The rapid growth of today’s data-centric mobile market is driving forward-looking operators to improve the user experience of their customers by taking a more integrated approach to their Operational Support Systems and Business Support Systems platforms.
As the telecoms industry evolves, operators have begun to pursue integrated OSS/BSS solutions. These provide them with a real-time understanding and end-to-end visibility of their networks and associated services, enabling them to optimise networks and rapidly deliver new services, while enhancing service quality and customer experience.
However, operators are not just in business to provide services to their customers, they also need to increase profitability and effectively manage revenue streams. Operators’ billing and charging functions need to ensure that customers pay correctly for the various services they have used in different locations, at different times, and with optimised interconnect agreements.
The more efficiently network and customer data can be represented in real-time, the more effective network planning and operations processes become. A service provider using an integrated OSS/BSS will have access to real time network events, combined with an accurate network model for highly automated service quality management and network resource planning. This not only improves profitability, but it also plays a large part in keeping customers satisfied.
Transformation through OSS/BSS automation
The sheer scale and complexity of today’s multi-vendor networks and their service offerings is astonishing. The handling and processing of data that needs to be analysed and converted into business intelligence that improves customer satisfaction levels and business performance crosses the expanse of both OSS and BSS for operators.
Five to ten years ago, network operations and engineering centers were manned by a large number of staff who used extensive manual processes to undertake network management and planning functions. Today, advanced software applications have enabled the automation of many of these processes and substantially reduced the number of staff required.
This has resulted in organisational change, so staff now focus on the services delivered by the network. Network operations centres have evolved into service operations centres and this transformation has enabled service providers to become much more customer-centric, with free flow of service and customer information throughout the relevant departments of their companies.
For example, customer care agents are now able to be fully informed of service issues, anticipate customer enquiries before they happen, and be armed with the right answers to ensure customer satisfaction and reduction in the propensity of customers to churn. In fact, the merger of real-time OSS/BSS intelligence enables network operators to be much more proactive in their customer care initiatives.
Choosing a well-planned OSS-to-BSS integration strategy is worth serious consideration. Contemporary architectures can include:
- Network discovery by fault management systems
- Delivery of discovered elements and links into an asset/inventory management system
- Holding customer and service information from the customer relationship management (CRM) system
- Network planning tools that are tightly integrated with the inventory database,
- GIS system holding service coverage
- Usage and event information
- Correlation tools that overlay these systems and pinpoint real time service and customer impacts
- Interfaces to billing systems to issue credits for SLA violations
- Dashboards to display KPIs that let executives know how well the business is running
Expected benefits to be realized by service providers include:
- Reduced costs to operate and maintain the network
- Improved service quality & customer experience
- Increased profitability
About Enghouse Networks:
Enghouse Networks integrated OSS/BSS solutions enable a complete and highly automated approach for service providers, helping them to meet today’s business challenges through the implementation of agile and tailored solutions that focus on a customer-centric and inherently profitable approach to building their business.
With analysts predicting that we will see over 50 billion connected devices around the world by 2020, now is the perfect time for operators to seek out solutions that will help them build their business using a customer centric model.
The Enghouse Networks OSS/BSS portfolio has been delivering these improved services to operators for more than 20 years.
Download the OSS/BSS integration whitepaper here.
Enghouse Networks is exhibiting at this year's AfricaCom between 15 - 17 November at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. You can visit them at stand P14B.
AfricaCom is Africa's biggest tech and telco event with a week long festival of events running from the 14th - 18th November, with the conference and exhibition taking place between the 15th - 17th November at the Cape Town ICC. Book your tickets here.
About the author:
Richard has a breadth of knowledge and deep understanding of OSS/BSS systems. During his time with NetBoss (now an Enghouse Networks company) he was involved with the successful deployment of hundreds of OSS/BSS projects in over 70 countries, using the most experienced engineering teams in the industry.
The AFEST is an unmissable African live music event at one of Cape Town's most spectacular beach-side venues - a night which is set to spread AfricaCom vibes across the city.
