Why Merging with DingLi Makes a Lot of Sense?

Since the news broke out and the M&A between DingLi and AmanziTel became public I got several press calls, with so many calls during the day and so many questions it feels like I was conducting a press conference. The two main questions I have been asked were:
• Why merge with DingLi, a Chinese company?
• How did the merger came about?
First off its more of an acquisition than a merger with DingLi being the bigger partner, however I like the word merger (something like Nokia merging with Siemens to create NSN, we all knew what happened to that) so I will stick with that.

Why a Chinese company like Dingli and why not take merge with Western companies or take investment from western investors? The simple answer is actually provided by Robert Lindell (who joined DingLi from Ascom / TEMS) and I quote “In a few years time one third if all employees will be employed by a Chinese company”. That is a very strong statement, however more than that there are several benefits to both parties which I will outline here:
• DingLi has the hardware tools while AmanziTel have the software solutions, jointly allow us to provide a true end-to-end network performance monitoring, management and optimization solution. The solution is not just what others call as end-to-end, but true end to end from data collection on various interfaces to correlation of network, business and service performance. This goes up to automated reporting in various levels from engineering to top management on the same data sources without the need for manual manipulation.
• DingLi has plans to expand outside China while AmanziTel is penetrating the largest telecom market in the world and with a combine product both can be achieved
• To the customer its more than cost savings, its adding value to their operations and ensuring a lasting partnership with solutions driven by their unique environments and business strategies
• Cross innovations in home markets, this merger enable us to increase our research and development and at the same time bring close collaboration with both Chinese and Scandinavian vendors and partners

Of course since it’s really an acquisition there’s the financial incentive, it’s not the main driver but it is a component of the deal.

This merger took several months in the making to ensure that everything is in place and that the combination of products will create the desired solution for our existing and potential customers. Careful evaluation of each other’s products and more importantly the combine solution took the most time while the legal aspect like in any mergers simply took its own course. So now that the merger is public, the new solutions are actually ready to be deployed and the first few customers are lined up.

This are exciting times and as CEO of AmanziTel, the challenge of delivering the solution with the desired results to our customers takes the highest priority in the this phase of our operations. Both our commercial and open source applications are enhanced by the use of DingLi’s test and measurement portfolio, somehow if feels like the early days of Hewlett and Packard….

And oh by the way I am writing this blog while on the air, and for a change I found economy seats where I solely occupy the entire row, it’s good enough to enable to work while on the move…..

Is Open Source the ANSWER?

Having written my thoughts on what the issues are today concerning existing proprietary software and platforms, you might ask what the solutions in solving these issues are. Is open source technology the ANSWER?

NO, open source is not the only answer. Open source as defined by the Open Source Initiative and gives users freedom to do what they want on a piece of code but more importantly collaborate to improve the code so that in return more people are able to use it as a complete software. There of course multiple foundations and communities supporting open source such as the Eclipse Foundation , the Free Software Foundation , the Apache Software Foundation and a lot more. However in some cases these communities does not agree with each other regarding the definition of open source which is evident in the non-compatibility of their OSI approved open source licenses.

To truly address the issues concerning proprietary software, part of the ANSWER lies within the organisation who provides the platform or software. YES, you need open source licensing to deliver total freedom to users and it should also be fully supported with an enterprise level of support and not only form the user community. Just imagine how bad it is for a company acquiring a piece of software for free, implements it in their business and then later can't get support to address any problems or mistakes they might have created.

Furthermore as user requirements evolve, the platform should be very agile to be always in the forefront of technology advancement. In this sense part of the ANSWER is through collaboration between organisations and community contributions to ensure that evolution and revolution are captured and implemented as innovations during the platform's lifecycle.

Is the mobile telecom sector ready for open source?

I have often been asked "Is there a place for open source in the Mobile Telecoms industry". My ready made answer is always "YES".

Now let's take a closure look, in the consumer electronics market, open source software is widely used while in the handset market we now see open source operating systems being implemented in the latest "multi-media" handsets... think of Google's Android OS. So that easily answers the question, doesn't it?

How about the all important infrastructure side of mobile telecoms, the holy grail of most network operators and system vendors? The answer is again yes, however, today the usage of open source software in most of system vendor's equipment is not promoted. To find check the components of a network infrastructure and most likely you will find a hardware using an open source software. The use of open source software makes most of the software-dependent hardware to be sold at lower prices compared to when using a proprietary software.

The planning, management and optimisation parts of a mobile network are the areas where there is no open source presence or little penetration if any. Proprietary software makers dominate this sphere where software and applications are priced sky-high and in most cases more expensive than the hardware infrastructure needed to run them, justifiably so. The question then is why is that no open source solution exist? Actually you will be surprised that there are. For example the use of Linux OS and mySQL in several software application. What is missing is a complete solution or tool that is truly open source.

This is changing with the introduction of network management and due diligence applications that are truly open source. Further more decision support systems and analysis software covering planning, management and optimisation tasks that are truly open source are on its way to the market. A new era has begun, the age of free software :-)