Amdocs launched Amdocs 7, the first industry-specific software suite that allows service providers to offer their customers the benefits of access to any service, over any network, at any time and on any device, which is made possible by the move to next-generation networks and the convergence of voice, video, data, content, and entertainment. Results of a survey commissioned by Amdocs, indicate that providers expect big revenue jumps from such convergent services and plan to boost spending to deliver a superior customer experience.

With revenue from convergent services expected to grow more than 20 percent over the next two years, the modular Amdocs 7 suite will make it easier and more cost-effective for telecoms, broadband cable and satellite providers to launch these next-generation services, bundle them, offer incentive pricing to customers, capture and fulfill complex orders, assure quality and accuracy, and focus on the customer experience. The announcements were made here at a thought leadership forum hosted by Forbes magazine and Amdocs entitled, "Customer Experience Innovation: Ensuring leadership and profitability in an age of convergence."

For the first time in the industry, Amdocs 7 offers a single platform capable of supporting the complex requirements of traditional and next- generation video, voice and data services -- regardless of the access method, device, payment method, or the network over which the service is delivered, including IP Multi-media Subsystem or IMS.

"Convergence represents an enormous opportunity for service providers," said Michael Matthews, chief marketing officer of Amdocs. "However, to offer these new services, including services developed and delivered by partners, providers must make sizable investments in technology infrastructure. They must also transform the way they do business. The new Amdocs 7 has built-in capabilities to reduce the risk associated with evolution of business support and operations support systems - BSS and OSS. Combined with Amdocs' comprehensive services and deep industry expertise, this makes Amdocs the natural choice for service providers navigating this complex transformation."

"The ability of the consumer to get services through any channel, network or device drives the notion of convergence," said Elisabeth Rainge, director, Next-Generation OSS and Billing, IDC. "In this consumer-driven market, service providers' success is based on their ability to easily develop and deliver new services and bundled services, and their ability to place a great deal of emphasis on the consumers' experience of not only the next-generation services, but how the service provider interacts with them. Amdocs 7 brings to service providers a new set of capabilities to provide a superior customer experience and to profit from the move toward convergence."

The new Amdocs 7 suite, Amdocs Qpass Digital Commerce Solution and Amdocs Cramer OSS suite make up the comprehensive Amdocs portfolio. The portfolio spans the critical business processes service providers must transform as they move to convergence - these include customer-facing BSS, such as billing, CRM, self-service, settlements, and digital commerce management, and network-facing OSS, such as customer assurance, service fulfillment and inventory management.

The Amdocs 7 suite allows service providers to profit from a low-risk evolution to next-generation networks and convergent services, while dramatically lowering their cost of operations. The suite extends Amdocs integration and industry-specific functional leadership and debuts a number of unique innovations, including:

• Amdocs Foundation -- a powerful set of open frameworks for unified information, operation, integration, and application management across the suite, based on service-oriented architecture (SOA) principles and adhering to industry standards such as Enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM) and Shared Information/Data Model (TMF/SID). Among its components, Amdocs Foundation includes a common offer catalog across Amdocs CRM, billing and ordering products, a Customer Information Hub to provide a single view of the customer, and an Integration Framework to facilitate interoperability with third-party applications. These advancements help lower service providers' total cost of ownership while ensuring an improved customer experience and more relevant and profitable customer interactions.
• Amdocs Enterprise Product Catalog -- deployed as part of the Amdocs 7 suite or independently, this innovative new product enables centralized product lifecycle management by employing role-specific user interfaces and by applying Master Data Management (MDM) principles to readily link all enterprise systems involved in the creation of service offerings. Centralized management of this critical process lowers costs and speeds time to market for convergent and bundled offerings.
• Amdocs B/OSS Manager -- the core of the Amdocs integrated fulfillment and assurance platform, B/OSS Manager enables end-to-end visibility and process convergence across BSS and OSS. It offers a single integrated platform to manage critical customer-centric processes such as ordering and fulfillment.
• Customer Management Optimized for Convergence -- by creating connectors to third-party business intelligence and marketing automation platforms, Amdocs 7 delivers intelligence that providers can act upon, such as likelihood to churn or customer profitability across all interaction channels. In addition, by giving customers enhanced, multi- channel self-service capabilities, consumer and business customers can manage their own accounts, order new convergent services or content on demand, or request a credit -- via phone, Web, and now even digital interactive TV.
• Revenue Management for 'Any-Play' Services -- Amdocs 7 offers the industry's first comprehensive product set for convergent real-time service mediation, billing and settlements for mobile and fixed telecom, and cable and satellite providers, including multi-affiliate and intercontinental providers. This includes support for 'any-play' services, any charging method (pre-paid, post-paid and hybrid), any partner type (content, roaming and interconnect) and any customer type (residential, small business and enterprise).

Service Providers Anticipate Big Revenue Gains from Convergence, Amdocs Survey Finds

The results of the survey commissioned by Amdocs underscore the business imperative to profit from convergence:

• Revenue from new communications and content delivery technologies is expected to rise significantly over the next two years.
• Eight out of 10 service providers are forecasting revenue increases for Internet protocol (IP) based services, including voice over IP (VoIP) phone service, IPTV and video content.
• The average expected revenue increase is 35 percent in the next two years for VoIP, and 28 percent revenue growth for IPTV.
• Video content revenue is expected to rise 23 percent in that period.

The survey also found that service providers are investing heavily in the infrastructure to offer new types of services and to improve the customer's experience:

• Some 75 percent of service providers are forecasting a 33 percent increase in network infrastructure spending over the next two years. Investment in product development will rise at a similar rate.
• Two thirds of companies surveyed forecast an increase in spending on customer service enhancement initiatives, with an average increase of 31 percent.
• When asked their opinion about specific business priorities, 72 percent of respondents agreed strongly that customers are demanding a seamless experience for all products and services.

Survey respondents included 200 decision makers from Tier 1 and Tier 2 telecommunications, broadband cable and satellite companies and mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. Amdocs commissioned Frost & Sullivan to conduct the survey.