The Red Herring editorial team selects from the most innovative companies across Europe. Nominees are evaluated on quantitative and qualitative areas such as financial performance, technology innovation, quality of management and execution of strategy. Nominee companies that rise to the top and reach the top 100 during this rigorous process are widely viewed as leading sources of serious business opportunities.

“This year was very rewarding,” said Alex Vieux, publisher and CEO of Red Herring. “The global economic situation has abated and there are many great companies producing really innovative and amazing products. DigitalRoute shows great promise and we know that the 2012 crop will grow into some amazing companies that are sure to make an impact.”

DigitalRoute delivers market-leading mediation and integration solutions to the global telecommunications and data communications industry. Its technology for mediation, data integration and policy control is deployed by 240 customers worldwide including companies such as KT, TELUS and Swisscom.

“It is validating to be selected for this year’s Red Herring award and listed in the top 100, along with such a large group of innovators across Europe,” said Jan Karlsson, chief executive officer of DigitalRoute. “In an age when the widely recognized data explosion can be either crippling or a massive opportunity, DigitalRoute’s customers are positioned well to exploit the advantages that big data holds.”

About DigitalRoute

DigitalRoute^® is an independent software vendor delivering market-leading mediation and integration solutions to the global telecommunications and data communications industry. DigitalRoute simplifies service providers’ data infrastructure, centralizing integration of IT and communication networks. DigitalRoute technology for mediation, data integration and policy control is deployed by 240 customers worldwide. For more information visit www.digitalroute.com.

For more information, please contact:
Digital Route AB
Keith Brody, Director of Global Marketing
Email: keith.brody@digitalroute.com
Skeppsbron 34 | SE-111 30 Stockholm | Phone: +44 (0)790 024 5994

Press contact
Erin Rohr
Metis Communications
Email: erin.rohr@metiscomm.com
121 E. Berkeley | Boston, MA | Phone: 617-236-0500

]]> http://www.digitalroute.com/digitalroute-listed-2012-red-herring-top-100-europe-2/feed/ 0 http://www.digitalroute.com/logica-sap-software-ag-digitalroute-customer-care-billing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=logica-sap-software-ag-digitalroute-customer-care-billing http://www.digitalroute.com/logica-sap-software-ag-digitalroute-customer-care-billing/#comments Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:58:38 +0000 Joakim Sahlgren http://www.digitalroute.com/?p=1920 Continue reading →]]> MDB system launched to simplify billing and meet demands for pay-per-use and agile tariff changes

Logica, in cooperation with SAP AG, Software AG and DigitalRoute, today launched a Mass Data Billing (MDB) system that enables organisations to increase revenue while dramatically reducing their total cost of doing business by deploying a usage-based billing approach.

The MDB system is available via a multi-tenant, software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, through which users access the system remotely over the internet. It aims to solve the many unique billing and compensation challenges – such as issues related to mass data collection, transactional volumes and varying tariffs – faced by customers in industries including telecommunications, utilities, transportation and logistics.

The agile MDB system removes the need for multiple billing systems while delivering the flexibility necessary for organisations to develop new revenue streams without incurring painful overhauls to legacy IT landscapes. Instead of paying upfront for the software and then incurring incremental support fees, buyers will pay a subscription fee to access the system. It can be deployed as a standalone system or integrated with other back-office applications. The MDB system will also have the capability to rate and bill many more events than traditional systems. As a consequence, it can be used to help customers create a much more agile, flexible and client-oriented billing structure.

“Billing is a hot topic. We see many clients looking to consolidate platforms, reduce costs including revenue leakage and to align their costs with their revenues,” said Andrew De Cleyn, outsourcing global strategy director at Logica. “In addition, businesses wish to re-purpose their billing systems to provide agility in the market place, launch new products and give their customers consolidated invoicing around the multiple products they wish to bring to market.”

Logica has many years of experience in building, integrating and operating systems for the transportation, logistics, telecommunications and utilities industries, and the MDB system has been designed to meet the need for new models that are changing the face of billing. For example, it could be used alongside smart meters in the utilities industry, in smart ticketing and toll-road charging in the transportation, or postal/logistics pricing and delivery.

Logica has integrated solutions from SAP, Software AG and DigitalRoute with its MDB system to create packages optimised for different industry sectors.

DigitalRoute’s MediationZone reduces the integration points required to manage usage data on networks with a configurable workflow that lets users quickly and visually change business processes, for example to cope with rapidly increasing data usage volumes as well as better understanding of activity on the network.

“MediationZone has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to reduce the overall load on and efficiency of Business Support Systems,” said Arnaud Lassalle, Chief Marketing Officer at DigitalRoute. “We are delighted to join the MDB partnership and contribute our market-leading mediation technology to a comprehensive solution that will deliver considerable experience and benefits to end users across vertical industries.”

The SAP^® Convergent Charging application, the SAP Convergent Invoicing package and the SAP Customer Financial Management package, part of the consume-to-cash business processes in SAP software, help users streamline complex rating and billing processes; efficiently manage accounting, payments and collections; and optimize financial customer care for high volumes of customers and transactions.

“Teaming up with SAP, Logica and its partners Software AG and DigitalRoute will bring together a wealth of experience and expertise in this field, which customers can leverage for competitive advantage,” said Luis Murguia, senior vice president, Ecosystem & Channels, SAP EMEA. “This cooperation underscores the value of SAP’s ecosystem strategy, which delivers game-changing co-innovation to customers.”

Software AG’s webMethods suite provides MDB’s integration and service management layer, allowing clients to tie the system closely to their unique processes and monitor high-volume activities.

“MDB is a key project with a cloud-based solution,” said Kamyar Niroumand, Chief Operating Officer of the DACH region at Software AG. “We are very happy that we could bring this solution to the market together with Logica as a strategic partner, as well as with SAP.”

TELUS set out to replace its existing mediation platforms in order to reduce costs for processing usage data across the company’s multiple business support systems (BSS). DigitalRoute was selected after a thorough evaluation of the available mediation technologies on the market.

MediationZone is now in live operation at TELUS, providing an integration layer between the mobile core network and the BSS. The deployment is one of the first steps in a comprehensive replacement program. TELUS is now looking to further enhance cost performance by expanding the use of MediationZone to replace its other mediation systems over time.

“MediationZone has reduced our total cost of ownership for mediation, and it also provides the ability to reduce the overall load on our business support systems,” said James Ritchie, vice-president of consumer development and support at TELUS. “With its implementation, we are able to efficiently meet our expanding mediation needs, the result of continuous growth in mobile data.”

“We are extremely pleased to work with TELUS and look forward to supporting the next steps in the mediation replacement program,” said Jan Karlsson, CEO at DigitalRoute. “DigitalRoute is established in the market for providing the most sophisticated and cost-efficient mediation technology. Our pure focus on mediation and our commitment to our customers has earned us the trust of the world’s leading service providers.”

Stratecast’s evaluation criteria for the award included “Uniqueness of Strategy”, “Improves Market Position” and “Leverages Competitive Intelligence”. DigitalRoute emerged with the highest ranking among the evaluated vendors.

Founded in 2000, DigitalRoute has evolved from a pure-play billing mediation supplier to a real-time data collection, aggregation, and correlation provider for any group of business functions. DigitalRoute refers to this approach as “Horizontal Mediation”.

Together with partner solutions, MediationZone from DigitalRoute has been deployed by 240 communication service providers (CSPs) around the world. Its revenue has grown sharply, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 25% between 2007 and 2010, during a global recession.

According to Stratecast’s research, DigitalRoute is one of very few companies in the mediation space, or any other part of the end-to-end CSP billing space, to effectively utilize an OEM partner strategy. Stratecast also highlights the fact that DigitalRoute has focused on mediation since its inception and even its recent expansion into policy control is built around its strength in mediation. This strategy is a key ingredient in the innovation process at DigitalRoute, as according to Stratecast’s research it results in “deeper insight into the longer-term needs of the marketplace from direct interaction not only through its customers but also from its OEM partners.”

“Our conclusion is that DigitalRoute’s competitive strategy is absolutely unique among mediation vendors and it has allowed the company to grow faster than the competition,” said Karl Whitelock, director OSS BSS strategy at Stratecast.

“We are delighted to receive this prestigious award in recognition of the impact that we are making on the industry. Our focus on technical innovation and go-to-market strategy is the base for a global eco system of service providers, vendors and system integrators that benefits not just DigitalRoute but customers and partners alike,” said Jan Karlsson, CEO at DigitalRoute.

Karlsson continued, “DigitalRoute will continue to grow as we expand into new areas with maintained focus on mediation. Big Data, Policy and Usage Management, M2M Connectivity Services and Service Assurance are just a handful of examples where our technology will play an important role in the years to come.”

The report 2011 Stratecast Global Competitive Strategy Innovation, Global CSP Billing – Mediation is available for download here.

DigitalRoute added more than 40 service providers to its list of more than 240 MediationZone customers during 2011. These include Tier-1 service providers in the USA and Europe that went into live operation with MediationZone within 6 months after project start. As a result of the recent success DigitalRoute has accelerated its revenue growth in 2011, achieving 59% year-over-year growth while also increasing profitability.

DigitalRoute has seen its revenue grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 50% since 2002. DigitalRoute’s unique go-to-market strategy has resulted in a large number of successful partnerships with leading vendors, network equipment providers, system integrators and a loyal customer base among the world’s leading communication service providers.

In response to the growing demand for DigitalRoute solutions, the company has continued to strengthen its regional presence in the Americas, Asia and Middle-East through new and expanded regional offices in Atlanta, Singapore and Dubai.

“The telecommunications industry is going through far-reaching changes that have a massive impact on service providers’ data centers. We provide solutions that help our customers to simplify the data infrastructure and adapt to new business requirements,” said Jan Karlsson, CEO at DigitalRoute.

Karlsson continued, “DigitalRoute’s value proposition is not just for telecommunications. In many industries, including finance, utilities and transport and logistics, there is a need for the type of Horizontal Mediation layer that only DigitalRoute can provide”

MediationZone was selected to replace existing mediation solutions after a careful evaluation including a successful proof-of-concept.

“MediationZone stood out as the best technical solution and it received particularly high scores in the areas related to flexibility, usability and processing performance,” said Paulo Pereira, Manager of IT Architecture & Strategy at Vodafone Portugal.

The recent deployment is the first part of a five-phase program at Vodafone Portugal to create a unified mediation layer based on MediationZone. The new solution will speed up the introduction of new services.

Commenting on the progress of the program, Paulo Pereira said: “We are pleased with the swiftness and quality of the solution delivery as well as the successful competence transfer. The cooperation between DigitalRoute, Vodafone Portugal and our outsourced operations, maintenance and development teams has worked perfectly.”

MediationZone will have a strategically important role in the IT architecture of Vodafone Portugal as it provides the capability to take full advantage of the usage data in the network while streamlining the data infrastructure.

“We have already enabled new a new set of innovative services with this first phase of our mediation program. One example is a new capability to provide real-time spending control to postpaid subscriptions,” added Carlos Fernandes, Project Manager at Vodafone Portugal.

DigitalRoute has recently won contracts with several of the leading operator groups in Europe. Together with its partners, DigitalRoute has deployed MediationZone for more than 100 communication service providers in the region.

“The world’s leading CSP’s and CSP Groups are running our software. We attribute this success on the global market to our focus on bringing the best mediation technology as well as our partner friendly strategy,” said Jan Karlsson, CEO at DigitalRoute.

Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC), the country’s sole wireless provider is targeting to roll out its 4G network during 2011, enabling 20 to 30 times faster data speeds compared to what is available today.

For major communication service providers in the world, massive volumes of usage records are processed every day in order run mission critical applications. Mediation reduces the number of point integrations and provides the functions to efficiently manage usage data before it reaches the business support systems.

With the rapid uptake of mobile data services driven by new network technologies, mediation is an essential component in the service providers’ business operations.

“The planned introduction of 4G, enabling high speed mobile broadband for all our subscriber and visitors makes a flexible and high performance mediation solution such as MediationZone a necessity”, said Marlon Johnson VP Marketing at BTC.

“I think Digital Route is well positioned to meet our mediation needs and our partnership to date has been great. We are very impressed by the rich set of off-the shelf functionality that MediationZone can provide”, added Sheldon Mundle CIO at BTC.

DigitalRoute has enjoyed a strong business momentum in North America during 2010 and 2011, where it has selected by some of the leading service providers to replace legacy mediation and data integration systems.

“We value the opportunity to work with BTC and it fits perfectly with our plans for continued strengthening of our presence in the region”, said Stephen Rickaby General Manager at DigitalRoute Americas.

Dagens Industri, awards the Diploma Di Gasell (Gazelle) every year to companies in Sweden that fulfill the newspapers’ criteria of yearly increase in revenue and profitability. The award selection is based on annual reports data provided by the Swedish Companies Registration Office.

The criteria for the award include consistent, organic and profitable growth from 2007 to 2010. DigitalRoute achieved a 115% revenue increase in this period.

DigitalRoute continues on its success trajectory in 2011, adding 40 new customers around the world for its MediationZone product. License revenues for the first half of the fiscal year increased by more than 50% compared to the first half of 2010.

“We haven’t yet closed the books for 2011 but it is clear that our growth is accelerating in parallel with an increased market share”, said Jan Karlsson, CEO at DigitalRoute.

DigitalRoute^®, a leader in mediation software for service providers, announced today that the latest release of its flagship MediationZone^® platform now incorporates advanced unified Usage Management capabilities to count usage and trigger events towards external systems.

For communications service providers, the ability to manage usage data is becoming increasingly important to enforce usage policies, maximize their revenues, as well as meet customer expectations of accurate and timely information about their data consumption.

“As the frequency at which low-value usage events must be captured from the networks increases, propagating data volumes in downstream systems becomes a challenge. For this reason, duplication of Usage Management processes is bound to be untenable for service providers that are looking to simplify their data infrastructure,” said Thomas Vasen, Product Manager at DigitalRoute.

“Reducing cost and the need to achieve consistent and accurate usage counting across a range of applications beyond billing are some of the reasons why a unified solution is needed.”

A recent survey conducted by DigitalRoute also indicates that flexibility in meeting new business requirements is one of the primary challenges for service providers when implementing Usage Management.

With MediationZone 5.1 FR3, DigitalRoute offers service providers a solution that serves any business process while enabling a smooth transition towards a new revenue management environment optimized for personalized tiered bundles rather than rating of individual events. The latest release features new Usage Management capabilities that enable counting of individual usage, rule-based triggering of user-alerts, service limiting actions, and transfer of consolidated billing data.

DigitalRoute’s white paper on effective Usage Management is available for download at http://www.digitalroute.com/solutions/usage-management/.

U.S. service providers have agreed to follow the guidelines to prevent bill shock among consumers of wireless services. The steps to be taken include the sending of notifications to users when they reach monthly plan limits for voice, data, and text that would result in overage charges. Service providers must also provide tools that enable users to monitor balances and set their own usage limits.

In response to similar regulations in Europe, DigitalRoute has delivered a proven bill shock prevention solution that enables rapid and cost-efficient deployment with minimum impact on existing infrastructure. The solution, based on its MediationZone® platform, was recently deployed at a pan-European service provider, where it is currently serving seven international affiliates.

DigitalRoute, together with its partners, has delivered MediationZone to more than 10 operators in the Americas Region during the last 12 months. All of these installations are now in live production.

With its extensive experience in bill shock prevention and its strong presence in the region, DigitalRoute is ready to start deploying the solution across the Americas.

“Bill shock prevention is a challenge that confronts service providers throughout the Americas region. With our proven bill shock prevention solution and established support center in Atlanta, GA, DigitalRoute is ready to deliver solutions to its customers and partners as they address this key initiative,” said Stephen Rickaby, General Manager at DigitalRoute Americas.