The new enablers: TeleManagement World stresses software

The message from the first gathering of the newly structured and named TeleManagement Forum is that the increasing bandwidth and advanced services that characterize this new competitive age are nothing without software.

Last week's TeleManagement World conference in Dallas, sponsored by the former Network Management Forum, was a showcase of software vendor cooperation.

At the core of the event were demonstrations of the forum's Catalyst projects, which display models of vendor solutions on which carriers can base the adaptations of their end-to-end operations support systems (OSSs).

"It's pretty hard to automate and improve your processes if you don't know what they look like," said Beth Adams, president and CEO of the TMF.

The Catalyst projects were first demonstrated at TeleManagement World in Paris in April but have expanded to include more capabilities and more vendor participation. Last week, capabilities such as interconnection gateways, trouble ticketing, service assurance, connection management and service fulfillment were on display.

The Plug and Play Service Fulfillment Catalyst brought together seven software developers to show how the TMF's Telecom Operations and Technology Integration Maps can be applied to the process of ordering, testing, provisioning and billing a service such as voice over IP (see figure).

The projects demonstrate an increased level of vendor cooperation that, while reportedly not without its tensions, is a crucial development step in an industry sector composed of primarily smaller, narrowly focused developers.

"This is how you figure out how a product develops," said James Ross, senior vice president and general manager of services for Evolving Systems, which contributed prototypes of call transaction processing and service fulfillment capabilities to the voice-over-IP demo. "We're getting validation of the concept."

Some members of the Catalyst projects are beginning to pitch the joint solutions to carriers, said Dana Brown, vice president of marketing for Metasolv Software, which provided components for two demos last week. That level of integration increases rather than limits the opportunities for individual players, she said.

"It enables us to focus and continue to do what we do well," Brown said. Ongoing introduction of new services provides plenty of opportunity for additional software development, she added.

The question, however, is whether network operators are committed enough to the process of OSS improvement to make dealing with so many vendors for an end-to-end solution worthwhile. That issue has already created opportunities for OSS systems integrators such as Beechwood, which customizes solutions for carriers that comprise products from multiple software developers.

"The OSS infrastructure differs for every carrier based on their business models," said Jason Donahue, vice president of marketing for Beechwood. "Our business and all our skills are around putting together the right solutions."

Research from The Yankee Group reflects the increasing importance of OSS issues to network operators. The consultancy estimates that $37.5 billion was spent on OSS development this year and that the figure will rise to at least $55 billion by 2000, said Rob Rich, senior vice president of The Yankee Group.

"That is an indication of the recognition service providers have of the critical nature of information technology on their business," Rich said.