Optima’s high-level architecture can be deployed in a private cloud, public cloud: Jatinder Ahuja, VP, Amdocs

By Sanjeeb Kumar Sahoo

Recently, Amdocs announced Amdocs Optima, a new digital customer management and commerce platform. In an email interview with Voice&Data Jatinder Ahuja, Vice President, Amdocs elaborates on the company’s new digital customer management and commerce platform.

Voice&Data: What is Amdocs Optima? What are its features and characteristics?

Jatinder Ahuja: Amdocs Optima is a digital customer management and commerce platform that enables the swift and secure monetization of any product or service. It serves midsized communication service providers (We call them Midsized Communications Businesses), MVNx operators and digital enterprises in the finance, transportation and utilities verticals.

Amdocs Optima support multiple lines of business within a single instance via a flexible catalog that enables customers to offer converged services to a sophisticated market. Its “billing as a service” model supports multiple payment methods, currencies, languages and networks.

Optima’s high-level architecture, which includes a rich set of converged, prepaid and postpaid BSS functionalities, enables provision of a wide array of solutions. With a flexible, open platform, it can be deployed in a private cloud, public cloud or on premise.

Multi-tenancy capabilities allow for a “define once, utilize many” strategy, whereby different tenants are hosted on a single hardware and software platform that is operated from a single location. The solution’s flexibility enables users to define and localize operations, including unique branding and invoice customizations. It also provides an intuitive, responsive user interface within an efficient and simple environment, with support for multiple devices (including PCs, tablets and smartphones).

Optima’s powerful business integration layer enables quick and easy integration with third-party applications. It also offers a vast library of ready-to use connectors for applications, platforms and communications protocols, including Salesforce, Dropbox, Google Drive, Facebook, Hadoop, session-initiated protocol (SIP), and many others.

Voice&Data: How will Amdocs Optima enable service providers to succeed and deliver on customer expectations in the digital era, when discounting strategies are no longer sufficient to guarantee success?

Jatinder Ahuja: Amdocs Optima delivers the flexibility and openness that provides midsized communications businesses with the agility to rapidly respond to the ever-changing market dynamics. Its ability to swiftly connect to third-party applications facilitates the customer journey and improves the customer experience. Amdocs Optima supports multiple lines of business, as well as the ability to offer service providers new business models such as revenue share, pay as you grow, and so on.  It’s a digital customer management & commerce solution to quickly and securely monetize any product or service, enabling service providers to quickly launch new compelling services the a consumer expect in the digital era.

The solution also enables new revenue streams in new market segments such as B2B and wholesale (MVNO/E), as well as the ability to provide “billing as a service” to enterprise customers for ease of operations and transactions.

Voice&Data: Is Amdocs Optima targeted exclusively to medium-sized businesses?

Jatinder Ahuja: While Amdocs Optima was designed to fill a much-needed gap in the midsized communication business (MCB) market, it also provides for the specialized requirements of MVNO/Es and digital enterprises of all sizes. With rising competition and the challenges of falling average revenue per user, lower profits, and increased regulation, the solution provides low total cost of ownership, while driving the ability to compete.

This ability is driven by Amdocs Optima’s web-based self-service interfaces for customer empowerment, automation for streamlined business processes, reduced cost of delivery, as well as the option for cloud hosting. In addition, the solution’s flexible service creation platform maximizes market agility and supports personalization, enabling businesses to maximally leverage their competitive advantages, especially in areas such as over-the-top services and the IoT-related offerings.

Voice&Data: Are the needs of midsized communications businesses different to those of the mega-players?

Jatinder Ahuja: In terms of satisfying customer demand for excellent experience, the needs of midsized communications businesses needs are similar to those of the mega players. At the same time however, the financial flexibility of midsized communications businesses is usually more limited, due to the size of their subscriber base. With a platform built specifically for their needs, Amdocs Optima enables such companies to undergo digital transformation, stepping into the new digital era, thereby increasing their ability to compete and provide an exceptional customer journey.

 Voice&Data: In which other sectors could Amdocs Optima potentially be a game changer?

Jatinder Ahuja: Amdocs Optima has the potential to make a significant impact both in the MVNO/E market and with digital enterprises. This ability comes from its unifying business integration layer, common cloud-based architecture and sophisticated user interface.

For digital enterprises specifically (for example, those offering digital subscriptions, finance, transportation and utility services, and which use subscription-based business models), Amdocs Optima offers support for multi-hierarchy, multi-regional and multi-vertical operations. This includes flexible engagement models, including software as a service (SaaS) pricing options.

Voice&Data: What capabilities are required to offer customers a seamless experience for transactions that span multiple channels?

Jatinder Ahuja: A blended channel experience is one that allows individual transactions to span multiple channels (e.g. start order in self-care, transfer to service rep, collect in store). Such an experience is enabled through the use of advanced technologies (e.g. HTML 5, Node JS, React), which create the necessary logic, including central management of business rules and smart business process management.

Voice&Data: How will Amdocs Optima help businesses achieve their goals of digital transformation?

Jatinder Ahuja: Amdocs Optima addresses various business needs, including the ability to offer targeted services and rapidly resolve customer issues via the customer’s preferred channels.

As a lean and ready-to-use solution, Amdocs Optima can be up and running in a very short time. Built with powerful integration tools, it can quickly and easily connect to existing back-end systems and third-party applications. In addition, with smart interoperability and automation that directly impacts operating costs and the bottom line, Amdocs Optima closes the lead-to-cash cycle in a transparent, hassle-free manner.

Voice&Data: Which Amdocs customers are currently using Amdocs Optima?

Jatinder Ahuja: Seaborn Networks, a developer and operator of submarine fiber-optic cable systems connecting Brazil and the United States, has chosen to deploy Amdocs Optima as a means to introducing innovative pricing models, as well as to manage customer relationships from initial engagement to cash. The engagement is based on a seven-year managed services contract.

Voice&Data: How will Amdocs Optima impact telecom billing within the Indian market?

Jatinder Ahuja: Amdocs Optima’s multi-tenancy capabilities will enable Indian service providers of all sizes to implement MVNE platforms and on-board MVNOs simply, easily and swiftly. It will allow them to achieve fast time to market and lean operations either in the cloud or on-premise, thereby powering profitable growth.

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