CrossKeys e.Line - The Edge
April 28, 2000
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Welcome to the April issue of CrossKeys e.Line - The Edge!
From service level agreements to optimizing network performance,
CrossKeys e.Line - The Edge is your definitive source for the latest
trends in telecommunications network management.
In this Issue...
* Gaining competitive advantage through OSS integration
* Related Articles
* CrossKeys in the News
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Gaining competitive advantage through OSS integration
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By Lydia Cormier, Product Planner for CrossKeys Systems Corporation
Seamless Operation Support System (OSS) integration can go a long way to
ensuring continued success in today's competitive service provider
markets. In many cases, the ability to link information from existing
disparate OSS's in a service provider's environment will help increase
speed to market for new customer services, improve customer relations and
help ensure that reliable and scalable solutions are delivered to the
customer in a cost effective manner.
OSS integration should ideally bring together all the functions that
service providers count on, such as customer order handling, service
provisioning, fault management, trouble ticket handling and service
billing. Most service providers, for example, have one system that
centrally manages all information associated with a customer. Some of
this information needs to be automatically distributed to other OSS
applications, such as SLA management systems, and then reliably updated
so that all applications have access to the latest relevant customer
information. An SLA management system, for example, requires access to
the customer information, so that service level guarantees or SLAs can be
associated, monitored and accurately reported on a per customer basis.
Another example, is in the area of improved customer care and trouble
ticket handling. An SLA management system could be seamlessly linked to
a trouble ticketing application and automatically generate trouble
tickets based on impending or actual SLA violations. This would allow the
appropriate personnel to be notified of either an impending or actual
violation in the SLA so that prompt and appropriate action can be taken
before a customer becomes dissatisfied and complain about their service.
Conversely, customer-originated trouble tickets could be fed into an SLA
management system in order to give service providers and customers a
complete and centralized view of service availability and any outages
associated with the customer's service.
This ability of each system to automatically provide or receive and
process relevant information from other applications places service
providers firmly in the driver's seat when it comes to the introduction
of new customer services. New and innovative products can be quickly
brought to market without the typical significant time lags and huge
project costs associated with proprietary integration solutions. Seamless
OSS integration also improves operational efficiency and service
reliability by eliminating repeated manual data entry.
With OSS integration, customers can be up and running more quickly,
bottom lines improved, and customer satisfaction significantly
enhanced.
So just how close are we to Nirvana? Truth of the matter is that
significant obstacles still block the path of full OSS integration.
Although work is ongoing in various forums such as the Telemanagement
Forum (TMF), vendors have made little overall progress on standardizing
how information should be represented and propagated in the OSS
environment. Integrated solutions often require changes to the underlying
systems and hence the involvement of OSS suppliers. This means that OSS
suppliers have a choice to make when building their enhancements. They
can continue to offer solutions through proprietary mechanisms or they
can start introducing a fully supported external interface or application
programming interface (API) that provides the basic building blocks to
integrate with other OSS's. This latter approach would allow a third
party software organization to easily and cost-effectively tailor the OSS
integration to meet individual needs. Unfortunately, a number of OSS
application vendors still choose the "closed" systems route.
Is there a way to overcome these industry shortcomings? Service
providers need to adopt solutions that help integrate their end-to-end
business processes. OSS applications that support open application
programming interfaces do just that. They provide the means to be easily
and cost-effectively integrated into a service provider's existing OSS
environment, thereby allowing new services to be introduced more quickly,
significant operational efficiencies to be gained and superior customer
care to be offered.
In summary, with open APIs, the control and deployment of new and
competitive services, can now be in the hands of the service provider
and/or a third party engineering organization rather than product
suppliers.
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Related Industry Articles
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The following links provide more information on OSS integration.
Designs on OSS Integration
By Tim Wilson, Tele.com
Service providers know that good things come from tightly integrating
OSSs. They just haven't figured out how to do it.
<www.teledotcom.com/411/features/tdc411_oss.html>
Tying everything together
By Dale Raaen, America's Network
A good billing system won't help carriers unless it's integrated with the
rest of the back office.
<http://www.americasnetwork.com/issues/99supplements/990915bill/990915billingtying.htm>
OSS for IP: Traditions Are Meant To Be Broken
By Bruno Codispoti, TelOSSource Magazine
The IP OSS industry, like the traditional telephony OSS industry, is
highly fragmented with a number of vendors competing in a variety of
niches. Also, like the telephony industry, no single vendor provides all
the OSS functionality that IP service providers require.
<www.telossource.com/oct/feature3.htm>
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CrossKeys in the News
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April 06, 2000: CrossKeys and Eftia Deliver Broadband Solution
Integrating Service Assurance and Provisioning - Alliance targets high
growth CLEC market with automated solutions.
For more information visit
<http://www.crosskeys.com/cross1/news/releases/pr040600..html>
February 14, 2000: CrossKeys & Parc Deliver Optimized IP Networks with
Unique Network Analysis and Decision Support Solution - New joint
solution allows service providers to ensure cost-effective Quality of
Service (QoS) delivery over IP networks
For more information visit
<http://www.crosskeys.com/cross1/news/releases/pr021400..html>
February 03, 2000: CrossKeys & Portal Deliver Integrated Solution for IP
Billing and SLA Management - Alliance with Portal Software enables
service providers to have an integrated solution for IP performance
management, provisioning, service assurance and billing
For more information visit
<http://www.crosskeys.com/cross1/news/releases/pr020300..html>
December 02, 2000: CrossKeys takes lead in OSS Integration Capabilities
for Carrier-Scale Service Providers - New OSS Toolkit for CrossKeys
Resolve offers easy, low-cost integration of multiple OSS systems
critical to guaranteeing quality of service for advanced applications
such as eCommerce and VPNs
For more information visit
<http://www.crosskeys.com/cross1/news/releases/pr120299..html>
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