ngoss - a 'sink or swim' option? business benefits of ngoss (detecon executive briefing)

www.detecon.com

Dr. Ken Roberts Ralf Steinbach [email protected] [email protected]

NGOSS - a “sink or swim” option? Business benefits of NGOSS Change is coming about faster than ever in the digital services market as we enter a post-voice world of content, applications, data and cloud services. Service providers have to embrace concepts such as “agile development” and “rapid prototyping” to achieve the fast incremental development cycles needed in the future markets. Services must be developed in weeks or days, and without the high costs, risks and integration headaches of the past.

Long-term success in the market is linked to the ability to achieve a low cost of service creation. To successfully compete you have to consider the importance of flexibility and efficiency of operations.

Detecon is a firm believer in the approaches to service management propagated by the TeleManagement Forum (TM Forum). The use of TM Forum output like standardized solution frameworks for “New Generation Operations Systems and Software” (NGOSS) can be seen as a sink or swim option.

Based on a business case from the TM Forum this briefing will highlight the main business benefits of using NGOSS based on Detecon’s experience.

> Detecon Executive Briefing

Detecon International GmbH 09/2009 2 www.detecon.com


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Why NGOSS

The frameworks described by the TM Forum as “New Generation Operations Software and Systems” (NGOSS) provide a widely adopted set of industry standards and best practices for transforming business and operations. NGOSS provides a flexible, cost-effective solution that is urgently needed in the increasingly competitive landscape.

Even to just maintain a competitive position a business needs an agile and economic infrastructure that permits a rapid reaction to new services and business needs. The component based NGOSS offers a “mix’n’match” paradigm that enables a “best of breed” portfolio to be created. Components allow the rapid re-configuration of services to address changing market requirements without large scale redevelopment of existing systems.

NGOSS is directly focused on minimizing the costs of building and deploying a service.

NGOSS Reference

The term “NGOSS” has been used in many different forms and meanings but usually it represents the TM Forum’s latest approach to the operations support system (OSS). In the context of this document, NGOSS refers specifically to a set of documents published by the TM Forum (http://www.tmforum.org). NGOSS consists of four fundamental frameworks: Business Process, Information, Integration, and Application. These frameworks have key principles consisting of: eTOM (enhanced Telecom Operations Map), SID (Shared Information and Data Model), TNA (Technology Neutral Architecture) and TAM (Telecom Application Map).

Purpose/Goals of NGOSS

The TM Forum’s NGOSS serves as a guide and framework for developing and deploying telecommunication services and systems. In terms of scope NGOSS encompasses not only operations support systems (OSS) but also business support systems (BSS). That means that it addresses all of the systems needed to run the telecommunications business.

The key statement is that NGOSS is a framework for creating systems and components. NGOSS is not a complete off-the-shelf solution. NGOSS is a common starting point for building systems. A fully operational OSS/BSS will require many levels of detail beyond that contained in the NGOSS base specification.



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In summary: NGOSS provides models and guidelines for building systems (and their components). It addresses related issues from a telecommunications perspective, provides a common language for describing standard business processes data structures, provides component models, and, most importantly, it is technology neutral.

NGOSS is not, however, a complete OSS solution, neither is it technology specific, nor is it an off-the-shelf “silver bullet” solution. Solutions are available using specific implementation technologies e.g. Prospero (a commercial TM Forum initiative) program.

Business Case & Benefits of NGOSS

NGOSS is intended to be applied to and beneficial to all of the players in the systems market: service providers (SP), independent software vendors (ISV), systems integrators (SI) and equipment vendors. The TM Forum has developed a business case for NGOSS that focuses on the enablement of new services. The business case has been analyzed from the perspective of each of the players.

For service providers, the business case focuses on the value of new services that can be enabled by NGOSS. This is important because traditionally the focus for new systems has been on cost reduction benefits rather than new revenue. New revenue streams are necessary in order to justify major systems investment. The business case for adding NGOSS for new services analyzes the change in net present value (NPV) over a nine year period (2001 – 2009). The business case shows an increase in NPV of 4% for large SPs, 21% for medium SPs and more than 1000% for new SPs. The large increase for new SPs is attributable to the fact that all services are deliverable through NGOSS, whereas for a large SP a lot of services are still maintained on costly legacy systems. The value of NGOSS will only increase as these legacy systems/services disappear. So, while the overall gain is initially small for large SPs (e.g., Deutsche Telekom, AT&T, MCI, Sprint), the gain becomes significant as new services are implemented and existing services are upgraded.

The main benefits identified in the business case from Detecon’s perspective are:

1. Faster time to market for new services

Since new (or upgraded) services are developed and deployed based on the re-use of tried and tested existing code, the overall development time, including testing, is vastly reduced. This results not only in a reduction in the time to deploy a product but significantly increases the reliability of the finished product.

2. Decreased operating costs

Re-use greatly reduces the total cost of ownership of services. By decreasing the time to develop, test, quality assure and deploy product, organizations may enjoy a lower ownership cost associated with operating their service portfolio.



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3. Increased choice of vendors

Since open interoperability is a consequence of NGOSS it follows that the integration of components from different sources is supported through the use of standardized interfaces and models.

4. Increased flexibility and adaptability

Products are reduced to their functional components; this allows components to be “mixed and matched” freely to achieve an optimum result. This characteristic allows the dynamic choice of components to react to changes in requirements due to market pressures or subscriber desires.

5. High degree of scalability

A component-based solution allows for duplication as needed. This characteristic provides a flexible scaling factor in the provided solution.

6. Security in all systems

Security requirements may be specified universally and implemented without regard to specific services. Implement once use many times.

7. Less data inconsistency

By implementing a ‘golden store’ concept with component-based services the accuracy and integrity of stored data increases.

8. One-off set-up of customer profiles

Customer/subscriber information is captured once and recorded in the repository. All requests for this information are by means of this “golden store”, thus assuring accuracy and consistent representation of the information across the entire portfolio.

9. Lower hardware costs

A reduction in duplication results in less hardware needed to store information that can be multiply accessed.



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Conclusion & Recommendations

To not only maintain the subscriber base and market share but to increase them, a rethink is required. The “old ways” are no longer adequate and a new paradigm must be embraced. In order to remain competitive organizations need to launch products that meet user requirements and that are cost-effective to produce. NGOSS addresses these issues directly.

Detecon has identified five areas that are critical to supporting a business in employing NGOSS.

Business Transformation

Benchmarking, revenue assurance, procurement guidelines, service level agreements, product life-cycle management

1

Service Transformation

Service delivery platform, content & information management, component based architecture, device management

2

Enabling Technologies & Tools

NGOSS frameworks; business process, information, integration, application

3

Catalyst ProgramLiving lab; showcase product integration and interoperation

4

CollaborationProscriptive set of documented frameworks specifying how interconnection and interoperation is effected

5

Business Transformation

Benchmarking, revenue assurance, procurement guidelines, service level agreements, product life-cycle management

1

Service Transformation

Service delivery platform, content & information management, component based architecture, device management

2

Enabling Technologies & Tools

NGOSS frameworks; business process, information, integration, application

3

Catalyst ProgramLiving lab; showcase product integration and interoperation

4

CollaborationProscriptive set of documented frameworks specifying how interconnection and interoperation is effected

5

Fig. 1: Critical areas from a business perspective when employing NGOSS

Business transformation begins with the design and documentation of processes supporting the organization’s business applications. To gain a meaningful picture of existing process models it is useful to have a ‘template’ against which existing processes can be measured; this is the function of NGOSS Business Transformation.

Business processes potentially consist of many services; each service is in turn part of a chain that, taken in totality, comprises a business function. NGOSS Service Transformation contains primitives that address service development, test and deployment.

A major component of NGOSS is the Integration Framework; this component specifies how individual services/components interact. This component describes the syntax and semantics governing the invocation and performance of services.



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The NGOSS Catalyst Program provides the showcase for organizations to demonstrate products that share data and processes that collaborate to achieve a given function.

Collaboration - the NGOSS documentation is a set of specifications detailing how systems may be built. It provides a source of interconnection and interoperation information that may be used to construct a multi-vendor solution.

As mentioned earlier TM Forum NGOSS frameworks do not provide off-the-shelf solutions. It is important to recognize that, whilst NGOSS specifies a paradigm shift in operational thinking, Detecon’s experience suggests that a gradual transformation is advisable. Whilst NGOSS can certainly provide quick wins, it is more important to take a mid to long term perspective of positioning your organization to adapt quickly to changing customer wants, needs and desires.

A stepwise approach helps to avoid the major risk of transforming too much at a time. In the short term, especially during the startup phase, the transformation towards NGOSS will have effects on the costs reflected in high OPEX and CAPEX. Taking a mid to long term view the savings will then be higher than the expenditures. And, probably more important, providers will be able to reach out to new markets and new customers, as well as to realize new revenues and new profit.

Are there other risks to mention? The TM Forum is an international group of service providers and vendors working together to develop standards and common terminology to drive down costs and drive up interoperability. They have been very successful in getting network elements to work well together, and, as they turn their attention to the OSS situation, the ongoing support of industry players is essential. Today’s dominant players are making the right sort of supporting comments, and the majority is planning to meet the requirement to be NGOSS-compliant. However, we can understand why, in their hearts, they might prefer the new generation to be a long time coming.

ngoss - a 'sink or swim' option? business benefits of ngoss (detecon executive briefing)

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