Working in tandem: Five smaller vendors join in end-to-end NT-based customer care architecture

A Windows NT-based architecture for end-to-end customer care and billing from Tandem will capitalize on applications from several smaller companies to quickly deliver a ready-to-use platform to new service providers.

Tandem's Convergence Enterprise Architecture (CEA) is a suite of fully integrated, scalable billing and customer care solutions built around Tandem's SQL/MX database product, which the company is "hardening to make into an industrial-strength version of NT for carrier-class reliability," said Heide Lemker, marketing director of business support systems for Lucent Technologies' billing and customer care division.

"With NT, you have a tremendous level of standardization because there's only one kind of NT," said Lemker. "With Unix, it's tough to find partners that would easily integrate because there is such a variety of development tools."

The partners were chosen to provide the key applications carriers need to function more efficiently in the competitive marketplace. The partners in this initial consortium are Baccis (billing and card care systems), Daleen Technologies (convergence billing solutions), Opus Telecom (prepaid billing and call control solution), Global Telemanagement (customer care and outside plant solutions) and Kanbay (systems integration).

"These are smaller companies that might have trouble penetrating the market with their niche solutions," said Lemke. "As part of a larger effort, under the umbrella of Tandem, they can function as part of a complete solution."

By using NT, Tandem hopes the CEA suite will appeal to new entries in the telecommunications market.

"Our first targets are start-ups in the U.S., Asia and Europe," said Lemker. "We want to show that NT can be low-cost and low-risk, and can make a very big impact on the number of people required to manage and maintain a system based on its level of standardization."

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