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Telecommunications Equipment Providers:W H I T E PA P E R Enhancing Customer Satisfaction, and Revenues, with Embedded Software

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Telecommunicat ions Equipment Providers: Enhancing Customer Sat isfact ion, and Revenues, wit h Embedded Software Telecommunications Equipment Providers: Enhancing Customer Satisfaction, and Revenues, with Embedded Software Introduction These examples highlight why software licensing is such a More than ever, embedded software is playing a central role compelling best practice for intelligent device manufacturers. in intelligent device manufacturers’ go-to-market strategies. This trend is especially apparent in markets such as telecom, In fact, in today’s highly competitive and fast-moving test and measurement, healthcare, and industrial automation markets, the skill with which manufacturers structure the – where manufacturers are under increasing pressure to licensing of their embedded software – and the diligence innovate, rapidly enter new markets, control costs, maximize with which they manage their customers’ entitlements – may incremental revenue from existing customers, and deliver a well turn out to be what separates market leaders from other competitively differentiated customer experience. players. Today, manufacturers are applying software-based licensing principles to manage a wide range of functions As embedded software has become more integral to their in hardware ranging from telecommunication devices and business, more and more manufacturers are discovering the location intelligence equipment, medical equipment, supply power of software licensing. With licensing, manufacturers chain automation, automobiles, test and measurement, and can turn device features and/or capacity on and off as storage management. appropriate. This allows them to charge customers for the capabilities they want, while not charging them for This whitepaper outlines key trends and opportunities capabilities they don’t want. Specifically, licensing enables influencing telecom equipment providers, and how Flexera telecom equipment providers to more effectively use Software FlexNet® Producer Suite for Intelligent Device embedded software as a means of managing and monetizing Manufacturers can help these companies to fundamentally the features and functionality they provide in their devices. improve their business. In addition, the whitepaper illustrates the power of licensing-based solutions with a By adopting the right licensing models, telecom equipment customer implementation scenario. providers can: Trends and Opportunities in the Telecommunications • roduce different products on the same hardware P Equipment Arena chassis. This drives down costs by eliminating the need At a macro level, a convergence of business issues is driving for additional production lines and minimizing the the software-based differentiation of telecom equipment – all number of SKUs that have to be kept in inventory. of which can be capitalized upon with software licensing • reate innovative products on existing hardware C and entitlement management solutions: chassis. This reduces the cost and time it takes to bring differentiated products to new or existing markets. • hanging economics of intelligent device C • p-sell existing customers by simply activating U manufacturing: All segments of the telecommunications additional device capabilities or capacity. This makes it sector are driven by time to market. This fact has easier to capitalize on incremental driven the rise of standards-based hardware (such as revenue opportunities. AdvancedTCA) and core operating system software, • eet evolving customer needs without requiring them M which has in turn allowed telecom equipment to swap out hardware or otherwise disrupt their providers to gain economies of scale. Intelligent device operations. This makes for a more positive ongoing manufacturers are increasingly buying, versus building, customer experience. core subsystems and system software. As a result, their2 Flexera Software: FlexNet Producer Suite for Intelligent Device Manufacturers Whitepaper Series

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Telecommunicat ions Equipment Providers: Enhancing Customer Sat isfact ion, and Revenues, wit h Embedded Software role is evolving to more of an integrator, and less of a • ustomer preferences: In today’s ultra-competitive C manufacturer. Solution providers seek better ways to business environment, telecom equipment customers differentiate themselves; software is a key means to are demanding more flexible pricing models, easy creating competitive advantage and driving access to upgrade features, and a superior customer incremental revenue. experience. Embedded software licensing capabilities allow intelligent device manufacturers to meet all of • rowing revenue contribution from software: As a G these customer requirements by enabling important corollary to the commoditization of hardware, many capabilities such as field upgrades and a consistent, telecom equipment providers are focusing more streamlined customer experience resources on software development. As such, software across products. enables new revenue sources and provides a way to deliver a superior, differentiated customer experience. Turning to Flexera Software for answers As telecommunications manufacturers address these trends, • oftware-enabled supply chain transformation: With S they increasingly recognize that they face similar issues as the underlying hardware becoming more powerful software companies. Today’s intelligent device manufacturers and at the same time commoditized, equipment are looking to Flexera Software to help them: manufacturers can now build fewer base configurations and deliver more functions. Product capabilities, • each new markets by creatively packaging and R capacity, versions and price points can be created pricing embedded software and modified based on functions that can be turned • uild revenues by better monetizing capability B on and off by licensing of the embedded software. and capacity This dramatically streamlines the supply chain and • ut manufacturing costs by using software to C manufacturing processes, as well as lowering inventory differentiate capabilities on zs, and thus reduce the carrying costs. number of unique SKUs • ccurately track customer entitlements and usage A challenge for the telecom equipment provider The • rack channel partner activity, and maximize service T is to determine how to enable or limit access to and maintenance revenues certain functions of software, without changing the • revent unauthorized use of capabilities without cutting P configuration or SKU of the product. Licensing-based off legitimate customers approaches allow providers to enter new markets with • educe the operational costs associated with shipping R a full-function device, and then, as competition enters software upgrades the market, create lower or higher price points • ut customer support costs by offering customers and C with the same device by enabling or disabling channel partners self-service and keeping them current software functions. on the latest version • ake better development and marketing decisions M • rand and revenue erosion from grey market abuse: B based on device usage data As underlying device configurations become more standardized, grey market theft can be perpetrated FlexNet Producer Suite addresses telecom equipment more easily. For example, demonstration models of providers’ unique needs products increasingly find their way into the grey FlexNet Producer Suite for Intelligent Device Manufacturers market via channels for selling used equipment. is the most comprehensive end-to-end solution for electronic These devices are running improper software and licensing and entitlement management available today. typically do not function correctly, posing a serious Telecom equipment providers can benefit from Flexera threat to the customer experience. In addition, grey Software’s support for the largest number of embedded market sales jeopardize maintenance revenues, as software license models; FlexNet Producer Suite provides a manufacturers lose track of device ownership and thus single operations view to easily integrate products across the maintenance relationship. multiple software licensing schemes. Flexera Software supports dozens of platforms – the widest range in the industry – enabling telecommunications manufacturers to use it across both large- and small-footprint devices.Flexera Software: FlexNet Producer Suite for Intelligent Device Manufacturers Whitepaper Series 3

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Telecommunicat ions Equipment Providers: Enhancing Customer Sat isfact ion, and Revenues, wit h Embedded Software FlexNet Producer Suite for Intelligent Device Manufacturers Room for improvement – with FlexNet Producer Suite leverages Flexera Software’s 25 years of industry The CTO, who is charged with identifying strategic experience, helping to maximize revenue, cut costs, and customer-facing technology initiatives, recognized that eliminate manual processes. It has numerous features that the company’s licensing and entitlement processes were have been optimized for telecommunication manufacturers, inefficient. This sometimes resulted in a lag time of up to two including: days between a customer request and fulfillment. • mall footprint, embedded client: offers a licensing S “In a company as large and complex as ours, strategy is toolkit that is highly modular, supports several license easy, but execution is difficult,” he says of overhauling the models, and has a very small footprint (under 50K). company’s licensing processes. “That’s why we partnered This allows telecom equipment manufacturers to keep with Flexera Software, the industry leader in entitlement costs low by using licensing of the embedded software management solutions.” to configure capabilities and capacity on a device while producing a minimum number of device Improving customer satisfaction in a key business unit types (SKUs). One of first major Flexera Software initiatives the CTO • igh configurability: allows key elements such as H undertook was for the company’s outsourcing division security and binding to be configured or replaced that serves wireless carriers. Wireless carriers contract the as needed. This provides additional flexibility to Global Communications Solutions Provider to deliver key fine-tune the solution to meet exact requirements or aspects of their service – such as enabling technology and take advantage of existing device capabilities, while customer service solutions – thus allowing the carriers to keeping the footprint small. focus more fully on their core business. • ands-free activation and silent trials: provides H hands-free activation and silent trials that don’t require The outsourcing group is using Flexera Software FlexNet registration. This transparent in-product activation Operations, part of the FlexNet Producer Suite, to offer improves the customer experience and increases carriers a self-service portal for procuring additional licenses upgrades/up-selling by enabling easy trials for and capacity in real-time. This capability allows large new capabilities. quantities of the carrier’s call licenses to be quickly moved • icensing and entitlement management from end to L to parts of the country that experience spontaneous spikes end: provides a single view for you, your customers in usage – such as the South, after Hurricane Katrina, or the and your channel partners to view and manage city that’s hosting the Super Bowl football game. software embedded on devices and enables you to electronically turn on and off functionality. Batch license transfer is an important capability that allows thousands of licenses to be moved in one transaction, Case Study: A Global Communications Solution Provider helping to ensure that fewer users are denied service during Enhances Customer Satisfaction with Flexera Software high-volume calling periods. FlexNet Producer Suite A global communications solutions provider enables service “Before we implemented the FlexNet Producer Suite self- providers, enterprises and governments worldwide to deliver service portal, our customer, the wireless carrier, had to call voice, data and video communication services to end users. an administrative contact to request licenses for additional The company offers a wide range of wireless and wireline capacity. The administrator sent an email to sales, which hardware and software solutions – and is now dramatically then had to go to the factory and ask the staff there to improving the way it licenses all of them using FlexNet generate licenses manually, and then email them back to Producer Suite technology. the customer. This process took up to two days – but now customers can execute it themselves, in five minutes, through “As with most large companies, we have given our the self-service portal.” To accomplish this level of seamless individual business units a high level of autonomy, and functionality, the global communications solutions provider thus freedom to make many of their own technology integrated FlexNet Operations with its back-office systems. choices,” says the chief technology officer at the global communications solutions provider. “However, from our Flexera Software enables a more consistent experience customers’ view, this has created a fragmented and “FlexNet Producer Suite has helped us improve the way sometimes cumbersome way of doing business with we view and administer entitlements. Now our license our company.” generators can be consolidated into a single system, saving us time and money while giving customers a more consistent experience,” says the CTO.4 Flexera Software: FlexNet Producer Suite for Intelligent Device Manufacturers Whitepaper Series

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Telecommunicat ions Equipment Providers: Enhancing Customer Sat isfact ion, and Revenues, wit h Embedded SoftwareHe says that choosing Flexera Software has been a About Flexera Softwarestrategic decision that resulted in a strong relationship Flexera Software is the leading provider of strategicand an ongoing partnership between the two companies. solutions for Application Usage Management; solutions“Our partnership has manifested itself in two ways: in the delivering continuous compliance, optimized usage andshort term, Flexera Software Professional Services worked maximized value to application producers and theirclosely with our team to implement FlexNet Producer Suite customers. Flexera Software is trusted by more than 80,000to do exactly what we wanted. Looking forward, Flexera customers that depend on our comprehensive solutions-Software’s product management team has been very from installation and licensing, entitlement and compliancecommitted to giving our company what we need, factoring management to application readiness and enterprise licenseour needs into the FlexNet Producer Suite development optimization - to strategically manage application usageroadmap. From senior management to our everyday and achieve breakthrough results realized only through thecontacts, Flexera Software has shown us how flexible they systems-level approach we provide. Flexera Software is acan be.” privately-held company and an investment of private equity firm Thoma Bravo, LLC. For more information, please go to:The CTO summarizes, “We look forward to continuing www.flexerasoftware.comto work with Flexera Software to better serve all of ourcustomers. FlexNet Producer Suite is an enablingtechnology in allowing us to achieve our goal of enhancingcustomer satisfaction.” For more information, please go to: www.flexerasoftware.com/telecomSummary where you can learn more about the valuableTelecommunication equipment providers are increasingly opportunities Flexera Software offers.shifting to a technology and business model that emphasizesvalue delivery through software. FlexNet Producer Suite isthe industry-leading licensing and entitlement managementsolution for intelligent device manufacturers - unlockingrevenue of embedded software and reducing operationalcosts while streamlining manufacturing processes. FlexNetProducer Suite also delivers unified entitlement managementin both on-demand and on-premise options.As competition intensifies in today’s global market,maximizing customer satisfaction, building revenues andreducing costs remain top business imperatives. FlexNetProducer Suite for Intelligent Device Manufacturers allowstelecommunication equipment manufacturers to: • enetrate new markets through cost-effective, software- P driven product differentiation • mprove customer satisfaction by offering self-service I and a consistent experience for downloading, using and upgrading products • educe the number of SKUs that must be manufactured, R carried and supported • nable electronic upgrades E • ully monetize maintenance programs with better F tracking of channel and end-customer entitlements • llow new up-sell capabilities to be sampled and A activated in the fieldFlexera Software: FlexNet Producer Suite for Intelligent Device Manufacturers Whitepaper Series 5

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Flexera Software, Inc. Schaumburg United Kingdom (Europe, Japan (Asia, For more office locations visit:1000 East Woodfield Road, (Global Headquarters) Middle East Headquarters): Pacific Headquarters): www.flexerasoftware.comSuite 400 +1 800-809-5659 +44 870-871-1111 +81 3-4360-8291Schaumburg, IL 60173 USA +44 870-873-6300© 2011 Flexera Software, Inc. and/or InstallShield Co. Inc. All other brand and product names mentioned herein may be the trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. FPS_WP_Telecom_June11