OSS/BSS Integration The Building Block of the Era of Big Data

How Can OSS/BSS Integration Enable Communication Service Providers to be More Competitive in a Data-Driven Market?

This publication has been sponsored by Comarch.

Table of Contents Fundamental Challenges Faced by CSPs .......................................................................................................3 Intensifying Competition...........................................................................................................................4 Reduced Time-to-Market ..........................................................................................................................4 Customer Experience Issues......................................................................................................................5 Meeting the Expectations of an Increasingly Demanding User Base........................................................5 Network Congestion..................................................................................................................................5 Dealing with Regulatory Issues .................................................................................................................6 OSS/BSS Convergence as an Answer to Operator Challenges ......................................................................7 Faster Time-to-Market ..............................................................................................................................8 Support for New Business Models ............................................................................................................9 Improved Flow of Information ..................................................................................................................9 Regulated Services Management............................................................................................................10 OSS/BSS Integration Comarchs Innovative Approach.............................................................................11 Pre-integrated OSS and BSS ....................................................................................................................12 Customer-focused OSS............................................................................................................................12 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................................14 About Comarch ...........................................................................................................................................15 About Frost & Sullivan.................................................................................................................................15

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Fundamental Challenges Faced by CSPs

Frost & Sullivan has witnessed the telecommunications world change significantly over the last ten years. The evolution of customer demand, supported by the broadband development, has led to the emergence of new services such as internet television, video on demand and voice over IP. Customers require more complex, tailored packages with high service quality. As a result, communication service providers (CSPs) need to place greater focus on the overall customer experience and - given intensifying competition - the speed of bringing new services to market. At the end of 2010, Frost & Sullivan conducted a survey of global Tier 1 CSPs. Based on the results of this research, Figure 1 illustrates the most significant challenges currently faced by leading service providers. Figure 1: Key CSP Challenges, 2010

Dealing with regulatory issues Network congestion Sustaining profitable growth Keeping pace with new technology trends Reducing complexity of the company's strructure Reduced time-to-market Growing customer expectations Efficiency improvement Intensifing competition 0%

7% 13% 20% 20% 30% 30% 37% 40% 57% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

Source: Frost & Sullivan, 2010 In order to keep pace with market evolution, CSPs have been prompted to redefine their strategies. The majority have transformed themselves from basic network access providers to service aggregators, providing network access as a medium for delivering content and other value-added services. The implementation of new strategies is a lengthy process, requiring the engagement of a broad range of a service providers resources as well as a change of mindset and technical improvements: CSPs need to ensure comprehensive integration of their operational support systems (OSS) and their business support systems (BSS).

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Intensifying Competition Alongside growing telecom market maturity, the competitive environment has become fierce. Almost 60% of CSPs surveyed by Frost & Sullivan in late 2010 stated growing competition as very important challenge. The introduction of new IP-based services that can replace traditional communication and media services has altered the competitive landscape. The widespread availability of broadband access has enabled the emergence of numerous over-the-top (OTT) providers that have started to offer innovative services delivered over CSP-owned infrastructure. As a result, such companies have not been competing with CSPs from a network and operational perspective, but strictly at the service level. In many cases, the services provided by OTT players such as Skype, Google and Facebook are free of charge for the end-user. However, they often provide a substitute option, challenging the revenue generating potential of CSPs in certain areas. Additionally, some types of OTT services, notably online video services, consume significant bandwidth. To underline this point, in 2010 the global data usage associated with video consumption reached 4 gigabytes per user per month; Frost & Sullivan expects the volume to surge further over the next five years. Noteworthy is the fact that CSPs are responsible for maintaining and enhancing the infrastructure that OTT services rely upon for their delivery, but receive no direct revenue in return. This situation has provoked much debate across the industry, with several leading operators voicing the opinion that OTT providers should pay their fair share of network upgrade/operational costs. The most important challenge for CSPs is to find appropriate solutions that allow them to compete with the OTT providers on an equal footing. Given the specific environments that CSPs and OTT players operate in, equalizing the competitive conditions may not be possible. In this case, the alternative may be cooperation between the two parties. Thanks to OSS and BSS unification, CSPs can provide OTT companies the quality assurance of their applications gaining new sources of revenues. Reduced Time-to-Market Intense competition and rapidly changing customer demand require much more flexibility from CSPs. Innovation and rapid response to changing competitor strategies often play a key role in determining market success. The need to reduce time-to-market is an important challenge for 30% of the CSPs surveyed by Frost & Sullivan, highlighting the need for focus in this regard. For many CSPs, time-to-market delays are still significant. The creation of communication services and testing procedures often take more than 12 months. Due to network architecture complexity, the implementation of new services often requires the deployment an entirely new OSS/BSS stack. As a consequence, silos of software, hardware and staff are created, each having its own associated operations and maintenance expense burden. Product creation cycles of several months are not sustainable. The architecture must allow for defining, launching, delivering, and withdrawing products in a matter of hour or days, rather than months. The most relevant way to achieve that is to facilitate the communication between product catalogs and network inventory, supporting process automation and significantly reducing time-tomarket.

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Customer Experience Issues With saturation point reached in many country markets, further customer acquisition opportunities are limited, resulting in customer retention becoming a priority for many CSPs. Many service providers have been shifting from a network-centric approach to customer-centric one, with the aim of improving overall customer satisfaction. Additionally, growing customer expectations are becoming a more important issue; indeed, this was highlighted as an important challenge by 37% of the CSPs interviewed by Frost & Sullivan. The customer experience does not depend solely on service quality. The information exchange with the customer is equally important. Mistakes on invoices, wrongly targeted marketing messages or poor contact with call centers can all negatively impact customer experience. Customers require real-time information related to service availability and the actual status of an order. However, due to limited automation of information exchange between CRM, Product Catalog and Resource Inventory, many fixed service providers need several days to verify whether they have sufficient infrastructure to provision a particular service in the given location. Moreover, real-time service activation is, in many cases, barely possible. However, solving this issue is becoming a key priority for CSPs. The CSP-focused research conducted by Frost & Sullivan shows that 90% of respondents believe real-time activation of customer services is critical. Providing the actual status of the order also causes difficulties for CSPs, while losing orders is unacceptable. However, once an order passes from customer-oriented systems to network-oriented systems, most CSPs find it very difficult to link an order back to the particular customer. Lack of sufficient flow of information between OSS and BSS can cause situations where CSPs start billing before a service has been activated. The customer experience is also harmed by not providing specific information during network failures. Meeting the Expectations of an Increasingly Demanding User Base The quality of CSP services has gradually transformed from a best efforts basis into guaranteed service levels. Increasingly, business customers tend to contractualize their demands in service level agreements (SLA) which can be challenging to live up to. Customers want to be protected against network failures as these can seriously impact their businesses. In case of temporary service unavailability they want to know exactly when they will have the service back. SLA Monitoring, as an OSS element, has become an important tool for increasing customer satisfaction and reducing losses resulting from SLA complaints. Additionally, integration of SLA Monitoring with CRM has given CSPs the opportunity to quickly and easily update changes to a customer contract. OSS solutions can generate important data about the status of networks. In the event of failure, they can perform advanced diagnostics that generate useful information, for example indentifying the location of the problem and its cause. However, it is still difficult to map this data to the affected customers in order to keep them informed and updated. That is why communication between CRM and network resources layers plays an important role in proactive fault management. Network Congestion The success of mobile broadband, supported by convenient flat-rate pricing models, has had a serious impact on network congestion. Many CSPs have limited control over bandwidth consumption. Thus, limitations are not placed on users regarding streaming or using other bandwidth-heavy applications, which can create bottlenecks at peak times. Moreover, the significant growth of data traffic has not been compensated by adequate revenue growth.
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Figure 2 shows the increasing gap between surging data usage and gradually stagnating CSP revenues in a data dominated era. Figure 2: Data Traffic vs. CSP Network Costs and Revenues

Volume

Voice Dominance

Data Dominance

Time

Source: Frost & Sullivan In order to maintain a high quality of mobile broadband services, CSPs have invested heavily in network upgrades from 2G to 3G and even 4G. This kind of investment is characterized by a very long payback period and by uncertainty that the upgraded network will meet the requirements of surging data consumption. CSPs must look for solutions that allow for proper management of network congestion which help them to reduce the gap between the growing investment costs and flat-rate pricing. This is particularly important given that CSPs in intense competitive environments are not able to set higher prices on mobile broadband services. Additionally, going back to usage-based pricing models it is not an adequate solution as it can discourage service usage. Frost & Sullivan believes implementing traffic-shaping policies is one of the best alternatives to address the gap between traffic and revenue. Certainly, many CSPs have written fair usage policies into their terms and conditions, but when it comes to actually enforcing the policies, many are seriously challenged. Without OSS/BSS integration, CSPs are not able to successfully carry out policybased management which allow for more efficient controlling of network resources and better management of network congestion. Dealing with Regulatory Issues Large CSPs are subject to common carriers obligations and carry a huge regulatory burden. One of the main goals of telecom market regulators has been to support competition in order to ensure low prices for end-users. The most common method employed to achieve this goal is imposing an obligation on incumbent CSPs to make their infrastructure accessible to rival providers. In terms of fixed service providers,

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renting the last-mile infrastructure from unbundled local loops has become very popular. However, CSPs face significant problems with the flow of information between two separate networks, which results in delays with regards to service activation and difficulties with service fulfillment.

OSS/BSS Convergence as an Answer to Operator Challenges

Historically, CSPs tend to purchase best-of-breed applications for specific functional areas and they have a long tradition for in-house software development. In consequence, many proprietary or highly customized OSS/BSS systems remain in operation. This strategy was justified when their portfolios only contained a few services. However, with multiple new services and growing complexity of the CSP architecture, this approach has become untenable. Mergers and acquisitions have further complicated the back office of many CSPs. Many providers have added new systems to their IT architecture from companies that they had acquired, with only limited adjustments made. As a consequence, similar services often rely on very separate IT systems within a single organization, unnecessarily complicating service fulfillment and increasing costs. Changing market conditions require the breaking down of isolated silos of software designed around separate technologies or services into horizontally integrated blocks of operational and business support systems that are compatible and able to communicate with each other. Additionally, in order to optimize IT costs consolidation of systems used for the same activities for similar services is needed. Figure 3: OSS/BSS Progression

Best-of-Bread General Solutions for Multiple Providers

Point Solutions Customized Processes End-to-End Solutions Common Processes

Best-of-Platform

Customized Solutions for Single Provider

In-house Development Customized Processes

No Integration
Source: Frost & Sullivan

After-Market Integration

PreIntegration

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Horizontally integrated OSS/BSS has become a desired solution among CSPs. It is an answer to CSPs need of end-to-end solutions and common processes (see Figure 3). 85% of operators interviewed by Frost & Sullivan prefer commercial off-the-shelf solutions (COTS) as opposed to those built in-house or requiring significant customization. However, many in this group insist on systems that are preintegrated with other COTS solutions and that require no special customization for operation within their own architecture. The lack of integration of OSS and BSS results in limited possibilities for coordination between the service design and the technical requirements of delivering a service. In consequence, the implementation of a new service is a long, often manual, process, requiring many operational and human resources. All CSP representatives interviewed by Frost & Sullivan admitted that existing fulfillment processes involve too many manual tasks and that, in turn, create too many opportunities for error. The OSS/BSS gap also causes problems with regards to appropriate service fulfillment and fault management. The lack of proper communication between network facing and customer facing layers gives the CSPs difficulties with providing information about the service availability, tracking orders and identifying customers affected by network failures. By bridging the gap between OSS and BSS, CSPs can achieve higher process automation, eliminating the need to involve large numbers of engineers during implementation and service fulfillment. This reduces time-to-market and significantly decreases costs. Facilitated communication between OSS and BSS also supports the creation of new business and payment models and considerably improves the flow of information. Faster Time-to-Market One of the ways to accelerate time-to-market of new services is the implementation of a component-based product creation environment, supported by ensuring orchestration across existing OSS/BSS. Although the transformation from existing independent silos of OSS/BSS to a common platform approach is a long and costly process, it offers CSPs greater flexibility to face competitive challenges. Component-based Architecture A component-based product creation environment gives CSPs the ability to independently model products, connectivity and even changes using pre-defined components, processes, rules, and workflows. It alleviates the burden of testing and adapting all elements. In this way, products are consistently defined and delivered across the business, regardless of the underlying systems. Process Automation The pre-integrated components are made up of both OSS and BSS elements. This means that services designed in the product catalog are automatically mapped onto the network resources. Usage of horizontally integrated OSS/BSS components supports process automation, simultaneously reducing costs and the time needed for integration.

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Support for New Business Models OSS/BSS integration allows for creating models that address challenges related to network congestion and lack of sufficient return on investment from network capital expenditures. Collaboration Models In order to compete with OTT providers, CSPs must redefine their role in the IP-based services value chain. OSS/BSS convergence supports the transformation from simple dumb pipes to complex application enablement, connectivity and quality of service (QoS) providers. The QoS component, as a BSS element in a product catalog, can be bundled with various applications and sold to developers, partners or OTT players as a single integrated solution. Thanks to BSS/OSS integration, the QoS component is also an OSS component, focused on shaping traffic according to QoS definitions and thus enabling to enforce the contract between the collaborating parties from a network perspective. Payment Models The majority of traffic within mobile networks is generated by a relatively small proportion of users with heavy video-on-demand, gaming or streaming usage. These heavy users, who pay the same price for mobile broadband, are responsible for network congestion and reducing the quality of services for all users. One way to deal with this issue is to split users into heavy and basic users and introduce tiered pricing plans. By integrating OSS and BSS, CSPs would be able to assign defined QoS for various applications based on the type of user and their network requirements. Traffic can be shaped bringing the appropriate level of QoS according to the end-users tariff plan. Improved Flow of Information Appropriate communication between customer- and network-facing layers has a significant impact on customer experience improvement. It not only facilitates the provision of real-time information relating to service availability and order status but also enables proactive fault management. Enhanced Customer Relations Integrated OSS/BSS gives CSPs a holistic view of a customer across the whole architecture. Thus, it allows for correlation and tracking of individual services throughout the lifecycle. In consequence, CSPs are able to avoid losing or providing incomplete orders. Moreover, whenever needed, the customer is able to receive necessary information of the order status or issues with service fulfillment. Real-time cost/price calculation is also facilitated by convergent OSS/BSS. The query of the network resources needed in a particular location is automatically sent to OSS and based on that information; the price of a service is calculated. Integrated OSS/BSS also plays an important role in providing sufficient quality of service. OSS that carries the information of the status of the network can translate and automatically sent reports to CRM systems where the network capacity should be increased to improve quality.

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Proactive Fault Management Unified OSS and BSS also supports Service Assurance and Service Quality Management. OSS automatically sends information regarding a network failure, pointing out the locations of radio base stations or particular DSL faults. Subsequently, information is translated into specific addresses of the customers and is passed onto the CRM systems. Thus, CSP call centers automatically receive the information including an overview of what the problem is and when a fix is expected. Additionally, OSS measures network resource KPIs and automatically sends notifications to the appropriate units within the organization so that the KPIs can be improved and network failures minimized.

Regulated Services Management The implementation of integrated OSS/BSS can also positively influence the management of telecommunications services accessed through the last-mile infrastructure of other parties. In these types of services, the network belonging to the third party is treated as an additional OSS element. The order is logged on the service providers CRM system and is then automatically sent to the OSS. This then generates the query to the network operator requesting access to its infrastructure. Although receiving real-time information depends on the third-party architecture, convergent OSS/BSS contributes to process facilitation.

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OSS/BSS Integration Comarchs Innovative Approach

Comarchs solution is a good example of how the gap between OSS and BSS can be overcome. For almost 20 years, Comarch has developed, in-house, a large portfolio of OSS and BSS modules which gives the company a comprehensive view of both network and service layers. All solutions have been created with a common technological approach, enabling compatibility and reduction of integration requirements. With a view to the complexity of CSP architecture, the company ensures flexibility and adaptability of the systems to existing service provider environments. Comarch uses SID standards defined by the TMForum, additionally adjusted to telecom environment. This approach enables the reduction of costs and risk connected with new component implementation and maintenance, and also facilitates integration with a CSPs architecture. Comarchs OSS and BSS solutions are connected via the Comarch Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) layer therefore, they are consistent and communication is simplified. Comarch ESB also serves as a central communication bus between Comarchs solutions and third party systems. Figure 4: Comarch OSS/BSS Integration Between Central Product Management and Service Catalog

Source: Comarch

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The Comarch vision of integrated OSS/BSS is realized foremost by providing the following solutions: Pre-integrated OSS and BSS Comarchs strategy is to offer both individual modules and pre-integrated solutions, providing CSPs with a choice between following either a best-of-breed or best-of-platform strategy. Even when a CSP decides to buy individual modules, Comarch can offer professional services to create an integrated solution. Having pre-integrated solutions in its offer, the company guarantees that the individual modules are designed and developed to work smoothly in a pre-integrated solution. Frost & Sullivan believes that Comarchs core competence is both providing individual modules and demonstrating how to glue individual BSS/OSS components (including integration with third party ones) together to bring maximum added value to CSPs businesses. Comarchs pre-integrated OSS/BSS components provide CSPs with complex customer, product, and order lifecycle management solutions to rapidly introduce new offerings and improve the customer experience. The company provides an integrated set of off-the-shelf OSS/BSS modules to enable automated business flows when adding functionalities to the network. The integration between the business services configured within the Comarch Central Product Catalog (BSS) and the underlying network services and resources defined in the Comarch Network Inventory and Comarch Service Inventory (OSS) is performed at the Customer Facing Services layer. Thus, Customer Facing Services are a common component of both Comarch BSS and OSS, enabling them to communicate effectively and granting CSPs a tool to successfully bridge the gap between the two domains (see Figure 4). Direct integration of the Comarch Central Product Catalog and the Comarch Service Catalog facilitates efficient new service creation. When a new resource is added to the Comarch Service Inventory, it is automatically identified by the Comarch Central Product Catalog (CPC) via the Customer Facing Service layer. Using the Comarch CPC, billing or marketing departments are then able to design products and offers based on this Customer Facing Service and its capabilities. Comarchs solution meets the requirement of component-based architecture, providing product managers with readymade puzzles composed of BSS elements and resources needed to provide the service. The pre-integrated nature of the components eliminates the need to test new components. Moreover, thanks to a modular and open architecture, it is easy to further develop a CSPs overall environment to overcome competitive challenges. Customer-focused OSS Frost & Sullivan believes that Comarchs concept of customer-focused OSS aligns well with the increasingly customer-centric orientation of CSPs. The solution primarily aims to enhance customer value and improve customer experience. By shifting the Resource Facing Services layer to the Customer Facing Services layer, all data collected by systems responsible for Service Fulfillment, Performance Management and Fault Management (OSS) is automatically translated into the BSS language so it can be read by billing, CRM and other BSS components. By assuring this communication, CSP customers can receive real-time information related to service availability and network failures. They can also benefit from real-time service activation and proactive fault management.

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Comarchs OSS portfolio consists of many components shaped by the idea of customer-focused OSS: Service Fulfillment Comarchs Service Fulfillment solution is deeply integrated within the OSS space and has a common element with BSS. Thus, it allows CSPs to automate workflow, reduce errors, and decrease the time needed for service activation. The solution plays an especially important role when highly customizable bundles of convergent services need to be activated. With the involvement of Comarchs Policy Management, Policy Control and Policy Enforcement modules (BSS), Comarch Service Fulfillment (OSS) can support network congestion management by shaping the traffic. Performance Management Comarch Performance Management is a solution enabling complex network quality management. Due to shifting Performance Management to Service Quality Management system, technical performance metrics are automatically translated into customer serviceoriented KQIs. Thanks to OSS/BSS integration the information is transferred in real-time to BSS. Thus, CSPs can quickly react on KPIs that have deteriorated and pro-actively prevent network failures. Fault Management Comarch Fault Management allows CSPs to effectively control the occurrence of problems and faults in the entire telecommunications network. Fault Management has been shifted to Service Assurance systems which enable to measure the impact of network outages on customer services. This solution allows for immediate communication between the Resource Facing Services and BSS. Therefore, CSPs can take an action to inform customers about upcoming breakdowns. Customer Experience Management Comarch Customer Experience Management is a product which provides an insight into end user perceptions of services offered. Thus, it allows CSPs to manage telecommunications networks and services in a way that enhances customer satisfaction. Integration of Customer Experience Management (OSS) with the CRM system allows verifying the computed image of customer satisfaction with the actual customer opinion of the service quality, which can be used in performing analytics needed to properly segment customers. SLA Monitoring Comarch SLA Monitoring allows operators to define and monitor services and related SLAs in a way that will increases customer satisfaction and minimizes losses resulting from lack of SLA compliance. Comarch SLA Monitoring can be integrated with CRM or sales support solutions, allowing operators to quickly and easily update changes to a customer contract.

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Conclusion
We have shown that communication service providers world-wide are faced with a number of formidable challenges which have emerged as a result of increased competition and increasing demands from both professional and residential customers. We have also shown that the drivers behind these challenges have been consistently strong, meaning that the CSP challenges will continue to mount. Many CSPs are already struggling, and their situation is likely to get worse. Most CSPs have already gone through tough transformation programs, streamlining their organizations and reducing both operational and capital expenditure. There is no arguing that cost control does not continue to be important, but the truth is that most CSPs are not able to meet the challenges of the future by cutting cuts. Instead, they need to carefully manage (and increase) revenue, and this is why the integration between the Business Support Systems and the Operational Support Systems becomes so important. Creating a consistent link between BSS and OSS decreases the time needed to bring new services to market. It also supports service assurance and fault management. Convergent BSS and OSS plays an important role in facilitating information flows and in enhancing the customer experience. Finally, convergent OSS and BSS supports the creation of new business models that can maximize revenues and guarantee the service levels the high-end subscribers who decide to pay a premium (e.g. to not suffer due to network congestion). In other words, we have shown that bridging the gap between BSS and OSS will enable CSPs to successfully deal with a large share of the challenges we have identified. Frost & Sullivan recommends partnering with an OSS/BSS vendor with many years of experience of designing and implementing integrated OSS/BSS solutions. We also believe that vendors with a coherent portfolio of pre-integrated OSS and BSS elements are best placed to deliver tangible benefits to customers. Comarch is one such vendor. Frost & Sullivan has analysed Comarchs OSS and BSS offering, and we are satisfied that it is one of the most complete and versatile solutions on the market today which will provide value for money for most CSPs and help them meet their challenges. In Frost & Sullivans opinion, Comarchs strategy to develop all elements of its solution in house does give it a competitive advantage, because it retains the in-house capabilities to provide complete, customized solutions without relying on third-party integration. CSPs looking to select an OSS/BSS vendor should consider the long-term implications of their choices. Frost & Sullivan recommends working with specialized vendors that are committed to long-term relationships and support and have broad understanding of their customers business. As a mid-sized vendor, Comarch is big enough to be competent and innovative and small enough to react quickly to market changes and customer update requirements.

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About Comarch
Comarch is a global supplier of industry standard compliant IT products and services for the telecommunication industry. One of the companys fundamental distinguishing features is its focus on the flexibility and configurability of its solutions, which are developed in-house and customized to suit the specific needs of its customers. Comarch solutions are business driven, and they are evolving based on customer demand. Since 1993, Comarch has accumulated a lot of experience and knowledge in the fields of designing, implementing, and integrating IT solutions. The company serves customers from four continents, and this client base includes some of the markets largest players such as Telekom Deutschland (former T-Mobile Germany), T-Mobile Austria, E-Plus Germany, Vodafone Germany, Telefnica O2 Germany and Auchan Telecom France (MVNO). Comarchs unique solutions allow operators to provide the highest quality of service to their customers, ensuring their satisfaction and continued patronage. The loyalty of Comarchs customers has always been the strongest confirmation of the quality of its solutions in the areas of billing and inter-partner settlements, as well as the management of telecommunications networks and services. Comarchs offer for the telecom industry is mainly aimed at fixed and broadband operators, mobile operators, cable operators, wholesale departments, MVNO/MVNE operators, ISPs and VoIP operators and satellite service providers. More information is available at: telecoms.comarch.com.

About Frost & Sullivan

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