Sigma Systems Signs SuddenlinkSigma Systems Signs Suddenlink

OSS vendor lands seventh-largest US MSO for launch of business services fulfillment product

Alan Breznick, Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading

June 18, 2013

2 Min Read
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Cashing in on cable’s commercial services drive, Sigma Systems has signed up Suddenlink Communications as the latest large MSO customer for the vendor's business voice and data provisioning system.

The two companies jointly announced Monday that Suddenlink has deployed an upgraded version of the Sigma Systems Fulfillment Solution, which enables cable operators to automate the activation of their voice and data services. The companies said the fulfillment product has enabled Suddenlink to "achieve full integration" of its business voice, SIP trunking and data services, "from billing to order entry to delivery."

Suddenlink thus joins such other large North American MSOs as Rogers Communications and CableOne as Sigma business services customers. Sigma also boasts four other North American and Western European cable operators and telcos as commercial clients but hasn’t disclosed their identities yet.

Rick Mallon, VP of marketing and product management for Sigma, said the Suddenlink deployment stands out from the others because it's the first one focused on both larger enterprises and small-to-midsize businesses (SMBs). In the previous six cases, the OSS deployments focused on just the SMB market.

Mallon said Suddenlink needed enterprise help because it has been signing up an average of one large company a week as it aggressively expands its business services operation under the unit's new president, Kevin Stephens. Each new big commercial customer, he noted, brings in 1,000 to 2,000 employee phone lines with it.

"It's easy to say you're going to cover large businesses, but it's very hard to do,” Mallon said. He noted that the technical interfaces for larger firms are more complex, the companies require multi-site support and their transactions are much more complicated to support, among other things.

With the market for cable and telco residential-oriented OSS systems now "getting pretty saturated," at least in its traditional North American and European regions, Sigma Systems is looking to diversify more into commercial-oriented provisioning work. Currently, the firm, which recently snagged Cable Bahamas for its residential voice provisioning system, relies on the residential market for 80 percent to 90 percent of its revenues.

Mallon said Sigma now has 10 cable operators and telcos around the world as strong prospects for OSS contracts, with eight of them looking for commercial help. He expects to sign up two or three of them by the end of the year.

— Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading

About the Author

Alan Breznick

Principal Analyst, Heavy Reading

Alan Breznick is a business editor and research analyst who has tracked the cable, broadband and video markets like an over-bred bloodhound for more than 20 years.

As a senior analyst at Light Reading's research arm, Heavy Reading, for six years, Alan authored numerous reports, columns, white papers and case studies, moderated dozens of webinars, and organized and hosted more than 15 -- count 'em --regional conferences on cable, broadband and IPTV technology topics. And all this while maintaining a summer job as an ostrich wrangler.

Before that, he was the founding editor of Light Reading Cable, transforming a monthly newsletter into a daily website. Prior to joining Light Reading, Alan was a broadband analyst for Kinetic Strategies and a contributing analyst for One Touch Intelligence.

He is based in the Toronto area, though is New York born and bred. Just ask, and he will take you on a power-walking tour of Manhattan, pointing out the tourist hotspots and the places that make up his personal timeline: The bench where he smoked his first pipe; the alley where he won his first fist fight. That kind of thing.

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