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Summary Bullets:
- In 2018 telco software suppliers Nexign, Optiva, Federos, and Nokia Software are using new brand names to power corporate strategic priorities such as penetrating new geographic regions and executing portfolio makeovers.
- By using new brand names, telco software vendors demonstrate their strategic commitment to meeting emerging market demands and sustaining long-term competitiveness in a shifting and challenging market landscape.
Telco software vendors are constantly adapting new marketing and branding strategies to meet emerging market demands and shifting competitive dynamics. Nexign, Federos, Optiva, and Nokia Software are recent high-profile examples of vendors who are using new corporate namesakes as an integral element in boosting their long-term competitiveness.
In each case it is important to review the corporate brand name changes and the business outcomes accompanying the changes:
- <i>Nexign</i>: In February 2018, Nexign changed its name from Peter-Service to usher in the company’s new corporate strategy of offering its digital BSS portfolio on a global basis. The Peter-Service brand name derived from the company’s headquarters location in St. Petersburg, Russia. The name served the company successfully in winning operator billing business in Russia and throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). In 2017, the Peter-Service board authorized a long-term growth strategy to expand into regions starting with Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and portions of Asia-Pacific (APAC). To kickzstart the strategy, Peter-Service adopted the name Nexign to signal to prospects that the company is moving beyond its Russian/CIS customer footprint while also avoiding the baggage of using a brand name easily open to parody in the English language.
- <i>Federos</i>: In November 2017, Federos changed its name from Monolith Software. The new corporate name reflects the new growth objectives for the company in driving operator digital transformation as well as and completing the integration of the assets from its previously announced purchase of TDB Fusion Group in August 2017. Shedding the Monolith Software namesake enables Federos to minimize any market misperception and rival marketing games that its portfolio is monolithic and thus inflexible and incompatible with open source architectures. Operating under the Federos brand has served the company well in 2018, including the addition of strategic partnerships with Elastic and Customer First Consulting and augmenting its digital service assurance portfolio with machine learning and event analytics enhancements.
- <i>Optiva</i>: In January 2018, Optiva announced its corporate name changed from Redknee with the official effective date for the name change beginning on March 29, 2018. Optiva’s Board of Directors approved a strategic re-organization plan and subsequent change in brand name to move away from the past years of troublesome acquisitions (e.g., Orga Systems assets) exacerbated by dubious CEO conduct. Optiva is well under way with its restructuring with the new brand name bolstering the move beyond the Redknee legacy and brand name.
- <i>Nokia Software</i>: In Q1 2018, Nokia launched and labeled its new telco software unit, Nokia Software, to demonstrate the company’s long-term strategic commitment to driving operator software platform transformation. The Nokia Software brand reinforces the company’s portfolio development strategy throughout 2018, consisting primarily of delivering its Common Delivery Framework (CDF) and Common Software Foundation (CSF) to unify the building and integration of its software products. Equally important, the Nokia Software unit focuses the recruitment and development of its dedicated telco software sales team.
The executive-level decision to rebrand an entire company is momentous as it requires personnel, customers, and partners to accept a new identity while not disrupting established business relations. The new name also must align with meeting core organization-wide objectives including executing new growth strategies, moving beyond legacy limitations, and penetrating new geographic regions as demonstrated in the Nexign Federos, Optiva, and Nokia Software new branding exercises. Accordingly a successful corporate rebrand and new brand initiative must help drive the new identity and growth strategy required for the company to adapt long-term to the shifting competitive landscape.