Amdocs Participates in Industry Showcase for a Seamless and Profitable IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Service Lifecycle
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Company demonstrates vendor interoperability of Amdocs IMS Charging solution as part of a TM Forum's Catalyst Project; Amdocs IMS Charging solution interoperates with HP's IMS Applications Evaluation Environment for charging and billing flexibility
DALLAS, Nov. 5 -- Amdocs (NYSE:DOX), the leading provider of customer experience systems, today announced that it will demonstrate its convergent IMS charging solution as part of TM Forum's Seamless OSS/BSS for IMS Services Catalyst Project. The demonstration will showcase Amdocs' role in aligning next generation business and operations support systems (BSS and OSS) with IMS-based offerings. Additionally, Amdocs will jointly demonstrate with HP an IMS interoperability reference model to enable a new level of charging and billing flexibility. Both demonstrations will be showcased at Management World Dallas 2007 taking place this week.
The Catalyst Project
The Seamless OSS/BSS for IMS Services Catalyst Project was sponsored by China Unicom and Chunghwa Telecom with the objective of providing a unique industry reference model to enable service providers to transform IMS-based technology into business value. China Unicom is a multi-play service provider supporting more than 140 million wireless subscribers in China and the third largest mobile operator in the world. Chunghwa Telecom is the largest multi- play provider in Taiwan with more than 20 million subscribers. These service providers are committed to delivering the superior customer experience associated with ubiquitous, network- and device-agnostic access to blended voice-data-content services that is enabled by a common IMS architecture. Both China Unicom and Chunghwa Telecom will roll out IMS platforms to centralize support for their entire scope of offerings, including new IMS- based services as well as legacy voice and data services.
The current Catalyst Project will present the lifecycle of an IMS-based video-telephony service offered across a range of devices, including Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phones and laptops. It will present a unique industry reference model for seamless support for IMS offerings in a multi- vendor systems environment, including Microsoft's Connected Services Framework as part Chunghwa Telecom's One Stop Service Manager for service activation, ZTE's IMS-based multi-network convergence solution for session control, and the Amdocs IMS Charging solution for converged charging and mediation.
"Having tested the fundamental functions of IMS network elements over the past year, it is clear to us that next generation OSS and BSS are crucial for monetizing IMS services," said Zhang Zhijiang, general manager, Technology Department, China Unicom. "This IMS Catalyst Project is valuable in adding industry insight around the creation of an OSS/BSS environment that is in line with the TM Forum New Generation Operations Systems and Software -- or NGOSS -- framework and evolving interfaces standards such as 3GPP."
"When we complete the rollout of our IMS platform, we will be able to offer new services more rapidly and at a lower cost," said Lu Shyue-ching, president of Chunghwa Telecom. "This will help us establish a competitive edge for our future growth into emerging markets."
Amdocs Works with HP to Present New Level of Charging and Billing Flexibility for IMS Offerings
Amdocs will demonstrate, with HP, next generation IMS charging for IMS- based rich media file sharing. In addition, the model will showcase how the interactive dialogue between the Amdocs IMS Charging solution and HP's IMS Applications Evaluation Environment simplifies the extraction of key billing and real-time rating variables from an IMS end-user transaction through simple-to-use GUI (Graphical User Interface) screens. This simplification results in a new level of charging and billing flexibility that can help providers ensure they maximize the revenue potential of an IMS session.
"The common perception is that IMS mainly affects the service provider's network domain," said Charles Born, vice president of corporate communications, Amdocs. "However, as providers race to implement IMS architectures and deliver more sophisticated offerings, they face questions of profitability, pricing and return on invested capital. These types of questions are addressed by BSS systems, and more specifically -- by providers' charging systems. In many cases, legacy BSS systems aren't equipped to handle the speed and service complexity associated with IMS and next-generation charging capabilities become essential."
The Amdocs IMS Charging solution is a truly convergent charging environment spanning all types of service, payment methods and lines of business. The solution speeds time to market for new IMS services and allows service providers to evolve their IMS platform with a modular approach to support their entire scope of services, and prevent the creation of an IMS silo. The Amdocs IMS Charging solution enables creative rating, customer segmentation and personalized service offerings, and allows for sophisticated charging and clear customer charge advice. It also incorporates a robust product catalog and is strictly compliant with IMS 3GPP standards.
About the TM Forum's Catalyst Program
The TM Forum's Catalyst program is the industry's BSS/OSS proving ground -- enabling service providers, system integrators, and hardware/software vendors to work together to solve common, critical industry challenges. The program provides an opportunity for multi-company, multi-national teams to work together in a collaborative environment with emerging technologies and capabilities to solve some of the most pressing operational and interoperability issues. And, as in the past, the Catalyst program continues to directly support the NGOSS program by implementing many of the NGOSS concepts and principles. Catalyst project results are demonstrated live at Management World events.
About Amdocs
Amdocs is the market leader in customer experience systems innovation, enabling world-leading service providers to deliver an integrated, innovative and the intentional customer experience -- at every point of service. Amdocs provides solutions that deliver customer experience excellence, combining the software, service and expertise to help our customers execute their strategies and achieve service, operational & financial excellence. A global company with revenue of $2.84 billion in fiscal 2007, Amdocs has over 16,000 employees and serves customers in more than 50 countries around the world. For more information, visit Amdocs at www.amdocs.com.
Media Contact:
Smita Rode
Weber Shandwick for Amdocs
Tel: 212-445-8226
E-Mail: srode@webershandwick.com
FCMN Contact: mricci@webershandwick.com
Source: Amdocs
CONTACT: Smita Rode of Weber Shandwick
+1-212-445-8226
srode@webershandwick.com, for Amdocs
Web site: www.amdocs.com/
