Product Strategy
This product strategy review gives an overall description of
developments within Intec Telecom Systems’ major product lines
in 2003, and an overview of intended developments in coming
periods. We recommend that it should be read in conjunction
with the Intec Telecom Systems Corporate Overview 2004 (available from Intec).
Detailed product information can be obtained directly from
Intec or downloaded from the web site: www.intec-telecom-systems.com.
Intec has a corporate objective to ‘be the leader in each
Operations Support Systems (OSS) market segment where
we choose to operate, in terms of market share, business
performance and product capability.’ Our product strategy is
closely aligned to this objective by aiming to develop world-class,
‘carrier-grade’ OSS applications and supporting services that will
find buyers among the world’s leading telecoms players.
OSS are the fundamental building blocks of the information
systems used by telecoms companies to provide services to
customers and to generate revenues from network operations.
Without OSS a modern telecoms company cannot function,
and the quality of its systems helps determine the performance
of the business. Historically many operators developed their own
OSS to support their specific business requirements. However, as
the industry has grown in complexity, and the cost of supporting
large, in-house technology departments has become excessive,
most operators have begun outsourcing the majority of their OSS
requirements to specialised, third party suppliers such as Intec.
Intec’s products are created and managed by its Product
Operations division, which works closely with other parts of the
company, particularly sales and marketing Groups, to ensure that
Intec offers software that has the functionality and performance
required by customers worldwide, when they need it. Intec also
benefits from active and well-supported User Groups which
contribute substantially to product development.
Intec’s product development policy is to invest a substantial
proportion of its revenues in developing additional functionality
for existing software, developing next-generation products that
will eventually supersede existing offerings, and expanding its
product range into new areas. All Intec product developments
have to be supported by a sound business case which examines
the potential for return on investment and strategic importance.
Each product area has a business manager who is ultimately
responsible for its successful development, deployment to
customers and marketplace success.
Intec’s OSS product set has been developed such that individual
components are typically complementary to each other. The
following descriptions consider each of the major product
Groups. A number of minor products or modules are not
detailed here.
Back to top
InterconnecT, the company’s original product, is the clear market
share leader in the global market for interconnect billing systems,
with around 200 customers, including Vodafone, Orange, France
Telecom, Hutchison 3G, BellSouth and many others. InterconnecT
allows these companies to produce high-value bills for carrying
each other’s communications traffic. The sums involved can run
into hundreds of million of dollars (or more) annually.
There are two variants of InterconnecT, for standard domestic and
international interconnect bill settlement, and for international
settlement according to the rules defined by the International
Telecommunications Union (InterconnecT ITU). Both products
have been the subject of substantial version upgrades in 2003.
InterconnecT is due to be further upgraded to Version 7 status
in 2004. We believe both products are widely considered the
benchmark for functionality and performance in the marketplace.
A recent benchmark run in conjunction with Hewlett-Packard
showed that InterconnecT, running on one of HP’s most powerful
servers, could handle up to five times the daily traffic
requirements of a major national PTT.
With the acquisition of business units from ICL and Ericsson, we
also have customers running their former interconnect products,
Prospero and Settler. Prospero has been discontinued as a
development product but will continue to be supported. Settler
will be developed and supported in line with its existing roadmap.
Both products, and InterconnecT, will be superseded by the next
generation V7 platform nearing completion.
Intec has also begun marketing two new products, InterconnecT
Optimised Routing and InterconnecT Automated Reconciliation.
These products assist operators in determining optimal routing
options, trading capacity and in automating the reconciliation
of interconnect invoices. Both products help carriers improve
revenues and cut operating costs, and we expect growing
demand for both. Both systems are installed and working in
major operators.
Back to top
In the US market ‘carrier access billing systems’ (CABS) are
effectively the local US equivalent of domestic interconnect billing
in other regions. Intec’s product, InterconnecT CABS CG (Carrier
Grade), has won many customers in the US, for both carrieroperated
systems and an Intec-delivered bureau service. Current
customer numbers stand at over 120. InterconnecT CABS CG
meets the needs of the largest CLECs, ILECs and even RBOCs
in the US. Development continues on InterconnecT CABS CG
to ensure that it continues to be the most effective product in
the fast-changing and very competitive world of US
telecommunications.
Back to top
Inter-mediatE provides the vital services of network usage data
collection, processing, transformation and distribution to other
systems such as billing — together known as mediation.
Mediation lies at the heart of revenue generation for a carrier,
and also strongly impacts functions such as network
management, service provision, and customer care.
Intec’s Inter-mediatE product is a convergent mediation
system – it can manage many different types of network event:
conventional switched calls, unswitched (packet-based) traffic
like Internet Protocol (IP) data, mobile communications, and
next-generation systems like UMTS (3G). It is also designed
to handle the very highest volumes of traffic found in major
carriers today – over 130 customers use Inter-mediatE, including
BellSouth, Verizon, Telstra and Hutchison 3G.
In 2003 Inter-mediatE continues to be the industry’s most powerful
solution, with a very attractive combination of performance,
robustness and functionality. An additional product, Inter-mediatE
Reporting, which allows users to develop management information
from usage data for many applications, was introduced in 2003.
Like InterconnecT, Inter-mediatE will be the subject of a major
version upgrade in 2004.
Back to top
Inter-activatE is Intec’s new service activation system. This
allows operators to control the activation of new services,
or service bundles, for their customers. A highly-flexible
and configurable system, Inter-activatE is designed to replace
multiple, cumbersome legacy activation systems with a single,
workflow-oriented platform on low-cost hardware. InteractivatE
is designed to lower service activation costs by offering
a single-platform environment for multiple service activation,
high levels of automation, and comprehensive auditing and
fallout management capabilities. Inter-activatE is now in service
with its first customers and initial feedback on its robustness,
efficiency and productivity is extremely encouraging. InteractivatE
will shortly be upgraded to Version 2 status.
Back to top
As a result of the recent acquisition of Digiquant, and following
on from internal Intec projects, Intec has developed the Intec
Advanced Services Framework (ASF). ASF includes three key
capabilities at this time — the Intec Dynamic Charging Platform
(DCP); Intec Content Partner Management (CPM); and Intec Billing
and Customer Services (BCS). These products address critical
business requirements for operators of advanced communications
services, such as mobile content delivery and Voice-over-IP. They
can be applied separately, or combined, to solve a variety of
complex, real-world technical and business problems now being
addressed by many operators. The technology underlying ASF is
sophisticated but widely proven in many installations. We believe
that with ASF we have the most complete and functionally rich
solution in this area of OSS today.
For more information on Intec products and services, please visit
www.intec-telecom-systems.com
Back to top |
Product Review