And the top three policy management vendors are…

Infonetics has produced another of its regular troikas of information, producing forecasts for the the Convergent Charging and Subscriber Data Management (SDM) markets, and releasing a few results of an operator survey looking at Policy Management.

The busy Shira Levine,  directing analyst for next gen OSS and policy at Infonetics Research, is forecasting that the SDM market is on track to “blast past” the half-billion-dollar mark in 2011, hitting $563 million, a 55% increase over 2010. By 2015, the market could be worth $1.5 billion, Infonetics said. the market will be pushed along by carrier spending in subscriber analytics to support advances in mobile advertising, network modernisation initiatives, and machine-to-machine (M2M) applications.

Key players include vendors such as HP, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens Networks looking to expand their traditional HLR/HSS offerings; players in the adjacent charging, policy management, and deep packet inspection markets (e.g. Openet and Sandvine); and large database and IT suppliers like Oracle, IBM, and Amdocs looking to leverage their longstanding enterprise data management capabilities.

In Convergent Charging, the analyst said there would be over half a billion dollars of business done in 2011, up 42% on 2010’s investment. By 2015, the analyst thinks the market will be worth $3.2 billion, reflecting heavy spending from Southeast Asian and Indian operators driven by the need to differentiate on more than just price. Infonetics said that there is also growing interest in deploying convergent charging solutions that support both the consumer market and enterprise services, such as hybrid accounts for employees, revenue settlement for cloud services, and real-time management of machine-to-machine (M2M) transactions

As for the main contenders to benefit from this growth, Levine said, “Smaller software suppliers such as Comptel, Volubill, and Orga Systems have gained traction in emerging markets with their integrated solutions that include charging policy and subscriber management functionality. However, these vendors face intensified competition from larger IT and billing players like HP, SAP, Oracle, CSG, Amdocs, and Convergys that are taking a more converged approach to charging by incorporating adjacent functionality.”

Infonetics’ third nugget was formed of the result of an operator survey into Policy Management. The operators said that bandwidth-on-demand and advanced subscriber control capabilities are the top application drivers for policy management investments, followed by VoIP. The rising percentage of respondents naming the IT department as holding the budget for policy also showed a shift of responsibility within carrier away from the networks and operations teams.

“This creates a challenge for the more established policy vendors who have longstanding relationships with operators’ network departments but less sway with IT and marketing teams, while creating new opportunities for IT players such as the billing vendors entering the policy space,” Levine said.

As for who stands to gain, when asked in “an open-ended question” who they consider to be the top three policy management vendors, service providers named Tekelec/Camiant and Openet as the top two, followed by Bridgewater Systems (now Amdocs DES) and Ericsson in a tie for third.

Infonetics was publicising three items, all of which can be accessed at http://www.infonetics.com/login (see NEXT GEN OSS AND POLICY for 2011 and new 2012 services):
Subscriber Data Management Software and Service Report
Convergent Charging Software and Services Report
Policy Management Deployment Strategies and Vendor Leadership: Global Service Provider Survey