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www.comarch.com
The Magazine of Comarch
Telecommunications
Business Unit
no 1/2010[11]
In ThIs IssUe:
Oss/Bss Features Is Your Business Reaching Its
Optimum Performance?
Cable TV Operators: Which service Are You Missing?
TR Contest Winner Does Cloud Computing have A Bright
Future?
Customer spotlight Marcus Ras, One Phone: What Difficulties Do Corporate
Customers Face With Regard To self service systems Automation?
Telco Sphere bloga place to share ideas on
the developments in the telecom world
telcosphere.comarch.com
Preface 3
PIOTR MAChnIk Comarch sA
Vice President, Product
Management & Marketing
Telecommunications
Business Unit
or communication service providers (CSPs), as well
as technology and software vendors, 2009 was
a year of cost-cutting programs and rethinking
of strategies. After the first quarter of 2010, and a review of
2009 annual reports and 2010 strategies, it is evident that for
CSPs this will be a year of further offer consolidation focused
on core services and the target customer segment, as well
as consolidation and simplification of the IT environment.
On the other hand, technology vendors will focus on
strengthening services and moving as close as possible to
end customers, with their own COTS products.
All Mobile Operators, Multiservice Operators (MSO), Cable
and Broadband Operators, ISPs, and even application and
IT vendors will take a part in NGN as Cloud global challenge.
However, the battleground has changed. There are no
big differences between mobile, fixed or cable access
technologies, because network equipment is moving toward
the unification of configuration and service management.
The real differentiators will be a smart offer, high quality
services and low cost. The next step in network progress
toward new and cheaper technology will be the adoption
of Self-Organizing Networks and network sharing. Network
neutrality? Maybe not in 2010.
Fortunately for Comarch, the business and operation
processes are not usually self-organizing. Thus, in 2010,
we see many opportunities in the area of service quality
management; NG network planning; further network
transformation and consolidation; adoption of new business
models, including two-sided business models; and increasing
editor-in-Chief: Katarzyna GajewskaLayout & DTP: Jakub MalickiPhotos: www.fotolia.comProofreader: Alina TylmanPublisher: Comarch SAAl. Jana Pawła II 39a, 31-864 KrakówTel. +48 12 64 61 000, Fax: +48 12 64 61 100e-mail: [email protected]: Skleniarz Printing Houseul. J. Lea 118, 31-033 KrakówCirculation: 1 500
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Comarch Technology Review is a publication created by Comarch experts and specialists. It is created to assist our customers and partners in obtaining in-depth information about market trends and developments, and the technological possibilities of addressing the most important issues.
the role of real-time telco and non-telco mass data
processing, revenue sharing and wholesale. Although M2M is
not a novel concept for CSPs, we expect significant changes
in the business model and increasing adoption of the idea of
an “internet of things,” in both the consumer and B2B markets.
While the MVNO market was regulated from the beginning,
the M2M market grows based on traditional and simple
business rules in a competitive business environment.
It appears that leading CSPs will take a significant step
towards the global concept of FTTx and Ultra speed mobile
broadband projects in 2010. Infrastructure investments are
not likely to be great immediately, growing gradually based
on market needs and utilizing stimulus founds. We believe
that the mobile backhaul problem will be solved by the CSPs
and electricity, gas, water companies and private-public
companies who own fiber networks. Our entire perception
of the internet is going to change in the near future. We will
choose not between 1Mbs or 10Mbs, but rather between a set
of services. HD voice will be standard, with additional options
for mobile communication, M2M, home zone services and
entertainment, based on our own virtual access point to the
NG Access Network.
Perhaps next year an edition of our magazine will be shown
on an ultra flat nano-tech screen printed on the first page
and presented for you by avatar of the leader of Comarch’s
Business Development Center. For now, we wish you
accurate business decisions and many opportunities to
increase your business and market share. We are always
committed to your success.
The Human Being and the Internet of Things
F
table of content s4
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
oss/bss features
16 slicing Up the M2M Revenue Pie: how To Get
Your share And Boost Your Business
What is the main benefit of such automatic
communication? The owner of the machines does
not need to visit them personally to verify their
operation or read certain measures manually.
Such machines can automatically send the
information to the owner or to another machine
that processes the data further. Such Machine-to-
Machine communication (M2M) is cheaper, faster
and brings new possibilities.
20 Cable TV Operators: Which service Are You
Missing?
The last few years have been very good for cable
operators. With merger and acquisition strategies,
and rapid service portfolio expansion, these
operators have been able to achieve sustained
revenue growth – an enviable feat. But that’s the
bright side. What went wrong? The customer
relationship management side of things has
unfortunately been neglected.
22 self Organizing networks: To have or not To
have Control?
Most people are familiar with the blackout
scenario within an electricity network. A single
local failure at a specific network point can lead
to a blackout affecting half a nation. So what can
the blackout problem in electricity networks teach
us with respect to telecommunication networks?
Next generation telecommunication networks
regularly utilize Self Organizing Network (SON)
concepts in order to significantly reduce the costs
of managing the increasingly complex network.
24 Common service Models Across the Oss/Bss
Landscape – (Im)possible To Achieve?
In today’s world of service- and customer-
centric OSS/BSS environments, service modeling
is essential. The main question is: are these
the same services? If we look at the service
layer of eTOM (specifically the horizontal level
1 process grouping “Service Development and
Management”), everyone is able to talk about
services. They should be in theory (this is the
assumption behind eTOM), but are very far from it
in practice.
news
5 What’s new
customer sPotlight
6 Interview with Marcus Ras:
What Difficulties Do Corporate Customers
Face With Regard To self service systems
Automation?
Self Service is gaining in popularity in the SME and
corporate segments. But creating a self service
system that is valuable both to the operator and
the customers is not easy. Marcus Ras, the CIO
OnePhone Services AB of One Phone, discusses
his view on the challenges and opportunities in
this field.
8 Case study:
Comarch Oss suite Implementation at
T-Mobile Germany
The results of R&SI project implementation
are improved Incident, Problem and Change
Management processes due to end-to-end
service visibility, smooth integration of Service
and Resource layers and consolidated overview of
ownership for services.
10 Case study:
Comarch Oss suite Implementation at
Telefónica O2 Germany
With the implementation of the Comarch
OSS Suite, an advanced network and service
management solution, O2 in Germany aimed to
unify and simplify the entire network management
process, while decreasing maintenance costs.
tr contest winner
12 Robert Dygas, PhD, The Besen Group MVne
Advisor
Does Cloud Computing have A Bright Future?
The phrase “cloud computing” is based on the
cloud symbol frequently used to represent the
internet. A great definition of cloud computing
was put forth by Frank Gens, IDC analyst, who
stated that “…cloud computing means consumer
and business products, services and solutions
delivered and consumed over the internet.”
26 Is Your Business Reaching Its Optimum
Performance?
As your sales margins decrease, time becomes
crucial. Performance management methodology
is one of the most important tools enabling
managers to make the right decisions, at the right
time. Considering the current communications
market situation, it is important to measure all
critical business figures and processes, and
effectively link them to goals.
30 Managing Your network Quality And
Guaranteeing A First-Class Customer
experience
Customer experience is considered the new
battleground, and has recently evolved into
the most discussed topic. But how do you
manage customer experience without extensive
investments? One answer lies in augmenting
the existing network performance management
systems, to refocus them on the customer.
telcosPhere blog
33 Comarch Oss/Bss User Group Commentary
34 Reactions To MWC 2010
35The iPhone vs. the Rest of the World
36striker, Midfielder or Defender – Which
Position Is Your self Care Portal?
technology a& innovation
37 Uniform Communication With everyone,
everywhere
Due to the massive increase in the capabilities
of mobile devices, the range of communication
services provided to users has also increased
significantly over the recent years. In addition to
regular voice calls or SMS messages, handsets
may also be used to make video calls, transfer
media files, perform text chats or keep track of
what our contacts are doing
40 semantic Modelling of network Physical
Devices: A Prototype
In this article we present a prototype application,
which enables modelling the equipment using
a dedicated Domain Specific Language (DSL)
enriched with the best available logic-based
reasoning services. This allows us to define
a rich layer of semantics on top of the structural
description of the devices.
news 5
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
Recent Award
07 | 04 | 10
Comarch service Quality Management –
Product of the Year 2010
On the 25th of March 2010, Comarch was
awarded a third Golden Antenna (“Zlota
Antena”) for its Service Quality Management
tool, which has been recognized as
“Product of the Year 2010” in the category of
Telecommunications Operator Solutions.
Recent Product Launches:
11 | 02 | 10
new solution For satellite Broadband
Providers Available On The Market
Comarch releases a comprehensive solution
for satellite internet access providers - the
Comarch Satellite Package.
10 | 02 | 10
Comarch Introduces Its Latest solution – the
M2M Platform for Mobile Operators
To help mobile operators enter the M2M market
Comarch has designed a platform containing
the necessary features for operators to provide
services for M2M partners.
Recent Contracts:
16 | 03 | 10
Comarch Completes the Implementation
of Comarch’s Field service Management
solution for WildBlue Communications
At the end of 2009, WildBlue Communications,
Inc., a leading high-speed satellite Internet
service provider, signed a master technology
and services agreement with Comarch, Inc.
24 | 11 | 09
Comarch Completes Polkomtel sA project
Comarch SA, has recently completed the last
phase of a project at Polkomtel SA. The result
is the complete implementation of a robust
solution based on Comarch InterPartner
Billing.
16 | 11 | 09
Comarch Deploys Its Bss/Oss Platform For
OnePhone Deutschland
OnePhone Deutschland, a new German
operator created as a joint venture between
KPN and OnePhone Holding with the purpose
of offering telephony services specifically for
enterprises, decided to deploy Comarch’s BSS
and OSS Suite.
10 | 11 | 09
Comarch has Been selected By e-Plus As
A strategic Outsourcing Partner For next
Generation network Planning
Comarch has been selected by E-Plus as
a strategic outsourcing partner for Next
Generation Network Planning. According to
the letter of intent, Comarch and E-Plus plan
to conclude the 5-year contract by the 18th of
May, 2010.
03 | 09 | 09
Comarch Releases A new solution For
Mobile Operators: Comarch next Generation
network Planning
Comarch announces a new solution for
mobile operators, Comarch Next Generation
Network Planning, which provides support
for activities related to the planning and
management of mobile networks. It enables
simplification and automation of network
operation, delivering Self-Organizing Network
(SON) capabilities to your doorstep.
Recent Partnership:
22 | 10 | 09
Comarch enforces Its Presence On The
Mediterranean Market
Comarch, has signed a Memorandum
of Understanding with Ergoman,
provider of tailor-made solutions in the
telecommunications and IT business sector,
in order to conduct common business
development activities in Greece, as well as
realize commercial contracts on the Greek
market.
For more information, go to:
www.press.comarch.com
What’s New
customer sPotlight6
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
customer sPotlight6
elf Service is gaining in popularity in the SME and
corporate segments. But creating a self service
system that is valuable both to the operator and the
customers is not easy. Marcus Ras, the CIO OnePhone Services
AB of One Phone, has kindly agreed to discuss his view on the
challenges and opportunities in this field.
Could you describe the self service options you offer to
your customers?
[MR] OnePhone offers customers an almost complete
self service tool. We offer our customers the ability
to virtually manage their entire telephony solution on
their own, after the initial implementation has been
set up. This includes setting up new subscribers
and providing appropriate products. Pending the
product, these can be provisioned by the customer
themselves in near real-time. Even complex PBX
products and functions can be managed by the
customer themselves, through our service/client
portal. Of course we offer more traditional functions
such as FAQs and Support. However, in the area of
cost structure management we have once again
stretched beyond the average functional set, to offer
not only complex cost hierarchies, but also extensive
reporting capabilities. With our solution, not only do all
subscribers of a customer have access to the service
portal, but the customer telephony administrator can
also assign different functional privileges to users
within their company.
Please tell us about customer attitudes towards self-
service. Do they like the idea or would they still prefer
being helped by a customer service agent?
[MR] It is too early for us to tell at this point, but given
that we are offering such a complete self service tool
to our customers, we expect that they will find it much
more convenient, performing any necessary actions
when and how they want. We will, of course, still
support our customers through other more traditional
channels, such as account management and call
centers. However, we believe that the self service tool
will be an attractive selling point in our overall telephony
solution.
how can aversion to self-service be minimized?
[MR] Seeing is believing, meaning that educating the
customer regarding the benefits and possibilities of the
self service tool will serve to convince them of its value. It
is crucial to understand that customers will not find and
explore these value-added functions on their own. Thus, it
is up to OnePhone to pro-actively assist the customer in
using the self service portal.
how will you encourage customers to use the self care
portal instead of other, more expensive channels?
[MR] As mentioned earlier, in taking on an active
role, we are hoping to get our customers to use and
appreciate the self service tool that we have made
available to them. An important first step is education.
As part of the customer implementation project,
some of our customers’ telephony administrators
will be invited to attend a course to learn more about
OnePhone tools. The second step is to bring the new
features and functions that will be made available,
throughout the customer lifecycle.
S
What Difficulties Do Corporate Customers Face With Regard To Self Service Systems Automation?
MARCUs RAs OnePhone services AB
Chief Information Officer
customer sPotlight 7
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
What are your thoughts on the self service
portal working as a sales tool, rather than
just an online bill presentation, ordering and
ticketing solution?
[MR] In order for a self service portal to be
a successful and realistic selling point, it needs
to truly show value to the customer. This is,
of course, much easier said than done. Our
approach is to give the customer as much
functionality as possible, not only through
our telephony offerings, but throughout the
surrounding services as well, wherever such
integration makes sense. This gives the
customer the added value of not just a few
disparate functions, but a more thought-
through end-to-end solution. This value add is
something that we can then package and use
as a sales point to our customers.
Where do you see self service going within
your company, in the next few months and
further?
[MR] We intend to offer more functions to
customers through self service. The more
a customer can do without being dependant
on the operator, the more seamless their
telephony solution. So as we grow our
telephony product portfolio, we will also
grow our self service portal. Additionally, this
will include further integration between our
telephony offerings and our administrative
capabilities. We also look forward to hearing
from our customers over the next few months,
to gather their initial perceptions and feedback.
Based on the information received, we will work
to accommodate their wishes into our product
roadmaps as much as possible.
Which contact channel between corporate
customer and operator do you think is better
for the customer: face-to-face contact with
a sales representative, self service via web
portal, contact center or other? Why?
[MR] Given our target customer segment and
the type of solutions we offer, it is difficult
to single out a preferred channel. There are
many different scenarios that impact the
suitability of a contact channel. For instance,
during the customer acquisition stages, face-
to-face meetings with sales, technical sales,
project managers and customer service
representatives are very important. There
are a number of tasks that could be more
Which customer inquiries would you say are
best handled via traditional customer service
channels, such as a call center, and which are
handled better by customers themselves?
[MR] There will always be exceptions to the rule,
but traditional inquires such as “How do I…?
How much do we spend on…? How does this
function work? When is this function becoming
available?” are all traditional self service
portal inquires that are very easily addressed
and answered by this tool. We have tried to
increase the transparency of the information
we store about the customer to the customer
themselves. This means that traditional call
center data, such as personal information
and address information is provided to the
customer through the self service channel,
including ability to manage actual cost
structures, such as bills.
If you were OnePhone’s customer, what
features/benefits would you look for in a self
service portal?
[MR] We are looking for things that we can
learn from other industries. The biggest lesson
that operators can learn comes from the more
traditional e-commerce service providers,
specifically from their functional offerings. For
instance, we can learn a lot from the postal
service industry, where customers can track
the current location and expected delivery
of a package minute by minute, by using
a tracking number. These functions could be
similarly applied in provisioning and/or in ticket
management. Another example is the airline
industry, which has an extremely complex
pricing structure, and yet it is very easy to
search, book and pay for airline tickets through
the web with no human assistance. If the
airlines can quote, order and provision through
the web, so should the telecommunications
industry. The simpler a complex service is
perceived to be, the more popular it seems
to become. While this is a generalization, it
is still a major argument for the development
of simpler functions representing complex
solutions. It is often difficult to build solid
business cases around this type of
functionality and development. Therefore
these functions are often only deployed by
startup companies, which are later forced to
re-prioritize for reasons given above. However,
the customer and business value of this type of
functionality should not be underestimated.
effectively executed if the customer could
perform these themselves during the contract
period. Typically, this includes managing
accounts, subscribers, ordering products, etc.
For more complex inquiries, such as customer
expansion projects or serious service outages,
it is again important to allow customers
to speak directly with customer service
representatives or account managers. No single
channel is the answer to how to communicate
with customers correctly. Instead, this is driven
mainly by the strategic decisions made by the
company.
What is difficult to automate by self service
systems for corporate customers?
[MR] Primarily, the most difficult thing
to “automate” is the personal customer
experience. Many corporate customers,
specifically small to medium businesses,
feel that personal service is often neglected,
and that this is often a luxury only afforded
to large enterprises. However, it is important
to not forget that while customers
would frequently like to execute tasks
independently, they would also appreciate
being served by a real person on certain
occasions. Therefore, it is important that,
for instance, contact information is not
so hidden on the self service portal that it
seems forbidden. In fact, the opposite should
be the case. If a customer wishes to contact
OnePhone, they should be able to easily do
so. With this information readily available,
they are likely to trust the new contact
channel for further interactions. This trust,
gained by interacting through a self service
portal, has the same impact and importance
as interacting through the more traditional
contact channels.
Service providers usually have applications
allowing their corporate customers to manage
the standard product offering. However, these
applications are not adept at handling “exceptions,
and exceptions from exceptions,” such as
mass ordering of services, special discounts
on handsets, logistics (e.g. tracking, reservation
of handsets) and bill disputes. Even if these
applications are able to reflect corporate structures
– it is only to show spending reports. Subscription
management is not always possible in the same
context or even in the same application.
customer sPotlight8
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
customer sPotlight8
Figure 1 Logical architecture of the solution
aced with the challenges of today’s
telecommunications world, T-Mobile Germany was
consolidating its OSS landscape using NGOSS
principles. The Resource and Service Inventory (R&SI) is used to
manage Customer-Facing Services, Resource-Facing Services
and resources used for these services coming from different
Inventory and Configuration Management systems. The
Resource and Service Inventory system is also integrated with
other OSS systems, such as Fault Management and Trouble
Ticketing. The R&SI project is a crucial element of T-Mobile’s
strategy of migration towards next generation networks and
OSS. This is the first step towards a self-organizing and self-
optimizing network concept, which is a natural continuation of
the R&SI project.
The Business need
T-Mobile’s operations are constantly faced with increasingly
complex provided services, along with the need to optimize
Incident, Problem and Change Management processes,
at the resource and service level. These challenges led to
T-Mobile introducing a Service Inventory system, integrated
with Inventory and Configuration Management systems
already present in the environment.
The main problem of the T-Mobile project was the
cooperation between the Service Inventory and different
Resource Inventory Management systems.
F
editable resource(managed by R&SI)
editable service
providing the resources
read-only resource(provided by 3rd party)
COMARCh ResOURCe & seRVICe InVenTORY
R
R
R
R R
R
R
R
R R
R
R R
R
R
R R
R R
R
R R
R R
R R
R R
s
s
ss
s
s
s
s
s s
ss
CuStomeRT-Mobile Germany
InduStRyCommunications
T-Mobile is a business
unit of Deutsche
Telecom. Responsible
for mobile operations,
it concentrates on the
most dynamic markets
in Europe and the
United States. By the
end of the first quarter
of 2009, more than 149
million customers were
served on ten T-Mobile
markets. T-Mobile is
gradually integrating
OSS systems used in its
European operations in
order to simplify network
management and provide
a common management
platform for an entity that
is composed of multiple
national GSM operators in
Europe.
Comarch OSS Suite Implementation at T-Mobile Germany
customer sPotlight 9
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
customer sPotlight 9
ComaRCh pRoduCt:
Comarch Resource & Service Inventory
Comarch Service Inventory provides a flexible
service modeling function that enables
representation of complicated mobile service
in today’s networks. It allows for definition of
many-to-many relations between resources and
Resource-Facing Services layers and between
Resource-Facing Service (RFS) and Customer-
Facing Service (CFS) layers. The data model of
Comarch Service Inventory is based on SID. It
enables association of RFSs with different types of
resources:
Equipment
Equipment groups
Connections
Connection groups
Device components
Applications
Configuration
It also enables flexible service representation in
mobile networks. According to NGOSS and eTOM
principles, R&SI is the master system for the
service models, i.e. the service models maintained
within R&SI are used by Fault Management and
Trouble Ticketing applications, and in the future,
all applications requesting access to Service
Inventory (e.g. SLA Management). This approach
results in more consistent service modeling
processes and management. Event propagation up
to service level and alternatively down to resource
level are possible, as well as event suppression
based on change information.
The Approach
Because of the large scope of the project, it was
divided into several phases. Proof of Concept was
realized in the first phase. Comarch implemented
basic functions of the system and provided sample
integration with other T-Mobile systems. The goal of
the initial phase was to develop and agree on the
system functions and to check the functionality of
integration interfaces. Meanwhile, the requirements
for the final solution were gathered and crucial
functions were also discussed.
When the system was accepted by the operator,
the functionality developed during the first phase
of the implementation was only a basis for further
expansion of the Inventory Management system,
within functionality and integration.
T-Mobile demanded a system that offered
integrated and flexible service modeling, and
a wide integration ability to seamlessly cooperate
with other systems
Why Comarch?
Of all vendors offering similar OSS solutions, only
Comarch offered an already established product
with significant market position, together with the
possibility of implementing specific functional
requirements for advanced data sharing.
In some network domains, R&SI is the master
system for resource creation, while in others it
holds only the read-only copy of the resources
used for services creation. The integration with
3rd party systems was realized by common
information present in the environment, which
enables simplification of the overall architecture
and reduction of the number of interfaces.
The Result
The results of R&SI project implementation
are improved Incident, Problem and Change
Management processes due to end-to-end
visibility of the services, smooth integration of
Service and Resource layers and consolidated
overview of ownership for services.
Cooperation between T-Mobile and Comarch is not
limited to a single system installation. Rather, this
is only the beginning of a complex transformation
of the entire T-Mobile environment. With an
ongoing effort towards environment consolidation
composed of multiple national operators, solutions
developed by Comarch will play a central role in
T-Mobile’s future operations. An increasing need
for unified operations will inevitably push T-Mobile
towards integration, and Comarch will be a key
enabler in this process.
Case study was published in the 8th Volume of TM
Forum Case Study Handbook, December 2009.
customer sPotlight10
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
customer sPotlight10
With the implementation of the Comarch OSS Suite,
an advanced network and service management
solution, O2 in Germany aimed to unify and simplify
the entire network management process, while at the
same time decreasing maintenance costs. All provider
telecommunications networks are comprised of a wide
range of network elements, supplied by various vendors.
The reason for this is quite simple: the highly competitive
nature of the equipment market allows operators to choose
the most cost-effective and technologically advanced
solution, regardless of which vendor provides it. Going one
step further, it is important to remember that operators need
to manage all of these network devices. Of course this can
be done with a set of disparate proprietary management
systems. However, this kind of approach is usually expensive
and has additional flaws making it unacceptable for O2.
What the operators should be trying to achieve is a single,
comprehensive and integrated Network Management System
that directly manages and monitors all the different network
elements and services.
The Business need
For this project, O2 did not restrict itself to acquiring
a solution that would act as a manager of managers,
integrating with its already existing management systems.
Instead, the company sought to completely replace the
element management systems in use. This required a system
with a direct interface to thousands of network elements
from different vendors. In order to achieve this, a set of
specific data adapters needed to be created.
One challenge was to equip the system with functionalities
enabling the configuration of every network element. The
solution should allow the operator to perform all actions
available through the dedicated Element Management
Systems used previously, including firmware upgrades, while
at the same time enhancing these systems with additional
features. Further, the integration of the systems entailed
the development of unified network-level management
functions. Additionally, the system needed to correlate and
subsequently present data gathered from all the managed
network elements in one consistent view.
The Approach
The strongest aspect of Comarch’s offer was the ability to
specifically tailor the offered solution to customer needs.
In this case this meant, among other things, enhancing
Comarch’s system with a set of specific management
consoles, each for a different type of network element.
The introduction of Comarch InsightNet* is a good step
in operations optimization, integrating the management
of our transmission technologies into one homogeneous
platform.
Günter kaufmann
Manager, Operation Support Systems, Telefónica O2 Germany
*InsightNet is the former name of the Comarch OSS Suite
Why Comarch?
Comarch Inventory Management is the basis for other
modules, which operate using data collected and stored in
its database. It is designed to store complete information on
network resources. The information is kept up-to-date with
changes occurring in the network thanks to the integrated
network reconciliation module.
Comarch OSS Suite Implementation at Telefónica O2 Germany
WCuStomeRTelefónica O2 Germany
InduStRyCommunications
Telefónica O2 Germany
Gmbh & Co. OhG belongs
to Telefónica Europe and
is part of the Spanish
telecommunication
group Telefónica S.A.
The Company offers
its German private and
business customers
postpaid and prepaid
mobile telecom products
as well as innovative
mobile data services
based on the GPRS and
UMTS technologies. In
addition, the integrated
communications provider
also offers DSL fixed
network telephony and
high-speed internet.
Telefónica Europe has
nearly 49 million mobile and
fixed network customers
in Great Britain, Ireland, the
Czech Republic, Slovakia
and Germany.
customer sPotlight 11
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
customer sPotlight 11
Comarch Configuration Management supports the
configuration of network elements of O2 network
infrastructure in Germany. The functions of this module
cover: software/firmware management, including scheduled
upgrades, direct configuration of each of the network
elements via a dedicated GUI, population of the initial
configuration of new devices, as well as modeling and
provisioning of end-to-end connections.
The Comarch Fault Management module monitors existing
network infrastructure elements. It receives, displays and
efficiently tracks alarms, all of which allows users to manage
potentially debilitating network problems quickly and
effectively. The system also enables users to fully configure
the way alarms are processed. This is done through the
creation of rules utilized by the built-in correlation engine.
The main goal of Comarch OSS Performance Management
(PM) is to provide a centralized point of performance policy
monitoring and network performance reporting. Here, the
module focuses on collecting all performance data (both
short- and long-term) and forwarding it to O2‘s central PM
data analysis system.
A sophisticated sophisticated visualization interface was
provided for the presentation of the gathered data. This
interface is capable of displaying all elements and alarms.
In addition to simply listing devices and alarms, it is also
possible to use maps to visualize the status of network
infrastructure and services. The system offers a GIS map-
based visualization, logical layout, as well as a hierarchical
view of the network and the devices within.
The Result
The implementation of the Comarch OSS Suite resulted in
the following benefits:
Centralized and unified control across all network
domains
Information on network elements and their
configuration gathered in one place
Seamless integration with the existing environment
Unified solution for real-time network performance
management and monitoring
Improved network reliability
Full automation of fault management tasks, including
correlation
Future-proof design (easy extensibility)
Due to its wide functionality scope, the Comarch OSS Suite
is reliable step towards an integrated network management
system, simplifying the management process and reducing
OPEX.
ComaRCh pRoduCtS & SeRvICeS:
Comarch Network Inventory Management
Comarch Configuration Management
Comarch Fault Management
Comarch Performance Management
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The Concept of Cloud Computing
The phrase “cloud computing” is based on the cloud symbol
frequently used to represent the internet. A great definition
of cloud computing was put forth by Frank Gens, IDC analyst,
who stated that “…cloud computing means consumer and
business products, services and solutions delivered and
consumed over the internet.” Additionally, these can be
delivered and consumed anytime, anywhere. This is the
essence of the cloud computing concept, which is easy to
define, but can be difficult to control and manage in practice.
This concept arises mainly due to technology development,
service specializations, as well as the current economic
crisis, which has forced companies to look for cheaper
solutions in using IT and telecom services. It is difficult to
imagine a telecom operator without the physical network or
infrastructure, but this way of thinking is outdated. Several
of today’s mobile operators, such as Virgin Mobile, are
completely virtual. They do not possess the infrastructure
themselves, typically utilizing already available services
from the internet, or specially designed interfaces. Thus,
today’s market is service, rather than product-oriented.
What infrastructure elements are needed? Any service that
can be provided over the internet, such as access to data
warehouses, IT platforms, servers, applications, etc. Even
the cloud computing business process can be provided as
a service. According to a forecast from the IDC, the cloud
computing market will reach $42 billion by 2012. What does
this figure mean? If compared to Microsoft’s or Google’s
revenue for 2008, which was $58.4 billion [1] and $22.3
billion respectively, this is clearly a significant market. Merill
Lynch estimates the market to be worth $160 billion by 2011,
including $65 billion from online advertising. Regardless of
which figure is correct, it is clear that the cloud computing
market is significant and continues to grow. Some of
this market’s key attributes include shared services that
can be offered to multiple parties, scalable and remotely
manageable turnkey solutions, packaged services that
customer pay for based on usage, authorized and secured
network access, and web service APIs.
As can be observed in Figure 1, not surprisingly, the most
significant attribute is competitive pricing (83.2%), while
a lack of previous business relations is not very important
(30.4%). Also crucial is which service is commonly used
by customers. Based on Paralles.com research (2008),
Does Cloud Computing Have A Bright Future?
ROBeRT DYGAs The Besen Group
MVNE Advisor
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Figure 1. Importance of IT cloud services (supplier attributes) / Source: IDC Enterprise Panel, August 2008 n=244
internet application hosting, on-demand remote storage
and database centers are the most valued, due to the
digitalization of services, requiring special applications and
software to operate.
There are different types of cloud computing companies,
including IBM Cloud Service, Saleforce.com, Amazon EC2,
Symantec.com, GTS CE, Alcatel-Lucent, Comarch, Huawei, etc.
The main threat for traditionally organized companies is the
possibility of a reduction in their own IT resources. Increasing
competition and open access to new technology requires
new business models in order to survive on the market. This
is why today’s IT world is showing significant interest in the
value cloud computing business models can bring.
The Value of Cloud Computing Business Models
Business models are typically public, private or a hybrid of
the two. Here we focus on the value each of these can bring
when applied in the real world. Most companies believe that
cloud computing will transform expenditures from capital
to operational, which may help optimize financial ratios and
improve business flexibility. This is the virtualization impact
on the business, which strongly influences the company’s
finances. Since there’s no such thing as a free lunch,
a price has to be paid. In this case, it is the Service Level
Agreement, and the security of data flow and transactions,
which are web based. Thus, virtualization makes business
more flexible, but less secure the same time. This is similar
to the risks and gains in the stock market, where the more
risk an investor is exposed to, the more profit is expected in
return. But what is the real value added in cloud computing
service models? Cloud computing allows companies to start
a business with very limited capital investment. Providers
use platforms for direct volume sales of different services to
potential customers, who strongly believe in the brand power
of the service provider. Customers are often able to try out
the product before deciding to purchase and are charged
proportionately as their usage grows (pay-as-you-go). This
is key for the value of the cloud computing business model.
However, is this stable over time or is the value of cloud
computing only temporary? Because cloud computing is
not regulated, this cannot be confirmed. But a business
that begins operating by utilizing cloud computing may be
able to construct its own infrastructure as it develops. The
same is true in business acquisitions where assets need to
be estimated. So, could the cloud be the asset? Financially
speaking, probably not, therefore complicating the situation
for modern CEOs, since the concept is attractive, but difficult
to monetize and audit.
Of course cloud providers want to see value as well. The
majority of efforts are spent on finding the optimal strategy,
giving the customer freedom to decide which option is more
convenient (see Figure 2). Besides the freedom to choose
it should be also financially attractive. The key is to have
either a high usage or low cost per each user. On the other
hand, more users and more traffic require extra investments
for development (i.e. capacity for data centers on-demand).
Thus, it is important to ask how much is necessary for
a cloud computing company to break even. If both the
fixed costs and the contribution margin are measurable,
Q: Importance of IT cloud services supplier attributes
(1=not important, 5=very important)
0% 10% 20% 30% 40%
% responding 4 or 5
50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
Offer competitive pricing
Offer performance-level assurances/SLAs
Understand my business and industry
Can move cloud offerings back on-premise
Can provide a complete solution
Are future-oriented, an innovator
Can support many of my IT needs
Have a large network of partners
Have local presence
Are a large, established company
Have done business with my organization
83.2%
81.1%
68.0%
67.2%
61.9%
58.2%
55.4%
54.1%
46.3%
40.6%
30.4%
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the answer can be easily found. The question then becomes
how to calculate the price based on usage and number of
customers over time, for a variety of services (XaaS). This
potentially requires the calculation of margin thresholds to
determine exactly how volatile usage may be over time. There
are no winners yet on today’s market, because no standards
are available to measure and compare the profitability of
cloud computing services. Everything is on-demand and
tailor-made with no industry standardization. Therefore, cloud
computing should not initially be used for any particularly
sensitive activities that may have a dramatic impact on the
core business. As a result, mobile operator billing systems
are not expected to be based on cloud computing services
in near future.
The Future of Cloud Computing
According to Gartner Group [2], research virtualization
and cloud computing are some of the top ten disruptive
IT strategies in 2009. Specifically, cloud computing here
means computing capabilities (mainly software) as a service
(SaaS). The definition of cloud computing for the purpose
[1] The Economist, October 17th 2009, page 72-73
[2] Gartner lists 10 most disruptive technologies of 2009 http://
itknowledgeexchange.techtarget.com/server-farm/gartner-predicts-
technologies-to-watch-in-2009/
of this article includes customers, business products, and
infrastructure offered and consumed anytime, anywhere
in real-time over the internet. This is, of course, a much
broader concept than defined by Gartner. Cloud computing
itself appears to be a temporary trend, drawing the
attention of many CEOs, although the concept of software
as a service (SaaS) is actually most important, and has
the most promising future in the IT world. It is important to
recognize that something that is a valuable business today
can evaporate like a cloud tomorrow. Cloud computing may
have a bright future, provided security and SLA issues can
be resolved. Otherwise it will be nothing more than a trend,
surrounded by operational and financial risk.
Figure 2. Possible cloud computing strategy / Source: Oracle
provide enabling technology to other cloud providers
PUBLIC CLOUDs
InteRnet IntRanet
PRIVATe CLOUD
paaS/IaaS enabler or provider
SaaS
paaS
IaaS
SaaS
paaS
IaaS
offer customers a growing number of applications as SaaS services
Give customers the choice to deploy technologies in either private clouds or public IaaS clouds
users
objectives:
Ensure that cloud computing is fully enterprise grade
Support both public and private cloud computing – give customers choice
2 1
3
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Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
achine-to-machine (M2M) traffic can provide
additional revenue sources for operators battling
against reduced revenues from voice services.
The number of connectable machines is 5 times greater
than the amount of humans (source: eTsI), and the number
of machines currently connected is extremely low. Gartner
predicts that the level of mobile M2M modules will continue
to grow at a rate of 28% CAGR until 2011.
As the level of M2M traffic increases and M2M devices
become more common, the price of individual M2M hardware
components falls, boosting M2M popularity even further. In
addition, the declining price of data services facilitates more
M2M business scenarios. Scenarios that a couple of years
ago were deemed useless, due to high costs, now present
an attractive business opportunity, with telco operators able
to attain a new revenue source by offering M2M connectivity
services.
The Comarch M2M Platform for mobile network operators
and M2M enablers supports rating and charging, and
also provides tools for actions such as performing mass
operations on SIM cards, and integration with inventory and
a self service portal. The platform contains a B2B Gateway
for secure web service integration with a partner, thus
enabling self management and provisioning functionalities
that partners can utilize via their systems. This platform can
be added to the existing MNO infrastructure in the same way
that MVNE platforms are added to support MVNO business.
Comarch M2M Platform – Benefits:
Single platform for various types of M2M services:
service-agnostic data processing for multiple types of
industries
Able to process vast amounts of data
Increased automation and cost efficiency
Enhanced cooperation with business partners
Flexible integration with external systems: standardized
interfaces, modern and open technology
m
More info is available at: http://m2mplatform.comarch.com/
m2m partner Systems
external Systems
Self management
Integration
Integration
Services
Comarch m2m
platform
existing BSS platform
existing oSS platform
underlying network
m2m paRtneRtelCo opeRatoR
partner’s administrators
the Comarch m2m platform is designed to support mobile network operators and m2m enablers with their m2m business operations. In addition to rating and charging, the solution contains other functionalities such as mediation, provisioning, self-service (including self-provisioning) and partner management, depending on the requirements of the m2m enterprise. With this solution, the operator and m2m enabler are able to control resources (such as SIm cards) and manage workflows.
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IdeaS In BRIeF:
How can M2M communication help you acquire additional revenue sources?
What types of companies are active on the M2M market?
What are the typical features of an M2M platform and how can they support your enterprise?
n our everyday lives we are using more and
more automated and intelligent machines. These
include vending machines, new energy meters
in homes, monitoring equipment and many more. Such
machines can provide important information (e.g. various
measures or alarms). They also need to be managed and
monitored. Increasing numbers of machines are able to do
this automatically and without the control of their owners.
This sounds dangerous, especially in a scenario where all
our household appliances are capable of sending such
information to the producer regarding our lifestyles and
behavior. Fortunately the situation hasn’t reached this stage,
yet. Machines initiate communication in order to provide vital
information and save time and money. Such technology is
currently employed by energy meters, vending machines, or
monitoring equipment, etc.
What is the main benefit of such automatic communication?
The owner of the machines does not need to visit them
personally to verify their operation or read certain measures
manually. Such machines can automatically send the
information to the owner or to another machine that processes
the data further. Such Machine-to-Machine communication
(M2M) is cheaper, faster and brings new possibilities.
Why should You Be Interested In M2M?
M2M communication is developing into an interesting
business opportunity for telecom operators struggling
to maintain or increase their revenues. As the revenue
growth from voice services’ declines and the market
becomes more saturated, the M2M segment shows a lot of
potential to introduce additional revenues. The number of
connectable machines is five times greater than number of
people (source: European Telecommunications Standards
Institute [ETSI]), although the number of machines currently
connected is extremely low.
Figure 1 presents a very basic M2M communication
business case from a mobile operator’s perspective, where
connectivity is provided to the M2M partner.
As the level of M2M traffic increases and devices
become more common, the price of individual hardware
components falls, boosting M2M popularity even further.
According to Gartner, the average price of an M2M module
(one that is attached to a connectable machine and
contains the necessary communication capabilities, such
as SMS/GPRS) will amount to approximately 20€ by 2011.
I
slicing Up The M2M Revenue Pie:
How To Get Your ShareAnd Boost Your Business
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Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
Compare this to the average price of a similar module in
2007 – almost 40€, and we can see that the hardware cost
has decreased by half.
In addition to the reduced hardware costs, the declining
price of data services allows for additional M2M business
scenarios. Scenarios that a couple of years ago were
deemed useless due to high costs, are now an attractive
business opportunity. Instead of taking the market share
away from mobile operators, the companies that use M2M
services introduce new business opportunities.
Other aspects important for operators should also be
considered. The churn rate for M2M subscriptions is
extremely low, the machines can be controlled in groups,
and the data from machines does not usually overwhelm the
network. Additionally, most of the M2M subscriptions do not
require complex customer service. Of course, the ARPU of an
individual M2M subscription is lower than that of one person,
but the amount of connectable machines is higher.
M2M is a new and promising area that is developing very
rapidly, with machines becoming an increasingly important
customer segment for mobile operators.
A Multiplayer Game
Telecom operators are not the only players in the Machine-
to-Machine world. At this moment in time they offer
Machine-to-Machine communication (M2M) is cheaper, faster and brings new possibilities.
connectivity services to M2M partners who own or operate
these machines. The second group, M2M partners, represent
various business sectors – for example, vending machine
operators, electricity suppliers, monitoring companies and
many more.
If the operator is only offering M2M connectivity services, the
revenue stream in most cases originates solely from monthly
fees for M2M subscriptions. However, there are numerous
other possibilities and services, which can be offered to M2M
partners helping operators maximize this revenue.
Figure 2 presents a scenario where a mobile operator
gains additional revenues from the services it offers to the
M2M partner. Compare this to Figure 1, in which the mobile
operator only provides connectivity services – the difference
between the levels of revenue can be quite significant.
The most substantial difference is in offering services such
as provisioning, self service portals, B2B gateways, rating,
charging services and resource management. This decreases
the complexity of the IT systems required by M2M partners,
enables faster and easier startup of M2M businesses and
simplifies the management of M2M subscriptions. Such
services can be delivered by the mobile operator through the
platform, which operates like a gateway (or service enabler)
placed between existing mobile operator systems and various
M2M partners. Delivering such services to M2M partners
facilitates mobile operators with increasing revenue.
kRzYszTOF kWIATkOWskI
Comarch sA
BSS Product Manager,
Telecommunications
Business Unit
PekkA VALITALO Comarch sA
BSS Market Analyst,
Telecommunications
Business Unit
Figure 1. Basic M2M business model – mobile operator provides connectivity services to the M2M partner
networkequipment
moBIle opeRatoR
It Systems of m2m partner
m2m devices
ConnectivityServices
m2m paRtneR
existing Systemsof mobile operator
Invoice
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Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
new Roles emerge – M2M enablers
In addition to the operators that are expanding into M2M, new
types of players have arisen as a result of M2M business
growth – M2M enablers offering services to M2M partners.
A typical M2M enabler is the owner of the M2M platform
(Figure 2), delivering services to various partners, with
a connection to more than one mobile operator or ISP in most
cases.
An M2M enabler’s business model bears many similarities
to the business model of a Mobile Virtual Network Enabler
(MVNE), already known in the telecommunications world.
Both offer necessary network connectivity (that can be
obtained from the MNOs), back-office operations and IT
platforms allowing end operators to concentrate on their core
businesses.
The enabler’s role in the M2M business is very important,
especially when considering how many of the new M2M
partners and enterprises on the market came from industries
other than telecommunications (e.g. utilities, security and
automotive markets) and lack the sufficient expertise to
cooperate closely with mobile operators.
What should You Look For In An M2M Platform?
What features are essential for an M2M platform used by
a mobile operator or an M2M enabler providing services for
M2M partners? Figure 3 presents an example of a business
case, in which an M2M platform is integrated with the
existing systems of a mobile operator and provides services
to M2M partners.
Let’s take a look at the typical features of an M2M platform
and how they support the business of a mobile operator or
an M2M enabler. With these features, they can both attain
additional revenue by offering advanced services to their
M2M partners. These features include:
Provisioning of services such as activation and
deactivation of SIM cards; the M2M partner does not
need to perform complex integrations with mobile
operator systems, yet the mobile operator can provide
easy-to-use interfaces, allowing the partner to perform
mass provisioning operations on M2M SIM cards on an
ad hoc basis
Data mediation for the M2M partner to collect, unify and
correlate data from the machines (e.g. meter readings),
which is then sent for further processing
Rating of events allowing the mobile operator to charge
the M2M partner for the service usage, as well as
provide charging services for end users of the M2M
partner as a value-added service; in this case the M2M
partner does not need to have their own billing system
Integration with inventory as a repository of M2M SIM
cards and M2M equipment with customized structure,
lifecycle management and logistics
Cooperation with M2M enablers or with mobile operators offering the appropriate services can boost the development of M2M business.
It is important that operators can add the M2M platform to their existing systems.
Figure 2. Extended M2M business model – additional revenues from auxiliary services
networkequipment
moBIle opeRatoR
It Systems of m2m partner
m2m devices
ConnectivityServices
m2m paRtneR
existing Systemsof mobile operator
m2mplatform
Invoice
Self Service portal
B2B Gateway
Rating & Charging
Resource mgt
provisioning
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Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
A self-service portal for M2M partners and end-
customers enables the operator to lower costs by
shifting the focus of customer service to the web
Mass SIM card management enables M2M partners
to control the SIM cards (such as mass activation or
deactivation in a specific building or area) on their own,
without involving the mobile operator
B2B gateway making it possible to safely expose all
features of the platform to multiple partners with easy-
to-use interfaces (e.g. Web Services) and integration of
the M2M partner systems.
It is important that operators can add the M2M platform
to their existing systems similarly to the way in which the
MVNE platform can be added to the MVNOs infrastructure.
With the M2M platform, mobile operators can enter the
M2M market without performing complex changes to their
existing systems, limiting the risk and increasing potential
profitability.
Conclusions
The M2M revenue pie is likely to be substantial in size, but
it is still an open issue as to who will get the biggest piece.
Telecom operators and M2M enterprises are not the only
players that will benefit from M2M business growth. M2M
enablers may also play a key role in this market and can
benefit directly from it.
Cooperation with M2M enablers or with mobile operators
offering the appropriate services can boost the development
of M2M business. With this approach, partners and
enterprises can focus on their business without the need
for investment in complex IT systems, which are not directly
connected with their core business.
Mobile operators and M2M enablers should prepare their
platforms for offering services to M2M enterprises and
management of M2M services and traffic. The current
systems designed for management of human-to-human
traffic may not be capable of processing this increased
amount of data and the different characteristics of these
new “customers”. To reap the rewards of the M2M business,
appropriate adjustments to the underlying IT platforms are
required, and it is important to make these adjustments early
on in order to be a step ahead of the competition.
M2M is a new and promising area which is developing very rapidly, with machines becoming an increasingly important customer segment for mobile operators.
Figure 3. A single M2M platform – multiple M2M partners with customized services
It Systems of m2m partner
existing Systemsof mobile operator
networkequipment
moBIle opeRatoR
existing Systemsof mobile operator
Interface
Interface
Interface
Interface
Businessprocess
management
provisioning
monitoringService monitoring
Service provisioning
partner Billing System
Retail Billing System CRm
m2m devices
Connectivity
m2m paRtneR
Invoicing
Resourcemanagement
m2m mediation
monitoring
Rating & Charging
m2m provisioning
B2B Gateway
Self Service portal
Service & network Inventory
Subscribers database
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Figure 1. How cable operators care about their customers
Conquering new Markets
It isn’t news that communications service providers have
always had to explore new markets. Fixed operators have
gone mobile. Mobile operators have started to provide
internet services. ISPs have begun offering VoIP and TV.
Cable TV operators, too, were forced to transform and
became triple-players or quad-players, in order to secure
revenues and compete effectively. When the economy was
still booming, many went on a merger and acquisition spree.
Due to market deregulation and all-IP transformation, cable
operators began to bite and sneak more and more of the
incumbent operators’ cake.
These strategies seem to have yielded very good results.
According to TeleGeography Research, since 2003, cable
companies around the world have been increasing their
revenues from telecom services (primarily broadband
internet and telephony) by an average of 28% each year.
MSOs (Multiple System Operators) generated over $30
billion in telecom services revenues just in the first half of
2009 alone. Leading cable operators have succeeded in
transforming their businesses, and almost 40% of their
revenues come from telecommunication. To compare, telcos’
revenues from IPTV are well under $10 billion per year (where
total global annual revenues are at $1.7 trillion).
And the future is bright as well. Cable operators are expected to
double their telephony revenues within five years.
houston, We have a Problem
However, it seems that this transformation was too quick for
MSOs. With operators merging and services portfolio growing,
IT infrastructures began to swell and succumb. This has been
a step-by-step process, with each step adding more silos,
complexity and limitations, in both the network and BSS/
OSS layers. As a result of chasing competition, new systems
were added quickly, without paying attention to the general
Cable TV Operators:Which Service Are You Missing?
IdeaS In BRIeF:
Cable TV operators were forced to transform and assumed the roles of triple- or quad-players, in order to compete effectively
Transformation was successful, but occurred to quickly for MSOs - customer relationships appear to have been forgotten
With operators merging and the services portfolio expanding, IT infrastructures began to swell, meaning a significant cleanup may be necessary
High quality services can offer a sustainable competitive advantage on markets with multiple MSOs
Case no 1
Case no 2
Case no 3
I want to terminate the
contract
oK. What’s your name?
Cableoperator
Customer
Customer ReGISteRInG ISSue 30 mInuteS lateR...Customer
Customer
now you can watch 5 kids
channels instead of your favourite
sport channel
Customer
Cableoperator
Customer
We changed your program
package
don’t you want to know why?
I don’t need to...
please hold on the line
please hold on the line
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Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
IT architecture. Introducing changes so quickly has created
several critical issues:
MSOs still use simple solutions that do not support next
generation services, with poor time to market, efficiency
or flexibility
Multiple and not integrated manual back office systems
increase operation costs and decrease effectiveness
New markets require QoS and SLAs, which are not
traditionally part of the cable mentality
This inefficient system agglomeration has also had
a negative impact on customers:
Less clear and consistent product message
Increased wait time for service launch and ticket
resolution (due to an overly complex information flow,
incomplete access to information and errors in manual
process steps)
Offer not well-suited to customer needs (inflexible
service packages)
Lack of information regarding changes in service prices
and availability
Today’s customers want to communicate with service
providers across multiple channels, and expect quick and
flexible trouble ticket resolution. However, it seems that some
cable operators are stuck in the 1980s – information on their
webpages is incomplete and outdated, and often there is
still no sign of a self service functionality. The difficulty of
getting through to a knowledgeable call-center agent is
well-known. There are too few customer service offices and
hours of operation are often too short for people with regular
work schedules. So what can a customer do in case of
service failure? Experienced customers (one might call them
veterans), know that the only thing left to do is simply sit
and wait until the issue eventually gets fixed – because even
if someone picks up the phone, it is usually impossible to
receive any information about repair time. What can you say
in that case? Just another night without your favorite show.
Yet another important issue is that the customer has no
control over the set of programs he/she receives, and what
is even worse, there is insufficient information about planned
package changes.
Changing service providers is not easy either, because
there is typically only one provider in each neighborhood,
and customers are stuck with whichever cable operator
is available. MSOs often have a monopoly in their territory.
As history shows the monopolist that has ignored their
customers’ needs for a long time will suffer big losses after
competition arrives.
It seems that customer relationships have been forgotten in
the transformation process.
Maintain Good speed
With the multi-play transformation underway across the
industry, the future may still look bright. But in order to not
get eaten by the big fish, cable operators need to stop and
look at what they may have left behind. A significant cleanup
may be necessary to improve service quality and lower
operational costs. MSOs today need to look from a broader
perspective and verify whether their IT architecture meets
the following multiservice approach principles:
Easy and transparent customer services - minimize
instances of technical service details interfering with
the customer experience
Connecting disconnected CRM, billing and inventory
systems to enable additional business with both
customers and partners
Flexibility in composing and re-configuring OSS network
services with minimal impact on BSS
More freedom in defining new product offerings based
on existing services and service bundles, and in
launching service-agnostic price plans
Cross-layer independence - higher layers should not
artificially constrain capabilities of the lower layers.
On the other hand, if such constraints are desired
elements/conditions of a business service, it should be
possible to introduce them
Unified Self Care to manage all services
how Truly Bright Is The Future?
The last few years have been very good for cable operators.
With merger and acquisition strategies, and rapid service
portfolio expansion, these operators have been able to
achieve sustained revenue growth – an enviable feat.
But that’s the bright side. What went wrong? Customer
relationship management has unfortunately been neglected.
This resulted in an alarming accumulation of negative
customer experiences. Now, MSOs need to rethink their
approach to customers before other CSPs. The race to
provide multiple complex services to customers in a simpler,
friendlier way has begun. Where are you?
Customer relationship management has unfortunately been neglected.
As a result of chasing competition, new systems were added quickly, without paying attention to the general IT architecture.
MAGDALenA zYWIOL Comarch sA
CRM Consultant,
Telecommunications
Business Unit
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Self Organizing Networks: To Have or Not To Have Control?
The Blackout scenario
Most people are familiar with the blackout scenario within an
electricity network. A single local failure at a pecific network
point can lead to a blackout affecting half a nation. It works
like the domino effect, where one rare failure knocks out
the neighboring electricity facilities, propagating the failure
to their neighbors and so on, causing extensive damage.
The term blackout originates from the incredible view
created when this problem is viewed from above ground
or from space. This epic failure takes the form of a wave
propagating though the country, switching off lights and
completely blacking out large areas. Although fascinating
visually, this has a disastrous impact on the economy and
our lives. Interestingly, this domino effect is caused by the
electricity network’s attempts to act “smartly.” The electricity
network has a compensation mechanism, which is used in
the event of a local failure to compensate for the situation
by leveraging the surrounding electricity facilities. However,
when you try to act intelligently, you must be careful to
avoid looking impractical in the end. In case of more severe
failures, it is better to not attempt to compensate for the local
outage, but rather to isolate it. This will ensure that it does
not lead to a local problem, which could have catastrophic
consequences for the entire network.
The Blackout scenario in sOn?
So what can the blackout problem in electricity networks
teach us with respect to telecommunication networks? Next
generation telecommunication networks regularly utilize Self
Organizing Network (SON) concepts in order to significantly
reduce the costs of managing the increasingly complex
network. The idea is to make networks more intelligent and
automate management tasks, which until now have required
human intervention. This means that the network becomes
more autonomous. One intended SON function is “cell outage
compensation.” This mechanism assumes that in the event
of a cell outage, cells in close proximity should attempt
to compensate for lost coverage by adjusting their radio
parameters and neighboring relations.
Can this mechanism lead to a problem similar to the one
discussed in the electricity blackout example? In fact it
can… when implemented incorrectly. A typical example is
the airport cell scenario. This assumes that a low-ranking
cell close to a high ranking airport cell experiences the
outage. The cell outage compensation mechanism, when
conducted incorrectly, may mean that the airport cell
trying to compensate for the loss may have degraded its
own performance. Since the airport cell is a high-ranking
cell (meaning it must serve many more customers), the
business effect of the compensation could be catastrophic.
In this case it seems more sensible to simply do nothing, as
opposed to finding a “smart” remedy.
But does this mean that the SON theory is wrong? Probably
not, as it only proves that when you try to behave in a
“smart” way, you really have to guarantee that you are
behaving “smartly.” Proper implementation of the cell outage
compensation mechanism means treating this issue as
an optimization problem. In other words, the algorithm
should compare the summary of the business impact of
the compensation with that of the original outage. If the
impact of the compensation is worse than that of the original
IdeaS In BRIeF:
Self-organizing means automation and providing autonomy to the network
The absence of manual control must not equal no control at all
A shift from defining “how” to defining “what” is crucial
Control via defining clear goals and criteria is the most effective approach
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oss/bss features 23
outage, it is better to remain inactive or to simply select an
alternative compensation scenario. This may sound simple,
but it also means that the compensation algorithm needs to
be more comprehensive.
sOn: To have or not To have Control?
It could be said that the earlier cell outage compensation
mechanism example shows how giving the network
autonomy may lead to problems. Some may argue that
although you may use self-organization to save time and
money, you are bound to experience issues, since this
requires you to give up control. However, this is not exactly
true. In employing the self-organizing concept you must
maintain a balance between what is not worth your attention
and what you must control. The answer is that you must
control the goal and the criteria, but most likely do not need
to control all of the details regarding exactly how your goal
is implemented in the autonomous system. The best way to
demonstrate this is to go back to the example of cell outage
compensation.
What is the goal of cell outage compensation? The answer
seems obvious: to compensate the outage. But this is not
exactly true. To understand the real goal, we must have
a proper view of the outage compensation process. This
process is based on the effect of “borrowing” resources
from cells in close proximity, to bring coverage to the faulty
cell. However, “borrowing” means lowering the service level
of cells from which the resources are borrowed. This is
crucial, because outage compensation impacts all cells the
resources of which are used for coverage compensation.
“Borrowing” resources from an airport cell to compensate
an outage of a low ranking cell may not be a good idea, as
this may reduce the airport cell’s ability to serve customers.
Negative business effects of this degradation may outweigh
the positive result achieved with coverage restoration of the
faulty cell.
So what is the real goal of cell outage compensation? It is
not to bring back lost coverage at all costs. Rather, it is to
assure ability to fulfill customer demand (the service level)
as much as possible, which can be achieved by leveraging
available resources (reduced in the event of an outage).
When calculating the effect of outage compensation it
is important to take into account not only the positive
effect of restored coverage, but also the negative effect of
“borrowing” resources. If the summary service level of the
compensation scenario is worse than the service level of the
uncompensated outage, the compensation scenario should
be discarded. This is a good example of a situation in which it
is better to not compensate the low ranking cell, rather than
risking the SLA violation for the neighboring airport cell.
Thus, going back to the initial question of this article, the
answer is that you must know what you need to control
and what you can let go, due to the autonomy of the self-
organizing, self-optimizing algorithms. This is why the
self-organizing network concept is so exciting. It forces
us to better understand the network. Each time we want
to delegate heavy tasks to be handled by autonomous
subsystems, we need to identify borders of this autonomy,
with the goal and criteria clearly defined.
LUkAsz MenDYk Comarch sA
OSS Product Manager,
Telecommunications
Business Unit
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Common Service Models Across the OSS/BSS Landscape– (Im)possible To Achieve?
n today’s world of service- and customer-centric
OSS/BSS environments, service modeling is
essential. If we look at the service layer of eTOM
(specifically the horizontal level 1 process grouping “Service
Development and Management”), everyone is able to talk
about services:
Strategy, Infrastructure and Product defines service
strategy; assures the delivery of service capabilities;
manages service development and retirement
Fulfillment enables service configuration and activation
Assurance monitors, analyzes, diagnoses and aims to
improve service quality
Billing analyzes and rates service usage records
Operations Support and Readiness manages service
inventory and supports all other areas
The main question is: are these the same services? They
should be in theory (this is the assumption behind eTOM), but
are very far from it in practice.
Requirements and expectations
Departments carrying out various eTOM level 2 processes
in the service layer usually have their own tools and service
models, because their service model requirements and
expectations are very different:
Assurance concentrates on the correlation of
fault information from different sources (fault and
performance management, active and passive probing
systems, trouble ticketing), in order to assess service
impact and calculate root causes. Service models are
examined to determine the most common source of
problems
Fulfillment concentrates on provisioning process
effectiveness, the distinction between manual and
automatic fulfillment tasks and cooperation with third
parties that provide a portion of the service. Service
models are examined to determine what has to be
configured in the first step
Strategy, Infrastructure and Product concentrates on
business cases and identification of high revenue
areas. The ability to bundle the same service in various
product offerings is important. Service models are
examined to determine what is going to sell
Billing concentrates on inter-partner settlements, rating
efficiency and discounts application. Service models
are examined to determine how to ensure that the
billing process is correct and efficient
Operations Support and Readiness concentrates on
coverage, capacity and availability of the resources. This
department supports all others and ensures smooth
process operation. Service models are examined to
determine whether they are ready to be launched
existing environment
In theory, Operations Support and Readiness should manage
service inventory and thus provide the service catalog that
would fulfill all necessary requirements. Complicating their
task however, is the fact that these service models already
exist, even in legacy, not service oriented systems. They
are not always represented explicitly and are usually stored
in some type of configuration: contract templates, groups
of KPI measurements, rules of alarm processing. The initial
environment is filled with service models. The worst case
scenario involves not only a service model per department
realizing one eTOM level 2 process group, but also per system
operating in each department. For example: the service models
may be implemented in every performance management tool
separately. It is clear that such service models are difficult to
IIdeaS In BRIeF:
Departments carrying out various eTOM level 2 processes in the service layer usually have their own tools and service models, due to specifically different service model requirements and expectations
Service models already exist, even in legacy systems, but are not present in service-oriented types, rendering the task of service modelers even more complicated
The adoption of a step-by-step strategy towards commonly defined service models is recommended
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Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
MALGORzATA kWATeRA-knAPek
Comarch sA
OSS Solution Manager,
Telecommunications
Business Unit
Figure 1. Alternative visions of service across eTOM level 2 processes
I want to sell product (it is built
of services)
I have a network (it can be used to deliver services)
I can configure the network (so that it provides services)
I can monitor the faults (so that we know if services
are oK)
I can produce invoices (so that
we get paid for the services)
StRateGy, InFRaStRuCtuRe & pRoduCt
product lifecycle management
operationsSupport & Readiness
Fulfillment assurance Billing
opeRatIonS
maintain, export and share between different systems. They
lengthen the configuration process and complicate interfaces.
They are prone to errors and increase operational costs. The
best optimization method in this scenario is creating a single
central place to store all necessary service models.
Challenges With Commonly Defined service Models
The optimization method mentioned earlier implies that
everyone must agree on exactly what these service models
should look like. And here the real challenge begins: how to
define the service models that answer the needs of Fulfillment,
Assurance and Billing in the same time? For instance,
Assurance places the most value on capturing all elements
that can create events and KPIs, as well as on optimizing the
models for correlation purposes. For Fulfillment, provisioning
order and elimination of bottlenecks in the process are the
most critical. Billing takes care of the difference between pre-
paid vs. post-paid and usage vs. flat-rate. Operations Support
and Readiness needs to provide correct service models for all
these requirements. All these expectations will be very difficult
to achieve in practice, and simply defining the responsibility
for this task in OS&R does not solve the problem. The reason
is the complexity of service modeling, without definition
of the use cases that the models should fulfill. In practice,
allowing all interested parties to define the requirements to be
implemented by OS&R and provided within service models may
actually be counterproductive, with everyone maintaining their
current service models, due to the supposed futility of new
models. Commonly defined service models should be viewed
as both a challenge and responsibility for all parties involved.
Recommendations
Instead of failing to achieve the ideal scenario, it is better to
adopt a step-by-step strategy towards commonly defined
service models, managed by OS&R. The following is a sample
approach that can be utilized (among other possibilities) to
achieve a realistic scenario:
Service models should be centrally stored in service
inventory. Different teams that are responsible for
different use cases, realized with the use of service
models (event management, performance management,
provisioning and activation) should have access to
different areas of service model management, in order to
sufficiently specify the models
This requires responsibility areas within service models
in service inventory to be properly defined
Service models prepared according to the methodology
described above should be shared with all interested
parties as read-only (modifications would be only
possible in service inventory)
KPI definitions, thresholds, propagation and correlation
rules, as well as provisioning scenarios should be defined
within responsible units and corresponding systems.
These should be propagated back to service inventory,
where they will be read-only, but available. Thus, service
inventory becomes central storage for the service models,
as well as for associated knowledge
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Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
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s your sales margins decrease, time becomes
crucial. The performance management
methodology is one of the most important tools
enabling managers to make the right decisions, at the
right time. Considering the current communications market
situation, it is important to measure all critical business
figures and processes, and effectively link them to goals.
Performance management is a set of activities ensuring
that certain goals are met at all times, and can be applied in
numerous business areas, including personnel, processes,
departments, projects, finance, general performance of the
organization and more.
Within network performance management, these activities
include evaluation and reporting on telecommunications
equipment, effectiveness of the network and services
delivered. Performance management can also be used for
budget and time control of large, complex projects. Other
goals, such as sales growth, cost reduction and time-to-
market can be monitored as well.
The range of business process types where performance is
important is also extremely wide, and can be related to order
management, billing, invoicing, managed services, customer
service, partner settlements, time-to-market for new services
and more.
The question is - how can the activities connected with
performance management of business-critical processes
inside a large organization be supported?
Is Your Business Reaching Its Optimum Performance?
a
All critical business figures and processes should be measured and effectively linked to goals.
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Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
The Past and the Future
Information-based organizations frequently use Business
Intelligence (BI) with regards to skills, processes and
technologies, as well as applications and practices. BI
technology is based on historical and predictive information
views, and can provide reporting, analytics, data mining and
predictive analytics.
All this information can be combined to help managers
make the most informed decisions possible. It assists with
analyzing large amounts of data, as well as with identifying
the patterns and trends that affect the business.
However, even if business intelligence is useful, it only
represents information related to the past and the future.
It aggregates static information gathered from multiple
sources and does not provide up-to-date information about
what is currently happening within certain processes.
What About Right now?
The business of most companies consists of running
hundreds or thousands of shorter and longer, smaller and
larger processes. These processes often go through multiple
levels of the company hierarchy, various IT systems and
numerous departments.
Present process view and the possibility of detecting
associated performance problems requires an extension
of Business Intelligence with real-time, event-driven data
analysis, called Business Activity Monitoring.
Information from Business Intelligence supplemented with
a real-time view allows managers to make the most well-
informed decisions, at the right time.
This complete view of the historical, predictive and present
data is managed by Comarch Performance Management for
Business.
how Does It Work?
1. Definition of goals
The mission of an organization involves accomplishing
certain goals. Goal-setting is the first stage in defining how
performance should be measured in a given organization.
Depending on the organization type and the characteristics
of the business, such goals can vary. For service providers,
goals can range from financial performance and market
share indicators, to increasing customer satisfaction. One
way the latter can be achieved is by shortening the average
duration of the order management process.
2. Definition of measures ensuring goals are met
Measures can be represented by Key Performance Indicators
(KPI) connected to particular processes, and can assess
the duration of the business process, the number of orders
processed within one hour, the number of errors in orders
processed within a given time period, etc.
Let’s use the example of a KPI expressed by a time period
between an operator entering the customer data into the
CRM form and the end of the provisioning process. To make
this KPI more precise, we can link it to the average time
for processing an order within a given hour. Based on this
information, we define a desirable order processing time (e.g.
one minute) and set it as our KPI.
To measure the KPI it is sufficient to determine the time
between the start and finish points. But to solve possible
performance problems and to discover their source,
we require more advanced measures, linked to partial
operations. One example is measuring the duration of
a credibility check performed by an external company,
whose systems are connected with our order management
processes. Another is verifying the duration of provisioning
processes. Therefore, it is necessary to have intermediate
measures related to particular stages of the processes.
In addition, it is vital that measures are stored within
a registry. Such a history of measures in an explicit or
aggregated format can be transferred to the Business
Intelligence systems, and used for future comparison or
correlation with real-time data.
time
now?BI – historical data
BI – predictive view
kRzYszTOF kWIATkOWskI
Comarch sA
BSS Product Manager,
Telecommunications
Business Unit
IdeaS In BRIeF:
How can you support managers in making the right decisions, at the right time?
How can you judge whether your business is heading in the right direction?
How can you ensure that business goals are met at all times?
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Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
...you can judge whether your business is heading in the right direction.
3. Definition of points for event collection
In order to measure the intervals between particular stages
of given business processes, we have to plug in certain
sensors. This means integrating the sensors with the
Business Process Management system.
Currently, an increasing number of solutions are using
Service Oriented Architecture and modern Business Process
Management systems, where such integration of sensors is
not particularly complex and does not require any changes
to existing systems and processes. It is also possible to use
standard-based protocols like SQL, SNMP and JMX, among
others.
When the sensors are ready, they are able to produce events
with appropriate values (e.g. time or volume), which can then
be collected at the central point where they are processed.
4. Perform complex event processing to translate events into measures
Complex event processing means processing events from
multiple sources (sensors), and detecting complex event
patterns, event correlations, timing and other operations. It is
at this location that the information contained within multiple
events is discovered. This information is then translated into
the measures (KPIs) defined in step 2.
5. Visualizing results in dashboards
One of the most important steps is visualization of measures.
Dashboards depicting graphs, grids and alarms are
commonly used. To visualize measures, it is important to
have the option to build your own dashboards with current
measures, history and other values.
If you are involved in monitoring order management
processes, you may want to view the average times for order
registrations for each hour of a particular day. You may also
want to know the location of the most important bottlenecks,
as well as to find out the number of orders registered,
separated by customer category.
Performance should be monitored by various levels of
company management. Only then can it work effectively.
However, each manager has different concerns and may be
interested in more aggregated or more detailed information,
including details about various business processes. Thus,
visualization must be highly flexible and should allow the
creation of custom dashboards for specific employees and
managers. To be comprehensive, the information presented
within the dashboards should consist of historical and
forecasted data extracted from Business Intelligence and
up-to-date measures. It should be possible to personalize
the dashboards or create your own, based on pre-defined
widgets.
For security purposes, not everyone should have access to
all Business Intelligence data or all of the available measures.
6. Alarms and notifications
In addition, in order to allow faster responses to problems
with Key Performance Indicators or other issues detected, an
automatic notification and alarm management functionality,
or interaction with a trouble-ticketing system should be
possible. For example, a manager or a group of employees
can be sent an e-mail or SMS about the problem. This can
help quickly track and solve problems and improve overall
performance.
Before such alarms or notifications can be sent, appropriate KPI
threshold levels must be configured with alarm, notification or
warning limits. Complex Event Processing (from stage 4) can
use such definitions, associate measures with limits and raise
appropriate alarms, notifications or warnings.
Figure 1 Translating events into measures
Complex events processing
measures collector
events from sensors
visualization
events collector
measures definition
It is a crucial element for supporting decision-making, based on the essential information taken from the past, future and the present.
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Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
Figure 2. Comprehensive Performance Management for Business
Conclusion
Performance Management consists of multiple elements,
from network performance management, to personnel,
organizational or financial management. Monitoring business
process performance should allow control of various
domains including order management, billing, invoicing,
managed services, customer service, partner settlements,
time-to-market for new services and many more.
The key is to attain a complete view of the historical and
predictive data taken from the Business Intelligence, and
correlate it with real-time measures collected from multiple
points within the business processes and various systems.
However, it is most important to have the option to control
this data in the context of KPIs, linked with high-level goals.
Performance Management for Business is a crucial element
for supporting decision-making, based on the essential
information taken from the past, future and the present.
In this manner, you can judge whether your business is
heading in the right direction.
alarm & notification
notes
measures definition
alarms & notifications processing Statistics collector
Complex events processing Business Intelligence
events collector
Dashboards
for different
management
levels
Measures
from various
departments
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ustomer experience is considered the new
battleground, and has recently evolved into the
most discussed topic. A crucial question is: how
do you manage customer experience without extensive
investments? One answer lies in augmenting the existing
network performance management systems, to refocus them
on the customer. The goal is to manage network quality by
providing a comprehensive customer experience, rather than
managing underlying network infrastructure performance
only. This requires a shift toward customer Service Quality
Management (SQM).
The Gap Between Customer Focus and network-Centric Operations
Customer focus was traditionally assigned to BSS systems,
while OSS systems were more network-centric. This
creates a gap in systems supporting Communication
Service Providers (CSP). The problem is that CSP business
is based on providing customer services rather than
managing a network. This does not mean that managing
the network is not important, but rather implies that it
should not be a goal in itself. Instead, network operations
C
Managing Your Network Quality and Guaranteeing a First-Class Customer Experience
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Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
Figure 1. SQM Concept
LUkAsz MenDYk Comarch sA
OSS Product Manager,
Telecommunications
Business Unit
should be strictly aligned with the customer. This is
essential, in order to avoid such issues as overinvestment
in network improvements, with little impact on customer
experience.
The Gap and Customer experience
The problem resulting from this gap is now a very serious
issue for two key reasons. First, customer experience has
become the main battleground. Second, the advent of
new services leveraging convergence has complicated
customer service. Increasingly complex services make
it more difficult to determine how network performance
translates into customer satisfaction. One example is
network quality metrics – packet delivery delay variation.
The high delay variation may have a different impact on
the customer, depending on the service being provided by
the network. Extensive variation may have little impact on
downloading files from the internet, but it can easily lead
to customer complaints regarding VoIP or video streaming
services. In the past, this problem was far less severe, as
services were much simpler and tightly bound to a single
network technology. In these cases, network performance
improvement translated almost directly into customer
service quality improvement. Today, relying on
network-centric systems only is not an option, because this
could lead to network overinvestment without customer-
focused support within OSS, working to improve the
customer experience.
Customer Facing Services
Resource Facing Services
network Resources
BlackBerry
Intermediate Services
Raw counters
BSC
Customer Infrastructure transportBB Configuration
auth Server
utRan
...
GeRanSpecific Conf.
KQIs
KQIs KQIs KQIs
KQIsKQIs
KQIs
xdRs
CdRs
KQIs
KQIs
KQIs
KQIs KQIs
Generic Conf.
BB enterpriseBB Retail
BlackBerry RIm platform
BtS BtSBtS BtS
oss/bss features32
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
shifting network Performance Management to Customer service Quality Management
The quality problem in traditional OSS systems was tackled
from the network-centric point of view and addressed
by Network Performance Management (PM) systems. As
described in the previous paragraph, this leads to CSPs being
unable to effectively manage customer experience. One
answer can be shifting Network Performance Management
to a Customer Service Quality Management system. Shifting
refers more to augmenting performance management, as
opposed to replacing existing PM systems. This approach
has two key benefits. First, CSPs do not need to replace their
existing systems, thus avoiding large investments. Second,
SQM is built over PM, enabling customer experience issues
to be tracked down to the cause of network performance
problems. The latter benefit is particularly important for
managing customer experience. However, it is not enough
to measure customer experience only. The ability to identify
network problems affecting the customer is crucial as well.
Using the Right Metrics
The ability to use appropriate metrics to gauge customer
experience is crucial in the shift from PM to SQM systems.
Performance Management provides KPIs, as opposed to
SQM, which operates within the KQI (Key Quality Indicator)
domain. KPIs provide metrics to gauge network performance.
In contrast, KQIs provide metrics for customer service quality,
rather than underlying network performance. To illustrate the
difference, we can use the example provided in the previous
paragraphs. KPIs measure technical aspects of network
performance, for example regarding IP packet delivery delay
variations, while KQIs gauge the echo effect experienced by
a customer related to VoIP or video streaming usability. The
shift from KQIs to KPIs means that CSPs can concentrate
on improving KQIs when striving for a better customer
experience. KPIs should be used for the identification of
network problems, which have caused customer service
degradation identified by deteriorated KQIs.
speaking the same “Language” As the Customer
The shift from KPIs to KQIs has significant additional
implications. Unlike KPIs, which operate in an extremely
technical domain, KQIs are designed to express quality in the
customer’s language, which is achieved by measuring client
experience. This, in turn, means that CSPs measure service
quality from the same perspective as the customer when
assessing the provided service, using the same language.
This serves to eliminate problems created when a customer
complains about the echo effect of a VoIP service, where
CSPs are typically only able to draw up technical parameters
that attempt to pin down the issue. The customer may be
frustrated as a result, feeling that he is not understood by his
CSP. However, this can be remedied by the SQM system.
KQIs can be used directly to define SLAs with customers.
Utilizing KQIs means that the customer is aware of what he
is being offered for the extra fee. A CSP using SQM has the
ability to directly monitor SLA parameters and prevent SLA
violation costs.
Proactiveness
The Service Quality Management system’s goal is to measure
the service quality as it is perceived by the customer, as well
as to prevent customer problems. Since SQM is built over
the Performance Management system, it also has an early
detection capability. When PM detects a network performance
problem, SQM calculates the impact on customer service. If
customer service degradation is discovered, SQM can initiate
the restoration prior to the customer actually experiencing
the problem. Beginning restoration operations may prevent
customer complaints, or at least shorten the time needed to fix
the service, after the customer has reported the problem.
By providing KQIs, SQM can help analyze customer quality
tendencies needed to identify network improvements,
which must be conducted in order to prevent customer
experience degradation. This eliminates the risk of over- or
underinvestment in the network when CSPs only monitor
network performance metrics, without a clear view of the
impact on customer service quality.
Concluding Service Quality Management is an OSS system,
which bridges the gap between network performance and
customer perception of service quality. This tool is designed
to support CSPs in managing customer satisfaction, by
aligning network performance with customer service quality.
SQM allows you to make the right decisions about investing
in network improvements, by controlling them from the
perspective of the customer.
Unlike KPIs, which operate in a highly technical domain, KQIs are designed to express quality in the customer’s language, which is achieved through measuring client experience.
This tool is designed to support CSPs in managing customer satisfaction, by aligning network performance with customer service quality. SQM allows you to make the best informed decisions regarding investment in network improvements, through controlling them from the perspective of the customer.
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
telcosPhere blog 33
his year’s annual Comarch OSS/BSS User Group
moved to Düsseldorf, Germany. The elegant and
tasteful interiors of Düsseldorf’s Intercontinental
Hotel, where the event took place, matched the scale
and the atmosphere of the event. Never before has the
User Group gathered so many representatives of leading
telecommunications operators from all over the world,
focused on sharing their experience and assisted by
analysts and press.
The event is a forum for all customers of Comarch’s OSS/
BSS suites and our potential customers to share their
experiences. All participants have a unique opportunity to
meet the actual users of Comarch’s OSS/BSS suites both
during the official presentations, as well as in informal
discussions during lunch or the evening social events. The
discussions and presentation are not focused solely on
Comarch’s product portfolio. The participants also disclosed
influential information regarding their business models, ideas
for the future, and, most importantly, their approach towards
OSS and BSS systems development in the upcoming years.
After an opening presentation from Piotr Piątosa, VP
Telecommunications, Comarch, the product managers of
Comarch’s OSS Suite (Jakub Załuski) and BSS Suite (Krzysztof
Kwiatkowski) presented their newest product roadmaps,
highlighting new areas and ideas for new functionalities
in the upcoming releases. Customers took the lead next,
sharing their experiences.
Before the agenda split into 3 streams (closed OSS
experience sharing session for German mobile operators,
BSS session and OSS expert corner), there was one more
open OSS presentation held by an E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH
& Co. KG representative (one of the four major German
mobile operators). This was possibly the most interesting
presentation that day, with a packed audience and storm of
questions following the speech.
With three agenda tracks, user group participants could
either listen to BSS-related presentations or attend the
OSS live demo session, where experts presented cases
appropriate for the given customer and answered questions.
There was also a closed OSS experience sharing session for
German mobile operators. This was the first time ever all four
German mobile operators were able to meet in one room to
discuss their approaches towards certain OSS areas, as well
as current challenges and ideas for the future.
The end of the last presentation did not mean the end of
the entire event. The activities planned for the evening gave
participants plenty more opportunities to discuss and share
their experience and thoughts. The activities began with a
guided tour of Dusseldorf’s old town, then moved for supper
to the famous Uerige brewery, culminating with a Samba
show as the evening’s entertainment.
In the end, the user group can be summed up in just two
words: extremely successful!
Comarch OSS/BSS User Group Commentary
MIChAL zAjACzkOWskI
Comarch sA
OSS Solution Manager,
Telecommunications
Business Unit
t
telcosPhere blog34
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
Mobile devices have been integral to our existence for a long
time, and we treat them as part of our everyday lives. People
tend to not think about what is mobile and what is not. Instead,
the focus is on whether it is useful, trendy or a must-have.
Past discussions have focused on new networks, moving
on to new services and applications. Today’s conversation is
a mix of everything. In my opinion, the MWC is transforming
and searching for its own direction, as large vendors change
their plans, either not attending this year or not attending at
all. You can see Microsoft personnel using Blackberries’ and
Symbian representatives with iPhones, further highlighting
the fight between the flexibility of the operating system,
usability of the GUI and fashion in general.
I have returned from MWC 2010 in Barcelona, with mixed fillings. Looking back at the events in Spain and Cannes, it is apparent that these events do not offer anything new
What we are able to see as a BSS/OSS vendor is that
these shows become less focused on specific billing or
network management. Instead, as in our everyday lives,
it is a philosophy of a bit of this, a bit of that, with a mix
of both BSS and OSS. All major telecom operators want to
avoid being merely dumb pipes, and strive to fill the role of
smart plumbers instead. Thus, M2M has recently become
somewhat of a hot topic. The term “somewhat” is specifically
chosen because it is not “boiling hot.” In fact, this should
be a careful discussion that focuses on the question of
money. This is similar to converging CRM and billing, while at
the same time opening proprietary features with business-
to-business gateways. CSPs are striving to become smart
enablers, rather than dumb providers.
Reactions To MWC 2010
TYMOTeUsz WROnA Comarch sA
VP BSS Solutions
Management,
Telecommunications
Business Unit
telcosPhere blog 35
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
The iPhone vs. the Rest of the World
The success of the iPhone and the App Store has led to competitors openly declaring their intention to challenge Apple’s dominance, through the creation of even more revolutionary devices. This would be done by building an App Store capable of delivering applications to various types of devices. This news leads to questioning what exactly lies beneath the iPhone’s success and whether it can truly be challenged
One of the main reasons the iPhone appears to be so
untouchable is simply that people love it. Despite the arrival
of competitor models, consumers will always choose Apple’s
solution, regardless. That is just the way it is and altering the
balance will require something more than simply providing
a slightly better solution.
However, there are other, more tangible features contributing
to the iPhone’s success, from which other companies should
learn. First is the completeness of the solution, since it is not
just the handset alone that has contributed to its astonishing
accomplishments. In addition to the phone itself, Apple
provides virtually all ingredients necessary to ensure that
people will love the phone. Specifically SDK, which enables
developers to produce limitless applications, as well as the
App Store, which helps them by selling their applications and
encouraging further development. And this is not to mention
the vast number of accessories. An assortment of these
services was provided to the global market for the first time,
in the shape of a comprehensive and operable solution.
Another aspect adding to the iPhone’s popularity is
performance. Its interface allows the user to feel like they
have complete control over what the phone is doing, due to
seamless and quick operation. It is also very aesthetically
pleasing and intuitive, thereby improving user experience.
Furthermore, Apple uses a homogenous platform for all
versions of the iPhone, and all of its applications work
seamlessly with all models. When a new application is
needed, one simply has to go to the App Store, click once and
the application is ready to use, without having to take into
consideration the version of that particular phone. Moreover,
the overwhelming number of available applications allows you
to find an application for almost anything you need.
However, such benefits also bring certain costs. In order
for the iPhone to be what it is, numerous limitations had to
be accepted, such as the highly restricted SDK, making it
impossible to implement many solutions that are possible
with other platforms. Apple provided a device offering an
exceptional user experience, at the expense of the number
of features supported. However, it seems that the majority of
consumers are not interested in whether the original versions
of the iPhone support MMS messages (which they do not).
Instead, what takes precedence is whether the device is cool
or not.
So, can the iPhone be challenged? It can, to a certain extent,
with regard to certain aspects of its success. The remainder
depends upon user preferences. However, if the quality of
alternate offers begins to increase, users may also begin to
change their preferences.
GRzeGORz WAChOCkI Comarch sA
Senior Software
Analyst/R&D Manager,
Telecommunications
Professional Services
telcosPhere blog36
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
Self Care, a web self service portal, is a proven method for telecoms to reduce customer service and billing costs. It takes on a significant percentage of service requests that would otherwise have to be handled by the call center. It also helps save trees (an important feature for marketing) and money (vital for all other departments) spent on sending paper invoices to customers. It can also help increase sales, or at least improve cost-efficiency. In football terms it is a defender – it protects money.
Although this would be the dream scenario for many service
providers, Self Care is unable to offer its users anything
that would make them more likely to regularly return and
login. A Self Care portal cannot become someone’s internet
homepage. This is different from something like online
banking. Customers log into an online bank frequently,
because it is a very convenient method for using the
core banking service itself – they can perform financial
transactions, transfers, etc . from any location at any time.
In communications, the core service would be making calls,
sending text messages, watching TV or using the Internet.
A Self Care portal is not required for any of these actions.
A handset, TV set, or PC will suffice.
If Self Care is important for service providers, what is it to
customers? It can be useful – somewhere they can go
to occasionally to check their invoices. If the amount is
more or less correct, the interaction is typically finished.
In some instances, they will also change their tariff plan,
renew their contract or add a service. However, Self Care
is not necessary for most customers, as long as there are
other free and convenient service channels available, such
as a call-center, IVR, USSD or customer service offices.
This is why so many CSPs worldwide still have difficulties
convincing customers to use Self Care or to switch to
e-billing. It can become difficult for CSPs to recoup traditional
billing costs, especially because it is prohibited or not
commercially feasible to charge customers for a call-center
call or for a paper invoice in many countries.
However, this particular weakness of Self Care, its only
occasional use, can actually be an opportunity. Returning
to the football metaphor, Self Care is not able to become
a midfielder, with a lot of ball possession, or in our case,
frequent customer interactions. But it does have the potential
to become a striker. A striker usually has the ball the least,
but can make the biggest difference when he does have it,
scoring a goal and even winning the match. Similarly, Self
Care holds the key to customer experience. These relatively
rare customer interactions must be used to boost customer
experience. If this opportunity is wasted, it will be a long wait
until the next one presents itself.
Is your Self Care portal a striker, midfielder or defender?
Striker, Midfielder or Defender– Which Position Is Your Self Care Portal?
PAWeL LAMIk Comarch sA
CRM and Self Care
Product Manager,
Telecommunications
Business Unit
technology & innovation 37
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
technology & innovation 37
ue to the massive increase in mobile device
capabilities, the range of communication services
provided to users has also increased significantly
over the recent years. In addition to regular voice calls or SMS
messages, handsets may also be used to make video calls,
transfer media files, perform text chats or keep track of what
our contacts are doing. This wide variety of communication
not only enables us to share more with our contacts, but
also makes the communication process more convenient,
useful and practical (not to mention significantly more user-
friendly).
However, along with the increasing number of available
services comes the growing number of related technologies
and standards. As a result, many redundant services appear
on the market, restricting user communication abilities to
only those contacts using the same protocol. Users have
to utilize many similar solutions of the same type, in order
to be able to communicate with all of their contacts. This
is the main disadvantage of the technological competition
between market players who develop their own standards,
duplicating each other’s services. Fortunately, there is a
standard specification allowing us to see the light at the end
of the tunnel.
RCs Overview
RCS (Rich Communication Suite) is a specification of
communication services developed by the consortium of the
mobile manufacturers and operators, such as AT&T, Ericsson,
Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, SonyEricsson, T-Mobile and many
others. It was created in order to facilitate the introduction of
a new standard of services offered to mobile phone users,
d
Uniform CommunicationWith Everyone, Everywhere
GRzeGORz WAChOCkI Comarch sA
Senior Software
Analyst/R&D Manager,
Telecommunications
Professional Services
technology & innovation38
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
and to provide a common framework for comprehensive
services that are interoperable among various mobile
operators and devices.
There are three main high-level features specified by RCS:
Enhanced phonebook, with presence support
Enriched call, with multimedia sharing during the
session
Enriched messaging, with a variety of messaging
options, such as chat and message history
These three features will improve the way people use their
handsets, by providing new communication capabilities
and giving users simple and easy-to-use tools to enhance
communication.
enhanced Address Book
The address book is the core element of the RCS, and
is where most use cases are initiated. All contact-related
information, from the telephone number to presence
attributes, is also accessible from the address book.
Service capability information is one of the most important
pieces of data available to users via the RCS Phonebook. This
set of indicators shows which communication capabilities of
a particular contact are available at a given point in time. The
capabilities include the user’s ability to participate in a video
call, image sharing, file transfer and chat conversation.
This gives users a clear view of their contact’s availability,
allowing them to decide what type of communication is most
suitable at the moment.
The Network Address Book (NAB) support enables users
to backup their contact data onto a remote server. This is
also very useful for anyone using more than one client. Due
to NAB support for multiple devices, all of the user’s clients
are automatically updated. Therefore, if someone wants to
update their phonebook data, it can be accomplished from
one of the clients only, while all others will be notified and
automatically synchronized with the central database.
Social presence is another example of the type information
presented in the RCS Phonebook. It gives more detailed
information about a user, including:
A picture identifying the user
hyper-availability, informing that the user is ready to
communicate at that very moment
Free text, similar to statuses in popular Instant
Messenger (IM) applications
Favorite link, a hypertext link pointing to a web page or
any other content the user wants to share
Timestamp informing when the data was last updated
The phonebook view provides easy access to user contact
data, as well as to their communication capabilities.
If a social relationship is established, access to those
attributes is available as well. These features are all easily
accessible in the phonebook list, which significantly
improves the user experience of phone usage and contact
management.
Additionally, the RCS phonebook enables users to access
the communication history of a contact, making it possible
to browse and analyze their previous interaction with that
person.
enhanced Call
Traditional calling is another area where the RCS specifies
improvements of offered services, with enhanced call. The
main enhancement is the ability to share multimedia content
while on an active call. This allows users to share video or
pictures with the person they are speaking to. The voice
connection remains active during the multimedia transfer.
Both users may initiate the content sharing, and, when it
is accepted by the second party, the content is shared
throughout the session. The receiver is also able to store the
shared content on their mass storage device.
In a multiple device environment, where a user has more
than one active RCS device, it is possible to accept an
initial service invitation, such as a voice call, on one device
(for instance the phone). In the meantime, a subsequent
invitation, such as video or picture sharing, can be accepted
on a different device (such as a PC client), to take advantage
of the larger screen to view the shared content.
The file transfer feature allows various types of files to be
exchanged between users and is available independent of
any other sessions between the users.
enhanced Messaging
The RCS extends SMS and MMS services by introducing
conversational views, making it possible to browse and
display the messaging history with a particular contact,
similar to the way messages are displayed in instant
IdeaS In BRIeF:
Along with the increasing number of communication services available for today’s mobile handsets, comes the growing number of related technologies and standards
RCS initiative’s main aim is to provide common standards of services, interoperable among various mobile operators and devices
Comarch S.A. is involved in the development of several RCS-related products, which makes it an excellent partner in creating your own implementation of this innovative specification
technology & innovation 39
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
messengers. The messages are displayed like a conversation
– in a threaded mode, ordered by speaker/sender. However,
SMS and MMS services may only be used via phone, not
via a broadband client, with the exception of sending SMS
messages.
In addition to the already available messaging options (SMS
and MMS), the RCS introduces a chat service. Similarly
to other RCS services, users are identified by their phone
numbers. This enables people to converse as they would
using internet-based Instant Messengers, but without
needing to install any extra messenger applications, and
without knowing their contact’s identifier specific to that
particular IM.
Yet another advantage of the RCS is that chat may be
also utilized by broadband devices. It is thus possible to
take advantage of the bigger screen and more convenient
keyboard if chatting with someone from home. It is also
possible to choose the most convenient device at the
moment of receiving an invitation, which is always sent to all
online clients of the user.
Group chats are also possible and new participants may
be added to the existing conference chat session at any
time, as well as to one-to-one chats, by any of the session’s
participants. All other participants of the chat will be notified
that a new person is joining the discussion. Additionally,
participants may, at any time, check who is participating in
the current group chat.
Another intriguing feature is the notification shown when
the other party is composing a message. This makes the
user more aware of what is happening the other side, further
enhancing the experience by allowing users to feel in control
of the conversation.
highlights
It is important to understand that all of the services
described above are designed to be interoperable, and to
make it possible for the user to seamlessly switch from one
service to another, including:
When the social presence relationship is established
with a user, it is possible to view their attributes not
only from the phonebook, but also from other places
where their information is displayed, such as the
message history view
It is possible to change the communication channel
while in an active session with a user. For instance,
it is possible to continue a chat conversation via SMS
messages if the contact is no longer available via the
chat protocol
Broadband clients are meant to serve the exact same
services as the primary devices (phones). The only
exceptions are MMS messages, which cannot be sent or
received on a broadband client; and the SMS messages,
which can only be sent, but not received with such clients.
Multiple device support enables users to simultaneously
utilize RCS services via several active devices. Generally,
the service invitation is always sent to all available devices
belonging to the target person. Communication then
continues only on the device used to accept the invitation.
The user may also define which devices are allowed to utilize
which particular services. The invitation is then sent only
to the device(s) authorized for that particular service. All
data, such as contact information and presence statuses,
are automatically synchronized among different devices
belonging to the same user.
In the RCS network, users are identified by SIM cards and are
able to use their services on any device equipped with the RCS.
For broadband clients, it is also possible to authorize the client
in the system with a user name and password. It should be
noted that in order to communicate with a user through any of
the available services, it is enough to know the user’s phone
number. No extra user names or identifiers are required.
summary
The Rich Communication Suite is a specification of
comprehensive solutions aimed at increasing the
attractiveness of communication services in mobile
networks, strengthening its business model by providing
improved communication means, and improving the user
experience. This solution enables end-customers to use their
handsets more easily and extensively, which combined with
various charging models, guarantees significant revenue
increases for the service provider.
Find out more:
http://www.gsmworld.com/our-work/mobile_lifestyle/rcs/
index.htm
All contact-related information, from the telephone number to presence attributes, is accessible from the enhanced address book
Network Address Book support enables users to backup their contact data onto a remote server and synchronize it with other devices
Share multimedia content while on an active call
Ability to send Instant Messages without needing to install any extra applications, and with identification of contacts by their phone numbers
Multiple device support enables users to simultaneously utilize RCS services via several active devices
technology & innovation40
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
technology & innovation40
n large companies, the time consumed by
maintaining thousands of devices and finding
solutions to possible problems is constantly
increasing. State-of-the-art technologies currently cover
various aspects of physical device management, but
are usually unable to provide consistent support to the
user by answering questions that involve sophisticated
configuration-related constraints. Thus, this remains one of
the challenges faced by NGOSS systems.
In this article we present a prototype application, which
enables modelling the equipment using a dedicated Domain
Specific Language (DSL) enriched with the best available
logic-based reasoning services. This allows us to define
a rich layer of semantics on top of the structural description
of the devices. Thus, the configuration-related constraints are
expressed declaratively, in a platform independent manner,
and are managed in an integrated way with the structural
model. The information kept in the model can then be used
on runtime to guide the system user.
Use Cases:
The main advantage of this approach is that the knowledge
about device types, once formalized, can be exploited
for various use cases. A simple example is verification of
device configurations. If an error is found, the user should
receive justification for the inconsistency, in order to receive
suggestions on how to fix the configuration.
UC-1: Find wrongly configured instances of
devices and explain errors
UC-2: Detect errors in physical device
type definition
exAMPLe 1.
The definition of device type Cisco 7603 contains the
following constraints:
“Cisco 7603 allows only following cards:
exAMPLe 2.
The following two statements are contradictory:
1) “Cisco 7603 allows only following cards:
in slot “1”: “Supervisor_Engine_2” “Supervisor_
Engine_720”
in slot “2”: “Supervisor_Engine_2” “Supervisor_
Engine_720” “Catalyst_6500_Module”
in slot “3”: “Catalyst_6500_Module”.
2) “Cisco 7603 requires at least one Cisco SIP card”.
An error is very clear in this case, because statement
1 does not allow Cisco SIP in Cisco 7603, which is required
by statement 2. However, such errors might be difficult to
find in large knowledge bases.
in slot “1”: “Supervisor_Engine_2” “Supervisor_
Engine_720”
in slot “2”: “Supervisor_Engine_2” “Supervisor_
Engine_720 “Catalyst_6500_Module”
in slot “3”: “Catalyst_6500_Module”.
If one of these routers is configured so that
a Catalyst_6500_Module card is inserted in slot “1”,
the device (and slot “1”) are reported as inconsistent.
The user receives the following explanation:
“Cisco 7603 slot 1 allows only “Supervisor_
Engine_2”or “Supervisor_Engine_720”.
It is also possible to inquire about the validity of the
knowledge itself, or potential connections between
devices and cards.
I
Semantic Modelling of Network Physical Devices: A Prototype
PAWeł sABInA Comarch SA
Software Analyst at the OSS
Research & Development
Department
kRzYszTOF MIksA Comarch SA
Project Manager at the OSS
Research & Development
Department
technology & innovation 41
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
exAMPLe 3.
Suppose that a card in slot “3” of Cisco 7603 device is
broken. The user may then ask for allowed replacements
of a card, given the current configuration of the device.
Potential relationships between cards should also be
considered. For instance, a card may require a specific
supervisor card to work properly. If the device is
configured without the required supervisor, such a card
should not be suggested.
Prototype Architecture:
The conceptual architecture of the prototype is depicted
in Figure 1. The user interacts with the Integrated Modelling
component, which enables the creation of structural network
device models (PD Modelling), annotated with additional
configuration constraints in the Web Ontology Language
(OWL Modelling).
The integrated models are then transformed into semantic
descriptions (Ontology), which can be accepted by a Semantic
Reasoner. It is then possible to invoke Guidance Services,
which implement cases listed in our Use Cases section. These
services can then the profit from reasoning services provided
by the Semantic Reasoner. The reasoning results are then
interpreted and returned back to the Integrated Modelling
environment, where they are presented to the user.
Language Integration:
The types of devices and their instances are modelled in
the Physical Devices Domain Specific Language (PDDSL),
a modelling language specifically tailored for representation
of device configuration constraints. It allows definition
of device types, which can have multiple alternative
Figure 1. Conceptual architecture
model-ontology Bridge
Guidance Services
Semantic Reasoner
ontologytransformation
Integrated modelling
oWl modelling
pd modelling
Figure 2. A sample instance of this device model is presented in Figure 3. The instance
contains only one card in slot “5”.
1 (7609_1)
2 (7609_1)
3 (7609_1)
8 (7609_1)
5 (7609_1)
6 (7609_1)
7 (7609_1)
4 (7609_1)
9 (7609_1)
Supervisor_engine_2
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIpSupervisor_engine_2
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIp
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIp
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIp
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIp
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIp
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIp
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIp
Cisco_7609_Configuration_1
type
Cisco_7609
type
1 (7609_2)
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIp
2 (7609_2)
6 (7609_2)
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIp
7 (7609_2)
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIp
8 (7609_2)
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIp
9 (7609_2)
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIp
3 (7609_2)
4 (7609_2)
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIp
Route_Switch_processor_720Supervisor_engine_32Supervisor_engine_720
5 (7609_2)
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIp
Catalyst_6500_moduleCisco_7600_SIp
Cisco_7609_Configuration_2
type
configurations. The configurations can contain slots, which,
in turn, may specify the allowed or required card categories.
An example device type model is presented in Figure 3.
The model depicts a Cisco 7609 chassis with two possible
configurations of the nine available slots. Allowed card
categories are listed next to their respective slots. Slots
requiring cards are marked in red.
UC-3: Suggest card types that are allowed
in a slot
technology & innovation42
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
Conclusions:
The prototype application we have shown is an early
innovation in combining software engineering techniques
with the power of ontologies. However, it is already evident
that semantic technology usage can greatly improve
domain-specific modelling of network physical devices,
as well as software technology in general. The knowledge,
once formalized, can be exploited to answer various user
questions, which today require time-consuming and error-
prone custom coding. Additionally, the definition of the
modelling languages can be integrated with OWL to allow
the combination of language constructs with OWL axioms
in a single model. Thus, the modelling language remains
simple and productive, while the expressiveness of the
combined models can be greatly improved.
In the future, we plan to investigate how our current
approach can be generalized. We hope to streamline the
development of ontology-supported DSL tools for other
application areas, such as service management.
Acknowledgement:
This research has been co-funded within the 7th Framework
Programme project MOST.
http://most-project.eu
Figure 4. An additional constraint may be expressed in OWL and modelled graphically in the Integrated Modelling environment. The example constraint specifies
that a device should have at least one Cisco_7600_SIP card connected.
pd_hasConfiguration
Some
Some
Some
C (a)
pd_hasSlot
pd_hasCard Cisco_7600_SIp
Figure 3. Example device of type Cisco 7609
Cisco_7609_Configuration
9 (7609)
8 (7609)
7 (7609)
6 (7609)
supervisor_32_1
5 (7609)
4 (7609)
3 (7609)
2 (7609)
1 (7609)
Cisco_7609
technology & innovation 43
Comarch Technology Review 01/2010
Comarch Thought Leadership
Thought-Leadership.comarch.com
If you have enjoyed the articles in our magazine, you may want to visit the section below for further insight.
there you will find a variety of resources, through which we share our expertise to shed new light on both common, as well as more exclusive challenges and trends in the industry:
“enterprise – A Customer Or Partner? how self-service Billing Can Turn Business Relationships Upside Down”
speakers: Pawel Lamik, Self-Care & CRm product manger at Comarch and krzysztof kwiatkowski, Billing Systems product manager at Comarch; Analyst: Alun Lewis
10 Ways To Optimize Your satellite Broadband Business The Concept of B2B Gateway Aiming Towards Better Customer experience With ITIL and eTOM
In Focus: Mobile TechnologiesIn the issue:
Behind the Scenes of mobile products – Smartphone operating Systems
loyalty Card Killer! Smartphone – the Best tool for
Cutting Field Service Costs and Increasing productivity
digital home – a dream or a Fact?
In Focus: next Generation service ManagementIn the issue:
next Generation Service management next Generation Service delivery
platform – Integrated Service Fulfillment
application Sla – the missing part of complete Service Sla management?
“Fulfilling the Promise of Component-Based service Creation”
speakers: jakub zaluski, oSS product manager at Comarch, Lukasz Mendyk, oSS product manager at Comarch and Martin Creaner, president, tm Forum
On DeMAnD WeBCAsTs
FeATUReD WhITe PAPeRs
PReVIOUs IssUes OF TeChnOLOGY ReVIeW
the communications market is constantly changing – there are more and more areas in your business that require professional support. With 17 years of experience Comarch is able to help you answer the current challenges and address them with a solution that is best suited to a particular area. our oSS/BSS systems have already helped many operators worldwide. We will assist you with managing all your business areas so you can stay focused on your customers.
COMARCh – sOLUTIOns FOCUseD On CUsTOMeRs
TeLeCOM-sOLUTIOns.COMARCh.COM
Dont’ lose focus on what is really important– YOUR CUsTOMeRs
yourcustomers
showing ROI on 3G investments
service bundling
showing return on short-term investments
Increase ARPU
M2M
Managing news services
Pricing Dealing with excessive data consumption
Mobile broadband
Managing B2B partnerships
Cost reduction
Migration to 4G/LTe
