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By Dan Blacharski
Emerging OSS technologies and the innovative companies behind them.
Sidebar:
The Innovative Ten:
Amdocs
IP Value Technologies
Redknee Inc.
Telcordia
MetaSolv Software
NetCracker Technology
ILOG
Formula Telecom Solutions
BEA Systems Inc.
Wisor Telecom Corp.
Innovation is paramount in business in general, and the OSS community in particular. Pipeline is always interested in taking a look at the industry and, in addition to identifying and exploring current trends, attempting to predict what will be important down the line. In an attempt to understand what drives innovation, we set out to identify ten approaches to the OSS business that are changing the world of telecom and identify some companies that are taking risks, embracing the unorthodox, and believing that good business is where you find it. We call these companies the Innovative Ten.
The OSS business is on the move with new technology and innovations, and telecom companies are being quick to take up the new offers. This month, Pipeline looks at the ten most innovative OSS companies that are bringing that technology to the table. But the biggest OSS providers, while we must acknowledge their market force and their ability to pour research dollars into new products. According to Analysys, the 12 largest OSS vendors account for 41 percent of all system sales. But as has always been the tradition of the technology business, sometimes the little guy comes out of left field with something that changes the world.
Telcos are looking for greater efficiency from their OSS systems, and a report from Dittberner Associates predicts that the five biggest areas for provisioning and inventory investment are going to be telecom discovery, network order management, transport network provisioning, access network provisioning, and network inventory. The research goes a step further to note that telcos are also asking OS vendors to provide "a more service-enabling OSS to help them exploit next generation IP services." This demand will drive additional innovation in the areas of service management, wireless terminal management, and content management.
Amdocs earns a space on our "top ten" for its strong acquisition strategy, which positions them as one only a handful of companies with an end-to-end solution for both OSS and BSS (business support systems) functionality. The company's recent acquisition of Cramer Systems Group gives Amdocs some key OSS tools for network resource management, activation, and auto discovery. The company's intent, says Amdocs CEO Dov Baharav, is to "deliver a complete automated service fulfillment solution across all lines of business--for any service, on any network--linking order management at the customer layer with activation at the network layer." Their end-to-end solution will encompass not only OSS systems, but also customer-facing BSS systems including CRM. The integration of OSS and BSS will be in demand by more telcos as they look to squeeze more efficiency out of their systems in the future, and
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"...the five biggest areas for provisioning and inventory investment are going to be telecom discovery, network order management, transport network provisioning, access network provisioning, and network inventory. " |
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Amdocs' proposition will give telcos a complete view of the network, service, and customer. Traditionally, OSS and BSS have been completely separate. Establishing this connection will deliver key efficiencies, and will help telcos improve the overall customer experience.
Sun Microsystems' OS through Java Initiative (OSS/J), an open system that provides a set of Java-based APIs for OSS services, serves as a strong complement to the Telemanagement Forum's Next Generation OSS (NGOSS) standards, and the two entities have launched the Prosspero program, the goal of which is to provide prepackaged OSS solutions for telcos. Taking full advantage of the OSS/J program is a small German company called IP Value Technologies, whose premioss suite uses the OSS/J open APIs to deliver a range of applications, including OSS Inventory, OSS Service Activation, OSS Trouble Ticket, OSS Quality of Service Fault Management, and OSS Quality of Service Performance Management. Through use of the open Java APIs, IP Value delivers a number of advantages that come as part of the Java proposition, not the least of which is reduced operations costs, easy customization and integration, and an extensible system architecture.
Success in the competitive mobile market depends to a great degree on personalization, and wireless operators who are able to provide a highly personalized experience to customers will be the ones who stay in the game, and who are able to increase ARPU and enhance the bottom line. Redknee Inc. earns a top ten nod for its software that lets mobile providers monetize and personalize services and content for mobile users. In a recent seminar, Redknee CTO Bohdan Zabawskyj described how one of their customers was able to deliver personalized, single-number service for voice, messaging, and data services spanning up to six devices. The serve was able to increase voice ARPU for the client by 50 percent, and messaging ARPU by 100 percent.
In terms of sheer power, market share, and just good software, Telcordia is no stranger to industry awards and top-ten lists. The company handily won the 2006 Frost & Sullivan Award for Product Innovation this year, primarily for its outstanding contributions to IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and VoIP technology. Currently, VoIP is not really 100 percent Internet traffic. A VoIP call may have two or three hops on the Internet, making up the bulk of the distance, but then is |
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