TMCnet News

DigitalRoute and MetraTech Announce Global Partnership
[April 15, 2014]

DigitalRoute and MetraTech Announce Global Partnership


STOCKHOLM, Sweden and WALTHAM, Mass. --(Business Wire)--

DigitalRoute, the leading provider of mediation solutions globally and MetraTech Corp., the leading provider of Agreements-Based Billing™, commerce and settlement solutions, have jointly announced a partnership between the two companies that will provide communications service providers (CSPs) with a proven solution to rapidly enable and monetize next-generation services, including unified communications, digital, cloud, and machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) technology delivered over new, fourth-generation long-term evolution (LTE (News - Alert)) networks.

DigitalRoute and MetraTech already share a North American tier-one customer, where the two companies' solutions are paired to handle metering, charging and billing in a virtualized cloud environment. This is a highly applicable deployment as software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) become industry focal points, a challenge MediationZone and MetraNet are well-equipped to meet.

The DigitalRoute and MetraTech offering will pair DigitalRoute's MediationZone platform with MetraTech's MetraNet solution. MediationZone bridges the components in any type of network architecture and provides comprehensive functionality that lets systems easily communicate with each other. In the process, raw data is turned into usable information. Data streams are optimized and enriched, resulting in reduced costs for hardware while at the same time enabling new opportunities to differentiate and personalize services.

MetraNet empowers service providers to break out of their inflexible business models and launch new services quickly, bundle offerings and reduce time to market. MetraNet's metadata-based architecture ensures that new services such as B2B, digital, cloud and M2M or IoT can be launched and billed for fluidly and easily across communications, transportation, financial, cloud and other verticals. As an adjunct billing solution, MetraNet enables service providers to turbo-charge high-growth services by supporting subscriptions, usage, negotiated B2B agreements, multi-sided business models, complex services, and cross-product discounting and bundling. As both a billing and settlement solution, MetraNet provides inter-provider settlement in addition to compensation of partners for content or services.

The combned offering will enable CSPs to dramatically reduce time to market and monetize innovative services in an evolving 4G backbone virtualized with SDN and NFV for cloud-like responsiveness. Data volumes (collected from a variety of network elements) will rise exponentially and place added demands on mediation. At the same time, service providers need to increase the pace of service introduction, which is not possible with traditional billing systems in existing silos. They are also focused on delivering value-added services to enterprise customers across transportation, utility, health and financial industries that must be monetized. DigitalRoute and MetraTech's solution delivers a significant advantage to operators who are striving to achieve a competitive advantage with increased service velocity and service differentiation to existing and new customers.



Both companies are leaders in their fields and each has recently been recognized by the highly respected analyst firm Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan. DigitalRoute received the Stratecast 2013 Global Technology (News - Alert) Innovation in Communications Service Provider Mediation Billing Award and MetraTech won the 2013 Stratecast Global Technology Innovation in Complex Relationship Billing Award.

Karl Whitelock, director of OSS BSS strategy at Stratecast | Frost & Sullivan, commented, "DigitalRoute is well-positioned to meet the changing needs of a communications marketplace that will, in the future, rely on automated data management functions to address a growing number of customer-centric business issues." About MetraTech, Whitelock added: "Billing must now address the new business models and agreements between CSPs, an ecosystem of partners and a growing number of B2B relationships across vertical industries. As service providers compete and partner with over-the-top players and look for new sources of revenue, they must deploy services faster, deliver differentiation to customers and compensate partners."


In addition to the technical compatibility of their solutions, the two companies also share a cultural fit. Said Johan Bergh, CEO of DigitalRoute, "We are delighted to announce this important partnership. MetraTech's expertise in enabling next-generation services and commerce combined with DigitalRoute's market-leading data-processing platform will enhance the value both companies bring to communications service providers."

Added Scott Swartz (News - Alert), CEO of MetraTech, "We already have a proven deployment of MediationZone and MetraNet delivering value for infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud offerings. We are excited about the global partnership between the two companies that makes it easier for CSPs to respond in an increasingly competitive global market that demands innovation and nimbleness unlike anything we have seen before."

Additional resources:

MetraTech blog: http://bit.ly/141OHwE

MetraTech on Twitter (News - Alert): http://bit.ly/162XVXo

MetraTech on Facebook (News - Alert): http://on.fb.me/14EuIDt

About DigitalRoute

DigitalRoute has been providing new approaches to enterprise data management since 1999. Its MediationZone solution offers high throughput and provides a unique degree of user configurability. This means customers achieve greater cost efficiencies, improved times-to-market for new service offerings, the ability to monetize any data, and greater end-customer satisfaction. It also ensures that the right downstream systems receive the right data in the required format regardless of source or destination, and without losing a single bit. MediationZone is the foundation from which multiple, mission-critical Use Cases can be addressed in the areas of Online Control and Data Management. Over 300 leading companies worldwide actively use DigitalRoute technology to meet their data management needs, including a number of OEM partners who use our solution as a central part of their own offering. DigitalRoute is built on the core values of Expertise, Open-Mindedness and Commitment. The company is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden with regional offices in Gothenburg, Atlanta, and Kuala Lumpur. DigitalRoute is a venture-backed, privately held company.

About MetraTech

MetraTech Corp. simplifies and enables global commerce innovation, while helping businesses respond to an ever-changing customer and partner relationship landscape. MetraTech empowers businesses to embrace change through a unique agreements-based billing™, commerce and settlement solution that models and supports fluid, personalized, multi-party agreements for customers, partners and suppliers. MetraTech customers innovatively create and securely collect revenue, provide settlement to partners and manage their customer lifecycle in 36 languages, 28 currencies and 150 countries.


[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]