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Identity Crisis
That leads to an interesting development in the OSS/BSS space: relative quiet. Whether due to economic pressures or pushback from CSP customers, many of the major players in the space are assuming lower profiles and employing terminology that draws focus away from their traditional foci and towards a more integrated view of the communications space. “To me, most of the OSS market is a sleeper these days,” said Dan Baker, Research Director at Technology Research Institute (TRI). “The big vendors don’t talk about what they are doing. Telcordia purposely didn’t say the word ‘OSS’ in its recent analyst conference. They kept saying ‘operations’. It’s a mystery to me, or they are still trying to shake off who they really are.”
But could “who they are” be changing? Are OSS and BSS the relevant categories they used to be? At the very least, some of the analysts with whom we spoke suggested that the categories may be changing. “The formerly sharp division between BSS and OSS is blurring as the processes bridge the former gulf,” said Mortensen.
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“The explosion of new services outstripped the ability of the OSS and BSS systems to support them.” |
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Semantics aside, companies in the space are continuing to roll out products and win customers, though not every analyst with whom we spoke is entirely convinced of the innovative nature of every growth area they’re seeing.
“There is always a bit of vapor in any new area as vendors and operators sort out what the best solutions are in the various areas they can address,” said Mortensen. “Right now, I think I see it mostly in the mobile e-commerce platforms and Self-Organizing/Optimizing Network (SON) spaces – two bleeding edge areas.”
But some developments are leaving some analysts worried. “I see Policy taking off as hugely popular, especially with those carriers who love the idea of being able to throttle anyone, anytime,” said Lancaster.
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From Pipeline’s perspective, this is something we’ve wrestled with internally, as well. Long having identified as a publication covering OSS/BSS, the diminishing difference between the two subfields, combined with the constant integration of new IT developments into this purview has led us to much more frequently call our area of study “communications IT,” or CIT.
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“While popular, I don't see it as innovative. It is essentially using network performance data for evil instead of good.”
But, good and evil aside, communications IT remains, in many ways, the quietest corner of a hugely dynamic market. As the season marches on, and the leaves green (and our readers in the Southern Hemisphere will forgive me any seasonal inaccuracy this statement provides) and flowers bloom, innovation exists, but may be shining a little less brightly than in years past.
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