December 6, 2011 - London, UK: Tribold, the world’s leading provider of Enterprise Product Management (EPM) software specifically developed for Communication Service Providers (CSPs), has been evaluated again in the December 2011 Gartner Competitive Landscape report: ‘Evolution of Integrated Product Catalog and Service Catalog Management Solutions’.

The report details how CSPs can overcome the traditional operational obstacles of multiple dispersed commercial and technical catalogs and order fulfillment systems by opting for a cohesive product/service data repository in conjunction with order management. The report’s author, Martina Kurth, suggests improved agility of this solution can fundamentally alter the customer's perceived quality of experience and, therefore, the CSPs competitive differentiation.

Additionally, the report examines the product strategy of nine leading vendors providing these solutions, including Tribold, and offers due diligence guidance for CSPs' sourcing decisions in this market. 

Key findings of the report include:

•During 2011 and 2012, early adopter CSPs will move to a unified, metadatabase information management repository comprising commercial product and customer information, in conjunction with technical service and resource data, and embraced by a shared architecture.

•Customer experience and fulfillment transformation initiatives tend to be the key driver for CSPs' investment in product and service catalog solutions. The concept of an integrated product and service catalog is now being unified across network, IT and services boundaries; for example, in alignment with adjacent order orchestration/decomposition and product life cycle management capabilities.

•Inventory and suite vendors are well positioned to leverage market traction, by helping CSPs to overcome substantial operations support system (OSS)/business support system (BSS) integration issues through a cohesive customer-facing and network-facing dynamic product/service repository.

•Main spending drivers are services in the B2B, enterprise, IPTV and mobility domains. CSPs are starting to explore alternative approaches, such hosted software as a service (SaaS) models, to drive down costs.

Catherine Michel, Tribold’s CTO, commented: "Gartner recognizes the competitive differentiation CSPs can gain from solutions in this segment and this report is a valuable resource for CSPs considering an investment in Product/Service Management.”  Michel continued: "Once again, it is great to see the validation of the Tribold team’s industry leading expertise and our determined focus on rapid delivery and TCO reduction.” Michel: concluded: “I’m personally very proud to see the Tribold EPM product continue to be recognized as THE best of breed vendor in the market".

The report is available from Gartner at: http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=1863418&ref=g_fromdoc   

To learn more about Tribold’s solution for Product & Service Catalog visit www.tribold.com