IBM Sales and Distribution Solution Brief

Telecommunications Industry

IBM and Comverse BSS/OSS Solution

Based on the Comverse ONE Billing and Active Customer Management solution, powered by IBM technology, enabled on IBMs cloud computing platform
Todays consumers live an always on lifestyle, driving the need for operators to reach customers faster, build brand loyalty, introduce differentiated services quickly, and offer 24/7 access to accounts. Added to that is constant cost-reduction pressure and continued competitive threats making it a business necessity to improve operational efficiency and reliability through infrastructure consolidation while also increasing market agility. IBM and Comverse have teamed to deliver a customer care and billing solution, enabled on the IBM cloud computing platform, that meets the demands of todays consumers and your business. Based on the strong foundation of IBM Power Systems hardware and as validated on the strategic IBM telecommunications software framework the Service Provider Delivery Environment (SPDE) the IBM and Comverse billing solution delivers superior customer care, ordering, real-time rating, billing and customer self-service, all unified by one innovative architecture.

Highlights:

Helps service providers improve time to revenue through an architecture built to support all aspects of convergence, complete monetization, and active customer management Handles virtually any service, any network and any payment type, allowing your business to grow revenues and build loyalty by providing customers with choice, convenience and control Enabled on the IBM Cloud Service Provider Platform, allowing you to create, manage and monetize cloud-based services for customers Provides a key tool that enables operators to reach business transformation objectives on a unified infrastructure Built on IBM technology and implemented with proven IBM deployment expertise

A Platform for Business Success

The Comverse ONE Billing and Active Customer Management solution provides converged capabilities to operators and their subscribers, from the customer to the network to the general ledger. You can efficiently transform your fragmented prepaid and postpaid infrastructures into a unified and comprehensive environment that can support any network, any service, any location, and any payment type whether it is prepaid, postpaid, now-paid, or combination plans. Payment convergence can be a powerful growth engine for operators to use for competitive advantage. Although an emerging approach, you may be ready to move to offering hybrid account types and services if:

You want to manage all customers consistently (customer service, package options) regardless of payment type. You need to consolidate existing pre- and post-paid systems to reduce costs. Your future plans include an IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) environment.

IBM Sales and Distribution Solution Brief

Telecommunications Industry

Regardless of your payment convergence plans, Comverse sees a growing need for in-network (real-time) rating and charging. This can help operators manage financial exposure associated with content, meet consumer expectations, and also enable billing as a strategic marketing tool through real-time notifications and promotions. With the IBM and Comverse billing solution, operators can add real-time control to a postpaid environment, opening up a world of flexibility and responsiveness not previously possible. Whether your business goal is to drive revenue from new sources, increase operational efficiency, retain customers, or build competitive differentiation and branding, the IBM and Comverse billing solution delivers results.

Comverse ONE: The Key to Monetizing the Cloud

By deploying a cloud infrastructure, you have the ability to transform the service delivery environment itself. Monetizing that environment is the logical next step. The Comverse ONE solution, enabled on the cloud, allows your business to handle all aspects of charging, billing and customer management in a single, unified system. By maximizing and exploiting revenue opportunities, it allows you to make the most of your investment in cloud technology. The Comverse approach readily integrates cloud-oriented activities with other enterprise systems it is not a point solution dedicated to cloud and separated from the rest of the business. For Comverse ONE users, cloud services are handled like any other service offering. For example, those who are adding cloud capabilities to their existing conventional environment can use the Comverse ONE solution to manage metering, charging, brokering, billing, promotions and settlement for the entire service ecosystem, cloud and conventional alike. This is an important benefit as it allows the same systems and the same data to be used across the whole business. Breaking down information silos in this way fosters a more complete view of customer, business partner and service relationships that can help optimize the business.

Building a Foundation for Cloud Delivery

As communications service providers (CSPs) look to expand business and revenue growth, many see the IBM Cloud Service Provider Platform as a way to create, manage and monetize cloud-based services for customers. The platform addresses both implementation and management of the cloud environment and is deployed as a self-contained, on-premise cloud with all customer information residing behind the firewall. This yields the highest levels of security and control of the infrastructure. The highly scalable IBM cloud platform, with its secure and integrated service management capabilities, including automated resource provisioning, creates the right environment for sophisticated service delivery at low cost and with reduced complexity. And it goes the final mile, as well, by providing the means to generate new and greater revenue from cloud services through the integrated functions offered by the Comverse ONE solution. This advanced, pre-integrated solution set leverages IBM communications industry expertise as well as offerings from its global ecosystem of independent software vendors, application and content providers, developers and other business partners a network that is unmatched in scope and reach. Together with IBM, these partners provide service providers with all they need to harness a diverse solutions portfolio that helps to quickly and cost-effectively bring innovative new services to market like the Comverse ONE billing solution.

IBM Sales and Distribution Solution Brief

Telecommunications Industry

Pre-integration of Comverse ONE with the IBM Cloud

Pre-integration of the Comverse ONE solution with the IBM Cloud Service Provider Platform enables customers to gain rapid monetization capability for all cloud-based services. It provides all of the key functions associated with revenue generation. The Comverse ONE solution offers deep capabilities that are well suited to the characteristics of the cloud as it enables sophisticated pricing and bundling, with ease of implementation and management of revenue models. For example, services can be set up on a pay-as-you-go, contract, tiered, revenue-sharing or event-driven basis. The Comverse ONE solution can handle all of them and adjust the terms easily and quickly. The system is highly sophisticated, combining network and customer data to enable close control of the customer relationship. A complete view of the customer is provided, containing such information as plan and account status, balance, limits and restrictions on the account, and attributes of the subscribers device. This places all pertinent information about the customer in one place, making it easier to manage and leverage. You can create revenue opportunity by customizing the customer experience, for example by creating more appealing services or making tailored, attractive cross-sell and up-sell offers. An important aspect of cloud delivery is the many ways in which services can be consumed. The Comverse ONE solution can capture and rate usage according to any combination of parameters, such as number of accesses, time of day, bandwidth, consumption of third-party content or type of use. Any metric that can be devised can be used as a basis for charging, allowing you to tailor the business model for maximum profit.

Lab in La Gaude, France. The Center is an end-to-end operating support systems/business support systems (OSS/ BSS) environment that includes IBM and Comverse hardware; Comverse ONE billing, customer care, and fulfillment; and IBMs business intelligence, database and middleware, which is part of the Service Provider Delivery Environment, the strategic IBM telecommunications software framework. The Comverse Center of Excellence is staffed by professionals who have in-depth telecom industry and domain-specific expertise to help operators manage all subscribers consistently, regardless of payment or service type, thereby accelerating the launch of new services, promotions and bundles. The IBM Telecom Comverse Center of Excellence provides a focal point for training, proof of concept development, benchmarking, IBM and Comverse solution integration, assetharvesting from joint implementations, and more. The Center allows Comverse and IBM to demonstrate the years of experience the companies have together in helping service providers implement convergence in a manner that supports their business imperatives.

Comverse HUB: Extending the Value of the IBM Cloud Service Provider Platform In addition to enabling effective monetization of the cloud, Comverse and IBM have collaborated to make it easier to move services to the cloud environment. Comverse HUB which, like the Comverse ONE solution can be pre-integrated with the IBM Cloud Service Provider Platformallows you to migrate existing messaging and voice services such as SMS text, address book services, multimedia messaging and voice mail to the cloud environment. This further leverages investments in cloud infrastructure and reduces both your capital and operational expenses.

IBM Telecom Comverse Center of Excellence

To further ensure our joint customers success, IBM and Comverse have established the IBM Telecom Comverse Center of Excellence (CCoE) in the IBM Telecom Solution

Inovative Solutions by IBM and Comverse

The Comverse ONE solution enables a variety of deployment modes, which allows an operator to deploy only those components that meet todays needs, then evolve at a pace that supports legacy migration issues or changing business needs. While the most common deployment modes are to support prepaid subscribers, postpaid subscribers, or hybrid (converged) subscribers, all modes support rating and charging for any service or network type. In addition, active customer management, including self-service, is available for any deployment type. And, because the solution is built on IBM technology and implemented with proven IBM deployment expertise, you can have peace of mind, knowing your transformation will be predictable, productive and cost-effective.
Copyright IBM Corporation 2010 IBM Corporation New Orchard Road Armonk, NY 10504 U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America December 2010 All Rights Reserved IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, IMS and Power Systems are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol ( or ), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at: ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml Copyright 2010 Comverse, Inc. All rights reserved. Comverse is the registered trademark of Comverse Technology, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other selected countries. Other denoted product names of Comverse may be trademarks or registered trademarks of Comverse, Inc. or its subsidiaries. The materials presented in this communication are summary in nature, subject to change, and intended for general information only. Other product, company or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which IBM operates.

For More Information

Learn how Comverse ONE and IBM Systems can help your company achieve increased revenue, reduced costs, and better customer service. Contact your IBM Representative, or visit:
ibm.com/telecom

For more information about Comverse, visit:

comverse.com

About Comverse Comverse (www.comverse.com) is the worlds leading provider of software and systems enabling value-added services for voice, messaging, mobile Internet and mobile advertising; converged billing and active customer management; and IP communications. Comverses extensive customer base spans more than 125 countries and covers over 450 communication service providers serving more than two billion subscribers. The companys innovative product portfolio enables communication service providers to unleash the value of the network for their customers by making their networks smarter. Comverses solutions support flexible deployment models, including in-network, hosted and managed services, and can run on circuit-switched, IP, IMS or converged network environments. Comverse is a subsidiary of Comverse Technology, Inc. (CMVT.PK).

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