Insight
06
Edition Nov 2016
Executive Briefing Bi-annual Magazine
Mobile Data Monetization: Planning for 5G › page 10
Redknee Supports Tbaytel’s Digital Transformation › page 18
IoT Prompts New Solutions for New Business Models
Monetizing NFV › page 28
› page 12
INSIGHT / November 2016
Letter from the Editor
Letter from the CEO Agile Monetization in a Time of Transformation
Red Article
Mobile Data Monetization: Planning for 5G
Outside Perspective
Analysys Mason releases its Annual Revenue Management Systems Worldwide Market Share Report
Outside Perspective
Becoming a Digital Telco: Is the Road Map Redundant?
Red Article
Network Function Virtualization
Red Article
Case Study: The Future is Now Real-time BSS in a Multi-vendor, Multi-platform NFV Environment
Red Article
Monetizing NFV
Red Highlights
Red Locations
South Africa
02 06 10 14 16 22 24 28 32 36
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Red News
08
Red Article
12 15 18 23
Redknee Launches Unified in Croatia, Gains HPE Certification and Wins New Business
Resilience and Reliability are Critical to Business Success
Red Partnerships
IoT Prompts New Solution for New Business Models
Outside Perspective
Gartner Magic Quadrant for Integrated Revenue and Customer Management for CSPs
Customer Story
Redknee Supporting the Digital Transformation
Red Article
Digital Disruption
26
Red Article
30
Red Perspective
34 38
Redknee Unified: Flexibility and Scalability for Service Providers
Interview with Redknee CTO, Americas
Beyond the Buzz
Redknee Events
Meet Redknee at a city near you
Letter from the Editor
02
Welcome to our latest edition of INSIGHT Magazine.
O
ur focus in this issue is Agile Monetization - a topic that is becoming increasingly important as consumer expectations are changing, and communication service providers (CSPs) work to deliver more customization and personalization in the services they provide. New technologies like NFV, 5G, and the rise of IoT, will open the door to new products and services, some of which we can’t even imagine. For instance, by 2020, Gartner estimates 100 million consumers will use augmented reality when they shop.
5G and IoT- the Next Monetization Challenge 5G technology will provide faster, lower-latency connections, and the number of devices that can connect to a network will also be dramatically improved. As its impact grows, we will witness the evolution of mobility services, content, and devices as they leverage this new technology. The challenge will be finding ways to monetize this next generation of
connectivity. On page 10, we highlight what service providers will need to be thinking about in preparation for monetizing services in a 5G world. Core to the 5G monetization opportunity is the idea of delivering services over many network “slices”. What does this mean from a business perspective? How will this impact the way products and services are sold and paid for? To dive a bit deeper into that topic, the story on page 12 highlights our exciting new partnership with L&T Technology Services. We have joined forces to create an end-toend, usage-based monetization solution for insurance and fleet management companies that want to provide offerings like usagebased car insurance, car rentals, and even smart home services. By combining real-time, agile monetization capabilities in an IoT world, the possibilities open up for new business models, new markets and new ways of delivering and monetizing services.
NFV and Monetization Platforms Redknee’s commitment to innovation is further highlighted with our focus in the issue on NFV. On page 24 we share a case study of a Latin American service provider that is pushing technological boundaries with its launch of a virtualized network. This article highlights the benefits of integrating online charging as a critical component of a NFV architecture. Delivering the utmost in operational agility, network function virtualization (NFV) architectures provide the ideal platform for real-time BSS and other cloud-based software applications. More insight on this topic can be found on page 28, in an article on Monetizing NFV by Redknee Product Manager, Damian Nowak, who points out that “Revenue management systems are not exempt from the virtualization story; they need to be able to easily adapt to virtualized networks in order to monetize the new capabilities.” Built to provide a more agile environment with simplified operations for launching new services and offerings, NFV
INSIGHT / November 2016
makes the hardware and software lifecycles truly independent. In support of our commitment towards NFV, Redknee recently announced that it has obtained certification for Redknee Unified and Redknee PCS from the HPE OpenNFV Partner Program. As part of the certification process, Redknee and HPE tested Redknee’s product capabilities to deploy, operate, upgrade and scale Virtual Network Functions (VNF’s) on the HPE Helion OpenStack Carrier-Grade platform. For more information on this exciting advancement, see page 22. There is all of this, and a lot more to explore, inside this issue of INSIGHT. In closing, we invite you to stop by and visit if you are attending on of our upcoming events. A snapshot of our calendar can be found on page 38. We look forward to seeing you soon, and hope you enjoy this edition of our magazine. Sincerely, Michaela Radman, Head of Global Marketing and Editor of INSIGHT
Red News
04
Redknee launches Unified in Croatia, Gains HPE Certification and Wins New Business Redknee Signs a MultiMillion Dollar Cloud Deal in LATAM Redknee recently announced that it won a multi-year contract valued at over $5 million with a leading retailer in Latin America. The realtime, end-to-end solution will be delivered from the Redknee Cloud to ensure the easy launch of tailored products, promotions and sales initiatives to improve the retailer’s competitiveness. The Redknee Cloud offers a low-risk business model with minimal initial investment and the flexibility to expand as subscriber numbers increase.
Redknee certified by Hewlett Packard Enterprise OpenNFV Partner Program Redknee continues to invest in its NFV capabilities as service providers increasingly integrate NFV into their business models to improve operational efficiency, support new revenue streams and innovative business models. Redknee Unified and Redknee PCS were recently certified as part of the HPE OpenNFV Partner Program. They are ready to deploy, operate, upgrade and scale virtualized network functions on the HPE Helion OpenStack Carrier-Grade platform.
INSIGHT / November 2016
Redknee wins multi-million dollar contract for Tier 1 CSP in EMEA Redknee won a multi-million dollar contract to deliver Redknee Unified 2016 to a Tier 1 CSP in the EMEA region. The CSP will soon be able to launch innovative real-time analytics driven promotions to improve subscriber satisfaction and retention. Redknee Unified 2016 is an innovative, real-time converged billing and subscriber management solution that can monetize multiple lines of business.
Redknee wins VoLTE upgrade at Tier 1 Operator in Europe for enterprise and consumer markets
Redknee selected to monetize Tbaytel’s multiplay services and support its digital transformation
Redknee won a multi-million dollar contract to deploy the Redknee Unified Application Server, part of Redknee’s monetization and subscriber management suite, at a Tier 1 CSP with more than 30 million subscribers in Europe. The upgrade will enable open API’s and the rapid development of new applications to improve the customer experience for enterprise and consumer customers.
Redknee signed a new digital transformation contract with Tbaytel, the largest independently owned telecommunications service provider in Canada. The solution will consolidate Tbaytel’s existing multiplay service offerings onto a single monetization platform, improving efficiencies and laying the foundation for Tbaytel’s transformation into a digital service provider.
HT Croatia, part of the DT Group, launches Redknee Unified Redknee recently finalized a complex upgrade project at HT Croatia, part of the Deutsche Telekom Group. The upgrade supports future growth opportunities by enabling HT Croatia to launch new and innovative services and implement real-time marketing campaigns. Redknee Unified is an agile platform with the flexibility to quickly react to market conditions and increase competitiveness to foster future growth opportunities.
Letter from the CEO
06
Agile Monetization:
10 Signs the Time is Right to Make a Change
T
he Digital transformations are underway at an increasing number of service providers. Service providers are rethinking their business models, requiring changes in how to compete for their subscriber business by evolving their product and services offering, and how they interact with those subscribers. Continued success will depend upon a strong strategic vision paired with product innovation and relentless execution. As the market matures, external disruptors intensify the competitive forces at play, and margins continue to compress achieving operational excellence has become more critical than ever. New technology platforms, growing partner ecosystems, and ever changing business models are creating huge operational complexities to manage, and this can only be achieved with the right team, increasing automation, and real-time analytics to help adjust. John Boyd’s theories continue to be applicable – the OODA (Observe Orient Decide and Act) loop needs to be traversed faster and faster.
Service providers know that market demand for digital services is there – just look at the opportunities that are opening up thanks to the Internet of Things, which analysts believe could have an economic impact of up to $11 Trillion by the year 2025. The challenge remains the ability for service providers to efficiently monetize this demand into revenue, increase profitability and sustain business differentiation. For these reasons and more, service providers are looking towards creating agile monetization platforms to help future-proof their business and give them the agility and flexibility they need to succeed. What are the signs that CSPs need to move in this direction? When current billing systems and associated services can no longer keep up with the pace of change, the total cost of ownership skyrockets due to an avalanche of change requests (CRs), and the quality of customer services is affected. This appears to be more visible, especially as revenue pressures are exposing the flaws and uncompetitive decisions. At a recent
digital monetization summit hosted by MGI Research, they identified some top indicators that it is time to transition to an agile monetization platform. 10 Signs that you need an Agile Monetization Platform 1. Pricing models are changing faster
than they can be managed 2. Revenue leakage is increasing 3. Spreadsheets and other manual
systems are still in use 4. Products and services take too long
to launch 5. Existing systems are slow and difficult
to work with 6. Provisioning new services is difficult
and requires multiple systems 7. There is no single product catalogue 8. Lengthy financial close 9. No ability to track contract terms and
conditions 10. Invoice confusion and increasing
customer complaints
INSIGHT / November 2016
Agile monetization is about taking advantage of new technologies, knowing your customer and creating personalized experiences
‘‘
Agile monetization is what will help create the successful connected business of tomorrow, and it is why we have chosen this as our theme for this edition of INSIGHT. It goes well beyond traditional billing systems, which tend to be less flexible and unable to support today’s rapid pace of new service offerings. Agile monetization is about knowing your customers and your subscribers, creating more personalized experiences, and being able to manage and charge for every transaction in a real-time, consistent omni-channel approach, across any device, service, market, or delivery method. It is taking advantage of new technologies such as cloud and NFV functionality to increase efficiency, performance and capacity of existing systems to better meet customer and market needs. Cloud-based
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As the scope and mix of services change in service providers’ business models, pricing model requirements needed to execute pricing plans offered to end users are becoming more complex. The simpler the end-user consumption model, the more complex the model used to incorporate the changing nature of the participants in the delivery of services. New ecosystems are forming, creating a growing list of partners and KPIs. New services are being introduced more quickly, and for many service providers, even the industry verticals are changing. They are moving into new markets from home security to e-health, transportation, energy, education and more, and customer expectations are rising as they become more technologically savvy and dependent upon their devices and apps.
Future success will depend upon a strong strategic vision paired with product innovation and operational excellence
technologies can offer the scale needed for growing businesses, while keeping hardware costs down and a platform able to support the latest software. Cloud-based technologies provide an ability to apply the OODA loop by deploying new services, recomposing in a new configuration, and then scaling up rapidly to support a winning formula that we finally arrive upon. This requires a powerful real-time charging engine, analyticsdriven customer insight, and a robust product catalog with the flexibility to construct, change and propagate services into your operations quickly, regardless of how the customer wants to consume and pay for those services. Agile monetization and subscriber management systems are critical to the success of today’s emerging business models as companies tailor services and payment methods to the needs of their customers by offering subscription based, usage based, tiered or bundled pricing models with one-time, prepaid and postpaid payment options. At Redknee, we provide the ability to offer services and products in new and unusual ways, and our analytics and smart pricing capabilities can be used to gain customer insight to help create better value for any business. So if you find yourself checking off some of the items in my list above, it could be time for a change. We offer the most configurable monetization platform on the market, and it has quickly become the real-time engine for connected businesses around the world. Happy OODA looping! Sincerely,
Lucas Skoczkowski, CEO, Redknee
08
Red Article
Resilience and Reliability are Critical to Business Success Redknee partners with clients to achieve reliable and resilient operations
Subscriber base
Multivendor experience
Turnaround time* for tickets
Strong proven processes
280 million subscribers managed by Redknee Managed Services
Experience in managing equipment from multiple vendors
10% faster turnaround time for tickets and 23% faster turnaround for queries
Managed Service Mode of Operations complies to both ITIL and eTOM
INSIGHT / November 2016
T
he telecommunications market is transforming rapidly, with many CSPs now stepping into a new era of digital services. There is a sense of urgency amongst CSPs undertaking BSS
reviews and transformations, as business models need to adapt to prioritize and improve the customer experience in preparation for the digital age. CSPs are also embarking on broader transitions involving the review and modernization of their business support systems and processes, but for many this transition will be lengthy. When undertaking such a large transformation it is easy to focus on technical requirements, without realizing the importance of the implementation strategy and training to maximize the value of the installed system. For many CSPs, the creation of a system with high availability, resilience and reliability is also often overlooked as operators concentrate on day-to-day operational functionality such as policy, billing and charging services. Reliability and resilience are extremely important as the external environment becomes more volatile, and consumers demand and expect continuous service regardless of potential natural disasters or other incidents such as a power outages that can wreak havoc on business operations. Highly available and resilient systems that can continuously perform mission-critical business services are vital to the viability of today’s service providers. If a system, including business processes, is regularly tested this can even create a competitive advantage for many operators. CSPs wanting to improve their agility, return on investment and to achieve greater service reliability need to design, implement and test for different scenarios. Redknee has worked with a number of clients in different parts of the world to create and ‘stress-test’ such scenarios. For the service provider there are many benefits from using Redknee Managed Services, including the ability to identify improvements to company procedures, personnel training, but also to evaluate hardware and software response times in relation to the changing business needs.
Earlier this year one of Redknee’s most valued clients, a leading Tier 1 CSP in the Asia Pacific, experienced a natural disaster. The incident was a once-in-a-100 year flood that destroyed local infrastructure disrupting the supply of electricity, fuel and all forms of transportation, as well as many local services. The CSP had previously engaged Redknee’s Managed Services group to ‘stress test’ its systems and procedures ensuring the company could respond quickly. When discovering the severity of the flood, and the impact on local resources and infrastructure, management quickly invoked procedures that ensured continuous service coverage despite the challenging conditions. The quick reaction time meant the CSP minimized network disruption to less than an hour. Customers were provided with continuous network coverage, charging options and push notifications even when other local businesses and recharge touch points were closed. At the time, no alternative forms of communication such as internet or access to other telecommunication networks were available. While the damage caused by the flood was extensive, the resilience of the installed system supported the operator’s operations for a period of 20 days, and even facilitated the launch of business critical LTE features during this period of time. Once the local infrastructure was repaired, the system was seamlessly switched back to normal operations. The ability of the CSP to quickly adapt to external conditions was possible because of the investment made in preparing for such a scenario. By using Redknee Managed Services to review and stress test its internal operations, and working closely with Redknee to identify the needs and service standard requirements, it was able to successfully manage the business and customer needs in a challenging situation. For more information about how to prepare for an emergency, please contact Saikat Mitra, VP Head of Global Services Business Unit, at sales@redknee.com.
Release quality
Managing the cloud & on premise
Time to market
End-to-End managed services
14% reduction in escaped defects
Expertise in managing onpremise and cloud systems in both on-site and remote mode
18% faster time to market for CRs
The entire gamut of service offerings including optional packages like Revenue Assurance
*based on Redknee evaluations that compare the average turnaround time before and after engaging Redknee managed services
10
Red Article
Mobile Data MonetiZation:
PLANNING FOR
By: Dean Bubley, Founder, Disruptive Analysis
T
he 5G future for mobile data holds great incremental revenue potential for operators – but also uncertainty, as technology choices expand, use-cases evolve and new industry stakeholders jockey for position. While much of the industry rightly focuses on performance and cost drivers – spectrum, virtualized networks, network-sharing and so on – it is also important to start considering the future options for services and monetization. When 4G networks arrived in 2010-12, we were at the inflection point of the smartphone revolution. Android was becoming mainstream, catching and accelerating past Apple’s alreadyinfluential iPhone. But penetration and usage rates for mobile data were still comparatively low – most traffic actually came from laptops with USB “dongles”.
This meant that early monetization models for 4G/LTE were broadly-similar to established 3G ones – essentially “more of the same, but faster”. We mostly stuck with familiar post- and pre-paid subscription plans and quotas, with device subsidies, intended to encourage users to upgrade from their previous voice/SMS-only experience. Thus data revenue growth came from adding new subscribers, rather than increasing data ARPU from existing users. But we have now reached near-saturation of smartphones, at least in developed markets. Declining SMS and (in some markets) telephony revenues has prompted a shift to data-centric bundles, plus some additions like family plans and zero-rated content. This has largely insulated overall revenues, but despite our ever-greater reliance on apps and mobility, a lot of monetization
INSIGHT / November 2016
tactics have been “running to stand still”. More-granular pricing is often offset by competition and indirect substitution, for example by proliferating free WiFi.
›› Mobile data pricing that looks more like insurance premiums, based on calculations of your “risk profile” rather than data volumes.
But 5G may be very different – if the industry puts the ground-work in place now, rather than waiting for 2019-20. While 4G could be argued as being just an upgrade to 3G, the next generation is genuinely a reset for the market. It is being designed upfront for a huge variety of new use-cases, and coincides with both the rise of IoT concepts and increasing network flexibility because of NFV and SDN virtualization. We should aim to innovate around revenue, pricing and BSS capabilities, as well as inventing enhancements to radio capacity and infrastructure platforms.
›› Multiple connections bonded together or load-balanced, perhaps from several networks. (Essentially a mobile variant of the SD-WAN trend seen in enterprises at the moment).
Core to the 5G monetization opportunity is the idea of many network “slices”, rather than just arbitrary customer segments for a single network. Rather than just packaging up a single commodity in many ways, operators should have much greater choice of “raw materials” that they can price, bundle and create business models around. Some of these “slices” may end up looking like highly-customised “super-MVNOs” sharing (mostly) the same underlying network, but the exact shape is unclear. Among the many hypothetical scenarios that might emerge are: ›› Wearable devices with embedded cellular or low-power radios, which have “memberships” rather than subscriptions. ›› Private enterprise cellular networks, using unlicensed bands indoors, but roaming or interconnecting with MNOs in other locations. ›› Device or Internet companies acting as vertically-integrated MVNOs, going well beyond the early variants like Google’s Fi.
›› New combinations of cellular, WiFi and satellite- or drone-based connectivity. ›› Regional or location-specific mobile data pricing, based on small cells or other technologies. ›› Meshes or collaborative groups of devices, sharing connectivity among themselves – perhaps based on a social-network group. ›› New stakeholders such as smart-city administrators offering “amenity” mobile data, or hotel chains offering sponsored “free 5G” to loyal guests. Not all of these concepts will come to fruition – while some may even be applied to 4G rather than waiting for its successor. Some may even look like cannibalisation in the short term, before later growth potential. But all start from a premise of “design thinking”, looking at intentions and realistic behaviours of different customer groups, or market participants. Core to next-generation mobile data monetization is realism – looking for models that actually fit with the way consumers and businesses want to connect, and why. This is a considerable advance on the 2010-era hype about “two-sided markets”, where hoped-for payments from Internet/ content players for extra QoS or so-called “sender-pays” data have proven largely to have been wishful thinking; new concepts need to be practically-achievable, permitted by regulations and, crucially, underpinned by a willingness to pay.
But while it is good to dream, many aspects of 5G remain unclear at the moment. Standardisation is only just starting, while the number of new stakeholders is proliferating. It’s not unusual to see car manufacturers, Internet players, industrial-sector specialists and governments at 5G conferences, looking to influence technology and deployment models for future networks. 5G coincides with massmarket IoT solutions of various types, as well as more flexible networks courtesy of NFV and SDN – and they too retain considerable unpredictability. Unfortunately, the bulk of influence in defining 5G is being wielded just by the technologists. While more emphasis is being placed on use-cases this time around, the fundamental building-blocks do not necessarily include all the enablers for the types of services suggested here. Disruptive Analysis believes more people from operators’ customer-facing teams – and their BSS suppliers – should be lobbying for 5G mindshare and posing “what if?” scenarios to the standardsdevelopment groups. But notwithstanding that, it is criticallyimportant to retain “agility” and “optionality” in mobile data monetization. By considering as many future scenarios as possible, we can protect ourselves against more unknowns, and exploit more “emergent” unexpected trends. New types of MVNOs, new business models for quality/performance, new methods of “slicing” mobile data networks, monetizable analytics, and much more are all possibilities. In other words, as mobile networks accelerate through the second half of this decade, operators need their IT and network platforms to be malleable, scalable and flexible more than ever. There needs to be experimentation, vision and more appetite for risk, not just “more of the same”.
Red Partnerships
12
Smart Utility Billing
IoT Prompts New Solutions for New Business Models Leveraging L&T Technology Services’s Engineering Prowess for Cross-selling IoT Monetization
Usage Based Car Rental
T
This naturally calls for diverse expertise and sharing of data between companies from varied industries. A company’s ability to gather, aggregate, analyze and transform diverse pieces of data into consumable information and business value has suddenly become an important part of business and a differentiator.
Public Internet L&T TS Service L&T Enabling Platform
Portal & Mobile Application
UBI L&T IoT/ cloud Platform
Fleet Rental
Public Internet
Secure Device Mgmt Platform
Monetization Site (Redknee Server) polic
y
Embedded Automation Drive
ge
a
data
m e nt
m on
The partnership has developed customized solutions by integrating Redknee’s Connected Suite with
The solution enables enterprises and service providers to provision, monitor, control and visualize their IoT based managed services in real-time. Businesses can therefore benefit from
m an
Redknee, a leader in real-time monetization solutions, recently partnered with L&T Technology Services, a leading engineering services company catering to vertical markets including telecom and hi-tech, transportation, process, industrial products and healthcare.
L&T Technology Services’ IoT / Cloud platform to provide end-point connectivity, advanced analytics and monetization in one integrated platform and agnostic solution.
et
L&T Technology Services
iz a ti o n
Complete System Integration Portal Development Mobile Application
he Internet of Things (IoT) is disrupting traditional business structures with companies increasingly moving from ownership to usage, leasing and service based business models. In the April 2016 edition of Insight Magazine, the concept of the IoT partner ecosystem was discussed including the requirement to share data from multiple sources to maximize the value to both the business and the customer.
Monetizing Smart Home Services
INSIGHT / November 2016
Bridging Smart IoT Services with Smart Monetization.
Smart Utility Billing
Usage Based Insurance
faster and efficient decision making and operations, improved profitability and better management of the IoT and partner ecosystem.
Public Internet Gateway
polic
y
Embedded Automation Drive
Monetization Site (Redknee Server)
ge
a
data
m e nt
m on
With such a solution, an insurance company can offer discounts to encourage safe driving behavior and help fleet management companies estimate wear and tear of vehicles. The solution also enables the end customer to access their account information in real-time to review charges and account information using a mobile application or web based
L&T IoT/ cloud Platform
m an
L&T Technology Services and Redknee have joined forces to create an endto-end solution for insurance and fleet management companies. It leverages the L&T Technology Services Usage Based Insurance (UBI) and Usage Based Fleet rental solutions suite, and uses embedded automotive gateways to capture data on multiple driving parameters - such as hard breaking and sudden accelerations to analyzing driver behavior. This information then feeds into the Redknee monetization engine to enable the creation of flexible and fair-plans for end-subscribers.
Secure Device Mgmt Platform
et
iz a ti o n
L&T Technology Services portal. These solutions have been successfully tested on our partners’ gateways and device management platforms.
telecommunications companies
This is just one example of the solution, with other applications able to assist other organizations including
revenue models, new segments and
and digital service providers. The implementation of innovative IoT and connectivity solutions can tap new enhance the customer experience to provide greater value to end-users.
14
Outside Perspective
Analysys Mason releases its
Annual Revenue Management Systems Worldwide Market Share Report
Convergent systems account for the second largest services spend of CSP’s in the revenue management segment, with growth in the convergent billing segment exceeding Analysys Mason estimates in 2015. The demand was driven
by the number of service providers undertaking transformation projects and consolidating their billing systems to improve their ability to react to market conditions, including the digital economy. The report recognized Redknee as one of the top 5 convergent billing vendors in the world, increasing its market share to 8% of the global product-related convergent billing market. Redknee’s strong market
‘‘
share reflects strong and continuing demand for its agile end-to-end converged billing solutions able to monetize new revenue streams, support new and existing business models and deliver a consistent omni-channel experience in telecommunications and other vertical industries. To read the Analysys Mason full report, please go to: https://goo.gl/eP3ocA
Analysys Mason continues to see a strong shift in CSP business models resulting in transformation projects and demand for convergent systems.
‘‘
A
nalysys Mason recently launched its annual report of the Revenue management systems market. The annual publication tracks the market share of communication service provider spending on telecom specific revenue management software systems and related services. The revenue management market consists of postpaid and prepaid billing, convergent billing, mediation, policy management, partner and interconnect systems and was valued at USD 6.3 billion in 2015.
-John Abraham, Analysys Mason
INSIGHT / November 2016
Gartner Magic Quadrant for Integrated Revenue and Customer Management for CSPs Redknee Recognized as a Visionary in 2016
G
artner released its 2016 Magic Quadrant for Integrated Revenue and Customer Management (IRCM) for Communications Service Providers (CSPs). The IRCM Magic Quadrant evaluates solution suites that provide billing, customer care, rating, charging, pricing, partner relationship management, policy management, mediation, selfservice and analytics for CSPs. The report advises CSP CIOs looking for commercial software packages that address businesscritical revenue and customer management processes. The report positions Redknee as a visionary, reflecting the depth of Redknee’s product portfolio, including the ability to offer all IRCM components to service
providers. The strength of the Redknee product portfolio comes from continued investment in developing new and advanced functionality such as VoLTE and virtualization, as well as investment in partner, OTT , multiplay and non-CSP monetization solutions. In addition, Redknee was also recognized for its successful expansion into several vertical markets (including energy, automotive and transportation), its strong global reach, and the company’s ability to quickly respond and react to customer requests while providing a high quality of service to ensure high client satisfaction. To read Gartner’s full analysis of the IRCM Magic Quadrant for CSPs, please go to https://goo.gl/ tHQGOj
Outside Perspective
16
Becoming a Digital Telco:
Is the road map redundant? By: Alex Leslie, Founder, DisruptiveViews
The question is no longer whether telcos need to transform their businesses into something that resembles Google or Facebook, but how. Whether fuelled by fear or by excitement, the race is on and, crucially, the political will is right behind the transformation. What any given telco will look like in two to three years time will vary. What we know is that the model will be more transactional than telcos are used to, very much less focused on contracts and post-paid regularity. Payments will be the new billing. Customer service will move to center stage. And Millennials will want their data for free. This means that partnerships will become critical to a telco’s business viability. The burning issue is how to transform the business in a timescale that telcos have never even contemplated before. There are, essentially, five choices.
INSIGHT / November 2016
Turning round a juggernaut The first choice is a massive IT transformation, or the speeding up of a massive IT transformation. Whilst such an upheaval may well be necessary and are generally on-going, large transformations take a long time, carry very real and very large risks and will almost certainly not deliver in time. To go digital fast, the term ‘road map’ and ‘fit it in in the next evolution’ is probably not one that C-Level executives want to hear. As far as massive transformations go, only contemplate them if the machine is broken.
Find a trusted partner The second choice is to take the managed services route, remembering that managed service is not another term for outsourcing. In a survey carried out a year or so ago, the majority of telcos were planning on using managed services, in some form, in their IT environments. A key finding was that the drivers behind the decision, while very much focused on the financial benefits, involved a number of other issues as well. As one head of IT said at the time, [when choosing a managed services partner] “IT capabilities are a given, trust is vital, speed is important and partnership (or lack of it) is a deal breaker.” Never hand over key business processes if they are not working like clockwork already. The managed services option definitely makes sense, if all those requirements from a partner are in place. If they are, the telco can focus on core business, enjoy the benefits of a partner whose constant focus is future requirements and realize significant cost savings.
Can you bolt on agility? The ‘bolt-on’ approach is popular and relatively risk free. Rather than overhaul everything, the bolt-on approach allows telcos to add specific functionality while minimizing the knock-on effects to the rest of the IT stack. This approach has been widely used in areas such as real-time for postpaid customers, to add ‘balance management’ functionality and flexibility. The same approach could definitely be used to transform the business into a customer centric, payments focused, transactional business.
Rip it up and start again An approach which is becoming very popular is the ‘green field’ approach. Knowing that time is against them, the argument goes, why should telcos not start afresh? There are many benefits to doing this. By starting again, and by having a clean piece of paper, business managers can be as innovative as they want to be. They can design an IT environment without having to even think about ‘legacy.’ They can cut significant costs out of the business while building in flexibility and they can completely overhaul outdated processes such as customer service. They can design and implement omnichannel customer support, and, if necessary, cut out old fashioned channels that were costly and cumbersome. Even Tier 1 telcos are either actively considering this approach, or are implementing it. In this model, customers supported by older systems can be migrated into the new environment gradually. This
means, of course, that some customers will end up still on the old systems. But keeping old systems running, without the need to do anything much to them, is a lot easier than trying to transform them or upgrade them.
A new brand and a fresh start A slight twist on this approach is for a telco to establish its own MVNO. As well as the benefits to be had by starting again, it allows the telco to target a particular segment of the market, which could be anything from the Internet of Things, or a segment of that, or, for instance, the Millennials. This has the added benefit of giving the telco the opportunity to launch a new brand, better suited to the target segment. Many telcos are actively looking at their brands and weighing up whether they are still relevant, while at the same time considering how best to become a digital telco. One thing is for sure. If telcos grasp this opportunity now and really focus on it, they have the potential to end up at the other end of the spectrum to the ‘dumb pipe’ that is endlessly discussed. Technology will be a key enabler and 5G, hand in hand with a flexible, virtualized environment and corresponding billing, charging and payment solutions, will be the recipe for success. Ultimately, network flexibility, charging flexibility, security and trust are all assets, and customer support can become one too. Whatever the technology or mix of technologies that telcos deploy to achieve this flexibility, they will be in a position to deliver packages and offers, in conjunction with digital service providers, that are, finally, customer focused. And once the challenges of personalization have finally been solved, they will be in poll position.
Customer Story
18
Redknee Supporting
the Digital Transformation I n the last year the digital services market has often been discussed across the industry, including the transformation of communication service providers (CSPs) into digital service providers (DSPs). It is well known that CSPs continue to operate in an increasingly challenging market with changing market dynamics and competition from non-traditional players. Consumers are more cost conscious, but at the same time demand the latest technology and a high quality of service. Digital services are therefore popular
as they offer more tailored services and communications that meet the needs of the subscriber and support across their preferred channels of communication. For many, the time has come to transform themselves into digital service providers to remain relevant and to bring their stakeholders additional business benefits, such as lower operational expenditure and a better return on investment. For CSPs transforming into digital services providers, it means adapting their business models to create a more meaningful relationship with subscribers by using personalized communications and
INSIGHT / November 2016
The market is now starting to see some CSPs review their business and start their transformation. For
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example, Tbaytel, the largest independently owned operator in Canada, recently engaged Redknee to transform its business support systems. This involves consolidating Tbaytel’s existing multi-play services on a central platform that can also support its digital transformation. To transform into a digital service provider, CSPs will need to modernize their business support systems to implement agile policy, billing, marketing and campaign support systems that transcend traditional silos or internal boundaries to support the client across the entire business.
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value added services. Success will be dependent on creating a customer experience which keeps customers engaged, and where telcos can digitally interact with customers according to their preferences. To be successful CSPs need to have a greater understanding of their subscriber base, including the delivery of tailored services and an understanding of what drives customer loyalty. In addition, they need to implement realtime response and customer support services across multiple channels, including social media.
We are thrilled to be embarking on this project with Redknee, which I have no doubt will be truly transformative for the way we conduct business throughout every level of the Tbaytel organization. -Dan Topatigh, Tbaytel’s President and CEO
Looking Beyond W
elcome to Redknee’s new e-book series, Looking Beyond. Written by some of the brightest minds in the industry, Redknee’s e-book series features thought-provoking topics across a variety of the industry’s most critical subject areas— digital transformation, NFV virtualization, and monetizing the Internet of Things (IoT).
A New E-Book Series from Redknee
INSIGHT / November 2016
Volume I:
Digital Transformation
I
n the first volume of the new e-book series, industry leaders like Ovum and Disruptive Analysis share how to jumpstart your digital transformation to grow your bottom line. They discuss the ins and outs on how the digital economy is creating new opportunities for monetization and what communication service providers need to do to become a digital service provider in the future. Download your copy now, and discover how you can succeed in the new digital economy.
Volume II:
NFV Virtualization
Volume III:
Monetizing the IoT
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Red Article
Network Function
Virtualization N
etwork Function Virtualization (NFV) has increasingly been an area of focus for many service providers as they seek greater utilization and efficiency in their operations. In fact, an article on page 28 called Monetizing NFV points to a number of projects happening across the globe. However, this is still an evolving area with recent research by Heavy Reading indicating that NFV deployments have yet to reach maturity, and only approximately 20% of providers have a solid strategy in place. The remainder are either without a NFV strategy or have not started to execute it. While only a moderate percentage have a strategy in place there is significant interest in NFV as providers make decisions about the future direction of their companies. For providers, interoperability and integration of new solutions are critical to the future direction of the company, prompting many to consider OPNFV solutions. These solutions provide greater flexibility to those wanting a more innovative approach to their business and service offerings in the future.
Redknee is at the forefront of this change having invested in its NFV capabilities for some time. Redknee has a fully NFV compliant solution offering real-time monetization, policy and subscriber
management functionality. Redknee’s best of breed NFV compliant solution can support multi-vendor and multi-platform environments to improve operational efficiency and to support new revenue streams and business models. Recently, Redknee announced that it has obtained certification for Redknee Unified and Redknee PCS from the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) OpenNFV Partner Program further demonstrating the high quality and adaptability of the Redknee solution. As part of the certification process, Redknee and HPE tested Redknee’s product capabilities to deploy, operate, upgrade and scale Virtual Network Functions (VNF’s) on the HPE Helion OpenStack Carrier-Grade platform, including Redknee Unified and Redknee’s policy management software, Redknee PCS. Redknee is committed to innovation and driving the adoption of NFV technologies to enhance business performance and support new offerings, revenue streams and business models. Redknee’s solution brings increased scalability with real-time charging and policy applications available as virtual network functions meet the evolving needs of communications service providers (CSP), even as they evolve into digital service providers (DSP).
INSIGHT / November 2016
Digital Disruption Digital disruption is increasingly important as service providers adapt to changing consumer attitudes and consumption models impacting how we live, work and play.
What is digital disruption? The adoption of technology including digital services is changing our habits, some examples are;
Devices -
shift from PC’s to mobile and touch devices
Content -
shift from fragmented content to connected content across multiple channels
Video -
the consumption of scheduled TV programming to on-demand videos and entertainment
Retail -
from a focus on distribution channels to the customer experience
Customer care -
from a reactive to a proactive approach
How are companies reacting?
Creating Competitive Advantage - The collection and use of data is critical to doing business, as multiple data sets can significantly improve campaign effectiveness, especially when using real-time applications such as Redknee Smart Pricing. Multi-device consumption - Consumers are increasingly using multiple devices. Companies are now starting to catch-up as they adapt the way they communicate with their customers and the structure of their service offerings. Redknee’s adaptive quota handling application institutively learns consumption patters across devices, enabling the end-user to maximize the use of their services. Meanwhile, Redknee Unified applications take care of pro-actively reaching the customer with offers across the multitude of devices they are using - through the most commonly trafficked channels - social media, device notification or online self-care. Any-play Services - Companies are now thinking beyond their traditional service offering to offer products and services from partners and third parties broadening their solution portfolio. Telcos are trusting vendors with experience beyond converged billing to relaunch themselves into the market with multiple services. Redknee Unified’s platform boasts cross-service bundling capabilities and an ultra flexible product catalog to suit the multiplay market.
Improving efficiency - Companies are using technology including cloud, NFV and other solutions to improve cost efficiency, maximize the value of existing technology and support more flexible business models and business requirements. Redknee has a fully NFV compliant solution offering real-time monetization, policy and subscriber management functionality.
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Red Article
Case Study
The Future is Now
Real-time BSS in a Multi-vendor, Multi-platform NFV Environment
Service providers are gearing up to offer a broader array of digital products and services and tap into new markets. The introduction of virtualized, elastically scalable online charging systems will be key to future success. Delivering the utmost in operational agility, network function virtualization (NFV) architectures provide the platform for real-time BSS and other cloud-based software applications. Built to provide a more agile environment with simplified operations for launching new services and offerings, NFV makes the hardware and software lifecycles truly independent. With NFV, service providers can instantly add needed functionality and/or capacity to support not just new services, but also new revenue streams. The ability for service providers to dynamically provision network components, services and applications, in a matter of minutes, rather than the weeks or months typically required, allows them to be more responsive to changing capacity requirements and customer demands brought on by these new services and business models.
This case study illustrates the benefits of integrating online charging as a critical component of a NFV architecture. Online Charging Systems need to become a part of virtualized networks, their flexibility and responsiveness must match the flexibility of the network that is generating chargeable events. The Virtualized Network-as-a-Service: Our Client’s Approach for Supporting New Revenue Streams The Latin American telecom market is highly competitive and diverse. It includes many wireless carriers, several mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), and a
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new breed of enterprise partners actively pursuing new digital markets that go beyond traditional telco services. To address this growth opportunity, our client, a leading mobile network operator in the region, decided to create a more cost-effective, agile environment to support and expand its telecom business with multiple partner enterprises. To do this effectively, they needed to optimize the network, reduce operational costs and automate operational processes. The target multi-tenant infrastructure would have to scale dynamically, be able to constantly shift network demands, and efficiently manage and protect resources,
Online Charging Systems need to become a part of virtualized networks, their flexibility and responsiveness must match the flexibility of the network.
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The Opportunity
INSIGHT / November 2016
while fulfilling stringent demands of telcograde availability to support low-latency, mission-critical applications, including real-time charging. Our client wanted a network architecture that would take them well into the future, outperforming competitors with modern technologies, and transforming them into a true ‘digital partner ecosystem of tomorrow’. NFV was considered to be the best way to gain the added agility while optimizing network resources. In addition, it would allow our client to become a provider of virtualized network services for their digital partners (such as MVNOs), delivering Network-as-a-Service functionality that could quickly scale up or down as needed. NFV Ready Our Client went with a multi-vendor, NFV-based approach, deciding to create one of the most cutting-edge wireless networks in the world. A network utilizing new European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)-defined NFV standards, paired with COTS hardware, OpenStack-compatible software and various virtualized network functions (VNFs) that would span across three different NFV platforms. Redknee was selected to provide the realtime online charging component (OCS) as a virtual network function (VNF). Other vendors provided Enhanced Packet Core (EPC) systems and the three underlying NFV platforms. The key objectives of the proof of concept were: >> to verify the interoperability between virtual network functions themselves and the three NFV platforms, >> to verify operational aspects to meet the highest standards for installation, availability and performance, >> to verify horizontal and vertical scalability.
Success and Next Steps Redknee’s NFV-friendly architecture has performed flawlessly during the first phase of this two phase project, exceeding the operator’s expectations in performance and scalability. The fact that the solution had previously been successfully deployed in an OpenStack environment helped to streamline the process. Redknee also performed exceptionally well in interoperability testing sessions, adhering to all NFV platform and 3GPP interface requirements when relating to other VNFs within the network. In fact, all interface adaptations and API re-configurations and functions were managed with ease by Redknee’s highly skilled implementation team. Redknee’s NFV-ready OCS and Policy Control Solution (PCS) are certified for the HPE Helion OpenStack carrier-grade platform. They include their own VNF manager, which utilizes a rolling approach to support system updates - without service interruption and without the need for additional resources, saving the operator both time and money. With these capabilities, Redknee VNFs are not only ready for commercial deployments, but they are prepared for continuous live operation, and able to execute all essential lifecycle changes that happen every day within a dynamic network environment. As expected in any complex engagement there were some hurdles to overcome, but these challenges were met and
managed in a timely fashion. Our ability to seamlessly integrate with other solutions, including working with any VNF manager, proved especially critical in this multi-vendor environment, allowing the operator to choose a best-of-breed approach that ensured top results without costly customization or requiring vendor lock-in; a top priority for this operator. The completed first phase of the project has resulted in a fully redundant, highly-available, carrier-grade system that provides this operator with the competitive edge they were looking for. Converged charging that easily and quickly scales to meet the needs of this operator’s digital partners and enterprises. As an example, a MVNE will be able to offer each MVNO its own virtual network with features and capabilities designed to meet their personalized needs and requirements. Phase 2 is currently under development and will include automated, selfoptimizing features like self-healing and auto-scaling, which will allow the operator to further leverage the benefits of automation, including better network performance and resource allocation. Redknee’s leadership and vision aligns perfectly with these initiatives and we are well prepared to support this innovative CSP, and others like them, well into the future. For more information about Redknee’s NFV-ready solutions, visit www.redknee.com.
Red Article
26
Redknee Unified
Flexibility & Scalability
for Service Providers
W
e live in a rapidly changing world where people are constantly connected: in command, informed, social, and always on. Moving at this new speed means delivering what customers want, when they want it and adapting to changes in customer demand faster than the competition. Redknee Unified is an award winning solution that helps service providers monetize next generation services in real time—no matter the type of service, customer or business model. With its unique modular design and agile real-time charging, billing, policy and customer care capabilities, Redknee Unified enables service providers to monetize
new revenue streams, launch new services faster and deliver an improved customer experience. Redknee Unified brings unmatched flexibility and scalability for service providers to accelerate their growth plans today, and be better equipped for the future. The release of Redknee Unified 2016 has simplified operations for CSPs to serve multiple business lines, offer product catalogue transparency, reduce churn and increase profitable customer interactions. The ability to be deployed in virtualized environments and to build marketing offers using easily configurable building blocks makes our Redknee Unified 2016 our most agile release to date.
INSIGHT / November 2016
Monetizing Any-Play Services Any Play Monetization
CSPs now have the ability to leverage a single revenue management solution to monetize and bundle multiple lines of business, such as mobile, fixed line, cable, and other in-house or partner services such as energy or home security services. Redknee Unified 2016 allows CSPs to introduce cross-service offerings that open new revenue streams and increase customer loyalty.
Creating a Digital Customer Experience Catalog Driven BSS
Customers want access to the same products and services regardless of the channel used to purchase them. Redknee Unified 2016 includes a pre-integrated product catalog and order management system that enables an omni-channel customer experience. CSPs can streamline offers and deliver a consistent customer shopping experience across website, smartphone, retail store or call center channels – reducing costs, improving delivery speed and enhancing customer satisfaction at every touch point.
Reducing Customer Churn Smart Pricing
As mobile markets become saturated and subscriber growth slows, CSPs must turn their attention to protecting the existing customer base from attrition. When dealing with a subscriber about to churn, it has been proven that a modern consumer responds more favorably to
personalized offers than to market-wide promotions. Smart Pricing uses network and device insights to help identify potential churn and deliver targeted, automated marketing promotions triggered by each subscriber’s unique digital experience – sending timely offers designed to promote customer loyalty and reduce churn.
Data Sharing and Data Gifting Data Monetization
Redknee Unified 2016 has productized new data sharing and data gifting use cases that can launched to market with a few clicks of configuration. The many permutations of Data Sharing - within a family group, an organization, or without boundaries at all – has been a highly sought after consumer incentive in data-hungry markets. The consumers’ enthusiasm for data helps CSPs to more quickly evolve networks to 4G/5G.
Gain Agility and Scalability Cloud/NFV
The demands of a world with more connected devices – and more monetization opportunities – will push a CSPs capacity to its maximum. CSPs can eliminate the endless repetition of capacity expansion projects by leveraging virtualization. To gain agility and scalability, CSPs are moving to the cloud and virtualizing both IT and core network services. Unified 2016 brings to the market real-time charging and policy applications in cloud environments, regardless of the architecture.
Red Article
28
Monetizing
NFV By: Damian Nowak
T
here have been a number of network transformation projects happening across the globe in recent months. These transformation projects range from smaller, friendly proof of concepts, e.g. in VIP Macedonia, as well as large multi-year projects, e.g. AT&T`s Domain 2.0 and Vodafone Ocean. According to Virtuapedia, an ongoing research project that defines the scope of the business opportunity that virtualization affords communications service providers (CSPs), approximately 37% of the communications industry is planning to virtualize a majority of network resources by 2019.
What do all these initiatives have in common? The ultimate goal is to build a fully open, auto-scalable, virtualized network that is able to adapt to challenging market conditions in today`s fast-moving, always-online world. Adaptability being the key term. Revenue management systems are not exempt from the virtualization
story; they need to be able to easily adapt to virtualized networks in order to monetize the new capabilities.
The challenges of virtualization when it comes to billing Virtualized networks (consisting of platforms and applications running
on them) enable extreme flexibility when it comes to adapting network capacity for different services according to current usage, or demand generated by connected subscribers. If you aren’t familiar with it, the standards body ETSI has created an initiative called NFV which provides a sound framework for making core network virtualization possible. Virtualized Network Functions (VNF) deployed in virtualized infrastructure platforms scale independently, but in a controlled manner assured by NFV orchestration systems, such
INSIGHT / November 2016
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The ultimate goal is to build a fully open, auto-scalable, virtualized network.
as RIFT.IO, in order to efficiently serve subscribers according to their changing usage patterns. While virtualization promises ultimate flexibility, often it is the legacy, bare-metal revenue management solutions that cannot adapt as flexibly as other network functions and therefore force CSPs to add
protective layers in the orchestration layer. A recent VanillaPlus Roundtable session discussed strategies to mitigate the deployment risks of a virtualized network. Among others, the inflexibility of physical network functions in terms of capacity management was identified as a significant deployment risk. While there are products that help control the network adaptation processes - and ultimately protect external system - from overloading, this is actually counterintuitive to the self-adapting nature of virtualized networks. This imposes new requirements for a revenue management system operating in virtualized networks; The flexibility and responsiveness of the revenue management system dealing with virtualized network functions must match the flexibility of the
network, which generates chargeable events. Having a network able to provide nearly unlimited services and capacity without a revenue management system which is able to monetize them, well, makes little to no sense. In fact, the whole concept (and investment) of virtualization would then come into question.
Characteristics of a virtualized revenue management system What does a revenue management system require in order to fit into a scalable network ecosystem? It must be as scalable as the network itself. Key characteristics of a scalable revenue management system include: >> Modularized, multi-tier architecture >> Horizontal scalability >> Adaptability to different NFV-I platforms >> Adaptability to different NFV orchestration platforms
Click here to read about the characteristics of a virtualized revenue management system. Redknee’s work in virtualization is enabling its clients to go to market confidently with a revenue management system designed to work seamlessly with any OpenStack-based NFV platform. Whether you are looking for a hybrid approach, private deployment or working in a public cloud environment, Redknee Unified is the key to monetizing your NFV investment.
Red Perspective
30
Interview with Redknee CTO, Americas Congratulations, Nitin, on your recent appointment as Regional CTO for Americas. 1. Why do you think it’s important now, more than ever, for Redknee to have a CTO presence regionally? Nitin Singhal: A regional CTO presence is something our customers have been asking for, as operators want to engage us in meaningful discussions about the direction of their business and the challenges they face. It’s important for them to hear clarity in our vision, strategic focus, and how we, as a software and services provider, will enable and support their business. By having continuous conversations with our clients at the executive level, we can jointly be more successful. 2. What would you identify as the biggest challenge to operators who want to go through a digital transformation? Our customers operate in highly competitive markets, with many using transformations to re-evaluate their offerings and implement new technologies to remain competitive. For every operator the scope and nature of a transformation differs, but it is the complexity and sheer size of the project makes a transformation a huge undertaking. For many the biggest challenge is simplification.
The industry has become accustomed to building bigger, offering more, and patching complicated systems, making simplification a concept that most operators have a hard time accepting. The key to a successful transformation is focusing on how to implement simple offerings, processes and business procedures that add value to the business and end user. 3. What can an operator do to ensure they are working towards a digital transformation and not just a digital upgrade? For operators a full transformation goes beyond upgrading technology, it also includes business operations and the user experience. To achieve quick and efficient interactions with the end-user, operators need to review the business culture, strategy, operations and processes to remove unnecessary steps and allow technology to automate processes, whenever possible. Doing a thorough business alignment upfront is the key to a successful digital transformation project. Redknee has created significant value for our clients by combining the outcomes of
process simplification reviews with the streamlining of back-end systems. 4. Five years from now, when many operators have gone through and completed digital transformations, what comes next? In an ideal world, operators will have systems in place that make them agile, allowing them to launch new business lines and monetize partnerships. It will be critical for operators to work pro-actively beyond their current core mobility and communications businesses. More than ever, an operator’s success will hinge on the partnerships they form with Small, Medium, Large enterprises. Operators have to find a role where they are in the center of the upcoming new business models. They need to play on their strengths - for example, by marketing themselves as settlement providers - given over the top (OTT) players and new connected enterprises will need a reputable entity to perform settlement, especially when revenue sharing models are used.
INSIGHT / November 2016
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More than ever an operator’s success will hinge on the partnerships they form with small, medium and large enterprises.
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It will be exciting to see this transformation and help operators rise to the opportunities created by M2M and IoT industries. 5. You have recently celebrated 15th anniversary with Redknee. What do you like most about working at Redknee? There are so many things about this organization that have excited and driven me to continue to grow my career here. First of all, I have long appreciated the core values that our organization is built upon. Redknee offers great opportunities to our employees for career growth, we value our customers and their success, and bring innovation and collective teamwork to projects. There are very few companies that are able to bring innovative and quality solutions to market while competing with industry giants. We have proven that operators thrive with vendors who put their customer’s needs first and bring leading edge solutions and services. Each member of our team places focus and attention in everything they do. Redknee is completely invested in the service of making the customer successful.
Nitin Singhal , Regional CTO, Americas
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REd Highlights TM Forum Live The event is one of the largest on the calendar, with over 3,000 attendees coming together to discuss themes that include agile operations, analytics, customer centricity, Internet of Things, Smart Cities, IT Transformation and new technologies such as 5G. Redknee attended TM Forum, hosting a number of client and analyst meetings offering demonstrations and participating in industry discussion.
INSIGHT / November 2016
LTE India LTE India is a unique event focusing on the development of LTE technology across the Indian subcontinent. More than 500 people attended the event to network and discuss industry topics about the development of LTE technology in India. This year, Redknee was a presenting partner, joining discussions in the inaugural address and conference streams in addition to having a booth to meet with clients and industry participants.
Sierra Wireless Innovation Summit The Sierra Wireless summit is dedicated to the future of the Internet of Things, showcasing innovative solutions, new technologies and deployments. Redknee participated in the summit together with its new partner L&T Technology Services demonstrating IoT architecture to support enterprises in the transport, energy and insurance industries.
34
Beyond the Buzz
Learn How One Hospital Uses PokĂŠmon GO to Help Patients Physical therapy for young patients is more enjoyable with the popular application Pokemon Go (P
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The Next Must-Have Smartphone Feature Augmented reality feature for smartphone apps will be not only support electronic games, but shopping and other competences.
TechnologyReview.com https://goo.gl/AAjW3p
INSIGHT / November 2016
Building smarter wearables for healthcare Developers are analyzing how to maximize the information provided by wearables to improve health or predict illnesses.
IBM https://goo.gl/p4XHjN
Smartphone-Connected Contact Lenses Give New Meaning to ‘Eye Phone’ Bluetooth devices transform information into Wi-Fi signals - a revolutionary development for medical devices.
LiveScience https://goo.gl/1yRKwk
World’s first self-driving taxis debut in Singapore Self-driving taxis are now a reality, Singapore is trialing the driverless service.
Phys.org https://goo.gl/CGnyDL
Red Locations
SOUTH AFRICA
INSIGHT / November 2016
S
outh Africa is the rainbow nation – a term used to express the diversity of its people and wide variety of landscapes. South African landscapes are amongst the most stunning in the world and include the second highest waterfall in the word, Tugela Falls, and the third largest canyon in the world, Blyde River canyon, as well as abundant unique wildlife such as the leatherback turtle. Its cities are also remarkable - with Cape Town famous for its blue sky and many attractions. Economically South Africa has the second largest economy in Africa and is one of the largest platinum producers in the world, and its digital and telecom market are thriving as mobile penetration ranks among the highest in the world. For Redknee and its customers, South Africa brings much opportunity. Redknee’s office in Johannesburg has members of the Redknee technical support, sales and services teams that service customers throughout South Africa and in other neighboring nations such as Lesotho and Botswana. To make contact with a member of our South African office, please contact marketing@redknee.com.
38
INSIGHT / November 2016
Africacom Cape Town, South Africa November 15-17, 2016 https://goo.gl/CF7BMP
MWC 2017 Barcelona, Spain February 27-March 2, 2017 https://goo.gl/CZo03s
TM Forum Live Nice, France May 15-18, 2017 https://goo.gl/YFRO72
Redknee Corporate Headquarters 2560 Matheson Boulevard East Mississauga, Ontario Canada L4W 4Y9 Tel: +1 905 625 2622 Fax: +1 905 625 2773 www.redknee.com