Provisioning and activation provider, Syndesis, will announce a definitive agreement to acquire data integrity management specialist, CoManage, this Tuesday as it embarks on a growth strategy that includes targeting wireless operators and extending into adjacent technologies such as service assurance and data integrity management.

Toronto, Ontario-based Syndesis provides operations support systems primarily for Layer 2 and Layer 3 services. Pittsburg-based CoManage, which made its mark with its auto-discovery technology, provides data integrity solutions for Layer 1 services such as DACS, Sonet and SDH.

“Even though we both bring very comprehensive discovery technology to the table, they are surprisingly complimentary,” said Dave Nelson, CEO of CoManage. “By uniting them into a single discovery product, we end up with a huge footprint of network types, service types and device types we can support right out of the gate.”

CoManage’s TrueSource product line will be integrated with Syndesis’ NetProvision products. The TrueSource brand will remain, while the CoManage name becomes OSS history. Upon close, Nelson will become president of Syndesis’ data integrity business and vice president of business development. Adam Boone, senior director of marketing will become vice president of strategic marketing at Syndesis. CoManage co-founder, president and chief technology officer, Andy Fraley, also will join Syndesis.

In addition to the leading data integrity product in the market, CoManage brings Syndesis several important customers, such as BT, Cingular, Sprint and Verizon Wireless, to add to its own 20 or more major service provider clients. The two worked together on a project at Telecom Italia just prior to their merger agreement, where they proved their compatibilities in a live network environment with Telcordia’s Granite inventory system.

“The timing couldn’t be better because this comes at a pivotal point where major change is underfoot and people are making strategic investments,” said Chris Swan, senior vice president of sales, marketing and alliances at Syndesis. “And they are realizing how critical the OSS infrastructure can be in getting them where they want to go.”

The acquisition helps Syndesis strengthen its suite of “network aware” service delivery management solutions. The combined solutions will improve Syndesis’ ability to provide customer-centric service assurance, inventory accuracy, network utilization and asset tracking. It also will help service providers reduce revenue leakage and attain what Syndesis calls first-time right fulfillment.

The key to providing these capabilities is data integrity. Larry Goldman, partner at OSS Observer, said in a statement that CoManage’s robust data integrity capabilities significantly enhance Syndesis’ support for high-precision processes.

The two companies almost missed each other in their separate searches for new partners. CoManage began its search for an M&A partner last October and by January had proposals from four companies, none of which were Syndesis.

CoManage management was hesitant about talking to Syndesis. “Of all the people in the world, we considered their discovery technology to be the most competitive to us and we had concerns that if a deal didn’t take off that we were sharing a lot of information with someone who would be very well positioned to go after our space,” Nelson said.

In the long run, Boone said, it came down to evidence obtained through some third-party research that the number one driver for data integrity projects—CoManage’s specialty—was service provisioning and fulfillment. “This is a perfect match with Syndesis for that reason,” he said.

Syndesis was seeing a major transition toward real-time fulfillment for services such IPTV, VoIP and other triple play services.

“If you look at where the industry is headed, we will be dealing with copper, fiber, Ethernet and IP. Essentially all the layers of the network are converging into one service offering, making it one of the most complex services with the highest potential for error,” Swan said. “This acquisition moves us closer to the network-aware approach we need to get things right the first time. That’s first-time right fulfillment.”

Given CoManage’s customer list in wireless, this acquisition also helps Syndesis increase its footprint in that market. “We are definitely embarking on a wireless effort and to expand our product to fit where the industry seems to be going,” Swan said. “We were already being pulled into this by customers like Telecom Italia who is merging TI Mobile into the fixed portion of their business.”

Syndesis first made a push into the mobile market back in April of 2003 with a mediation product.