Slashing the Integration Tax (cont'd)

Build me an NGOSS Framework
What the OSS sector really needs the boss of some huge IT company to build is a technology-specific realization of the NGOSS framework. Call this the OSS-OS – an operating system for the OSS environment, similar to the original NGOSS concept from a few years ago. This foundation should include all the NGOSS framework components – identity, authorization, data management, communications management and so on – in one tidy package. It should use some standard interface definitions so that applications can talk to the framework and to each other through the OSS-OS bus. No application vendor, systems integrator or IT gorilla lists such a framework in its catalog today.

The OSS-OS would sit on top of the operating system of one's choice - Linux, Unix, Windows, and beyond. It would provide all the common services needed by every telecom OSS application - ‘business aware components' as NGOSS describes them. The existence of the OSS-OS would make it practical and desirable for application vendors to build compatible, efficient functional modules to plug in. The field would then be open and vendors would have a specific technology framework on which to build. Service providers would be able to demand compatibility without doubting what it means. Very soon, the OSS landscape would be transformed, and both service providers and application vendors would be fantastically happy.

What about our friends the systems integrators? These companies are run by smart people that know the cost of integration will decrease and that their revenues in this area will suffer. They also know that smaller faster projects enabled by a real world implementation along NGOSS lines will reduce risk, increase satisfaction and will probably increase project profitability as a result. For the SIs the business changes, but it doesn’t disappear, at least not for a while. One SI that exhibited at Telemanagement World, Satyam, is already building a database of ‘compliant’ products. Its job will be easier and of even greater practical relevance once NGOSS moves from its present technology-neutral status into one or more technology-specific realizations.

It’s Everyone’s Job
All the TMF deliberations have been very useful in establishing a concept, but the industry – not TMF – needs to make that concept work. The company that builds a telecom OSS-OS is going to take a risk. It would be ideal to see two or three competitors offering their versions of the telecom OSS-OS to the market, but let’s start with one for now; we’ll even promise to be kind in print to the 800-lb. gorillas that accept this task. Any takers?

LTC International Inc. specializes in helping companies in the Telecommunications industry make more profits. We do that by bringing serious first hand experience to bear to align services and projects with business strategies and ensuring that measurable objectives are established for everyone to meet. We deliver results for Service Providers, Hardware and Software Vendors to Service Providers, and to investors. For more information, please visit our web site: www.ltcinternational.com.

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