M2M, Connected Home Kick Off Amdocs’ Next 30 Years

Amdocs is attacking the connected-devices market, releasing a pair of solutions aimed at machine-to-machine (M2M) applications and at the connected home.

Wireless M2M connections are forecast to grow from 135 million last year to 2.3 billion by 2020, according to Machina Research, while research from Parks Associates shows a great potential for service providers in the emerging connected-home market. For example, Parks notes, 12 percent of U.S. consumers and 9 percent of Western European consumers are “highly interested” in home security and home automation, and 19 percent of Western European consumers are highly interested in an energy-monitoring service.

With these statistics in mind, the pre-packaged, pre-configured, end-to-end Amdocs M2M solution allows service providers to support partners offering such M2M applications as smart utility meters, connected electrical vehicles and connected wellness. The solution supports multiple dynamic business models, including converged, prepaid and postpaid, and the M2M value chain. The solution also addresses service providers’ concerns of margin erosions from related customer support costs by transferring common operational aspects to M2M partners, with self-management tools for ordering, provisioning and trouble-ticketing.

The cloud-based Amdocs Connected Home solution helps service providers launch such pre-packaged home and business services as remote security, energy, health and multimedia. The solution can be integrated with existing business and operational support systems (B/OSS) and core network elements. 

“Amdocs Connected Home solution can allow service providers to increase revenue by up to 5 percent, while enriching the customers’ digital life experience and loyalty,” the company says. “Many customers are willing to sign 24-36 month contracts for their connected home services.”

In separate but related Amdocs news, the company celebrated its 30th anniversary yesterday by introducing its new brand promise – "Embrace Challenge, Experience Success" – that represents its commitment to help customers win in the rapidly evolving connected world.

"While Amdocs has evolved significantly over the past 30 years to meet the changing needs of our industry, what strikes me most is how little one key aspect of the company has changed – the relentless determination of our employees to do whatever it takes to ensure our customers’ business success," comments Eli Gelman, CEO at Amdocs Management Limited. “Today, global Amdocs has offices in 60 countries with more than 19,000 employees, and our software solutions help more than 250 service providers meet the daily needs of 2 billion end consumers across the planet. We take great pride in our unrivalled ‘always deliver’ track record and industry-first innovations — all of which gives me confidence that Amdocs’ best 30 years are still ahead of us."

The company also unveiled Amdocs Enreach, a new partner program designed to deliver more value to Amdocs’ global customer base by harnessing innovation from young companies and research institutes around the world in combination with its CES product portfolio.

Enreach reportedly takes Amdocs’ partner program to the next level by establishing a partners lab to test unique scenarios and to integrate with Amdocs core technologies; by building multi-company solutions that can help service providers holistically address new opportunities in emerging areas; and by focusing on domains such as pay TV, M2M, smart networks and marketing/loyalty programs. Amdocs Enreach currently includes 75 active partner companies, innovation programs at 11 universities and more than 12 multi-company solutions from 35 partners.