Q1|17 issue (Jan/Feb/Mar)

in r u fo yo a e lon se ce ar B

THE GLOBAL VOICE FOR B/OSS

Q1 I January / February / March 2017 Volume 19 Issue 1 ISSN 1745-1736

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ANALYST REPORT – NFV Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan explores hybrid orchestration and management challenges

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NFV

TALKING HEADS EXFO's Philippe Morin asks whether your network is smart enough to pass the virtualisation IQ test?

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ANALYST REPORT – IoT Machina Research says CSPs don't have to be beggars to gain their share of IoT revenues

Are you ready for the virtual reality?

PLUS: Redknee strikes new US$83.2m investment deal ■ Procera Networks reports record growth ■ Why UK regulator fined EE £2.7m ■ Syniverse report reveals countries with the most fraud attacks ■ AsiaInfo to scale down European operations ■ Comptel receives Indian tax refunds ■ Openet launches new Accelerate unit ■ UXP Systems on why CSPs must put individual users at the centre of the value chain ■ Read the latest news, opinion, blogs and features now at www.vanillaplus.com

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Location data is pivotal to maximising the potential of the Internet of Things (IoT) In our ever more connected world, the Internet of Things will drive radical change in the telecommunications industry. Successfully realising this potential requires context and visualisation ualisation built around an understanding of where things are located. In fact, location is emerging as the key to transforming tran raw data from the IoT into actionable onable intelligence which will drive strategic strate success.

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CONTENTS

IN THIS ISSUE 4 EDITOR’S COLUMN George Malim worries that CSPs are giving away some of their strongest capabilities and missing chances to monetise 5 INDUSTRY NEWS Redknee attracts superior investment offer from ESW Capital, ABI Research urges DevOps preparation for CSPs

Are you ready for the hybrid reality?

Philippe Morin asks if your network is smart enough to pass the virtualisation IQ test?

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6 MARKET NEWS Procera Networks reports record growth, EE fined by UK regulator 8 CONTRACT NEWS Comptel receives Indian tax refunds, Sunrise selects Amdocs to digitise call centre operations 9 HOT LIST The latest vendor deals listed

30

SOFTWAREDRIVEN CSPS

10 PRODUCT NEWS Viavi Solutions launches Observer Platform for network performance management, Openet unveils Accelerate unit 11 PEOPLE NEWS Who’s on the move 12 EXPERT OPINION Gemini Waghmare takes careful aim at CSPs’ digital identity opportunities

36 INTERVIEW Stream Technologies’ Nigel Chadwick talks to Machina Research’s Jim Morrish

14 WHAT’S HOT ON VANILLAPLUS.COM The pick of this month’s online content

15 VANILLAPLUS NFV INSIGHT Our VanillaPlus NFV Insight report contains 17 pages exploring how CSPs are moving beyond the initial deployment phases and looking towards greater automation of their virtualised operations.

The Insight contains a VanillaPlus-commissioned report from analyst firm Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan which examines how CSPs will fare as the dayto-day operational mode of managing and orchestrating the network becomes hybrid

47 IoT OPPORTUNITIES

33 VANILLAPLUS IoT INSIGHT Our second VanillaPlus Insight this issue tracks developments in the Internet of Things (IoT) and explores the opportunities this presents for CSPs. The 25-page Insight contains a specially-commissioned analyst report from IoT experts Machina Research as well as features and interviews to help you gain a greater understanding of the IoT attributes CSPs already have and how they can be monetised more effectively

CLOCKING OFF!

59 VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

58 DIARY Where to go and who to see 59 CLOCKING OFF! Nick Booth warns operators not to miss out on another opportunity, this time with IoT

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C O M M E N T

Beggars shouldn’t be so generous even if they are sitting on golden stools

George Malim, editor, VanillaPlus

There are three statements in this issue of VanillaPlus that go straight to the heart of the challenges that communications service providers (CSPs) face as they restructure, refine and re-align their businesses for the era of virtualised network technology that supports new services. The statements are straightforward but mask a series of complex tasks that relate closely to each other he first statement is on page 55 where Netscout’s John English tells Nick Booth: “Being everything to everyone for free simply won’t work.” This goes directly to the challenge facing CSPs which can no longer rise to the challenge of users’ everincreasing demands for bandwidth without finding ways to monetise more effectively. Yes, new technologies and virtualisation in particular offer an opportunity to make operational cost savings but the emergence of ultra high definition video and the billions of admittedly low bandwidth Internet of Things devices, will put strain on networks at a scale that has not been seen before.

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CSPs therefore need to find new ways to monetise their infrastructure that go beyond the commodity sale of capacity. Their track record hasn’t been impressive. They’ve largely missed out on monetising mobile content, mobile music, mobile gaming and social media but the innovation wheel turns perpetually and IoT and big video are now here and presenting additional new areas in which CSPs can add value.

This brings me to the second statement which is in Machina Research analyst Matt Hatton’s Analyst Report which starts on p40. Hatton recalls a book about South American economies in the

MANAGING EDITOR George Malim Tel: +44 (0) 1225 319566 george@vanillaplus.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR & PUBLISHER Jeremy Cowan Tel: +44 (0) 1420 588638 j.cowan@wkm-global.com HEAD OF BRAND Louise Opitz Tel: +44 (0)1732 807412 louise@vanillaplus.com

1950s. The title was ‘Beggars on Golden Stools’ and he sees CSP attributes in IoT as having extraordinary potential value. The challenge for CSPs is to unlock that but we shouldn’t so readily accept CSPs’ complaints that they’re not getting a fair share of new service revenues when such wealth remains to be fully exploited in their existing infrastructure and systems.

The final statement, from Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan analyst, Tim McElligott, in his report starting on p21 addresses the technological transformation CSPs are going through as they virtualise. This is seen as a disruptive and enormous task of a scale never previously seen but McElligott distils it down into the historical content of telecoms and says: ‘The greatest challenge turns out to be what it has always been: interoperability’.

As the industry heads of to Mobile World Congress, there’s no doubt the telecoms industry is facing great challenges but also renewed opportunities with new infrastructure and new services, but it really is true that there is nothing new under the sun.

Enjoy the magazine!

EDITORIAL ADVISORS

Louis Hall, chief executive, Cerillion Technologies

David Heaps, senior vice president, Strategy, CSG International

Laurent Leboucher. vice president of APIs and digital systems, Orange

Martin Morgan, vice president of Marketing, Openet

Simon Muderack, senior vice president for Marketing and Alliances, Sigma Systems

Chris Newton-Smith, chief marketing officer, Redknee

Justin Paul, head of OSS Marketing, Amdocs

Aileen Smith, Head of ecosystem development, Huawei Service Provider Operations Lab

Chris Yeadon, director of Product Marketing, Ericsson

Dr Reinhard Zuba, CMO, Vipnet (Telekom Austria)

George Malim

DIGITAL SERVICES DIRECTOR Nathalie Millar Tel: +44 (0) 1732 808690 n.millar@wkm-global.com

DESIGN Jason Appleby Ark Design Consultancy Ltd Tel: +44 (0) 1787 881623

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Cherisse Jameson Tel: +44 (0) 1732 807410 c.jameson@wkm-global.com

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VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

I N D U S T R Y

N E W S

Redknee reveals superior US$83.2m offer from ESW Capital, and Constellation ends its investment Redknee has struck a new investment deal with ESW Capital worth up to US$83.2 million, reports Jeremy Cowan. Under the terms of the 9 December 2016 agreement with Constellation Software, if the Redknee Board announced a superior deal Constellation had the right to withdraw its offer which it has now done.

The Toronto, Canada-based provider of business support systems for the telecoms and other industries, has announced a new subscription agreement with ESW Capital and its affiliate, Wave Systems, under which Redknee will complete a private placement of 800,000 Redknee Series A Preferred Shares and a common share purchase warrant to ESW Capital.

ESW Capital group focuses on buying, strengthening, and growing mature business software companies. By using its operating platform, ESW aims to revitalise its acquisitions for sustainable success “while making customer satisfaction a top priority”. The ESW family of companies has been in the enterprise software market since 1988, and the group includes such brands as Aurea, Ignite Technologies, Trilogy, and Versata.

According to Marketwired, Constellation reported that “the previously announced subscription agreement entered into by

Constellation with Redknee providing for a proposed investment by a subsidiary of Constellation of US$80 million in Redknee has been terminated pursuant to its terms.”

subject to ESW Capital’s right to match, over a period of two business days, the superior proposal and the payment to ESW Capital of a termination payment – again of $3.2 million.

On 20 December 2016, Redknee, which is led by chief executive Lucas Skoczkowski, gave notice to Constellation and then announced that it had received an offer from an alternative investor which Redknee’s Board of Directors had determined constituted a superior proposal within the meaning of the Constellation agreement. Constellation has therefore provided notice to Redknee that it will not exercise the Matching Right. As a result, Redknee has terminated the agreement in accordance with its terms and Constellation will receive a termination fee of $3.2 million.

Under the terms of the new Agreement, ESW Capital has assumed the obligation to pay the Constellation Termination Payment, which will be non-refundable and credited against ESW Capital’s obligation to pay the proceeds of US$83.2 million to Redknee on the closing of the transaction.

The ESW Agreement provides for, among other things, a non-solicitation covenant on the part of Redknee, subject to a customary provision that entitles the latter to consider and accept a superior proposal

Lucas Skoczkowski: Superior offer received

CSPs must transform into DSPs to survive digital disruption, says ABI Research The telecoms market is in a state of rapid evolution and disruption with communications service providers (CSPs) now competing against web-scale companies, which can deploy a new service in a matter of hours, to deliver realtime experiences to subscribers. As more customers demand instant access for digital services, ABI Research predicts many tier one CSPs will transform into digital service providers (DSPs) or risk losing out to over-the-top (OTT) players like Google and WhatsApp. “Digital transformation is the ultimate goal

for telecoms operators; for instance, TMobile’s Un-Carrier digital offerings likely played a huge role in boosting the company’s total revenue by 48% over the past three years,” said Sabir Rafiq, research analyst at ABI Research. “But it may not be possible for all. While tier ones will probably transform to DSPs, smaller telcos may remain access-oriented.”

An industry misconception is that CSPs simply need to upgrade their traditional operations support systems (OSS) and business support systems (BSS) in order to successfully undergo the digital

transformation. However, ABI Research finds this to be a basic approach and one that will not survive long-term market disruptions.

“BSS and OSS are reactive platforms capable of providing telcos with basic services, such as configuration management and billing,” continued Rafiq. “Now is the time that telcos need to be investing in DevOps and agile development models.

Telcos will then be able to rapidly launch new services and improve their services post launch in real time as they receive detrimental feedback from customers.”

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M A R K E T

N E W S

Procera reports record growth driven by virtual networks and tier one wins Procera Networks, a provider of deep packet inspection (DPI) technology, has announced a record number of contract wins and deployments during the past 12 months. The Lyn Cantor: software provider’s Growth fuelled by virtualised delivery customer base was bolstered by 36 new tier one service provider contracts in 2016 alone. Procera also increased DPI system deployments to more than 50 tier one and tier two operator installations.

Procera’s technology is regularly used for traffic management, policy charging and control, IT and regulatory analytics among tier one and tier two fixed, mobile, Wi-Fi, and satellite providers. Its network management and DPI technology is also increasingly being deployed in a virtualised format.

During 2016, Procera saw a 177% increase in virtualised commercial deployments compared to the year before.

The company also expects this growth to continue and that it will far exceed analyst firm IHS’s prediction of 55% growth in the virtual DPI market during 2017.

“Procera saw significant market momentum in 2016 and had record bookings, sales and deployments. Our growth has been fueled by the strength of our core technology’s ability to reveal more granular OTT analytics than our competition and by the flexibility and robustness of our virtualised delivery of those capabilities,” said Lyn Cantor, the president and CEO at Procera Networks.

“Our customers have been very enthusiastic in our portfolio of over 100 different use cases based on our global learnings and how quickly we can deploy our solutions to help them manage and optimise their networks.”

EE fined £2.7m by UK regulator for overcharging customers UK mobile operator EE has been fined £2.7m (€3.11m) by the UK regulator Ofcom for overcharging tens of thousands of its customers. The penalty is the result of an investigation into the mobile phone provider, which found that the company broke a fundamental billing rule on two separate occasions. First, EE customers who called the company’s 150 customer services number while roaming within the EU were incorrectly charged as if they had called the United States.

This mistake saw customers charged £1.20 per minute, instead of 19p per minute. As a result, at least 32,145 customers were overcharged around £245,700 (€283,097) in total.

Ofcom’s investigation found that EE’s carelessness or negligence contributed to

these billing errors. In addition, while it did not set out to make money from its billing mistake, EE had decided not to reimburse the majority of affected customers until Ofcom intervened. EE wrongly decided it couldn’t identify the people it overcharged and was proposing to give their money to charity, which would have left them out of pocket.

to ensure that its customers were billed accurately. This ended up costing customers thousands of pounds, which is completely unacceptable. We monitor how phone companies bill their customers, and will not tolerate careless mistakes. Any company that breaks Ofcom’s rules should expect similar consequences.”

Second, despite making it free to call or text the 150 number from within the EU from 18 November 2015, EE continued to bill 7,674 customers up until 11 January 2016. In total, these customers were overcharged £2,203.33, although EE did take prompt action on this occasion and issued full refunds to those affected.

As a result of these failings, Ofcom has imposed a penalty of £2.7 million on EE. The fine, which must be paid to Ofcom within 20 working days, will be passed on to the UK’s HM Treasury. The penalty incorporates a 10% reduction to reflect EE’s agreement to enter into a formal settlement, which will save public money and resources. As part of this agreement, EE admits and takes full responsibility for the breaches.

Lindsey Fussell, Ofcom’s Consumer Group director, said: “EE didn’t take enough care

NEWS IN BRIEF

Countries with most mobile fraud attacks identified in Syniverse report Brazil, the UK and Mexico have been identified as the top three home countries affected by mobile fraud attacks in a new report published by Syniverse. The report uncovered that the top three countries where fraudulent calls originated are the US, Spain and Peru, while the country in which the most fraudulent calls terminated was Cuba. Cuba has gained a reputation as a hotspot for fraud termination because of the higher cost of calls terminating in that country.

The report, the second report in Syniverse’s ‘Understanding the Global Threat of Mobile Fraud’ series, draws on data from the company’s risk management work with more than 120 mobile operators globally. Syniverse analysed data from 1 November 2015 to 31

October 2016, and ranked the top ten countries impacted most frequently by fraud.

“Analysing firsthand data is invaluable in the fight against mobile fraud,” said Kyle Dorcas, the vice president for Policy and Risk Management at Syniverse. “Unfortunately, experiences with fraud attacks are not often shared between operators, which can limit knowledge and make the challenge of combating fraud much more difficult. Our global network of mobile operators and the data from our work with them creates a unique fraud protection database and a window into the most critical fraud threats.”

AsiaInfo to scale down European operations BSS vendor AsiaInfo is to radically scale back its European operations, closing its UK

European headquarters. The company, which won its first European deal with Telenor in 2013, says it will continue to seek new customers for its products in EMEA and APAC but efforts will be led from China.

The company has issued a statement saying it will continue to support all existing customers and international products and it will not be laying off staff from international projects or technology roles. However, the company has acknowledged that some employees at its Cambridge, UK, sales and marketing organisation will be laid off.

The company said in its statement that some staff will return from Europe to China, either because their part of a project is completed, or their work can be better carried out in the company’s main R&D facility.

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C O N T R A C T

N E W S

Comptel receives Indian tax refunds and announces two new wins Comptel has announced that it has received withholding tax refunds regarding the years 20072011 from Indian tax authorities.

The received Juhani Hintikka: Tax refunds received amount of tax refunds and interest is approximately €3.7m.

Comptel, led by chief executive Juhani Hintikka, will record these refunds as well as other withholding tax receivables based on the previous favorable court decisions in

its year 2016 financial reports. Comptel still has about €0.9m of open receivables related to Indian withholding taxes after the refunds.

Separately, the company has signed a new multi-year contract with an un-named European wholesale communications service provider (CSP). The contract value is €1.9m and covers Comptel FlowOne Fulfillment licences and related services.

“Capability to manage complex orders from multiple operators and the flexibility to adapt to their processes and their customer’s processes are some of the key advantages of the FlowOne Fulfillment

suite,” said Mauro Carobene, the senior vice president for EMEA at Comptel.

In addition, the company has received an order for licences and services for its convergent mediation software embedded with analytical capabilities for operational intelligence from a new customer in the Middle East. The value of this deal is approximately €2.6m.

“With our consolidated Data Refinery platform our new customer can reduce the complexity caused by the fact that they operate in many regions and each region has its own CRM and billing platform,” added Carobene.

Sunrise selects Amdocs to further digitalise call centre operations Amdocs has announced that Sunrise, the largest private service provider in Switzerland offering mobile, fixed, broadband internet and TV services, has selected it to enhance its existing Amdocs customer management solution to further digitalise its call centre operations.

Following rollout, Sunrise will be able to equip its call centre agent screens with a single, intuitive and process-driven interface, unified across lines of business, with easy-to-use widgets. As a result, Sunrise will be able to simplify call centre workflows, shorten call resolution time and

offer customers a consistent experience, no matter what they are calling about.

provide the best in class service to our customers.”

“We’ve been relying on Amdocs’ customer management systems to deliver great customer service since 2002,” said Françoise Clemes, the chief service officer at Sunrise. “Amdocs has been a valuable partner and we are confident that with this next phase in our partnership we will manage all the upcoming challenges for digitalisation. With Amdocs as a strategic partner, we believe that the customercentric design will give us the ability to

Anthony Goonetilleke, the president of the Amdocs Product Business Group, added: “By digitalising its call centre operations and unifying the agent interface across lines-of-business, Sunrise will be providing its agents with the digital tools, and its customers with the omnichannel experience, expected in the digital era.

Sunrise will also be able to support its strong growth in subscribers, while reducing operational and agent training costs.”

best SON solution, which can be flexibly deployed to deliver the excellent user experience its customers demand.”

staff augmentation services to ensure that SKY has the appropriate personnel and expertise in order to maximise the use of Netcracker’s recently upgraded Revenue Management solution and optimise customer experience.

NEWS IN BRIEF

CellMining wins SON contract with MegaFon Russian mobile operator MegaFon has chosen CellMining, a provider of selforganising networks (SON) and subscriber network experience solutions, to provide its Behavior-Based SON system to optimise its network performance in the Moscow region.

“This new contract is a further affirmation that our subscriber experience-driven network optimisation provides mobile operators with the competitive edge they need to retain customer loyalty,” said Greg Giora Snipper, the chief executive of CellMining. “With millions of subscribers across its 2G, 3G and 4G networks in Moscow, MegaFon has decided that CellMining offers the industry’s

“We are also providing MegaFon with the unique ability to detect low quality calls on 2G and 3G as well as on the VoLTE service it is currently launching,” he added. “We are very pleased that this contract gives us potential for growth.”

SKY expands partnership with Netcracker Netcracker Technology has expanded its relationship with SKY, the satellite pay-TV provider in New Zealand. The engagement will consist of Netcracker providing additional

Through the use of Netcracker’s expertise and services, SKY can establish a long-term strategy for meeting the resource demand required to deliver the best possible customer solutions.

“Netcracker’s solutions and services have enabled us to maintain customer-centric operations and ensure that we have the capabilities in place to keep up with the evolving digital market,” said Quinton McKenzie, the head of Billing and Operations at SKY.

Sponsored by:

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VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

H O T

L I S T

VanillaPlus Hot List October 2016 to January 2017 The Hot List below shows the companies informing us of recent contract wins or product deployments.

If your contract is not listed here email the details to us now marked "Hot List" <editorial@vanillaplus.com> Vendor(s)

Client, Country

Product/Service

Date

2operate

Banghabandhu, Bangladesh

2operate chosen by Thales Alenia Space to provide its 2solve network assurance solution for Bangladeshi satellite network

11.16

365squared

Smart Axiata, Cambodia

365squared selected to remove effects of spam and monetise CSPs’ A2P SMS traffic through 365secure service

11.16

Amdocs

NetLink Trust, Singapore

Nationwide telecoms infrastructure provider selects Amdocs to provide next generation B/OSS to transform legacy systems and fully automate order management

12.16

Amdocs

Sunrise, Switzerland

Swiss quad play provider chooses Amdocs customer management system to further digitalise call centre operations

12.16

Amdocs

Vivo, Brazil

Amdocs Data Hub chosen to provide open source environment for data monetisation at Telefónica’s Vivo operation

11.16

Anite

Arca Telecom, Spain

Anite Nemo Xynergy deployed for benchmarking project with Orange Spain

10.16

Anritsu & Ixia

O2, Czech Republic

Completion of NFV monitoring proof of concept

11.16

Astellia

Telefónica, Spain

Three-year contract agreed for provision of Nova RAN 3G and 4G optimisation system

11.16

Astellia

Beeline, Kazakhstan

Astellia chosen to provide 2G and 3G end-to-end network performance monitoring and troubleshooting for Vimpelcom group operator

11.16

CellMining

MegaFon, Russia

CellMining selected to provide its Behavior-Based SON system to optimise network performance in the Moscow region

12.16

Comarch

Síminn, Iceland

Long-term managed services deal awarded for Comarch to support operator’s billing, apps and IT environment

1.17

Enghouse Interactive

Datametrix, Nordic countries

Enghouse Interactive’s Contact Center:Service Provider (CCSP) product chosen as platform for Telia Group subsidiary’s new contact centre as a service offering

12.16

Ericsson

Orange, global

Partnership initiated to develop 5G user cases and service scenarios

10.16

Fortumo

LMT, Latvia

Launch of direct carrier billing on Google Play at Latvijas Mobilais Telefons

1.17

Fortumo

Smartfren, Indonesia

12.5m Smartfren subscribers now able to use direct carrier billing with new partnership

10.16

Fortumo

Telia, Estonia

Direct carrier billing on Google Play goes live to enable users to purchase apps and in-app content

11.16

MDS

eir Business, Ireland

MDS Customer Management Platform (CMP) deployed in support of Irish CSP’s IoT Connect offering

11.16

Netcracker Technology

SKY, New Zealand

Expansion of existing relationship to include upgraded revenue management system and additional staff aggregation services for satellite TV provider

12.16

Netcracker Technology

Lightower Fiber Networks, USA

Deployment of Netcracker Infrastructure Optimisation system to consolidate business processes and network infrastructure following merger

11.16

Openet

eir, Ireland

Openet Policy Manager selected to provide policy and charging control for digital service passes

10.16

Procera Networks

TrueMove H, Thailand

Thai mobile operator deploys Procera ScoreCard technology to manage quality of experience (QoE) delivered to subscribers over 2G, 3G and 4G networks

10.16

Sysmech

Telefónica, UK

Sysmech operational intelligence software chosen to correlate data feeds from all elements of the network

10.16

UXP Systems

Liberty Global, Europe

Selection of UXP Systems’ user lifecycle management platform to power digital identity projects across Europe

11.16

Xura

Telefónica Group, global

Xura selected as global messaging partner in all countries where Telefónica has operations

10.16

ZTE

Velcom, Belarus

Deployment of commercial, fully virtualised core network at Telekom Austria Group operator

1.17

Comarch to manage billing, apps and IT operations at Síminn Iceland Comarch will support Icelandic CSP Síminn in improving its multi-service, multi-technology and multi-vendor IT environment and operations. The implemented Comarch managed services will not only reduce opex, but will also enable the company to achieve excellence in operational processes, Comarch claims. The long-term contract was signed in November 2016.

Under the deal, Comarch will take responsibility for the everyday management of Síminn’s billing related activities, applications and IT operations.

“We really appreciate Comarch’s flexibility, and strong ability to execute projects professionally. The implementation of managed services will enable us to achieve a desired opex reduction and, as a consequence, will impact positively on Síminn’s financial outcome. Months of preparation make us confident Comarch is the right partner to execute the timeconsuming and routine activities related to the area of IT,” said Eric Figueras, the vice president and CTO at Síminn.

This is not the first cooperation between the

two companies. Since 2013 Comarch has successfully supported Síminn with BSS solutions.

“We are very pleased that Síminn decided to expand cooperation with Comarch toward the managed services for their billing-related activities. This is a very important and strategic contract for us, since we especially value long-term cooperation built on commitment for achieving common targets,” added Marcin Dąbrowski, the vice president and the head of the Telecommunications Business Unit at Comarch.

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P R O D U C T

N E W S

Viavi launches Observer Platform for network performance management Viavi Solutions has announced the availability of an updated version of its Observer Platform, a system for network performance management. Viavi has redesigned the Observer Platform, including Observer GigaStor and Apex, to address IT departments’ changing demands.

According to Viavi’s 2016 State of the Network study, bandwidth requirements continue to exceed enterprises’ own predictions, and 48% expect bandwidth to double from 2016 to 2017. The same study showed that IT departments are

accelerating their adoption of advanced technologies such as higher-capacity data centre interconnects, software defined networking (SDN) and cloud. As the threat of security breaches from the outside – including more recently from the proliferating Internet of Things (IoT) – continues to grow, enterprises have an increasing need for robust platforms to maintain comprehensive network visibility in a rapidly evolving environment.

For back-in-time analysis, GigaStor has been redesigned from its very foundation to provide customers with readiness for

internal and external service delivery turbulence. Apex complements GigaStor with an all-new analytics and reporting engine for total situational awareness via contextual workflows integrated into intuitive dashboards.

“More than just metadata, Viavi delivers the purity of complete forensic data at 40 Gbps wire-rate data centre speeds to help ensure troubleshooting and threat intelligence information is always available,” said Douglas Roberts, the vice president and general manager of the Enterprise & Cloud Business Unit at Viavi Solutions.

Openet launches Openet Accelerate unit for immediate virtualised services Openet Accelerate, a dedicated business unit focused on delivering service capability using automated, virtualised and cloud based networks, has been initiated by Openet. Located in the company’s Dublin headquarters, the new unit will harness the latest technological innovation while developing disruptive, virtualised next generation services including VoLTE and IoT. Openet Accelerate is providing an adjunct approach to virtualisation for service providers through its Service Capsule offerings. These pre-integrated, pre-tested solutions enable CSPs to take advantage of NFV and cloud like deployments today,

without the risks inherent with the massive transformation, procurement and organisational changes normally involved when adopting NFV. Automated service provisioning, enabled by the business unit, will give service providers virtualisation benefits such as service agility and improved time-to-market for new services. This also allow providers to target new markets that were previously impossible due to the cost and difficulty of deployment.

“This new business unit is focused on the intelligent, business aware management of dynamic, automated software-centric

networks to deliver end-to-end services,” said Karin O’Shea, the executive director of Openet Accelerate. “Apart from our Service Capsule offerings, we provide the building blocks to enable CSPs, MVNx, enterprises, system integrators and virtual network functions vendors to solve specific problems when building their own solutions for automated software-centric networks.”

In addition Openet Accelerate will provide strategic consultancy specialising in the business aware management of automated software-centric networks in areas such as use case innovation, NFV automation and VNF on-boarding.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Comptel launches Fastermind to provide AI apps for CSPs Comptel has launched its new Fastermind suite to deliver artificial intelligence (AI) applications for communications service providers (CSPs). The suite recommends, predicts and automates real-time decisions for best next actions enabling customer engagement automation.

Within the suite, Fastermind Real-Time Decisioning can enable increased revenue with automated upsell and cross-sell offers, marketing promotions, notifications and nurturing actions by targeting the right customers at the right time. Comptel says the suite’s intuitive user experience allows business users to easily configure new

actions and spin up offers quickly. The end user experiences a personalised and contextual customer journey, where relevant service offers or alerts are received at the peak moment of customer value.

Accedian joins Telecom Infra Project Accedian, a provider of end-to-end network performance systems, has joined the Facebook-backed Telecom Infra Project (TIP) as a member focused on assuring highquality internet connectivity through affordable, virtualised network performance assurance instrumentation.

TIP, announced by Facebook in February

2016, is an engineering-focused consortium of CSPs, infrastructure providers, system integrators, and other technology companies.

They work together to bring reliable internet access to the entire world, including remote areas, as well as emerging and developed countries, using technologies like Facebook’s OpenCellular wireless access platform.

Accedian’s flagship solution, SkyLIGHT, is the industry’s first fully-virtualised performance assurance platform, delivering network-wide visibility to service providers. In early 2016, Accedian launched FlowBROKER, a network functions virtualisation (NFV)-powered, remote packet capture system, which brings new degrees of insight to existing analysers, and deep packet inspection (DPI) and intrusion detection systems.

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P E O P L E

N E W S

ExtraHop hires Hein to head marketing ExtraHop, aprovider of streaming analytics that transform network data into actionable insights, has announced that Bryce Hein has joined the company as senior vice president of marketing and will hold a position on its executive leadership team, reporting to ExtraHop chief executive Arif Kareem.

Hein brings more than 20 years of experience in product and corporate marketing, communications, and brand development at high-growth and large-scale technology companies. In his new role at ExtraHop, he will spearhead the company’s global marketing efforts, driving brand recognition, product

marketing, and demand generation, and collaborating with sales to accelerate growth.

Prior to joining ExtraHop, Hein served as vice president of marketing for Rocana, a big data analytics company. He also spent nearly a decade with Quantum, leading marketing and field and partner enablement for the storage company.

“Bryce has a strong track-record of developing and building highly successful marketing programmes and teams in the enterprise IT space,” said Kareem. “The depth and breadth of his experience and his proven

ability to work collaboratively and effectively with sales teams makes him an ideal fit for ExtraHop as we continue to build on our momentum and explore new market opportunities.”

Hein added: “This is an exciting time to be joining ExtraHop. The company has established itself as a force in IT data mining and monitoring with an innovative, analyticsbased approach and a deep commitment to customer success. I look forward to working with the talented ExtraHop team, as well as our customers and partners, to continue to build our brand and accelerate our growth.”

Börje Ekholm takes office as president and CEO of Ericsson Börje Ekholm has assumed the position as president and CEO of Ericsson having been appointed in October 2016 to replace departed CEO, Hans Vestberg. Jan Börje Ekholm Frykhammar, who has temporarily held the position, remains a member of the company’s executive leadership team and is appointed executive vice president and advisor to the CEO. Frykhammar will support Ekholm during a transition period and will focus on corporate governance and efficiency.

Magnus Mandersson remains executive

vice president and advisor to the CEO, focusing on customer relationships and continues as a member of the executive leadership team. Mandersson also remains chairperson of four out of Ericsson’s ten regions.

Carl Mellander remains as acting chief financial officer and a member of the executive leadership team.

“I am very excited to assume the role as president and CEO of Ericsson, a company that I have admired for as long as I can remember,” said Ekholm. “Ericsson has shaped an entire industry and led technology developments that have

benefited so many. Yet, we are only at the beginning of the mobility journey as we in coming years will see massive transformation across industries as 5G is introduced.”

Leif Johansson, the chairman of the board at Ericsson, added: “I am confident that Börje Ekholm will be able to guide Ericsson on the next steps of the company’s development. Having served on the Ericsson Board of Directors for many years, Börje has a deep understanding of the business and the challenges Ericsson currently faces. I also want to express my gratitude to Jan Frykhammar who has led the company in a very dedicated and professional way.”

Buckalew joins Openet to head APAC sales Openet has appointed Jason Buckalew as its vice president of sales for the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. Buckalew will strengthen Openet’s growing operations in APAC and help meet demand for its policy, adjunct charging and real-time offer manager solutions.

With more than 15 years’ experience of closing multi-million dollar deals, Buckalew will offer proven expertise to communications service providers (CSPs) in the region looking for greater flexibility and agility from their existing BSS.

Buckalew joins Openet from Syniverse Technologies, where he held several roles including vice president fo sales for Southeast Asia and Oceania, building a track record of multi-million dollar deals. Prior to this role, he served as APAC director of sales in Amdocs’ OSS division. Buckalew has also held roles at Subex and Spirent and will be based in Singapore.

“Jason’s extensive and proven experience working in the APAC telecoms industry gives him the relationships and the knowhow to

really drive awareness of our innovative products and solutions to new and existing customers,” said Damian Artt, the global vice president of sales at Openet. “Operators in APAC and around the world are currently on a digital journey and looking for real-time solutions to make them nimbler, more flexible and more relevant. Our range of automated systems and processes ensure operators can reap the full benefits of this transformation by offering the right services to the right customers at the right time.”

Manuel Rivelo joins Procera Networks board Procera Networks has announced the appointment of Manuel Rivelo to the company’s board of directors. Bringing more than 30 years’ industry expertise to his role, with extensive experience in senior executive positions at major tech companies, Rivelo will be responsible for helping to drive Procera’s overall strategy and operations as the company continues its global expansion.

“The possibilities open to Procera right now are both vast and varied, as network operators around the world look to tackle a host of new subscriber experience challenges using Procera’s technology,” said Rivelo. “It’s an exciting time to be joining the company. I look forward to working closely with the senior management team to extend Procera’s leadership, expertise, and technology into new markets.”

Beyond his strategic position on the Procera board, Rivelo is also the CEO of network infrastructure automation vendor AppViewX. Prior to this Rivelo was the CEO of F5 Networks, and has previously held several key leadership roles at Cisco Systems.

He’s also a longstanding board director at the Apollo Education Group and a current member of its Compensation Committee.

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EXPERT OPINION Ready, aim, fire – CSPs must put individual users at the centre of the digital value chain

User lifecycle management enables robust digital identity to put every individual user at the centre an increasingly digital communications service provider experience, Gemini Waghmare, the chief executive of UXP Systems tells George Malim As CSPs move to a digital services architecture and ecosystem, digital identity plays an increasingly important role in helping to ensure individual user entitlements for digital services and for enabling personalisation of these offers and services. The concept remains relatively new, but market leading CSPs providing all types of services are now embracing digital identity as a means to serve users better and to comply with privacy protection regulations.

“CSPs so far have taken a ready, fire, aim approach to digital services,” explains Waghmare. “You see CSPs, such as, Vodafone, Telefónica and Rogers, partnering with providers such as Spotify; creating relationships where they are able to bill and entitle devices with one account holder. The CSP will put together a service bundle for their subscriber, but problems start to occur because they have no ability to create three sets of Spotify accounts with individual identities for family members of the original account holder.”

It’s as if CSPs are being criticised for doing almost everything right. “They’ve partnered and brought the offering to market, and then their call centre gets flooded with queries from parents because they want to know how their kids use these services in a more

individualised way,” adds Waghmare. “But they can’t.

This shouldn’t be how it is.”

CSPs are growing their awareness and using digital identity systems to manage these types of entitlements, and that is helping them to move past the notion of an individual account holder. “They don’t know what they don’t know, and this is not a simple problem to solve,” says Waghmare. “The only way CSPs can address these issues is not just with digital identities, but by creating an overlay stack to manage the digital life of the consumer. We’re a component of that stack, so we see CSPs coming to us, having realised that their existing stack won’t work.”

Waghmare adds that entitlements are just one aspect of the challenge CSPs face; personalisation is a key battleground. “Identity isn’t being used very well today because CSPs have very little knowledge of their users on a one-to-one basis,” he says. “They don’t manage profiles of their users. They know the identity of a device, but not much more, and this is an area that CSPs must improve upon if they are to remain relevant in the digital world.”

However, with increased personalisation comes a greater need for privacy and CSPs are increasingly being ▼

CSPs are growing their awareness and using digital identity systems to manage these types of entitlements, and that is helping them to move past the notion of an individual account holder

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Gemini Waghmare: There’s a real opportunity here for the CSP to become a trusted broker

required to protect users’ privacy. In the European Union, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) puts a significant responsibility on CSPs, because of the information about users they collect, and will continue to collect, as more and more users consume digital services. Other jurisdictions also have laws that aim to put every user back in control of the personal data they generate, as they navigate the digital services that surround them.

“Multi-billion dollar businesses are targeting the end user and governments are now saying that most users are aware of this, but they need to protect the rights of consumers,” explains Waghmare. “The GPDR in Europe and PIPEDA in Canada are aiming to catch up with privacy issues and it’s the CSP’s, but not only the CSP’s, responsibility to protect users. The CSP is already in a position where they have to gain consent from me, as a user, to access relevant data, and there’s a real opportunity here for the CSP to become a trusted broker between the user and these businesses.”

As part of the management of the user lifecycle, UXP Systems’ ULM offering acts as the central consent and privacy management interface for each user, managing their consent settings and privacy lifecycle on behalf of all services offered by the CSP. “When we look at privacy management, it’s only one of the solution areas of user management and digital identity,” says Waghmare.

“When we talk about lifecycle it’s about getting the user on-board, so the information can be used for

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

personalisation. It’s the only logical place where you would want to manage privacy as well.”

“If, for example, a Vodafone ID is created using our user lifecycle platform for logging in and accessing their services, the ID will also be used to manage these services. Privacy is just a feature of the user lifecycle model,” he adds. “We have said for a long time that for CSPs to be able to personalise services effectively, they need to get to the individual user. Privacy is just a natural extension of user lifecycle management.”

The message appears to be getting through and Waghmare says UXP Systems is seeing significant market traction among CSPs. “We’ve had a great year,” he acknowledges. “We’ve been fortunate to have the world’s largest mobile operator (Vodafone) and the world’s largest cable provider (Liberty Global) as customers. The industry has grown into recognising that user lifecycle management and digital identity’s time has come.”

“The industry must transition to a digital identity-centric world,” Waghmare adds. “If you look at the decades of investment in customer lifecycle management, it’s still important, but it’s missing the requirement to manage a relationship with every customer. CSPs see digital services, personalisation and digital access as a means to streamline their costs. When we started in 2011, I remember having battles with CSPs who said the device number was the customer identity and nothing else was needed. I don’t hear that argument anymore. The industry has moved on.”

www.uxpsystems.com

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WHAT’S HOT ONLINE

www.vanillaplus.com US telcos move ahead on NFV as Europe watches: 2017 predictions

Pravin Mirchandani is CMO at OneAccess Networks

While huge progress has been made this year toward the development of virtualised services, a variety of challenges remain before widespread service roll-out can commence. 2017 will be the year that the industry takes positive steps to overcome these barriers, says Pravin Mirchandani, CMO at OneAccess Networks, who shares his five key predictions for the year ahead.

His predictions are: 1. Europe will stay on the sidelines as USA and Japan push on 2. NFV’s RoI equation will need to be cracked 3. CPEs will have the same focus, just a different colour 4. Improving IT wallet share 5. DevOps will thrive as it helps unlock virtualisation’s potential To read the rest of Pravin’s article visit www.vanillaplus.com. and search for keyword: Mirchandani

Ten years on CSPs have the chance to finish what the iPhone started The 10-year anniversary of the iPhone has been celebrated. On 9 January 2007, Steve Jobs first announced that Apple was to launch a device that would ‘re-invent the phone’ and be like having ‘the internet in your pocket.’ At this time, the mobile industry was experiencing something of a stagnation.

The likes of Nokia, Motorola and BlackBerry dominated the device market – all produced perfectly solid units but each were representative of a limited and one dimensional user experience.

The global mobile operator community continues to search in vain for

a ‘killer app’ that would finally justify sky high spectrum fees for connectivity – itself a patch and unreliable mobile data service. Few would have predicted that one device could have such a profound impact – not just on the smartphone market, or the mobile industry, but on how we all communicate, behave and share experiences, says Ted Woodbery, the vice president of Product Strategy and Corporate Marketing at Synchronoss Technologies.

To read Ted’s blog in full visit www.vanillaplus.com. and search for keyword: Woodbery

Automatic for the people – Four trends for 2017 As we move into 2017, the dynamics of digitisation and virtualisation are joining with the growing maturity of the Internet of Things and big data analytics to usher in a new era of super-connected business and leisure, writes Alan Coleman, the chief executive of Brite:Bill.

Alan Coleman is the chief executive of Brite:Bill

The sheer volume of information being gathered across networks, coupled with the continuing evolution of the networks themselves as NFV, SDN and 5G technologies come into play, has created the need for radically increased automation. Humans are

now too slow and too costly to handle many routine interactions and Millennials and the generation below don’t like communicating with call centre staff anyway.

However, customers still want to feel that they’re being cared for by the companies that they buy services from – so, for 2017, I see the following four trends as coming to fruition and leading the way to successful yet increasing automated customer interactions.

To read all Alan’s trend in detail visit www.vanillaplus.com. and search for keyword: Coleman

NFV unlocks video and voice service development, the dumbphone dies, and content rules the roost in 2017 In 2016, operators worldwide began strategising how NFV could play a central role in their networks, as they hoped to drive efficiencies and move to a more flexible Internet Protocol (IP)-based communications model.

As Chris Haddock, head of marketing at OpenCloud, says, VoLTE deployments continued, but at a slower rate than anticipated, due to a number of teething problems in deploying the technology and uncertainty around customer up-take.

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Haddock thinks that: in 2017 operators will realise the benefits of utilising NFV to serve specific purposes in their networks; we may finally see the death of the dumb-phone; and all-IP communications, such as Wi-Fi calling, will become more prevalent as operators lay the foundations for mass market roll-out of VoLTE. It’s going to be an interesting time for telecoms.

To read the rest of Chris’s article visit www.vanillaplus.com. and search for keyword: Haddock

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

NFV

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TALKING HEADS: IS YOUR NETWORK SMART ENOUGH TO PASS THE NETWORK IQ TEST? EXFOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Philippe Morin, says the industry is entering the critical automation phase of virtualisation, where communications service providers (CSPs) will need smarter service assurance with real-time insights from the network, the service and the subscriber.

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NFV ANALYST REPORT Our specially-commissioned analyst report, authored by Tim McElligott, the senior consulting analyst for global operations and monetisation strategy at Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan. McElligott examines how CSPs will fare as the dayto-day operational mode of managing and orchestrating the network becomes a hybrid.

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SOFTWARE-DRIVEN CSPs Gabriele Di Piazza says massive cultural, infrastructural and organisational transformation needs to take place both within CSPs and in the wider supply chain if they are to remain relevant.

18 TALKING HEADS

Philippe Morin

21 NFV ANALYST REPORT

30 SOFTWARE-DRIVEN CSPs

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

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TALKING HEADS

Is your network smart enough to pass the virtualisation IQ test?

Philippe Morin is the chief operating officer of EXFO, a provider of network test, data and analytics solutions that is supporting communications service providers (CSPs) across the globe in a massive industry transformation driven by network functions virtualisation and software-defined networking. Here, he tells VanillaPlus that the industry is entering the critical automation phase of virtualisation, where CSPs will need smarter service assurance with real-time insights from all three dimensions: network, service and subscriber VP: The new NFV-enabled virtual network involves perpetual change as the network alters to support different types of services and different levels of user demand. How is it different to previous shifts in technological generations?

Philippe Morin: We boost network IQs to make sure virtualisation delivers

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PM: Every ten years or so the industry goes through a major transformation and we’re on the latest one now with software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualisation (NFV). We certainly see the need for customers to continue to modernise with technologies such as fibre-tothe customer, fibre-to-the-antenna and 5G coming to market, but these are similar to previous shifts from one technological generation to another. What’s really different today is that

IN ASSOCIATION WITH EXFO

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VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

“

It’s also essential that decisions be informed by what we at EXFO call 3D analytics: real-time insights from all three dimensions – network, service and subscriber – to improve quality of experience and the bottom line

virtualisation and intelligence are two new components, so the transformation is not just a technical modernisation: we’re making the network intelligent and we’re virtualising it as well.

But it’s important to note that the shift in our industry is not just about virtualisation, it’s about automation and it’s about ultimately enabling DevOps environments to exist. This is what I expect to happen in the future.

For EXFO, the NFV/SDN transformation is a great opportunity to make networks smarter. We boost network IQs to make sure virtualisation delivers.

VP: What are the implications for network and service assurance?

PM: Smarter networks need smarter service assurance, which has two main implications. First, as our customers migrate to virtual networks, there will be a hybrid of virtual and physical networks in operation. During this hybrid period – which will last for many years – CSPs will need both hardwarebased solutions and virtualised probes, as well as analytics.

VP: You said that the shift to virtualisation is about ultimately enabling DevOps

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

PM: Real-time becomes really critical as you move into the virtualised, intelligent networks era.

Automation is essential to enable a network to be turned up or down on demand using virtual network functions (VNFs) in a service chain, or wide area network (WAN) optimisers.

We view the move to virtualised networks in three phases. The first was virtualising; this is well underway and will give CSPs the benefit of improved cost efficiency.

Next comes automation, the phase the industry is entering now. This involves having systems that allow you to have services on demand, as well as monitoring and billing. To achieve this, an even more real-time analytics platform is vital, not just at the network level but at the subscriber and service level as well. The real-time aspect of providing the key performance indicators (KPIs) of all data sources and ultimately controlling the network in an automated way is going to be fundamental.

You can’t do this by polling the network every 15 minutes, so the way you design your system must be to constantly poll and receive information and then correlate it into usable insights as it comes in.

▲

The second implication is that end-to-end, real-time analytics are now critical to unlock the value of NFV/SDN. In the past, CSPs could rely on analytics systems that measured network attributes every 15 minutes; but as you virtualise the network and make it on-demand, insights have to be gathered in real time.

It’s also essential that decisions be informed by what we at EXFO call 3D analytics: real-time insights from all three dimensions – network, service and subscriber – to improve quality of experience and the bottom line.

”

environments to exist. How can CSPs get to the end goal?

Fast facts about EXFO • Develops smarter network test, data and analytics solutions • Supports 90+% of world’s leading CSPs • Market leader in portable optical test solutions • Largest active service assurance deployment • Founded in 1985 • Headquarters in Canada, offices in 25 countries

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TALKING HEADS

EXFO’s three phases of virtualisation – and how they impact CSPs: 1. Virtualising: As CSPs move from hardware to software, they need to make sure the migration is done right, without negative impacts to subscribers or their bottom line.

2. Automating operations: During this phase, which the industry is currently entering, concerns include making sure the automation of services deployment boosts ROI, efficiency and performance, without risking reliability.

3. Completely integrating service assurance into DevOps: Reaching this ultimate goal will enable CSPs to create new services, automate them and bring them in to the production environment immediately.

5G is a virtualisationbased technology, but when it’s introduced it will have to live with LTE networks, which most of our customers have just finished migrating to

The third phase, which will take a bit more time, is achieving the DevOps environment where a CSP can create new services, automate them and bring them into the production environment immediately. Such services can be rapidly scaled up if they’re successful, or be removed quickly if they prove unattractive.

Enabling services to be developed, brought to market, scaled up or failed fast is the ultimate goal, but that will happen in the years ahead.

VP: What is EXFO’s view of the transition to NFV? How do you foresee it happening?

PM: 5G is a virtualisation-based technology, but when it’s introduced it will have to live with LTE networks, which most of our customers have just finished migrating to. This forces part-virtualised environments for CSPs, but they will take different approaches. For example, on the enterprise side, some providers will move to virtualised customer premise equipment (vCPE) but large financial institutions will probably keep their hardware-based infrastructure.

Visit EXFO at Mobile World Congress Stand 6K36 in Hall 6

www.exfo.com

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There is no debate, though. Virtualisation will happen.

Our experience is that we’re coming into an interesting phase in the transition. 18 months ago, the dialogue was with the CTO organisation and planning and architecture organisation who were looking at how to migrate. Now, the market has moved from proofs of concepts to how to actually integrate into the network. Discussions are with the operations team now, the people responsible for maintaining the network and operating the services. Operationalisation is where we bring value to our customers because we can boost network IQ by bringing the functionality to implement and operationalise this phase into the network.

Virtualisation is real and it’s being done. Virtual evolved packet cores (vEPCs) are happening and if we stop there, we will be pulling up short of realising the total value of an SDN/NFV-enabled network.

We’re now looking to tackle automation, the second phase, and we’re starting to see software-defined WANs (SD-WANs) being deployed. Along with the

arrival of vEPCs and some vCPEs, this means the challenge becomes much more about how to optimise performance.

VP: What exactly does EXFO offer to enable smarter networks?

PM: Our customers are operating in a context of massive industry transformation where good enough network and analytics just isn’t good enough anymore. And that’s where we come in, offering unique expertise, and test orchestration and real-time 3D analytics solutions. We deliver the measurements, data and network intelligence CSPs need to make their whole network smarter.

Essentially, EXFO is a global team of network test, data and analytics experts. Over the last thirty years, we’ve been working hands-on with our customers in the lab, field, data centre and boardroom to develop smarter solutions for each phase of the network life cycle.

Regarding NFV/SDN, the challenge that real-time 3D analytics addresses is how to ensure, as you operationalise a virtualised network, that you continue to get good KPIs. Boosting the network IQ enables that across multiple services and, critically, in real time. Real-time will be absolutely vital. I use the parallel of road systems. In a city, you can upgrade the road system by adding more lanes or adding buses to decrease the number of private cars but, ultimately, you will have to add more smartness with sensors, cameras and connected cars. All the data from these devices has to be brought back to a realtime system that has the capability to co-ordinate traffic lights and other controls.

The parallel holds in telecoms. Yes, we can add more fibre and move to 5G, but to remain efficient we’re going to have to add intelligence, automation and real-time data analytics. Only then will the promises of virtualisation reach their full potential, and that will be a DevOps world.

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

ANALYST REPORT

Introduction For the forseeable future, the day-to-day operational mode of managing and orchestrating the network will be hybrid, a reality best not to lose sight of. Only two other network transformations can compare, in scale and complexity, to the one currently underway, driving the transition from networks built on inflexible communications infrastructure into programmable, interconnected, virtualised and largely automated clouds. The two comparable transformations sit at opposite ends of the time continuum. The first monumental transition took the US, then other countries, from the dits and dahs of the telegraph to an interconnected, nationwide network for voice communication. That was a pretty big deal. The other transformation is yet to occur. Its time, however, is coming soon. The next transformation will be to 5G, and it will be a direct result of, and be enabled by, today’s monumental transformation to network functions virtualisation (NFV) and associated technologies

T

he reason 5G is on par in scale and complexity with the other two transformations is not only the significant step up in capability, speed and ubiquity of the new infrastructure, but also for the comparable impact it will have on both the communications industry and humanity itself. The impact of 5G will be much like humanity’s collective experience both before and after phone service became an integral part of life. The interconnection of everything, which will accelerate wildly with full 5G implementation, will also drive change in our social and economic interactions and the way we inherently interact with our environments and the people and devices in them. Much of this change will be profound. It will also be driven by both the uses and misuses of the data we generate.

However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s take one transformation at a time – to the extent that is possible.

Without the successful transformation to NFV and associated architectures for software defined networks (SDN), and cloud, 5G will be less impactful, because it will not have the flexible, programmable, cognitive support that it needs behind it.

Managing today’s transformation

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

The author, Tim McElligott, is senior consulting analyst for global operations and monetization strategy at Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan

The organisation behind the development of NFV standards – the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) – and the corresponding industry specification group for management and orchestration (MANO), have understandably adopted a forward-looking stance on both infrastructure and operations. This means little consideration was given to interconnecting to, coexisting with, and ultimately transforming the legacy operations and monetisation environments. Such a position is known as focusing on the end game. Transformation is not an end game. It is a process.

With the hard work of transformation – that of managing and orchestrating services across the resulting hybrid (legacy and virtual) networks – left to others, such as suppliers of legacy OSS and BSS solutions and

▲

So far, most of the industry’s focus, funding and energy have gone to the definition, design and testing of NFV

and SDN infrastructure – and progress has gone well.

Much infrastructure work remains, but even more important work on the operations and monetisation support side of the effort must not fall behind. This work has had less industry association focus than the infrastructure work. Operations and monetisation support for virtual networks has been left to software suppliers and opportunistic start-ups to get development off the ground.

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ANALYST REPORT Figure 1: Hybrid networks come in many configurations

Source: Stratecast

platforms, and a spray of niche startups, the greatest challenge turns out to be what it has always been: interoperability. Stratecast believes suppliers should think about interoperability in a new light.

From interoperability to coexistence Coexistence is a concept seldom heard in discussions about NFV transformation, or about business in general. The difference between coexistence and interoperability – the mode telecoms has operated within for decades – is much like that for countries who tolerate each other under the umbrella of the United Nations versus taking the next step to flourishing as a single human civilisation. To coexist is to live in peace with each other, especially as a matter of policy. Interoperability is merely a means to work with or use the parts or equipment of another system. The closest telecoms has come to coexistence so far is co-opetition born of local and long-distance interconnection.

However, given that most offerings in the coming digital services era will be delivered via ecosystem partners, who must conduct commerce on a higher plane of interoperability, Stratecast thinks all industry participants must learn to coexist.

This nirvana state must include not only providers of cloud, optical, Ethernet, virtual, internet, satellite, and telephony voice (including wireless) networking technologies, but also their support systems providers and most importantly, the various providers of content, infrastructure, data, collaboration software and services.

Peaceful and profitable coexistence

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• The customer self-care function • Service billing and revenue management at both a wholesale and retail level, which includes customer payments through to partner revenue settlement and general ledger posting • Partner software licence usage accountability • Partner content delivery accountability, as applicable • Reporting of service consumption compared with contract commitments for customers, while anonymised insights are delivered to the solution supplier, and all respective partners Emerging monetisation challenges include: real-time revenue accountability and partner management, business relationships, contract management, and the mind-boggling processes of metadata agreement modeling. Coexistence among partners is critical to the success of any new monetisation approach.

Operating in the moment The approach to managing, orchestrating, and assuring network services is more familiar to operators than new monetisation models, yet new tools and strategies are also necessary. The first mindset change for managing hybrid networks is to dispense with the idea that the legacy network and software infrastructure is the old architecture; it is not the old architecture; it is the current architecture. It will be so until the day 51% of customers are served by new network technology.

The next mindset change comes in clarifying what is meant by the term hybrid network. The term is generic and can refer to many network configurations. Cable companies have long used this term to describe

▲

Nowhere is coexistence more critical than in the area of monetisation, which grows more complex by the day as the range of potential partners extends far beyond the telecom industry itself – the automotive industry being the most recognizable example. Monetisation in an NFV-based digital services environment will be discussed in a future report, however, it is important to briefly note the challenge here: all other transformation efforts will be for naught without new monetisation approaches and considerations for the end-to-end value chain.

Business challenges from the global digital transformation initiative in any industry are many, and compounded when partners work together to create services involving multiple sources. It is even more challenging when partners from different industries create service offerings that have never been done before. Stratecast believes that the order of priority for addressing these challenges, after resolving any technology compatibility issues within a service offering ecosystem, should be:

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

Figure 2: ECOMP functional diagram

Source: AT&T

their mixed fibre and coaxial-cable infrastructure. Hybrid networks have also consisted of public and private clouds, or combinations of carrier ethernet, MPLS virtual private network (VPN) and other technologies.

Radio access network (RAN) technology and Wi-Fi can also form a hybrid network.

So, hybrid networks are networks that utilise multiple core or access technologies, or different generations of technology, which require their own support infrastructure. As seen in Figure 1, many CSPs and managed service operators (MSOs) have a combination of networks that work in a hybrid fashion. This scenario is one that could have provided great experience managing hybrid physical/virtual networks had CSPs not been managing their current hybrid networks through separate vertical silos requiring dedicated operations and business support systems (OSS and BSS) stacks. Such a configuration is inapplicable to the new challenge.

For the purposes of this report, a hybrid network is one that includes legacy-based physical core and edge infrastructure and support software; as well as a combination of NFV, SDN and cloud network technologies; and management and orchestration architectures. More simply, it is a combination of physical network functions (PNFs) and virtual network functions (VNFs) and the systems that support them. A hybrid network is not something you build with intention; the hybrid network is more a consequence of transformation. The current transition to NFV has left CSPs with bifurcated management solutions trying in vain to achieve end-to-end visibility into network and service management.

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

Managing the physical-virtual hybrid network After an uncertain initial response to NFV, leading OSS/BSS suppliers and new start-ups have since begun making strides with dramatic changes to their portfolios and developing more definitive roadmaps.

Many of their solutions, for example, are now cloud-enabled. On the OSS side, unified solutions provide better visibility into performance and usage across the hybrid divide. Service design and creation, is evident for example in the release by AT&T of its Enhanced Control, Orchestration, Management & Policy (ECOMP) platform.

ECOMP is the industry’s most important NFV-related development to date, although much will change in the first quarter of 2017 through revelations at Mobile World Congress. ECOMP changes the dynamic in the industry by placing the proper emphasis on management and control, assurance, automation, and – by way of policy management – monetisation. Figure 2 shows the ECOMP functional diagram.

ECOMP offers a great start for developing an end-to-end management and control solution for virtual networking environments. One of its more important roles, as the platform matures, will be the enablement of product and service-independent capabilities for design, creation and lifecycle management. In September 2016, Orange France became the first CSP to publicly throw its tentative support behind ECOMP by agreeing to test the ECOMP platform and collaborate with AT&T on open source and standardisation initiatives around it.

Orange has stated that success in testing would lead to a field trial. The test, at this point, is narrowly focused on ECOMP management and orchestration, as Orange works with its own select group of VNF

▲

On one side of the bifurcation, at least in early deployments, is a virtual network infrastructure supported by solutions that fit into the new management framework from ETSI, known as Management and Orchestration (MANO). This framework is aided by SDN control solutions coming from suppliers participating in initiatives such as OpenDaylight and other cloud management projects. It is important to note that this mix of solutions is presently a multi-platform, multi-system environment – not a single platform. Over time, this multi-point operations and monetisation architecture will need to merge into, or feed into, a central

management design for all pieces of the virtual network. On the other side of the bifurcation are traditional, proprietary, physical network elements supported by traditional, licensed (although increasingly cloud-based) OSS and BSS. Many of these systems will be phased out.

However, many of the individual functions currently housed within these systems may find life in the hereafter of microservices architectures.

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ANALYST REPORT

Figure 3: Initiatives for enabling management of NFV and Hybrid networks Initiative

Launched

Primary Sponsors and Contributors

Mission

OpenStack Foundation

July 2010

Founded by Rackspace Hosting and NASA. Platinum Members: AT&T, Ubuntu, HPE, IBM, Intel, Rackspace, Red Hat, Suse

Promote the global development, distribution and adoption of the OpenStack cloud operating system. Support developers, users, and the global ecosystem with a set of shared resources

ONOS

December 2014

AT&T, NTT, SK Telecom, China Unicom, Alcatel-Lucent, Ciena, Cisco, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, Intel, NEC and Nokia

Produce the Open Source Network Operating System that will enable service providers to build real Software Defined Networks

OPNFV

September 2014

AT&T, Brocade, China Mobile, Cisco, Dell, EMC, Ericsson, HPE, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Juniper Networks, NEC, Nokia, NTT docomo, Red Hat, SUSE, Teleco Italia, Vodafone, ZTE

Build NFV Infrastructure (NFVI) and Virtualized Infrastructure Management (VIM) by integrating components from upstream projects such as OpenDaylight, OpenStack, KVM, Open vSwitch

OpenDaylight

April 2013

Brocade, Cisco, Citrix, Dell, Ericsson, HPE, Intel, Red Hat, NEC Cloudwatt, tcpcloud, CodiLime, Ipnett, Nokia, Piston Cloud Computing, CertusNet, eNovance, Semihalf. AT&T is on the Advisory Board.

Unite the industry around a common SDN platform, and help make interoperable, programmable networks a reality

OpenContrail

September 2013

Governing Board: Google, Weaveworks, Apcera, Apprenda, Cisco, CoreOS, Docker, Fujitsu, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Joyent, Mesosphere, NetApp, Red Hat, Supernap

Foster innovation in networking and drive cloud adoption by providing access to a production-ready platform built with open networking standards and programmability

Cloud Native Computing Foundation

November 2015

AT&T, China Unicom, Ciena, Cisco, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Huawei, Intel, NEC, Nokia, NTT, SK Telecom, Verizon

Create a new computing paradigm, optimized for modern distributed systems environments capable of scaling to tens of thousands of self healing multi-tenant nodes. Foster innovation in container packaged, dynamically scheduled, and microservices-based application development and operations

On.Lab (Open Networking Lab)

November 2014

BOD: Facebook, Goldman Sachs, Microsoft, Intel, Rackspace, and individuals Andy Bechtolsheim and Frank Frankovsky. Among Sponsors: AT&T, DT, Ericsson, Cisco, Nokia, HPE, Huawei, Avaya, NEC

Develop tools, platforms and open-source communities to realize the potential of SDN. Run both the ONOS and CORD projects

Open Compute Project

July 2011

BOD: Facebook, DT, Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, NTT, Verizon, Stanford & Princeton Universities

Break open the black box of proprietary IT infrastructure to achieve greater choice, customization, and cost savings

Open Networking Foundation

June 2010

Open Container Initiative

June 2015

AWS, Apcera, Apprenda, AT&T, ClusterHQ, Cisco, CoreOS, Dell, Docker, EMC, Fujitsu, Goldman Sachs, Google, HPE, Huawei, IBM, Infoblox, Intel, Joyent, Kismatic, Kyup, Mesosphere, Microsoft, Midokura, Nutanix, Odin, Oracle, Pivotal, Polyverse, Portworx, Red Hat, Resin.io, Sysdig, SUSE, Twistlock, Twitter, Univa, Verizon, VMware, Weaveworks

Create open industry standards around container formats and runtime and ensure all technical work and tools are: composable, portable, secure, decentralized, open, minimalist, backward compatible

OPEN Orchestrator Project (OPEN-O)

February 2016

Brocade, China Mobile, China Telecom, DynaTrace, Ericsson, F5 Networks, GigaSpaces, Huawei, Intel, Infoblox, KT, Red Hat, Raisecom, Riverbed, ZTE

Enable agile software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NFV) operations with an open source software framework and orchestrator

Open Source MANO

February 2016

ETSI, 6WIND, Bell Mobility, Benu Networks, BT Group, Canonical Group, Comptel, EURECOM, Intel, Ixia Technologies, Mirantis, Procera Networks, Red Hat, RIFT.io, Sandvine, Sprint, Telefonica S.A., Telenor ASA, University of the Basque Country, Viavi Solutions

Develop an Open Source NFV Management and Orchestration (MANO) software stack specifically for CSPs that is aligned with ETSI NFV, and to capitalize on the synergy between standardization and open source approaches by accessing a greater and more diverse set of contributors and developers

Promote the adoption of SDN and the OpenFlow protocol standard, which structures communication between the control and data planes of supported network devices

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VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

â&#x2013;˛

Source: Stratecast

partners. More recently, Bell Canada said it would collaborate with AT&T and other communications companies to evaluate the capabilities of the open source ECOMP platform. In the meantime, Verizon has offered its own reference architecture for NFV, and Telefonica’s UNICA virtualisation strategy appears to be back on track.

Driving change in operations and monetisation AT&T’s ECOMP is not the only important initiative in town. The following industry initiatives are working toward meeting the various challenges of next generation networks and operations: The common denominator among most of the initiatives and projects in the list above is the reliance on open platforms and systems, and more often than not, open-source software development partners. AT&T has opened the door to ECOMP a crack by exposing some of its platform to the open-source community. However, open source will need to be more widely and enthusiastically embraced for NFV to achieve its promise. Open source will have many roles to play in the delivery and support of communications services, end-user and value-added applications, and service delivery platforms. However, swooping in to replace operations software at the application layer is not an immediate goal of the open source community, or of CSPs. The open community is more focused on enabling platforms and value-added applications than on specific OSS or BSS software systems.

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

Still, CSPs are gaining confidence that these perceived shortcomings can now be overcome. CSPs have already given open-source solutions some consideration, and have adopted open-source software for specific implementations. Open source has slowly become integral to telecoms operations. CSPs are changing their skeptical attitude about achievable business results using this technology approach.

Start with what you know It should be apparent that CSPs need dramatic and immediate change in OSS and BSS, regardless of these emerging technologies. Simply put, CSPs must become more agile in order to compete in the near real-time reality of internet-based, ecosystem-driven competitors. From their earliest beginnings, CSP systems have been divided into functionality sets tied to various business processes. Concern about these systems today are centred in several areas: • Installed systems were never designed to provide free-flow, real-time customer interaction – a staple in virtual, software-defined networks.

• The purpose-built functionality of existing systems, the multi-vendor environment in which these systems are deployed, and the processdriven integration of these systems makes business change for even simple customer needs a costly, time-consuming endeavor.

• Internal work teams lack near real-time insight into performance and customer experience.

• Workflow processes and support systems cannot respond with sufficient speed to competitive repositioning.

▲

There may be a near-term opportunity for open source applications or add-ons to address complex partner relationships built around new services; but there will not be a rush to say: out with the old, in with the new when it comes to most installed systems. This is particularly true with regard to service assurance and fulfillment, especially in hybrid environments. Just as CSPs will not realize a huge initial cost savings from virtualised hardware, nor will they solve all of their integration and inefficiency problems by ripping and replacing legacy systems. The biggest change for these applications will, instead, be the incorporation of better analytics, or perhaps a new analytics layer on top of open platforms; expanded self-service capabilities; automation, and open interconnection.

The reasons are many for why, if open source holds such promise, it has taken CSPs this long to tentatively accept, let alone embrace, this technology approach into their closed, siloed, vertically-stacked, proprietary networks. Many of these reasons continue to be valid, such as: • Security vulnerabilities • Insufficient hardening of shared code necessary for operating in a telecoms production environment • Loss of central control • Difficulty in tracking change management • Ongoing maintenance • Backward compatibility

25

ANALYST REPORT

Shore up the weak points The ETSI MANO standard still requires further development to achieve the level of real-time orchestration necessary to manage the NFV side of the network. The legacy network’s biggest problem is its inability to cross domains, and model the types of on-demand services that will be possible in a virtual environment.

Ever present on top of these technology hurdles are the challenges of adapting human resources to new technologies, and integrating new platforms and solutions with existing platforms and solutions. The following are long-standing weak points that CSPs can no longer abide in hybrid network management: • Organisational skills – The amount of change impacting the operations workforce can be illustrated by a project currently underway, called Central Office Re-architected as a Datacentre (CORD). CORD combines NFV, SDN and commodity cloud technology and methodologies to bring datacenter economics and cloud agility to the Telco Central Office. This initiative introduces data centre practices, open-source software development, and support for both, into what is currently the traditional network operations centre (NOC).

The NOC is unprepared for a new way of management that revolves primarily around the use of data and open-source tools. While opensource networking is the second most in-demand skill in the Linux 2016 Open Source Jobs Report, such demand implies that the pool of expertise with this skill set is not large. In fact, knowledge of cloud technologies such as OpenStack and Cloud Rack is still the number one desired skill. According to the same jobs report, 87% of hiring managers say it is difficult to find open-source talent. Nearly the same percentage of hiring managers has increased incentives to hold on to the expertise they do have. CSPs as a whole must make the commitment to retrain their workforce. AT&T recently committed to retraining many operations personnel in the art of data science, for example.

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• DevOps – An emerging best-practices concept borrowed from data centre management, could help CSPs. DevOps enables collaboration and automation among third-party developers and internal CSP operations and IT personnel, planning and engineering departments, and support teams and systems. In the 2016 survey noted above, a full 58% of hiring managers are in search of people with DevOps experience.

Move forward While many relatively new industry initiatives are defining open standards for Virtual Infrastructure Management, SDN Controllers, and competing forms of MANO, a more seasoned body in network management is making its pitch for how networks and services should be managed in light of NFV, SDN and cloud. The TM Forum is attempting to define the Operations Centre of the Future (OpCF), through a combination of efforts from its Zero-touch Orchestration, Operations and Management (ZOOM) project, solutions already built into its Frameworx architecture, and new proof-points coming from its Catalyst programme.

After years of claiming to do so, operations centres are beginning to take a more service-centric approach to managing the core elements of their organisation’s business. This change is due, in no small part, to the diminishing role that traditional network performance metrics and practices play in virtual networks; where automated virtual functions can be spun up as needed, prior to service-disrupting outages, or degradation in service quality is noticed. The network operations centre (NOC) will finally give way to the service operations centre (SOC) – although the new name is unlikely to stick. This operational shift will accelerate with the proliferation of NFV, because it will begin to make

▲

• Process optimisation and automation – Developing the skill sets of operations personnel goes hand-in-hand with process change, as

humans are still a significant component of process execution. Selfprovisioning and fast-fail service experimentation and introduction are two necessary improvements that can only happen through process automation and the full integration of operations, orchestration, data analytics and monetisation (ODAM) functions with both physical and virtual network functions and cloud management systems.

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

less sense to worry about the performance of individual, commodity hardware appliances.

Still, the SOC may fall short as the management paradigm for NFV architectures, because it still relies on operation practices designed for a physical environment. This is where the OpCF takes on its significance. The OpCF holds that in the future: all network functions will be provided as software; there will be centralised management and control, and it will be automated; service delivery will be based on partner ecosystems; and OSS and BSS will become network functions just as software-based VNFs have done. For the most part, Stratecast agrees. However, Stratecast believes that achieving 100% softwarebased network functions is so far into the future as to render the TM Forum’s first point irrelevant. Also, OSS and BSS may indeed become functions; however, their design and capability set will be more like microservices than other VNFs. The OpCF is presently built on four key operational requirements: • Perform the management of virtual and current network appliances using standard IT infrastructure • Build as a network operations environment that exposes the network as a service • Add partnering capabilities that support traditional and virtualised network services • Provide a continuous focus on enhancing the customer experience

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

Coexistence is a concept that CSPs are beginning to embrace by opening their networks to third-party partners in all areas of operations, service creation and delivery, and revenue sharing. There will be contentious days ahead as CSPs and their suppliers stake out positions in the new digital economy. Not every hard-won practice or reliable solution tagged with the moniker of legacy should be discarded in favor of something shiny and new.

Many critical functions necessary today will be preserved in the emerging microservices architecture. Microservices, as they relate to OSS/BSS, stem from an approach to application development and delivery in which a broad application is broken down into distinct functional components. These components are made individually accessible, optionally on a per-use basis, rather than part of a monolithic solution. Microservices-based OSS functions can be housed in containers, such as Docker. This technology development, for bringing together the old with the new, will likely be a very hot topic over the next couple of years, beginning with Mobile World Congress 2017. Here, leading vendors will reveal their microservices strategies designed to bring together system functionality built to support virtual network functions with the capabilities from installed solutions that address the needs of physically-based network services.

Microservices are an evolution of OSS and BSS, not a death knell.

Also, there will be instances where the solutions are still better served as licensed or on-demand applications. OSS and BSS will be enhanced by microservices, as they will be with open-source tools, platforms and perhaps the long-needed influence of new operational best practices such as DevOps and those that emerge from the CORD project. Most of all, OSS and BSS must somehow become the enablers of coexistence rather than the barrier to it. That can only happen if they are allowed to contribute on an equal footing with the delivery of crossdomain services rather than worked around by new platforms.

▲

Stratecast believes that the new operational paradigm for managing network services will also require a new approach to data collection, storage, and retrieval. The new approach must include real-time correlation, and access to the data by all systems and departments.

The OpCF could be particularly good for managing hybrid networks, partly because it addresses four issues seldom mentioned in NFV/SDN architecture discussions: business processes, a common information model, open APIs, and exposing the network as a service. The TM Forum challenges CSPs by suggesting that the most important first step in transitioning to a virtual network is to begin to consume network resources in the same cloud-based fashion that they will expect customers to consume them. This means adopting software,

platforms, and infrastructure as-a-service (SaaS, PaaS, IaaS).

Stratecast believes this is both a good gut check to see if CSPs have the courage of their convictions, and a good way to iron out issues CSPs may only identify when acting as consumers.

27

ANALYST REPORT

Conclusion Transformation is not always transformative. It is sometimes merely a conversion from one technology to another. The concurrent transformations to NFV then 5G will be truly transformative: for consumers, enterprises, other industries, commerce, software developers and suppliers, CSPs, cloud service providers, digital service providers (DSPs), content providers, and to the concerns of information sharing, privacy, and security. Unfortunately, like the dashed hopes for the internet, it will do nothing to bring humanity closer or make us any smarter. Some problems just cannot be overcome by technology.

It is because these new technologies are otherwise so transformative that we must think of them (NFV and 5G) differently than we do now. Given the length and complexity of this transformation, we must stop treating legacy OSS/BSS like a lame duck. With a few tweaks, perhaps better application programme interfaces (APIs) or the use of microservices, support software must be an equal partner in management and orchestration until such time as it is no longer equal. We must also jettison the concept of interoperability and replace it with coexistence, as previously described.

CSPs, their partners, and suppliers, must live in peace with each other, especially as a matter of policy. And yes, policy is a double-entendre in this case. It means coexistence must be an open, stated goal. It also means something significant from a technology point of view. Actual policy enablement, management, and enforcement are the enduring operations functions that will hold this new network together. The idea of elevating OSS and BSS to equal status with next-generation MANO is not meant to protect a model that is no longer relevant. It is meant to deal with the reality of long-term hybrid networks when creating new services, managing network infrastructure, and delivering services to satisfy very different business needs.

About Stratecast Stratecast collaborates with our clients to reach smart business decisions in the rapidly evolving and hyper-competitive Information and Communications Technology markets. Utilising a mix of action-oriented subscription research and customised consulting engagements, Stratecast delivers knowledge and perspective that is only attainable through years of real-world experience in an industry where customers are collaborators; today’s partners are tomorrow’s competitors; and agility and innovation are essential elements for success. Contact your Stratecast account executive to engage our experience to assist you in attaining your growth objectives.

For more information, visit www.stratecast.com or email inquiries@stratecast.com.

About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to use visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today’s market participants.

For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the Global 1,000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Is your organisation prepared for the next profound wave of industry convergence, disruptive technologies, increasing competitive intensity, Mega Trends, breakthrough best practices, changing customer dynamics and emerging economies? For more information about Frost & Sullivan’s Growth Partnership Services, visit http://www.frost.com.

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SOFTWARE-DRIVEN CSPs

Software rewrites the rules for CSPs As the momentum around software-defined technologies continues to grow within the telecoms sector, one universal truth is becoming increasingly clear. Massive cultural, infrastructural and organisational transformation needs to take place, both within the telecoms providers themselves and within the wider supply chain for them to stay relevant, writes Gabriele Di Piazza

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very communications service provider (CSP) understands that relevance is survival. Speed is survival. Nimbleness is survival. Every provider has to become a valuable service provider to its customers; providing timely services and services that differentiate and enhance the customer experience.

This is only achievable through a software-defined approach, providing the speed and agility that is required for CSPs to deliver personalised new services to customers at speed, and faster than the competition.

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Enhance existing infrastructure The first step towards becoming software-defined involves ensuring that the correct infrastructure is in place. For CSPs this means introducing an open, virtualised service delivery platform, which acts as the foundation layer upon which this agile environment is built. This allows the CSP to change at both speed and scale, with economics that work.

But legacy investments are a very real fact of life, so the conversation becomes more about how do I innovate my business but evolve this alongside the technology, networks and infrastructure I currently have? Doing nothing is no longer an option, so the practical and yet

Creating this software-defined platform, virtualising compute, network and storage and adding service management and operations, creates the foundation for the fast rollout of applications and services. This means that when a CSP wants to deliver a new service, for example high definition video over LTE, the agility of the infrastructure means this can now be achieved in days versus months. A clear competitive advantage.

Once the infrastructure is in place, network functions can then be taken on board rapidly and efficiently bringing much needed operational agility, service differentiation and cost efficiencies to CSPs services. For example, an operator in India was able to ramp up to more than 50 million subscribers in just over 75 days with a new service offering. That is staggering growth and indicative of the potential disruption to the market offered by an NFV architecture. Network functions virtualisation (NFV) is fast becoming the key topic among CSP strategists and network architects. For many, it is perceived as the missing piece of the puzzle helping CSPs to move a network function, from a proprietary box that has typically been locked, into a software defined cloud.

It is this context that also helps to explain why the virtualisation market in the telecoms sector is so ripe.

Findings from The Accenture Enterprise Survey 2016, found that 95% of respondents believe that network

â&#x2013;˛

Once the infrastructure is in place, network functions can then be taken on board rapidly and efficiently bringing much needed operational agility, service differentiation and cost efficiencies to CSPs services

Naturally, evolving from a traditional service provider to a software defined CSP is a complex task, each journey is unique and unfortunately there is no blueprint to follow.

Yet my conversations with CSPs tell me that there are three common elements that must be considered, if the transition is to be made smoothly, effectively and without the perceived fear of massive disruption.

most effective option is to build out this new virtualised network alongside the legacy network, but build it out in a modular fashion: mapping investments to revenue potential and taking incremental steps from there.

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

different skill set and a completely new way of thinking.

Success is built upon being able to move at pace, innovate on demand and fail fast. This is what is required to compete with OTT players and level the playing field.

services will be virtualised within the next three years, with, 33% already using such solutions. The same report also found that 89% believe they themselves will soon evolve to a as a service model.

A new operational model Successful transformation requires that CSPs also evolve their operating model: evolving related roles, organisational structure, skill sets, processes and culture to reflect the reorientation of the company.

With the infrastructure in place, the next stage is for CSPs to re-imagine their core business, so that the opportunities presented by the digital era can be fully embraced.

A siloed, functional-based organisation does not work in a service-centric model. A convergence of IT experts with a broader view of networking IT and cloud services who will run this new infrastructure is required. This means moving away from the traditional, siloed approach, where network operations, for example, are required to look after the whole networking stack from the hardware to services, to a more integrated, horizontal approach, where there are layers of architects to teams of people who sit above them but who have service expertise.

These cross-domain roles are aimed at creating a much closer relationship among architecture, engineering, and operations teams and put service delivery at the core.

This new, unified approach requires new rules and engagement models. It relies on being able to build an environment where the business can become more valuable to customers, offering new features built by cost-effective DevOps teams who work with IT to create innovative applications and services on a regular basis.

DevOps will play an increasingly important role in the new world order of faster and more innovative service delivery.

For too long there has been a culture where every new offering is fully tested, resulting in cycles that often last months before never seeing the light of day. Against nimble OTT providers which can create content and innovative new customer services at great speed, the opportunity a software-defined model brings can enable CSPs to be more daring, more inspired and more innovative; thus more competitive. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a step change mindset and approach from what the industry has long lived off but one that can pay great dividends.

Of course, the culture of an organisation cannot be changed overnight but it is important that steps are made to ensure all employees receive the necessary skills required to survive in a software-defined world. A great example of this is the nano degrees offered by AT&T, designed to ensure its workforce receives basic programming skills which are becoming increasingly sought after across the industry. Without the right talent, and a culture that enables these talents to thrive, organisations will never be able to become truly software defined.

Keeping pace in such a fast-moving landscape has never been more of a challenge. The industry has witnessed the rapid ascent of digital players that came out of nowhere but now have far higher value service offerings than traditional CSPs could provide. Basically, being late to market is costing them market share. Something, we believe is rectifiable.

The author, Gabriele Di Piazza, is vice president of products and solutions for telco NFV at VMware

Keeping pace in such a fast-moving landscape has never been more of a challenge. The industry has witnessed the rapid ascent of

CSPs need to find new and innovative ways of reacting to market opportunity and increasing value in the eyes of the customer. Disruptors like Skype, WhatsApp and Netflix werenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t years in the making; they saw an opportunity and land-grabbed as much as they could as quickly as possible. Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not here to simply take small bites from the revenue streams of CSPs, they are here to stay and have become firmly entrenched into the wider telecoms ecosystem.

digital players that came out of nowhere

The current CSP landscape is testament to the fact that small technology disruptions can quickly gain enough power and momentum to unsettle market incumbents.

These disruptors are reliant on being able to deliver new features to the customer within a few days that anyone within the businesses has thought up. The archaic, traditional CSP approach needs to keep pace with this change.

Rethinking culture from the inside out As an organisation becomes software-defined its workforce must be prepared for the shift from a hardware-oriented focus to software-defined IP networks, which is why culture is the final component. Becoming software-defined after all, requires a fundamentally

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

Software-defined technologies present what many are describing as the final opportunity for them to compete and deliver the same quality, speed, scale and choice of its competing digital disruptors. It is decision time: become a disruptor or continue being disrupted.

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ANNOUNCING THE IoT GLOBAL NETWORK AWARDS 2017

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Have CSPs got what it takes to succeed?

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Meet us at Mobile World Congress Barcelona 27 Feb â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2 Mar 2017

Andy Castonguay Principal Analyst Focus areas: Operator IoT Strategy, Smart City, 5G/4G/ LPWA networks and modules, Connected Health

Aapo Markkanen.

Principal Analyst Focus areas: IoT Connectivity, LPWA Networks, Edge/Fog Computing, IoT Security, Developer Economics in the IoT

Godfrey Chua Principal Analyst Focus areas: CSP Strategies, Access and Networking Technologies, IoT Ecosystem, Smart Cities, Connected Home

Jeremy Green.

Principal Analyst Focus areas: Smart Cities, I0T start-ups

Matt Hatton Co-Founder & CEO Focus areas: CSP Strategies, Access Technologies, overall IoT market evolution

Isabel Chapman.

Principal Analyst Focus areas: Enterprise IoT, Smart Cities, Ecosystems, Go-to-market Strategy, SIs, UAVs, Best Practices, Virtual Assistants

Pierce Owen Analyst Focus areas: Connected Cars, IoT & M2M in Retail, Supply Chains, Public Transportation, IoT Strategies, MNOs

Jim Morrish Co-founder & CRO Focus areas: Enterprise IoT, Platforms, LPWA, Systems Integrators

Emil Berthelsen Principal Analyst Focus areas: Industrial and Enterprise IoT, IoT data and analytics, AI, Platforms

Matt Arnott.

Analyst Focus areas: Connected Home, Forecasts, Semiconductors

To arrange a meeting, contact us at info@machinaresearch.com

VanillaPlus Insight Q1 I January/February/March 2017

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INTERVIEW Nigel Chadwick, the chief executive of Stream Technologies, tells Jim Morrish, the chief research officer at Machina Research, how he sees the IoT market developing and how the world look very different in 2020

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IoT ANALYST REPORT Our specially-commissioned analyst report, authored by Matt Hatton, the founder and chief executive of Machina Research

47

IoT OPPORTUNITIES Jonny Evans explains why IoT is a big challenge and a big opportunity for CSPs

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EXPERT OPINION Service assurance and analytics is essential to support narrowband IoT, writes Inna Ott

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EXPERT OPINION Richard Stevenson explores the challenges CSPs face in supplying the capacity and coverage IoT demands

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O/BSS FOR IoT Nick Booth finds that CSPsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; O/BSS could be an ideal platform for launch into the IoT market

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INTERVIEW John English and Mike Serrano discuss how CSPs are adapting to assure mission critical services for IoT devices

INTERVIEW

Nigel Chadwick

47 IoT OPPORTUNITIES

52 EXPERT OPINION

54 O/BSS FOR IoT

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

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ANALYST INTERVIEW

Welcome to the era of the super (virtual) network operator As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to mature organisations are looking for platforms that can provide them with the widest possible range of connectivity options and support services. Here, Jim Morrish, the chief research officer at Machina Research, interviews Nigel Chadwick, the chief executive of Stream Technologies to learn what companies want in the IoT and how they want to buy their services Jim Morrish: Stream Technologies is a well-known name in the IoT, but can you summarise for me exactly what it is that you do?

â&#x2013;˛

Nigel Chadwick: In a nutshell, we enable companies to ship products that are ready to connect as soon as they are powered-up, and wherever they may be in the world.

Underpinning that proposition are a set of core products and services that can be divided into two parts. The first part centres around the worldwide wireless connectivity products and services that we provide to global enterprises. Typically, the connectivity services provided by Stream are delivered across cellular networks, however, we also provide satellite connectivity for customers who are transmitting business critical data from remote locations, and

To provide the broadest possible range of connectivity options for global enterprises, Stream has developed a wide range of partnerships with a multitude of cellular, satellite and low-power wide-area network operators across the globe

IN ASSOCIATION WITH STREAM TECHNOLOGIES

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VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

Nigel Chadwick: Connectivity is a critical element in delivering a complete solution as without it, the entire application ceases to function

LoRaWAN connectivity for customers who need long-range, low-power connectivity for large-scale IoT deployments.

To provide the broadest possible range of connectivity options for global enterprises, Stream has developed a wide range of partnerships with a multitude of cellular, satellite and low-power widearea network operators across the globe. The integrated connectivity options provided by Stream allow international enterprises to benefit from lowcost, global IoT connectivity that reduces time to market and increases the usability of the enterprise's connected product set.

The second part of the company is focused on the development of IoT-X - Streamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s award-winning connectivity management platform. IoT-X monitors, manages and monetises device endpoints and provides customers with subscriber management, billing, data routing and reporting capabilities from one centralised location. IoT-X is provided to Stream's connectivity customers as either softwareas-a-service (SaaS) or as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), depending on use case. IoT-X is also available as a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for service providers, mobile network operators (MNOs), mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) and enterprises that are managing their own connected device solutions.

Through IoT-X PaaS, Stream can enable enterprises to operate as an MVNO of Stream, or any carrier Stream integrates on the enterprise's behalf. The combination of embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC) connectivity and enhanced roaming management with data routing and cloud integrations positions IoT-X as the ideal enabler of IoT connectivity.

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NC: With projections that the world will have 50 billion IoT enabled devices by 2020, an increasing number of device manufacturers are producing IoT enabled devices. In this situation, connectivity is a critical element in delivering a complete solution as without it, the entire application ceases to function.

Conventionally, the enterprise is faced with two options: 1. Procure connectivity from a third party.

2. Become an MVNO or service provider in the communications technology of their choice.

Through IoT-X PaaS, Stream aims to provide a third option, which addresses any concerns the enterprise may have concerning connectivity quality and which also allows the enterprise to maintain control of the customer user experience, the support process and pricing.

JM: How would that work from the perspective of the companies engaged in providing the solution?

NC: By providing IoT-X as a PaaS, Stream enables enterprises to deliver Stream's connectivity services to their own customers. In this model, Stream functions as an enabler of cellular, satellite and lowpower wide-area network connectivity for the enterprise. Via Stream and our partner networks, the enterprise can seamlessly route the data gathered by their devices on to a common, cloud-based application.

The PaaS model enables the enterprise to operate as a telecoms provider for their customers, either by bundling the associated data costs in to a service fee, or by billing customers based on network usage.

Stream provides the ability for all the enterprise's traffic to be routed privately and securely to the end application, which ensures that the enterprise and end-customer avoid cost overruns and bill shock.

â&#x2013;˛

Through this combined offering, Stream's objective is to enable global enterprises to realise their connected device strategy by providing high-quality connectivity services, innovative software solutions and unrivalled levels of technical support.

JM: That sounds good, but can you bring it to life with a use case example?

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ANALYST INTERVIEW

In addition, IoT-X includes granular device performance information. For example, the user can determine at a glance, how a device is performing down to the specific cell or gateway on any network integrated with IoT-X, as well as the hundreds of partner networks with which Stream has integrated.

IoT-X can monitor millions of devices on hundreds of networks, which allows issues to be detected on a network and country level. If an issue is detected, remedial action can be taken quickly to minimise any potential impact. The granular level of detail provided

by IoT-X differentiates the platform from alternatives, as this level of insight is not available in any other platform or connectivity service.

Stream has partnered with key providers in the field to deliver a comprehensive connectivity solution which ranges from eUICC provisioning, global connectivity, roaming QoS, and connectivity management services.

Of course, it is possible for enterprises to go to operators directly to obtain network provision, however, Stream’s existing partnerships with multiple operators across the globe mean that enterprises have access to low-cost, global IoT connectivity, without the headache of integrating and interacting with multiple vendors and their various connectivity management platforms on an individual basis.

The combination of these factors positions IoT-X as an ideal solution for global enterprises, such as device manufacturers, who want to provide IoT connectivity to their own customer base.

JM: Presumably there’s some clever technical stuff going on under the hood, how does that all work?

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Stream's global, fault-tolerant IP network serves subscribers across the globe. It is divided in to discrete subnets, which allows enterprises to establish virtual private networks and provide secure, remote access to their corporate infrastructure from any location in the world.

For non-IP networks, such as low-power wide-area networks, Stream has developed a high availability message bus architecture. This allows a publishsubscribe model to be deployed, which enables data to be published directly to cloud servers running services such as IBM Watson, Microsoft Azure and Amazon's AWS. Stream’s IP network even supports direct interconnection with both AWS and Azure.

To deliver a truly future-proof solution to enterprises, Stream is continually evolving the services that we provide. For example, in addition to having a wide range of partnerships with a multitude of cellular, satellite and low-power wide-area network operators across the globe, Stream are also integrating the GSMA eUICC specification to allow remote profile swapping on deployed SIMs. Stream’s global roaming solution is being utilised as the bootstrap IMSI, which instantly provides access to over 200 countries worldwide, where roaming services can be used and,

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NC: The IoT is nothing without data and that data usually relies on some form of connectivity. To ensure that Stream provides resilient and reliable connectivity

services to customers, the company has developed a highly fault-tolerant, global network infrastructure.

Stream’s network is connected using diverse carriers with N+1 redundancy on all links, equipment and sites. The network is regularly load tested to ensure that there is more than sufficient capacity to host the entire infrastructure from one site. The quality coverage and rapid connection speeds delivered by Stream’s connectivity services are assured by an array of private backhaul links, which provide fast and secure connectivity between the Stream network and partner networks.

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where required, new high-capacity profiles can be made available driven by enterprise demand.

Stream's global roaming SIM continues to mature.

Supported by a combination of smart roaming schemes, quality of service (QoS) management and preferred roaming agreements, Stream's global SIM provides enterprises with connectivity anywhere on the globe. With an increasing number of connectivity options becoming available, Stream's global SIM is ideal for enterprises looking for the widest possible range of connectivity options.

JM: So in a way this is consistent with a next stage of the evolution of the IoT? NC: Yes, as the IoT continues to gain traction and we can expect it to transform more and more of the physical objects that surround us. The emerging philosophy in the industry seems to be that, anything that can be connected will be connected. This can be seen in Samsungâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s commitment that by 2020, all its products will be connected to the internet.

From this it can be concluded that the IoT is having a huge impact on the way in which manufacturers produce devices. There is an increasing drive amongst manufacturers to adopt a build once, deploy locally model for IoT-enabled products. This model enables manufacturers to construct products in their existing factories, wherever these might be in the world, and ship them to customers through their usual channels. From here, the customer simply buys the product, switches it on: connectivity is built-in.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clear that wireless, global connectivity is a critical element in this model. To that end, the partnerships

Stream has partnered with key providers in the field to deliver a comprehensive connectivity solution which ranges from eUICC provisioning, global connectivity, roaming QoS, and connectivity management services

that Stream has developed with key providers in the field to deliver a comprehensive connectivity solution which ranges from eUICC provisioning, global connectivity, roaming QoS, and connectivity management services ensures that global enterprises working with Stream can be assured of receiving the connectivity services they need to expand their IoT footprint.

JM: Any final thoughts on the overall direction of the market, and your role in it?

NC: Yes, the market is really beginning to mature and gain momentum now. There is tremendous potential for the industry, with applications ranging from wearables to smart homes and smart cities to connected healthcare delivery. What the world looks like in 2020 really will be very different to what it looks like now. The pace of change in the IoT space really has moved up a gear in the last 12 months or so.

Stream is ideally positioned to capitalise on the opportunities that the growth in the IoT industry presents. With a unique blend of high-quality, wireless connectivity services and the flexibility of the IoT-X connectivity management platform, Stream's objective is to continue to enable global enterprises to realise their connected device strategy and expand their IoT footprint.

Stream Technologies will be demonstrating IoT-X in Hall 7, 7C30, Mobile World Congress www.stream-technologies.com

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

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ANALYST REPORT

The author, Matt Hatton, is founder and chief executive of Machina Research

Introduction In 1956, Swiss journalist Peter Schmid published a book called ‘Beggars on Golden Stools’, referencing the economic condition prevalent in Latin America at the time. He was of the view that countries in the region had all manner of assets necessary to drive substantial economic growth but had never managed to harness them. While many might disagree with the naïve economics, the concept that organisations have fantastically valuable assets that are not necessarily exploited to their fullest extent is one that resonates well with the current state of the Internet of Things (IoT), and particularly the role of communications service providers (CSPs) within it

F

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What is the role of the CSP in IoT? Machina Research’s analysts have been deeply involved with guiding and advising CSPs around the world on shaping their IoT strategies for many years. In September we published our annual IoT Communications Service Provider Benchmarking Report, profiling the IoT activities of 17 of the world’s biggest CSPs. We are uniquely placed to offer views on where CSPs can hope to realise the opportunity presented by the rapid growth of IoT. In late 2015 we developed a loose framework for understanding the relative positioning and evolution path for CSPs in IoT. The framework identified four groupings of CSPs: learners, builders, players and next-generation. Learners are yet to truly embark on the IoT journey. Responsibility typically sits within the wholesale or enterprise business and

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or the last five years CSPs have been wrestling with what their role should be in IoT. All the major global CSPs have identified IoT as a potential growth opportunity to counter-balance stagnating revenue in their traditional lines of business. However, there is little consensus on the appropriate approach to take; inevitable given CSPs’ diverse capabilities.

The challenge for CSPs today is two-fold: how to take advantage of the assets that they currently have, and where they should additionally invest to take advantage of the anticipated growth in IoT. In the first section of this VanillaPlus IoT Insight, we examine the possible roles that CSPs might play in IoT. In the second section, this being VanillaPlus, we delve in to the billing and OSS requirements, including examining how CSPs are well placed to address the complex charging requirements for IoT.

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Next-Gen Professional services Network flexibilty LPWA Players

Data analytics

Scale

Scale

Strong vertical offering

Strong vertical offering

Builders

App Enablement Platform

App Enablement Platform

Partnership

Partnership

Partnership

SP Alliances

SP Alliances

SP Alliances

Dedicated BU

Dedicated BU

Dedicated BU

Learners

Connectivity Platform

Connectivity Platform

Connectivity Platform

Wholesale

Wholesale

Wholesale

Wholesale

Figure 1: Evolution to next-generation IoT service providers for CSPs [Source: Machina Research, 2016]

they still need to resolve how they address the IoT opportunity.

Builders tend to be more recent entrants into IoT. While most of them will have dedicated IoT teams, operations are still relatively small and likely to be more localised or at best regional. They are either actively developing their IoT strategy or are in the midst of executing it. They have started to collaborate with partners along the value chain as well as other CSPs as part of alliances, and they have typically implemented some form of connectivity management platform, such as those from Ericsson or Jasper/Cisco. IoT Players include the likes of AT&T and Vodafone and represent the global leaders in IoT today.

They have invested significant effort in all of the above initiatives, as well as typically pursuing vertical offerings more aggressively, for instance in the case of Verizon’s aggressive acquisition of fleet management companies to directly support that application.

Over the next few years we also expect CSPs to pursue a further set of capabilities most notably in data analytics, professional services and the greater use of diverse network capabilities to support IoT, for instance using network functions virtualisation (NFV) and the emerging Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technologies to position themselves for addressing all of the opportunities presented by IoT.

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

While approaches to network deployments may vary, there is consensus amongst CSPs that the network is a key constituent element in IoT, necessarily involving the CSP in a large proportion of IoT implementations. The CSP’s ambitions in IoT should certainly not be limited to the network. The golden stool that was referred to earlier is more than this. CSPs tend to have a wider range of assets that they can bring to bear on IoT. The first relates to the network itself. CSPs are custodians of vast amounts of incredibly valuable data that can be harnessed for supporting IoT. Telefónica, for instance, is looking very closely at the opportunities created by the unique access that it has to network information and anonymised demographic information. In October 2016 it launched LUCA, its new business unit focused on big data, pulling together some diverse assets that it has in the field. Telefónica’s approach is to maximise the ways in which network-related data can be used for diverse applications. Examples include providing anonymised demographic information on commuters to display advertising companies, or using network information to refine threat algorithms for credit card fraud testing.

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The starting point for CSPs when thinking about IoT is inevitably the network. Historically we tended to think of the CSP opportunity in IoT as being intrinsically linked to cellular networks, but the portfolio is much more diverse. Any CSP should also be considering: satellite – for instance as part of a dual-mode cellular/satellite asset tracking solution; short-range for connected home, for example; and low power wide area

(LPWA) connectivity at least. LPWA is perhaps the most exciting development in IoT access technology. With the recent 3GPP unveiling of LTE-NB1 – also known as NB-IoT – and LTE-M1 as part of 3GPP Release 13, CSPs have a great tool for addressing an additional range of IoT applications, specifically those that require lower cost, have no access to power and will be in the field for five to 10 years; deployments that might not be appropriately supported through traditional cellular networks.

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ANALYST REPORT

If the Internet of Things is about anything, it’s about data.

Telefónica’s approach demonstrates how a CSP can harness its own data to support IoT. But it doesn’t need to stop there. A number of CSPs around the world are establishing themselves as focal points for the exchange of data which is the inevitable consequence of the emergence of the IoT. To break out of the application siloes implicit in last generation M2M services, IoT requires the interchange of data from remote devices with diverse other data sources, all made available to multiple stakeholders. Take the smart cities sector as an example: being able to remotely monitor and control streetlights is valuable, but being able to combine that with weather information, demographics, traffic information – to be used to adjust lighting levels depending in the amount of traffic, or even emergency services – for applications to provide increased lighting at the location of an accident, is more valuable still. Across IoT it is well understood that IoT data is most valuable when combined with other sources. This necessitates a central intermediary to act as a hub. The CSP has a strong case to claim that role. BT in the UK has been involved in such an initiative as part of the MK:Smart activities. Telia has also been active in the space, specifically in the automotive sector as part of its TeliaSense offering. Ultimately this role as data aggregator gives way to that of data bourse, that is: managing the trading of data between various participants. CSPs are well placed to play these critical data-centric roles in IoT. Another under-realised resource for CSPs in IoT is the customer base. CSPs touch almost every enterprise on the planet, and there are many enterprises that need their hands holding as they navigate IoT, and CSPs can be at the front of the queue. In some cases, CSPs already have established systems integration (SI) and professional services arms. This is a perfect conduit for turning enterprise customers in enterprise IoT customers, a fact realised by, for instance, Deutsche Telekom, which is increasingly using its T-Systems SI unit as the lead element of its IoT strategy.

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A further asset that a CSP should seek to exploit is its monetisation capability. This is explored further later in this report.

Of course, CSPs are not just passive creatures, happy to simply use the existing assets. They are also investing significantly in IoT-related capabilities, in particular in developing vertical expertise. One of the factors that define CSP approaches to IoT is the extent to which they are focusing on developing and deploying applications for vertical sectors, or pursuing instead just horizontal capabilities, such as the provision of connectivity. The standard-bearer for the vertical approach is Verizon, which has placed a multi-billion dollar bet on the fleet management space, acquiring first Hughes Telematics for US$612 million in 2013, and Fleetmatics for US$2.4 billion in August 2016. The reasoning is clear: the lion’s share of the value in IoT is in the provision of the end application, so Verizon is aiming to be the provider of end services in that specific sector. Other CSPs have pursued similar approaches, for instance Vodafone with its Cobra Automotive acquisition, and the likes of Orange in healthcare, Telefónica in smart cities and retail, and numerous others.

Historically the evolution of CSP approaches to IoT was quite linear, it moved from a wholesale approach based on selling SIMs, through to setting up dedicated units, implementing IoT management platforms and then delving deeper into verticals to realise more of the value in IoT. However in the last 12 months we have seen some variation from that. Firstly we have seen some CSPs taking a more horizontal approach to the market. This is not necessarily a less sophisticated offering, more a case of focusing on offering enhanced horizontal capabilities such as those around supporting multiple access technologies or security. Tele2 is probably the best example of this type of CSP. Secondly there is also an emerging trend of smaller CSPs, mostly operating in a single country, accepting a secondary position in the support of IoT. Part of the stimulus for this change of attitude comes from the bigger CSPs and from value added resellers (VARs) who are offering to effectively provide an outsourcing partner for those smaller CSPs’ IoT offerings. One example of this kind of activity is Vodafone’s licensing of its global data services platform (GDSP) platform to other CSPs, and its support for partner market operators. Another is the

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The benefit of a large customer base is not limited to just enterprises. CSPs with fixed-line assets are probably the dominant providers of customer premises equipment (CPE) that could be used for supporting the connected home. The biggest challenges with smart homes today are fragmentation and cost. Incumbent fixed-line providers can provide a consistent environment, albeit national, for vendors to develop devices and applications. Furthermore they can take the view that adding a portfolio of additional services creates stickiness for the core proposition, so can be priced aggressively. Just

don’t expect miracles overnight: smart home is likely to be a slow-burn.

VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

example of Wind Hellas in Greece which recently struck and agreement with Telefónica for the latter to support Wind on deploying IoT solutions. Even value-added resellers are getting in on the act. The best example is Aeris Communications which has become increasingly focused on its line of business associated with supporting CSPs which may not themselves have the IoT-related expertise necessary to support the market opportunity.

The CSP has a critical role to play in IoT even if it is only in the provision of connectivity; and this is even more true with the deployment of extensive new IoT-friendly networks in the form of Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) networks. However, there are many additional potential roles that CSPs can play. These range from those that will basically outsource all elements of IoT bar the connectivity, all the way through to those that embrace the substantial opportunity associated with monetising the data generated by IoT, a topic which we have not even touched on here. The key recommendation that Machina Research always makes is ‘use what you have’, there is no single correct strategy for every CSP. Each starts from a different position based on network assets, historical anomalies – such as previous experience with healthcare related issues, geographical coverage, business structure – such as whether they have an IT services arm, sensitivity to risk, and numerous other factors. Each must shape its strategy according to those characteristics, or, to put it another way, the number of carats in its golden stool.

What are the billing and OSS implications of IoT? The Internet of Things cannot be supported in the same way as traditional handset and mobile broadband services. It has many peculiarities that require a different approach from CSP operations. The first thing to note is that IoT is predominantly low average revenue per user (ARPU). Because of that, CSPs have needed to find cheaper and more efficient routes for onboarding and managing connections. Furthermore, once deployed IoT devices have an inherent requirement for remote management. This has led to the rise of specialist connectivity management platforms such as the Control Centre from Jasper/Cisco and Ericsson’s Device Control Platform (DCP). It also accounts for part of the continuing success of valueadded resellers in IoT which have been very good at efficiently onboarding and managing subscribers.

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Customer care also changes dramatically for IoT. Once you remove the end user from the equation, as is usually the case with IoT, CSPs need to be much more proactive in their approach to customer care. Furthermore the skills required for managing IoT client requirements, not least because they will often involve large volumes of devices with usual requirements, will be very different from those required in customer care in more traditional lines of business. Many CSPs are significantly ramping up their IoT-specific customer care capabilities.

While the above issues are doubtless important, billing trumps them all. In a White Paper published in conjunction with Redknee last year, Machina Research identified a potential revenue opportunity of US$1.3 trillion in the IoT over the next ten years associated with the use of innovative monetisation models. CSPs, with their relatively sophisticated billing capabilities are in a better position to support that than most.

One of the defining characteristics of the Internet of Things is its diversity, incorporating industrial, connected home, public transport, retail, supply chain, smart metering, agriculture, smart cities, connected car and numerous others. The monetisation methods used in IoT are also diverse, ranging from simple monthly charging for remote monitoring solutions through to supporting the increasingly sophisticated, business models which are emerging which necessitate more complex approaches to monetisation. Take a vending machine, for instance. Initially the connected service may simply need a monthly fee or traffic-based pricing. But the benefit of having the vending machine connected allows for more sophisticated charging, for instance time-of-day or day-of-week pricing, or variegated pricing depending on what items it has remaining in stock. Or it may need to support response advertising, coupons and various types of payments. Another example is the smart meter which, rather than simply reporting automated meter readings will become part of a distributed electricity generation and consumption ecosystem which involves settlement between home users/producers and electricity distributors as part of the management of load balancing across the network. Any application that touches the consumer must also allow for evolving payment patterns. For instance, in

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The concept of service assurance also becomes all the more important given the absolute criticality of many IoT applications.

Service level agreements (SLAs) are much more prevalent in IoT than in the best-effort world of traditional telecoms services.

There is also a further extension to this role which might see the CSP, acting as a one-stop-shop for IoT, needing to monitor SLAs on behalf of its customer. This adds another dimension to service assurance.

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ANALYST REPORT Information sources

Type of insurance

Payment

Charging basis

Unconnected

Traditional car insurance

Annual fee

Aggregated demographic data, so highly inaccurate.

Limited driving behaviour information (such as time of day)

Pay-as –you drive

Payment per kilometre

Combination of demographic data combined with km driven, and perhaps factors such as time-of-day. May be connected, or may be a datalogger.

Detailed driving behaviour information

Pay-how-you-drive

Payment based on risk

Credit is reduced at variable rate depending on driver performance (for example, harsh braking, speeding).

Real-time two-way

Pay-how-you-drive with real-time feedback

Payment (real-time) based on risk

As above, but driver is informed in realtime of how driving behaviour is affecting premium.

Scale of sophistication for usage-based insurance

connected car the monthly fee model is likely to dominate.

However, there are other monetisation methods including appstore type models, and multi-sided business models involving, for instance, the trading of data about the vehicle performance, or sponsored ad placement in navigation applications, or contingency-based models, for example only paying for stolen vehicle recovery in the event that the car is actually stolen.

The addition of data analytics, and the monetisation of that, adds a further degree of complexity. The most prominent IoT application where data analytics is applied today is usagebased car insurance (UBI). For these policies, the amount that users are charged for insurance policies is based on a wide variety of parameters, including time of day, distance travelled, speed, harsh braking and many more. There is a direct link between the amount of data coming from a device and the options and complexity of charging, as illustrated in the figure, below.

One of the most disruptive business models in IoT is servitisation – organisations using the connectivity to remote assets to switch from selling products as a piece of hardware, to selling it as a service. This is a reasonably well-established practice for some specific sectors, in particular associated with high value items; aeroplane manufacturers have bought engines on a pay-per-use basis for many years. With the advent of cheaper and more easily deployed IoT we have seen a rapid expansion in this x-as-a-service approach, across both industrial equipment and consumer applications such as caras-a-service models like Zipcar, Mobility or DriveNow. Pay-peruse or even shared success business models, such as where the provider of the service is paid based on the impact of the service, will become increasingly popular.

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prospect of much more complex monetisation models. To give an example, a connected car manufacturer, or other third party providing some associated service, would be aware of when a particular vehicle needs to refill, or has been driving for three hours so the driver might be tired or hungry, or the car needs to be repaired. These are valuable pieces of information to a gas station owner, restaurant owners and car repair companies.

The revenue flows in these multi-sided business models are quite complex. The monetisation opportunity here would involve payments between various different parties in several different ways. This data marketplace role also involves dealing with policy management to define who can access data and how, combined with potentially highly granular monetisation methods which might be – amongst other things – timesensitive, customer-specific and based on multi-lateral trading of data. This coming real-time, multi-party data trading environment involves a further evolution of monetisation models.

The aforementioned White Paper prepared by Machina Research for Redknee also identified the seven key characteristics required of a monetisation engine required to embrace the IoT opportunity: • Scalable – IoT will be enormous, with billions of devices performing trillions of actions. Therefore, scalability is critical.

A monetisation system for IoT must be proven as highly scalable. This almost inevitably means using a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) model. Using SaaS-based platforms is increasingly the default for IoT application development and associated functions, simply due to the speed of development and ease of deployment enabled by using these building blocks.

• Open – It is not possible for a single company to deliver all of the elements of IoT. Therefore, cooperation is essential.

We will see multi-tenanted platforms, multi-sided business models, and data sharing between multiple parties.

Openness, interoperability and standards will be the watchwords in the IoT.

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In the first section we explored the opportunities that CSPs might have in acting as a data aggregator. Clearly this role of data federation, aggregation and distribution, with the associated multi-sided business models, also raises the

[Source: Machina Research]

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• Real-time – One of the key characteristics of the IoT and the opportunities that it brings is to react to events in realtime, such as adjusting traffic lights to reflect changing road traffic patterns, to think of a relatively unsophisticated example. Part of the point of connecting IoT devices is to allow for real time rating and billing. As data management and analytics becomes more sophisticated, it will increasingly need to be acted upon in real time. This will have implications for monetisation. For instance, retail signage will need to change in real-time, or industrial equipment leasers may want to change according to time of day, just as a couple of examples. As IoT solutions become more sophisticated, the real-time requirements become even more pronounced. For instance, application providers may want to charge for data based on timeliness.

• Flexible – IoT monetisation platforms must deal with diverse models as outlined above, as well as highly variable demands from different verticals. Billing capabilities must be able to cope with diverse and constantly evolving business models which might include any conceivable – and many not-yet-conceivable – subscription, usage-based, behaviourbased, ad-funded models. IoT opens up endless possibilities, many of which are unpredictable today, so the platform needs to be able to cope with all these.

• Transparent and secure – As explored elsewhere, IoT is a multi-tenant system with a complex partner ecosystem. The interdependency between vendors and multi-sided business models necessitates a monetisation model that allows for total partner transparency as well as needing to ensure security.

• Agile – The motivation for deploying IoT is usually to be able to stitch data from distributed assets into a wider business process. Therefore, any monetisation platform must be able to cope with that integration. Servitisation models involve IoT permeating the whole of the business process. The way in

which monetisation occurs is likely therefore to change. For instance, there could be much more substantial integration of settlement occurring during any business process, rather than having a single transaction at the point of completion.

Retailers may bid in real-time for manufacturing capacity to be allocated to them for their product line rather than simply waiting for the box to emerge from the factory gate. These types of models make for a much more complex challenge.

• Vertical understanding – IoT incorporates a very diverse set of applications. As a result, there is no generic one-sizefits-all answer to monetisation. Therefore it is critical to have a good understanding of the specifics of the verticals, to ensure the monetisation tools are appropriate. While the system should be service agnostic, it’s still valuable to understand the requirements of the verticals to be sure of meeting them most effectively. And it’s not just about understanding, it’s also about being able to plug into verticalspecific back office systems, such an enterprise research planning (ERP).

CSPs have correctly identified that IoT represents a significant growth opportunity. To date the focus has largely been on connectivity, albeit with some rapid deployment of horizontal capabilities to support IoT, for instance rolling out connectivity management platforms, and the establishment of dedicated IoT teams. In just five years the biggest CSPs have built a good degree of capability in IoT. Many are now turning their attention to building either further horizontal capabilities, for instance in data management or professional services, while others are pursuing the full vertical solution, often through acquisitions.

The truth is that CSPs still have some way to go to take advantage of many of the assets that they have simply by virtue of being CSPs. These include their large customer base and channels to market, vast amounts of network usage data, and relatively sophisticated billing systems, to name a few.

About Machina Research Machina Research provides market intelligence and strategic insight on the newly emerging Internet of Things (IoT), Machine-toMachine (M2M) and big data opportunities.

The Internet of Things is the single most important technology trend today. IoT technologies are already enabling new and innovative business opportunities, proving a significant disruptor of traditional business models and processes. It is front-of-mind for many corporate management teams as well as the myriad of technology vendors that support and supply them.

Staffed by industry veterans, we provide market intelligence and strategic insight to help our clients maximise opportunities from these rapidly emerging markets. If your company is a mobile network operator, device vendor, infrastructure vendor, service provider or potential end user in the IoT, M2M, or big data space, we can help. www.machinaresearch.com

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COMPANY PROFILE

Profile by VanillaPlus

Company summary Founded

1983

HQ

Stockholm, Sweden

Employees

170+

Customers

More than 110 CSP customers in more than 50 countries utilising analytics, CEM, managed services, network monitoring, and service assurance. Customers include Telia Company, Telenor, Tele2, T-Mobile, Singtel, Telefonica, Belgacom, Bell Canada, Three and others.

Partnerships

Polystar has an active and broad set of both OEM and channel partners.

Financial Status

Privately held

IoT enabling solutions and products Polystar offers world-class end-to-end IoT Monitoring Solutions for CSPs that give the insights needed to deliver IoT services at the right quality, consistently and cost effectively.

Polystar’s solutions capture all IoT traffic and provide clear, visual, customisable reporting through graphs and reports that give an instant picture of IoT service usage and quality performance for each customer. These can be adapted by users, allowing them to keep pace with changes in the rapidly evolving IoT market.

Network Performance Insights Solution

• Solutions under Network Performance Insights include network, device, roaming and interconnect analytics as well as network monitoring. Together they derive actionable intelligence and create a visual understanding of network and service performance across domains and technologies.

Business Insights Solution

• Solutions under Business Insights include subscriber, marketing and corporate/VIP analytics. These solutions help CSPs understand what services customers use, how much they use them and whether they experience problems using them.

Executive Insights Solution

• Solutions for c-level management help companies’ executives get an overview of the usage, service level and performance of their networks and services from the business perspective.

KALIX

• Helps CSPs become more customer-centric and optimise network efficiency. It enables real-time visualisation that identifies how users are affected by network and service issues. Using a common data source, users can define which metrics are important to creating their particular view of the customer.

OSIX

• The OSIX network monitoring probe extracts information from the control and users planes, then processes, consolidates and stores the information for both real-time and historic analysis and visualisation. The system maps the end-to-end view of service performance to each subscriber.

Key differentiation and competitive pressures The flexibility and usability enabled by the exposure of dedicated Insight portals that offer rich insights from real-time network data, optimised to the needs of different user groups within CSP’s organisations, sets Polystar’s solutions apart. Combined with Polystar’s support for all network technologies in a single platform, from 2G to 4G, VoLTE and beyond, it creates a uniquely differentiated offer. This is backed by an industry recognition and a strong roadmap that supports network transformation and the IoT revolution.

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IOT OPPORTUNITIES

– T o I d n CSPs a , e g n e l l a Big ch y t i n u t r o p p big o The Internet of Things (IoT) industry means millions of objects will use networks to communicate with apps and services. Each one will demand bandwidth, security and quality of service commitments and while providing this will be a challenge, the proliferation of these connected devices is an opportunity communications service providers (CSPs) cannot ignore, writes Jonny Evans

C

ritically, the IoT gives CSPs a chance to move up the value chain. “This is a shift away from the traditional CSP business, so they must consider whether to build, buy or partner to make the transition,” explains Paul Lalancette, managing director and IoT Communications industry lead for Accenture Digital.

To achieve this transition, Avi Kachlon, the chief executive of FTS, says CSPs: “must be able to onboard new partners and IoT service providers rapidly; to launch new, bespoke contracts; to rapidly adjust existing contracts; and to understand and respond to the different needs and business logics of each industry.”

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“CSPs have a chance to be pioneers in the IoT space, and showcase just how successful it can be – a great example being through the deployment of low power wide area networks (LPWAN) and technologies,” Rooney said.

Meeting anticipated network demands is driving both new solutions (5G, LPWA) and motivating carriers to make better use of existing bandwidth. “The answer is NFV,” says Cam Cullen, the vice president of global marketing at Procera Networks. “This makes it possible to introduce new monitoring and filtering technologies to manage peaks in IoT traffic on demand.”

With so many IoT sectors to support, CSPs must become sufficiently agile to rapidly create business

▲

Dr. Shane Rooney, executive director at GSMA, also identifies roles for CSPs. “CSPs have an opportunity to show how diverse the deployment of IoT can be, by using IoT technology across a wide range of customers and vertical sectors,” he says. In many

cases, CSPs will need to enhance existing teams with new skills as they seek to build business in sectors in which they have no traditional expertise.

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IOT OPPORTUNITIES

Dr Shane Rooney: CSPs will need to enhance existing teams with new skills

The challenges and rewards may be great, but it is important not to underestimate the profound impacts these technologies will have and the vast nature of the digital transformation IoT creates

Cam Cullen: NFV makes it possible to manage peaks in IoT traffic ondemand

Avi Kachlon: CSPs must be able to respond to different industries’ business logic

Martin Morgan: CSPs can use policy systems to ensure the correct QoS is being applied

and BSS systems for multiple usage cases. “Some IoT applications will be mission critical like health care device monitoring,” adds Martin Morgan, the vice president of marketing at Openet. “CSPs can use policy systems to ensure the correct QoS is being applied, and charging systems can monetise accordingly.”

Security is also a challenge. The connected devices that comprise the emerging IoT will gather large quantities of sensitive user data, from bank details to location, health data and more. Within this context, “CSPs must recognise that IoT devices could become the weakest links for significant attacks on critical infrastructure, including that of the operators themselves,” warns Alex Mathews, the lead security evangelist at Positive Technologies.

The recent distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on internet infrastructure company, Dyn, used an array of compromised connected household devices in the exploit. More recently in November, 900,000 Deutsche Telekom customers saw their routers crashed by malware. “We will see more stories like this,” Mathews warns.

“Device manufacturers should consider integrated security at the device stage,” advocates Stamatis Georgoulis, the senior director of product management at Cobham Wireless. “Consumers should take advantage of available security methods to protect their devices. CSPs … must continually stress-test their networks.”

Success will require real business cases aimed at real customers, and in some cases just meeting the challenges CSPs face will be differentiator enough.

“More importantly, users of the service must also find value in that differentiator and it must be something they’re willing to pay for,” says John English, the senior manager for service provider solutions at Netscout. “When it comes to IoT services, one key differentiator will be offering access to a guaranteed, secure, and reliable connection, which will result in much greater importance being placed on service level agreements.”

For Morgan, the opportunities are already real. “We’re already seeing CSPs in the US offering connected car services, where consumers can share a data allowance across multiple devices – one of which just

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Stamatis Georgoulis: CSPs must continually stress-test their networks

Thomas Neubauer: The scale and resources that CSPs can draw upon will be key to how well they fare

happens to be their car,” he points out. This illustrates the “opportunity to sell IoT-related services to a wider segment of the existing customer base”, such as home automation, security and more. “Being able to bundle these services into multi-play offers will make services stickier,” Morgan explains.

Creating personalised deals that meet different user, security and service requirements may generate revenue improvements for CSPs. “Mobile plans can be tailored around usage of different devices, as more everyday objects and innovative gadgets are connected to the IoT and are adopted by a growing number of consumers,” says Georgoulis.

This might be true, but “in order to go beyond providing commodity connectivity services and play a more central role in the IoT ecosystem, they will need to implement smart revenue sharing solutions that can facilitate these partnerships,” explains Kachlon.

The challenges and rewards may be great, but it is important not to underestimate the profound impacts these technologies will have and the vast nature of the digital transformation IoT creates. No industry is immune to this. Thomas Neubauer, Teoco’s vice president of business development and innovations says, “If every household has a solar roof, enough surplus energy would be generated to allow peer-topeer transactions between households, without the energy provider as a middleman. In the same way that blockchain technology enabled such transactions for money; IoT solutions in combination with blockchain could bring about a fundamental change in the energy market.”

With the once in a lifetime potential to get into so many industries, competition will be fierce, but not everyone will make the cut. Already there are signals that hint at future consolidation as CSPs seek to grasp the moment. “In 2015, there have been around 470 IoT contracts signed between operators and industry verticals globally, almost of them for B2Bbased features and services,” adds Neubauer, who confirmed that 40% of these went to just three CSPs. “The scale and resources that individual operators can draw upon to deliver more than simple IoT connectivity – such as systems integration expertise – will be key to how well they fare,” he says.

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EXPERT OPINION

Why service assurance and analytics is essential to support the growing Narrow Band IoT service revolution There are likely to be many millions of Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT) devices, with numbers expected to soon exceed those of personal mobile devices, so NB-IoT service opportunities are expected to grow rapidly in the coming years. The technology is also expected to deliver higher quality, at attractive price points and hence offer competitive advantages when compared to other technologies. As such, the new NB-IoT standards promise to unlock the market for both a wide range of new services and new devices, writes Inna Ott

However, while many IoT applications have low data requirements, others will have more variable needs.

There can be highly volatile service demands: some

services may be time-critical, others may not. Service data may be infrequent or the importance of it may change depending on different conditions. For example, asset tracking is a key requirement in the logistics industry, but devices that are used to track material such as containers or pallets may only need to transmit or receive data infrequently. The same applies to the location of personal items â&#x20AC;&#x201C; network connectivity may only be required when the item is misplaced.

On the other hand, applications that are designed to provide intelligent infrastructure in smart cities may not only have to provide periodic data traffic, they may also be required to respond in real-time to specific events and provide irregular updates. â&#x2013;ź

A

lthough NB-IoT has only recently been standardised and released to the market, many mobile network operators (MNOs) are already starting to roll it out in their networks. NB-IoT has been optimised to provide an extension to existing mobile network technologies, such as LTE and 3G. It takes advantage of licensed spectrum and provides a convenient solution to the problem of delivering services for a broad range of applications. It allows IoT connectivity to be offered to devices that need little bandwidth but much longer battery life than conventional devices.

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The ability to understand the performance of each device and service is critical to the smooth deployment of an MNOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s NB-IoT portfolio and its ability to support partners

Continual monitoring MNOs that offer NB-IoT services must ensure that they can meet these changing performance requirements and deliver data effectively. They have to meet expected performance levels and to deliver quality services, meeting agreed key performance indicators (KPIs). This can only be achieved by continually monitoring service levels. To enable this, MNOs need the right monitoring tools to collect relevant call traces, signalling information and more, allowing them to troubleshoot services and NB-IoT devices.

Monitoring provides the right information, so that MNOs can act quickly to correct any issues that affect NB-IoT service experience and performance. If they do not carry out continuous monitoring, they will not be able to deliver the promised success of NB-IoT deployments, delaying implementation at scale and increasing overall costs and eliminating their competitive advantage.

Manage diversity This helps MNOs guarantee the quality of the NB-IoT services they deliver, but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not enough to guarantee success. The right monitoring and service assurance tool must also include analytics capabilities, so that MNOs can manage the diversity devices that will be deployed.

In addition, MNOs must also support different business relationships and partnerships for the delivery of NB-IoT services.

For example, MNOs can deploy NB-IoT capabilities to support applications and services that they deliver, using their own SIM cards integrated into end-point devices.

They can also make their networks available to other providers that deliver services, such as MVNOs or other specialists. Finally, they may provide roaming capabilities so that devices with SIMs from external providers can attach to their networks as visitors. MNOs may pursue one or all of these models.

These relationships span end users, service providers and connectivity providers, and require different service level agreements (SLAs) for each. They also demand a broad range of analytic capabilities, both real-time and historic. Insights obtained from analytic information will allow MNOs to optimise their own service performance and to provide information that enables them to monitor and optimise service performance for others using their networks.

The sheer diversity and range of devices and applications makes this difficult. Customer experience, in this context, becomes a function of the behaviour of

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devices, not people. The ability to understand the performance of each device and service is therefore critical to the smooth deployment of an MNOâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s NB-IoT portfolio and its ability to support partners.

Complete visibility MNOs must be able to obtain complete visibility of all NB-IoT devices and the network nodes to which they attach. Visablity provides the ability to identify issues as they arise as well as to anticipate potential problems before they have an impact on service performance.

They must also be able to access detailed reporting information that has been filtered to be accessible, regardless of service type (monitoring the location of sheep in the fields or providing updates as to available car parking spaces), the location (critical for tracking assets), and for the type of account (vital for ensuring that services delivered by partners can be correctly

The author, Inna Ott, is director of marketing at Polystar

NB-IoT is both an opportunity and a challenge for MNOs. But, with the careful choice of tools to deliver the right levels of monitoring and analytics capabilities, MNOs can ensure that they can guarantee quality and rich insight into NB-IoT service performance identified). This can only be obtained from detailed monitoring and service analytics information, captured from the network.

The information obtained must be clearly accessible and integrated with data from other legacy service assurance solutions deployed for conventional services. It should be visible inside the network operations centre (NOC) as well as from dedicated portals that present vital insights to different teams. Finally, MNOs must be sure that the solutions they deploy to provide these capabilities are fully compatible and aligned with their strategic network transformation goals, allowing easy migration to network functions virtualisation (NFV) and software defined network (SDN) infrastructure.

NB-IoT is both an opportunity and a challenge for MNOs. But, with the careful choice of tools to deliver the right levels of monitoring and analytics capabilities, MNOs can ensure that they can guarantee quality and rich insight into NB-IoT service performance. These tools will enable early adopters to claim leadership and competitive advantage to make the most of the NB-IoT opportunity.

Meet Polystar at Mobile World Congress, Hall 6, Stand 6G31 to find out more www.polystar.com

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EXPERT OPINION Why the telecoms industry must get a grip on the Internet of Things Establishing a solid telecoms network that can cope with the capacity and coverage required to power the Internet of Things (IoT) is a serious challenge telecoms companies need to address within the next 12 months if they are to keep pace with the rapid evolution of digital technologies, writes Richard Stevenson

The connectivity capacity required to both extend the

geographic reach of the IoT and also help it multiply for new applications both now, and in the future, is a serious issue for the telecoms industry. Existing telecoms network infrastructure cannot do this alone, and I strongly believe the time has come for telecoms companies to increase their collaboration with governments, organisations, ICT solutions providers, application developers and research institutions to ensure any UK investment in a framework to underpin the IoT isn’t devalued. ▼

T

he digital transformation of people’s lives, both at work and at home, today, has become a relentless force. From Amazon announcing plans to launch instant-order IoT buttons in the UK, to cities across the globe looking at IoT applications for energy balancing, parking and lighting, the deployment of technologies which rely heavily on mobile networks show no signs of slowing down.

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The use of real-time location data to create a visualisation of networks will be vital to planning and anticipating pressures to meet demand The author, Richard Stevenson, is Telecoms and Data Monetisation lead at Esri UK

The importance of location The success or failure of the IoT framework relies on geography. In order to effectively plan and manage network capabilities across the country, the above stakeholders need to pool resources and data together to create a foundation that enables the evolution of the IoT. Waiting another 12 months, or delaying this process, will be too late.

The use of real-time location data to create a visualisation of networks will be vital to planning and anticipating pressures to meet demand. Telecoms companies need to work with councils and governments to consider where sensors should be placed and what data these will be permitted to collect. They will also need to consider the path that data moving across a network takes and how it should be stored and secured.

The complex process of managing such a volume of data sets is why mapping this information based on location is such a vital step. By visualising these multiple data sets on a map, stakeholders have access to a single point of truth for all network data which can be used across departments, organisations and governments to gain an almost real-time picture of a network at any given time, which is incredibly valuable.

Monetise data from the IoT Not only should telecoms companies be looking towards location data to manage network capacity, there are many other benefits to consider. As the computational power of devices continues to increase and advances in sensor technology turn everyday objects into sources of data, it is important for telecoms companies to examine how vehicles, buildings, infrastructure and equipment of

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all shapes and sizes can be used to collect and exchange location-based data.

The opportunity this presents for telecoms companies, is that every data stream created in the IoT will be of value to a particular audience or audiences. For example, the data captured from smart chips on connected-vehicles traveling along motorways could be used to create a range of anonymised datasets: traffic volumes by time of day, origin/destination routes, shopping centre catchments and others.

In addition, the wealth of people movement data generated by networks, when anonymised, aggregated and enriched with relevant demographics, has significant value for transport, retail, smart city planning and environmental applications.

Where to next?

In the coming years, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my belief that weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll begin to see the emergence of IoT data consortiums, offering multiple data services using aggregated data feeds. Network operators are well positioned to provide and aggregate IoT datasetsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; required to create and take to market these innovative IoT services.

Without doubt, telecommunications infrastructure and operational data are the critical components for the adoption and success of the IoT. By placing location at the heart of planning, telecoms companies finally face a viable strategy to address widespread concerns about the capacity needed to bring the full potential of IoT to life. However, this must be addressed soon, or else the balance required to meet demand will be seriously impacted.

iot@esriuk.com www.esriuk.com/iot

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O/BSS FOR IOT

How CSPs could own the Internet of Things CSPs’ operational and business support systems (O/BSS) are the ideal platform for a launch into the IoT market but this will only happen if CSPs get their strategy in order, writes Nick Booth

There needs to be massive attention to detail because the IoT involve mores variation in the size and types of device and in the volumes, origins and frequency of data. Subsequently everything will be different: the support, billing, technical integrations, reliability, security and data transit to end points. CSPs could offer monitoring and control, and instant detailed billing while extending services into new places, like the support of low powered wide area network (LPWAN) services.

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Third party technology partners will get them there a lot quicker than if they make the mistake of trying to learn how to do it in-house.

The big IoT band is still somewhere in the future, but start working on your strategies now or you’ll miss out when the time comes, says John English, senior manager of service provider solutions for Netscout. The IoT isn’t one big basket of connected devices but distinct and wide ranging clusters from consumer to industrial applications. Being everything to everyone for free simply won’t work.

Granted, there will still be over-the-top (OTT) applications that run over your networks for free and there’s nothing a

▼

Most communications service providers could support the IoT pretty well, argues Nigel Chadwick, the chief executive of Stream Technologies. Their support systems are a great foundation, but they need a good strategy for adapting to the new challenge.

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Understanding the consumption of network resources and services, along with subscriber behaviour and experience, is the first step in exploiting the IoT

Nigel Chadwick: CSPs have a massive play to make if they choose carefully

John English: Being everything to everyone simply won’t work

CSP can do about them. But in time those application operators will want to pay a premium for a secure and reliable network.

Chadwick says CSPs must weigh each IoT opportunity against their current markets and customer bases.

Where will the valuable work be? On one hand CSPs could move up the stack, as Chadwick puts it, offering data storage or management. Or they could offer specific IoT services, such as car tracking and home alarms.

Partnerships can make CSPs agile enough to quickly ramp up the volume of business and connectivity with relatively light resources but traditionally they’ve kept things in house. There’s a “massive leveraged play for CSPs if they choose carefully”, says Chadwick.

Understanding the consumption of network resources and services, along with subscriber behaviour and experience, is the first step in exploiting the IoT. How? Create a scorecard system for network performance so you can see what their network is capable of delivering at any given time, says Cam Cullen, the global vice president of marketing at Procera Networks. This opens a range of extra up-sell and commercial opportunities if CSPs have a sufficiently detailed view of the IoT. When there are millions of devices on your network you need a reliable indicator of how IoT services will cause spikes in network traffic. Usage patterns and reports will identify exactly where network congestion will occur and how to avoid it. Given that IoT will be used for critical civic amenities – such as transport – it has never been more important to create a consistent and low latency data throughput.

It’s the billing experience that makes CSPs so well positioned to serve the IoT model, says Paul Lalancette, the IoT Communications industry lead for Accenture Digital.

“CSPs can offer bundled services across verticals to provide complete solutions,” says Lalancette, “global players offer home kit solutions but CSPs have the local service experience with an existing customer base that trusts them.”

If a CSP runs mobile apps for enterprises, it’s qualified to create a machine-to-machine portfolio, argues Russell Doty, technology strategist and product manager at Red Hat. Under the circumstances the simplicity of the single bill makes the CSP a credible manager for IoT. “A standard communications infrastructure supports a wide range of use cases,” says Doty. “The IoT can reshape enterprise IT as fundamentally as did mobile and will create a similar path of standardisation. Once a standard has been agreed upon and implemented, companies will invest in advanced mobilisation but avoid vendor lock-in through proprietary IoT interfaces.”

The OSS systems of most CSPs can control multiple devices with a single system at an almost broadcast level, says Moran Lerner, the chief executive of Chirp.

This smoothes the trivial tasks, overcomes the incompatibility of legacy systems and patches security holes. Many of the older protocols CSPs used for traditional communications, like SMS, can now be used to speak to a network of devices.

Many CSPs lack understanding of IoT and imagine it means building something completely new rather than use existing infrastructure. By harnessing the very old and simple technologies and devices that they own, CSPs can grab the lion’s share of the IoT rewards.

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INTERVIEW

CSPs are adapting to assure mission critical services for IoT devices Communications service providers (CSPs) are increasingly engaging with the challenges of supporting Internet of Things (IoT) devices and services over their networks. The traffic profile is different to traditional telephony and internet services but some requirements remain the same. Among these is the need to assure mission critical IoT services are reported. Here, John English, a senior solutions marketing manager, and Mike Serrano, a senior product marketing manager at NETSCOUT, discuss the challenges facing CSPs in supporting the highly specific needs of IoT services, apps and networks

CSPs will need to develop a classification system for IoT traffic or support some form of application aware routing (AAR)

Mike Serrano: CSPs will need to develop a classification system for IoT traffic or support some form of application aware routing (AAR). The purpose of this classification of service or class of service (CoS) or AAR will be to ensure that critical traffic is prioritised over noncritical traffic. For example, if grandma’s pacemaker stops, you want to ensure that this notification is prioritised above say a home thermostat reporting that it’s on. When you get into smart cars and especially driverless cars it depends on the nature of the information and where it is being processed. If it’s updating my car’s maps for the western United States as I drive to work, that’s not necessarily a critical update. If

I’m in a self-driving car and the on-board systems need real-time communications to an internet-based service for getting me from point A to point B, then service prioritisation and monitoring become very important – especially, if this is happening as we are whizzing down the road at 60mph.

To accomplish this without violating net neutrality rules, which prevent prioritising certain traffic over others, CSPs and regulators will need to work together to approve new classes of service. These classes would identify mission-critical services such as medical, public safety and many others. AAR gets to the same end but will require further investment in optimised edge routing and policy based routing equipment that may need regulatory support to help justify the investment.

VP: Does anything need to be done on the IoT edge device side to ensure that it is properly ▼

VanillaPlus: What should CSPs be doing now to ensure that their networks can handle the mission critical aspects of IoT devices such as medical devices, industrial applications and automobiles without failures?

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Prioritisation would occur much as it does today. The prioritisation and routing tables would either correlate the MAC address of the device to a Class of Service or prioritisation table, then it would be routed appropriately or the network would be application aware and route appropriately

Mike Serrano: CSPs and regulators will need to work together to approve new classes of service

categorised? For example, will the makers of pacemakers need to include a line of code that designates them as priority traffic, while thermostat makers will include a line classifying them as a low-priority object?

John English: Prioritisation would occur much as it does today. The prioritisation and routing tables would either correlate the MAC address of the device to a Class of Service or prioritisation table, then it would be routed appropriately or the network would be application aware and route appropriately. Each company is assigned a range of MAC addresses that tie the device to the manufacturer today. Each manufacturer would need to range bind certain devices to some sort of IoT classification scheme that CSPs could correlate to various classes of service. For example, Honeywell could manufacture thermostats and heart monitors and when they are deployed in the field, the CSP would know the difference based upon some published standard.

Currently, Cisco is advocating some new routing concepts and technology – optimised edge routing (OER) and policy based routing (PBR) – that would support AAR. This is designed to optimise routing based on the nature of the traffic. Ideally, these routing technologies should be designed with IoT in mind and is consistent with using packet header information for expedited routing.

VP: Is there any value to setting aside specific spectrum for critical communications? Do you think this is likely?

MS: In the US, we do this today. The military and public services, such as police and fire services, have unique spectrum. Given the scarcity of spectrum, it is doubtful that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would set aside spectrum for IoT. It appears more likely that some form of a packet header/MAC identifier/application tagging will be utilised that would serve as the identifier for IoT traffic.

VP: Does the increasing connectivity of traditionally dumb devices have an impact on the business model for service providers? How should they be adapting their business now to prepare for this?

John English: Smart light bulbs will probably not need an SLA on the pipe serving them

JE: Increasing connectivity of smart services to dumb pipes will have an impact on the business model for service providers. It’s in the interest of both the IoT vendor or IoT service provider to partner with the CSP to ensure that they are not riding a dumb pipe. It’s in the IoT provider’s interest to ensure that they have a guarantee of quality or service level agreement (SLA) on the pipes their traffic rides to ensure a quality of user experience for the IoT user. Now, there are some IoT devices that will probably never go down this path – and whether they should or not is a different question. For example, smart light bulbs will probably not need an SLA on the pipe serving them. With a smart light bulb, the consumer is just not paying enough for the device to justify a robust IoT infrastructure.

That said, a manufacturer may decide to differentiate themselves with just such an offering. For the CSP, IoT could have significant upside in revenue for their business model but this would require them either to provide hosting or to develop the back-end services in the CSPs’ data centres.

IoT will offer CSPs a significant opportunity to grow their hosted and managed service portfolio and with virtualisation, this could be done very cost effectively. They should probably look to build something like a Salesforce.com type cloud offering. That is, they would serve a fairly general IoT use case and let an ecosystem build up around the offering to provide unique enhancements for each vertical or for special use-cases.

VP: Independent of IoT device manufacturers and service providers, what should CSPs be doing today to prepare for this influx of smart devices? What can they do to move past being a dumb pipe today that will better prepare them for the smarter world tomorrow?

MS: To prepare today for the influx of smart devices is one of the smartest things a CSP can do as it prepares to embrace virtualisation and software-defined networking (SDN). The ability to understand, develop and deploy these two technologies will be absolutely critical for a CSP to have the flexibility and agility to scale their network fast enough to keep up with the IoT. With virtualisation and SDN in place, CSPs will be able to pursue subscriber self-provisioning, the next logical application of NFV/SDN. www.netscout.com

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EVENTS

UPCOMING EVENTS Mobile World Congress 2017 27 February â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 2 March, 2017 Barcelona, Spain Organiser: GSMA www.mobileworldcongress.com

Telco Cloud Forum 25-26 April, 2017 London, UK Organiser: Informa https://tmt.knect365.com/telcocloud-forum/

Network Virtualisation Europe 29-31 May, 2017 Madrid, Spain Organiser: Informa https://tmt.knect365.com/ virtualization-sdn-europe/

TM Forum Live! 2017 15-18 May, 2017 Nice, France Organiser: TM Forum www.tmforumlive.org

Policy Control 4-5 April, 2017 Berlin, Germany Organiser: Informa https://tmt.knect365.com/policycontrol/

EVENT PREVIEW Women4Tech at Mobile World Congress

GSMA Mobile World Congress, to be held in Barcelona, Spain on 27 February to 2 March 2017, is where mobile leaders collaborate, conduct industry business, and create the future. Under the banner of Mobile is The Next Element, the event will host 101,000 industry professionals, operators and innovators from over 200 countries.

This year MWC features Women4Tech, a new programme designed to address and reduce the gender gap in the mobile industry. Women4Tech features in-depth analysis of the topics shaping gender diversity in the mobile industry.

Women4Tech includes a variety of programmes designed to elevate the voice of women in the industry. Activities include Women4Tech Summit on 2 March sponsored by Accenture, Women4Tech Speed Coaching and Networking sponsored by SAP, Women4Tech Glomo Awards, specialised MWC Tours, a Women4Tech panel on Mobile World Live TV, and Women4Tech initiatives at 4YFN including Women4Tech Hack_D_Gap Global Challenge, Interactive Workshops, and panel discussion.

For more information visit: https://www.mobileworldcongress.com/events/women-for-tech/ Mobile World Congress is the cornerstone of the Mobile World Capital, which will be hosted in Barcelona through to 2023. The Mobile World Capital encompasses programmes and activities that span the entire year and will benefit not only the citizens of Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain, but also the worldwide mobile industry. For more information on the Mobile World Capital, visit www.mobileworldcapital.com.

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CLOCKING OFF!

If CSPs go over the top, they could get hit below the belt in the IoT Will communications service providers (CSPs) let their infrastructure be colonised again, asks Nick Booth?

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o be bamboozled out of your money once is understandable. To let it happen again, in exactly the same way, is unforgivable. And yet, that’s exactly what could happened to CSPs over the Internet of Things (IoT).

passwords. Somehow, Device Pilot can find all the devices that have 1234 or Welcome or HackMe as their password and render them secure. Which saves the IoT operator a fortune in management and thwarted hijacks.

Nobody really knew what the first internet revolution would bring. There were many idealistic visions of a world without poverty, prejudice and class distinction.

I bet none of the predictors of ‘the democratising effects of the internet’ saw president Trump coming, even on election night.

Since this is a cloud service, it can be linked up into a network almost immediately. A trial version can be made available in hours and a full service set up in a few days. A similar level of management from, say, a traditional global service provider can take five months.

Under the circumstances, where nobody knows anything, it’s understandable that CSPs let their networks be colonised first time around. Mobile operators were used to providing infrastructure, so they weren’t equipped to compete when the likes of Facebook, Amazon and Youtube waltzed over the top and claimed all the valuable opportunities. The CSP’s idea of contentment was a nice big pipe.

This would be a great opportunity for CSPs to do something valuable for their IoT using clients, surely.

Having lost out on the big over-the-top (OTT) opportunity, no CSP wants to see the same thing happen with the IoT. It’s also why many of them now are diversifying and nurturing creative start ups.

It was at a showcase for such new talent, Wayra’s Demo Day 2016, that a new IoT start up, Device Pilot caught the eye because it promises to slash the cost of managing devices on the IoT. Founder Pilgrim Beart was the creator of the connected home system, AlertMe, which British Gas bought for $100 million and rebranded as Hive. So when it comes to tackling the huge management challenges created by the internetworking of hundreds or even thousands of remote devices, the people at Device Pilot probably have a better idea of the way the industry is going than most people.

One of the problems Device Pilot could rectify, for example, is the exposure created by having hundreds of devices on the network that are still using the default passwords that came with the box they arrived in. This is what leads to denial of service attacks when hackers guess the obvious default VANILLAPLUS MAGAZINE Q1 I JANUARY / FEBRUARY / MARCH 2017

In the age of the IoT, the company that demonstrably runs the best network is offering the best value to clients but, I’m told, CSPs are surprisingly uninterested in differentiating themselves this way.

Having outsourced the running of their networks to the service arms of Huawei and Ericsson, they have surrendered any aspirations to compete on this level.

If CSPs are sharing their networks, they are clearly not that bothered about being the best. Perhaps they are more interested in creating apps and games to go over the top.

The author, Nick Booth, is a contributor to VanillaPlus and a technology journalist

Having lost out on the big over-the-top (OTT) opportunity, no CSP wants to see the same thing happen with the IoT

In the emerging world of the IoT the new consumer is a machine rather than a human. Each of these thousands of devices is likely to have a non-steered SIM card, which allows it to shop around for the best network, a judgment based on cheapness. So, unlike human clients on the mobile internet, the device on the IoT makes its buying decision not on the type of content it wants but the price/quality of the connection – at just the time when CSPs have decided that competing to be the best network is not for them.

In other words, CSPs missed out on the consumer internet by concentrating on infrastructure but now they want to make content even though that opportunity has gone and, at the very time they’re trying to go OTT, everyone else is going for the IoT. While they want to go over the top, they’re going to let hackers hit them under the belt. That’s unforgivable.

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in r u fo yo a e lon se ce ar B

ISSN 1745-1736

THE GLOBAL VOICE FOR B/OSS

Q1 I January / February / March 2017 Volume 19 Issue 1

Inside mobile's next element

Phillip Yoo explores where and how CSPs will truly create wealth from digital services PLUS: Need a new supplier? Look no further The VanillaPlus Directory 2017 is inside www.vanillaplus.com

AN N EVENT NT O OF

Mob M obile le e ha as beccome om me ffu m fund fundamen amental to our o every ryda d y liv l es. s It has as in ine extricab icab ab b changed bly ha ged dh how we communica o m nic te, in nter e acct, t w work o and or and d pla p y ass ind individua dividu vi lsss. Itt iss ls. trrans an nsform ns rm miing ming g en ntir t e indus indus in u tries, tries tr es bringin es, ring ng gin gi g ing gn ne ew levels of p of producctivit vity and de efficienc fficiency to enterprises. ffi err pr s Over O e thr tth ee ee deccades, ca ade a es, mobile obile ile ha has as evolv o ved from m an a eme emer erging ng g ccomm o munica munic tions tio io on technolog ons echn ec hnolog gy to a gy p phenome ome en enon no th hat is n now a att the the found nd d tion da o off everythin ng we do d . How can we descriibe the h role of mobile e in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; y s world?

Elemental.

WWW.MOBILEWORLDCONGRE ESS.COM

M obile bil iiss revolut l t ionary i , d ynamic, i ever adapting. d ti Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the for o ce behind every emer em ging innovation, every forward-t d thinking hi ki enterprise i . Join oin i us in Barcelona l for Mobile World Congress 2017, where the world comes together to showcase, celebrate and adv dvance mobile.

C O N T E N T S

Welcome to Mobile World Congress 2017!

The good news for regular visitors to the mobile industry’s mega European gathering of the year is that Barcelona’s Metro Line 9 is now fully operational. This will enable attendees to eschew the cattle car delights of a trip back into town on the suburban FGC surface railway and instead speed from the airport or the city centre to directly underneath the exhibition centre. There will no doubt still be crowds and extensive taxi queues at peak times but at least the options of what to queue for will have increased rganisers, GSMA, helpfully point out that the metro line makes a wider range of hotels that have direct transport links to the event available but the growing number of visitors in recent years has put pressure on accommodation availability, particularly because the event takes place at the same time this year as pre-season testing for Formula 1 motor racing, which starts in Barcelona on 27 February as well. Choice is limited at all ends of the accommodation spectrum.

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strongly recognise the next element as a material used in forming the unique consistency of the traditional Fira-lunch of potato omelet baguette.

This year’s event takes the title ‘The Next Element’ expanding on the theme that mobile communications have become elemental and fundamental to society. However, experienced Congressfolk may more

Enjoy your time at the show and this CEO Guide to it!

Other next elements are available and visitors should pick wisely from an acronym menu that will inevitably include: IoT, 5G and NFV, along with advances in battery technology which may, really, involve an actual next element or at least a next compound.

George Malim, managing editor, VanillaPlus

TALKING HEADS

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MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS 2017 GUIDE

Phillip Yoo, the president of global carrier business at CSG International discusses how communications service providers (CSPs) will truly create wealth from digital services in the short and long term

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MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS 2017 GUIDE VanillaPlus provides its indispensable preview to this year’s event, highlighting key conference sessions and enhancements to the exibition floor. We’re yet to be convinced about the drone cage

VANILLAPLUS DIRECTORY 2017 C11

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TALKING HEADS: CSPs MUST COMPETE BUT ALSO CREATE WEALTH IN THE DIGITAL SERVICES MARKET

THE VANILLAPLUS DIRECTORY 2017 Now in its 19th year of publication, The VanillaPlus Directory lists the leading companies in the O/BSS and telecoms IT industry. The Directory is continuously updated online and can also be read at www.vanillaplus.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, stored, published or in any way reproduced without the prior written consent of the Publisher.

Prestige Media Ltd. Suite 138, 70 Churchill Square, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent ME19 4YU, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1732 807411 © Prestige Media Ltd 2017

VANILLAPLUS CEO GUIDE TO MWC SUPPLEMENT - Q1 I JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

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CSPs must compete but also create wealth in the digital services market There are very few places left in the world where mobile devices aren’t a central part of daily life and, as consumers, we expect that connection to come with flawless network quality, lightning-fast data speeds, personalised service and a world of entertainment options at our fingertips. While mobile, digital services are certainly a path to revenue, the market is young and still maturing. So how will communications service providers (CSPs) truly create wealth from digital services in the short and long term? Here, Phillip Yoo, the president of global carrier business at CSG International shares some answers

In the digital economy, consumers not only want to be connected to each other, but also to their digital services like movies and music on the go, and to things, like their home thermostat or home security system

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anillaPlus: When it comes to digital services, how much of the evolving CSP landscape is talk and how much is reality?

Phillip Yoo: The CSP landscape has been in a constant state of evolution since its inception – as an industry, we have grown from wireline to wireless, to messaging and data services and now to streaming video content, geo-location and an app for everything.

Today, the digital transformation is causing a new level of business disruption – CSPs are dealing with a different set of competitors than ever before and expectations for service quality are at an all-time high.

All of this is driven by the consumer demand for digital services, and CSPs are working to predict the services that consumers will want to buy and take proactive action to serve them in real-time. This necessitates an internal disruption for the CSP, to develop a new supporting strategy and architecture, designed to better serve the always-connected consumer.

VP: How are you seeing approaches to creating wealth in the digital economy develop and in what ways are these impacting CSPs? PY: In the digital economy, consumers not only want to be connected to each other, but also to their digital services like movies and music on the go, and to things, like their home thermostat or home security system. The big question lingering around serving the connected consumer as they connect to both people and things is: How do we make money – particularly in IoT, and how do we create wealth?

In 2012, there were approximately 2.5bn connected devices and Gartner predicts 30bn by the beginning of the next decade. This will add US$1.9 trillion to the global economy. Monetising this US$1.9 trillion is the next big move for CSPs, this is their next big opportunity to generate margin-rich revenue streams.

In 2016, CSG partnered with an independent research firm to poll CSPs about their plans for future growth.

In the survey, 57% of respondents said monetising and facilitating IoT is biggest revenue growth opportunity over the next three years. To do this, they need to rethink their go to market model and the systems, processes and people required to execute – not only on IoT opportunities, but the revenue potential of the digital economy.

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As with setting any connected lifestyle strategy and architecture, making consumers’ lives easier should underpin any new service. This means that a service provider needs to think holistically about product, market segmentation, care, price, and customer engagement. If you neglect one of these elements, you can turn a great new service into a nightmare experience for customers. Plan on getting to market, gaining insights and making adjustments. The digital

customer experience overall needs to be constantly evolving. The biggest risk is in standing still.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH CSG INTERNATIONAL

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VANILLAPLUS CEO GUIDE TO MWC SUPPLEMENT - Q1 I JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

VP: What do you see as CSPs' inherent strengths – aside from providing bandwidth – in the digital economy?

work with specific partners to launch and drive services and help monetise the digital services opportunity across the industry.

Within the digital economy, we see the CSP role playing out in two broad directions: 1) being the utility and connectivity for IoT and other connected consumer transactions, creating a smaller revenue opportunity but still requiring significant investment in the networks, and 2) service aggregation, offering a bigger revenue and margin opportunity.

We see many CSPs moving in this direction right now, investing in building digitally-focused organisations and partnerships but, one of the main challenges for many CSPs is they are often hindered from taking this role because their back-end systems are built for traditional CSP services like voice and SMS that are products and services generated from their own networks. Third-party offerings means the catalogue of offerings and bundles becomes infinitely broader.

Legacy infrastructure is not fit for purpose with these broader digital services, particularly when it comes to serving the connected consumer.

The service aggregator builds its own services, aggregates other partners’ services, and provides end-to-end managed solutions to customers, everything from consumers to businesses and as a wholesale provider. This service aggregation role will drive an approach that we call the B2B2X model, and we believe the ability to execute on this model will be a CSPs biggest attribute and a reliable path to creating wealth – if the model is executed correctly.

VP: To what extent are B2B2x models necessitating changes in CSP infrastructure?

On the systems front, service providers need a digital service platform that provides flexibility to launch quickly and integrate offers in interesting ways. This usually requires new, adjunct systems to engage the customers across devices and collect insights about how the customers use the service.

Culturally, service providers need a new level of agility to get offers out to market quickly and provide a mechanism to listen to what customers like and don’t like about the offers. Customers using the service is the most effective feedback loop, but culturally you have to be prepared to launch and then quickly evolve a service.

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PY: B2B2X means the CSP takes a controlling management role in the digital ecosystem, provides solutions and leads the monetisation across the ecosystem in multiple directions – consumers, business, wholesale, distribution. This role allows them to use their core capabilities in network, customer care and billing and other core areas to

Phillip Yoo: Culturally, CSPs need a new level of agility to get offers out to market quickly

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VP: Are you seeing the need for vendor business models to change as a result of digital transformation? What does this mean for CSG International?

PY: The rollout of all-IP networks and 5G networks means CSPs can expect more video traffic, more data traffic and even more growth of sophisticated, connected services. The challenge for CSPs is to develop strategies to be more nimble, to quickly launch new services in line with what new network speeds can enable.

For CSG, which is listening to the market and investing significantly in R&D to enhance our portfolio and developing new solutions that will support the unpredictability of tomorrow’s business, key questions to ask have become: How can we help our customers innovate and how can we help our customers launch new digital services quickly and create wealth from those digital services?

Many customers are looking to utilise a cloud-based, Software-as-a-service platform that can overlay a CSPs existing infrastructure to help them get to market quickly with new services and realize new revenue streams right away. No CSP wants the pain involved in the rip and replace of an existing BSS infrastructure, but they can’t be hampered – vendors have to be focused on offering new ways to empower their customers to be nimble and innovative without having to re-build an entire operating architecture.

VP: How is CSG International positioning itself to reflect the changes in the CSP market and to help customers harness all the opportunities of the digital economy?

CSPs are under relentless pressure to compete in the digital economy, pitted against digital-savvy companies like Amazon, Google and Apple which have set the bar for the customer experience very high

Meet CSG at Hall 5, booth 5G51 at Mobile World Congress, or find out more at ascendon.csgi.com

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Big data analytics and customer insight models are an important toolset that service providers can use to better understand which up-sell, cross-sell, next best offer and even promotional items may best encourage a consumer’s loyalty to the brand. Many of the large internet brands drive everything from the data they collect around a consumer to create a personalised experience to make life easier for consumers. These companies have not just upped their game, but have changed the game when it comes to anticipating what a consumer will want which can drive real long-term brand loyalty.

To manage all this in real-time and provide high value services to customers, CSPs will need lightning fast plug and play type business systems, highly flexible with carrier-grade scalability, that makes it easy for partners to collaborate on and that ultimately drives a specific connected consumer experience. They need business processes that are highly automated, and manual labour needs to be focused on innovating and creating new business models, not manually driving the back-end systems. They need to be able, both from skills and technology perspective, to lead the creation of new business models and manage monetisation across the digital ecosystem.

PY: CSPs are under relentless pressure to compete in the digital economy, pitted against digital-savvy companies like Amazon, Google and Apple which have set the bar for the customer experience very high.

To help CSPs not only compete, but create wealth in the digital economy, CSG has developed the Ascendon digital services platform which enables providers to participate in the federated digital economy right now while moving purposefully toward a business model that dramatically reduces operational expenses, fully digitises front and back offices, and unites a portfolio of services - existing and new - into a single customer relationship. A cloud based, SaaS platform, Ascendon gives providers the ability to launch, monetise, and scale new digital services in 60 to 90 days.

CSG is strategically focused on helping our customers connect consumers to each other and to the services they care about. We believe that with the right alignment of people, processes and technology within a CSPs operations, creating wealth in the digital economy is achievable in the short term, and over the long-term evolution of the digital services yet to come.

VANILLAPLUS CEO GUIDE TO MWC SUPPLEMENT - Q1 I JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

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P R E V I E W

Mobile World Congress returns once again to Barcelona, Spain on 27 February – 2 March 2017 with the exhibition and conference expected to welcome more than 100,000 attendees to the Fira Gran Via venue. Here, VanillaPlus provides a preview of this year’s event

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“We have a great event lined up for February – I’m particularly excited about the conference, where we’ll see several keynote speakers make their Mobile World Congress debut,” says Michael O’Hara, the chief marketing officer at GSMA. “Across the entire event, attendees will have the opportunity to explore and experience the cutting-edge technologies, products and services that have become so fundamental to our everyday lives.”

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his year’s Mobile World Congress conference, at the time of writing, looks to be a Zuckerberg-free zone for the first time in years unless a surprise keynote presentation by the Facebook impresario is a late schedule addition. Nevertheless, the organisers have assembled a strong field of keynote speakers from across the telecoms industry and into adjacent markets.

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Confirmed Keynote Speakers Bob E Sell, the group chief managing director for Communication Media and Technology at Accenture

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Of course, the conference has more to offer than just the keynotes with a packed schedule of events across the four days of Mobile World Congress. Highlights in the telecoms IT sector include the following sessions:

John Stankey, the chief executive of AT&T Entertainment Group at AT&T Services

Mobile operator digital transformation 1100 Monday, 27 February, 2017

Sunil Bharti Mittal, the founder and chairman of Bharti Enterprises who is also the chairman-elect of GSMA

Mobile operators across the world face the twin challenges of slowing growth and ongoing disruption of core services by new internet players, even as the broader mobile ecosystem continues to see significant revenue growth. This session will highlight and discuss the opportunity and steps required for operators to undertake digital transformation to benefit from these opportunities and gain a share of the incremental revenues, by developing new business models and skills to compete effectively.

Mats Granryd, the director general of GSMA Eugene Kaspersky the chairman and chief executive of Kapersky Lab Chang-Gyu Hwang, the chairman and chief executive of KT Corporation Takashi Niino, the president and chief executive of NEC Reed Hastings, the founder and chief executive of Netflix John Hanke, the creator of Pokemon Go and the founder and chief executive of Niantic Rajeev Suri, the president and chief executive of Nokia Bob Moritz, the global chairman of PWC Allison Kirkby, the president and group chief executive of Tele2 José María Álvarez-Pallete López, the chairman and chief executive of Telefónica John Martin, the chairman and chief executive of Turner Jeff Lawson, the founder, chief executive and chairman of Twilio João Barros, the founder and chief executive of Veniam Arnaud de Puyfontaine, the chief executive of Vivendi

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Optimising for exceptional video experiences 1400 Tuesday, 28 February 2017 The need for high-quality, on-demand video is showing no signs of slowing. Mobile data traffic is set to grow 15-fold by the end of 2017, driven mainly by video. Looking ahead to high-profile events such as the 2018 Football World Cup in Russia, mobile operators need to be able to meet, and surpass, customer expectations, profitably. Content delivery at the network edge, the latest techniques in optimisation and compression and technologies like ultra high definition (UHD) and LTE broadcast, all offer opportunities to deliver unparalleled video experiences on mobile networks, whilst offering new business models to operators.

This session will be hosted by Aditya Kishore, the practice leader for video transformation at Light Reading. Kishore will moderate discussion panel composed of: Don Shilliam, the director of network architecture

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Patrick Gelsinger, the chief executive of VMware

The session will be moderated by John Jackson, the research vice president for mobile and connected platforms at IDC who will host speakers including: Alexander Rusli, the president, director and chief executive of Indosat Ooredoo; Bénédicte Javelo, the chief sales officer of Orange Group; Elena Gil Lizasoain, the chief executive of LUCA data driven decisions and the global director of big data B2B at Telefónica Group; Meinrad Spenger, the chief executive of Masmovil; Paul Scanlan, the chief technology officer of Huawei; and Yogesh Malik, the group chief technology officer at Vimpelcom.

VANILLAPLUS CEO GUIDE TO MWC SUPPLEMENT - Q1 I JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

and strategy at Nike; Eric Black, the chief technology officer digital of NBC Sports; Lior Netzer, the vice president and general manager of the emerging mobile business unit at Akamai; Matt Stagg, the head of mobile video and content at EE; and Rashmi Misra, the general manager of digital video solutions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Network Analytics and Machine Learning 1100 Wednesday, 1 March 2017

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Mobile operators have never had a shortage of data and metadata to use for network optimisation; the challenge has been in bringing it together and analysing it in ways which provide usable lessons. Improvements in data collation and, above all, in the application of machine learning and automation to network problems is delivering some significant improvements in efficiency and performance today. This session will be moderated by Rohit Mehra, the vice president of network infrastructure at IDC, who will host a panel discussion involving speakers including: Brendan O’Reilly, the chief technology officer of Telefónica UK; Patrick Buttimer, the chief executive of Eirteic; Patrick Ostiguy, the president and chief executive of Accedian; Stephen Bowker, the chief executive of Cardinality; and Thierry Langlais, the senior services director of ZTE.

Speakers at the Women4Tech Summit The GSMA has announced confirmed speaker for the Women4Tech (W4T) programme at Mobile World Congress. The Women4Tech Summit, which will be held on Thursday 2 March 2017, is sponsored by Accenture and will include presentations from leaders in mobile and related industries, including: • Harmeen Mehta, the global CIO of Bharti Airtel • Nicola Mendelsohn, the vice president EMEA of Facebook • Nathan Ott, the chief executive of The GC Index • Mats Granryd, the director general of GSMA • Laureen Cook, the principal TMT advisor at IFC (World Bank) • Renee La Londe, the founder and CEO of iTalent • Dr. Patricia Fletcher of SAP-Success Factors at SAP • Mary Clark, the chief marketing officer of Syniverse • Jenny Fielding, the managing director of TechStars New York • Lauren Hurvitz, the executive vice president and global chief communications and corporate marketing officer at Turner • Gary Stewart, the director of Wayra UK

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New for Mobile World Congress 2017, NEXTech in Hall 8 will feature pavilions and experience zones showcasing cuttingedge technology trends, as well as theatres hosting a range of partner events and educational sessions

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Exhibition highlights The GSMA expects that more than 101,000 professionals from across the mobile industry and adjacent industry sectors will attend Mobile World Congress 2017. Eight halls of exhibition floor, hosting more than 2,200 exhibiting companies will welcome them and few will have time to see everything. Major brands such as AOL, Cisco Systems, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, Ford, Google, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, HTC, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Lenovo, LG, Mercedes-Benz, Microsoft, NEC, Nokia Solutions and Networks, Oracle, Orange, Philips Lighting, Qualcomm Incorporated, Samsung Electronics, SAP, Sony Mobile, Telefรณnica, Vodafone, Volkswagen and ZTE, among others will be present.

New for Mobile World Congress 2017, NEXTech in Hall 8 will feature pavilions and experience zones showcasing cutting-edge technology trends, as well as theatres hosting a range of partner events and educational sessions. NEXTech Pavilions will bring

together the companies leading innovation in areas such as artificial intelligence, drones, the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics and virtual reality/augmented reality, among others. In the Drone Zone, attendees can learn about the latest developments in consumer and commercial drone technology, including live demonstrations in the flying cage, while the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Zone will be dedicated to the evolution and advancement of robot technology.

Attendees will also have the opportunity immerse themselves in a series of 360-degree experiences in the Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Zone or visit the IoT Pavilion to see how millions of things are getting connected, creating smart homes, smart cities and smart industries. Back for a second year, the Graphene Pavilion will showcase the impact of graphene on many of the building block components of the mobile industry, such as display, sensor and chip technologies, among others.

To learn more about the event and plan your itinerary, visit www.mobileworldcongress.com

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DIRECTORY 2017

D I R E C T O R Y

2 0 1 7

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For over 30 years Amdocs has accelerated business value for its customers by uniquely combining BSS, OSS, network control, optimisation and network functions virtualisation with professional and managed services. Its portfolio enables service providers to capture the world of digital immediacy by operating across digital dimensions; creating a diversified business; becoming data empowered; and achieving service agility. A global company with revenue of $3.7 billion in fiscal 2016, Amdocs has over 25,000 employees and serves customers in more than 90 countries.

Cerillion is a leading provider of billing, charging and customer management systems with more than 20 yearsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience delivering its solutions across a broad range of industries including the telecommunications, finance, utilities and transportation sectors. These are used to price and bill subscriptions and variable usage for wholesale, retail and white label services; B2B and B2C offerings and multi-country service provider portfolios.

Sectors: Application Management: Application Delivery | Application Lifecycle Management | Application Performance Management | Enterprise Application Integration Billing & Charging: Billing (Utility) | Billing & Customer Care | Billing (Convergent Pre- & Post-paid) | Billing (Interconnect & Wholesale) | Billing (Retail) | eBilling, ePayment & ePresentment | Mediation & Collection Business Intelligence: Behaviour Analytics | Billing Analysis | Business Analysis & Intelligence | Business Process Optimisation | Customer Analysis | Personalisation Customer Care: Contact Centres & Hubs | Customer Experience Management | Customer Interaction Management | Customer Lifecycle Management | Customer Relationship Management | Loyalty & Churn Management Data Management: Authentication, Identity & Access | Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery | Data Analysis | Data Centres & Hosting | Data Migration | Data Mining & Warehousing Network Management: Enterprise Resource Planning | Inventory, Asset & Element Management | Network & Service Test & Measurement | Network Configuration Management | Enterprise Resource Management | Network Discovery & Optimisation | Network Performance Management Partner Management: Partner Relationship Management | Partner Settlement Revenue Management: Fraud Control & Prevention | Revenue Analytics | Revenue Assurance | Revenue Management | Risk Management | Roaming Clearing & Settlement Product & Service Management: Order Management | Product Catalogue | Product Lifecycle Management | Service Adoption Management | Service Assurance Services & Platforms: 4G, LTE & WiMAX | Advertising, Marketing & Search | Backhaul Management | Cloud Computing | IP TV & Video | Location & Mobile Mapping Other: Green / Sustainable Communications | Machine to Machine (M2M) | Mobile Virtual Network Enablers | Mobile Virtual Network Operators | Open Source | Outsourcing | PCC - Policy Control and Charging | Policy Management Company

Website

Company

ABITEL Consulting GmbH

abitel.de

Accanto Systems

accantosystems.com

Accedian Networks

accedian.com

Accelerite

accelerate.com

Accenture

Cerillion Skyline combines this heritage of providing high performance billing and transaction processing engines with an intuitive online user interface to provide a complete Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) billing application for the next generation of digital and non-digital services.

Sectors: Billing & Charging: Billing (Utility) | Billing & Customer Care | Billing (Convergent Pre- & Post-paid) | Billing (Interconnect & Wholesale) | Billing (Retail) | Mediation & Collection Customer Care: Customer Relationship Management Partner Management: Partner Relationship Management | Partner Settlement Revenue Management: Credit | Cost & Debt Control | Revenue Management | Roaming Clearing & Settlement Product & Service Management: Order Management | Product Catalogue Services & Platforms: Cloud Computing Other: Machine to Machine (M2M) | PCC - Policy Control and Charging

Website

Company

Aktavara

aktavara.se

Astellia

astellia.com

Albany Software

albany.co.uk

ATDI SA

atdi.com

Allot Communications

allot.com

ATIO

atio.com

Allround

allround.net

Atos

uk.atos.net

accenture.com

Amdocs

amdocs.com

Averox

averox.com

Accipia Ltd

accipia.com

Analysys Mason

analysysmason.com

Azoft (a division of

ACES

aces-co.com

Anritsu A/S

anritsu.com

ACL

acl.com

AppHelp

apphelp.com

Barcoding, Inc

acoreus AG

acoreus.com

Aptean

aptean.co.uk

BaseN

basen.net

Actian

actian.com

Aricent

aricent.com

Basset Global

bassetglobal.com

ACS

acsdallas.com

ARRIS

arrisi.com

Bercut Ltd

bercut.com

Adapt

adaptplc.com

arvato finance

arvato.com

Billing Components GmbH

billing-components.com

Adare

adare.com

Aspect

aspect.com

Bivio Networks

bivio.net

Affiniti

affiniti.com

Ascom Group

ascom.com

Blue Coat

bluecoat.com

C12

DonRiver, Inc)

Website

azoft.com barcoding.com

VANILLAPLUS CEO GUIDE TO MWC SUPPLEMENT - Q1 I JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

www.csgi.com Tel: +44 (0)1483 745 800

www.exfo.com Tel: +1 418 683 0913

CSG International (NASDAQ: CSGS) is the trusted global partner to help clients launch and monetise communications and entertainment services in the digital age. Drawing on 30 years of experience and expertise in voice, video, data and content services, CSG delivers market-leading revenue management and customer interaction solutions in licensed and managed service models. The company drives business transformation initiatives for the majority of the top 100 global communications service providers, including AT&T, Charter Communications, Comcast, DISH, ESPN, Media-Saturn, Orange, Reliance, SingTel Optus, Telstra, Telefonica, Vodafone, Vivo and Verizon.

EXFO develops smarter network test, data and analytics solutions for the world’s leading communications service providers, network equipment manufacturers and webscales. Since 1985, EXFO has worked side by side with its clients in the lab, field, data centre, boardroom and beyond to pioneer essential technology and methods for each phase of the network lifecycle. The company's portfolio of test orchestration and real-time 3D analytics solutions turn complex into simple and deliver business-critical insights from the network, service and subscriber dimensions. Most importantly, EXFO helps its clients flourish in a rapidly transforming industry where “good enough” testing and data analytics just isn’t good enough anymore.

Sectors:

Sectors:

Billing & Charging: Billing & Customer Care | Billing (Convergent Pre& Post-paid) | Billing (Retail) | Mediation & Collection Customer Care: Customer Relationship Management Revenue Management: Revenue Assurance | Revenue Management | Risk Management | Roaming Clearing & Settlement Other: Machine to Machine (M2M)

Business Intelligence: Behaviour Analytics | Business Analysis & Intelligence Data Management: Authentication, Identity & Access | Data Analysis I Data Centres & Hosting Network Management: Network & Service Test & Measurement I Network Discovery & Optimisation I Network Performance Management Product & Service Management: Service Assurance Services & Platforms: 4G, LTE & WiMAX I Backhaul Management Other: Mobile Virtual Network Enablers I Mobile Virtual Network Operators

Company

Website

Company

Website

Company

Website

Blue Star Infotech

bsil.com

CellVision AS

cellvision.com

CommScope

commscope.com

Bluestreak Technology

bluestreaktech.com

Centile

centile.com

CommuniGate Systems

communigate.com

Bluetab

bluetab.net

Ceragon Networks

ceragon.com

Communications Fraud

cfca.org

BMC Solutions

bmcsolutions.co.uk

Cerillion

cerillion.com

Control Assoc

Boku

boku.com

CGI

cgi.com

Comptel Corporation

comptel.com

Brighterion

brighterion.com

Check Point Software

checkpoint.com

Computaris

computaris.com

BroadHop

broadhop.com

BroadVision

broadvision.com

Ciena

ciena.com

BT

business.bt.com

Ciqual

ciqual.com

Condico

condicomobile.com

Business Logic Systems

businesslogicsystems.com

Cisco

cisco.com

Consult-Hyperion

chyp.com

Capgemini

capgemini.com

Citrix

citrix.com

Convergys

convergys.com

Casewise

casewise.com

Clearswift

clearswift.com

CopperEye

coppereye.com

CA Technologies

ca.com

Comarch AS

comarch.com/

Cortex

cortex.co.uk

CBOSS Corporation

cbossgroup.com

telecommunications

Creanord Ltd

creanord.com

Comsearch

Technologies Ltd

VANILLAPLUS CEO GUIDE TO MWC SUPPLEMENT - Q1 I JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

(a Commscope co.)

comsearch.com

C13

D I R E C T O R Y

2 0 1 7

www.fts-soft.com Tel: +972 9 952 6500

www.infonova.com Tel: +43 316 8003

FTS, a Magic Software Group company, works with telecommunications, content, M2M and payment service providers globally to help them manage complex transactions and relationships with greater flexibility and greater independence.

Infonova is a leading provider of technology and business solutions for business transformation in the new digital economy with more than 25 years’ experience serving communication service providers (CSPs) and other industry verticals.

Analysing every transaction from a business standpoint, FTS offers end-to-end and add-on telecom billing, charging, policy control and payment solutions to customers worldwide, and services both growing and major providers. FTS implements solutions, including convergent billing platform installations, in mobile, wireline, broadband, MVNO/E, payments, e-commerce, M2M, mobile money, cable, cloud and content markets. FTS’ solutions dramatically lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) for telecoms and content service providers.

The Infonova R6 product, with multi-tenant concept-to-cash BSS capabilities at its core, enables multiple partners and suppliers over various industries to collaborate in bi-directional, multi-level revenue chains in various B2B2x business models, with fully automated orchestration, monetisation and revenue allocation. Infonova R6 easily plugs into legacy IT to quickly generate new revenues and new value, enabling the effective leveraging and bundling of a company’s own resources, as well as the resources of many different third parties.

Sectors:

Infonova is a wholly owned subsidiary of BearingPoint, a leading IT and business consulting firm active in 21 countries with over 3700 staff. The BearingPoint/Infonova Digital Ecosystem Management (DEM) solution uses the new platform-based rules of strategy that leading players are adopting: a winning business model that employs a flexible digital platform which manages and monetises business ecosystems to bring consumers, producers and innovators together in mutually beneficial ways. The unique combination of consulting services, the Infonova R6 software product, systems integration, and managed services exemplifies the BearingPoint/Infonova strategy to deliver platform economy opportunities to clients worldwide.

Billing & Charging: Billing (Utility) | Billing & Customer Care | Billing (Convergent Pre- & Post-paid) | Billing (Interconnect & Wholesale) | Billing (Retail) | eBilling, ePayment & ePresentment Customer Care: Customer Relationship Management Network Management: Inventory, Asset & Element Management Partner Management: Partner Relationship Management | Partner Settlement Other: Machine to Machine (M2M) | Mobile Virtual Network Enablers | Mobile Virtual Network Operators | PCC - Policy Control and Charging | Policy Management

Sectors: Application Management: Application Lifecycle Management Billing & Charging: Billing (Utility) | Billing (Convergent Pre- & Postpaid) | Billing (Interconnect & Wholesale) | Billing (Retail) Customer Care: Customer Experience Management Partner Management: Partner Relationship Management | Partner Settlement Revenue Management: Cost & Debt Control Product & Service Management: Order Management | Product Lifecycle Management Other: Machine to Machine (M2M) | Mobile Virtual Network Operators

Company

Website

Company

Website

Company

Website

CreditCall

creditcall.com

CRM Technologies

crmtechnologies.com

eGain

egain.com

Evolved Intelligence Ltd

evolved-intelligence.com

Elitecore Technologies Ltd

elitecore.com

Evolving Systems

CSG International

evolving.com

csgi.com

Eltel Networks

eltelnetworks.com

Excentis

excentis.com

CSR

csr.com

Emida

emida.net

EXFO

exfo.com

CTI Group

ctigroup.com

Empirix, Inc

empirix.com

Experian

experianplc.com

Current Analysis

currentanalysis.com

empolis arvato

empolis.com

EyeBill Interactive Solutions eyebill.net

Customer Value Partners

cvpcorp.com

EmptyLotSoftware

emptylotsoftware.com

F5 Networks

cVidya Networks

cvidya.com

Endace Ltd

endace.com

FICO

fico.com

CyberSource

cybersource.com

Entuity

entuity.com

FIQAS Software BV

fiqas.nl

Devoteam

devoteam.com

f5.com

Equinix

equinox.co.uk

Fiserv

fiserv.com

Data Track Technology PLC dtt.dtrack.com

Equinox IS

equinoxis.com

Flash Networks

flashnetworks.com

Dell EMC

emc.com

Ergon

ergon.ch/en/telecom

Fluke Networks, Inc

flukenetworks.com

Dialogic Corporation

dialogic.com

Ericsson

ericsson.com

FML

fmlsolutions.com

Digital Fuel Technologies, Inc digitalfuel.com

eServGlobal

eservgobal.com

FROX communication

frox.com

DigitalRoute

digitalroute.com

ESKADENIA Software

eskadenia.com

FTS

fts-soft.com

Dimension Data

dimensiondata.com

ETI Software Solutions, Inc etisoftware.com

Gemalto

gemalto.com

DragonWave

dragonwaveinc.com

EuroMACC Ltd

euromacc.com

GENBAND

genband.com

EastWind

eastwind.ru

Eurotime Solutions Ltd

eurotimesolutions.co.uk

gen-E

gen-e.com

ECI Telecom

ecitele.com

Evidian (a Groupe Bull co.) evidian.com

Genesys

genesys.com

ECT - Telecom

ect-telecoms.com

Evistel

Genesys (an Alcatel-Lucent co.) genesyslab.com

C14

evistel.com

VANILLAPLUS CEO GUIDE TO MWC SUPPLEMENT - Q1 I JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

www.mdscem.com Tel: +44 (0)1925 462300

www.netcracker.com Tel: +1 781 419 3300

Our passion is transforming telecoms and IT service providers to profitably grow revenue and effectively serve the most complex customer bases.

Netcracker Technology, a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Corporation, is a forward-looking software company, offering mission-critical solutions to service providers around the globe. Our comprehensive portfolio of software solutions and professional services enables largescale digital transformations, unlocking the opportunities of the cloud, virtualisation and the changing mobile ecosystem. With an unbroken service delivery track record of more than 20 years, our unique combination of technology, people and expertise helps companies transform their networks and enable better experiences for their customers.

We empower CSPs to monetise, price, launch and bill any product or service, rapidly, accurately and at a low total cost of ownership. Using our comprehensive managed service, we help you better understand and enhance the experience of your customers.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not just BSS vendors. Our experts have knowledge from a multitude of industries, with particular focus on B2B and Retail.

Whether youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking to enhance the portfolio of products you offer, MDS profitably helps grow your business.

Sectors: Billing & Charging: Billing & Customer Care | Billing (Convergent Pre& Post-paid) | Billing (Interconnect & Wholesale) | Mediation & Collection Customer Care: Customer Experience Management | Customer Lifecycle Management | Customer Relationship Management | Loyalty & Churn Management Network Management: Network Configuration Management | Network Discovery & Optimisation | Network Performance Management Partner Management: Partner Relationship Management | Partner Settlement Revenue Management: Revenue Management Product & Service Management: Order Management | Product Catalogue | Product Lifecycle Management | Service Assurance Other: Mobile Virtual Network Enablers | PCC - Policy Control and Charging | Policy Management

Sectors: Billing & Charging: Billing (Utility) | Billing & Customer Care | Billing (Convergent Pre- & Post-paid) | Billing (Retail) | eBilling, ePayment & ePresentment Business Intelligence: Behaviour Analytics | Billing Analysis | Business Analysis & Intelligence | Business Process Optimisation | Customer Analysis Customer Care: Contact Centres & Hubs | Customer Experience Management | Loyalty & Churn Management Data Management: Data Analysis | Data Migration Partner Management: Partner Relationship Management Revenue Management: Credit | Cost & Debt Control | Fraud Control & Prevention | Revenue Analytics | Revenue Assurance | Revenue Management Product & Service Management: Order Management | Product Catalogue | Product Lifecycle Management Services & Platforms: 4G, LTE & WiMAX Other: Machine to Machine (M2M) | Mobile Virtual Network Enablers | Mobile Virtual Network Operators | Outsourcing | Policy Management

Company

Website

Gensym (a Versata

Company

Website

Company

Website

Indra Sistemas

indra.es

Jones Cyber Solutions Ltd

jonescyber.com

gensym.com

Infonova

infonova.at

Junifer Systems

junifersystems.com

GeoCentric

geocentric.com

Infor

infor.co.uk

Juniper Networks

juniper.net

Getronics NV

getronics.com

Informatica Corp

informatica.com

Kalido

kalido.com

Gintel

gintel.com

Infosys Technologies

infosys.com

KANA

kana.com

GIPS Group

gips.net

InfoVista

infovista.com

Kansys Inc

kansys.com

Google

google.com

Ingenico

ingenico.com

Kapsch

kapsch.net

GRUPO DELAWARE

grupodelaware.com

Inline Telecom Solutions

inlinetelecom.ru

Kcom

kcom.com

GSMA

gsma.com

Innopay

innopay.com

Keynote

keynote.com

Harris Stratex Networks

harrisstratex.com

Inteligentis

inteligentis.com

Kobil

kobil.com

Hewlett Packard Enterprise hpe.com

Internetq

internet.com

Kognitio

kognitio.com

HP

hp.com

Interoute

interoute.com

KNect365 TMT

tmt,knect365.com

Horsebridge Networks

horsebridge.net

Intersec

intersec.com

Kroll Ontrack

krollontrack.co.uk

Huawei

huawei.com

InterSystems Corp

intersystems.com

Leostream

leostream.com

i-conX solutions Ltd

iconxsolutions.com

iPass

ipass.com

Kofax

kofax.com

IBM Corp

ibm.com

iisy

iisy.de

LogicManse

logicmanse.com

iConnectiva

iconnectiva.com

IoT Now Magazine

iot-now.com

LogiSense

logisense.com

IDnomic

idnomic.com

ITU

itu.int

LogNet Systems

lognet-systems.com

Loyalty Partner Solutions

Enterprises co.)

IIR Telecoms & Technology iir-telecoms.com

IXIA

ixiacom.com

Incognito Software

Ixonos

ixonos.com

incognito.com

VANILLAPLUS CEO GUIDE TO MWC SUPPLEMENT - Q1 I JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

GmbH

lpsolutions.com

C15

D I R E C T O R Y

2 0 1 7

www.polystar.com Tel: +46 850 600 600

www.proceranetworks.com Tel: +1 510 230 2777

Polystar enables communications service providers (CSPs) to achieve excellence in CEM, Big Data Analytics, Service Assurance, Network Monitoring, Service Enablement and High Performance Testing. We help CSPs to simplify their CEM strategies and drive operational efficiency through real-time network analytics. Polystar’s real-time Network and Customer Insights uncover a goldmine of data, which yields indispensable analytics to CSPs. Polystar is recognised as one of the fastest-growing companies in Sweden. Since our foundation in Stockholm in 1983, we have experienced continuous and sustainable growth, and evolved to a global presence, serving our customers in over 50 countries.

Procera's solutions structure broadband data, transform it into actionable intelligence, and empower broadband operators to make informed business decisions immediately. Our solutions are built on our industry-leading Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology and combine the capabilities of the Pro•ID, Pro•View, and Pro•Act product families to deliver Analytics, Traffic Management, and Policy Enforcement use cases to broadband operators of all types. The Pro•ID family provides DPI Application Identification Engines to enhance product value for OEMs. The Pro•View family delivers virtual data enablement engineered to enrich data in CEM and big data analytics platforms. The Pro•Act family is a standalone DPI offering that delivers full analytics, traffic management and policy enforcement.

Sectors: Billing & Charging: Mediation & Collection Business Intelligence: Behaviour Analytics | Behaviour Analytics | Business Analysis & Intelligence | Customer Analysis Customer Care: Customer Experience Management Data Management: Data Analysis Network Management: Network & Service Test & Measurement | Network Discovery & Optimisation | Network Discovery & Optimisation | Network Performance Management Product & Service Management: Service Assurance Services & Platforms: 4G, LTE & WiMAX Other: Machine to Machine (M2M)

Company

Website

Company

Website

Company

LTC International

ltcinternational.com

MYCOM

mycom-int.com

Nuance Communications, Inc nuance.com

Mahindra Comviva

mahindracomviva.com

Myriad Group

myriadgroup.com

OASIS Systems

ManageEngine

manageengine.com

NEC

nec.com

OneAccess

oneaccess-net.com

MATRIXX Software

matrixx.com

Netcracker

netcracker.com

Ontology Systems

ontology.com

MaxBill Ltd

maxbill.com

NetEvidence

net-evidence.com

Open Text Corp

opentext.com

mBlox

mblox.com

Netformx

netformx.com

OpenCloud Ltd

opencloud.com

MDS

mdscem.com

NetNumber

netnumber.com

Openet

openet.com

MDS Lavastorm Analytics

lavastorm.com

Netplus

netplustms.com

OpenText

opentext.com

MegaSys Computer

megasys.com

NetQoS

netqos.com

OpenWave

ownmobility.com

NetScout Systems

netscout.com

Opus Advance Business

Technologies

Solutions

Website

oasissystems.com

opusabs.net

Metaswitch Networks

metaswitch.com

Netsize

netsize.com

Metracom

metracom.fr

Neural Technologies

neuralt.com

Oracle

oracle.com

Micro Focus International

microfocus.com

NeuStar

neustar.biz

Outbox

outbox.pl

Microsoft

microsoft.com

Nexus Telecom AG

nexustelecom.com

Ovum

ovum.com

Mi-Pay

mi-pay.com

nicholson Search & Selection nicholsonintl.com

Panviva

panviva.com

Mobileum

mobileum.com

Nine Group

ninegroup.co.uk

Parallels

parallels.com

Mobile Distillery

mobile-distillery.com

Noetica

noetica.com

Partner Telecom

partnertelecom.com

mobivention

mobivention.com

Nokia

Nokia.com

Pega

pega.com

Mojiva

mojiva.com

Novarra

novarra.com

Pitney Bowes Business

Motorola Solutions

motorolasolutions.com

NTG Clarity Networks

ntgclarity.com

MTS Ltd

mtsint.com

NTT Security

nttcomsecurity.com

C16

Insight Polystar

pbinsight.com polystar.com

VANILLAPLUS CEO GUIDE TO MWC SUPPLEMENT - Q1 I JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

www.uxpsystems.com Tel: +1 416 477 8916

www.vanillaplus.com Tel: +44 (0)1732 897646

UXP Systems is the leader and pioneer in User Lifecycle Management (ULM). Our platform evolves digital identity, user entitlements and personalisation to bring traditional and emerging enterprises the capabilities to service every digital user seamlessly. ULM has been selected and implemented by some of the world’s largest enterprises including Liberty Global, Vodafone, and others, ensuring they remain relevant in a disrupting world. ULM delivers user-centric solutions covering User Managed Privacy, Digital Transformation, Digital and Cloud Services, Seamless Entertainment and the Connected Home.

Publishing as THE market leader for more than 19 years, VanillaPlus has over 28,300 readers globally, 5,400+ social media followers and is distributed at over 40 partner events throughout the year.

It is critical for our readers to keep the VanillaPlus content ahead of the curve by delivering exclusive analyst analysis, real life case studies and expert opinions in every single edition.

Four issues of VanillaPlus are published in print each year – Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4. Each issue features exclusive content and research unavailable anywhere else including;

Sectors:

• Independently commissioned Analyst Reports, on one key topic, written by the very best analysts in the industry from companies such as Analysys Mason, Frost & Sullivan, Heavy Reading, Ovum and Machina to name a few!

• Trends and Forecasts • Success stories and challenges • Case studies • Bespoke, exclusive research available for the VanillaPlus global readership only.

Business Intelligence: Personalisation Customer Care: Customer Experience Management | Customer Lifecycle Management Data Management: Authentication, Identity & Access

Key topics for 2017 include: • Virtualisation • Customer Security & Privacy • Bill & Charge • Big Data Analytics • Digital Transformation • Revenue & Fraud • Customer Experience • Cloud • Network performance management and monitoring • QoE & Big Video VanillaPlus.com gives you and more than 28,000 other online readers free access to exclusive C-Level video interviews, news, blogs, reviews, webinar podcasts, digital editions of the magazine, and an online directory.

Company

Website

Company

Website

Company

Website

Pontis

pontis.com

Samsung

samsungnetwork.com

Sopra Steria

Practiv

practiv.com

Sandvine

sandvine.com

Spirent Communications plc spirent.com

Praesidium

praesidium.com

soprasteria.com

SAP

sap.com

Starhome Mach

(Consulting division of WeDo)

SAS

sas.com

Steria

starhomemach.com steria.com

PRAGMATEK Consulting Group pragmatek.com

Scorecard Systems

scorecardsystems.com

Stork Ltd

storkltd.com

pwc.com/gx/en/

Service2Media

service2media.com

Strand Consult

strandconsult.dk

communications

Sevone

sevone.com

Subex

subexworld.com

Prior Analytics Ltd

prior-analytics.com

Skrill

skrill.com

SunTec Business Solutions

suntecgroup.com

Procera

proceranetworks.com

Sicap

sicap.com

Swyx

swyx.com

Progress Software

web.progress.com

Sierra Wireless

sierrawireless.com

Sygnity

sygnity.pl

Pronto Networks

prontonetworks.com

Sigma Systems

sigma-systems.com

Symantec Corp

symantec.com

PSD

psdgroup.com

Simon Kucher & Partners

simon-kucher.com

Symsoft

symsoft.com

PSI AG

psi.de/en

Sixth Sense Media

sixthsensemedia.com

Synchronoss Technologies, Inc synchronoss.com

Publicis Sapient

publicis.sapient.com

SL Corporation

sl.com

Syniverse Technologies

syniverse.com

Qualcomm

qualcomm.com

Sofrecom (a France

Talisma Corp

talisma.com

Qualitative Change

qualitativechange.com

Telecom

Radisys

radisys.com

–Orange Group co.)

Tango Telecom

tango.ie

Redknee

redknee.com

Softrax (AFS Financial

Tata

tatacommunications.com

Redwood Systems Ltd

redwoodsystems.co.uk

softrax.com

Tech Mahindra

techmahindra.com

Rodopi Software

rodopi.com

Software AG

softwareag.com

Technology Research Institute technology-research.com

Round (UK) Ltd

round.co.uk

Solera Networks

soleranetworks.com

Tecnotree

PricewaterhouseCoopers

Solutions)

sofrecom.com

VANILLAPLUS CEO GUIDE TO MWC SUPPLEMENT - Q1 I JANUARY/FEBRUARY/MARCH 2017

(an nGenera company)

tecnotree.com

C17

D I R E C T O R Y

2 0 1 7

www.ztesoft.com Tel: +86 139 5177 1387 ZTEsoft is a leading operational technology software provider specialised in offering end-to-end BSS/OSS solutions and services to global telecoms operators, and smart city and IoT solutions to enterprises and governments.

In more than 80 countries, ZSmart solutions are selected by 145 operators and serving over 700 million subscribers.

Our vision is to enable a digital ecosystem. We help our customers to accelerate the digital transformation in the connected world through our best-in-class products and services, by adding power to our customers to be leaders in digital world. To make telco transformation happen, ZTEsoft believes an open platform approach with omnichannel and real-time insights capabilities, supporting vertical industry expansion, providing experience-oriented and valuable services to customers, will eventually work.

Sectors: Billing & Charging: Billing (Utility) | Billing & Customer Care | Billing (Convergent Pre- & Post-paid) | Billing (Interconnect & Wholesale) | Billing (Retail) | Mediation & Collection Business Intelligence: Behaviour Analytics | Billing Analysis | Business Analysis & Intelligence | Customer Analysis | Personalisation Customer Care: Contact Centres & Hubs | Customer Experience Management | Customer Interaction Management | Customer Lifecycle Management | Customer Relationship Management | Loyalty & Churn Management Data Management: Authentication, Identity & Access | Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery | Data Analysis | Data Centres & Hosting | Data Migration | Data Mining & Warehousing Network Management: Enterprise Resource Planning | Inventory, Asset & Element Management | Network & Service Test & Measurement | Network Configuration Management | Enterprise Resource Management | Network Discovery & Optimisation | Network Performance Management Partner Management: Partner Relationship Management | Partner Settlement Revenue Management: Credit | Cost & Debt Control | Fraud Control & Prevention | Revenue Analytics | Revenue Assurance | Revenue Management | Risk Management | Roaming Clearing & Settlement Product & Service Management: Mobile Device Management | Number Portability | Order Management | Product Catalogue | Product Lifecycle Management | Service Adoption Management | Service Assurance Other: Mobile Virtual Network Enablers | Mobile Virtual Network Operators | PCC - Policy Control and Charging | Policy Management

Company

Website

Company

Website

Company

Website

Telarix, Inc

telarix.com

TNS, Inc

tnsi.com

Verint

verint.com

Telchemy, Inc

telchemy.com

Tollgrade Communications, Inc tollgrade.com

VeriSign, Inc

verisign.com

TeleBilling

tele-billing.com

Transverse

gotransverse.com

Verizon Business

verizonbusiness.com

Telehouse Europe

telehouse.net

Triad

triad.co.uk

VISA

visa.com

Telepin

telepin.com

Trigyn Technologies Ltd

trigyn.com

Visionael Corporation

visionael.com

Teligent Telecom Group

teligent.se

TUFF-Telecoms UK

Visiongain

visiongain.com

Tellabs

tellabs.com

tuff.co.uk

Vitria Technology, Inc

vitria.com

Telsis

telsis.com

Turkcell Teknoloji

turkcellteknoloji.com.tr

VOSS Solutions

voss-solutions.com

TEOCO Corporation

teoco.com

Ukash

ukash.com

WeDo Technologies

wedotechnologies.com

Teradata

teradata.com

Upaid

upaid.net

Wipro

wipro.com

Tevron

tevron.com

UshaComm

ushacomm.com

Xelas Software

xelas.com

Thales

thalesgroup.com

Utelize

utilize.co.uk

XINTEC

xintec.com

The Billing College

billingcollege.com

UXP Systems, Inc.

uxpsystems.com

XIUS-bcgi

xius-bcgi.com

TIBCO

tibco.com

VanillaPlus magazine

vanillaplus.com

Xura

xura.com

Tieto

tieto.com

Velti

velti.com

Yahoo!

yahoo.com

Tilgin

tilgin.com

Verax Systems

veraxsystems.com

YouTap!

Youtap.com

TM Forum

tmforum.org

Veraz Networks SARL

veraznetworks.com

ZTE Corporation

zte.com.cn/en/

TM Solutions Ltd

tmsols.co.uk

Verimatrix

verimatrix.com

ZTEsoft

ztesoft.com

C18

Fraud Forum

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