Oracle and Intec bring synergy to telecomms

In today's telecommunications industry, the only thing that's certain is the uncertainty. It's a time of upheaval, both technologically and commercially. Companies are having to quickly adapt to new technologies, including 3G, and the increasing pace of innovation. Structurally, the industry is facing intense competition which is driving consolidation. While the market is mature in Western Europe and North America, deregulation is now starting in Africa, some parts of Asia, South America and Eastern Europe.

It is in these countries that Intec Telecom Systems makes many of its sales. Intec is one of the top five vendors worldwide of operational support and business support systems (OSS/BSS) for telecomms operators. In the billing area, Intec provides software solutions for retail billing and is the world leader in providing billing and settlement systems for wholesale carrier to carrier (or interconnect) business. These enable telcos to accurately charge each other under roaming agreements and other inter-operator deals.

Alongside the billing solutions, Intec provides network mediation systems, which interface with the telecommunications network and resolve complex network events into a single billable transaction.

The company has shown rapid growth. It was founded in 1997, issued an IPO in 2000 and hit 2003 revenues of £50.7 million. Today, the company has over 1600 employees worldwide, and with over 650 installations, and over 450 customers in 70 countries, revenues are approaching £100 million.

"Our use of Oracle goes back to day one," says Richard McBride, Intec's director for strategic futures. "We use Oracle because of the technology itself, but many of our customers require us to use Oracle and we wouldn't win the deal if we didn't."

McBride adds: "Our retail billing product is based on Oracle9i Database and was one of the first such applications to be certified for Real Application Clusters (RAC). Using a grid architecture enables us to offer a solution with high availability and/or high scalability because you can have redundant nodes or add nodes as the system grows. We've been working on development for some time, and already have our first customers in production. Telecomms customers are understandably cautious about new technology, and need to see the business benefits, so it is vital for us to be able to engage Oracle's technical expertise during the bid cycle."

The wholesale billing application is also based on Oracle9i Database, although this application won't be migrated to a Grid architecture in the immediate future. "There is less need in the wholesale business for that sort of technology," says McBride. "If a retail billing system goes down, you lose revenue. If a wholesale system goes down, you'll normally be able to store the events and bill them later."

Now Oracle and Intec are approaching the market with a joint offering, an integrated business operations support system. This combines Intec's billing and mediation products with Oracle's application server, database and applications.

"Oracle has a rich set of applications that complement our own," says McBride. "These include CRM, inventory management, order management and service fulfilment. We're talking about real synergy - it's an overused word, but in this case our whole offering really is greater than the sum of its parts."

There are several bids in progress, and the joint approach has already landed a contract in South Africa with MTN worth $15 million to Intec and $2.68 million to Oracle.

The partnership is described by McBride as a "two way street". Intec brings its sector expertise and its global customer base, which includes 60 of the top 100 operators. "Each and every one of those is a possible cross-sell or upsell opportunity for Oracle," he says.

As well as bringing its technology and global presence, Oracle supports Intec's sales and development cycles. "Oracle makes resources available to us which we wouldn't otherwise be able to tap into," says McBride. "These include marketing resources, logistical resources and technical resources."

Oracle is hosting some demonstrations on behalf of Intec, which can be viewed remotely online from anywhere in the world. The companies also present together at major conferences, including 3GSM. Most importantly, Oracle expertise is always nearby. Intec knows it can call Oracle for help with developing its technology, and for help explaining the technology to customers and prospects.

"Oracle is one of our key technology providers," says McBride. "If we can bring Oracle along with us when meeting a customer, it shows that Intec has commitment from Oracle and that Oracle supports our concept and product. I think that's important."

"Oracle and Intec are able to provide a full range of IT solutions together, which puts us in a much stronger competitive position in this marketplace than we would be individually," says James Jewiss, Oracle EMEA account manager. "Oracle and Intec have invested significantly in each other - in Intec's case by developing exclusively on Oracle and leading with Oracle in the communications marketplace, and in Oracle's case by providing the platform, product set, staff time and resources that enable Intec to be most effective in developing and selling its solutions."

Intec is now a certified partner of Oracle. "We upgraded our partnership level for better access to technical resources in Oracle, including the support people," says McBride.

McBride recommends joining the Oracle PartnerNetwork to other ISVs. "Oracle treats its partners extremely well," he says. "The partnership only works if you work at it - the more you put in, the more you get out. I'd advise anyone who uses Oracle to consider what they're putting into the Oracle relationship and whether they can put in more."

"Intec's commitment to our platform is total because they don't sell on anything other than Oracle," says Jewiss. "In return, they get the most interest, commitment and support from Oracle. I don't believe ISVs can have significant relationships with more than one or two core technology vendors because they can't make the right investment in technology to make more relationships work. Our partnership with Intec is a win-win situation."