Reseller partnership delivers agility to telecom operators across Africa

Nexign, a business support system (BSS) and Internet of Things (IoT) platform provider, announced a strategic reseller partnership with Dubai-based system integrator and solutions specialist, NETS International.

The partnership is set to enable the UAE-based broadband specialist to package Nexign's telecoms business suite as part of ground-breaking end-to-end network solutions.

The collaboration will allow the two industry leaders to bring flexible and scalable network-solutions offerings to operators across the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region, enabling them to accelerate their transition from communications service providers (CSPs) to digital service providers (DSPs).

The partnership will cover the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan, where Nexign and NETS will capitalise on a growing number of BSS opportunities. The pair will collaborate on major regional bids while they explore working together on projects involving popular technologies such as IoT, blockchain and big data.

Analysis show market growth

In its 2018 ICT Enterprise Insights report, global market analyst firm Ovum revealed that the telecoms sector boasts the greatest digital-maturity-progression index.

With a score of 43.9%, it outpaces manufacturers, retailers, and even the FSI sector. By 2021, almost all Tier 1 and most Tier 2 telecoms operators across EMENA, APAC and the Americas are expected to be either running their operations on the cloud or planning the migration.

A 2017 Ernst & Young poll showed that 71% of telecoms operators worldwide have placed the transformation from CSPs to DSPs at the top of their list of priorities, in a bid to build digital business models and drive monetisation.

NETS' core competencies in the domains of cloud, data centre, information security, enterprise networking and broadband access networks will gain strong augmentation from Nexign's technology-specifically Nexign Digital BSS, which is an end-to-end platform delivering full-stack BSS functionality – and global expertise in bringing the power of digital transformation to telecom operators.

Telecom operators geared for growth

"This is a pivotal moment for regional telcos and their entire supply chains," said Ahmad Sayed, regional head and VP of sales, Middle East and Africa at Nexign. "Systems integrators are on the frontlines of an industry-wide trend to transform CSPs into DSPs. DSPs have unprecedented flexibility to deliver the services consumers want, in the right bundles and at the right price.”

Sayed continued: “NETS' robust record in business consulting, technology and integration services, plus its regional reputation with leading MEA operators, makes the company the ideal partner to maximise value of our BSS platform and deliver on Nexign's strategic vision of supporting regional operators on their journeys from CSP to DSP."

Nexign's competitive advantage is rooted in the company's future-proof portfolio of products and services, proven global track record of 120 successful projects with over 50 CSPs-including with a Tier 1 operator with over 75+ million subscribers. NETS will now be able to package Nexign's market-leading, telecoms-specific BSS platform as part of a ground-breaking end-to-end network-solutions portfolio, delivering first-level support-with the help of its local expertise – to customers as needed.

Jahangir Ahmed, CEO at NETS International, said: "The MEA region is awash with organisations looking to do more with less, as catering to digital natives becomes more and more essential. CSPs need to digitise to remain relevant, and NETS' experience in working with the world's largest vendors to deliver quality at the local and regional levels, combined with Nexign's capability to deliver unprecedented flexibility in business modelling with its BSS, will mean a sea change in value for operators and their subscribers."