Pipeline Publishing, Volume 3, Issue 10
This Month's Issue: 
Delivering the Total Package.
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OSS Newswatch
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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.”


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