Instant OSS: Vendors flirt with hosted model

The application service provider model became another unpaid guest at the OSS 2000 conference in Orlando last week as experts discussed not only how to build a proper operations support system for ASPs, but how to use the model to support the OSS itself.

"Plan for the future. Build for today, but understand where you are going," said Chris VandenBerg, group program manager for Microsoft, in a presentation on operations and business support systems for ASPs.

Companies such as Albion International, CommTech, Mantiss and Quintessent Communications are moving ahead with ASP models that will allow service providers to enter the market with a functional OSS.

CommTech announced its FastFlow ASP product last week and will partner with unspecified vendors to provide the complete solution.

"It's a pay-as-you-grow model without the need to be over capitalized with IT infrastructure and an OSS backbone," said Frank Fawzi, president and CEO of CommTech.

Canadian service provider Combined Telecom Inc. has chosen CommTech's FastFlow ASP for activating DSL service. CTI will use CommTech's Order Fulfillment Suite for order management, workflow, inventory and trouble management. For line and trunk activation, local automated routing and other services, CTI will use CommTech's FastFlow Service Activation Suite.

"The model enables data [competitive local exchange carriers] to be on par with established players and lets established voice players get into data without having to bet the farm," Fawzi said.

Two technology breakthroughs have opened the door to providing an ASP model for OSS: the advancements in thin clients that are made to work with hosted applications and the sophistication of the applications themselves that permit vertical applications for CLECs, Fawzi said.

>From a business standpoint the benefit is simple. "It's easier to >outsource than to develop in-house," said Dale Quick, chief operating >officer at Quintessent.

Part of the $15 million in third round financing Quintessent closed on last week will be used to build out its ASP delivery channels, Quick said.

Like a clearinghouse solution that reduces the impact on CLECs from software updates and forms changes from the incumbent LECs, the ASP model does the same for all OSS applications.

"This model does away with software obsolescence," Fawzi said. The ASP model eliminated the need to update the software on the client side.

The ASP model for OSS will still be an option for service providers. Vendors will continue to offer licensed gateways or clearinghouses as alternatives for interconnection and integrated services. CommTech's model will have the same look and feel as its licensed solution. It will extend its FastFlow workflow engine and business process editor to the Internet.

"We're putting options in front of the customer, and options are important," Fawzi said. "We will try to create customer loyalty so that if a customer wanted to transition to a licensed model, we would help them through the transition. But if the model is as powerful as we think it will be, we don't expect customers to ask that."

Ultimately, by developing partnerships with other ASPs, the ASP/OSS model will let providers offer other hosted services.

Albion's effort is unique because it concentrates its efforts at the OSS core as a facilitator of flow. Data from other vendors' ordering interfaces and billing systems, for example, pours into and out of the transformation engine component of the Albion Connect system, which in turn feeds data into gateways to incumbent OSSs and other databases.

"We provide a framework so that integrated communications providers can develop a best-of-breed system," said Dale Sizemore, vice president of sales and marketing for Albion.

Because the principals of Albion have backgrounds in systems integration, the company also boasts that as a competitive advantage.