NEW YORK – With the evolution of the IP Multimedia Subsystem (News - Alert), the service capabilities interaction manager (SCIM) has received an increasing amount of attention. That’s because a flexible Service Delivery Platform (SDP) shouldn’t just enable service providers to quickly launch new services, a fully scaleable SDP should also better manage those services, coordinate with other offerings and all tie back into existing IMS network elements (CSCF, HSS, OSS/BSS, etc.)

 

“The main benefit of the SCIM is that it allows service operators to combine services offered from existing application servers to create new services. This is extremely important for operators deploying IMS systems since they do not have to recreate applications,” noted telecom equipment analyst Brian Modoff of Deutsche Bank in a recent IMS report.

 

Innovative companies such as Leapstone Systems have definitely carved out a name for themselves doing just this. By partnering with stalwart technology companies and joining their respective ecosystems, the company hasn’t just raised its own profile but also the relevance of the SCIM element in general. But Leapstone certainly isn’t alone in this field anymore.

 

Earlier this year, Lucent Technologies (News - Alert) formalized its Lucent Service Broker product, which functions as a SCIM within its turnkey IMS solution. Developed by Bell Labs, the Lucent Service Broker is a software module designed to blend and coordinate real-time and non-real-time services.

 

“We've taken it one step further when you compare it with the Leapstone,” explained Mike Cooper, Director, Lucent Technologies Converged Core Solutions. “We've given Service Broker the ability to talk SIP and non-SIP.”

 

But while Lucent Service Broker provides a reliable solution for greenfield deployment scenarios, some service providers may not want buy a brand new Jeep when all they really want is a snowplow. Therefore, another company that originally has its roots in the calling card and voice trafficking business known as Solegy (News - Alert) is positioning itself as a “hosted Leapstone,” providing in essence a signaling proxy to help with real-time transaction server functionality.

 

In a recent visit to the company’s downtown headquarters, Solegy CEO Eric Hernaez explained that because his company “grew up” in the hosted world, he sees his role of providing integration services as a natural extension to help operators seize on the time-to-market advantage and help applications developers with the proverbial “chicken or egg” quandary.

 

“Until the networks support these applications, it doesn’t make sense for application developers to re-engineer their services,” Hernaez told TMCnet in an interview, encapsulating Solegy’s competitive advantage.

 

To be sure, Leapstone has a considerable head-start. And to reinforce its thought-leadership position, the company has begun testing the Leapstone CCE serviceBROKER software with the 2006 Global MultiService Forum (News - Alert) Interoperability (GMI) event at the BT Advanced Research and Technology Centre in Britain – one of five sites across three continents being used for the global interoperability tests being conducted through October 27.

 

“GMI 2006 is an important step in proving the real-world readiness of the IMS service model, allowing the seamless delivery of services and compound services delivered from applications provided by different vendors and built upon differing technologies,” said Stuart Walker, Principal Architecture and Technology Advisor for Leapstone Systems.

 

Hernaez acknowledged that Solegy is lagging slightly in terms of proof-of-concept testing with leading IMS element vendors like HP (HLR, HSS), BEA Systems (News - Alert) (application server), Motorola (News - Alert) or Ericsson (News - Alert) (hardware manufacturers).

 

It is working, though, with Bluewave Networks on tying into HSS elements. In addition, it has been testing its ServicePDQ platform with major service providers like Earthlink (News - Alert) and ZingoTel.

 

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Robert Liu is Executive Editor at TMCnet. Previously, he was Executive Editor at Jupitermedia and has also written for CNN, A&E, Dow Jones and Bloomberg. For more articles, please visit Robert Liu's columnist page.