Openet Telecom, a provider of software to telecoms operators, has acquired the Dublin-based billing software and rating specialist Sepro for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition is Openet’s first and it expands the company’s product portfolio with the addition of Sepro’s e-Rate technology, one of the leading rating engines used by fixed and mobile telecommunications firms around the world to determine billing.
Under the terms of the contract, all Sepro Technology, intellectual property rights and customer contracts will transfer to Openet, which has its headquarters in Dublin.
A number of Sepro staff will also transfer into Openet to help market, sell, develop and test the e-Rate product family as it migrates into Openet. This product enables network operators to manage business processes such as retail and wholesale rating cost-effectively, as well as giving them the ability to manage revenue sharing agreements with third party content and commerce partners.
“Since we brought FusionWorks ActiveCharge to the market last year, we have seen a growing need for a real-time, low-latency and high-throughput rating capability within its architecture,” said Joe Hogan, chief technology officer at Openet. “Our customers and prospects are increasingly asking us for a rating capability, one that can handle response times in the order of 10ms (milliseconds) to 25ms depending on rating complexity.”
He added: “When you take latency into account on top of the sheer volume of requests coming from next generation networks and the throughput figures being demanded by our customers, it was clear to us that partnering with an adjunct rating company was not going to provide an adequate solution. By acquiring and embedding Sepro’s e-Rate into FusionWorks ActiveCharge, Openet is now positioned to provide the only real-time charging solution with a fully integrated rating engine offered by a single company.”
Acquiring Sepro not only brings a rating capability to Openet’s real-time charging solution, but also allows Openet to expand into the rapidly growing adjunct rating market, a logical next step for the company. “In addition to expanding our existing product footprint, we extend our product line-up, add significant tier one customers and increase our revenue stream at a stroke,” said John Rainger, CEO at Openet. “We grew our revenue 76pc in our last fiscal year, and this acquisition will allow us to fuel our revenue growth still further in the future. We have achieved this at a price point and in a timescale that we could not have matched through internal development. We are delighted to welcome the Sepro customers and staff to Openet, and are excited about our future together,” Rainger added.
Openet said it would continue to support and maintain Sepro’s client base, which includes Vodafone, T-Mobile and Eurotel.
The company said that it would not comment on the commercial terms of the contract.
By John Kennedy
