Ericsson (Nasdaq: ERIC) on Tuesday added another piece to its Operational Service Systems/Business Support System (OSS/BSS) portfolio by reaching an agreement to purchase Toronto-based ConceptWave for an undisclosed amount.
Through the all-cash transaction, Ericsson will add order management and product catalog capabilities to its growing OSS/BSS solution set.
With Order Management, a service provider can handle its fulfillment flows by scheduling and or orchestrating tasks, materials and activities. For example, a telco that has an order for business grade Ethernet that requires both software and hardware orders could synchronize all parts of the order process to ensure the customer can have their service up and running on one service date.
The Product Catalog is a system that would define all of the necessary components of a particular product like IPTV, including price, rules and interdependency with other products like broadband data and voice. Other OSS/BSS systems in a service provider's back office can use the catalogue's specifications to develop product bundles, campaign packaging, and revenue management.
Besides enhancing its order management and product catalog capabilities, Ericsson also gets ConceptWave's four-region customer base, including North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.
"Given ConceptWave's close relationship with Telcordia over the past several years makes this a good buy for Ericsson – it really tightens up its order-to-cash offering and creates a better competitor against Amdocs, Oracle, etc," said Shira Levine, Directing Analyst, Service Enablement and Subscriber Intelligence for Infonetics in an e-mail to FierceTelecom.
Enhancing its OSS/BSS portfolio has been a major priority for Ericsson, as seen with its $1.15 billion acquisition of Telcordia in June 2011. The vendor immediately became the second largest vendor worldwide in Gartner's 2011 worldwide ranking for operation and business support systems (OSS/BSS) and next generation service delivery platforms.
But it appears that Ericsson is not done building its OSS/BSS portfolio. Rumors have emerged that the Swedish telecom vendor is interested in purchasing Nokia Siemens Networks' (NSN) BSS unit.
For more:
- see the release
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*Added a quote to article from Shira Levine at Infonetics.