Vendor Profiles

TRI's vendor profiles section delivers a detailed analytical snapshot of the leading billing companies. Seventeen of the leading software vendors and network equipment providers are profiled in the report. The companies are as follows:

Each of the profiles are between 8 and 10 pages in length and are presented in the following sections:

Company Specifications and Web Links

This upfront backgrounder information in each profile is organized in the same format for easy cross-reference in other profiles. Here you'll find basic company data organized for fast retrieval and web access such as:

Corporate backgrounder
Overall OSS/BSS business
Significant investors and stock market reference for public firms
Significant customers
Major vendor partnerships
Major worldwide locations
Summaries of key products in the assurance market
Number of employees

Company Revenue & Market Breakdowns

In this section, we provide an estimate of each company's individual revenue breakdown in the assurance/test market. The numbers are gathered from public documents, conversations with people at the companies themselves, and TRI's history and experience tracking the OSS market.

Several, but not all companies, provided further guidance on their revenue numbers. The specific segment breakouts are the same ones as those for the market forecasts.

This calendar year 2008 data is made further accessible in a a database program (delivered as free software with the text report) that allows you to create instant tables and graphs, compare various company market shares across these segments, and produce a variety of reports in Excel format.

Discussion of Company and SWOT Analysis

You'll no doubt find this section the most valuable because it's here where each company's assurance business is put into context. In this section, TRI gets into a free wheeling discussion on company success stories, challenges, and significant product developments.

In this discussion, we meander quite a bit on the significance of company histories, new product/marketing initiatives, telecom customers, geographic markets, and competitive forces.

The section concludes with a company Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis -- a candid TRI opinion on where each vendor stands against its competitors and the suitability of its products and services for the network/service assurance market.

TRI's competitive analysis draws from significant research such as attending OSS conferences and speaking with OSS experts at telecoms. We also held 30-minute or longer conversations with executives at all of the assurance companies we profiled for this report.

Getting so many assurance vendors to participate was an invaluable aid to the research effort because TRI got to hear how each company interpreted its role in the marketplace. In turn, TRI could discuss competitive issues, evaluate trends, and gain insights on the company's strategy.

When TRI finished its profiles, it also gave companies a chance to check the profile for accuracy and comment on TRI's analysis. In all, we think our research methodology meets the twin goals of: maximizing competitive insights; and maintaining a relationship of trust with the sources of this valuable information.