My API Story: Enabling a common enterprise data model

We talk to Jeffrey Boozer, Director Market Development – Utility Broadband at ETI Software Solutions about why TM Forum Open API's are critical to the company's software platform solutions.

Tell us about yourself and your job I am a business analyst and strategist at heart. I am passionate about helping organizations leverage technology to innovate and transform. 5G, IoT, and AI are accelerating the pace of change in the communications services industry. As Market Development Director, I focus on digital transformation outcomes for utility and municipal broadband providers. I help companies plan and deploy new software technologies that enable the next generation of broadband services, actionable insights based on data, and an exceptional customer experience. Why do you believe in TM Forum’s Open APIs? TM Forum Open APIs ensure interoperability across domains. The flexibility of TM Forum’s Open APIs supports different business models and enterprises worldwide. As service providers pursue digital transformation, they can introduce new architecture components while leveraging current assets. What TM Forum Open APIs are most valuable to your company? As a software platform vendor, we are committed to open, standards-based applications for next generation networks and services as a way to bring tier 1 capabilities to service providers of all sizes. We have implemented all TM Forum Open APIs in our platform as they provide an industry standard for enterprise data integration. They enable us to deliver a standards-based platform that unifies data from legacy silos as well as Open API based systems. With digital service orchestration and unified device management as the core of our solution, those APIs for service and resource are critical for our solution. How do you use the APIs? TM Forum Open APIs provide the foundation for a common enterprise database. Using data orchestration capabilities of the ETI platform, data from other sources can be mapped into a common format for use across the enterprise. Service providers can manage physical, logical, and virtual infrastructure as a single network. Data analysis and AI is the foundation for automation at scale. Open APIs are key for rapid integration across the service provider device and systems ecosystem. ETI has worked with Microsoft to extend the Microsoft Common Data Model around TM Forum Open APIs to provide an enterprise data model for telecommunications. The ETI platform can create new interfaces automatically by importing machine-readable specification files, and API payloads are mapped into this common data model. With this enterprise database, ETI gives service providers a unique service lifecycle management solution that streamlines service continuity, enables zero touch automation, consolidates disparate tools for service assurance, and harnesses shared data for critical insights. New devices can be rapidly deployed into the network. New digital services can be designed and launched faster. How have you benefited from using Open APIs? A common enterprise data model and Open APIs make interoperability across the application and network domains less costly and risky. Open APIs provide a common context for understanding and rationalizing the data from disparate OSS/BSS environments. Service providers are reducing time to revenue for new services while leveraging technology from a wider ecosystem of vendors. As a software vendor, we can deploy and support the platform more efficiently. Where do you use them? Since TM Forum Open APIs are a part of ETI’s telecom common data model, they are in use by all of our service providers that have the platform in the US and EU. This includes utilities, broadband, and wireless service providers.