TeleManagement Forum sees sunshine in the shade at TMW

Nice, France: Basking in its largest turnout since the 2001 heyday, the TeleManagement Forum this week made some technology strides with the ITU-T adoption of its eTOM framework and a formal relationship with the OSS through Java Initiative, while its members focused on ways to support a market of diminishing returns.

The standardization sector of The International Telecommunications Union, known as ITU-T, approved the TMF’s Enhanced Telecom Operations Map as an ITU-T recommendation this week. However, perhaps as important to the advancement of the forum’s overall NGOSS architecture was the validation of an OSS/J implementation that aligns with NGOSS specifications for Java and Web services technology.

"Technology work is the core of TMF. It’s why we exist," said Martin Creaner, chief technology officer of the TMF. "Our goal is to improve year after year our technical credibility and these are two examples of us achieving that."

There also were probably as many strategic partnerships announced as there were in 2001, but most were with actual channel partners and system integrators who could drive vendors into new markets rather than the inter-vendor partnerships that were the rage three years ago.

All will be needed to help pull telecom out of what TMF Chairman Kith Willets called a cost-cutting death spiral where customer service has deteriorated and the drop in prices is accelerated.

"Operators keep thinking some big new services will come along and save them," Willetts said. "But operators have simply run out of runway. So [they] either need to change the business they’re in or change the business model."

One way that Willets suggested service providers need to change their businesses is to admit theirs is a commodities business. "It’s heresy in some carriers boardrooms," he said. "But we tend to get carried away by services and technology and lose sight of what’s important--and that’s business."

Commodity businesses, like the airlines and some retail outlets have figured out how to automate the entire retail supply chain. Carriers haven’t. They need to recognize their role as the company that provides the transport. "There’s nothing wrong with being in the bit moving business if you do it right," Willett said.

Doing it right means adhering to the TMF’s concept of a Lean Operator. However, lean doesn’t mean thin, he said. After all, "Anorexics sometimes die."

He suggested that carriers need to stop the price-cutting and get serious about automation and getting lean, mainly by adhering to the principles expressed out in the forum’s NGOSS framework.

As Jay Borden, president of Telcordia’s Granite Systems division said, "Where there is no automation, there is no profit."

And as Janet Davidson, president of integrated network solutions at Lucent Technologies suggested, automation starts with changing processes, not software. "If you don’t have the right processes, the best systems in the world won’t help you," she said.

There are more than a few signs to suggest that operators may be starting get the message that OSS is what will get them there.

."Expenditures are starting to improve," said Larry Goldman, co-founder and partner at OSS Observer. "So if that means we are coming out of recession, then I guess we are."

Goldman added that one of the key issues that will determine how good things will get is whether or not service providers choose to automate major processes across their entire enterprise.

So far, global OSS spending for 2004 could come in at $8.7 billion. Goldman projected 2005 OSS spending to be $9.4 by 2005 and $10.23 billion by 2006. And already, service providers are starting to see better margins. Last year, despite the recession, service provider revenue was up 4% but operational expenses went up only 1.1% while capital expenses fell by 62%.

Willets said that the whole industry is bouncing back. The sentiment was echoed cautiously throughout the meeting spaces of TeleManagement World. Hoppers are full, said vendors, and a larger potion than usual of the nearly 2000 attendees were service providers

And many of those service providers were wireless operators for whom Martin Keogh, vice president of global product management at Orange gave a sobering statistic. "Nowhere in Europe is the penetration rate below 75%," he said. "So it stands to reason no operator will grow by going after new customers."

The alternative is to offer new services and change the calling patterns of existing customers. Contrasting Willett’s commodity view for the wireline market, Keogh said that for wireless operators "There is no mass market, it is a contradiction in terms."

He also put the world on notice that Orange will never launch 3G technology--at least from a marketing perspective. "That is not the end all and be all. We will be launching an enhanced customer experience.