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30 08 2010

Golden August for Subex

Posted by: Eric in News, Results, Sales

Since its turnaround, Subex has continued to plot an upward course. At the end of July, the Indian giant posted Q1 results that reaffirmed the healthy state of the business; see Subex’s summary here. Following that, August has seen Subex make six positive news announcements in the space of just sixteen days. On the sales front, Subex told us that:

Regarding the last story, further research indicates that Mobinil’s old Fraud Management system was supplied by HP (see here). Two major multinational groups have a significant stake in Mobinil: France Telecom and Egypt’s Orascom. The loss of Mobinil will be a blow for HP whilst it potentially opens more doors for Subex.

I cannot remember ever seeing a similar vendor announce so many sales in such a short space of time. However, perhaps the most positive signal about Subex’s long-term future is the news they will receive an equity injection from the investment vehicle of an unnamed telecom operator; see the press release here. A maximum of 8 million shares will be issued. The agreed price of Rs. 80 per share represents a premium of roughly 45% to the current market. If all 8 million shares are issued, the value of the investment will be approximately USD 13.5 million at current exchange rates. The shares will be issued following AGM approval on September 13. Subash Menon, boss and founder of Subex said of the deal:

This investment from an entity that understands the telecom software sector well vindicates our stand on the bright future of the company. They were particularly impressed with our positioning and strategy around Revenue Operations Centre (ROC) and Managed Services. The fact that they are investing at a price that is significantly higher than the current market price establishes their confidence in the company.

Subex are enjoying an Indian summer. Now it is time for them to make hay, whilst the sun shines.

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26 08 2010

TEOCO Completes TTI Purchase‏

Posted by: Eric in M&A, News

US cost and revenue management vendor TEOCO has announced the completion of its acquisition of TTI Telecom, the Israeli service assurance firm . You can read the TEOCO press release here.

TEOCO made their formal bid for TTI in June. No new information was presented about the deal, implying the final deal was the same as the original offer. ‘Dead Cat’, a regular commentor on talkRA, pointed out the deal valued TTI Telecom at USD 27 million.

The logic behind the deal appears to be two-fold. First, quality of service increasingly underpins the quality of revenues, and this makes TTI a complementary play for TEOCO’s existing offerings. Second, TTI has customers in regions where TEOCO has yet to make a foothold. Cross-selling to TTI customers gives a potential platform for TEOCO to extend its reach outside of the American market.

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13 07 2010

AT&T Stop Metered Internet Trial

Posted by: Newsgopher in News

In Reno, Nevada and Beaumont, Texas, AT&T has run a trial to charge DSL customers $1 per every gigabyte they exceeded their plan’s usage cap. However, they recently announced that their cap and additional usage charges were no longer being implemented. This is the second trial of usage-based broadband charges in the US, and the second to be abandoned, leaving no ISPs pushing the idea of metered broadband services at this time. Time Warner Cable also ran a trial of capped and metered internet charging in Beaumont, but abandoned its plans to extend the trial to other cities after a strong backlash from campaigners and politicians.

You can read more about the story here and here.

The interesting thing about the trial is that AT&T dropped it back on April 1st, but without making any public announcement or even telling customers. This may indicate two things: that metering internet usage is unpopular in general, and that targeting extra charges at the ‘bandwidth hogs’ is not cost-effective. Why should people in revenue assurance care either way? Because the flatter charging is, the simpler it is, and the less likelihood of error. On recent evidence, customers are pushing harder than ever for simple flat-rate tariffs, especially where they are already accustomed to getting them. Simple unmetered tariffs will suit those who feel the first goal is to ensure accuracy and please customers by making it easy for them to understand what they pay for, but may not suit those in RA who secretly want complexity because that gives them more problems and issues to untangle and makes assurance harder to do.

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08 07 2010

WeDo Has Top Share of RA Market

Posted by: Eric in News

Portuguese RA vendor WeDo is reported to have a 25% share of the worldwide market for revenue assurance, making them market leaders. The claim was made by research business Stratecast, in their new Revenue Assurance and Cost Management Global CSP Sector Assessment. Stratecast calculated that the RA market was worth USD235 in 2009. You can read WeDo’s press release here and can obtain Stratecast’s report from here.

Susana Schwartz of Connected Planet speculates whether the reasons for WeDo’s success lie in the personalized customer service it gives, and in seeking to provide assurance over a much wider cross-section of business processes than their competitors. You can read her article here. As far as the business processes are concerned, Schwartz notes that:

WeDo works to align processes with that of the TM Forum’s larger business process framework, dubbed eTOM

Leverage of the TMF’s intellectual property makes sense. In other words, treat the eTOM as a checklist of business process and then build assurance of those processes around the checklist. Using the eTOM gives some solidity to the foundations of ‘business assurance’, the tagline that WeDo uses to explain how it pushes beyond the boundaries of revenue assurance.

The Stratecast report also says that the RA market is growing, and predicts a 22% CAGR. However, caution is needed; previous reports have also forecast rapid growth in the RA market. Had those projections been reliable, then the current market would be significantly bigger.

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07 07 2010

MoneyMap Deployment in North America

Posted by: Newsgopher in News, Sales

Israeli revenue assurance vendor cVidya has announced a new deployment of its MoneyMap software in a North American communication provider. You can read the press release here. Neither the name of the customer nor the size of the deal is mentioned, leaving it unclear if this is a new customer or an upgrade to an existing customer.

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06 07 2010

AT&T Aims to End 10-Year Billing Dispute

Posted by: Newsgopher in News

US communication provider AT&T has offered to settle a class action lawsuit over disputed billing by AT&T Mobility, a business which AT&T bought in 2004. The class action lawsuit covers charges that were not authorized or understood by customers, and claims that AT&T Mobility violated consumer protection laws. Disputed charges cover a variety of services, some of which date back to 1999. There were four types of contentious charges made: for data services; for international services; a ‘universal connectivity charge’; and for phone calls charged in a billing period after the call was made. However, after 10 years the settlement offered is relatively small: between USD7 and USD10 for each type of disputed service, so that if a customer was disputing all four types of charge they would receive a total of USD33 to drop their legal claim.

You can read about the story here and visit AT&T’s settlement website here.

After 10 years, I am sure AT&T would like to see an end to this dispute and avoid dragging this out in court. The business does not admit any wrongdoing, but whether it did wrong or not, the moral of the story is clear: if customers do not understand their bill or think the charges are unfair, they persist in pursuing and punishing their provider. 10 years is not a short time in the memory of a customer, even when the dispute is worth only 10 dollars. Of course, customers normally show their unhappiness by doing something less measurable but more damaging to the long-term prospects of the provider – by churning and never coming back.

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