Enavis, Lightscape enjoy backing of big brother ECI Telecom

DALLAS--Large vendors grappling with financial issues combined with startups, who are finding the climate even harsher, is putting some service providers in the unusual position of acting like dating services, helping drive relationships between smaller players and more established manufacturers.

For some that means turning foes into friends and a lot of legwork between the two partnering companies. Companies such as Enavis and Lightscape are benefiting by the backing of a large parent company that isn’t likely to have animosity toward the startups and won’t be more interested in pushing its own products instead.

“Customers really like the fact that we have ECI [Telecom’s] backing,” said Paul Ellett, general manager of Enavis.

Enavis’ lineage can be traced by to a division of Tadiran Telecom. In 1999, the company was acquired by ECI Telecom and re-branded as Enavis in 2001. So far Enavis has gained most of its traction from its T::DAX cross-connect bandwidth management system, but at NFOEC this week in Dallas, the company launched its intelligent optical switch called T::Core. That switch is targeted at simplifying operations and boosting network performance while cutting capex and ushering in new services over existing infrastructure.

Fellow ECI company, Lightscape Networks, which was once ECI’s optical division, has seen growing traction as well.

“We have experienced great acceptation of [the XDM] platform and have 1500 in the field,” said Emanuel Nachum, president of Lightscape Networks North America. The company has about $200 million in revenue per year and has been increasing its market share, according to a recent report from RHK.

The XDM converged optical platform was introduced in 2001 and supports the migration from a separate legacy network to a converged optical one. In recent weeks, Lightscape has pulled in several contracts for the platform from a variety of providers such as JEA, a municipal utility in Jacksonville, FL, State Power Corporation of China, Entel Chile, which is a subsidiary of Italia Telecom, and Bejing’s Three Gorges Project.

“Customers really like our platform because it is so flexible and very cost effective,” Nachum said.

And while companies such as Enavis and Lightscape have the benefit of a large parent, most don’t see the partnering process as a hindrance, but more as just another step in the process. Additionally, the need to partner up with several companies is prevalent and dependent upon the specific customer.

“It’s no longer sexy to do business with a startup,” said Greg Wortman, vice president of marketing at Coriolis Networks. Coriolis has partnered with vendors like Ciena, Corvis, Fujitsu and Riverstone. “[The deals] are very customer specific.”

Others agree with that strategy.

“We are taking a very pragmatic approach and letting larger customers drive those partnerships,” said Alain Brazeau, vice president of research and development for Meriton Networks. Although the partners have to accomplish interoperability and other tasks, the larger partner is typically willing to do anything to keep the customer happy so that removes some of the competitiveness, according to Brazeau.