Increased competition from Internet companies, decline in voice and data revenues, and slow growth in the average revenue per user are some of the main challenges that Telecom companies are facing at present.

That could be the reason why many telecom companies are realizing that it is imperative to build a platform that enables faster delivery and management of future services by the third-party application developers or by the service providers themselves.

TechNavio Insights has recently published the report Global Service Delivery Platform Market in the Communications Industry - 2008-2012. Service Delivery Platform (more commonly known as SDP), provides the necessary components - hardware & software- , says one of the TechNavio experts, allowing the creation and management of new digital services through a horizontal service network in a telecommunication environment

There are many benefits for providers and operators. They range from enabling the sale of services through third parties- including telecommunications service providers and consumer portal providers- to maintaining an assertive role in the entire service delivery value-chain, and also accelerating a positive return on investments by ensuring a consistent and highly automated service environment.