog is the world’s leading provider of third party verification services. The all-cash deal values VoiceLog at US$15.63M and will be financed from the existing resources and facilities of the Group. The transaction closed on Friday 30th of June. [Read more…]

Global Technology Transfer Group Announces Availability of Two Telecommunications Patent Portfolios

Posted on Written by

Global Technology Transfer Group, Inc., (GTT) is has recently announced the availability of two key telecommunications patent portfolios. The first portfolio focuses on subscriber services technologies that are currently deployed in the wireless communications industry. This portfolio is specifically applicable to telecommunication service providers on a system level. The Subscriber Services Portfolio includes technologies such as transaction-based billing, short messaging services (SMS), multi-functional subscriber identity modules (SIMs), and changing service profiles based on geo-location capabilities.

The second portfolio focuses on Mobile Radio Networks and includes technologies such as traffic density estimation, cellular handover optimization and short-range communications. [Read more…]

Rogers Communications Selects Amdocs CRM

Posted on Written by

Amdocs (NYSE: DOX – News), a leading provider of software and services to enable integrated customer management and the intentional customer experience(TM), and Rogers Communications, a diversified Canadian communications and media company today announced that Rogers will implement Amdocs CRM across cable, wireless and telecom lines of business. This implementation is part of Rogers’ integrated customer management (ICM) strategy rollout which is designed to provide a consistent customer experience to its more than 10 million subscribers.

“Rogers recognizes that it is important to deliver a consistent and rewarding experience across all channels,” said Stephen Graham, chief marketing officer at Rogers Communications Inc. “After an extensive review of potential solutions, Amdocs was the natural choice to help us achieve this goal. The company understands our challenges and has the proven solutions we need to address them.”

Customers receive a variety of communications services from Rogers, including cable TV, high-speed Internet, wireline and wireless. Rogers strives to ensure a consistent customer experience across all those services. Providing a single view of the customer is part of an ICM strategy, which helps achieve that. ICM provides a framework to organize a company’s infrastructure and resources around customer needs and the customer experience. [Read more…]

Axiom Systems Partners With TierOne OSS Technologies To Deliver Complete Service Fulfillment Solution

Posted on Written by

Axiom Systems, a leader in Service Fulfilment software for communications service providers, has announced a strategic partnership with a leading North American Operations Support System (OSS) consultancy and systems integrator, TierOne OSS Technologies. The partnership will result in the seamless integration of AXIOSS with TierOne™ enSEMBLE, to create the industry’s first integrated Service Fulfillment solution to simultaneously address provisioning and activation requirements across Layer 1 (Optical, Photonic), Layer 2 (Carrier Ethernet, DSL, Broadband) and Layer 3 (VoIP, IPTV) networks.

“Service Providers are under real pressure to address the demands that new converged services are placing on their underlying transport network infrastructure and OSS systems,” said Brad Niven, Axiom System’s Regional Director for the Americas.

AXIOSS is a unique component-based platform that enables Service Provider’s to design, create and deliver next generation services such as IPTV and VoIP over agnostic broadband and IP networks. TierOneâ„¢ enSEMBLE is the telecommunications industry’s leading integrated solution suite for comprehensive transport network management supporting last-gen, this-gen and next-generation services. [Read more…]

Convergys Continues Expansion in Asia Pacific Region

Posted on Written by

Convergys Corporation (NYSE: CVG), a global leader in providing customer care, human resources, and billing services, today announced the continued expansion of its Human Resources Business Process Outsourcing (HR BPO) business in the Asia Pacific region.

“Asia Pacific has garnered a strong reputation as an offshoring location of choice, and having these service centers is an important step in the expansion of Convergys’ presence in this rapidly growing market,” said Nalin Singh, Vice President and Managing Director of Asia Pacific Operations for Convergys. “As part of our strategic expansion efforts, we operate in high-tech locations with a highly skilled talent pool to grow our client base and meet the needs of our clients. Convergys is committed to the Asia Pacific region and we are leveraging the local expertise of our service centers to benefit our clients worldwide.”

Convergys has added to its global HR BPO capacity by opening new or expanding existing service centers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Bangalore, India; Dalian, China; and Singapore. These service centers provide high quality, world-class HR business process outsourcing (BPO) services to more than 150 global and regional Convergys clients. [Read more…]