Amdocs teams with IBM and Cisco

Amdocs completed the integration of its Cramer OSS portfolio while announcing two other strategic moves for its OSS business with Cisco Systems and IBM last week at the TM Forum’s Management World conference in Nice, France.

Amdocs acquired UK-based Cramer in July of 2006 for approximately $375 million. With the latest release last week of its Amdocs Customer Experience Systems (CES) - Cramer OSS 7.5 product line, Amdocs has completed the integration of the assets from the Cramer OSS portfolio into Amdocs CES, which was launched earlier this year as a platform for helping service providers deliver the digital lifestyle.

“The vision is to pull together the software that addresses all process that affect the customer,” said Cassandra Millhouse, director of product marketing for Amdocs’ OSS Division. “That includes indirect processes like service creation and planning that eventually impact the customer.”

The integrated BSS/OSS suite will support planning, fulfillment and assurance using common data and processes. The integration also allowed Amdocs to introduce automated software packages called Operational Product Packs which help service providers deploy service and technology-specific processes. It also makes the migration to a next generation OSS easier because the suite, though integrated, is modular and can be upgraded individually.

The Operational Product Packs now available include DSL Fulfillment and Backhaul Management OPP, which helps mobile operators roll out new networks. These OPPs also enable service providers to standardize processes for new services, which reduces operational costs and the time required to deploy.

Millhouse said the company plans to introduce new OPPs every quarter and is currently looking at IPTV fulfillment and other packs.

Also on the OSS front, Amdocs teamed with IBM to offer a standards-based service fulfillment solution. The Amdocs IBM Service Fulfillment Solution gives service providers a framework to cost effectively support new services and was jointly developed using TM Forum and SOA (service-oriented architecture) standards. It provides pre-configured modular fulfillment processes for specific services as well pre-defined business processes that are aligned with industry standards.

“Once you automate the fulfillment process you can begin to do quite interesting things,” Millhouse said.

For standards-conscious service providers, Amdocs and IBM have used the shared information data model (SID), enhanced telecommunications operations map (eTOM) and NGOSS (next generation operations support systems) contracts standards. They also adhered to standards-based data structures, including service data objects (SDO) and service component architecture (SCA) to simplify integration and the way applications handle objects.

The companies will also offer joint consulting services to support the new solution.

Amdocs also announced the delivery of a pre-integrated Data Integrity Management solution that works with the Cisco Active Network Abstraction (ANA) network and element management system to provide the OSS with a complete and accurate view of the live network. It is designed to lower the cost of rolling out new broadband services such as Carrier Ethernet, MPLS, virtual private networks (VPNs) and IPTV.

Together these solutions provide multi-vendor, multi-technology discovery and reconciliation capabilities. This approach lowers operational and capital expenditure costs and helps service providers ensure a high quality experience for end users.

“It allows you to compare what you discover is in the network with what should be in the network," Millhouse said.