Amdocs is to acquire SON vendor Celcite Management Solutions for €95 million, the two companies have announced.
The deal expands the Amdocs customer experience portfolio further into the network software domain to manage customer experience across both networks and IT.
Amdocs said the deal builds on its recent acquisition of Actix, meaning it can combine the two companies’ products to create comprehensive equipment-agnostic optimisation solutions for operators.
In addition, Amdocs said it will expand its CES (Customer Experience Systems) portfolio with quality-of-service (QOS) focused, geo-located network data that will drive a variety of optimisation use cases.
In short, the vendor claims it will become the first supplier to offer customer experience-driven network optimisation software and services based on a holistic view of the customer experience across all domains.
“Together, Amdocs, Celcite and Actix will emerge as the preferred provider of network management and SON solutions to service providers worldwide,” commented Rahul Sharma, founder and CEO at Celcite.
“We will offer unmatched end-to-end offerings to relieve customers’ core network challenges, including capacity and rollout, and help them tie the customer experience to the network in real-time.”
Ovum analyst Daryl Schoolar agrees: “[Amdocs] will have the tools to gather and analyse network data, and then enforce customer and network policies based on that data,” he said.
Informa analyst Dimitris Mavrakis told Mobile Europe that OSS is becoming a critical piece of the network.
“Cisco’s acquisition of Intucell and Amdocs’s acquisition of Celsite illustrate that multi-vendor SON is considered a vital component of OSS,” he commented. “Small cells, hetnets and multi-technology, multi-vendor networks require advanced SON for lower operational costs and maintenance.
More consolidation in the SON environment is expected he added, especially around small companies that may provide a quick entry for large vendors.