Don't leave profits on the table: bridging the complexities of new services and management of the bottom line

New technologies can transform the delivery of communications services--whether voice, data, wireline, wireless or content--and often spawn new business models. New services, however, necessitate integration of multiple technologies, devices and disparate networks, all of which pose new problems to a service provider's back office. Each addition increases the opportunity for revenue leakage, poor network utilization and stranded assets, The inability to overcome challenges and remain profitable contributes to service providers' reluctance to adopt new technologies.

This conundrum has led to the growth of a new set of back office support systems called cost and revenue management, where the goal is to increase operational efficiencies and maximize profitability--the mantra of service providers today.

One area of cost and revenue management highly impacted by today's changing environment is the service provider's OSSs. Existing OSSs are designed around a set of relatively simple relationships among customers, services, and the network infrastructure-- relationships that are often broken by new technologies. Take the trend to mix and match technologies, for example, setting up IP data as a control plane to run optical data planes, which in turn carry IP. The business purpose of such configurations is to provision optical paths quickly and automatically to reduce operational costs.

By mixing IP and optical, engineers unintentionally broaden the scope required of each layer's OSS. The existing IP OSS understands how to provision IP services over a defined infrastructure. Similarly, OSS for optical (traditionally SONET) knows how to manage its resources for traditional demands. Now we are using IP both as a carried protocol (not a problem, as optical systems are almost all usage agnostic) and as a control protocol. For this control protocol to operate correctly, the IP-oriented OSS must understand optical resources. Similarly, the optical 055 must understand that IP failures may affect the ability to establish paths. Couplings of many subtle kinds exist. Unless the two views are synchronized, robust end-to-end connectivity cannot be achieved.

Similarly, the introduction of virtual routers offers service providers the opportunity to create and sell high-margin IP broadband services (e.g., streaming video) without the need for heavy capital investment. Of necessity, these next-gen platforms are sold with point management software for provisioning, but they must still exist in an operational environment that supports a broad range of other services and technologies. Looking at the operational environment, service providers search for ways to realize the great promise of new technologies while leveraging them to improve the bottom line.

The question: How does a business bridge between the complexities of new services that rely on today's OSSs and the management of the bottom line?

The answer: A new software--information integration OSS--is designed for OSS data reconciliation and can uncover and resolve discrepancies across a wide range of disparate systems, technologies and services.

Indeed, data reconciliation must become a strategic priority if service providers are to gain greater efficiency and higher profits from new technologies and services. Some current real world examples:

* A service provider has invested in a metro network using 10-Gbps optical switches and is ramping up its marketing campaign to attract new customers. The provider would like to offload the provisioning burden by providing the means for customers to self-provision on the fly. If the customer adds new users, it will simply notify the system via the Web, automatically setting off the provisioning chain of new connections and new virtual circuits. This promises great time and cost savings because the provider is no longer required to send a technician to the field to provision service,

However, integration of back office systems to manage the process has not kept up with the self-provisioning vision. Even if these integration projects succeed--linking the provisioning system to the network inventory system and to an automatic self-provisioning system--important questions remain. For example: "If one lambda goes down, which customers will be affected?" or "Can our network discovery system retrieve the right information and reconcile it with billing data?" In fact, given that there now will be multiple ways to provision service probably through different systems, the likelihood of inconsistent data and errors delivering services increases. Unless this provider can answer those questions fully, it will leave profits on the table.

* A well-established ILEC plans to add DSL to its existing voice service. Not only will it be able to realize greater profits from voice, it also will be able to offer a host of new advanced data services. To succeed, however, the changeover requires that the ILEC reconcile the customer and service information residing in old, homegrown support systems with the new systems. Since change always comes first to the core and slowest to the edge, the phase-out will be gradual. The challenge: to manage the transition by constantly reconciling two sets of data from the perspective of the global enterprise.

Ongoing Data Reconciliation

Until recently, it was possible to overcome inefficient use of network capacity by simply plugging in new switches or other equipment. Managers knew that newly installed ports were open and ready to support their primary goal of winning market share and building revenues. Financial constraints now dictate that managers have complete visibility to maximize usage of every internal resource even as they upgrade technology and add new services. This is why gaining a global view of operations is critical.

Achieving a global view is usually only possible at great cost and effort, though effort can pay off. When one provider recently reconciled data manually between its provisioning and billing systems, it found $15 million in annual profit bleeders. The key, however, is to find a way to stay so current with operations that excess costs can be headed off before they occur,

An information integration OSS gives managers a current (i.e., constantly updated) view of operations (see Figure 1). It has three key features:

1. It models the complex relationships among customers, their services and the network infrastructure;

2. It is designed for an extremely dynamic environment; and

3. It provides a unified view of the service provider's business that can prevent such common profit-bleeders as underbilling and stranded network assets.

Each new customer, service or network element disturbs the perspective of the whole network. The information integration OSS provides a global view of various support systems (e.g., provisioning, network discovery, customer care), shows their relationships and reports wrong or inconsistent data. The model helps management correct even onetime occurrences of data inconsistency.

Whether the examples are one-time or system-wide, the ability to reconcile data from disparate sources is crucial for getting a handle on business operations. Only if data reconciliation proceeds in tandem with technological innovations can service providers feel the full benefits.

Joel Halpern, consulting architect for Vibrant Solutions. was the co-founder of Longitude Systems, purchased by Vibrant in November 2001. (jhalpern@vibrant-1.com)

COPYRIGHT 2002 Horizon House Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group