technology review | in focus: customers & product

Comarch Technology Review is a publication created by Comarch experts and specialists. It aims at assist-ing our customers and partners in obtaining in-depth information about market trends and developments, and the technological possibilities of addressing the most important issues.

www.comarch.com

Comarch Telecommunications Business Unit

n0 1/2008 (06)

in focus

Customers & ProduCts

>> Comarch Product Catalog

>> Convergence in Telecommunication

>> On-premise CRM

>> Why CRM does not deliver?

marginss/e/f – 4pt – 6p

Learn more at ngtv.comarch.com

Comarch’s Next Generation TV (NGTV) solution allows network operators to provide interactive TV services across various devices including TV sets, mobile phones and personal computers.

For customers, our solution provides a next-generation experience with an extensive range of features such as Electronic Programme Guide (EPG), Video-on-Demand (VOD), Music-on-Demand, online shopping, access to Pi-casa™ photo galleries online, personal TV profiles and much more.

For operators, Comarch NGTV suite provides a complete IPTV middleware that is easy to integrate, customizable, reliable and cost-effective. It can be used for delivering various third-party interactive TV premium services. It also supports open standards and integration with products of leading head-end, VOD, CAS/DRM and STB vendors.

Comarch NGTV is the foundation for innovative busi-ness models such as NGTV Ecosystem and Virtual NGTV Operator, and acts as a bridge between Internet and TV services.

Next Generation TV is coming!

Are you bored with traditional tV?

SOlUTiOnS & CaSe STUdieS

20. Comarch OSS Suite 4Next generation OSS systems

are just around the corner

OSS systems have never been as important as

they are today. Their importance will grow even

further with the rising popularity of Next Gen-

eration Networks. Nowadays, operators can not

even think about delivering services without

strong help from supporting systems. There

is no such army of people who can plan, pro-

vision, deliver and bill these new services in a

matter of seconds.

24. Comarch Fault Management in PTCIs your network expanding really quickly? Are the

competitors just waiting for your bad move? Do

the network outages cost you Millions? In that

case it is high time to think about a unified Fault

Management system tailored precisely to your

needs!

26. Comarch TwilightBilling System perspective

Operators are recognizing the market of wire-

less Internet more and more often. Business

opportunities are evident however the cost of

entering the market is high. With basic Internet

access services, enterprise class OSS/BSS solu-

tions may become too cumbersome and too

expensive. Perhaps it is a good time to evaluate

more cost-effective alternatives...

TRendS & STRaTegieS

29. Comarch eSB– True SOA

– A case of empowered integration

Easy and effective integration – a myth or a real

business requirement? Enterprise Service Bus

is mature enough to enhance integration pro-

cesses by introducing: faster deployment, trans-

parent communication, control and scalabil-

ity. Yet a solution integrated using ESB remains

open to other components, not necessarily origi-

nating from the same vendor. This ensures enter-

prise business security and the independence

of suppliers.

32. next-generation TVThe revolution of user experience

Next-generation television is approaching! It

is time to stop being merely a Network Opera-

tor and time to become a Multimedia Service

Enabler. This article shows how IPTV works and

discusses the business model that lies behind

it.

36. Service Centric OSSThe first step of Next Generation

OSS transformation

Today, we see an increasing level of changes in

the telecommunications environment. We see

a major shift from traditional, heavy architec-

ture to next generation networks, with the ser-

vice layer separated from the networking equip-

ment. This change enables telecom providers to

quickly and easily introduce new services to get

subscribers’ attention. As a result, the telecom-

munication services market is getting more and

more dynamic.

in FOCUS

4. Comarch Product CatalogEfficient Portfolio and Product

Life-Cycle Management

Is Master Data Management (MDM) another buzz

word, the next marketing slogan or a specific

idea to solve a real problem? MDM, also known

as Reference Data Management, is an IT disci-

pline that focuses on the management of ref-

erence or master data that is shared by several

disparate IT systems and groups.

8. Convergence in TelecommunicationBilling System perspective

Only about 20 years ago, the telecommunica-

tion world was clearly defined. During these

days, an incumbent operator delivered a voice

service based on a relatively simple technology

dedicated for that purpose.

14. On-premise CRM

A sinking ship or a flying fortress?

The CRM market has gone through its phases

of hype, disappointment and recovery. Now

a returning wave of interest based on a more

realistic approach to customers and vendors

offers reasonable alternatives to the big CRM

implementations that have historically been

expensive, troublesome and time-consuming.

One such interesting alternative is CRM on-

demand.

18. Why CRM does not deliver?Surprisingly, telco operators continue to per-

form miserably when it comes to: selling a prod-

uct to a customer who wants it badly, retaining

a valuable customer who does not think about

churning away, and acquiring a new customer

who falls “straight into their hands”.

editor-in-Chief: Daniel Nosiadekassistant editors: Łucja Burek, Radosław Czyrneklayout: Maciej UrbanekdTP&graphics: Magdalena Majkowska-TraczProofreading: Scott ReynoldsPublisher: Comarch SA, Al. Jana Pawła II 39a, 31-864 KrakówTel. +48 12 64 61 000, Fax: +48 12 64 61 100, e-mail: [email protected]: Skleniarz Printing House, ul. J. Lea 118, 31-033 KrakówCirculation: 1 000

Technology Review is a free publication available by subscription. The articles published here can be copied and reproduced only with the knowledge and consent of the editors. The names of products and companies mentioned are trade marks and trade names of their producers.

Table of Contents < 3


Comarch Product Catalogefficient Portfolio and Product life-Cycle Management

Is Master Data Management (MDM) another

buzz word, the next marketing slogan or

a specific idea to solve a real problem? MDM,

also known as Reference Data Management,

is an IT discipline that focuses on the manage-

ment of reference or master data that is shared

by several disparate IT systems and groups.

technology review [www.comarch.com]

4 > in Focus


MDM is required to enable con-

sistent computing between

diverse system architectures and business func-

tions. In this article we try to answer the ques-

tion: How do telco providers use the MDM para-

digm for Efficient Portfolio and Product Life-Cycle

Management?

a crucial problemToday, telco providers, in particular incumbents

and tier 1 and 2 operators, possess vast amounts

of products and services. Meanwhile, competition

on the telco market is focused rather on offer qual-

ity and time-to-market and not on prices. Conse-

quently, this is why Portfolio and Product Life-Cycle

Management is a crucial problem for providers.

This is a critical problem related to product and

offer management. Product and offer data must,

in fact, be shared among multiple systems which

are completely independent from each other. It is

common for operators to have product and offer

data spread out over their post-paid billing sys-

tem, CRM, pre-paid billing system, network, loyalty

system, logistics, warehouse, dealer management,

commissioning, campaign management, recharge

and voucher management and ERP.

To solve such a problem and to provide opera-

tors with the support they need, the concept of

Master Data Management has emerged. Comarch

Product Catalog (CPC) implements this idea in the

areas of portfolio and product management.

The idea behind CPCComarch Product Catalog (CPC) is a central prod-

uct repository for service providers. Information

from CPC can be used by any other BSS/OSS system

related to products and services such as a billing,

CRM or provisioning system. CPC is a tool for defin-

ing, storing and managing end-user products.

CPC acts as a master and central database for

products and offers for all of an operator’s systems.

Instead of defining products and offers in several

systems or having complex data sharing processes

among products, CPC becomes the central point

for operators in the creation and modification of

products and offers.

In a typical scenario, products are defined in

each of an operator’s systems independently or

through complex synchronization. This results in

poor time to market. CPC can significantly change

this approach. For example, the CRM department

does not directly use the CRM GUI in order to cre-

ate new products but does this through CPC. The

same is true for billing administrators: the billing

system receives information about new products

from CPC. This dramatically reduces the time to

market of new products and offers.

Products and their componentsCPC collects information about which low level

services (network services) and which systems

realize particular business products. This means

that CPC allows for the creation of new products

nr 1/2008 (06)

in Focus < 5


Figure 1 Central Product Repository

and offers based on small element “blocks”. Pro-

viders have a complete and current view of their

products and offers on the market and also have

knowledge about which systems are responsible

for these products.

Product life-cycle managementMoreover, CPC supports the product definition

process (i.e. the product lifecycle). CPC enables the

monitoring and management of tasks flowing from

department to department and from person to per-

son. At each moment, providers have information

about the status of product development.

A typical product life cycle includes:

> Product development

> Collect product ideas/requirements

> Evaluate product ideas

> Product specification/definition

> Product development

> Product launch (begin offering it on the mar-

ket)

> Testing

> Publishing

> Service fulfillment and assurance

> Service ordering

> Service activation

> Service monitoring

> Service quality management

> Eliminating the product from the market

> Halting sales

> Halting support for the product

This is a long term process. As always, the time-to-

market paradigm is critical for this competitive

market. CPC actively supports the development

phase of such lifecycles. CPC can help significantly

shorten the product development phase.

architecture and industry standardsThis solution is developed according to industry

standards such as Shared Information Data (SID)

Comarch Product Catalog


Generic and complete products and offers data

Product livecycle management

One master database

Single GUI

Pre paid billing

Products and offers data

Post paid billing


CRM


Commissioning


dealer management


eRP


Vouchers


loyalty


Warehouse


logistic


Pre paid billing


Op

en a

nd

sta

nd

ard

co

mm

un

ica

tio

n b

us

/ O

SS

/ J

aP

i

BenefitsFast introduction of new products – many ways of

creating new product specifications

High number of products in the manageable port-

folio – organized in folders with searching and ver-

sioning capabilities

easy adjustment of existing products – multiple

ways of adjusting product specifications

Reduced product development costs – multiple

ways of reusing existing product specifications

lower system integration and operational costs

– the implementation and utilization of a standard-

ized API


6 > in Focus


created by Telemanagement Forum and OSS/J spec-

ifications. The application is built and runs on a

3-tiered architecture – an Oracle database, a J2EE

Application Server (EJB) and Java Web Start (GUI,

desktop application) – which requires no extra

software installation on user machines.

This open and scalable architecture makes

Comarch Product Catalog ready for the future. It

uses the newest, although very reliable, technol-

ogy standards.

Comarch Product Catalog is pluggable software,

meaning that it is made of several components.

Communication with external systems within

these components is open. It is even possible to

replace the components, or their parts, with one’s

own components.

Comarch Product Catalog consists of two main

parts: the GUI and the Engine.

The GUI is the front-end and is used to manage

entities such as product specifications, product

offerings and service specifications.

The CPC Engine is the back-end and can be used

as an independent application that implements

the OSS/J Inventory API specification, with layers

responsible for business logic, validation and data

storage. This results in the possibility to use the

CPC engine as a back-end for a graphical interface

other than the one provided with Comarch Product

Catalog. In this case, certain functionalities may be

disabled depending on the functionalities of the

existing system. <

Figure 2 Product lifecycle


Sel

ect

idea

s th

at

sea

ms

to b

e p

rom

issi

ng

Product development

– ideas

Collect product ideas/requirements

Evaluate product

ideas

Product development – definition

Product specification/

definition

dec

isio

n t

o o

ffer

th

e p

rod

uct

on

th

e m

ark

et

Product development

launch product

Testing

Offi

cia

l la

un

ch o

f th

e p

rod

uct

Publishing

Service assurance

Service monitoring

eli

min

ate

pro

du

ct f

rom

th

e m

ark

et

Service quality

management

eliminate product

Stop sales

Stop support for product

Service fulfillment

Service ordering

Service activation

Stanisław Zbroja

Comarch SAPosition: Department Director

department: Product Management and

Marketing Department

info: 11 years of experience in the fields

of billing systems and CRM

Idea Draft Ready RetiredActive

nr 1/2008 (06)

in Focus < 7


Convergence in TelecommunicationBilling System perspective

Only about 20 years ago, the telecommunication

world was clearly defined. During these days,

an incumbent operator delivered a voice service

based on a relatively simple technology dedicated

for that purpose. A few years later,

the introduction of mobile services brought about

a major revolution.


8 > in Focus


only about 20 years ago, the telecommu-

nication world was clearly defined.

During these days, an incumbent operator delivered a

voice service based on a relatively simple technology

dedicated for that purpose. A few years later, the intro-

duction of mobile services brought about a major revo-

lution. However these services, although basic, had sev-

eral drawbacks linked to the fact that they were heavily

dependent on the underlying technology:

> The systems were not flexible as minor new features

required huge changes in the operator’s network.

> Different technologies (such as fixed voice, GSM voice)

were ignoring each other since they were based on dif-

ferent network technology. As an example, a GSM hand-

set was not able to connect to your fixed line while at

home to receive a better price plan.

> Although relatively simple, the systems were not eas-

ily extendable, such as additional offers for new value

added services such as TV, image messaging, content

protected download…

> The back office, and to some extent, the front systems

were, as a result, relatively strongly linked to these

underlying technologies. As an example, billing systems

were able to deal primarily with fixed line voice in post

paid mode.

Thanks to the generalization of the IP and IMS in tele-

communications, the increase of hardware power as

well as the increased use of layered architecture in soft-

ware development, the telecommunication world is now

going towards:

> network access convergence: The underlying transport

technology you are using does not matter anymore. You

Figure 1 architecture of Comarch Billing System for Convergent ServicesSa

les

C

ha

nn

els

Co

nve

rgen

t B

illi

ng

Ap

pli

cati

on

sU

sers

Net

wo

rkSe

rvic

e

Del

iver

y/C

ontr

ol

Billing System

Off-line charging

On-line charging

Off

-lin

e, p

ost

pa

id

Application Server

On

-lin

e, p

ost

pa

idProduct

Catalogue

PSTN, NGN/IMS, 2.5G/3G, Cable, Broadband, IP, ...

Mediation Network Adapters Provisioning

3rd party Service

Provider

ED

R

SIP

CORE application VAS application

Roaming broker

Web Self-Care CRMWeb Dealer-Care

Network Abstraction Layer

Parlay X

on-line interaction

off-line interaction

Convergent Accounts

Customers & Contracts

Balances

nr 1/2008 (06)

in Focus < 9


can use the same handset for your mobile GSM/Wimax

or fixed line Wifi connection at home.

> new, innovative value added services. These value

added services are becoming so advanced that we are

now seeing a new form of convergence, industry con-

vergence through the merger of the telecommunica-

tion, media and Internet industries into one.

> improved time to market as new services means modi-

fying only a piece of software instead of upgrading a

full set of nationwide switches.

> Front office and back office systems which are less and

less dependent on the underlying technology and more

and more agile especially when it comes to configura-

tion updates or convergence management.

However, we at Comarch believe there is still room for

improvement for increasing these trends and providing

increased convergence through better BSS and OSS prod-

ucts. This article aims at describing our approach.

The evolution of Billing SystemsTo achieve all modern telecommunication requirements

it was necessary to change service delivery architectures

as well as billing systems architectures. These changes

cover many aspects like network unification, standards-

based communication, a centralized product catalogue

and most importantly - real-time processing.

Comarch Billing System for Convergent Services uses

modern multi-layered architecture and solves problems in

many business layers of users and their terminals, access

networks, service delivery/control, services logic, conver-

gent billing and sales channels.

Legacy Billing Solution Architecture

Figure 2 The evolution of Billing Systems

Next Generation Billing Solution Architecture

Billing System

evolutionMediation

Mediation

PSTN

RatingProduct

Catalogue

Customers & Contracts

Mediation

Mediation

Broadband

IPCable

Mobile

ProvisioningProvisioningProvisioning

3rd party Service

Provider

3rd party Service

Provider

Billing System

Customers & contracts

Off-line charging

On-line charging

Off

-lin

e, p

ost

pa

id

Application Server

On

-lin

e, p

ost

pa

id

Central Reference

Data(Product Catalog,

Addresses, ...)

Prepaid voice

Missed calls

notification

Prepaid GPRS

...


Parlay X



3rd party Service

Provider


10 > in Focus


The solution consists of several Comarch products

with Comarch Billing System at its heart which enables

the following features:

> off-line charging utilizing the entire billing process

(loading, rating, discounting, invoicing, payment col-

lection, dunning, reporting, off-line billing),

> on-line charging (real-time rating, charging, balance

management, high availability),

>> event-based charging (for services like SMS),

>> session-based charging (for services like voice call),

> database for reference data (customers and contracts,

financial and usage data, …).

Other products used in the solution: Comarch Billing

Mediation, Comarch Service Provisioning, Comarch

Convergent Services Platform, Network Abstraction

Layer & Application Server, Comarch Product Catalogue,

Comarch Self-Care, Comarch CRM.

Prepaid/Postpaid level ConvergenceThe system maintains information about prepaid balances

assigned to user accounts. Prepaid balance management

has all the features required by standard mobile prepaid

services as well as next generation services with balance

reservations, rollover, automatic recharges, simultane-

ous service usage and the possibility of charging any

event in real-time.

The same user account managed by this system may

be used for postpaid services where all usage data is col-

lected and used later for invoicing.

The decision whether a service is sold in prepaid or

postpaid mode can be made at the time of creating a

Figure 3 Prepaid/Postpaid level Convergence

Billing System

Off-line charging

On-line charging

Off

-lin

e, p

ost

pa

id

Application Server

On

-lin

e, p

ost

pa

id

Product Catalogue



3rd party Service

Provider

ED

R


Roaming broker



on-line interaction


Database

Manage prepaid and postpaid subscribers

Subscriber abroud

Postpaid subscriber Prepaid subscriber

CORE application

Billing, invoicing

Real-time rating

Off-line rating

Call details Records files mediation

Signalling processing

Services provisioning (line management)

SIP

Parlay X

Usage data storage Prepaid Balance update

Prepaid application

nr 1/2008 (06)

in Focus < 11


sales offer. The same service may be offered many times

in different models like prepaid, postpaid or postpaid

with limits.

Sales ChannelsComarch Billing System for Convergent Services integrates

applications for supporting multiple sales channels:

> Self-Care application for customer subscription & man-

agement self service,

> Dealer-Care application for a dealer’s sales channel,

> CRM system for Customer Relationship Management.

Service level & Customer experience Convergence Service level convergence allows carriers to rate and/or

bill any type of service in the same system with a sin-

gle point of management. It also enables the possibil-

ity for offering multiple services and charging or billing

a user with a single invoice or by using a single prepaid

account.

The logic of each service is defined by an application

deployed on the Application Server Layer. This layer con-

sists of two specialized Application Servers for core and

value-added services.

A customer receives a single bill or uses a prepaid

account for many mobile and non-mobile services such

as voice, content, parking or ticket payments. The user

may check his account status and services history in a

single self-care application.

Simultaneous multi-network mediation and provisioningThe Network Abstraction Layer consists of a set of pro-

tocol/network adapters which mediates in real-time

Figure 4 Service level & Customer experience Convergence

Billing System

Off-line charging

On-line charging

Off

-lin

e, p

ost

pa

id

Application Server

On

-lin

e, p

ost

pa

id






on-line interaction


Database

Manage prepaid and postpaid subscribers

internet acces service

CORE application

Billing, invoicingOff-line rating

Prepaid applicationP

Usage data storage Prepaid Balance update

ED

R

SIP

Video browsing service

Mobile voice service

Signalling processing

Payment gateway Content subscriptions Parking payments

Real-time rating

Single bill


12 > in Focus


Krzysztof Kwiatkowski

Comarch SAPosition: Product Manager

department: Telecommunications

Business Unit

info: In Comarch for 8 years, all the time

in Teleco Department, currently Product

Manager of Real Time Billing Systems

Figure 5 Simultaneous multi-network mediation and provisioning

Billing System

Off-line charging

On-line charging

Off

-lin

e, p

ost

pa

id

Application Server

On

-lin

e, p

ost

pa

id

SIP SS7 adapter RADIUS




Database:- customers- accounts- balances- products

CORE application

Off-line rating

Parlay X

aaa for iP services

Real-time rating

3rd party Service

Provider

Provisioning GTP adapter (more)Parlay/SOA Mediation DIAMASTER

iMS services charging

2. xg SS&-based services control

iMS services control

Mediation from legacy fixed etwork

IPCable

BroadbandNGN/IMS

PSTN

2.5G/3G

between the network elements and the Application Server

Layer.

The Network Abstraction Layer supports PSTN, NGN/

IMS, 2.5G/3G, Cable, Broadband and other IP-based net-

works and complies with many standards related to SIP/

IMS, OMA, Parlay, SS7, IP-based and more.

Comarch mediation components are used within the

convergent solution to handle the following aspects:

> Billing mediation – on-line (near real-time) and off-line

CDR processing,

> Service provisioning mediation – on-line service and

subscriber provisioning.

BenefitsHaving introduced Comarch Billing System for Conver-

gent Services, the following benefits may ultimately be

listed as the most important:

> increased competence – fast time to market for new

services,

> decreased OPeX and CaPeX by reusing system infra-

structure for launching new services in next generation

and legacy networks,

> increased customer satisfaction – a single Customer

Self-Care system and single account/bill for all ser-

vices,

> customer diversification – easy integration with 3rd

party service providers who can provide services for

niche-markets,

> reduced churn rate – telco-grade solution – upgrade

and service changes with minimal impact to existing

services <

david gourdelier

Comarch Software AGPosition: Consultant


Business Unit

info: David is BSS consultant working for

main Comarch telecommunicaiton

accounts in France and Western Europe

nr 1/2008 (06)

in Focus < 13


On-premise CRM a sinking ship or a flying fortress?

14 > in Focus

The CRM market has gone through its phases

of hype, disappointment and recovery.

Now a returning wave of interest based on

a more realistic approach to customers and ven-

dors offers reasonable alternatives to the big

CRM implementations that have historically been

expensive, troublesome and time-consuming. One

such interesting alternative is CRM on-demand.



what is on-demand CRM? What are

the advantages and risks?

The do’s and don’ts? For a telecom operator, is on-

demand worth considering?

The rise and fall of CRMWhat comes to mind when you hear the acronym

CRM? Is it: „a single view of a customer, driving

customer satisfaction, enhancing the bottom line

by being better able to understand and fulfill cus-

tomer needs”? These all sound promising. However,

maybe you have other associations, ones more dif-

ficult to find in marketing brochures but more eas-

ily heard by listening to those actually involved in

CRM projects in recent years. They would say that

the hard reality is that CRM is a never-ending proj-

ect, an initiative with a colossal budget and a high

risk of failure. Eventually, even if a CRM system does

get successfully deployed, it is often used improp-

erly (if at all), not taking advantage of its strengths,

leading to results that are far from expected, espe-

cially in terms of return on investment.

These negative associations we may still have

of CRM aren’t coming out of nowhere. As of the end

of 2002 Gartner, as well as several other analysts,

informed us that 70% of all CRM projects fail. The

top reasons for these failures include: lack of a

strategic, enterprise wide approach with little or

no board-level commitment, undefined success

metrics, poor methodology and a focus on technol-

ogy instead of customer and business processes.

Clearly, most of the problems companies had with

the implementation of CRM were not particularly

technology-related. The problems were organiza-

tional, often boiling down to a single misconcep-

tion, a misunderstanding of the CRM concept. The

CRM market had to fall.

But what can we say today? CRM is not dead -

it may be bruised, but it’s back. Large-scale, long-

term CRM initiatives are beginning to be approved

again. Spending on open-source CRM is projected to

increase threefold, there is a comeback of in-house

built CRM applications and vendors are transition-

ing to new service-oriented architectures (source:

Gartner 2006). Having learned their lesson, vendors

as well as their clients are increasingly cautious

while attempting to reduce the risk associated

with a CRM initiative by seeking new models and

approaches. On-demand CRM is one of the most

meaningful and influential new models.

nr 1/2008 (06)

in Focus < 15


Some like it hostedThe idea behind on-demand CRM (or in other words,

hosted CRM) is simple: we don’t buy the software,

we buy the services – this is precisely the concept

of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) or Application Ser-

vice Providing - ASP (for various reasons ASP, like

CRM, also has negative connotations which is why

the term SaaS tends to be used instead). We don’t

care about the technical details too much, the pro-

vider does. CRM software is available through the

Internet and less often via a dedicated line. In on-

demand CRM, multiple end-customers share the

same hardware, databases and functionality with

various customization options (This is called the

multi-tenancy model. There is also a single-ten-

ancy model, where each customer has his own

database and server, but purists say that in such

a case software cannot be considered as a service).

In this way, vendors achieve an economy of scale,

allowing them to set lower prices for services of

guaranteed quality.

On-demand differs from traditional on-site or

on-premise CRM when we purchase licenses and

own the software (another possibility is when we

own a home-grown application). Commonly, we

have to take care of all the technical details, main-

tain the software and infrastructure, keep dedi-

cated IT personnel and train them so they don’t

get behind. No two clients of a CRM vendor have

the same on-premise system. Usually only 30-50%

of the enterprise CRM software is standard, the

rest represents customer specific functionality,

customization and integration. This is probably

why it always takes so long to deploy an on-prem-

ise CRM system – because 50% must be built from

scratch! On-demand differs from on-premise in

that it aims to make you switch-off the function-

ality you don’t need rather than build-up the func-

tionality you do (in the on-premise model). Which

approach sounds easier?

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, recently said „peo-

ple want hosted CRM”. Although some analysts see

the future of on-demand CRM as not that bright

(AMR Research predicts that even by 2009, hosted

CRM applications will account for only 12% of the

total U.S. CRM market) there definitely is something

to it. Why do people want hosted CRM? Because it

is low risk, low cost and high ROI. There is no enor-

mous up front investment and only a low monthly

rental fee with minimal or no service fees. The risk

is low, because the service provider takes it on and

delivers guaranteed system availability and per-

formance (usually providers agree to an SLA much

more willingly than the internal IT departments of

their customers). It is very easy to get users quickly

up and running, a provider’s implementation pro-

cesses are mostly uniform and are often repeated

– deployment of a single department package takes

from 30 to 90 days. On demand CRM provides a lot

of flexibility in upgrades – behind the scenes, devel-

opers have on-line access to the system giving

them unprecedented possibilities for continuous

software improvement. They can observe and track

usage patterns to optimize and automate the most

popular instances of use. When the amount of

tasks, client base and data size grows, we don’t

need a complex process for explaining the need,

getting approval and purchasing additional hard-

ware or technologies. We just let the provider know

that we need additional users or functionality and

they assume the challenge and responsibility for

which they receive a payment.

The third wayIt seems on-demand CRM allows you to focus on

your customers and not on the technology while

relieving you from the risk and overhead of an on-

premise approach. But is on-demand really this

attractive? What’s the catch? As always, the devil

is in the details - what constitutes an advantage

can also pose a threat. Short deployment time is

only a promise, getting the system to work could

take longer than expected because of problem-

atic customization. Possibilities offered by the API

are usually limited and once we want something

more, we fall into the trap of an on-premise model

– the vendor sends a team to work through a solu-

tion, extending the implementation time tremen-

dously. Moreover, upgrades can be tricky – and tend

to break existing customization and integration,

which leads to abandoning valuable new function-

ality. Some institutions may be wary of being over-

dependent on the service provider. They have all

the data which sometimes can be sensitive (banks,

health care), difficult to protect from unauthor-

ized access when out of your control and difficult

to get back from the vendor should relations go

south. Other organizations may feel like opting

for on-demand results in losing their competitive

advantage – everyone has the same software, so

The future, or what the CRM crystal ball told me:

“Dispersed CRM” – a single view of a customer, but

across multiple dispersed packages – a multi-sourc-

ing and hybrid approach – on-demand solutions for

one or more service providers mixed with on-prem-

ise installations.

Convergence of on-demand and on-premise - migra-

tion between models will be possible (it is already

possible for some vendors), infrastructure will get

more and more robust and „invisible”, outsourc-

ing will start to pay off not only on paper but also

in reality.

Commoditization – The commoditization of CRM

functional areas, such as sales force automation

or customer service and support will be driven by

on-demand vendors, the difference between their

offerings will be in their ability and willingness to

act globally, effectively customize software and

integrate with a customer’s systems. We will get

cheaper, more rapidly implemented and more use-

ful CRM.

Knowing the negative connotations of the CRM

term, and that it can be associated purely with a

technology investment, other terms begin to be

used instead:

> Customer Management,

> Customer Centricity

> Relationship Management,

> Relationship Marketing

> Customer Experience Management

> Customer Service Excellence

> Single view of a customer,

> Sales productivity growth

> ...

However, behind all these different names there’s

a common concept of a business strategy whose

outcomes optimize profitability, revenue and cus-

tomer satisfaction by organizing around customer

segments, promoting customer-satisfying behav-

iors and implementing customer-centric processes

(source: Gartner).


16 > in Focus


where’s the difference? However, the greatest prob-

lem with on-demand CRM is the time scale. Surely,

we can achieve the lowest initial cost, the lowest

risk, but all in the short term. In a three-year period,

the cost can be the same for on-demand and on-

premise, yet in the on-demand model the organi-

zation doesn’t own the system, it can’t be custom-

ized to grow along with the needs of the business.

All in all, we might end up with our hands tied and

a miserable ROI.

A mixed approach is the best method to avoid,

or at least compensate for most of the risks related

to implementing CRM in either of the models: on-

premise and on-demand. There are at least three

blends of mixed approaches: the hybrid, “first

host, then buy” and “first buy, then host”. Under

the hybrid model, companies could use hosted

CRM at one site, such as a small division, or a dis-

tant office, while keeping the rest of the company

on an enterprise, on-premise CRM application. It is

currently possible with Siebel, RightNow and SAP

solutions. The hybrid model can be applied not only

to geographical locations, but to functional areas

of CRM since many vendors offer specialized soft-

ware packages. A company could use the hosted

solution for sales automation or customer service

& support, and an on-premise application for the

rest. The best candidate for on-demand CRM is the

area where requirements are changing least often,

where processes are rather stable and mature and

there is no need for a high degree of non-standard

customization or integration. In the “first host,

then buy” approach, we initially buy on-demand

CRM services from a provider and if all goes well,

we purchase the software and begin to manage

it ourselves. This way, we benefit from the “low

cost, low risk, high ROI” advantages during the first

two or three years and afterwards, take over the

entire thing and benefit from the “greatest power,

flexibility, easier integration and customizability”.

The third approach is “first buy, then host”. This is

when the on-premise solution, purchased or home-

grown software is outsourced together with the

infrastructure. Although the system is a managed

service rather than becoming on-demand, the same

combined positive effects occur: cost reduction,

increased quality of services, increased business

agility and less focus on technology and more focus

on the customers. These benefits will be particu-

larly visible for large companies that are no longer

able to react to changes in the market, have enor-

mous IT costs and are unable to fully meet internal

user and customer expectations.

On-demand is the perfect choice for small and

mid-sized companies able to function with stand-

ard processes and data structures, with no real-

time or complex integration requirements, no inter-

nal IT support, yet who want a rapidly deployed

solution. On-demand is therefore a very interest-

ing option to consider for MVNOs and start-ups.

But what about larger telecom operators? Their

primary business imperative is growth signified by

partnership, innovation, cost control, risk manage-

ment and availability of talents. On-demand is defi-

nitely a chance for cost control, risk compensation

(or at least diversification) and an increased avail-

ability of talent (as top talents continue to gather

around global leaders). On-demand CRM might

also be seen as a chance for innovation (when the

vendor is offering outstanding and future-oriented

solutions, which other vendors have yet to adopt)

and partnership (this may be wishful thinking, but

major hosted CRM providers are struggling hard to

enter the lucrative telecommunications market and

have a real interest in building long-lasting, profit-

able partnerships). Having said that, it is still too

early, and there is probably a good reason that most

telecoms stay away from on-demand CRM. Nor-

mally, for telecom operators, customer relationship

management is an area of strategic importance,

and experiments aren’t welcome. Nevertheless,

on-demand starts to be a relevant option. Gartner

predicts that by 2007, 30 percent of new sales force

automation (SFA) production applications will be

deployed as a service. So for most telecoms, maybe

the first shot at on-demand will be for SFA as it is

perceived to be an easy, inexpensive and safe way

to try out an on-demand CRM deployment.

SummaryAfter a phase of disappointment, CRM is com-

ing back, perhaps under different names. The on-

demand model is becoming more and more popular

with functionality beginning to reflect the most-

wanted, tried-and-true features. At the same time,

companies are ready to opt for a compromise and

require merely the necessary integration and cus-

tomization. So, without a doubt, on-demand is here

to stay and represents a viable alternative to cum-

bersome and expensive licensed CRM projects. Is

on-premise doomed? Definitely not. However on-

demand is a warning sign to license vendors to get

more realistic about CRM deployment costs and

times. On-premise will continue to be the most

popular type of deployment for large companies,

with on-demand increasingly being chosen by less

conservative telecoms as well as small and mid-

sized companies, including MVNOs. <

Paweł lamik

Comarch SAPosition: Business Solutions Manager


Business Unit

info: Main fields of expertise: CRM

systems, BI and outsourcing

nr 1/2008 (06)

in Focus < 17


Why CRM does not deliver*

* – sometimes

Surprisingly, telco operators

continue to perform miser-

ably when it comes to: selling

a product to a customer who

wants it badly, retaining a valu-

able customer who does not

think about churning away, and

acquiring a new customer who

falls “straight into their hands”.

The reason is operators’ inabil-

ity to gather information and

properly leverage it, with the

use of CRM class systems.

most telco operators pursue the

same strategic goals: increase

revenue and retain customers. However, when

a customer completely resigns from services or

considerably reduces their service usage, there

is a negative impact on these. If there are more

of such customers, the reduction in revenue and

the high costs for acquiring new customers to

replace the ones who left becomes increasingly

painful. Customers need to be well taken care of

and sales needs to be well taken care of. It may

seem these conclusions are too obvious to even

write about. Yet, I only wonder, how my own ex-

perience as a former, as well as a potential, cus-

tomer of three different major Polish telecommu-

nications providers proves these conclusions as

merely theoretical.

Operator a – Partial revenue lossFor over a dozen years, I’ve had a fixed line phone

from this operator. Recently, I phoned the call-cen-

ter and asked for a tariff downgrade to the least

expensive possible level (ca. 50% less than the

one I had). “This is certainly possible. Please note

however, a charge for one minute is higher in the

cheaper tariff and there are no additional services

which decrease the cost of calls (i.e. free minutes

pack)”, the consultant warned me, “Looking at the

calls you have made in the recent months, I sus-

pect that you will pay much higher bills, are you

sure you want to downgrade? – Yes I am sure. – All

right then, the new tariff will be active as of next

month, thank you and have a nice day.”

What’s wrong with this? Well in short, the ques-

tion “why?” was never asked. I had no reason to

hide that I’ve made a decision to go for VoIP tele-

phony services from a British provider and to keep

the existing fixed-line from Operator A only in order

to keep the existing number and to have a back-up

line. Why should the operator need such informa-

tion? Firstly, this operator offers VoIP services, so

by having this information from me, they could

try to cross-sell thereby saving revenue in the

long term. Secondly, it can provide data for anal-

ysis (i.e. to analyze the scale of the phenomenon,

to develop the offer, to track market trends). The

current assumption that Operator A has made is

that I have made a tariff downgrade and that I will

probably pay more if my usage remains the same

(however it won’t – this usage has left for good

to another operator). It is possible they think I’ve

downgraded because I’m leaving the country for

a long period of time.

Operator B – loss of a customer (and revenue) Until recently, I had cable television at home from

one of the biggest cable TV providers. The origi-

nal subscriber was my sister. However, after she

moved out, I wanted to transfer the contract into

my name. I phoned the call-center, provided my

details – name, address – and told them about

the situation. I was told that what I wanted to do


18 > in Focus


was certainly possible (they always say that), but

that I needed to pay a cession fee – equivalent to

about a one month subscription fee. For over 10

years, I have been regularly paying monthly bills

for one of the highest tariff variants. I declined to

make the cession and asked my sister to terminate

the contract. However, I was accustomed to this

operator and I already had the cable installed. Per-

haps a little naively, I decided to register as a new

customer, thinking they would treat a prospec-

tive customer better. Alas however, it turned out

there was an “installation” fee, also equivalent to

about a one month’s subscription fee. “But listen, I

already have everything installed, there will be no

installation, the cable is there, it is plugged in and

it was working only yesterday. Turning the signal

on for the cable doesn’t really cost that much does

it? – Yes, unfortunately we have such procedures.

There is always an installation fee.”

By requiring these small, annoying fees, this

operator decidedly lost an entire stream of future

revenue, which had been consistently flowing from

my address for years.

Operator C – loss of a potential customer (and potential revenue) However, it is difficult to live without television.

I decided to buy services from a leading satellite

television operator. They offer the channels I’m

interested in and at a reasonable price. I phoned

their call-center to learn more about their offer

and the details pertaining to the installation. I told

them I was interested in quickly closing the deal,

however the consultant didn’t ask for my phone

number or service details. They could have trans-

ferred my data to a local partner who would possi-

bly take better care of a potential customer. Instead,

I was merely instructed to look for the closest local

partner on their web page. I opened the web page

and found the contact form. I selected the “I am

interested in signing a deal” option and entered

my data: e-mail, mobile phone and exactly what I

needed. I even received a confirmation e-mail stat-

ing that within 48 hours somebody would contact

me (by the way, why not within 1 hour?). What hap-

pened then? Nothing. There has been no contact

so far, and that was 16 days ago. Well, I guess I will

try my luck with their competitors.

Obviously, this operator is not very interested

in acquiring new customers, the call-center is only

a cost center (not generating revenue) for this oper-

ator, and when it comes to the web form that was

intended to generate leads, it only serves to gener-

ate the frustration of potential customers.

gather information, make use of knowledgeThe operators described have one thing in com-

mon – they use customer service and CRM sys-

tems, including the best in the world (operator A).

Did these systems fulfill their role well enough?

To some extent, yes, they facilitated common

operations – registering subscriptions, answer-

ing inquiries about prices, changing tariffs, termi-

nating subscriptions. However, the systems neither

helped retain a customer nor ensured sustained

(or increased) revenue. Furthermore, they did not

even gather information necessary to understand

“why”. In the examples reported, advanced or costly

techniques (loyalty programs, direct marketing, etc)

were not required to keep or acquire a customer.

For instance, what would be an appropriate reac-

tion in the case of operator A, to a customer will-

ing to downgrade his tariff? Maybe the system’s

suggestion of “ask why”, with some area for input-

ting the customer’s answer. Additionally, further

suggestions aimed at addressing the needs the

customer expressed while answering the “why”

question could be made. For operator B, the system

should have suggested overriding or reducing the

cession fee required from a good customer (based

on a differentiated fee policy for each segment, i.e.

based on a customer’s lifetime value calculation).

In the case of operator C, most likely the call-cen-

ter employees were not sales oriented, however

the system could have suggested “take his phone

number, a mobile if possible”. As far as the flow of

leads from the web-site to the sales department

is concerned – automated detection and alarms

for overdue contacts, and better control of han-

dling leads from the sales department would be

a possible solution.

SummaryOperators do what they can to secure themselves

from revenue and customer leakages, but they still

make simple errors. “Let’s manage our customers,

so they wouldn’t want to leave us and would want

to buy more from us – let’s buy a CRM system” this

is an idea most of them already brought to life

long ago. The idea that a CRM system alone is not

enough to manage customer relationships well,

we have known for a couple of years. CRM systems

tend not to deliver on this promise. Why? There are

many different reasons. One of the main reasons

is that customer data is not integrated in a single

location and managed consistently, and even if

it is somehow, it is not always turned into useful

knowledge in day to day operations.

Comarch CRM for TelecomsIt is a comprehensive customer relationship man-

agement solution for operators and MVNOs. With

BI-enabled modules for Marketing, Sales, and Cus-

tomer Service our product helps increase revenue

from new and existing customers, and improve re-

tention. The built-in Business Intelligence provides

contextual hints and drill-in dashboards, supporting

timely and knowledge-driven decisions. Unlike the

one-size-fits-all solutions from traditional vendors,

our lean and flexible solution was designed to fit an

operator’s existing data models and help express

their own differentiating processes with a built-in

workflow engine.

Paweł lamik

Comarch SAPosition: Business Solutions Manager


Business Unit

info: Main fields of expertise: CRM

systems, BI and outsourcing

Today, BPM and BI are increasingly popular con-

cepts aimed at developing the capability of CRM to

deliver the intended results: revenue growth and

customer retention. This direction looks promis-

ing – in the fight for customers, a successful oper-

ator’s CRM system will manage centralized and

integrated customer data and turn it into knowl-

edge with Business Intelligence while providing

leverage by injecting it into business processes: in

a BPM-driven process, appropriate data is gathered,

which BI uses to deliver relevant, real time sugges-

tions for “what to do”. This should help eliminate

the situations described in this article, making both

the customers and the operators happier. <

nr 1/2008 (06)

in Focus < 19


Comarch OSS Suite 4 next generation OSS systems are just around the corner

OSS systems have never been as important as

they are today. Their importance will grow even

further with the rising popularity of Next Genera-

tion Networks. Nowadays, operators can not even

think about delivering services without strong

help from supporting systems. There is no such

army of people who can plan, provision, deliver

and bill these new services in a matter of seconds.


20 > Solutions & Case Studies

Traditional OSS organization consists of a set of isolated

systems each built for a specific technology, vendor or

service type. In each silo you can identify the systems

responsible for configuration management, quality as-

surance, service provisioning and billing. Provided from

different vendors and usually along with equipment,

such organization suffers from inflexibility. Information

exchange is also limited by a lack of open interfaces.

Next Generation OSS is the alternative solution for leg-

acy systems. It is focused on functional areas instead of

technologies. Each vertical layer represents a system

providing functions from a single functionality area

(readiness, assurance, provisioning) however support-

ing all network technologies and services.

Figure 1 Unified OSS vs an isolated silo approach

Migration from silo-based OSS


the Internet has had an unprecedented

impact on the world of telecom-

munications. It made the IP protocol the de facto

standard for telecommunications networks and

has rendered obsolete many of the “officially ap-

proved” technologies and protocols.

ngn networksIP has become the standard for building almost

all modern telecommunication networks and ser-

vices. Many telecoms have started projects aimed

at migrating circuit oriented services to entirely

packet based Next Generation Networks (NGN)

with a set of IP based services (VoIP, IPTV, VoD etc.).

IP is inexpensive in implementation and provides

an operator with flexibility and a great platform

for delivering new types of services at a minimal

cost. This revolution has resulted in the removal of

segregation between fixed line, mobile and cable

providers that has traditionally been present. All

operators are able to deliver the same services

using a similar infrastructure. The only difference

is the access network.

This transition to NGN networks has increased

competitiveness in the telecommunication mar-

ket and forced all operators to optimize their

expenses and make their offer much more attrac-

tive for the end customer. This optimization can

not be achieved using the previous generation of

OSS systems. Next Generation Networks require

Next Generation Operations Support Systems to

fully utilize their new potential.

The end of OSS silo eraThis revolution has had an enormous impact on

OSS infrastructure. Services provided by the net-

work infrastructure that used to be simple and

straightforward, are now a complex mesh of con-

nected resources, content and suppliers. They are

now logically separated from the underlying trans-

port network. Such changes in the services model

approach make the traditional “silo-based” OSS

organization obsolete. Building a separate stack of

systems for each new service or network takes too

long and is too expensive. Operators must reorga-

nize themselves, transforming their OSS infrastruc-

ture along with their entire network into the new

era. This is the place where modern NGOSS com-

pliant systems take their role.

The core element of modern OSS is the inventory

management system. Knowledge about facilities is

an essential requirement for management. A typi-

cal network infrastructure consists of hundreds of

thousands of network elements composing a com-

plex web of connections and relations.

More importantly, the network is constantly

evolving and changing due to expansion, failures

and optimizations. It’s a living organism that can’t

have a day off even for maintenance. The main goal

of an OSS system is to provide mechanisms for

isolated OSS silos Unified OSS

Radionetwork

OSS

iPOSS

Transportnetwork

OSS

PSTnOSS

Pro

visi

on

ing

ass

ura

nce

Bil

iin

g

Pro

visi

on

ing

ass

ura

nce

Bil

iin

g

Pro

visi

on

ing

ass

ura

nce

Bil

iin

g

Pro

visi

on

ing

ass

ura

nce

Bil

iin

g

Telecommunication network Telecommunication network

element abstraction

Common OSS

assurance BiliingProvisioning

nr 1/2008 (06)

Solutions & Case Studies < 21


Figure 2 Comarch OSS Suitee

nte

rpri

se S

ervi

ce B

us

Comarch OSS Suite

FulfillmentOperations Support & Readiness

Comarch Network Inventory

Auto-discovery & Reconciliation

Comarch Service Inventory

Provisioning

assurance

Network Performance Management

Fault Management

Service Level Management

OSS Mediation

Service assuranceComarch inventory Management

Comarch OSS Process Management

managing this organism, providing functionalities

which allow operators design services, delivering

them to the customers and assuring their qual-

ity. Additionally, OSS systems help maintain the

network, optimizing connections and exchanging

information between external networks or sup-

pliers. All of these tasks are performed according

to well defined processes or procedures. Unfortu-

nately, each operator has their own specific char-

acteristics and organization. Lack of standard OSS

processes and procedures makes the implementa-

tion of any business process management system

a complex and expensive task.

The standardized approach for defining all man-

agement processes to be carried out by Telco oper-

ators have been proposed by TeleManagement

Forum in the Enhanced Telecom Operations Map

(eTOM). Thanks to eTOM, all interested parties can

communicate in the same language. TM Forum’s

eTOM describes management processes by divid-

ing them into a number of areas in the four layers

(customers, services, resources, suppliers) and at

several levels of details.

Comarch OSS Suite 4Comarch OSS Suite 4 is a Next Generation OSS Sys-

tem. It is focused on NG networks and provides

operators with functionalities necessary for the

optimal management of their network and ser-

vices. Comarch OSS Suite 3 was an inventory ori-

ented system - the fourth version of the Comarch

OSS Suite focuses on processes.

Comarch OSS Suite 4 is aimed at helping oper-

ators with the execution of management pro-

cesses from the Readiness, Fulfillment and Assur-

ance areas in the services and resources layers

(see figure 2). The main element of the new suite is

Comarch OSS Process Management, the business

process management class system. As opposed to

generic BPM systems, Comarch OSS Process Man-

agement has been designed especially for manag-

ing the processes of Telco operators. It includes

predefined processes and task definitions to drasti-

cally reduce system deployment time. The strength

of Comarch OSS Process Management relies on

tight integration with the Inventory Management

System. All operations on inventory are controlled

by predefined processes. For example, the system

can check which resources are used by given ser-

vices and execute the proper sub-processes in order

to provision the new service. During resource prob-

lem resolution, the system operator can see if a

given resource is affected, what the parameters

of the device are as well as view the entire history

of changes made to the device. This seamless inte-

gration greatly improves the efficiency of the OSS

system. In most cases, operators do not need to use

several systems to get all the required information

or execute a crucial management task. Everything

can be controlled from one application. For inven-

tory management, Comarch OSS Process Manage-

ment can use Comarch Inventory Management

or third party inventory systems with standard

based interfaces.

Comarch OSS Process ManagementComarch OSS Process Management includes the

implementation of the following processes:

> incident and problem management,

> change management,

> configuration,

> service activation,

> planning and building.

Furthermore, the above processes are extended by

several supporting processes such as information,

notices and approvals which greatly improve the

efficiency of the system.

The second essential element Comarch OSS Pro-

cess Management provides to Telco operators is



Customer

Strategy, infrastructure & Product Operations

Strategy & Commit

Supply Chain Development & Management

Resource Development & Management

Supplier/Partner Relationship Management

Service Development & Management

Marketing & Offer Management

BillingAssuranceFulfillmentOperations Support & Readiness

Product Lifecycle

Managent

Infrastructure Lifecycle

Management

Comarch OSS Process Management

Strategy, infrastructure & Product

Knowledge & Research

Management

Human Resources

Management

Strategic & Enterprise

Planning

Enterprise Risk

Management

Enterprise Effectiveness

Management

Financial & Asset

Management

Stakeholder & External

Relations Management

Figure 3 Comarch OSS Process Management on the TM-Forum eTOM

damian dygoń

Comarch SAPosition: Product Manager OSS


Business Unit

info: Since 2003 he is a Product Manager

for Comarch OSS Suite, responsible

particularly for QoS issues

Customer Relationship Management

Resource Management & Operations

Service Management & Operations

Jakub Załuski-Kapusta

Comarch SAPosition: Product Manager OSS


Business Unit

info: Currently responsible for sales

support of Comarch OSS systems


the automation of management tasks. In large

scale networks where provisioning, supervising

and other kinds of processes are executed thou-

sands of times daily, manual operations must be

reduced and even completely eliminated. Automa-

tion allows operators to reduce time-to-market for

new services and enables the on-line provisioning

and real-time assurance of offered services. Sys-

tem operators only have to focus on uncommon

actions, solving unusual problems and performing

other non-typical tasks. All other defined processes

and procedures are automated.

Comarch OSS Process Management provides

several mechanisms and tools which enables pro-

cesses automation at different levels. Each typical,

common task can be defined on the highest level

as an automatic process. By using business rules,

such processes can be customized or adopted.

Finally, Comarch OSS Process Management pro-

vides a scripting mechanism to define actions

even at the atomic level and use them in high level

processes as automatic tasks. Originating from

Comarch OSS Process Management, these three

functionalities combine together to create a very

sophisticated and powerful tool for OSS process

automation.

Comarch OSS Process Management is the first

application to be released in the fourth version of

Comarch OSS Suite. The latest version brings a new

system architecture based on SOA principles and

open interfaces. In comparison to the previous ver-

sion of Process Management, there is a complete

change of technology both in the engine and the

GUI. OSS Process Management version 4 will be

available in the fourth quarter of 2007. Initially it

will work with Comarch OSS Suite 3 products (e.g.

Inventory Management). Other components of

Comarch OSS Suite will be successively migrated to

the new architecture in the following year. <

nr 1/2008 (06)





Is your network expanding really quickly?

Are the competitors just waiting for your

bad move? Do the network outages cost

you Millions? In that case it is high time to

think about a unified Fault Management

system tailored precisely to your needs!

Comarch Fault Management in PTC


Catalysts for changeThe implementation of Comarch Fault Manage-

ment in Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa had solid busi-

ness and technological justification. Over the past

several years we have been witnessing a series

of revolutionary changes related to the telecom-

munication market. Therefore, in order to repulse

constant pressure from competitors, the operator

must quickly react to the situation on the market,

while accommodating for the rapid growth of the

company itself.

Taking all this into account, a unified, fully scal-

able and configurable fault management and ser-

vice monitoring solution, seamlessly integrating

with existing systems, is one of the crucial keys to

the company’s success.

The challengesPTC required an easily configurable and extend-

able solution acting as an “umbrella” over a series

of already implemented proprietary management

systems. At the time of the project’s kick-off, PTC’s

network consisted of more than 15,000 network

elements of over 30 different types from differ-

ent vendors. Consequently, these elements were

managed by a number of separate, vendor-spe-

cific applications.

The main aim here was to unify and simplify

the management process by providing a common

interface to handle all devices and to correlate and

subsequently present data (events) gathered by

the existing systems in one consistent view. This,

however, required synchronization with existing

external systems and data bases. Therefore the

solution had to include a number of specific data

adapters, most of which needed to be created from

scratch based on the analysis of the proprietary

protocols employed.

edging out the competitionPTC placed their trust in Comarch’s state-of-the-art

OSS Suite, specifically the Comarch Fault Manage-

ment module — based on a cutting-edge technol-

ogy solution for on going fault issues inside an

operator’s networks. Comarch was able to pro-

vide a flexible, cost-effective solution employing

the newest technologies and fulfilling all of the

customer’s requirements.

The strongest aspect of Comarch’s offer was the

possibility to precisely tailor the solution to cus-

tomer needs and the quick reaction to frequently

changing requirements, as well as fast implemen-

tation of requested additions to the system.

The solutionThe Comarch Fault Management module moni-

tors all the existing network elements constitut-

ing the network infrastructure. It receives, displays

and efficiently tracks alarms, all of which allows

us ers to manage potentially debilitating network

problems quickly and effectively. The system also

enables users to fully configure the way that alarms

are processed. This is done through the creation

of rules utilized by the built-in correlation engine.

This feature speeds up identification of failures and

allows users to allocate tasks according to internal

company processes (integration with the Trouble

Ticketing system).

In PTC the Fault Management system required

on-line integration with the existing network and

service inventories. Accordingly, the collected

alarms regarding network elements were addi-

tionally mapped to particular services in order to

reflect and present their actual state. As for the

presentation of gathered data, a sophis ticated

alarm visualization interface was provided. It is

capable of presenting both current as well as his-

torical alarms. Apart from displaying a plain list

of alarms, it is possible to use maps to visualize

the status of the net work infrastructure as well as

services. The system offers a GIS map based visu-

alization, a logical and hierarchical layout as well

as a floor plan view of the network and the faulty

elements within. This detailed view enables users

to obtain a maximum amount of information on

the exact location of faulty elements that can be

further passed onto members of technical crews

in order to speed up repairs.

Additionally, PTC was provided with an advanced

reporting tool that facilitates performing thorough

network analysis, and consequently taking appro-

priate measures in order to improve the network’s

performance and reliability.

Business and operational benefitsThe crucial benefits following the implementa-

tion of the Comarch Fault Management solution

included:

> improvement of network reliability,

> centralized and unified control across all network

domains,

> quality monitoring of complex services,

Service Management Unit Manager at Technology

Operations Support department

Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC)

At PTC we needed a sophisticated and open Umbrel-

la Management System, which would perform the

central role in our Technology Operations Center.

After the pilot phase with four selected products we

chose Comarch OSS Suite to implement our Fault

Management System. We can recommend Comarch

as a reliable company with professional and expe-

rienced staff. We are convinced that Comarch OSS

Suite is a modern and flexible solution that will en-

able us to achieve rapid time-to-market with next

generation services management.

Dariusz Antoniewicz

Michał Zajączkowski

Comarch SAPosition: OSS Solution Manager


Business Unit

info: Currently responsible for building

up OSS solutions for Comarch customers

> seamless integration with existing systems,

> full automation of fault management tasks,

including correlation and the handling of Trou-

ble Tickets,

> future-proof design (easy adaptation to accom-

modate new management systems).

Thanks to its wide scope of functionalities, Comarch

Fault Management is a sure step to wards better

network management. <

nr 1/2008 (06)



Twilight – the dawn of the new OSS/BSS

Operators are recognizing the market of wireless

Internet more and more often. Business opportu-

nities are evident however the cost of entering

the market is high. With basic Internet access

services, enterprise class OSS/BSS solutions may

become too cumbersome and too expensive.

Perhaps it is a good time to evaluate more

cost-effective alternatives...




Twilight coverage map2

Twilight Inventory1

What is the reality of the internet today?Will it be shaped by network enthusiasts, as in the

70’s? The romantic era of the Internet pioneers who

established the first BSS has long since passed by.

The Internet during this time was a collection of

links and hosts managed by a group of enthusiasts

– just to note that for the first 10 years of opera-

tions, the network reached 111+ hosts. The first

commercial use of the Internet only happened in

the early 90’s and from then, the domination of

the Internet by large telecoms slowly began. This

process was further enforced by the high costs of

infrastructure and the activity of regulatory offices,

which required telecommunication licenses.

However, in recent years we have seen changes

shake the telecommunication market. Deregula-

tion efforts, the availability of unlicensed band-

width and widely available inexpensive transmis-

sion equipment spawned numerous enterprises

investing in wireless Internet access networks. They

can be compared to the early Internet enthusiasts,

exploiting new technologies and a DIY approach

in order to built alternative infrastructures. They

cover each fragment of space not yet occupied by

large providers and provide both bandwidth, for

those who simply can’t have Internet from other

sources, and competitive access, for those who

just like to have a choice.

WiSP – easy money?The idea of running a WISP may be compelling, and

starting the business may indeed be smooth and

promising. It is quite easy to setup the first antenna,

get a few customers and a broadband uplink etc.

However, the trouble begins when you have tens

of access points, hundreds of customers, when you

start contemplating value added services and per-

haps VoIP. It is precisely then that a simple invoic-

ing application mixed with MRTG and manual, CLI-

based management will not work. There are too

many devices, there are too many invoices to print,

and you simply don’t know what is going on in your

network. It’s the time for another investment.

What you need is OSS/BSS software, and as usual

when you want to find something, you entrust the

task to your friends named Google... Voila! You’ve

just found a bunch of advanced systems, with

excellent references, ready to go! There’s nothing

better you could dream of!

tailored to the needs of your business, rather than

a sophisticated enterprise-class OSS/BSS suite pre-

pared to meet all the challenges of the global tele-

com industry. You can spend perhaps a few bucks

per customer in order to automate payment pro-

cesses, perform simple invoicing and optimize your

network management. And you don’t want to wait

3-8 months to have it installed and configured. You

are looking for something different.

Value for the moneyAfter some research, a handful of enquiries and a

few presentations from ambitious sales represen-

tatives, you end up with the feeling that the 6-digit

price tag attached to the solution and the several

months of system implementation are something

you simply cannot afford. It seems like everyone

offers you a heavy-duty, 18-wheeler Mack Truck,

when you could just as well get by with a Ford

pickup. You are looking for a simplified product,

nr 1/2008 (06)


Twilight of the gods – RagnarökIn Norse mythology, Ragnarök (“Twilight of the

Gods”) is the battle at the end of the world. It will

be waged between the Æsir, led by Odin, and the

various forces of the Jötnar, including Loki. Not only

will most of the gods, giants and creatures involved

in this apocalyptic conflagration perish, but almost

everything in the universe will be torn asunder. In

Viking warrior societies, dying in battle is the high-

est honor a man can attain. One earns an afterlife in

Hell by dying in bed. One earns a place in Valhalla by

dying, with honor, in battle. This is carried over into

the worship of a pantheon in which the gods them-

selves will one day die in battle at Ragnarök.


OSS/BSS TwilightThis is where Comarch Twilight comes in handy.

This product built in a lightweight, flexible architec-

ture supporting OSA and ESB architectures, offers

all the functionality necessary for running small

and medium WISPs while maintaining excellent

TCO per subscriber, making it affordable for virtu-

ally any enterprise. Based on 10 years of OSS/BSS

production experience, Twilight has been care-

fully designed to meet the demands of small and

medium WISPs – including:

> support for the most important OSS/BSS areas,

> Performance Management (with a look & feel

similar to the popular MRTG tool),

> Fault Management & Trouble Ticketing,

> Flexible, lightweight inventory,

> interactive network coverage/status map,

> Customer Care portal,

> Self Care portal,

> billing & invoicing,

> pre-integrated payment gateway,

> online charging (allowing for pay-per-use, pay-

per-minute charging),

> support for VoIP integration (pre-integrated soft-

switch, PBX),

Twilight Customer Care3

Michał Przybylski

Comarch SAPosition: Telco Consultant


Business Unit

info: Michal works as a consultant and

product manager in Telecommunication

Business Unit

> low hardware requirements (the basic version,

without online charging, can run on virtually any

home PC),

> short integration time (approx. 2 weeks in most

cases),

> limited 3rd party licenses (Oracle SE One required

for online charging).

Why Twilight?The advantage of Twilight over traditional OSS/

BSS systems lies in the fact that it is probably the

only product offering tightly coupled OSS and BSS

while at the same time is affordable for small and

medium WISPs. Tailored to the needs of WISPs with

multiple pre-configured features, yet flexible and

affordable, Twilight seems to be a good support for

any modern WISP. Thanks to ESB integration it can

be easily upgraded, module by module if need be,

as your business grows. There is no need for large

investments – you can pay as needed as you grow,

rather than spending a fortune upfront with the

hope that it will not ruin your business.

More information about Twilight can be found

at http://twilight.comarch.com <



Trends & Strategies < 29


Comarch eSB > True SOa

> a case of empowered integration

The enterprise Service Bus conceptEnterprise Service Bus is often used as a market-

ing term, a modern catch-phrase (not a standard!)

describing the architecture designed for easy and

efficient systems integration. While there is great

interest in such systems, ESB remains a relatively

uncommon integration solution for contemporary

telecommunication systems.

Comarch Enterprise Service Bus (also called

Comarch ESB) is Comarch’s contribution to the

main body of ESB implementations. Comarch

ESB has been thought of as middleware software

responsible for communication between individual

components of complex, heterogeneous and often

geographically distributed systems. The original

assumption of Comarch ESB was to allow seam-

less communication between components work-

ing in different environments and exploiting dif-

ferent interfaces by using an event-driven engine

and message transmission mechanisms.

Technically speaking, ESB enables the effective

communication of software components by pro-

viding common interfaces, abstracting the called

functions and services and decoupling them from

the transport medium.

Basic functionalityDescribing all the functions of Comarch ESB would

exceed the limits of this magazine. As much is inher-

ited from common ESB architecture, there are sig-

nificant amounts of related reading on the Inter-

net. In this article, we would like to focus on the

most important ones, including those specific to

the Comarch solution:

> mediation – Comarch ESB can accept messages

in virtually any format and translate them to

the internal format to be further used for mes-

sage processing; functional components of the

Comarch solution are, by default, equipped with

Easy and effective integration – a myth or a real

business requirement? Enterprise Service Bus is

mature enough to enhance integration processes

by introducing: faster deployment, transparent

communication, control and scalability. Yet a solu-

tion integrated using ESB remains open to other

components, not necessarily originating from

the same vendor. This ensures enterprise busi-

ness security and the independence of suppliers.

nr 1/2008 (06)


> virtual services – the system allows the creation

of virtual, complex services built with basic func-

tions provided by integrated components;

> enhanced large data management mechanisms

– this is a functionality designed for the telecom-

munication environment; it increases the effec-

tiveness of large data transfer by decoupling

transport and transport control functions.

Real world scenarioComarch ESB has been selected as the basic inte-

gration component of a complex, next-generation

Fraud Detection System realized by the European

consortium of research organizations within the

research project called Misuse Detection System*,

co-financed by the European Community. The proj-

ect is managed by Comarch and supported by a

large Polish mobile service provider.

The main objective of the system is to provide

innovative AI technologies for streamlining analysis

and correlation of mass telecommunication data.

The analysis ultimately results in the detection and

localization of new fraud (very broadly defined,

from unusual subscriber behavior to odd network

alarms patterns and more generally known forms

of misuse). This objective is achieved by creating

several AI-empowered systems, concurrently pro-

cessing and correlating the real network.

ChallengeThe challenge of the integration task is due to the

fact that each organization has developed their

module using technologies related to their exper-

tise. As such, it is no wonder that the Fault Man-

agement (FM) and Performance Management

(PM) parts are written in Java, the Fraud Detec-

tion (FD) module is provided in C++ while the GUI

has been developed in .Net technology. To add to

the complexity, the solution integrates the existing

Comarch Matrix system (performance, alarms, SLA

management) and a mass data repository (CDRs,

alarms, performance data).

Integration of such a system is anything but a

straightforward task. We have faced many chal-

lenges:

(*) The MDS project is a research project co-financed

by the European Commission. The goal of the proj-

ect is to research innovative techniques for misuse

detection in telecommunication networks.

Project partners include:

TZI - Universität Bremen (DE),

Bournemouth University (UK),

University of Bradford (UK),

Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PL),

Comarch (PL)

an ESB interface and a set of basic functions

required for integration;

> persistent and reliable message delivery –

Comarch ESB is compatible with a variety of mes-

saging engines, supporting ActiveMQ, SonicMQ,

JBossMQ, FioranoMQ, IBM WebSphereMQ, etc.

> flexible invocation models – synchronous, asyn-

chronous, one-way, unicast/multicast communi-

cation is supported;


30 > Trends & Strategies

Figure 1 Sample eSB integration

ORACLEAQ

BS Work Flow Self Care

CorelationIn

TransformerOut

Transformer

Inbound Router

Outbound router

OracleAQ provider

CorelationIn

TransformerOut

Transformer

Inbound Router

Outbound router

In Transformer

Inbound Router

3rd party CRM

SOAP providerX provider

Inbound Router

Outbound router

Virtual Service

3rd party CRM

CorelationIn

TransformerOut

Transformer

Inbound Router

Outbound router

Hibernate provider

CorelationIn

TransformerOut

Transformer

Inbound Router

Outbound router

RMI provider


Figure 2 eSB message passing and Virtual Service concept

COMARCH ESB

Message Broker System

System monitoring

& management

GUI

FMS DB FM AI

Hea

rtbe

at

Hea

rtbe

at

ESB plugin

FD/BP AI

Hea

rtbe

at

ESB plugin

Hea

rtbe

at

PM AI

Hea

rtbe

at

ESB plugin

Matrix Alarm Repository

Virtual Service [3]

Bulk data download & upload

ESB pluginESB plugin [1]

Check for

Data [5]

Create learning

set [6] Start learning using learning set [7]

SOaP [2]

Start learning process [4]

Return learning status [8]

Large data handling

Michał Przybylski

Comarch SAPosition: Telco Consultant


Business Unit

info: Michal works as a consultant and

product manager in Telecommunication

Business Unit

> heterogeneity of operating systems (both Win-

dows and Linux machines were in use),

> heterogeneous interfaces (each team imple-

mented interfaces to their specifications, using

selected technology. No common interface speci-

fication has been mandated),

> geographical distribution of the teams and their

operating environment,

> individual communication concepts (synchro-

nous, asynchronous...).

This environment is particularly interesting in an

ESB implementation, since it very closely resem-

bles the heterogeneous environment of a typical

telecom operator.

The solutionESB has become the communication core of the

system. The ESB plugin[1] has been developed for

each integrated system in order to translate the

original commands from native system interfaces

to internal ESB message format. While a majority of

the systems require the development of dedicated

plugins, the GUI will communicate with other sys-

tems using the standard SOAP[2] plugin.

Plugins are also responsible for registering and

monitoring components’ health (including the so

called heartbeats). Another type of plugin is the

“virtual service”[3] plugin, which is usually devel-

oped during integration and provides high level

functions to external systems.

Figure 2 illustrates this case: GUI analytics define

a high level command called “Start learning pro-

cess”[4]. They do not care how this function is per-

formed by other systems. The resulting process is

that the GUI will issue this command to the integra-

tion bus. The message containing this request will

be routed internally and forwarded to the appro-

priate plugin, where the internal plugin’s logic [3]

decomposes it into the following set of commands

(executed asynchronously):

> check if data is available[5],

> create learning set[6],

> start learning process on a particular learning

set[7].

The aforementioned actions are managed by the

virtual service plugin, and upon completion, the

plugin returns the high level operation results to

the GUI[8].

Comarch ESB is also equipped with a Large Data

Handling plugin, which optimizes the manipula-

tion of bulk file transfers. This is a function typical

for a Telco environment, which ensures that mas-

sive amounts of data (such as Call Details Records,

raw performance data, etc.) are serviced using a

dedicated channel rather than the general ESB

mechanisms. <

nr 1/2008 (06)



next-generation TVThe revolution of user experience

Next-generation television is approaching! It

is time to stop being merely a Network Opera-

tor and time to become a Multimedia Service

Enabler. This article shows how IPTV works and

discusses the business model that lies behind it.



Figure 1 global iPTV Subscriber Forecast Figure 2 global iPTV Service Revenue Forecast

aSia eUROPe nORTH aMeRiCa

Mil

lio

ns

Bil

lio

ns

$

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

15

10

5

02006 2007 2008 2009 2010

60

40

20

0


many years have passed since peo-

ple bought their first televi-

sion set. This not so trivial device has come a long

way since then. Progress over the last couple of

years has been significant. Current TVs have so-

phisticated hardware inside them and offer a large,

colorful and high-quality picture. TVs are no longer

only content receivers – they can be enriched via

the use of IP Set-Top Boxes (IP-STBs). With an STB it

is possible to offer premium services to subscrib-

ers and extend beyond the capabilities of stand-

alone TV’s.

With the growth of IP network capacity, a new

business model has emerged by way of connect-

ing an STB directly to a broadband DSL connection

delivering Internet access to homes. This with the

addition of Voice-over-IP (VOIP) services is referred

to as triple-play. Due to this concept, cable TV oper-

ators are in a position to provide full triple-play

services over a single cable. IP-based transmission

offers very advanced, versatile and interesting

possibilities from a subscriber’s point of view. For

example, operators can offer a whole multitude

of interactive services extending QoE (Quality of

Experience) and thus raise the attractiveness of

its service offerings.

TV & PC MarriageA TV equipped with an STB is therefore a device

capable of not only being used for displaying mov-

ies and channels. Nowadays an STB and its IP coun-

terpart, an IP-STB are fully-equipped computers.

They feature an advanced operating system, pow-

erful 2D and growing 3D graphics support, 802.11g/

n and Gigabit network hardware and often even

a hard disk drive (HDD). Many are controlled by

Figure 3 The iPTV Business Model

advertising Companies

CommisionCommision

ad Slots ad Slots

Copyright institutions

COnTenT & SeRViCeS

Content Providers

Content Aggregators

TV Broadcasters

Service Providers

deliVeRY

DSL Operators

Cable TV Providers

Mobile Operators

Payments

Content

Commision

Copy Rights

Commision

Content

nr 1/2008 (06)


Figure 4 an example of a simplified iPTV infrastructure


a remote controller, but optionally may be used

in conjunction with a wireless keyboard.

infotainment Within the near future, IPTV will become the center

of home entertainment. Combined benefits from

large screens, network capabilities, application

programming and high-quality content provide

unlimited possibilities for IPTV application devel-

opers and service providers.

Many video-based interactive, revenue generat-

ing services can be implemented, for example:

> Information portals,

> Online Shops,

> Lotteries ,

> Gambling,

> Multiplayer Games,

> Home-banking.

Future possibilities will enable users to share their

documents, photos and music with others. They

will also be able to create their own TV channels

and broadcast them to an open or closed group of

friends. People will be able to participate in inter-

active TV shows just by sitting in front of their

screen.

Another interesting issue is IPTV-based gaming.

We can predict select IP-STB’s eventually converg-

ing into gaming capable consoles or becoming

a gateway to powerful multiplayer online gaming.

Payments for such games can utilize the pay-per-

play billing model.

Market forecastsAccording to the IPTV Global Forecast 2006-2010

published by Multimedia Research Group, the num-

ber of global IPTV subscribers will grow from 8 mil-

lion in 2006 to above 50 million in 2010. The com-

pound annual growth rate is expected at 58%.

The figure above shows that the estimated

global IPTV revenue forecast was about $1.7 bil-

lion in 2006 and is expected to grow to $12.8 bil-

lion in 2010.

The report suggests that prospects for IPTV in

Asia have resulted in a higher forecast as compared

to that of North America, due to the significant

delays of IPTV deployments in the United States.

In the second figure we see that Asia is generating

lower revenue due to lower average prices.

We can distinguish three basic entities in the

IPTV business model: the Subscriber, the Opera-

tor and the Content Provider. In addition, optional

entities may be Advertising Companies or Service

Providers. We depict these and the flow of money

and content in the attached figure, which details

the business model.

How to startWhat is required to launch IPTV?

> Set-Top Boxes,

> A well-designed network infrastructure,

> Video Distribution hardware,

> Content,

> Services.

The process of launching IPTV services on a net-

work includes: deciding what will be offered to

subscribers, the analysis of network capabilities to

define necessary changes that need to be applied

in order to fully support high-quality video trans-

mission but also redesign and rebuild the existing

network infrastructure, deployment of the neces-

sary IPTV hardware and finally the launch of the

service.

IPTV service delivery requires an Internet Group

Management Protocol (IGMP) enabled network

infrastructure. This is necessary for delivering mul-

ticast transmissions between video servers and

IP-STB’s. Unicast is the sending of data to a single

destination or node. In contrast, multicast is the

delivery of data to a group of destination nodes

simultaneously instead of individually in a sequen-

tial manner. This makes for more efficient use of

network bandwidth. A variety of core and tree

based multicast routing protocols exist to enable

this paradigm.



interactive Services

Signal encoder

Service & Content Management System

Vod Server

Streaming Server

BSS/OSS

VOiP

iP Set-Top Box

dSl Modem

Computer

Phone

TV

Figure 5 examples of interactive iPTV-based services


Łukasz luzar

Comarch SAPosition: Product Manager


Business Unit

info: Currently responsible for two

products in VAS area: Comarch Next

Generation TV and Comarch Convergent

Services Platform

Most IPTV services therefore utilize multicast

transmissions for delivering broadcast data to

a group of IP-STB’s, these normally grouped by

locality or type and identified via their unique IP

address. Unicast is however used for delivering

Video-on-Demand services.

The phenomenon of convergenceWhen viewing the above devices, we notice the dif-

ferences between them constantly fading i.e. most

devices now include a colorful screen, extended

keyboard or control input functionality and ever

powerful microprocessors to power new and excit-

ing application paradigms. Most of them also sup-

port multiple wireless or cable data transmission

and thus enable the implementation of video based

services. Of course there are limitations between

them such as connection bandwidth capability and

screen size and resolution - but these will gradually

be overcome and from a CTO perspective, video ser-

vices are de facto deliverable to both mobile and

home users. The Return On Investment (ROI) which

stems from businesses pursuing this opportunity

holds potential.

What about the future?Judging by the progress made in mobile technolo-

gies and growing network bandwidth, we may pre-

dict that in the not so distant future, existing solu-

tions will converge and the role of an IP-STB may

be equally handled by a smartphone.

Such IP-STB equivalent could be wirelessly con-

nected to a large screen or a video headset. Notice

that despite the device changing, the business

model and opportunities remain the same. There

is a definite future for businesses which decide to

take on IPTV as part of their portfolio.

ConclusionsIPTV provides network operators with an excellent

opportunity to make their business more profit-

able. Generating revenue from the delivery of inter-

active services and interesting content requires

cooperation with an entire network of IPTV com-

panies. Consequently, it is very important to work

with an experienced partner who has both the

knowledge and vision to succeed. <

nr 1/2008 (06)


Personal TV-page services Telemedicine services

Multiplayer games – an example based on SecondLife.com

Interactive TV shows with gambling“UEFA EURO 2012 is trademark of Union of European Football Associations. It was used only for illustration purpose”

Home-banking services


Service-Centric OSS The first step of next generation OSS transformation

Today, we see an increasing level of changes in

the telecommunications environment. We see a

major shift from traditional, heavy architecture to

next generation networks, with the service layer

separated from the networking equipment. This

change enables telecom providers to quickly and

easily introduce new services to get subscribers’

attention. As a result, the telecommunication ser-

vices market is getting more and more dynamic.




everyday we can see

new emerg-

ing services, and service lifecycles are getting short-

er. This situation introduces new requirements for

Operations Support Systems. Only tools that are

flexible enough to keep pace with the reality of dy-

namically changing service management are able

to help an operator manage this live environment

of network resources and services.

The challengeThe move from traditional architecture into a next-

generation telecommunications network intro-

duces additional problems into network manage-

ment and operation. In the traditional architecture,

services provided were embedded in the network-

ing equipment. Analysis of services was easy and

straightforward. But in modern networks, services

are no longer associated with a single device in the

network. Instead, each service is composed from

resources provided by many devices operating

within the network. Introduction of multi-layer

network architecture simplifies the development

and introduction of advanced services, but hides

the relationship between services provided and

network resources used.

In the case of a telephone switch failure, manual

identification of affected customers and services

was feasible. All customers directly connected to

the affected ports were cut off from the voice ser-

vice. In a next generation network, the relationship

between the equipment and provided services is

much less straightforward. In the case of an edge

router failure, it is not a simple task to determine

which services are affected by this failure. Ser-

vices offered over an IP network can vary, from

basic residential Internet access, to highly critical

IP VPN for enterprise customers. Since these ser-

vices are not provided directly by the edge router

itself, it is usually difficult to quickly determine

the set of affected services. As these are the ser-

vices that are sold directly to the subscriber, the

quantity and importance of the affected services

usually determines the severity of the network fail-

ure. Therefore in a next generation network, exact

information about the service state is essential for

network management and operation. With more

advanced services offered, the structure of services

can become even more complicated.

Service ModelingIn a modern telecom network, services are becom-

ing increasingly separated from particular devices

operating in the network. Therefore, network-level

information is not sufficient for quick and effi-

cient evaluation of provided services. While ser-

vices are becoming more complicated, network-

level information, while still necessary, is becoming

less relevant to the service condition. It is no lon-

ger sufficient to analyze the performance of each

device separately. While the amount of informa-

tion collected from network devices is sufficient

to describe the condition of a network, it is not

Figure 1 Service-Centric OSS in the eTOM Business Processes Model

eTOM Model – Operatoins area

Customer Relationship Management

Service Management & Operations

Resource Management & Operations

Supplier/Partner Relationship Management

BSS

Service – Centric OSS

BSS

Figure 2 Handling a customer complaint in a traditional and Service-Centric environment

Helpdesk

Network Service – Centric OSS

Helpdesk

Network Resource – Centric OSS

?

Internet service interrupted for customer John Smith Internet service interrupted for customer John Smith

Internet service interrupted for user John Smith caused by Router WRT-385, port 162 failed

Router WRT-385, port 162 failed

nr 1/2008 (06)


Małgorzata Kwatera

Comarch SAPosition: OSS Solution Manager


Sector

info: Currently responsible for building

up solutions for Comarch customers,

she also takes part in major implementa-

tions of Comarch’s OSS/BSS systems


ture and resources used directly into the network

management system. When the structure of the

services is kept in the network management sys-

tem as a part of the system knowledge, network

management is able to automatically analyze the

state and performance of the services using net-

work level data received from the fault manage-

ment and performance management system.

Service inventory has been a part of operators’

management systems for some time. But the addi-

tional value provided by service modeling is in its

ability to associate services with resources used,

and to analyze the internal structure of each ser-

vice. The service modeling approach is based on the

systems used in the IT environment, adapted to the

needs of telecom operators. With the introduction

of all-IP networks and IMS as the cornerstones of

new generation networks, telecom services have

become more similar to services provided by com-

puter networks.

Service-Centric OSS vs. eTOMService-Centric OSS can be mapped into several

applications from the enhanced Telecom Opera-

tions Map (eTOM). The solution operates in two lay-

ers: Resources and Services, and interfaces with BSS

in order to provide seamless integration with the

supplier/partner management, customer manage-

ment and product management layers. Thus, Ser-

vice-Centric OSS enables filling in the gap between

the network and the business as detailed in Fig-

ure 1. Real life advantages from the Service-Cen-

tric OSS architecture can be seen in the scenarios

described below.

Scenario 1: Incident Management

Within a traditional, resource-centric OSS approach,

when a complaint about a service disruption is

received from a customer, network operators have

to analyze the structure of the affected service and

check each utilized network element for poten-

tial problems. Previously, when offered services

were static and relatively simple, it was possible

to quickly analyze the condition of a specific ser-

vice based on the system operator’s experience. In

today’s world, telecom services are far more com-

plicated and change on a monthly basis. Therefore,

it is impossible for the operator to analyze the ser-

vice structure and condition without the help of a

network management system (Figure 2). Service-

Centric OSS enables online business impact analy-

sis of network failures, problem prioritization as a

function of business value and SLA monitoring.

Figure 2 Handling a customer complaint in a tradi-

tional and Service-Centric environment

Scenario 2: Service Activation

Service-Centric OSS enables end-to-end control over

the service activation process (Figure 3). Checking

resource availability, resource reservation, ser-

vice activation and initiation of monitoring are

all subtasks of the same end-to-end process. With

a flexible data model that enables the creation

of new service templates on-the-fly, the service

activation process can be accelerated in order to

keep pace with the requirements of customers no

longer content to wait for their services to be up

and running. <

directly usable for monitoring the service condi-

tion. The system operator is simply overwhelmed

by the amount of network-level information and

is unable to see the big picture and know the con-

dition of the services directly from the network

management system.

The only solution for this requirement is to inte-

grate service modeling in the network monitoring

system. The main aim of the service modeling sys-

tem is to put knowledge regarding service struc-

Figure 3 Service activation in a Service-Centric OSS environment

Request ReceivedCheck Resource

AvilabilityCreate Order Reserve Resources

Create Customer Account

Activate Service

Notify Customer

Start Service Monitoring

Service – centric OSS

Service Database

Resource Database



Learn more at

oss4.comarch.com

We are currently in the dawn of a new era in telecom-munications. Introduction of Next Generation Networks and growing market competitiveness is forcing opera-tors to extend their offer with more sophisticated and attractive services at lower prices. OSS systems are the most essential enablers of success for this new strategy. Short time to market and high quality of service can not be achieved without cutting-edge process driven OSS infrastructure. Understanding these trends, Comarch is launching a 4th version of its OSS Suite. The new version builds upon experiences acquired through numerous

projects over the past 15 years. The main objectives for the new version include management via layers of in-formation and implementation of eTOM and ITIL-based processes. In moving OSS capabilities to the next level, Comarch offers standardized process based management of utilized resources and provided services. Comarch OSS Suite 4 will provide a unique way to manage and monitor services directly from the OSS level, enabling operators to effectively operate in new market conditions.

Speed up the operational process

Comarch oss suite 4


Learn more at

crmtelecoms.comarch.com

Comarch CRM for Telecoms is a comprehensive customer relationship management solution for operators as well as MVNOs who need to execute marketing campaigns in a structured and cost-effective manner, drive sales towards stable revenue growth and deliver a seamless customer experience across multiple customer service channels. Comarch CRM for Telecoms provides a unique breadth of CRM functionality, with BI-enabled modules

for sales, marketing and customer service, in a single, integrated suite. The built-in Business Intelligence pro-vides contextual hints and drill-in dashboards, support-ing timely and knowledge-driven decisions. Unlike the one-size-fits-all solutions from traditional vendors, our lean and flexible solution was designed to fit your exist-ing data models and help express your processes with a built-in workflow engine.

Become truly customer-centric

Comarch Crm for telecoms

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