Pipeline Publishing, Volume 6, Issue 11

	This Month's Issue:
	Cableco vs. Telco vs. Everyone

OSS/BSS in the Real World

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the ability to conduct everyday billing operations in a fraction of the time and to process many more times the volume overall.

"As OSS/BSS providers we are always pushing the application for performance gains so we can make current clients happier and secure larger customers," said Shear. "With multi-processing technologies the future is not about evolutionary advances, we are talking about revolutionary changes that remove performance/capacity as a differentiator and push the service component to the forefront."

Just as marketers are driving toward the ability to deliver individualized advertising messages, the OSS/BSS world is recognizing a similar opportunity to create individual commercialization strategies that meet each client's unique requirements. Software, hardware and service management elements can work together to create a delivery model that gives telecom service providers exactly what they need in terms of managing the risks associated with maintenance downtime, service level agreements, performance requirements, and much more.

"These developments will fundamentally change how OSS/BSS providers deliver and price their service," said Shear. "Look for new mixes in service levels and product offerings that are distinctively suited to each service

The OSS/BSS world sees an opportunity to create individual commercialization strategies that meet each client's unique requirements.

provider. Providers can craft a support and service model that complements their value proposition as a business."

Add in the ability to use Web services APIs and telecom service providers can also create applications that leverage the OSS/BSS to create solutions that meet the unique needs of their business and its clients.

"All of these changes allow the OSS/BSS to morph and change for each client without the core functionality changing. We are talking about price/performance flexibility that creates greater predictability and controls costs for both providers and customers," said Shear. "While this is certainly a model that we expect to see from companies like Google and eBay, apply it in a vertical like OSS/BSS and you are breaking new ground."

So, How do We Get There From Here?
The first thing to remember is that there is no way to achieve these gains without re-architecting the software application.

"Multi-processing technologies represent a whole new way of looking at the data and how it moves through the OSS/BSS," said Shear. "There isn't an easy way to just translate the existing code and there still aren't a lot of developers out there with the skills to put all of these concepts together."

The good news, however, is that platform operators like Microsoft have been investing significantly in the production tools needed to optimize applications for parallel processing. Visual Studio 2010, C#, SQL Server 2008, Window Server 2008, the new F# functional language and Windows IIS are essentially "out-of-the-box" tools that form the foundation for re-architecting applications to run in a multi-processing environment.

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