At the first day of ITU Telecom Africa 2001 yesterday, SchlumbergerSema and Compaq launched what they describe as a solution created especially for the African market.
The SimphonyLite bundle is "GSM in a box", the companies say, at least as far as the services side of the business goes.
The box in question contains a real-time prepaid platform with voucher management, an SMS centre and call centre solution with ERP and CRM elements, and a financial package covering the range from payroll to billing.
It is designed to run on the Compaq Unix flavour and on the Compaq AlphaServer, and uses the company`s TeMIP network management tools. Compaq will also be responsible for worldwide support.
The system is expected to retail at around $2.5 million in a once-off payment and is rated for up to 500 000 customers. Compaq and Sema say it will take eight to twelve weeks to get up and running in most environments.
The package was put together in Johannesburg and will initially be marketed in Africa, although the companies say they have seen interest from Eastern Europe, Russia and China.
"We built this for Africa where new cellular operators now get licences in markets where there are already two or three players and want to be up and running quickly," says Sema marketing director Jennifer Cherry.
Compaq Telecoms says the merger with HP is not expected to put a damper on any of its sales, including the SimphonyLite, despite the fact that neither company can guarantee that any specific product line will not be discontinued.
Mitesh Desai, VP and GM of Compaq`s telecoms division, says customers have been reassured that they will be looked after regardless of the outcome of the merger.
"By and large we have not lost a deal because of it," he says.
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