Redknee

Redknee goes cloud globally with Microsoft and Tech Mahindra

Fri, 15 Jul 11 07:00:00 UT

The company's expanded relationship with Microsoft revolves around Redknee’s adoption of Microsoft's next-generation SQL Server product, 'Denali'

Redknee became the latest billing and OSS software provider to launch cloud-based products and strategic initiatives this week. The provider of real time billing, charging and policy management software announced that it has expanded its partnership with Microsoft and launched a channel relationship with Tech Mahindra. Redknee’s focus on its product innovation is evident in this three-way relationship.

Redknee’s partnership with Microsoft is not new (CP: Redknee acquisition ups ante for customer care, CRM), having integrated its real-time billing product with Microsoft Dynamic CRM back in February of 2010. The company’s expanded relationship with Microsoft revolves around Redknee’s adoption of Microsoft’s next-generation SQL Server product, known as ‘Denali’. This new version of SQL begins to shift Microsoft’s mainstay database product into cloud environments, introducing new features which, among other things, enable SQL databases to operate in hybrid local, private cloud, and public cloud environments and conduct data searches and analytics processes across them all.

Moving past the techno-speak; this announcement aligns Redknee with Microsoft’s revenue models. Ultimately, the best way for any Microsoft partner to work with the mother ship is to offer products that in turn help drive sales of Microsoft product licenses. By adopting Denali, Redknee effectively demonstrates an ability to “go cloud” with a solution that leverages all of Microsoft’s extensive solutions, toolsets, and developer communities. At the same time, Redknee is demonstrating some speed and flexibility (CP: Redknee Q&A: Taking MVNO and over-the-top models to the next level) as a development shop in bringing Microsoft a vertical-specific, value-added product to its suite that creates license sales for its new SQL offering. And of course, it does so in a vertical where Microsoft typically has played second fiddle to arch-rival Oracle.

Redknee’s new, global partnership with Tech Mahindra adds another vector to what is a three-way relationship including Microsoft. Tech Mahindra is already a major Microsoft partner in multiple arenas, including the Dynamic CRM portfolio; this portfolio also includes partners like Ericsson, Convergys, and MetraTech. A product-focused company like Redknee typically does not want to be mixed up in the complex business of systems integration, particularly deep in the innards of global CSPs. Incidentally, neither does Microsoft, though it generates some revenue from professional services around its products.

Tech Mahindra brings solution-delivery capability to the mix that both companies need. It is also a global sales channel, taking Redknee’s products – as well as Microsoft’s Comms Sector business unit - to parts of the world it might not otherwise go on its own as readily. Though it sports the massive Microsoft brand, Microsoft Comms Sector is not at the center of the Microsoft universe. The group has to work hard for its marketing dollars while competing with tough competitors like Amdocs, Oracle, and NetCracker. Redknee stands to benefit as a result because it is demonstrating the ability and agility to build carrier-class products on Microsoft technology, keeping itself aligned with the economics – and field sales compensation models – that drive Microsoft’s business and strategic relationships with companies like Tech Mahindra.

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Tech Mahindra signs Redknee partnership

Mon, 18 Jul 11 07:00:00 UT

Offerings from Redknee will now be available through Tech Mahindra to telecommunications and cloud service providers, which could broaden the Canadian company's customer base

One of the world’s biggest telecommunications systems integrators has signed up a Canadian maker of billing and operation support systems as one of its roster of solutions.

The move by Tech Mahindra of India to make Redknee Inc. of Mississauga, Ont., one of its technology partners means the software company has more oomph behind its marketing efforts, said CEO Lucus Skoczkowksi (pictured).

“Now we have the ability to commit to more projects (for existing customers) concurrently because we can leverage the Tech Mahindra service organization,” Skoczkowski said in an interview.

In addition, Redknee hopes to gain more customers through Tech Mahindra’s telecom customer base.

The move marks a big change for Redknee. Most of its business has been through direct sales. More than 90 operators in 50 countries – including Telus Communications Co. [TSX: T, T.A; NYSE: TU] here – use its products. Publicly-traded Redknee [TSX: RKN] had revenues of $48.9 million for the year ending Sept. 30, 2010. Skoczkowksi hopes the deal will grow the company big enough that within two years it will be listed on the Nasdaq exchange.

Redknee’s products, including Turnkey Converged Billing (which combines billing and customer care), Next Generation Rating and Charging (a real-time rating, charging, and policy management solution for mobile data services), Settlement and Customer Care (which consolidates customer data) are Java-based and run on Microsoft Windows, Sun Solaris and Linux.

When the company started 12 years ago it used an underlying platform based on Oracle Inc.’s database. However, several years ago it switched to Microsoft Windows and its SQL Server database, as well as the company’s Dynamics AX customer relationship management application.

Skoczkowski said that in addition to telecom service providers, Redknee is also targeting cloud service providers.

“As more customers want cloud capabilities we see that the Microsoft stack will become one of the most effective to make available,” he said.

According to Pritam Parvatkar, Tech Mahindra’s director of global alliances, that was one reason why the company chose Redknee. Tech Mahindra is a Microsoft partner and has a Dynamics centre of excellence in India, he said.

“This packaged combination (from Redknee) fantastic for our customers,” he said, particularly those that already use the Microsoft platform.

The deal is not exclusive – Tech Mahindra also partners with numerous other telecom software providers. But, he said, "We believe for certain types of requirements, Redknee’s billing system on top of the Microsoft platform will be a very good option for customers.”

As an integrator, Tech Mahindra looks at customer needs before recommending a solution, he said. But with the new partnership his company will be able to tell customers it specializes in Redknee and Microsoft solutions as well as others.

Signing with Tech Mahindra has not ended Redknee’s hunt for system integrators in this country and others. Although it already partners with Montreal-based CGI Group Inc. [TSX:GIB.A; NYSE:GIB] here, Skoczkowski said it is also seeking links to other integrators that do business with telecom service providers here.

A division of India’s giant Mahindra Group, last month Tech Mahindra opened a wireless lab in Toronto to increase its Canadian presence.

Read the online version here.

Removing the guesswork from price plans

Tue, 26 Jul 11 07:00:00 UT

The explosion in demand for data services has led to many well-documented consequences to the network and customer experience. It has also led to a revolution of pricing plans that sees service providers use them as a key way to differentiate rather than create price wars.

As we see a proliferation of new players to the market, increased pressure on margins, churn, and competition for high value customers, greater scrutiny is focused on how pricing plans are driving profitability for communication service providers.

Developing a profitable price plan now crosses multiple business units and is connected to myriad of internal demands.

Marketing is continuously designing new and more complex products while battling margin, product pricing and time to market pressures. Finance is under further pressure to contain margins, responding with demands for pre- and post-launch analysis of new services, in-depth analysis of margin per service, and trend analysis of usage and subscriber behavior per service offering. Large account sales teams are pushing to be able to attract new large customer accounts with value-driven price plans, and the Customer Care unit is desperate for better business intelligence data to develop anti-churn campaigns and offers.

All of those business units have become key stakeholders, each with specific needs and demands on how pricing plans are constructed. So how do pricing specialists balance the complex and sometimes contradictory requirements of all those stakeholders? To put it mildly, the success key performance indicators of a price plan have become increasingly complex to develop and evaluate.

To keep all those business units happy, pricing specialists need to provide solid answers to the following questions:

What is the expected adoption rate?

What is the profit margin?

How will it impact ARPU?

Will this reduce churn, and by how much?

Will it result in new subscriber add-ons?

What length of time should the promotion run?

Yet, for even the largest operators, it is a major struggle to perform a simple analysis on product lifecycle, profitability, or customer buying behavior. Today, many operators are still stymied by manual analysis, so when business units call for analysis on the macro and micro levels, it becomes almost impossible to deliver precise reports that take in all the dynamics in a timely manner.

As the dynamics of the industry change on a week-to-week basis, operators can no longer afford the months of labor-intensive ad hoc pricing scenarios that are needed. The analyses are costly and are also proving inaccurate due to small sample sizes and unreliable data.

So, while operators are desperate for the full picture of how their customers and competitors will respond to changes in price plans, they’re relying on too much guesswork to plug the gaps.

To get any meaningful answers to the core questions requires a new generation of integrated pricing simulation tools that enable service providers to launch new pricing plans and bundles with optimal forecasting precision of customer adoption, projected revenue and ARPU. With event-driven tools to calculate every possible new tariff structure and deliver fast and meaningful output to support and validate the entire decision making process from concept to operation, complex pricing scenarios and impact studies that once required weeks or months to perform can now can be completed in just a few minutes.

With business intelligence based on data analyzed through real-time pricing simulation tools, operators have a clearer understanding of their markets, identifying high-value customers, and the historical view that contributes towards precise forecasting.

To succeed in today’s market, profitability, revenue and margins need to be part of the discussion from the very beginning. Marketing teams will continue to build forecasts and revenue projections, but the systematic application of quality data is empowering them to improve the odds of making better decisions.

Redknee signs new U.S converged billing customer

Wed, 24 Aug 11 07:00:00 UT

Toronto – August 24, 2011 - Redknee (TSX:RKN), a leading provider of business-critical billing and charging software and solutions for communications service providers, is pleased to announce that a leading regional U.S. wireless operator has selected Redknee’s converged billing solution to replace its legacy solution in order to drive subscriber acquisition, increase revenues and improve profitability. This multi-million dollar deal reinforces Redknee’s successful growth strategy into the U.S. market, following the successful launch of its converged billing solution at Sprint MVNO, i-wireless, and significant solution upgrades and support agreements signed with its U.S.-based customers in fiscal year 2011.

Lucas Skoczkowski, Redknee’s CEO commented:

“We are extremely pleased to be selected by another mobile operator in North America. This is reflective of the growing number of services providers in Tier-1 markets looking to Redknee’s solutions to accelerate their growth and profitability. This opportunity reinforces Redknee’s position as the solution provider of choice for operators seeking to achieve the benefits of next generation real-time converged billing. At Redknee, we continue to invest in real-time monetization solutions to support the growth strategies of wireless, multi-service and cloud operators around the world.”

Leveraging Redknee’s market-leading Turnkey Converged Billing (TCB) will enable the operator to achieve the benefits of an end-to-end fully converged billing and customer care platform, including real-time unified billing, rating and charging for the operator’s data, voice and SMS services, advanced CRM capabilities, airtime reseller, self-care and VAS solutions. Redknee will enable the service provider to enhance its subscriber offering and end-user experience by offering real-time promotions, enhanced customer care and loyalty campaigns faster to the market. In addition, Redknee’s real-time converged billing and customer solution will enable the service provider to deliver advanced charging transparency, flexibility and self-care options to its customers. From activation and provisioning, to real-time rating, billing, invoicing, partner management, airtime reseller services, and full customer care capabilities, Redknee’s converged billing solution expertly addresses the needs of network operators throughout the world’s most competitive markets.

Telefónica Selects Redknee to Drive Greater Pricing Profitability

Tue, 06 Sep 11 07:00:00 UT

TORONTO – September 6, 2011 – Redknee (TSX:RKN), a leading provider of business-critical billing and charging software and solutions for communications service providers, is pleased to announce that Telefónica Spain is increasing its investment in Redknee’s pricing analysis and optimization solution. This increased investment will now enable Telefónica to have in-depth profit analysis and forecasting data for its residential and enterprise customers. Part of Telefónica Group, Telefónica is the largest operator in Spain and has more than 47 million subscribers.

Part of Redknee’s converged billing platform, Price Simulator integrates data from across billing, customer care, pricing and marketing to provide powerful analysis and forecasting. The data captured enables operators to model price elasticity, customer adoption and projected revenue of new pricing plans, promotions, loyalty campaigns and business models. Telefónica is increasing its use of Price Simulator to identify the best tariffs across its full customer base.

Lucas Skoczkowski, CEO at Redknee commented:

“Redknee is pleased to be driving further value across Telefónica’s business. The increasingly competitive environment that service providers are operating in today creates a greater impetus on maximizing profitability, driving new revenue streams and delivering a differentiated, valuable service to their customers. At Redknee, we are continuing our investment in solutions that serve the global wireless markets to support the success of our customers and the execution of our growth strategy.”

By utilizing the up-to-the-minute information in the operator’s network, Redknee is helping service providers make better informed decisions on promotions, pricing plans and marketing campaigns by using data analyzed through Redknee’s statistical tools. With Redknee, service providers have real-time intelligence on their markets and customers that helps them to model and track behavior profiles and migration patterns, contributes towards precise forecasting and enables the ability to evaluate campaign success and competiveness. Price Simulator works across all voice, data, fixed line, wireless and cable services to bring added accuracy and efficiency to any pricing program faster to the market. Redknee has worked with Tier 1 service providers across the globe, such as Orange, Mobinil, MTN and Telenor to help define and launch successful price plans through its technology and expertise.

Redknee Solutions Engages Liolios Group to Lead Investor Relations Program

Wed, 14 Sep 11 07:00:00 UT

Redknee Solutions Engages Liolios Group to Lead Investor Relations Program

TORONTO – September 14, 2011 – Redknee Solutions, Inc. (TSX: RKN), a leading provider of business-critical billing and charging software and solutions for communications service providers, has engaged Liolios Group to lead a new investor relations and financial communications campaign.

“Strong demand for our converged billing solutions from around the globe has resulted in four consecutive quarters of year-over-year revenue growth and a $41
million backlog,” said Lucas Skoczkowski, CEO of Redknee Solutions. “This has been supported by the explosive growth of mobile and IP data traffic driving network operators to turn to our uniquely flexible, customizable, real-time billing solutions.

“However, our growing success has been largely undiscovered by the U.S. investment community. Liolios Group was introduced to us as one of North America’s premier IR firms, with a proven track record of assisting emerging growth companies like ours in building quality, long-term relationships with analysts, money managers and investment institutions. We have engaged its team of IR professionals to help us navigate the capital markets and more effectively communicate our story, as we work toward a listing on a major U.S. exchange.”

In collaboration with Redknee's management team, Liolios Group will help develop, refine and deliver the company's message. Over the course of the next several months, Liolios Group will arrange one-on-one conference calls, road shows and financial conferences targeting key influencers in the investment community.

MVNO Industry Summit 2011

Tue, 08 Nov 11 08:00:00 UT

Capturing specific developments in the consolidated US telecoms space, the MVNO Industry Summit USA 2011 will bring together the main players across wholesale operators, specific connected devices advanced networks, industry service providers from energy, transport, health and home, device manufacturers and new Data MVNO players.

Redknee invites you to join us in Dallas, Texas for the MVNO Industry Summit USA!

Launch services quickly to the market, empower your customers with self-care tools, develop targeted campaigns, deliver flexible, tiered pricing plans to grow your data and multi-play offerings and bring greater communication and transparency to your customers with Redknee’s real-time converged monetization solutions.

If you would like to meet with Redknee and learn how we are helping operators to monetize and personalize their service offerings, fill out the form below or email us at marketing@redknee.com

TM Forum Management World Americas

Tue, 08 Nov 11 08:00:00 UT

TM Forum's Management World Americas 2011 is the only conference that takes you from cutting-edge new business models, all the way to the practical challenges surrounding the creation, delivery and monetization of successful services.

Redknee invites you to join us in Orlando, Florida for TM Forum Management World Americas!

Launch services quickly to the market, empower your customers with self-care tools, develop targeted campaigns, deliver flexible, tiered pricing plans to grow your data and multi-play offerings and bring greater communication and transparency to your customers with Redknee’s real-time converged monetization solutions.

Redknee Speaks Up!

Hear Lucas Skoczkowski, Redknee's CEO, along with Sprint MVNO i-wireless, present a case study on how converged billing and customer care empowers MVNOs to break free from their MVNE’s legacy systems, take control of their services, develop new revenue streams and host new business models.

Session Description: Analysts project that MVNOs will outnumber MNOs by 2013. This renaissance though is being impeded by the reliance of MVNOs on its MVNE for vital billing and customer care. By using cloud-based real-time converged systems, MVNOs can take ownership of their billing and customer care to launch new service offerings, real-time promotions and customer care, independently of its MVNE.

In addition, today’s billing platforms provide the flexibility and scalability for MVNOs to host billing and customer care for other MVNOs and become a MVNE in their own right. The business models are endless for service providers that have an end-to-end converged billing and customer care solution.

Africacom 2011

Wed, 09 Nov 11 08:00:00 UT

Africa is at a turning point. Its booming communications market is ready to fuel the continent's economic and social growth. Now is the time to embrace the opportunities in Digital Africa!

AfricaCom 2011 gives you the most innovative, visionary, entrepreneurial, creative perspectives on the continent's fast-moving telecoms, media and ICT ecosystem.

Redknee invites you to join us in Cape Town, South Africa for AfricaCOM 2011!

Launch services quickly to the market, empower your customers with self-care tools, develop targeted campaigns, deliver flexible, tiered pricing plans to grow your data and multi-play offerings and bring greater communication and transparency to your customers with Redknee’s real-time converged monetization solutions.

If you would like to meet with Redknee and learn how we are helping operators to monetize and personalize their service offerings, fill out the form below or email us at events@redknee.com