CSG'S NEW FRAMEWORK INTEGRATING ACQUISITIONS

Billing software vendor CSG Systems is releasing a new business framework this week that supports the melding of its Kenan Systems and DaVinci Technologies acquisitions and opens the resulting modular solutions to third-party applications.

The Kenan FX integrates the company's billing engine with ordering and customer management products for providers of convergent services. It also adds a middleware layer that connects what are now pre-integrated, modular solutions from its different acquisitions to customer care centers, customer relationship management applications and third-party or existing billing solutions. “We have taken our acquisitions and found a way to seamlessly bring them together under a common framework,” said Darla Thompson, vice president of product management for CSG's global software services.

In addition to bringing its solutions for customer management, revenue enablement, billing engines and advanced integration into a single framework — and making them interchangeable — CSG is offering a variety of packaging including licensed software, through a service bureau model or as managed operations.

“I think in this market, having multiple delivery methods and channels is absolutely the right way to go,” said Daniel Longfield, telecom software analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “And CSG has now actually digested the Kenan acquisition and really re-aligned the assets. It leads me to believe there are a lot less gaps in their coverage and that their products are better pre-integrated.”

The Kenan FX framework is among the results of CSG's $72 million research and development investment last year. That investment doesn't include the purchase of electronic billing vendor DaVinci, a “perfect acquisition,” according to Longfield.

“CSG is way ahead in online bill payment and account management through the Internet, and that will be a critical differentiator for them going forward,” he said.

Along with the framework, CSG introduced an offering called Customer Center, a customer care application that manages customer relationships through acquisition and tracking, call center efficiencies, order management and maintenance.

“We're not pretending to be all things to all people, but we are trying to create a framework that makes it easier to tap into all the other products we offer and to systems that may already exist within an organization,” Thompson said.

CSG has settled on the BEA Tuxedo middleware to connect its modular and third-party systems. “It helps solve a big pain point for carriers because they don't want the hassle of bearing the responsibility of integrating everything together,” Thompson said.