The BRIKKS business support system is used in the Open Networks customer segment to generate a neutral marketplace where the consumer can select from a wide range of service suppliers and independently choose the mix of suppliers that is best suited for each household. The selection household A makes has no effect on household B. The open networks generate healthy competition that gives consumers a greater freedom of choice and competitive prices in relation to performance.

As the open networks make their infrastructures available on equal and neutral terms, excellent conditions are also generated for new service suppliers to reach significant groups of new customers. This has produced a fairly large number of new suppliers that are using a range of innovative methods to break into the open market alongside the well-established suppliers. In order for the good ideas associated with open and neutral networks to be able to work in practice, the need for powerful and flexible business support systems is great. Unless the consumer perceives that the freedom of choice is simple and understandable, the assumed benefits quickly dissipate.

Automated networks

Labs² has been working with open networks since the concept was first tested in 1999 by ViaEuropa in Hammarby Sjöstad in Stockholm, and can today as one of few suppliers deliver fully automated open networks. Labs² assesses that the demand for business support systems for open networks is on the rise and that demand will be increasingly international. Among Labs² customers in this customer segment you will find major energy groups like Vattenfall via their broadband activities on Gotland, C4 Energi in Kristianstad, major property companies like HSB Skåne and general utility companies like Sigtunahem, LKF, Allbohus Fastighets AB, and Hammarby Sjöstad with a number of both private and public property companies. The majority of property owners are customers indirectly through ViaEuropa which is an important customer for Labs² and probably also the world's first specialised communications operator.

Through ViaEuropa the lion's share of the Internet, telephony and media suppliers active on the market are major users of the BRIKKS business support system. These include Telia, Glocalnet, Adamo, Bahnhof, Bredband2, Blixtvik as well as media companies such as Canal Digital, Viasat, SF-Anytime and CDON. By using BRIKKS, ViaEuropa has created an effective handling system for service suppliers of the many open networks that are available in both Scandinavia and on the international market.