The legacy is dead, long live the legacy

Next-generation OSS. It's an interesting phrase. You never quite get there, do you? We view the next-generation OSS as a combination of extending our legacy applications to address business needs and incrementally adding new products within that existing environment. It's the same for any network: wireline, wireless or cable. There is a misperception that all of a sudden there is magically going to be this next-generation environment where you spend the biggest proportion on new products. But the next-generation OSS is more about transition.

Another part of the transition is the evolution from building products in-house to taking commercial off-the-shelf software and applying it to the existing environment.

A few years ago there used to be this whole white board nirvana, but that has fallen by the wayside. The days of envisioning $200 million transformation projects that get done in two years are over. Wholesale replacement is just not viable, especially when we are capable of extending current systems. For example, the TIRKS system of 25 years ago is not the same as the TIRKS system of today. We have added application interfaces and business rules that have driven efficiencies and reduced costs-and extended it into the new generation of OSS.

While the desire to extend legacy systems is the same for all types of carriers, the reasons are very different. Wireline operators are still really focused on taking costs out of the business. They have to be. They are losing customers. Wireless operators are driven more today by increasing average revenue per user and stickiness. They are focused on revenue growth and service assurance.

They also have something else in common. Carriers want to buy from fewer suppliers and they want vendors to understand that if the operator wants to implement, say, IP service creation with a kind of toe-in-the-water approach, then that's what they want. And they want to be able to integrate it with their existing legacy applications.

The next generation OSS is not just about products either. It's about business solutions.

Carriers want to grow incrementally and have a trusted advisor that can let them know where the pain points and the business benefits are over time. And they want to do business with a financially sound company.

That's as important as any product we can offer. Carriers need business-based solutions with business-based results. We have been very active in the TeleManagement Forum defining how these different elements come together to achieve this. Our focus and theirs is in moving into an “operational business value.” We do that not just by extending the legacy systems or by offering new business related systems such as workforce management and revenue assurance, but by also offering tools for products and services that carriers can use in their business cases to actually get money to invest.

We believe that the work we are doing within the TMF is very important in terms of standards work and will be a driver for the new generation OSS.

back office

Click on the Back Office tab of our Web site for more insight on next-gen OSSs, including conversations with Oracle and the TeleManagement Forum.
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