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Ask not what your OSS is, but what it can do

Asking what the next generation of OSS will be called or comprised of are not the most important questions. It's more important to ask what they can do.

Tim McElligott
14 Nov 2019
Ask not what your OSS is, but what it can do

Ask not what your OSS is, but what it can do

Asking what the next generation of operational support systems (OSS) will look like, be called or be comprised of are not the most important questions for determining how the new systems will best serve evolving telecom business models. As our latest research report and an accompanying webinar illustrate, it’s much more important to ask what OSS can do.

Whether the next iteration of OSS includes containers (it will) or operates from a public, private or hybrid cloud, and whether or not it leverages open-source applications or merely relies on open-source tools and development platforms are important dilemmas for solutions providers to resolve. But first, communications service providers (CSPs) must decide and convey what capabilities best serve their business and in what order of priority.

CSPs want agility and automation


In a survey for our report, Future OSS: Towards an open digital architecture, we asked CSPs across the globe about the attributes they would most like to see in future OSS. Agility is a given. CSPs want to be able to respond and adjust to any new technology or business model. They also want the agility to be innovative alone or with partners, and quickly trial many new services.

Beyond that, CSPs are most anxious for closed-loop automation. They want automation in the fulfillment process, and they want it for optimizing the network for performance, resilience and cost efficiency.

The desire for process automation is not new. CSPs have been working toward this goal for some time, even though they have been reticent to take it all the way to a closed loop configuration. However, their patience appears to be waning as 5G, virtualization and software-defined network capabilities are beginning to coalesce and call for more streamlined operations.
CSPs have been comfortable with the inevitability of automation, believing it would come incrementally. Now, they are acknowledging that the space between increments must narrow. They are ready to close the loop in the name of competitive advantage.

As the report shows, getting there will not be easy. Below are some of the barriers CSPs will have to overcome.
The top two challenges future OSS needs to address are the lack of end-to-end visibility and a real-time network image from which operators can base automated decisions. The third item on the list holds the answer to these and many of the other challenges.

Better synchronization between the functions performed by OSS and business support systems (BSS) can help provide the real-time, end-to-end data that CSPs can use to get comfortable with closing the loop. It can also facilitate interactions from across the business and between partners.

One of the primary goals of the TM Forum Open Digital Architecture (ODA) is to facilitate this synchronization. Listen to the webinar and read the report to find out how.

Register for the webinar


Download the report