New Release of Infranet. Enables Service Providers To ManageChallenges From European Currency Transition
Cupertino, Calif., (December 7, 1998) -- Portal Software, Inc., the leader in real-time customer management and billing software for IP communications providers, today announced that the next version of its Infranet software is now available and includes significant enhancements such as support for the Euro and integration with Cisco System's NetFlow software. Because Portal is the first major vendor to ship real-time customer management and billing software for IP services that includes support for the Euro currency, service providers now can easily manage the conversion process by allowing customers to pay for service in either a national currency or the Euro throughout the three year transition period.
"IP service providers face an interesting challenge in the European market as 11 national currencies will be converted into one over a three year period," said Steve Sommer, vice president of business development at Portal Software. "Without the flexibility to support dual currencies for each account, service providers would not be able to comply with the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) guidelines that allow customers to use either the Euro or national currency. Providing real-time customer management and billing support for the Euro transition as quickly as possible was a priority for us and we are pleased to deliver this functionality to the market."
Euro Support
Because initial transition to the Euro currency will occur during a three year period from January 1, 1999 to January 1, 2002, customers must have the option of paying for service with either the Euro or national currency in this timeframe. With version 5.5.2, Infranet enables service providers to support this requirement by designating a primary and secondary account currency at the time an account is created as long as one currency is the Euro. With the flexibility of Infranet's dual currency capabilities, service providers can easily bill customers and accept payment in either currency. In addition, the combination of Infranet's dual currency functionality with its complete real-time architecture, allows service providers to support customer service features with up-to-the-minute account status that can be viewed in either currency.Cisco NetFlow Integration
Infranet now integrates with Cisco's Netflow software to deliver service providers an advanced usage-based billing solution that features the industry's only complete real-time architecture. With Cisco's innovative NetFlow technology, its router and switch platforms generate detailed, flow-based accounting data required to support usage-based billing structures. Infranet 5.5.2 analyzes data generated from NetFlow and updates account status based on accumulated usage. Cisco and Portal's product integration offers service providers the unique functionality to generate, analyze and update accumulated service usage on a completely real-time basis, so account status is maintained with the most current information possible.Service providers also have the flexibility to offer creative, multi-tiered pricing plans that measure usage in a variety of ways including total number of bytes sent/received during a billing period; number of bytes sent/received per second; time of day; quality of service; different rates for inbound and outbound services or any combination of the above. In addition, Portal's end-to-end real-time technology enables billing structures to be adjusted within minutes based on market or competitive demands.
"With the integration of Cisco's NetFlow software and Portal's real-time IP billing system, service providers have the flexibility required to offer revenue-generating, premium services based on accumulated usage pricing structures," said Herb Madan, vice president and general manager of Cisco's Network and Services Management Business Unit. "By deploying Portal's advanced usage-based billing solution that integrates with Cisco's Netflow, service providers can offer a broader range of services, bill for these services with greater flexibility and provide their customer base with more value."
"Portal's customer base includes several of the world's leading IP service providers, all of which have selected Infranet because of the flexibility its end-to-end real-time capabilities deliver," said Sommer. "Because Infranet is now integrated with Cisco's NetFlow software, we are able to offer our customers even more flexibility."
Pricing and Availability
Infranet 5.5.2 is available immediately on the Sun Solaris, HP-UX and Windows NT platforms. For pricing information, please contact Portal via email at productinfo@portal.com.About Portal Software, Inc.
Portal Software provides a real-time billing and customer care solution for providers of IP-based services. Portal's solution enables real-time management of current and next generation services by ISP's, telecommunications providers and emerging Internet businesses. Targeted services include dial-up and broadband consumer Internet access; high-speed business Internet access and backbone networking; virtual private networks; IP telephony and fax; online Web, storefront and application hosting; email and unified messaging; online content services; and other emerging IP-based consumer and business services. Portal's customers include leading Internet businesses worldwide such as US WEST, Microsoft, Juno, Grolier Online, France Telecom, OzEmail, VeriSign, ICL GamesZone and General Magic. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, Portal has offices throughout the U.S., as well as Hong Kong, Sydney and London.Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) is theworldwide leader in networking for the Internet.Portal and Infranet are U.S. registered trademarks, and Portal Software, the Portal logo, the Real Time-No Limits tagline are trademarks of Portal Software, Inc.
Cisco, Cisco IOS, Cisco Systems and the Cisco Systems logo are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. in the U.S., Canada and other countries. All other brand names and trademarks mentioned in this document are properties of their respective owners.
