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Sigma Systems acquires Tribold Limited

News Sigma Systems acquires Tribold Limited
Hansen News
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Hansen News

TORONTO — July 9, 2013 Sigma Systems, the leader in catalog-driven service fulfilment solutions, announced today it has completed the acquisition of UK-based Tribold Limited, the world’s leading provider of Enterprise Product Management (EPM) software.

Sigma’s acquisition of Tribold brings together two leading product lines to create a comprehensive, multi-channel solution stack that offers a true ‘Idea-to-Install’ platform. Sigma’s expanded solution set now offers catalog driven capability for the complete Idea-to-Install process, from the point of creating and deploying new products and services, to creating and configuring the customer’s order, through to delivering the order with installation and activation.

“With the Tribold acquisition, Sigma has redefined the ‘Idea to Install’ platform, offering a complete, catalog-driven suite of solutions for service providers. Service providers can now take immediate advantage of network and service innovation to roll out value-added services, including consumer, enterprise, cloud and M2M applications, and to improve revenues and margins in their core businesses,” said Tim Spencer, President and COO, Sigma Systems.

By maintaining the modularity and open integration of the individual software products in the broader stack, Sigma continues to promote an agile approach to implementing the capabilities for customers.

The result is a rapid return on investment for service providers and the avoidance of the “all or nothing decision” inherent with many other BSS/OSS solution stacks. Communications, Media and High Tech service providers now have a solution that is quickly deployable on premise or in the cloud, with emphasis on rapid self-enablement for our end-users.

“Service providers need to accelerate their idea-to-install timelines for new services, in an increasingly multi-channel environment. To do this, they must break out of silo solutions and simplify the management of their products, services and service delivery resources. Sigma now has the complete solution they need to accomplish this,” added Spencer.

Today, Tribold powers over US$150b of products and services for its customers, accelerating speed to market for new offerings, improving conversion rates, and increasing efficiency in the fulfilment of orders. Tribold is headquartered in London, UK with regional support offices in Australia, US and Europe to support its global customer base.

“Customer experience improvements and overall fulfilment transformation initiatives tend to be the key driver for CSP investments in product and service catalog solutions,” according to Gartner Research. “The concept of an integrated product and service catalog is now being unified across network, IT and services boundaries; for example, in alignment with adjacent order orchestration/decomposition and product life cycle management capabilities.”*

“Sigma and Tribold have worked together closely over the last several years to ensure interoperability between our solutions. We have also collaborated on several service provider cloud projects, including the recently announced deployment with Tiscali in Italy,” said Simon Muderack, CEO and founder of Tribold. “Sigma’s acquisition of Tribold enhances its overall portfolio and will allow for rapid integration of the EPM and CPQ (Configure Price Quote) products along with Sigma’s SMP (Service Management Platform) portfolio. In addition, Sigma’s geographic diversity, combined with our expanding team in Wales, and a depth of industry expertise across the globe offers immediate benefits to existing Tribold customers.”

Under the acquisition agreement, Simon Muderack will assume the role of Senior Vice President of Market Development and Alliances for Sigma. Catherine Michel, Tribold’s CTO and co-founder, will become the Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) for Sigma.

Tribold’s customer base spans Western Europe, the United States, Africa and Australia/NZ and includes BSkyB, TeliaSonera, Orange, Teracom, Unitel Angola, Com Hem, Level3, CenturyLink & Chorus. Tribold also enjoys strong partner relationships with Microsoft, Alcatel-Lucent and Cap Gemini.

Sigma’s SMP is the industry’s leading multi-service fulfilment platform, and is trusted by communications service providers around the world to deliver hundreds of millions of bundled and converged communication services for business and residential subscribers. SMP was the first multi-service catalog-driven service fulfilment platform to be certified compliant for the TeleManagement Forum’s OSS/J Order Management API. Similarly, Tribold has been instrumental in the development and evolution of the TMF’s focus on EPM.

*Gartner, Inc., Hype Cycle for Communications Service Provider Operations, 2012, Norbert J. Scholz, July 30, 2012.

About Sigma Systems
Sigma Systems is a market leader in catalog-driven fulfilment systems. Sigma’s OSS/BSS products enable CSPs to deliver a complete suite of services over any access network to any device. The portfolio spans cloud brokerage, order management, service provisioning, service catalog, service inventory, device management as well as professional services to ensure efficient deployment and long-term success. Sigma has fulfilled 100s of millions of RGUs across residential and business markets including services like broadband, VoIP, SIP trunking, unified communication, IPTV, mobile, cloud and M2M. Over 50 CSPs — including Charter, Cox, Rogers, TELUS, Bell Aliant, Tiscali, American Movil, iTSCOM and ZON — are leveraging Sigma’s products to automate the fulfilment of converged IP networks.
For more information about Sigma Systems, visit http://sigma-systems.com  and follow the company on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sigmasystems.

1. What does “modernise with precision” mean for Tier-1 telecom operators?

“Modernise with precision” describes a low-risk, targeted approach to BSS/OSS modernisation where operators upgrade only the parts of their digital stack that create the greatest impact. Instead of embarking on high-risk, multi-year full-stack replacements, Tier-1 telcos selectively introduce cloud-native BSS/OSS, API-driven telecom architecture, AI-ready data layers, and TMF-compliant BSS components.
This modular strategy reduces cost and disruption, allowing operators to strengthen areas such as product agility, order orchestration, customer experience, and operational efficiency while maintaining stability in core environments. It aligns directly with TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA), which encourages a composable, interoperable, future-proof approach to telco transformation.

2. Why is time-to-market so important for telecom monetisation today?

Telecom monetisation increasingly depends on the ability to respond quickly to new commercial opportunities – from enterprise IoT solutions and digital services to 5G monetisation, wholesale partnerships, and B2B vertical offerings. In this environment, operators that can design, package, and activate new services in days rather than months gain a clear revenue advantage.
Legacy catalogues, rigid product hierarchies, and tightly coupled BSS architectures make rapid innovation difficult. Modern operators therefore prioritise catalog-driven architecture, agile/composable BSS, and cloud-native BSS capabilities to give business teams control over offer creation without relying on long IT delivery cycles. Faster launch cycles = faster monetisation.

 

3. What is slowing down product launch cycles for many telcos?

The primary obstacles are deeply entrenched in legacy architecture: hard-coded product models, outdated catalogues, nonstandard integrations, and heavy IT dependencies. These constraints slow down even minor product changes, creating friction between commercial teams and IT.
Modern telcos are replacing these bottlenecks with TMF-compliant BSS, cloud-native catalogues, API-driven BSS integrated via TMF Open APIs, and low/no-code configuration tools. These solutions allow product owners to create and test offers independently, ensuring the Digital BSS backbone supports true agility.

4. How can telecom operators reduce order fallout and manual intervention?

Order fallout typically stems from fragmented systems, inconsistent data models, and brittle custom integrations across BSS/OSS chains. When orchestration spans numerous legacy systems, even small discrepancies can cause orders to fail.
Operators can dramatically reduce fallout rates by adopting zero-touch service orchestration, modern order management modernisation, end-to-end automation, and a unified data model across their Digital OSS and Digital BSS layers. Cloud-native telecom systems and order orchestration for telecom remove reliance on manual rework, minimise delays, and improve service accuracy – all essential to delivering predictable customer experiences.

5. Why is accuracy so important for B2B and wholesale customer experience?

For enterprise and wholesale customers, trust is built on precision. A single misquote, incorrect configuration, or missed activation can lead to delays, SLA breaches, revenue disputes, and strained relationships. These segments rely on highly controlled, predictable fulfilment processes – particularly as operators expand into 5G edge services, network slicing, managed security, and outcome-based contracts.
Improving accuracy requires strengthening the underlying architecture – through modern CPQ for telecom, clean data models, cloud-native BSS/OSS, and robust API-driven telecom architecture. When quoting, ordering, provisioning, and billing are accurate, customer satisfaction increases naturally.

6. How does cloud, AI, and API-driven architecture support telecom modernisation?

Cloud-native platforms provide the scalability, flexibility, and deployment speed needed to support modern telecom services. AI introduces intelligence into operations, enabling predictive analytics, anomaly detection, and proactive assurance. APIs – especially TMF Open APIs – ensure new components integrate cleanly with legacy systems.
Together, AI-powered BSS/OSS, cloud-native architecture, and API-driven integration create a digital foundation that supports continuous innovation, reduces technical debt, and enables operators to deliver new services more efficiently. This trio is central to future-proofing the telco stack.

7. What is TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) and why does it matter?

TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) is an industry-standard framework designed to help telcos simplify, modularise, and modernise their BSS/OSS environments. ODA promotes interoperability, composability, and openness so operators can integrate new capabilities without heavy customisation or vendor lock-in.
For Tier-1 operators, ODA serves as a blueprint for transitioning from monolithic legacy stacks to cloud-native, API-driven, modular BSS/OSS infrastructure. By adopting ODA-aligned solutions, operators speed up integration, lower deployment risk, and reduce long-term operational cost.

8. How is Hansen involved in TM Forum and ODA?

Hansen aligns its architecture directly to TM Forum’s ODA principles and has contributed to the development of one of TM Forum’s recognised industry standards. This reinforces a commitment not just to following best practices, but to shaping them.
Hansen’s portfolio of cloud-native, AI-powered, API-driven Digital BSS/OSS modules is built on TMF Open APIs and composable design principles. This ensures seamless interoperability in multivendor environments and helps operators modernise safely and incrementally.

9. Can operators modernise their BSS/OSS without a full-stack replacement?

Yes – and in fact, most Tier-1 operators now prefer incremental transformation. Full-stack replacement is high risk, slow, and expensive. By contrast, modular modernisation allows operators to introduce new BSS/OSS capabilities – catalogues, orchestration layers, charging engines, customer management, monetisation components – without destabilising the existing ecosystem.
This approach reduces risk, accelerates value, and aligns with ODA’s principles of composability and openness. Operators can modernise at their own pace while still maintaining service continuity.

10. How does modular modernisation reduce risk?

Modular transformation focuses on improving specific parts of the architecture – such as product agility, order accuracy, unified data, or 5G monetisation – without changing everything at once. Each module is integrated, tested, and scaled independently, which reduces disruption and improves predictability.
It also allows operators to retire legacy systems gradually, reducing technical debt over time while still realising near-term efficiency and revenue gains. This is why agile/composable BSS is now the preferred model for Tier-1 telecom transformation.

11. What operational improvements can telcos expect from a unified data model?

A unified, AI-ready data model brings real-time visibility across commercial and operational processes, enabling faster decision-making and more reliable service execution. It also allows operators to detect issues earlier, automate root cause analysis, and reduce order fallout.
This consistent data foundation is essential for AI-powered BSS/OSS, predictive assurance, next-best-action recommendations, and advanced analytics. It ultimately improves operational efficiency, accuracy, and customer experience – three core pillars of modern telecom performance.

12. Why is Customer Experience (CX) tightly linked to operational excellence?

Most customer experience problems – delays, incorrect orders, billing errors, missed SLAs – originate from inefficiencies within the internal BSS/OSS engine. When operators modernise their Digital BSS/OSS processes, eliminate manual workarounds, and ensure accurate orchestration and service activation, the customer experience improves naturally.
This is particularly true for enterprise and wholesale customers, where CX is defined by precision, predictability, and contract performance. Improving CX requires improving the processes beneath it.

13. How do Hansen’s solutions fit into a Tier-1 telco transformation strategy?

Hansen provides cloud-native, API-driven, TMF-compliant, AI-powered Digital BSS/OSS modules that integrate smoothly into hybrid and legacy environments. Operators can use them to strengthen catalog agility, automate order flows, unify data, enhance monetisation, or improve service reliability – without needing to replace their entire BSS/OSS stack.
This flexibility supports transformation at the operator’s own pace, aligned to business priorities, regulatory requirements, and commercial objectives.

14. What benefits can operators expect from a layered or hybrid modernisation approach?

A layered or hybrid approach allows operators to combine existing systems with cloud-native components, enabling transformation without disruption. Key benefits include:
• Faster time-to-market for new offers
• Improved order accuracy and reduced fallout
• Lower cost-to-serve through automation
• Stronger customer experience
• Gradual reduction of technical debt
• Alignment with ODA and modular architecture principles
This approach balances stability with innovation – ideal for Tier-1 operators.

15. How do industry standards such as ODA accelerate telecom digital transformation?

Industry standards like TM Forum ODA and TMF Open APIs reduce integration complexity, promote interoperability, and give operators a trusted blueprint for modernisation. They ensure that new BSS/OSS components can plug into existing environments without custom engineering.
By reducing dependence on bespoke integrations and enabling modular deployment, standards significantly lower long-term cost and accelerate transformation across the business. They also future proof the architecture for new technologies, including AI, automation, and 5G service innovation.


 
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