According to TM Forum a substantial transformation is underway in the BSS/OSS market. This change is assessed to be great enough that TMF have opted to call this area the ”Next Generation OSS/NGOSS”.

Traditionally two schools of thought have emerged; one focusing on proprietary systems with major features from in-house technical personnel and major elements from consultants, and the other focusing on using system platforms from actors like IBM, SAP and Oracle. The existing, traditional operators have a mix of different solutions with elements of in-house developed systems and general platforms. Both of these traditional methods result in very high costs and are highly unsuitable in the light of the changed requirements from the market.

Tradition of major actors

The market has been traditionally dominated by major international actors that either provide the actual system platform or carry out the day-to-day maintenance and integration process. Examples of actors that offer advanced system platforms are Oracle and SAP. For the purpose of offering an effective and constantly updated business support system, these and similar actors work together with consultancy companies that they have certified, such as IBM and Accenture.

A characteristic feature of the traditional BSS/OSS systems is that they come in a variety of versions where each new version means that a new purchase or a substantial updating procedure must take place which impacts on the customer in the form of additional costs, both to gain access to a new version from the system supplier but also to have it implemented fully or partially by consultants.

There are extremely few examples of BSS/OSS systems that are provided by the traditional actors that are based exclusively on the new technology. As the systems are a ”patchwork quilt” of old and new technologies, constant problems arise when they are to be integrated. This generates costs that impact on the customers.

A new model emerges

In the light of this, the market for BSS/OSS systems is at a cross-roads where even the traditional actors need to adapt to meet new needs and requirements that ”Multi play” creates. This also applies to the traditional revenue model that is based on the routine launch of new versions that are now being challenged by a new approach whereby functionality is offered rather than licences. New, small and innovative actors are continually emerging to provide solutions based exclusively on the new technology.

To date, the traditional actors have responded to this challenge by simply acquiring the smaller actors as a way of gaining access to the new technology.