Telecom Technology

1.0 Executive Summary

Over the last four years, OSS Telecom Technology, a well respected $300 million steel conglomerate, has built up significant interests in the telecom sector ranging from wireless and paging services to billing software. OSS Telecom Technology Taiwan, was formed in Taiwan in 1994 to pursue opportunities in the Operations Support Systems (OSS) telecom software market, with a particular focus on customer care and billing software solutions (CCB systems). Since 1994, OSS Telecom Technology Taiwan has grown steadily, building a customer base of 24 telecom operators for its software.

In 1998, encouraged by the potential of the billing software market opportunity, OSS Telecom Technology decided to pursue a more aggressive expansion strategy, appointing an experienced and credible executive management team to unleash the potential of the OSS Telecom Technology Taiwan business. Corresponding with the placement of the executive management team, OSS Telecom Technology was created. OSS Telecom Technology has already made and continues to make significant investments in growing the business.

2.0 Situation Analysis

OSS Telecom Technology current situation:

Product

Since 1994, OSS Telecom Technology has developed an open and flexible product platform from which it can expand. The current product portfolio includes:

* Caribou: a customer care and billing product;

* MEDUSA: a mediation system providing billing data collection and service provisioning services.

The following products are all currently under development:

* Short Messaging Service Center (SMSC);

* IN Prepaid/Calling Card Platform;

* Performance Appraisal of Networks (PAN): Windows and UNIX based network performance monitoring system for telecom networks;

* Java-based rules engine.

Product Support

In support of product sales, OSS Telecom Technology offers a number of services such as installation and configuration, as well as warranty and post warranty support services.

Consulting Services

OSS Telecom Technology has developed most of its products to date through projects delivered as part of its consulting services group. Services offered under the umbrella of the consulting services group include consulting, project development, and implementation. This enables OSS Telecom Technology products to be closely tailored to customer needs.

2.1 Market Summary

Operations support systems (OSS) encompasses a broad range of applications and services. Although definitions vary, OSS typically includes applications geared toward customer acquisition, service provisioning, asset management, network management, customer care, and billing. Increasingly, these applications are becoming more interdependent and carriers are beginning to realize how important a world-class OSS is to effective competition.

Telecommunications OSS

The OSS segment of the telecommunications industry is experiencing tremendous growth. The increasingly competitive telecommunications market, both wireline and wireless, has increased carriers' awareness of the importance of OSS. As a result, companies are investing millions of dollars in their OSS in order to improve operations and create a competitive advantage.

In terms of aggregate spending on OSS, projections differ, mainly because there is no consensus on the exact definition of OSS. Nevertheless, the Yankee Group predicts that the OSS market will grow to almost $60 billion worldwide in 2003 before falling off slightly. The slight decrease in spending is the result of more companies choosing to build rather than buy certain components of their OSS.

Customer Care & Billing Overview

OSS Telecom Technology currently focuses on one aspect of OSS, customer care and billing (CCB) systems. At its highest level, a CCB system provides a carrier with the means to bill its customers for service.

However, bill generation is but one aspect of a complete CCB application. The data captured by the billing system provides valuable information to both the carrier and the customer on how services are used, what additional services are necessary, how services can be used more efficiently, or even how effective particular promotions or operations have been. Today's CCB systems collect, collate, manage, and report this valuable information to management, usually in real time.

CCB systems are also vital in terms of customer service and satisfaction. By having real time access to customer information, customer service representatives can better respond to customer needs in a timely and efficient manner.

In addition, modern CCB systems can turn the monthly bill into an invaluable marketing tool; this is important since the customer's bill is the only regular contact a company has with its customers. As a result, a great deal of attention is typically placed on a company's CCB applications.

Target Markets

Market Analysis

Potential Customers Growth 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 CAGR

Tier 2 Telecom Operators 8% 481 519 561 606 654 7.98%

Tier 3 Telecom Operators 6% 564 595 628 663 699 5.51%

Internet Service Providers 10% 2,011 2,202 2,411 2,640 2,891 9.50%

Application Service Providers 10% 2,540 2,781 3,045 3,334 3,651 9.50%

Total 8.99% 5,596 6,097 6,645 7,243 7,895 8.99%

2.1.1 Market Needs

The outlook for the future appears positive. Telecom markets will continue to deregulate and the number of operators will continue to grow to 5,500 in 2004, representing an additional 1,700 compared to 1998.

With the increase in operators, the demand for OSS has also increased. OSS are the systems on which the telecom operator's business runs. At the core of OSS is billing for telecom services, which is provided by customer care and billing systems (CCB). CCB systems enable accurate, timely, flexible, feature-rich billing of services.

The additional competition in the marketplace has made OSS, and CCB systems