Notwithstanding dismal global financial situation MWC remained bustling as ever with software vendors, NEPs showcasing their latest glitzy gadgets, equipments and software offerings. However, it became pretty clear that there a few consistent themes which traversed across most network software vendor’s marketing messages. Listed below are some broader themes which I came across at MWC.

Focus on real-time transaction management: NGN architecture requirements and the need for prepaid and postpaid convergence are driving the need for billing and mediation platforms to provide a real-time charging and rating control mechanism for call detail records or charging data records (CDRs). Most BSS vendors be it Convergys, Amdocs, Oracle, Comverse, Orga Systems, Openet, Acision, LHS etc talked about their keen focus on providing software based IN capability which provide operator’s with a cheaper and flexible alternative in comparison to traditional NEP provided proprietary and expensive IN platform. For detailed analysis of this topic and vendor scorecard please see my Jan report ‘Thinking beyond flat rate and stove piped business models’

Unified catalog to streamline service offering: Most network software vendors understand the need for single and central view of subscribers, their provisioned services and their interactions with network resources as the only way to provide a customer-centric view of products and services. Centralized catalog continues to be an important component of next gen BSS, OSS offering. Vendors like Tribold, Convergys (Ceon assets), Amdocs etc all talked about their focus and approach towards unified catalog offering.

Enabling digital lifestyle: Adopting open access model for distribution and service delivery was an area of key strategic focus for most software vendors. ISVs talked about how they can enable service providers to introduce content partners, applications etc seamlessly in their value chain. Oracle talked about ways in which their SDP platform can be used by network operators to successfully implement third party services in a trusted manner in their eco-system using secured service oriented architecture. Software vendors like Pontis, Amdocs (Changing World) displayed advanced analytics capability which enabled content prioritization, targeted offering based on profile and subscriber behavior.

Policy management in context of NGN based services: Next-generation architectures promises to change the dynamics of bandwidth allocation and management. Rich media content, IPTV, video-on-demand (VoD), gaming and other next-generation services will impact IP network resources significantly. Success of next-generation architecture will be measured by seamless bandwidth management and guaranteed quality of service and pure play vendor like Bridgewater is successfully delivering this to many leading carrier’s globally. Specialist mediation vendors like Openet are also trying to position their policy management platform and provide a comprehensive policy based rating and charging story.

In order to help service providers during tougher economic time’s network software vendors are providing ammunition for them to differentiate, reduce opex and become more customer-centric. Hence not surprisingly most software vendors at the show focused their messaging around cost reduction and being able to provide cheaper options for differentiation.