Profile: Evolving Systems, Inc. (EVOL.O)

Evolving Systems, Inc. is a provider of software solutions and services to the wireless, wireline and cable markets. The Company develops, deploys, enhances, maintains and integrates software solutions for a range of operations support systems (OSS). Evolving Systems offers software products and solutions in four core areas: service activation, Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card activation solutions, numbering solutions, and mediation solutions. Service activation solutions are used to activate complex bundles of voice, video and data services for traditional and next generation wireless and wireline networks. SIM card activation solutions used to dynamically allocate and assign resources to a wireless device when it is first used. Numbering solutions products are used by carriers to manage their telephone number inventory and number assignment processes, and products that comply with government-mandated requirements regarding local number portability in North America. Mediation solutions support data collection for both service assurance and billing applications. The Company’s product has been used to support wireless and wireline network telephony capabilities; however, as a result of its on-going investment in and improvement of its products, the Company offers products to carriers to support both their convergent offerings over Internet Protocol (IP) and advanced broadband networks.

Dynamic SIM Allocation

The wireless SIM card is central to the provision of wireless access and services for GSM/EDGE and 3G/WCDMA networks. These networks represent the common type of wireless technology used by wireless operators world-wide. SIM cards are either pre-provisioned before they are distributed to the retail environment or are provisioned at the point-of-sale. Pre-provisioning SIM cards means that resources are allocated well in advance of the SIM card becoming available for sale, leading to poor utilization of numbers, increased network costs, and a poor user experience. Provisioning SIM cards at the point-of-sale overcomes many of these issues but at a high cost, as retail and back-office infrastructure needs to be in place and consequently distribution is constrained.

Service Activation

Service activation solution, Tertio, is employed by carriers to activate a new subscriber or to add a new service to an existing subscriber. Its Tertio product provides a flexible operating environment and can be used by carriers to manage their voice, data, and content service needs for both their traditional and broadband IP networks. Its solution is deployed as the service activation engine for over 70 networks around the world including two of the world’s wireless carriers. Tertio is an integrated solution consisting of six components: Tertio Service Composer, a modeling tool that simplifies the creation of new services; Tertio Content Connector, a tool used for activation of next-generation services; Tertio Activation Designer, a tool that is designed to speed network feature activation; Tertio Service Activation, the platform that provides scalability and performance, flexibility and a graphical interface; Tertio Service Verification, a module that allows carriers to verify that the services implemented in the network match those that were in the original service order, and Tertio Process Management, a module that allows carriers to manage long running transactions, which often occur when a carrier is implementing a converged activation solution that encompasses the activation of both a wireless and fixed line (or IP) component. Tertio solution addresses the entire service lifecycle, enabling service providers to better plan, manage and execute the introduction of new services. Tertio allows carriers to introduce new network technologies and eases the burden of integration with existing devices and systems.

Numbering Solutions

Evolving Systems’ Numbering Solutions product line includes its Local Number Portability (LNP) and Wireless Number Portability (WNP) products as well as its NumeriTrack number management solution. The Company’s Number Portability software solution enables carriers to comply with United States and Canadian mandates for regulations implementing LNP and WNP. Number porting allows customers the ability to retain, or port, their phone numbers when changing from one service provider to another. Its LNP software, which includes the functionality to support ordering, provisioning, reporting, testing and exchanging information between carriers is used by wireline, wireless and cable service providers in North America. The Company has expanded its number portability product features and developed other number portability related OSS software products for the wireline, wireless and cable markets. Its full LNP and WNP product line comprises collection of products: OrderPath order entry, NumberManager network provisioning, LNP DataServe data warehousing, VeriPort NPAC testing and Verify product suite for monitoring carriers’ application communications for optimum service assurance

Evolving Systems developed its NumeriTrack solution in response to the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandated number conservation and number pooling regulations for both wireline and wireless carriers. The NumeriTrack solution, which has been licensed to seven carriers, facilitates compliance with the FCC mandates for both wireline and wireless carriers (and cable carriers providing telephony services). The solution provides inventory management of phone numbers and other assets, such as SIM cards, and supports inventory assignments and integration with carriers’ existing back-office systems. The NumeriTrack solution also contains features for the inventory of, and assignment logic for, numbers associated with IP addresses and is used by a large carrier in the Untied States for deployment of a voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) service offering. International NumeriTrack, a product that the Company sells and deploys in markets outside of the United States, features resource management and assignment capabilities that enables carriers around the globe to acquire and track phone numbers and other logical and physical assets for their products on both traditional and next generation wireline and wireless networks.

Mediation

The Company’s mediation portfolio consists of network data mediation products and billing mediation. Its billing mediation product, Evident, was acquired as part of the Evolving Systems United Kingdom acquisition. Its network mediation products are Traffic Data Management System (TDMS) and Mediation Central.

Billing mediation is the process of collecting network usage data and verifying that usage data is accurate, and is a required pre-condition for generating accurate bills for a carrier’s customers. Billing mediation’s importance lies in its ability to provide a systematic point of reliability and assurance between network consumption and the billing system input. Evident product supports convergent voice, data, and content services. Evident software enables the accurate management of data, allowing reconciliation of data inputs and outputs. In addition, it provides support for compliance with relevant regulatory, accounting and data integrity requirements.

The Company’s telecommunications carriers is to create an integration layer between network element (NE) devices and the OSS applications that provision, monitor and control these devices. Deploying new devices needed for extending service offerings into the network can therefore be difficult, time consuming and expensive. Its mediation solutions provide a common framework for simplifying the collection and distribution of critical network data. Its network mediation product, Mediation Central, supports an array of technologies that carriers deploy in their network. Mediation Central provides support for wireline, broadband, transport and wireless networks.

The Company competes with Comptel Corporation, Oracle Corporation, Synchronoss Technologies, Inc., Ericsson, Telcordia Technologies, Inc., Neustar, Inc., Syniverse Technologies, Telecom Systems PLC, Amdocs and Comptel.