OSS Advances Bode Well
for Gains in Service Velocity and Management
©
Screenplays - August 2007 - Peter Lambert
Suppliers
of operations support software are making significant
headway toward creating an approach to bundling, delivering
and billing for advanced services that will offer service
providers higher service velocity and greater efficiencies
in product lifecycle management.
By
most accounts the nexus of configuring and managing
all the complexities of the new services environment
lies most logically with a product catalog that serves
as a repository for detailed definitions of product
components that can be tapped by back-office, provisioning
and other processes, both internal and external to each
operator’s enterprise. Now product catalog
modeling is taking product lifecycle management (PLM)
theory into the real world of operations and business
support system (OSS/BSS) products and trials.
Last
fall, under the auspices of the Tele-Management Forum
(TMF), operators AT&T and BT, along with suppliers
including Ceon, Square Hoop and Telcordia conducted
a PLM proof-of-concept project. One in a series
of TMF’s so called Catalyst initiatives, the aim
of the project was to “try to define details of
product definition and lifecycle and product catalog
management as a distinct discipline; to get clarity
on what it really is,” says Yogen Patel, vice
president of product management and marketing for PLM
solution supplier Ceon.
Subsequently,
Ceon joined pricing and rating solutions supplier Highdeal
and IP service automation and delivery management software
supplier Visionael to launch an end-to-end telecom PLM
solution that the companies say will enable convergent
service providers to launch and manage innovative
and combinational multi-play offerings on a regular
basis.
Such
an end-to-end solution requires core product catalog
that can be universally understood by all participating
systems. Downstream, toward the subscriber, for
example, precise and understandable product definitions
are needed to inform order management systems of exactly
what services and features the customer is being offered.
Downstream network provisioning and service activation
systems also rely on detailed product definitions to
accurately fulfill orders.
Upstream,
OSS/BSS systems including rating, charging, billing
and customer support similarly employ detailed product
definitions as the basis for their functions.
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