The launch last year of a Cable Interest Group at the TM Forum was a game-changing moment for the MSO industry. Cable and satellite MSOs all were asking if their operations support systems were putting their businesses at a disadvantage? After all, these MSOs were looking at systems put together by the telcos — an emerging threat — and looking for opportunities to become more competitive against this threat.
Built up over time, most legacy OSSs are patched together collections of functionality — not integrated, not efficient, not rationalized and, most important, not able to support an MSO in its strategy for entering new markets, such as the enterprise, and fighting their new competitors. While no one disputes that OSSs are vital to customer support and network operations, in many cases, they do not even satisfy these basic needs.
All told, the business case for OSS transformation is strong. It’s based on the need to improve profitability by reducing redundancy and cost; by using flow-through to enable better service levels and enhanced customer satisfaction; and by increasing revenue through an increased ability to compete on the quality of experience.
Recognizing the industry-wide need for OSS transformation, the members of the TM Forum have developed the Enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM), a framework that describes an MSO’s enterprise processes according to their “significance and priority for the business.” eTOM serves as the blueprint for process direction and outlines potential boundaries of software components to align with the customers' needs and highlight the required functions, inputs and outputs that must be supported by products. At the same time, new technology — specifically service-oriented architecture (SOA) — is making OSS transformation both more necessary and achievable than ever before.
OSS Is Wounded
What’s the problem with OSS? Simply said, most systems are overly complex and relatively inefficient. To gain capabilities, MSOs have “stacked” applications within the OSS, creating a “swivel chair” approach that results in a convoluted and expensive systems architecture. Data is inconsistent, contradictory or outdated. Processes are slow, error-prone and often ineffective.
Poor OSS performance affects every part of the business. The results include:
- Provisioning systems that require multiple systems entry for activating a triple-play bundle
- Network troubleshooting requiring the use of a wall of screens to display all vital data of the network, as well as the involvement of many departments (not to mention cross-organizational support for business services
- Operations where data must be presented in a meaningful way of operations are to cope with the volume.
