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Frens Jan Rumph
Profile: I am a researcher, technical consultant and software engineer based in Holland. I have specialized in Charging, Accounting and Billing architectures. From both a technical point of view (IETF, 3GPP, etc) and a business point of view (TM Forum, GBA).
Main interests: Telecom, Charging, Accounting, Billing, Service Orientation, Software Architectures, Software Engineering
Disclaimer: All data and information provided on this site is for informational purposes only.
I do not make any representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.
Furthermore, this is a personal weblog, the opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer.
Orga Systems Convergence Program announced
Orga Systems, a vendor of convergent real-time billing products, has announced the launch of the Orga Systems Convergence Program, described by company officials as a “one-stop shop” for telecom billing and CRM processes.
It comprises a product portfolio by Orga Systems and selected partners, offering what the Organians call “an end-to-end product,” with “professional services for consulting, product design and software integration” included in the package.
“With our one-stop-shop product we offer telecommunication providers the possibility of covering all areas of the billing chain with us as a central partner,” said Rainer Neumann, CEO, Orga Systems GmbH.
“Pre-integrated for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is Selligent’s product,” Orga officials say, adding that “all requirements of bill handling are covered by Group 1 Software. Business Objects takes care of the reporting requirements. WeDo technologies complements the concept in regards to TAP roaming, and Basset Labs completes the product package with interconnect billing. Additional partners will follow soon.”
A couple weeks ago Orga Systems chose CRM specialist Selligent as a preferred partner for its product portfolio. By expanding its flagship billing system OPSC Gold with a fully-fledged CRM product, Orga Systems hopes to approach telecom operators with an integrated offer covering marketing, sales, billing and customer service needs.
Selligent X@ CRM suite will be integrated into OPSC Gold to cover billing and CRM. Basically, it looks like this partnership agreement is a way for Orga Systems to become a one-stop shop vendor for telecom operators.OPSC Gold allows convergent prepaid and postpaid charging. With this product, operators can launch pricing plans with flexible payment options while maintaining real-time credit control.In the CRM business for over 15 years, Selligent has developed IT and communication products. Selligent emphasizes “rapid implementation” and “high level of user adoption” when pitching its CRM system. “Telecom operators need to maintain first-class relationships with their customers, provide optimal service quality, quickly respond to all customer enquiries and launch marketing campaigns in a very short time in order to achieve a competitive advantage and to guarantee high customer satisfaction,” says André Lejeune, CEO of Selligent.
Frens
GSMA Announces Best Billing and Customer Care Solution Award
GSMA Announces Best Billing and Customer Care Solution Award: Bharti Airtel: mChek on Airtel – Mobile Payments Service
Instantaneous Anytime Anywhere Convenience of Mobile Bill Payments & Prepaid Recharge – from the convenience of ANY mobile phone (even a ultra low cost handset can be used) or ANY web page (see example on www.mchek.com).This patent-pending solution allows customers to register credit cards, debit cards or bank accounts and link them to their mobile phone with a user-created 6-digit PIN. Users can pay their post-paid bills, prepaid recharge, or pay on behalf of others by sending a simple SMS and entering their PIN over a USSD session. This is a first of its kind service in the world.
Judges’ comments: “For all those who thought mobile commerce was a pipe dream, mChek on Airtel, has just shown the way to do it. The cashless society is here and it’s gone mobile.”
Source: http://www.globalmobileawards.com/winners.shtml
Frens
Fokus OpenIMS @ theimslantern
Quite some time ago I read a post at The IMS Lantern, which caught my eye: A Contribution from the Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS. It describes the OpenIMS core and OpenIMS playground from FOKUS. This was reason enough to try it at home :). It took some time to get round to this, but I’ve managed to get it up and running. I will provide some more details in my next post.
The article at The IMS Lantern (a great blog by the way):
Here is a first external contribution coming from the renowned Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS in Berlin. You will also find the main links featured in this post on the right side of the main page.
Here are excerpts from the email I received from Peter Weik:
My name is Peter Weik and I am working with the Fraunhofer Institute FOKUS in Berlin, Germany, an independent R&D organization for applied research in the telecommunications space. We have here been developing with own IMS prototypes and commercial IMS components now for several years in the context of the FOKUS Open IMS Playground (www.open-ims.org) in a true multi-vendor environment (www.open-ims.org/partner) for showing not only IMS interoperability (long before the first IMS interop events popped up) but also concepts around it (like e.g. application development or benchmarking of IMS components).
As you were asking in the latest post for links on what could be done, that exploit what IMS and SIP can offer to deliver innovative services I had to take on that opportunity as one of the lead developers of an open source project 
Well, you could spread the word even more via a blogpost that there is a free open source solution out there that has already enabled many IMS testbeds and developers: the Open IMS Core (www.openimscore.org).
The Open IMS Core is an implementation of IMS Call Session Control Functions (CSCFs) and a lightweight Home Subscriber Server (HSS), which together form the core elements of all IMS/NGN architectures as specified today within 3GPP, 3GPP2, ETSI TISPAN and the PacketCable initiative. The four components are all based upon open source software(e.g. the SIP Express Router (SER) or MySQL) and are available under the GPLv2. (You may know the project since it is also in the The March 2007 special issue of the IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine on IMS, just three articles further onwards.) The whole idea behind the project is to enable IMS developments and to help an industry to adopt IMS concepts - all of it without huge investments necessary.
Besides sparking the development of two also freely available IMS clients (the IMS Communicator and the UCT IMS Client), it has also enabled some industry players, universities and R&D departments (see www.openimscore.org/quotes) and is used in current IMS interop events (e.g. at University of New Hampshire, http://www.iol.unh.edu/services/testing/voip/equipment.php#IMS).
But of course we are also looking at own application prototype developments as part of our recently started Open SOA Telco Playground (www.opensoaplayground.org). What is possible with IMS was shown at our last IMS workshop in November 2007 with the IMS Community Mashup with Facebook (http://youtube.com/watch?v=b1OwDD6cyBY).
Frens
Billing and Customer related exhibitions at WMC 2008
Billing and Customer solution related exhibitions at World Mobile Congress 2008 (3GSM) make up 7.1% of the number of stands!
Most notable:
- ACE*COMM
- Amdocs
- CBOSS
- Cerillion Technologies Ltd
- Comarch
- Comptel Corporation
- Comverse
- Convergys
- Highdeal
- Intec
- LHS
- Martin Dawes Systems
- Nexus Telecom AG
- Orga Systems GmbH
- TM Forum
- Ushacomm
There are 92 stands in total related to Billing and Customer management.
Frens
Billing and Customer Solution award WMC 2008 - The nominees
The GSMA will present an award for Best Billing and Customer Solution tonight at the GSM Global Mobile Awards Dinner 2008, which is held at Tuesday 12th February 2008.
And the nominees are:
- Bharti Airtel (India): mChek on Airtel – Mobile Payments Service
- CTI Group (UK/USA): Bill Management Suite – Dynamic Reports
- IDEA Cellular (India): Bill on Demand
- IDEA Cellular (India): Recall
- True Move Company (Thailand): Public Phone Top Up
GSMA is a global trade association representing more than 700 GSM mobile phone operators across 218 countries and territories of the world. In addition, more than 200 manufacturers and suppliers support the Association’s initiatives as key partners. The primary goals of the GSMA are to ensure mobile phones and wireless services work globally and are easily accessible, enhancing their value to individual customers and national economies, while creating new business opportunities for operators and their suppliers. The Association’s members serve more than 2.5 billion customers – 85 per cent of the world’s mobile phone users.
Frens