Amdocs makes SDP play with JNetX buy

Amdocs today acquired service delivery platform vendor jNetX for $50 million with a goal of using the platform to help providers build services that span the TDM and IP worlds.

The deal, funded with a combination of cash and debt, brings Amdocs not only SDP capabilities but customers. Though not as well known, or as deep-pocketed as rival SDP vendors such as Oracle or IBM, JNetX claims to have 30 customers for its service delivery platform, including a few – such as Vodafone Group and British Telecom – which it shares with Amdocs.

As a side note, the telecom acquisition market seems to be heating up a bit. Last week, Tellabs purchased wireless vendor WiChorus and Cisco opened up its pocketbook recently to acquire Starent and Tanberg.

JNetX is known in the market for several things: It’s one of the few remaining independent SDP makers out there, the rest having been gobbled up by larger players; it’s built a flexible Java-based platform able to scale to meet carrier requirements; and it has a major focus in exposing both telecom and IP components to developers, said Stephen Krajewski, Amdocs product marketing director, in an interview.

“It’s commonplace [for SDP vendors] to say their platforms are able to expose services and common IP network elements,” said Krajewski. “What these guys have done is built their platform in a way where they can expose legacy services for a much lower cost. Their proposition is: you don’t have to throw out your [existing] network to move forward.”

JNetX is particularly strong at not only exposing service enablers to the outside world, but building links back into back-office BSS/OSS systems, obviously a big area of focus for Amdocs. To that end, the JNetX platform and capabilities will likely be built into other Amdocs applications over time. “It really adds a lot of value to different parts of our product suite, including things like convergent charging, service assurance and our app store solution,” Krajewski said.

By purchasing a service delivery platform, Amdocs is now competing on some SDP deals with companies that on other deals they partner – including other software vendors, systems integrators and network equipment providers, Krajewski admitted. Amdocs is working with JNetX and their partners in these areas to see where those partnerships still make sense, he said. “We’re in an exploratory phase,” on the partners question, he said.