My API Story: Reducing risk inherent in facilitating new complex interactions

Tell us about yourself and your job

I am responsible for the creation of end-to-end solutions, combining products and services across Ericsson’s Business and Operations Support Systems portfolio. Our solutions address customers’ digital ambitions and cloud requirements and support them in generating additional revenues. We do this by optimizing, exposing, and exploiting connection points between BSS and OSS and the multitude of other connected and relevant applications.

I lead a cross functional team of product managers, augmented with representatives of development, services and sales teams with the mandate to define the vision and strategy of our solution suite, and then driving its realization from design to delivery.

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

With the increasing prevalence of cloud architecture, the adoption of TM Forum standards is the most cost-effective way to decrease the complexity of integration between a growing number of actors. This is important, not just for simplification, but also, to reduce the risk inherent in facilitating new complex interactions. Our vision is aligned with TM Forum to evolve beyond traditional integration methods. We favor open, standardized approaches which fully support flexible business processes.

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

TMF620 - Product Catalog Management

TMF629 - Customer Management

TMF622 - Product Ordering

Why did you choose to highlight those APIs?

While there are many other TM Forum Open APIs that we align to, these three are the most widely used and certified Open APIs today on the market. To get the maximum benefits of standardization, APIs must be put to use in real life scenarios. That’s how the true business value is exposed and realized.

How do you use those APIs?

We start with business use cases, from which we derive TM Forum Open APIs and API operations. We have a very practical and pragmatic approach to Open APIs. We have developed more than 27 aligned APIs, many of them certified already. We start by implementing the operations that we need to realize a specific use case and proceed to certification as we evolve and expand the use of operations and parameters within the given API.

At DTW Asia in March 2023, we presented our Catalyst 5G enablement through industry standardized APIs. Here, we are using a real-life scenario to exemplify the usage of Open APIs, which facilitates new monetization opportunities for our customers.

How have you benefited from using those APIs?

The use of TM Forum standard Open APIs makes our service implementation efficient and flexible. This reduces operating costs persistently over time. Embedding microservice based, standardized APIs in our product portfolio, helps our customers to innovate faster, shorten time to market, and provide a unified customer experience.

TM Forum Open APIs also play an important role in the overall exposure of IT and network services. This becomes more important as network capabilities evolve, enabling an active partner ecosystem to develop new and compelling consumer and enterprise use cases.

Where do you use them?

We use these APIs in deployments with customers globally, with most pronounced early adoption across Europe, Asia and Southeast Asia, for example:

• Ericsson and Telia deliver zero-touch automation to enhance customer experience
• Telstra | Pre-paid transformation

Have you used them in conjunction with any other APIs?

Ericsson holds “gold status”, as a member of TM Forum having certified 10 individual APIs:

• TMF620 - Product Catalog Management
• TMF622 – Product Ordering Management
• TMF 629 – Customer Management
• TMF632 - Party Management
• TMF633 - Service Catalog Management
• TMF637 - Product Inventory Management
• TMF663 - Shopping Cart
• TMF674 - Geographical Site Management
• TMF676 - Payment Management
• TMF679 - Product Offering Qualification