OSS Observer Dissects Arantech Acquisition

Arantech will continue to operate as an Arantech branded, standalone line of business within the Tektronix Communications’ Network Intelligence Solutions portfolio. Their solutions will remain equipment-vendor independent and will continue to work with any vendors’ installed probes, including those from Tektronix Communications. In addition, Arantech will retain its own dedicated sales and services organization, R&D, marketing and product development.

Arantech has deployments at more than 30 mobile operators worldwide, serving some 140 million subscribers. Arantech’s customer base includes four of the world’s six largest mobile operator groups. Vodafone Ireland was the first operator to deploy Arantech’s solution in 2003.

EMEA currently accounts for the majority of customers. Deployments are in multiple countries with Vodafone, Orange, Proximus, T-Mobile and Mobilkom in Austria, Swisscom and ERA Poland.

In Europe, one large mobile CSP, with 15 million subscribers, has used touchpoint over the past four years to gain customer experience for all 3G, 2.5G and 2G voice and data services. This customer has developed a large number of insight and discovery use cases for a variety of internal stakeholders (technology, customer care and sales) using standard product tools.

Tektronix Communications has significant presence in the tier 1 CSP market that includes both fixed and mobile incumbent operators. Last year, OSS Observer (now part of Analysys Mason) ranked Tektronix as the No. 2 supplier in the passive probe system market with its Geoprobe solution. Tektronix itself was acquired by Danaher in October 2007 for $2.85 billion. In November 2006 Tektronix acquired Minacom – a privately held software supplier of active testing solutions. Tektronix also developed a set of solutions that was targeted at both the service management and CEM market known as Beamer and Orion. We think cross-marketing between both companies’ customer bases will create a stronger pipeline of business despite weaknesses in the overall economy.

Arantech is not alone in exploiting the market for CEM solutions. IBM has entered the market in the past year. Also, Telcordia has developed several solutions that will compete with Arantech. HP is a partner to Arantech, but we would expect that this relationship will change as HP puts more R&D into this high growth segment and weans itself from partner-based solutions. Also, Nokia and Ericsson have increased their efforts in the marketplace as it pertains to service impact and measuring the customer experience. CEM is not confined to the traditional markets that Tektronix and Arantech serve. Amdocs, Accenture, Oracle, and many other suppliers are shifting their focus towards the CEM market as CSPs align their objectives to focus much more on the customer experience.

OSS Observer/Analysis Mason will publish a CEM Outlook later this month that defines and reveals the market drivers shaping the CEM market.