My API Story: Enhancing efficiency in product management and customer experience

Tell us about yourself and your job

My journey with Lifecycle Software began 22 years ago when I joined as a graduate developer. Over the years I progressed to become R&D director, where I oversaw the creation of Lifecycle’s Digital BSS suite. I was appointed COO in 2022, where I played a pivotal role in driving the remarkable growth of our award winning company. Now, I have the privilege of serving as CEO, leading Lifecycle to new heights of success and innovation.

Why do you believe in TM Forum’s Open API program?

We support TM Forum's Open API program for its focus on standardization, streamlining integration and reducing complexity. It fosters interoperability, enabling seamless product collaboration and enhancing flexibility for customers. The program’s commitment to advancing standards ensures our products remain in line with industry best practices. It also fosters innovation, by providing a collaborative platform for developers, vendors, and service providers.

In summary, TM Forum's Open API program allows us to deliver better products and services, while driving positive change in the telecommunications industry.

What TM Forum Open APIs are most valuable to your company?

We’ve obtained certification for the Product Ordering and Product Catalog APIs, which are pivotal in streamlining our ordering processes and product information management. We’re also pursuing certification for the Service Catalog and Service Ordering APIs, to enhance service delivery and customer experience.

Additionally, the Prepay Balance, Account Management and Party Management APIs are essential for our Converged System (CCS), ensuring seamless integration within the telecom ecosystem.

These APIs significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of our software solutions, benefiting both us and our clients.

Why did you choose to highlight those APIs?

In the telecoms industry, several players grapple with managing a decentralized catalog of products and services across multiple systems, each accessed through various APIs and sales channels. This fragmented landscape necessitated the development of a unified approach to ensure accessibility for TM Forum users. Our Unified Catalog incorporates essential Open APIs to support simplification in handling complex hierarchies of accounts and parties scattered throughout systems for improved efficiency and clarity. Additionally, the Unified Catalog offers hyper-personalization capabilities, enabling the presentation of the right offer, to the right customer, at the right time.

Moreover, we are working on making our Charging and Billing System (CCS) transactable, by developing an API that enables existing TM Forum users to seamlessly transition to our platform. By prioritizing these efforts, we are committed to enriching the user experience, fostering interoperability, and driving innovation within the industry.

How do you use these APIs?

We directly integrate the Product Ordering and Product Catalog APIs into our platform, enabling seamless access to our Unified Product Catalog for efficient and frictionless customer interactions.

For Account and Party Management, we use the corresponding APIs to establish and manage complex hierarchies within our platform. These APIs empower us to organize accounts and parties efficiently, facilitating the setup and management. This ensures clarity and coherence in managing customer relationships and organizational structures.

Additonally, the Prepay Balance API greatly simplifies the migration of existing TM Forum adopters to our Charging and Billing System (CCS), minimizing disruption and maximizing value for our clients.

How have you benefited from using these APIs?

Using these APIs has enabled us to standardize our systems, making them accessible to a wider range of users. This fosters competition by lowering setup costs and barriers to entry for new market players. It also enhances user experiences and promotes higher-quality development focused on value-added features rather than basic integrations.

The existing API documentation has resulted in tangible efficiency gains. Compared to previous product rollout cycles, we have observed reductions in development, implementation, and documentation times.

Where do you use them?

TM Forum APIs are already seamlessly integrated across our entire product portfolio, spanning various solutions, including our NEXUS MVNE platform. This cloud-native multitenanted platform is currently operational and utilized by multiple operators.