Lifetree Convergence Ltd (CMMI Level 3 Version 1.2 certified company) is a global software company providing IT solutions to manage all customer touch points of a telecom service provider. Lifetree's solutions have been deployed across industries including communication service providers, banks, retailers and media and entertainment companies. Lifetree was incubated by telecom industry stalwarts, Richard Siemens, founder of Hutchison Telecom and Orange and Craig Erlich, the chairman of the GSM Congress. The company is headquartered in New Delhi, with its software development centres in New Delhi and Bangalore

"The primary factors driving the need for better and more efficient systems in India, even at the cost of sounding cliché, continue to be the increasing competition and the attractive volumes."

On 2007 revenues and expectations from 2008

Lifetree has had an excellent year in 2007 as far as new projects and revenues are concerned and we expect the same momentum this year as well. We don't see any specific reason why the OSS/BSS market should be slowing down this year and our outlook remains optimistic for the near future.

On major market segments

Traditional mission critical applications like billing and customer care continue to bring revenues to vendors either as a result of greenfield implementations or replacement projects. But there has been a surge in demand of complementary applications which cater to value added services and revenue assurance because of the competitive nature of business and shifting priorities.

On total installation base of OSS/BSS solutions

Lifetree has a strong foothold in the African markets with some of the biggest names in the communication industry under its belt and is currently focusing on increasing its presence in the Middle-East, Asia-Pacific, and European
markets.

On growth drivers and prospects

The primary factors driving the need for better and more efficient systems in India, even at the cost of sounding cliché, continue to be the increasing competition and the attractive volumes. These two factors combined, keep service providers on their toes by pushing them to offer the best of services and be responsive to customer needs. In terms of subscriber growth, India continues to be among the top countries in the world and with the rollout of next generation 3G networks on the anvil there seems to be no doubt in anyone's mind that volumes and value will go northwards.

On new and emerging technological platforms

Unfortunately, there are very few players in India who continue to keep their eyes strained on telecom OSS/BSS platforms. With most of the vendors competing globally, there ceases to be any significant difference in the platforms offered in India and in other global markets. The differences, if any, are brought about by demanding service providers who push vendors to support innovative offerings and rise up to the expectations of their subscribers.

On challenges and opportunities

The credibility and reputation that India has for being a premium provider of innovative and high quality applications definitely gives an edge to Indian vendors, but at the same time, the brand recall of certain global vendors manages to swing deals in their favor while fighting it out on the global platform.

On complexities

The primary challenge for any OSS/BSS vendor would be to pre-empt the new services and make their applications future ready rather than take a reactive approach to supporting new services. Once that is taken care of, vendors have to ensure that their applications are robust and scalable to handle volumes when the new services become popular and there are more and more takers for the same.

On key factors for success of OSS/BSS vendors

Lifetree has managed to be successful amidst stiff competition by creating memorable customer engagement experiences which it tries to replicate. Starting from understanding client requirements and culminating in responsive support processes, Lifetree bends backwards to ensure total customer satisfaction. We also believe that a positive reference given by an existing client is a better testimonial than the most expensive of marketing campaigns.

On consolidation of legacy systems

Legacy systems are always a challenge and it is not always easy to do away with some of them because of the criticality of their functions. But service providers and vendors alike are trying their best to put their heads together to either replace legacy systems wherever possible, or to device methods of making them compatible to the architecture of future. One of the major priorities would be to not let legacy systems continue as independent silos because it might run the risk of making them completely non-compatible with newer technology systems.

On impact of OSS/BSS on QoS

As much as the physical network helps in delivering services, OSS/BSS applications complete the picture by helping service providers to deliver high quality services. OSS/BSS applications ensure that every other aspect of service beyond the physical delivery of services of the likes of voice, video and data is taken care of because it is these applications which look after the customer facing aspect of business and helps in creation of credibility and reputation of the service provider.

On important role in retaining customers

A service provider might put in the best of infrastructure and roll out the best of services, but as long as they don't realize the revenues from it, the whole point of running the business is defeated. Likewise, a customer who registers with a service provider is not doing so because he expects to have a short term relationship. He is expecting to stay with the service provider as long as possible provided, the service provider creates a sense of trust and value for him, which is brought about by the billing system.

On basic requirements

The expectations from a billing and customer care system by most operators across the globe remain almost similar. The final procurement strategy might differ based on the available budgets and the short term priorities. Every operator would want a future ready application which is able scale up both in terms of volumes and in terms of accommodating newer services. Service providers also look for systems which can reduce dependency on manual intervention as far as possible and is easy to accommodate into future expansion plans of the network.

On your company's plans for India

One of Lifetree's business units which designs and develops content management and delivery platforms is very aggressive in the Indian markets and is bullish on the same in future. The focus for the billing and customer management suite of products is currently on the markets mentioned above.

On offerings for Indian telecom service providers

As mentioned, our aggressive focus for the Indian telecom industry continues to be for the content management and delivery platforms. Lifetree's products stand out from the crowd because of their comprehensive and feature rich nature. Lifetree has, amongst its customers some of the most reputed names in the African, Middle-East and Asian telecom industry.