How to Select a Vendor?
With the advent of complex technologies and in a target (bottom line) oriented business atmosphere that too undergoes changes, opting for the right OSS/BSS player may be a tricky question for many. Quality of the services offered by a vendor can be one of the benchmarks. However, certain qualities are taken for a given-product quality, customer references, financial stability, system integration partners and most importantly, commitment to India market. The end user is greeted with a flux of new devices, services and technologies, and the only way of ensuring that he continues to use the higher value feature rich services continuously is to simplify the services and user experiences without compromising on user expectations along the way. Therefore, it is necessary to partner with an OSS vendor who not only provides the leading edge solutions but also would be committed to simplify the way service providers do business and create a strong competitive differentiation.

With operators being increasingly reliant on systems that reflect their changing business processes as opposed to rigid systems discourage change – long-term partnership with a credible OSS vendor who will be there to address all operators pain points and challenges is vital.

The fundamentals for selecting a vendor

• Domain expertise

• Reference/customer list: Tier-1 carriers

• Faster delivery cycle – faster ROI

• Ability to analyze revenue assurance problems and suggest solutions effectively and cost-efficiently

Novel Technologies
New technologies such as video on demand, IPTV, VoIP, and wireless content services have seen substantial growth this year. Other technologies that have captured the mind share include next generation networks and services, while 4G, Quad-Play and mobile TV are the new technologies in the pipeline.

Several industries are crashing together such as telecom, cable TV, satellites, consumer electronics, broadcast TV and the Internet. Video service is a perfect battleground for this clash as customers have multiple choices-Google's YouTube, Apple's iPod, France Telecom's IPTV, DishTV, etc.

Trends
Telecom carriers are now shifting their strategy from ARPU (Average Revenue per user) to AMPU (Average Margin per user). They are essentially looking to deliver services faster, better and cost efficiently to ensure sustained profitable growth. In India, they in turn are looking at suppliers-both from India and abroad-to provide solutions to make this happen.

OSS/BSS players are on an acquisition spree globally. This means vendor consolidation will continue in the coming years within OSS/BSS space. Though India is undergoing the telecom revolution and may become the second largest telecom market in the world soon, spending in North America is the highest. Whereas spending in rest of the world (non-NA, non-EMEA) is growing faster. ROW will continue to lag NA & EMEA even in 2010.

Tips for Network Managers
Faster delivery of solutions, managed services, implementation and post sales-support and staff training and educational programs are the main demands of enterprises. As per the Annual Global Operators attitude survey carried out by Subex Azure, telecom carriers loose nearly 12% of their revenue due to various reasons such as fraud, interconnect, poor processes and other common areas of revenue leakages. As the levels of loss become more apparent and the complexity of managing the entire revenue streams grows, revenue assurance has steadily moved up the corporate management ladder. Increasingly, CFOs and CEOs are assuming responsibility for the revenue management function. There is a need for an integrated revenue maximization paradigm.

The solution lies in ROC (revenue operations center). The purpose of the ROC is to provide the finance community, in particular the CFO, with visibility into the operation and performance of the revenue chain from a business perspective so that operational costs and revenue loss, in all of its forms, can be minimized and that new products and services are launched within a pro-active revenue management framework.

Hurdles
India has one of the most forward looking regulatory practices in the region. Changes in regulatory rules have opened the market for greater competition and hastened consolidation.

On the technology front, Next Gen Networks with their open connectivity fabric, IP components, and network complexity would call for a different architecture for OSS/BSS.

Telecom operators now stand on the threshold of a new business model dependent on their ability to deliver next generation all-IP services such as VoIP, IPTV, etc. Competitive advantage will now be gained by demonstrating operational dexterity, through reduced time-to-market for new services, rapid service provisioning, maintaining high quality of service delivery and doing so in a cost efficient manner.

Focus of Indian Teleco CIOs
The US is a matured market with a telecom landscape vastly different from those in Asia and India. However, common themes which are the focus of telcos' CIOs are similar:

• Increasing cash flow

• Enticing customers to buy more

• Are multi-service plays the answer?

• Maintaining core subscriber base, yet add new subscribers

• Do we really know what our customers want?

• Launching applications and services to increase average profitability per user?

• Time to launch NG services and how to price it?

• Wireless/video in the bundle?

• How do we make money from content delivery?

Enterprises and vendors are in talking terms as far as the OSS/BSS market is concerned. Vendors are readying to offer the best and cost effective services, while enterprises want more vendors to be part of their entire implementation process and cost analysis. The objective of OSS/BSS players is always to offer products that exceed current market demands, something they achieve by developing close relationships with their customers and listening to what they need as well as by carefully monitoring industry developments.

Baburajan K
baburajank@cybermedia.co.in