Customer experience management (CEM) and mobile network optimization have been two of the biggest carrier buzz-phrases this year, and Amdocs has managed to address both with its latest acquisition, of network analytics firm Actix.
A string of such purchases has enabled Amdocs to reposition itself, broadening its reach from its heartland in billing and OSS/BSS, to embrace CEM and the increasing convergence between network and IT functionality in the carrier back office.
The latest buy, for $120m in cash, brings a company with a strong reputation for harnessing geolocation data to improve customer experience and to optimize the network. The twin objectives of using overstretched network capacity efficiently, and keeping customers happy and loyal, are vital to the mobile broadband business case as data volumes rise.
This involves bringing together information, often in real time, from the network itself (connection quality, faults and so on) and also from IT systems such as customer records. When this is related to a user’s location, quality of service and applications can be monitored and improved on an individual basis. This is where Actix, with its particular focus on precise geolocation, fits well into the growing Amdocs portfolio.
The company tracks how individual cell sites are performing in real time, feeding back to its self-organizing network tools, and allowing carriers to determine where to add capacity, which services are performing well, and even when to respond in real time to a particular customer problem. By pushing its data into Amdocs’ policy and OSS/BSS tools, it will take its new parent a step further towards a fully integrated CEM platform. The acquirer said in its statement that the deal ‘expands Amdocs’ customer experience portfolio further into the network domain to manage customer experience across both networks and IT’, allowing it to offer ‘network optimization based on a holistic view of the customer experience across all networks, BSS and OSS.’
‘Service providers will be able to differentiate the customer experience and achieve cost efficiencies with improved automation and optimization of their existing networks, as well as when rolling out new network technologies, such as LTE and small cells,’ said Amdocs CEO Bill McHale.
Most of the big back office and network management players are investing in optimization, creating a good market for specialist suppliers. JDS Uniphase bought Arieso, also heavily location oriented, in March for $85m; and Cisco paid a huge $475m for two-year old Intucell in January. Also in recent times, Ericsson has acquired Optimi and Citrix Bytembile.
Amdocs will also get a well established customer base with Actix, which has been in the RAN analytics business since it was founded in 1991 and claims over 60 deployments for its ActixOne platform.