Tribold and Alcatel-Lucent have signed a global OEM agreement under which Alcatel-Lucent can resell Tribold EPM (enterprise product management) as either a stand-alone product or in the context of their end-to-end Business Support Systems (BSS). It will put Tribold EPM at the heart of the Alcatel BSS suite that also includes Microsoft Dynamics CRM, (customer relationship management) software. The company has worked with Alcatel-Lucent in the past as an implementation partner on projects in Europe, but this is the first OEM agreement.

“Alcatel-Lucent went looking for a partner in enterprise product management because they’d already seen mature demand in the market from their customers and prospects. We’ve been working in the background already to ensure we work through that pipeline together and bring customers quickly onto the Alcatel-Lucent end-to-end BSS platform,” Ernest Margitta, Tribold’s VP marketing & partners, told RCR Wireless News.

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Alcatel-Lucent will be able to provide geographic reach in regions such as Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America where Alcatel-Lucent already has a footprint. The agreement was announced at last week’s TM Forum Management World, and according to Tribold, it happened after a rigorous competitive selection process.

Headquartered in London, Tribold provides EPM software specifically developed for communication service providers (CSPs). The company has been working with partners. “We are focused on core product capabilities in the product management arena while other vendors are focused on growing service revenue or generalizing their BSS capabilities,” Margitta said. ”The partnership with Alcatel-Lucent is significant though, as it’s the first to focus on a low TCO end-to-end BSS solution based on Microsoft platforms and including Dynamics CRM.”

He added that Microsoft is also a strategic partner, and the Alcatel-Lucent solution is validation for their strategy of building an ecosystem for Microsoft ISV partners and SI’s.

Margitta did not disclose financial terms of the agreement or future sales expectations.

RCR Wireless requested an interview from Alcatel-Lucent, but it was not provided by the story’s deadline.