FUTURE OSS: TOWARDS ANOPEN DIGITAL ARCHITECTUREAuthor: Tim McElligott, Senior AnalystEditor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing EditorNovember 2019

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Contents

10Section 2: CSPs mustembrace cultural change

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03The big picture

05Section 1: Erasing theseparation between OSSand BSS

13Section 3: Collaborationis required at every level

18Section 4: Is OSS movingto the cloud?

23Additional features andresources

21Section 5: Make it happen –Strategies for transformingoperations

OSS vendors were able to improveincrementally in part because theunderlying fundamentals ofnetworking remained intact – theFCAPS (fault, configuration,accounting, performance and security)framework still did the trick. Today,however, the underlyingfundamentals are shifting quickly.

The cloud does not operate like aswitched network, and cloudproviders do not compete like, well,anyone CSPs have ever competedagainst. Virtualized architectures donot behave according to the sameengineering principles as physicalnetworks. And 5G will soon demand alevel of scale and responsiveness thattraditional OSS is not equipped tohandle.

In preparing this report we heard frommore than one CSP that they do notlike term “future OSS” because OSS isa legacy concept. We agree. However,it is difficult to describe whatevercomes next without referring to whatit is replacing.

Perhaps the best way to describewhat comes next is by calling it anopen digital architecture. TM Forummembers are developing this concept,which we’ll discuss in detail in Section3 of the report.

Driven by dataOn the bright side, no matter whatyou call operations support, it hasalways relied on data. This is thecornerstone CSPs can build upon asthey execute not only a more data-driven network operations model, buta data-driven business.

5G and networks of the future willtake being data-driven to a new level,relying on artificial intelligence (AI)and machine learning, automation,microservices, and much tighter tiesto business optimization. Future OSSmust be agile, automated, proactive,predictive and programmable, whenachieving any one of these goals is achallenge.

This report begins with the widelyaccepted premise that supportingnetworks, services and operationsmust change radically to keep pacewith the upheavals in networktechnology and business models, tosay nothing of customers’expectations. It also acknowledgesthat by the time CSPs reach the endof their latest phase oftransformation, there may be no suchthing as OSS.

Through the lens of existing OSS, theCSPs and other industry experts wesurveyed and interviewed paint apicture that can only be described asdubious. While operators believe theprize for a successful journey will begreat, there are simply too manypossibilities for them to say withcertainty what future OSS will be.

But this does not mean CSPs arehesitant or apprehensive. Those thatcan afford to are testing all sensibleoptions including automatedoperations, cloud models and opensource software, which until now hasbeen unthinkable. And while they maynot be able to create a definitiveroadmap for OSS, they are able toarticulate the attributes that will berequired.

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e big picture

In the two decades since the explosion of independent software vendors onto the scene, themarket for operational support systems (OSS) has expanded and contracted ascommunications service providers (CSPs) have sought to improve their processes. Hundreds ofsuppliers have come and gone or were consumed as they innovated their way into the heart ofCSPs’ operations and tried to repeat the magic by staying ahead of the next technology curve.In fact, improvements in operational efficiency and insights about network performancesometimes have led to the next curve.

In short, the operationssupport model that hasserved CSPs well for somany years needs a newway forward.

e big picture

Who are therespondents?We analyzed data from a targetedsurvey of TM Forum membersconducted in October to learn aboutnext-generation OSS, which we referto as ‘future OSS’ throughout thereport. Overall, we surveyed 99 CSPrespondents and 49 supplierrespondents, and we conductedseveral follow-up interviews.

The CSPs represented are primarilyTier 1 and Tier 2 operators deliveringconverged services, along with somepure-play wireless providers, fixed-network operators and digital servicesproviders. CSP respondents includeC-level executives and vice presidentswith responsibility for productdevelopment, along with seniorengineers and network architects. Inaddition, the report draws on datafrom an earlier survey about 5G andthe enterprise market.

Learn more about the burgeoningrelationship between CSPs andenterprises:

Read this report to understand:

n Why the thinning line between OSSand BSS (business support systems)must be fully erased

n Which attributes are necessary infuture OSS and the options forimplementing them

n Why a new, open architecture isneeded to deliver the agility andsecurity CSPs require, and how TMForum members are collaboratingto create it

n What the biggest challenges are toimplementing future OSS

n Why CSPs have mixed feelingsabout cloud-based OSS

n The role analytics play in futureOSS

n The timeline for future OSS

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TM Forum, 2019

Who are the Future OSS survey respondents?

mobile operators25%converged and mul -system operators

41%

25%

6%99

digital service providers

fixed-network operators

CSPs Suppliers

consultants, analysts and academia

34%OSS/BSS so!ware 63%

respondents from 29 unique companies opera ng in 28 countries 49 respondents from 43

unique companies

5G FUTURE: TARGETINGTHE ENTERPRISEAuthors: Tim McElligo�, Senior Analyst & Mark Newman, Chief AnalystEditor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing EditorSeptember 2019

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Section 1

Erasing the separationbetween OSS and BSSAlthough communications service providers (CSPs) are seldom explicit when they talk aboutthe challenges of transforming operational support systems (OSS) to become data driven andautomated, the implication is that everything they want to do with OSS directly impactsprocesses generally associated with customer-facing business support systems (BSS).

For example, in a data-drivenenvironment, OSS that can identify(and hopefully rectify) servicedegradation will need to connect tocustomer databases in order toidentify who is impacted and thenrelay that data in real time tocustomer care and many other groupswithin the organization. This is donetoday to some degree, but not in realtime and not automatically.

There are many other examples of theneed for better data flow andprocesses between the two types ofsupport systems. These examplesexplain why nearly 58% ofrespondents to our Future OSS surveyidentified the lack of synchronizationand integration between customer-facing BSS and network-facing OSSas either a ‘progress-inhibiting’ or‘show-stopping’ barrier to architecting

future OSS. The graphic below showshow CSPs ranked challenges torealizing their visions for future OSS.

It all impacts customersPoor end-to-end visibility intonetwork and service performance,identified by 65% of respondents asthe most significant barrier to futureOSS, has always been a purely OSSconcern, but it is also critical to BSS.5G services like autonomous cars andremote healthcare illustrate why.

CSPs will have to deliver and assurethese services in real time acrosspartners’ networks, and theirenterprise customers will expect areal-time view of performance as well.Similarly, a real-time image of thenetwork and an accurate resourcemanagement database, long

considered OSS-only functions, arenecessary for CSP sales teams toprice and design services forcustomers.

CSPs are sometimes criticized forbeing too technology centric. It’s OKfor them to focus on technology, solong as they leverage it to givecustomers what they want. OSS is thetechnology tool that helps businessteams create innovative services.Indeed, CSPs cannot be customercentric without being masters of thesystems that order, provision, assure,manage, analyze, automate, chargeand bill for the services they deliver.These systems help operatorsunderstand how customers want touse the services they provide andwhy.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Ranking the barriers to future OSS

Poor end-to-end visibility of

network/service performance

No dependable, real-�me image of the network and

inaccurate resource databases

Lack of synchroniza�on and integra�on between

BSS and OSS

Cost of replacing

legacy systems

No standards-based

solu�ons for managing hybrid

networks

Immature data media�on and

analy�cs capabili�es

Insufficient cross-domain support for

mul�ple network technologies

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Section 1

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Some of the backlash about being tootechnology centric may be deservedin the networking part of operations.Engineers take pride in how resilientand well-designed their networks are.Obviously, this has garnered goodresults. However, networks must beengineered differently today and inthe future. Mobile networks, forexample, can no longer be engineeredbased on coverage maps; they mustbe dynamic and based on customerdemand. OSS provides the data foraddressing the agendas of bothnetwork engineering and customerexperience teams.

Focusing on customer engagement isa wise and necessary strategy, but itcan’t be done without much tighterintegration between OSS and BSS.Customer engagement in the digitalmarketplace is no more about movingexisting ordering process and systems

online than being cloud native isabout forklifting existing OSS and BSSinto the cloud. They are both so muchmore complex. True customerengagement and OSS transformationrequire significant process re-engineering, a new open architecturethat supports digital ecosystems,intelligent automation, data sharingand more. We’ll discuss cloud andarchitecture more in the nextsections.

OSS attributesIn addition to asking about thechallenges to implementing futureOSS, we asked respondents whichattributes they value most highly. Thegraphic below shows how CSPsranked a list of attributes.

In addition to wanting agility,openness and low-cost solutions,

which are givens, CSPs also wantfuture OSS to support automation.More than half of respondents putclosed-loop fulfillment and assurancein their top three priorities, while athird put closed-loop optimization inthe top 3 (see panel on page 7). Thisshows a shift in acceptance ofautomation.

When TM Forum began surveyingCSPs about automation in 2015,many operators expressed deepreservations about closed-loopprocesses because they fearedautomation could compromise thefive nines’ reliability they guaranteeand because it would eliminate jobs.Now, however, there is a realizationand acceptance that manualprocesses for optimization andproblem resolution simply won’t workas the volume, velocity and variety ofdata explodes in a 5G world.

What are the most important a�ributes of future OSS?

Automated, closed-loop

service fulfillment and assurance

Automated, closed-loop network

op miza on

Scalability Container and microservices

based

AI-driven network

op miza on

Being cloud na ve

Single, centralized OSS/BSS for all services and technology domains

Running on a virtual

architecture

Open, ecosystem driven

AI-driven customer

engagement

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

We will look in depth at future BSS in a companion report to this one to be published in January 2020.

Targeting the enterpriseCSPs’ emphasis on automated, closedloop management and services suchas network slicing demonstrates thattheir focus is on serving theenterprise market. At a recentEricsson user-group event, Verizon’sAmit Kapoor, Director of VirtualNetwork Services, noted that closed-loop assurance will be necessary for5G services delivered to enterprisecustomers.

He described requirements for a self-healing network that allowsapplications to experience somedegradation but uses predefinedassurance metrics to makecorrections autonomously through anorchestration engine. Enterprises areconcerned about two things –productivity and business outcomes –he explained, adding that businessoutcome is a new requirement whichoperators are ill-equipped to assure.

Applying analyticsAlthough applying AI to customerexperience and network optimizationare lower on the list of OSS prioritiesthan scalability and openness,previous research and interviews withCSPs indicate that AI will be a keyrequirement (see panel). And as CSPsleverage data using AI and analytics,the distinction between OSS and BSSwill blur further.

Section 1

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At Japanese CSP KDDI, AI andautomation for network managementare the top two OSS/BSS prioritiesfollowed by support for networkfunctions virtualization and end-to-end orchestration, according toTomohiro Otani, Executive Director,KDDI Research.

As we enter the new era and begindoing network slicing over 5G, thetight integration between OSS andBSS will be required,” he says.

Otani adds that managing networkperformance has become difficulteven in 4G networks given the highnumber of alarms, alerts and otherindicators. With 5G, complicated byvirtual networks, network monitoringwill become untenable and manualcorrections impossible.

In addition to applying AI to thisproblem, KDDI Research ischampioning an award-winning TMForum Catalyst proof of concept thatdemonstrates how digital twintechnology can be used to predict thedegradation of networks.

A digital twin is a digitalrepresentation or visualization of anorganization, building, city, product,person, network or process. Forbes’definition explains: “This pairing of the

virtual and physical worlds allowsanalysis of data and monitoring ofsystems to head off problems beforethey even occur, prevent downtime,develop new opportunities and evenplan for the future by usingsimulations.”

Digital twin technology isn’t new.NASA has used it to mirror systemsduring missions, and in fact, leveragedit to help save the ill-fated Apollo 13mission. GE also has used it to fine-tune wind turbines. In telecom, usingthe technology has been tooexpensive, but NFV makes it morepractical.

Leveraging virtualization, the Catalystteam used the technology todemonstrate how digital twintechnology can be used to scale 5Gnetworks, automate the lifecyclemanagement of network slices, andincorporate predictive demand andmaintenance.

Watch this video to learn more:

KDDI focuses on AI and digital twins

e automation thatvirtualization brought tothe data center we are nowbringing to the network,and the expectation of thecustomer is thateverything just works ondemand,” Kapoor says. “Inorder for that to happenthere needs to be an entiremind shi that occurs inthe organization.”

“

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29% of CSPs put AI-driven

customer engagement in their top 3 OSS priori es

22% put AI-driven network op miza on in the

top 3

AI-driven OSS

Section 1

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While CSPs are applying AI across thebusiness, the most familiar use case isthe customer service chatbot. Todaychatbots are used only for customerengagement, and their intelligence islimited to what BSS can tell themalong with some correlationalgorithms that connect the dots of acustomers’ history much faster than ahuman customer servicerepresentative can.

Though some observers view using AIfor customer service as risky, it doesprovide a good testbed for algorithmsand a way to hone skills. Each contactprovides the AI engine anothernuanced customer interaction fromwhich it can learn to distinguishsimilar but not replicated requestsfrom millions of customers in order torespond properly. As one executivenoted, customer data will make AIsmarter.

The graphic below, which shows howCSPs expect to apply AI now and inthe future, affirms CSPs’ initial focuson using AI for customer experience,with nearly half of survey respondentssaying their companies are alreadyusing AI to measure customerexperience. Within two years, 85%say they will be working on it.

Vivek Gurumurthy, Senior VicePresident and Chief InformationOfficer of Verizon’s Consumer Group,said in September at TM ForumDigital Transformation North Americathat AI is not an options for telcos; itis mandatory. He added thattraditional OSS/BSS and digitalecosystems will be entering an age ofalgorithmic transformation in which AIwill directly impact the entirecustomer experience.

Verizon plans to build a uniqueservice experience for customers thatproactively predicts their needs,whether that means anticipating thenext billing question or proactivelyresponding to a service interruption.

“The BSS/OSS serving our customerswill be AI powered, along withsecurity, fraud detection, qualitycontrol, operations, availability andinfrastructure,” Gurumurthy. It’s goingto be a fabric that stretches acrossthe board for our services.”

The challenge to this algorithmictransformation is to reinvent thetraditional architecture and createnew blueprints for scaling AIarchitecture, he added.

Watch Gurumurthy’s keynote:

Verizon Consumer CIO says AI is mandatory

19.5%

35%

11%

10%

24.5%

36%

36%

13%

Where will CSPs apply AI-derived insights?

TM Forum, 2019

34.5%

Learning more about customer behavior/preferences

2%10.5%

10%

43%

27%

47.5%

10%

6%

6%

48.5%35.5%

8%2%

4%

24%

41%

5%

26%

3%

30%22%

3%

42%

5%10%

Now 2 years 5 years More than 5 years Don’t know

SecurityPredic ve analy cs and troubleshoo ng

Measuring customer experience Assis ng network planning and engineering

Determine profitability and e network investment to

business metrics

Delivering real- me offers

16%

41%

7%11%

25%

Automated network op miza on

9.5%

Section 1

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Embracing AIOpsWithin two years, a majority of CSPsalso expect to be using AI foroperations (AIOps), which includesnetwork planning, automatedoptimization and troubleshooting. Dr.Lester Thomas, Chief SystemsArchitect, Vodafone Group, explainsthat big data analytics are necessaryfor closed loop automation.

Vodafone is implementing machine-based analytics and human-createdalgorithms in its networks. Accordingto Thomas, all forms of analytics,including AI and expert systems, needto be part of an “analytics toolkit” thatoptimizes customer experience basedon data from network and businesssystems. He explains:

Vodafone Egypt, for example, isleveraging machine learning and bigdata analytics to create a self-organizing network (SON). In itsemerging market, the operator hashad to deal with a lack of resiliency inthe country’s power supply whichresults in cell sites going offline. TheSON’s machine-learning algorithmsenable surrounding sites toreconfigure themselves andcompensate for lost cells until theycome back online.

This use of analytics changed theengineering practice from static radioplanning to an autonomousapplication for self-correction. Theapplication itself uses open sourcetechnology, and Vodafone hasleveraged the TM Forum Open DigitalArchitecture (ODA) to apply multipledata sources across the business (seeSection 3 for more about ODA).

This example of automation based onintelligence is encouraging foroperations. However, it is just oneexample and pertains to usingnetwork data for a specific purposewithin a single operator. For end-to-end management, this approach willhave to be applied in digitalecosystems of partners. This raisesmany ethical and regulatory issuesabout how data can be used.

Other OSS prioritiesBeing cloud native is a fairly lowpriority for survey respondents, withonly 22% putting it in their top threepriorities for OSS (see Section 4 formore on cloud). Similarly, most CSPsdon’t think it’s critical for OSS to runon a virtual architecture or be part ofa single, centralized OSS/BSS for allservice and technology domains.

Follow-up discussions with CSPssuggest that the low score forcentralized OSS/BSS has more to dowith the impracticality of using asingle OSS across certain domains,such as wireless and wireline divisionsor consumers and IoT, than it doeswith having tighter integrationbetween OSS and BSS or makingthem part of a single architecture.

In the next section, we’ll look at thecultural changes required for ITtransformation.

It is about getting gooddata from everywhereand into a singleanalytics engine.”

“

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Section 2

CSPs must embrace cultural change

TM Forum is planning a report laterthis year that will explore the issue ofculture across the entire CSPorganization, but regarding OSSspecifically, our survey shows that 90%of respondents believe that culturalchange will be required to realize andmaintain their vision of future OSS. Amajority of respondents believe thischange must be significant.

Archana Jain, Vice President ofVerizon’s Consumer Group, believesthat company culture can stand in theway of digital transformation. Duringan interview at Digital TransformationNorth America in September, sheexplained that Verizon’s main focus isto ensure services without interruptionand provide excellent customerexperience. However, there is no onetool for the job, and culture can be ahindrance.

“The main challenge [for operationaltransformation] continues to be theculture,” she said. “There are peoplewho really understand what needs tobe done…but there are some peoplewho resist the new ways of working.We can’t wait to get them on board.”

Watch the interview with Verizon’sJain:

Lack of skillsIn a 2018 TM Forum report, DigitalTransformation Tracker 2: How to fix hecultural divide, 75% of CSPrespondents said they believe culturaland organizational issues are a veryserious or moderately seriouschallenge to digital transformation.Often, the issue of culture is conflatedwith a general lack of necessarysoftware skills among a workforcetrained to install and managehardware, and discussions begin withthe need for training or re-training.

But cultural change should start withupper management making strategicdecisions about the future of theorganization and the results acompany expects from the changes itis implementing. Only then can therank and file be nudged in a newdirection through training.

An important aspect of transforming operational and business support systems (OSS/BSS) isembracing cultural change. Communications service providers (CSPs) must be willing toadopt new attitudes and ways of working, and they must be willing to retrain workers.

Is significant cultural change necessary?

Significant cultural change is not required for future opera�ons support

Some cultural change is required for future opera�ons support

Future opera�ons support will require significant cultural change

TM Forum, 2019

10%

30%60%

Section 2

A 2016 PWC report about culturalchange in telecom driven bydigitalization makes the point:“Telecom operators’ leaders need tostrengthen cultural alignment andacceleration. They can best do so bycatalyzing existing emotions tomobilize latent cultural energy – anapproach that is a powerful andpractical way to trigger significant,sustainable and positive change,provided the energy is aligned with thebusiness’s strategic and operatingpriorities. Achieving this represents avery different kind of leadershipchallenge.”

The discussion today about retrainingthe workforce seems more earnestthan in the past when CSPs have facedlayoffs or transitioned from onetechnology to another, like circuit-switched to Internet Protocol. Forexample, AT&T announced in May2018 it would invest $1 billion inretraining approximately half itsworkforce of 250,000. While the pricetag may seem excessive, it is likelylower than the cost of hiring newemployees. As Bill Blase, SeniorExecutive Vice President of HumanResources, AT&T, explained in a CNBCarticle about the investment:

Even relatively new companies likeAmazon face similar staffing challengesdue in part to automation. Thecompany said in July that it wouldspend $700 million to retrainemployees.

Agile & DevOpsIn a recent TM Forum survey of C-level executives for our CTIO Outlook2020 report, respondents cited lack ofskills as an obstacle to adopting Agiledevelopment, second only tocomplexity of legacy IT systems (seegraphic below). But embracing AgileDevOps practices is key to future OSSbecause it will foster innovation andspeed deployment of new services.

While there are many definitions ofDevOps, this one from the AgileAdmin (a blog written by Ernst Mueller,Head of Engineering at PrecisionAutonomy and former Director ofEngineering Operations at AT&TCybersecurity), is good because itdescribes how DevOps relates to thepeople in IT:

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We could go out and tryto hire all these sowareand engineering peopleand probably pay throughthe nose to get them, buteven that wouldn’t havebeen adequate. Or wecould try to reskill ourexisting workforce so theycould be competent in thetechnology and the skillsrequired to run thebusiness going forward.”

“

DevOps is the practice ofoperations anddevelopment engineersparticipating together inthe entire service lifecycle,from design through thedevelopment process toproduction support.”

“Biggest challenges to adop�ng Agile so ware development

TM Forum, 2019

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 60%50%

Complexity of legacy IT systems

Lack of so ware skills within the organiza!on

Difficulty se#ling on a mutually beneficial commercial model for

engaging with technology suppliers

Uncertainty about the benefits of adop!ng Agile development

Section 2

Like cloud architectures andvirtualization, DevOps got its start in ITrather than networking. CSPs are justgetting underway applying theprinciples to network operations.Telecom-specific DevOps is part of TMForum’s Agile Operations Toolkit, whichadvocates having a collaborativeapproach towards end-to-end servicedelivery by executing on a common goalbetween development, production andbusiness teams to achieve businessobjectives.

This requires continuous integration,testing and deployment, which is a hugecultural shift and no small undertaking.Indeed, the difficulty of implementingDevOps is likely a big reason why telcoshave been slow to embrace it. In theFuture OSS survey, 60% of CSPrespondents said they are still in thevery early stages of incorporatingDevOps practices and tools into theiroperations.

Faster time to marketAdopting a DevOps approach is worththe effort, however, because it can helpCSPs reduce the time it takes to movenew products from concept tocommercial rollout, which even afteryears of process improvement typicallytakes up to 18 months. It also deliverskey benefits relevant to ongoing productenhancements and testing new ideas.

For example, DevOps eliminates thehandoff from one working group ordepartment to another during thelifecycle of a new product because itoperates on a continuous cycle ofdevelopment, deployment, assuranceand improvement in which no group letsgo of their responsibility for the successof a service. Keeping all parties engagedin the product lifecycle makes it easierto apply performance and othernetwork data back into the process andmake continuous improvements to theproduct. It eliminates the need to repeata long, redundant upgrade and releaseprocess.

Listen to Vodafone’s Dr. LesterThomas discuss how DevOps isintegral to the company’s ability toautomate the continuous build-test-release process for delivery of newproducts and experiences:

It’s OK to failIn addition, DevOps allows for moreexperimentation and ‘fast-fail’ scenarios,which reduces the risk of developingservices that do not meet expectations.A fast-fail approach to serviceintroduction gives CSPs many morechances to hit upon the right servicerather than putting months of moneyand effort in developing what they canonly hope is a killer app.

MyRepublic CTO David Robinson, whowill give a presentation at DigitalTransformation Asia called How failingcan make you a winner: Adopting a failfast, fail often, fail smarter approach toinnovation, said in a recent interviewwith Enterprise IT News: “For us toachieve our vision of disrupting theindustry, the key focus areas for me [are]hiring and retaining the best talents,removing barriers to productivity,automation and an ‘everything as code’mindset, whilst continuing the ‘fail, butfail fast’ philosophy and culture. This willallow us to become a more innovative,experimental and versatile organizationthat can adapt quickly to the changingmarkets.”

In the next section, we’ll look at howTM Forum members are collaboratingto address some of the technologicaland cultural challenges to reimaginingOSS.

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CSPs’ adop�on of DevOps slow but underway

DevOps is part of our transforma�on plan, but we are not ready to incorporate it

We are in the early stages of incorpora�ng DevOps into our opera�ons

We currently follow DevOps prac�ces across our opera�ons

TM Forum, 2019

8%

60%

24%

8%

We do not plan to incorporate DevOps but insist our suppliers do

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Section 3

Collaboration is requiredat every level Legacy operational and business support systems (OSS/BSS) will not suffice as businessenablers for 5G networks or any next-generation network. Most communications serviceproviders (CSPs), especially large ones, realize this, and they are actively participating indefining and developing what comes next.

As noted in the introduction to thisreport, the term ‘future OSS’ is amisnomer. The future will not be OSSor BSS because both are legacyconcepts that must be reimagined.Perhaps most importantly, futureoperational processes must becomeautonomous to address rapidlyincreasing complexity. Servicedelivery, assurance and monetizationare not easy when they:

n Are created and delivered as part ofa multi-party offering

n Utilize multiple networktechnologies

n Traverse multiple cloud, core andenterprise domains

n Promise on-demand, programmablelevels of service

n Must guarantee security andprivacy end to end

TM Forum members discuss futureOSS/BSS in terms of the OperationsCenter of the Future, the primarycharacteristic of which will be “zero-friction integration”. They aredeveloping this concept in the OpenDigital Architecture (ODA) project(see panel opposite).

TM Forum Open Digital Architecture: a work in progress

TM Forum, 2018

People

Organiza ons

Things

DECOUPLING & IN

TEGRA

TION

DECOUPLING & INTEGRATION

DECOUPLING & INTEGRATION

DECOUPLING & IN

TEGRA

TION

Party management

Core commerce management

Produc on

Intelligence management

Engagement management

Part of the Open Digital Framework(see page 31), ODA attempts toaddress many of the challengeshighlighted in this report, such astighter integration between OSS andBSS, the need for analytics andautomation, ability to scale, support forecosystems of partners, andsimplification through open applicationprogram interfaces (APIs). The idea is todevelop a common blueprint foroperations management that CSPs andsuppliers can agree on. ODA alsoapplies DevOps practices to networkoperations and insists that security andprivacy be included from the outset inthe architecture.

ODA’s functional architecture shownbelow has been modelled to represententerprise functions and correspondinginteractions that go beyond thetraditional pipeline business models of

CSPs. It is a component-basedarchitecture, with the business servicesof a component exposed as a set ofOpen APIs. These APIs can be furtherdecomposed into a set of services andmicroservices. The advantage of usingmicroservices is that they can bemanaged on scalable infrastructureusing Agile development practices (formore on Agile, see page 11).

CSPs and other organizations can useODA to set an architectural vision andplan relevant roadmaps to implement it.The transformation guides that are partof the ODA enable organizations towork backwards from their targetarchitecture.

If you’re interested in learning more orjoining the ODA project, please contactGeorge Glass, TM Forum’s VP ofArchitecture & APIs.

What is the Open Digital Architecture?

Section 3

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Agility is key Vodafone Group is active indeveloping the ODA with a primarygoal of increasing agility. Thecompany’s Chief Systems Architect,Dr. Lester Thomas, explains that inthe future CSPs will need systemsthat can adapt to any new scenario,whether it is a core network outage,degradation of service, sudden orunexpected demand, or a way toonboard and monetize a new service.

These scenarios could also includenew business models or absorbingthe operations of an acquiredcompany. In short, supportarchitectures must be able to dealwith all kinds of changes withoutneeding to change themselves, whichrequires open APIs, cloud-nativeapplications and Agile work practiceslike DevOps.

There has never been a gooddefinition of where OSS ends andBSS begins, according to Thomas, butODA is redefining the layers betweensystems and developing APIs thatspecify exactly how integrationhappens between the layers. A newway of thinking about OSS and BSS isto focus on service managementrather than network management.This allows for an ‘intent-based’approach that abstracts thecomplexity of the network at a highlevel and uses a customer’s intentalong with analytics and policy toorchestrate and assure services.

Simplifying with NaaSVodafone and Telstra have workedtogether on intent-based network asa service (NaaS) as part of a multi-phased TM Forum Catalyst proof ofconcept. The two companies wereinstrumental in creating the TMForum NaaS API Component Suite,which draws on what was learned inthe Catalyst.

Watch this video to learn more aboutthe Catalyst:

In a case study published late lastyear, Telstra executives noted that thefull benefits of automation andtransformation cannot be realizedwithout virtualizing the network layer.Moving network functionality intosoftware and creating a catalog ofexposed services help Telstracompose combinations of productsand offers with minimal impact orreconfiguration on the network side.

The company has now deployed NaaSas a network abstraction layer,creating a unified, standard way topublish and consume network-exposed services using TM ForumOpen APIs (see graphic on page 15).This simplification will help speeddelivery of products and offers, aswell as make it easier, faster and moresecure for partners and customers toconnect and leverage the Telstranetwork.

It is not a world where youcan just say ‘I refreshedmy OSS, now I can sitback’,” omas says. “It isa continuous evolution.e work is never done –it never ends.”

“

Section 3

Vodafone is following a similar pathwith NaaS. The company uses theNaaS API Component Suite to enablean end-to-end flow of informationthat allows multiple domains inmultiple markets to appear andfunction like a single network fromthe customer’s perspective. That’s

critical for a company that providesmobile services in 24 countries andfixed broadband in 19 markets.

Thomas explains that the NaaSComponent Suite allows Vodafone toachieve closed loop automation forsome network domains and supports

the company’s use of a federatednetwork model that empowers localteams in different markets to beinnovative and develop their ownlevels of automation. It also helpsthem move away from the idea of asingle, monolithic OSS.

inform.tmforum.org 15

RetailCustomers

Sales and Service

Offer managementOffer management Offer management

IT Systems

Network Systems

Element managers

Network infrastructure

Facilities

Network elements

Network elements

Network elements

Network elements

Network elements

Network elements

Network elements

Network elements

Network elements

Network elements

EnterpriseCustomers

WholesaleCustomers

CSPs need to simplify

System B System C System D System n System A

Mobile plant

Copper plant

Fiber plant

System 1 System nSystem 2 System 3

EMS 1 EMS 2 EMS n

Sales and Service

Sales catalog

Offer management

Product master data

Third parties/partners

Order management

Product catalog

Federated service data

Open APIs

Open APIs

Common packet network

Transmission

Common NFVi

Common fiber network

Data, APN, Ran Slice

Voice SMS, MMS

VPN, Ethernet, WAN, Optical

IaaS, IoT App, Media App

IoT Slice

Third-party ecosystem

services

Domain 1VPN, Ethernet, WAN, Optical

Domain 2Data, APN, RAN Slice

Domain XData, APN, RAN Slice

Multi-Domain

IoT Slice

Federated resource data

IT Services

Network service domains

NaaS Gateway

Network as a Service (NaaS)

Component Suite APIs

Infrastructure

Facilities

Customers (Retail, Enterprise, Wholesale)

Too much knowledge down to the resource level = long time to market & exit issues

Network domains to expose and manage the end-to-end lifecycle of services through TM Forum Open APIs = agility

Telstra & TM Forum, 2018

Master Network Services

Directory

Section 3

Working togetherODA is not the only vision for thefuture of OSS/BSS. Other standards-development organizations (SDOs)and open source groups aredeveloping their own platforms andarchitectures. The Open NetworkAutomation Platform (ONAP)community, for example, is workingon an open source platform for real-time, policy-driven orchestration andautomation of physical and virtualnetwork functions.

Just as CSPs are expected tocollaborate with partners to deliverthe complex, new services customersare demanding, so too must SDOsand open source groups worktogether to address complexity, andthey are. MEF was a champion of theNaaS Catalyst, for example, and manyother Catalysts have demonstratedhow ONAP and ODA can worktogether.

Vodafone and other CSPs use theONAP production environment whilebeing strong proponents of ODA forother functions and APIs. This type ofcollaboration is the future ofOSS/BSS.

Most 5G opportunities will need tobe addressed by ecosystems ofpartners, which means suppliers canno longer just talk about being openand providing multi-vendor support,Thomas says. They need toaccomplish it, and the only way to doso is by agreeing to use an openarchitecture.

“Telcos are moving from [being]pipeline companies to platformcompanies offering digital-enablingservices upon which other companieswill innovate and build their B2B2Xmodels,” Thomas explains. “That iswhy being open gets all the way

down into service managementcomponents. You have got to begiving not just a guaranteed level ofservice, but you need to interact withall the systems that are [supporting]that guarantee.”

Complementary effortsVincent Seet, Head of EnterpriseArchitecture, Globe Telecom, alsosees the ONAP platform and ODA ascomplementary. For example, thecompany uses Open APIs from TMForum while also looking to ONAP foran open source platform to validatenew functionality.

Globe Telecom uses the term “digitalservice factory” instead of future OSS.The company is trying to introducethe concept of “lifecycle serviceorchestration” (LSO), which Seet hasborrowed from MEF, but Seetbelieves the concept should not focusonly on enterprise connectivity, butalso be applicable for orchestratingacross multiple service domains.

Seet says collaboration on thisconcept among CSPs, suppliers andgroups like TM Forum, ONAP andMEF is mandatory to driveautomation, which at a minimumrequires:

n Multi-service orchestration

n End-to-end visibility augmented byAI and machine learning

n An accurate representation of thenetwork that can be correctedbased on available data

n AI-enabled operations

Security by designWhatever architecture CSPs adopt forfuture OSS, security and privacy mustbe designed in from the beginning.Alexander Rockel, Security Lead,Oracle Communications, who is activein the effort to develop ODA securityprinciples (see panel on page 17),explains that bolting on securitysolutions as an afterthought is costlyand ineffective.

For example, security solutionsbrought in may not be compatiblewith a CSP’s support systems or withpartners’ systems. In particular, thispractice often leads to incompatibilitywith monetization, customermanagement and fraud-detectionsystems, as well as other securityapplications such as vulnerabilitymanagement and identity accessmanagement.

“This is why the internet is inherentlyunsecure,” Rockel says.

ODA security will hopefully serve as asolid baseline for CSPs to performdetailed planning for risk assessmentand mitigation, Rockel says. And it canserve as a guide for suppliers to bringneeded secure IT solutions to market.

In the next section, we’ll look atwhether CSPs intend to move OSS tothe cloud.

inform.tmforum.org 16

Collaboration among thedifferent SDOs is veryimportant to us,” Seet says.“e sharing ofinformation betweendifferent organizationshelps everyone.”

“

Section 3

inform.tmforum.org 17

In July, TM Forum introduced two newODA Information Guides focusing onsecurity:

n ODA Governance and Security Visionis a business-level view of theconcepts and requirements forsecurity.

n ODA Enterprise Risk Assessment is adetailed set of concepts and tools tocarry out enterprise risk assessmentfrom functional and implementationperspectives.

Together the documents cover a fullenterprise lifecycle vision for securityand governance and provide detailedmethods for assessing risk that supporta DevOps approach. Here are somehighlights:

Security and privacy bydesign requires a methodologyand tools for analysis, as well

as governance to address relevantsecurity requirements and threats in alllifecycle stages.

Cloud-native agility isachieved by assemblingconfigurations of run-time

components, each containingcollections of ODA functions exposedby Open APIs. The security solutionsmust now work for rapidly changingsoftware-defined trust boundaries,which require automated securitymodels and tools.

Enterprise risk assessmentprovides a set ofmethodologies and analysis

techniques including risk mitigation toautomate security and privacy throughDevSecOps for ODA cloud-nativeimplementations.

The DevSecOps opportunityis to enhance DevOpsdevelopment tools with

automated configuration of securitybased on the risk assessment methodsand use of deployment monitoringtools for threat detection.

ODA addresses security and governanceOpen Digital Architecture with security and governance

TM Forum, 2019

Governance

If you’d like to learn more or get involved in TM Forum’s work on security, please contact the Forum’s Chief ArchitectDave Milham.

inform.tmforum.org 18

Section 4

Is OSS moving to the cloud?

While AT&T announced recently that it intends to move all non-network applications to thepublic cloud, our research indicates that most communications service providers (CSPs) areunsure about whether to embrace cloud for operational support systems (OSS). They also arenot planning to move quickly in reimagining OSS overall.

In December TM Forum will publish adetailed report on public cloud, so wewill not cover the topic in depth here,but early survey and research resultsindicate that at least for OSS, thefuture won’t be entirely in the cloud.In fact, the appetite for full migrationof OSS to the public cloud ispractically non-existent among surveyrespondents (see graphic opposite).

CSPs are wary Cloud-native technologies are used todevelop applications built withservices packaged in containers,deployed as microservices andmanaged on elastic infrastructurethrough Agile DevOps processes andcontinuous delivery workflows.Containers isolate an application andits dependencies into a self-containedunit that can run anywhere. In thisenvironment, hardware and operatingsystems are virtualized, which meansthe same operating system is sharedwith other hosted applications.

But many CSPs are wary of thisapproach. They want to keep theirnetworks and network operations on-premise or in a private cloud becausethey see the network as a strategicdifferentiator, and they worry aboutlatency affecting performance andreliability. Similarly, they areconcerned about the security ofpublic cloud applications.

However, CSPs also are intent onincreasing automation in operations,and moving to the cloud could be away to accelerate the effort. Cloudproviders are beginning to convincesome operators that the investmentsthey have made in automatedmanagement of their cloudenvironments have resulted in a levelof resiliency acceptable to CSPs. Andcloud providers typically are evenbetter than CSPs at scaling andadapting to traffic changes and otherreal-time demands.

Vincent Seet, Head of EnterpriseArchitecture, Globe Telecom, says hiscompany is considering moving someOSS into the cloud but does not havea timeline for the transition. Today allGlobe’s OSS solutions are run onpremises.

CSPs’ adop�on of public cloud for opera�ons

We will transi�on all OSS infrastructure to the public cloud

We will transi�on only certain components of OSS to the cloud

We have already transi�oned OSS to the cloud

TM Forum, 2019

4%

34%

3%

28%

26%

5%

We began a greenfield opera�on fully cloud-na�ve

We will not move OSS to the cloud

Undecided

is is the case at JapaneseCSP KDDI. TomohiroOtani, Executive Director atKDDI Research, says OSS isso critical that the companybelieves it must maintaincontrol of OSS hardwareand soware resources.

Section 4

inform.tmforum.org 19

Vote of confidence In July AT&T and Microsoftannounced a $2 billion, multiyear dealto collaborate on cloud, artificialintelligence (AI) and 5G. As part of theagreement, Microsoft will be AT&T’spreferred cloud provider, and AT&Tsaid it will move all its non-networkapplications and workloads toMicrosoft’s Azure platform by 2024.

George Glass, Vice President ofArchitecture & APIs, TM Forum, andformer Chief Systems Architect, BT,sees AT&T’s announcement as acrucial vote of confidence in publiccloud, and he predicts that otherCSPs will follow AT&T’s lead.

“While telcos may have spent tens orhundreds of millions of dollarsinvesting in data center infrastructureand its management, public cloudproviders such as Microsoft (Azure),Amazon (AWS), Google (GCP) andIBM (IBM Cloud), closely followed byOracle and Alibaba, are spendingbillions to deliver public cloudofferings,” he writes in a two-partseries on public cloud. “This issomething that CSPs can leverage.”

Changing minds At Digital Transformation World inMay, Optiva and Google joined forcesto dispel five myths about publiccloud, which include:

1. Public cloud is not secure

2. Private cloud is the same as publiccloud

3. All public clouds are the same

4. Migrating to the cloud is the sameas being cloud-native

5. Public cloud is more expensive

Interestingly, live polling after thepresentation revealed that given whatthey had learned, 64% of theaudience believed public cloud couldbe more secure than on-premisessolutions, a double-digit improvementfrom the beginning of the session. Amore widespread effort to educateoperators could be key to gettingthem to buy into cloud.

Our analysis finds that theapplications and workloads bestsuited to cloud migration are thosefor which demand (traffic) is uncertainor where there are big fluctuationsand variations. In terms of OSS, thisvariability is most likely to occur withservices such as internet of things(IoT) and perhaps TV or video, wheresome operators are scaling up quickly.

What about suppliers? Far more OSS suppliers have madethe move to public cloud than theirCSP customers (see graphic in nextcolumn). This makes sense becausecloud-based solutions must beavailable for CSPs to adopt them.

The fact that 30% of suppliers are stillundecided about cloud is interesting.Perhaps they are waiting for theircustomers to request the deliverymodel. Suppliers that are undecidedlikely will make some componentsavailable in the cloud as they andtheir customers seek to reduceoperational costs, but they may wait itout as long as they can in order toavoid rocking the boat with customersand to squeeze the most out of theirinstalled base of systems, which arestill supporting legacy networks.

When we asked the questions aboutcloud of CSPs and suppliers, we askedthem if they plan to migrate existingOSS infrastructure/solutions to thecloud. In our upcoming report oncloud, we will attempt to make thisclearer by distinguishing betweenexisting and new OSS infrastructureand solutions. Answering “no” to thequestion we posed in this survey maynot necessarily mean that CSPs andsuppliers don’t plan to utilize thecloud. It may simply mean they won’tuse it for existing OSS. Perhapsoperators do intend to adopt cloud-native solutions for new services ormarkets and gradually phase outlegacy OSS and BSS.

Suppliers’ plans to move OSS solu ons to the cloud

We plan to migrate all OSS solu�ons to the cloud

We plan to migrate certain components of OSS solu�ons to the cloud

We have already transi�oned OSS solu�ons to the cloud

TM Forum, 2019

7%

13%

20%

30%

30%

Undecided

No

Section 4

inform.tmforum.org 20

Slow progress overall Whether they move OSS to the cloudor stick with a more traditionalapproach, our survey shows that CSPsdo not plan to move quickly onreimagining operations support. Morethan 40% of CSP respondents say itmay take up to five years to realizetheir OSS vision.

Many of the respondents whoselected “other” specified they areearly in the strategic planning stageand could not specify a timeframe.We did not add these respondents tothe 40% that said it will take fiveyears, but we could have given theamount of time it takes to plan andimplement a major OSStransformation.

The 5% that claim to have built andimplemented their long-term visionare the lucky greenfield providers withfew to no legacy systems. Almost20% of CSPs acknowledge theincreasingly clear truth that supportsystem transformation will be anongoing process for the foreseeablefuture.

In the next section, we offer somesteps CSPs can take now to reimagineoperations support.

CSPs' �meline for reimagining opera�ons support

We have built and implemented our future OSS

Within two years

Within 5 years

TM Forum, 2019

5%

23%

40%

13%

19%

Never, the goals are ever evolving

Other

inform.tmforum.org 21

Section 5

Make it happen – Strategies fortransforming operationsDeciding what to call future operational and business support systems (OSS/BSS) isn’t asimportant as discussing what the systems need to do. Our research points to severalrequirements for future OSS. Above all, it needs to be agile, but communications serviceproviders (CSPs) cannot just check a box that says, “We follow Agile methodologies.”

Future OSS must enable any new service, business model, business agreement and networktechnology that comes along. It needs to be open to partners, third-party developers, othernetworks and data analytics environments. It must be data-driven with the capacity tointerface with systems that use artificial intelligence. Finally, it must be automated, and itmay be beneficial to move some or all of it to the cloud. Following are steps for CSPs to takeas they transform operations.

Reimagine OSSIt is often hard to see things we’refamiliar with in a new light. Although itis most important to understand whatthe requirements are for future OSS, itmay, indeed, help to start thinking ofOSS by a new name. TM Forummembers talk about the OperationsCenter of the Future. Or maybe itcould be an “Agile Performance Engine”or “Quality Experience EnablementPlatform”. It is necessary to reimagineOSS to develop a new vision ratherthan simply improve on the old one.

Create a roadmap Preparing for next-generation servicesoften is met with a plan for upgradingexisting OSS/BSS. This is not aroadmap to a new destination; it’s afunctional diagram with a new colorpalette and a couple of new connectingarrows. CSPs need a real roadmap. Tocreate it, they should focus on whatcustomers want to achieve, evaluatecapabilities that can help and thendesign a plan to incorporate or migrateto systems that can support customers’requirements.

Evolve legacy systemsMost CSPs cannot afford to “rip andreplace” their existing OSS. Evolutionof these systems should be built intothe roadmap. CSPs need a middleground that allows for gradualmigration in a controlled manner to acloud-native architecture. This is wherethe Open Digital Architecture can help.It is fundamentally designed as acomponent-based architecture, withthe business services of a componentexposed as a set of Open APIs. TheseAPIs can be further decomposed into aset of services and microservices thatcan be managed on scalableinfrastructure using Agile developmentpractices.

Section 5

inform.tmforum.org 22

Consider public cloudBased on our research, the jury is stillout on whether CSPs intend to moveoperations to the public cloud. What isclear, however, is that IT systems willhave to interact with other systemsthat are in the cloud, so it’s importantto keep up with changing requirementsand new innovations. Operators shouldconsider public cloud where it makesthe most sense, such as when traffic ordemand is unpredictable, and theyshould monitor the success ofcompanies like AT&T that are movingto the cloud to benefit from lessonslearned.

Drive consensusOperators and suppliers should joinindustry organizations and open sourcecommunities that are addressingoperations to ensure their voice isheard and to lend expertise. Considerjoining TM Forum’s CollaborationCommunity to develop the OpenDigital Architecture. Or, the OpenNetwork Automation Platform (ONAP)is working on open source solutions formanagement and orchestration, whileMEF focuses on service lifecycleorchestration. Vendors may want toconsider the Cloud SoftwareAssociation which focuses on softwareas a service.

Additional features and resources24 | Modernizing the Back Office: The Foundation for Digital Transformation

27 | Future OSS: Network Planning Automation

31 | TM Forum Open Digital Framework

32 | TM Forum Research reports

33 | Meet the Research & Media team

inform.tmforum.org 24

Modernizing the Back Office:e Foundation for DigitalTransformationToday, many communications service providers (CSPs) are looking to be increasingly “digital” bydeveloping a better understanding of the digital behavior of both their existing and prospectivecustomers. CSPs want to more intelligently determine what core and digital services theyshould sell and to whom, and how they should best engage to sell and serve services to theircustomers via increasingly digital channels. Underpinning all of this is the assumption that CSPscan effectively fulfill, assure and bill customer services in an accurate, responsive andautomated manner with increased agility and at lower cost. They seek to develop a warmerrelationship that assures the customer that “we know you.”

In many cases, such CSPs believetheir focus should primarily be on thecustomer engagement processes andsystems that are needed to supportnew and compelling end customerjourneys. However, becoming a digitalCSP requires far more than simplifyingand digitizing customer journeys. Tosee the bigger picture, CSP mightreframe the question and askthemselves whether it should alsoinclude simplification, standardizationand automation, if not outright

redesign, of their end to endprocesses to support the needs ofincreasingly online channels. It mayalso drive systems re-architecture andrenewal in accordance with openstandards and APIs to enable theagile, data-driven introduction ofproducts and services enabling CSPsto decouple what they sell from howit gets delivered. Coincident with thismay be changes in IT organization andskill sets such as agile, DevOps, etc.that may also be required.

Sometimes, its worse thanyou thoughtMany of these points are oftenoverlooked, and frequentlyunderstandably so, by digitaltransformation initiatives that arefunded to focus predominantly on thefront office. Consider these pitfallsfrom real-world CSP experiences:

n Failing to consider end-to-endprocesses – A South American CSPengaged its vendor to implement afront office Customerexperience/Customer RelationshipManagement transformationindependently of, but in parallel with,a system integrator that wasimplementing the CSP’s back-officeOSS transformation. The CSP’s naiveexpectation that when completed,these two projects shouldautomagically work together – butwithout designing and governing theend to end processes up front, initialresults indicated the CSP would notachieve the anticipated benefits ofthe entire transformation, before theCSP changed strategy and adopted amore holistic approach to rectify theprogram.

inform.tmforum.org 25

n Lengthy regression testing – ANorth American CSP was hand-crafting fulfillment flows for eachservice they introduced whichresulted in an escalating number ofunmanageable flows that wereextremely difficult to understandand change over time. Thisapproach required continualregression testing of the solution,taking many weeks at considerablecost due to the “spaghetti” nature ofthe updates across the solution.This severely limited theiroperational agility.

n Poor systems availability – Aconvergent European CSPtransformed their front officesystems to shift customerengagements to online channels(away from the call centre) anddrove their customer interactionsincreasingly to non-business hoursexactly when their back-officesystems, being controlled by otherCSP teams, were being taken offline for maintenance reasons. Thisresulted in poor customerexperience and modest, at best,online customer adoption.

n Slow response times – A SouthAmerican CSP encouragedprospective customers to sign upfor new mobile services viacontemporary online digitalchannels with an industry leadingcustomer experience solution.However, the CSP found high cartabandonment and very poor orderconversion rates. These werecaused by slow tasks in theautomated back office processessuch as credit checks, that had notbeen re-engineered for online use.Furthermore, because of thedifferent executive ownershipacross front and back officesystems, these back-office issuespresented an existential threat tothe entire front office program andthe executives involved.

n Loss of control and erosion of skillsets – An Asian CSP, in sharingsome lessons learned from theirB/OSS transformation, highlightedthe perils of delegatingresponsibility for key back officeprocesses and systems to externalparties resulting in a gradual loss ofcontrol and skill sets in areasbecoming increasingly important toCSPs’ digital futures.

How best to navigate thestormSo, what then are some key elementsin a modernized back office that CSPsmight consider to best ensure theircustomer engagement-driven, digitaltransformation is ultimatelysuccessful?

Start with a declarative model-drivenapproach that allows businessanalysts to design solutions forspecific domains (5G, carrier ethernet,etc.) at a high level. This allows the

products themselves to be exposed inabstract form to the front office forbundling into offers, promotions, etc.This is important as it decouples whatis sold from how it is delivered – moreof a “lasagna” vs. “spaghetti” approach.The service or fulfillment view isabstracted from the underlyingtechnologies, and the resource viewfurther abstracted from the vendorspecifics. Driving the end-to-endsolution implementation from thisinformation model engenders reusethrough assembly vs. replication andlocalizes changes to maximizescalability and reduce testing efforts.

To illustrate how such an approachmay be applied in practice, here arehow two contrasting services,simplified 5G and complex B2B, areillustratively modeled using such anapproach. As you can see, the modelwill drive the behaviour of the runtime platform, thereby avoiding theneed for domain specificcustomization.

At run time, the incoming order itemsare then mapped to a small number ofstandardized, manageable workflowsand rules that recognize recurringpatterns to dynamically create andexecute an order orchestration planunique to each order. Mappingincoming orders into standardizedcomponents is critical to avoid“special” orders which are customizedto address customer specificrequirements especially in B2B andwhich often lead to error pronemanual processing. Such an intelligentorchestration approach decides andmanages interactions with requiredfulfillment systems and the sequencesof actions and dependencies betweenthese actions. This helps address theissue of catalog bloat and increasingnumbers of unmanageable workflowsin the back office. In field experiences,

some CSPs have been able to reducethe number of such workflows fromseveral thousand using traditionalmethods down to a few tens innumber under this approach. Thisallows new offers and promotions inthe front office to be rolled out withminimal or no changes to thefulfillment configuration rules and bevery legible and highly adaptable tochanges.

To support the automationexpectations of the front office, it isimportant that the back-officesupports continuous availability withnear real-time responsiveness for theincreasing use of online channels. Thishas been seen traditionally in mobiledomains, but as CSPs increasinglyengage additional domains throughonline channels, this elevates the

importance to simplify, automate andensure very fast responses for allchannels. In addition, the back officeshould also support cloudy / rainy dayscenarios such as order cancellations,revisions, and compensation, as itsupports sunny day scenarios.Nowhere is this more applicable thanin the growth area of strategicallyimportant B2B services where ordersmay be in progress for a long time (upto two years in some CSPs) duringwhich many changes may be receivedwhich need to be accurately andautomatically accommodated. Thishelps ensure what gets sold matcheswhat gets delivered and what getsbilled – essential for an optimalcustomer experience and to avoidbilling disputes with importantenterprise customers.

inform.tmforum.org 26

inform.tmforum.org 27

Commensurate with the above in theback-office solution is the adoption ofstandards-based open architecturesand alignment with TM Forum’s OpenDigital Architecture as part of thebroader Open Digital Framework withconcrete support for TMF’s OpenAPIs for ease of solutioninteroperability. A recent example ofthis was a TM Forum catalyst calledZero Touch Partnering that showcaseshow CSPs can leverage TM ForumOpen APIs to:

n Rapidly on-board offerings fromnew partners

n Assemble and curate blended offers

n Consistently orchestrate customerorders across multiple internal andexternal fulfillment systems usingthe TMF Product Order API.

A final element is embracing newtechnologies and ways of working toproperly enable the points above. Theopportunity to adopt cloud-nativetechnologies and methodologieshelps CSPs deploy morecontemporary back-office solutionswith operational characteristics ideallysuited to supporting the front officetransformation. This includesincreased agility, availability, scalingand reduced costs.

Of equal if not greater importance isenabling CSPs to raise their brandvisibility to recruit and retain thetalent and skills (cybersecurity, digital,cloud-native, AI/ML, etc.) needed fortomorrow’s digital CSP. As part oftheir organizational and skill-settransformation, this will allow them toidentify and own areas they need tocontrol to differentiate themselves inthe market.

ConclusionAs CSPs look to transform theiroverall customer experience, implicitdependencies on the back-office areoften overlooked resulting in impactsthat may range from significant toexistential in nature. To avoid this,CSPs need to modernize their backoffice by considering end-to-endprocesses and leveraging open,standards-based solutions that aremodel-driven with intelligentorchestration that, in turn, supportfull automation, continuousavailability and near real timeresponse times.

Oracle’s Service and NetworkOrchestration solution has beenwidely deployed in large CSPs on aglobal basis, supporting order volumesinto millions of orders per day withsub second response times providingCSPs the confidence of a proven,strong foundation to support theircustomer experience transformation,whether it be green field, brown fieldor a digital overlay.

inform.tmforum.org 28

Future OSS: NetworkPlanning Automation

As the BT Group moves from the Legacy OSS towards the 5G ready OSS, one of the keychallenges is Network Planning to ensure support for ever-growing demand for Core NetworkCapacity. Service providers are struggling with pace of network capacity growth required tomeet the demanding needs of new products & services, including 5G, Data, TV & Media, Voiceetc. Agility and Automation in Network Planning are the key goals to ensure Future OSSapplications support this Growth Profile to enable OPEX Savings with a fast T2M (Time toMarket) in a complex Hybrid Network (including PNFs & VNFs).

BT’s Problem AreaBT Enterprise is Europe's largestwholesale telecoms service providerby revenue, including communication,collaboration and connectivityservices. BT Enterprise provides ahost of services including Data, Voice,Hosted Communications, ManagedServices and Mobile.

As BT prepares for its DigitalTransformation Journey and for theonset of 5G; one of the majorchallenges was coping with the ever-growing demand for core networkcapacity and overcoming its slowGrowth Profile for Core Network.Major Core Network Planning issueswere:

n Very high demand for additionalcapacity in the core network.

n Convoluted transactional planningprocesses to create services viamultiple OSS platforms – minimaldecision making in planning teams

n High people intensity for repetitivetransaction impeding automation ofprocesses

n Complex journeys to upgrade andintegrate new hardware into thenetwork

n Heavy reliance on manualinteractions between Plant & Buildfunctions, Engineering Services, BTOpenreach Services & supplierteams

BT’s Solution – Agile OSSAutomation SolutionBT’s vision of Agile OSS Solution is acomplete transformation of the OSSstack to provide a model-driven OSSsystem that allows Resource Plan &Build, Dynamic end-to-end ServiceDesign, Activation and managementfor legacy and future Network andservices.

The solution was developed based onkey principles of Human CentredDesign (HCD) and Design Thinking.End stakeholder involvement at eachstage of brainstorming,conceptualizing, developing, andimplementing the solution leading totop quality User Experience.

The major areas for transformationare:

Next Gen Plan & Build WorkflowAutomation Transformation (NGWFMT)n Transforming Plan & Build Processes

with specifically built universalworkflow management tools toenable the automation of theseprocesses.

With exponential increasein NW Demand, puttingmore people to plan andbuild our network issimply not sustainable.Also, Infrastructure isincreasingly Sowaredriven. is presents aunique opportunity to re-engineer our existingprocesses AND automateNetwork Planning” SaysRavi Ramachandran - PlatformDirector, Fulfilment, Tools – BTOSS.

“

inform.tmforum.org 29

n The tool makes use of the TMForum’s ETOM model providing afoundation for the fulfilmentprocesses for the orchestrationworkflows required for automationof the network planning journeys.

Next Gen Service & ResourceInventory Management (SRIMS)n Simplifying service design and

resource planning, providing aconsistent Resource to Servicemapping for Assurance and allowingfor OSS readiness for futuredisruptive changes such asNFV/SDN supported services,mobility and future voice.

Next Gen Service & ResourceActivation Management Enginen Transforming our domain-based

management systems into a cross-domain, model-driven, networkaware environment supporting thenew standards (such asNETCONF/OpenConfig) andproviding an abstraction tooperational complexity ofunderlying Virtual and PhysicalInfrastructure

Service & Resource Cataloguen This catalogue is a new component

that allows the future OSS to bedynamic and data driven and key tointegrating a DevOps environment.It is the authoritative master of

Specifications of Services (at variouslevels across CFSs (Customer FacingServices) and RFSs (Resource FacingServices) and Resources usingstandards where available (such asTMF SID, YANG, TOSCA…). Thesespecifications are consumedultimately by all OSSs that managein any way the Network Servicesand Resources that they are runningon

Next Gen OSSAutomationThe major emphasis of the solutionwas to provide a holistic E2E servicemanagement, combining existingPhysical Networks, Virtual Networks(SDN), Virtual (VNF) or Physical (PNF)network functions and Shared IT(SW/HW) infrastructure and provideautomation solutions on top of thisholistic inventory.

An enhanced Data Model providing aSingle Truth Inventory View, acrossService, Logical & Physical Inventorylayers, has been developed in a GraphDatabase. TM Forum InformationFramework (SID) and Open APIs haveproved to be key assets here. TheInformation Framework (SID)provided a standard reference modeland the Open APIs enabled quicklyscalable Data Access Strategy for theenhanced Data Model.

e Automation hasenabled 21C NetworkPlanning team achievetarget deliverables ofbuilding 3000 headendsfor Ultrafast Programme.We have connectedenough ports in thebroadband core networkto the Openreach accessnetwork using automationto be able to reach 90% ofthe addressable marketoffered by Openreach.Reusable framework ofNG WFMT has potentialto serve other line ofbusiness/requirementslike NFVi & EE/GS. It’s anexcellent example of anagile delivery and howautomation is helping usbuild the number onenetwork.” Says Sridhar Pai -Workflow AutomationEngineering Manager - BT OSS.

“

Few key automation solutionsimplemented are:

Zero Touch Automation forDeploying PNF Base BuildConfigurations:Zero Touch Automation for DeployingPNF Base Build configurations onNokia devices to enable the chassisfor Broadband customers. Keyfeatures of the solutions are:

Generic vendor specific checksn Chassis capacity checks for Base

Build Support

n Allow Base-build only based onchecks

Automate base-build deploy:n Apply base-build configurations

(template based)

n E2E automation upto network

Pre-check Compatibility Matrix:A Pre-check Compatibility Matrix hasbeen integrated onto the NetworkPlanning OSS application to:

n Carry out requisite validation beforeinitiating a new network plan.

n Provide “To Do” plans in case ofvalidation failures

The solution provides a genericframework enabling BT to add newvalidations & checks, as well configureindividual use case specific checks.Key features of this tool are:

Vendor Specific Checks:n Service Type support on Vendor

Hardware

n Card Type upgrade configurationsupport

Site Power Level Checks:n Power calculations for network

hardware

n Power availability check at site

Network Discrepancy Checks:n Validate OSS & Network Inventory

n Identify Network InventoryDiscrepancies

n To Do plans for correcting NetworkInventory Discrepancies

Business Benefits:The Agile OSS Automation Solutionhas helped BT to get more value in itsnetwork planning journeys andenabled following key benefits:

Enabled yearly monetary savings:Financial benefits resulting out ofreduced costs from

n Automated manual tasks by thenetwork planners

n Avoid network planning failures latein the process

n Speed up network capacity upgrade

n Reduce engineer visits and upgradetime/costs

Reduced planning tasks timelines:With automated journeys and pre-checks to avoid, re-planning theplanning tasks timelines aresignificantly improved with mostnetwork planning journeys reducedfrom days to few hours.

Reduced the application handoffsThe Agile OSS solution has helpedintegrate the E2E network inventoryscattered across various legacy OSSapplications. This clubbed with theautomation solutions has enabledreduction of multiple cross OSSapplication hand-offs in networkplanning journeys

Free key resources for other crucialjobsNetwork automation has enabled tofree key expert resources to moveaway from mundane planning tasksand focus on crucial jobs ofoptimizing network and networkdesign

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TM Forum Open DigitalFramework

Delivering the tools to go from concept to cash in just 18 daysThe TM Forum Open DigitalFramework is an interactive,continuously evolving collection oftools, knowledge and standardsthat give communications serviceproviders (CSPs) an end-to-endmigration path from legacy systemsto modular, cloud-native ITcomponents. Simply put, it is ablueprint for service providers todeliver intelligent operations fit forthe 5G era.

A prototype version of theframework is available now for TMForum members to explore. It isbeing developed through the TMForum Collaboration Program andCatalyst Program, and builds on thesuccess of the Forum’s establishedOpen APIs and the Frameworxsuite of standards. Specifically, itincludes:

n Open Digital Architecture (ODA)– an enterprise architectureblueprint, common language andkey design principles for modular,cloud-based, open digitalplatforms that can beorchestrated using AI

n Open APIs – 50+ standardizedREST-based APIs to facilitatezero-touch integration and zero-touch partnering

n Data & AI standards – anindustry-agreed data model,

together with standardsmaximizing the potential of AI toenhance customer experienceand increase operationalefficiency

n Reference implementations – aframework for assembling andvalidating ODA components inthe Forum’s Open Digital Lab,fostering the creation of aservices marketplace

n Practical guidance – guides andvideos showing how the OpenDigital Framework can be usedto transform the core businessand enable new business growth

n Foundational libraries –normalized models providing acommon language for businessprocesses and information that

simplifies and de-riskstransformation projects

The goal of the Open DigitalFramework is to help serviceproviders increase agility anddrastically reduce the developmentcycle for products and servicesfrom 18 months to 18 days. Muchof the collaborative work that ispart of the framework is alreadyavailable, but it helps to organize itand make it more accessible. Theframework is a work in progressand will improve throughcrowdsourcing.

If you would like to learn moreabout the project or how to getinvolved in the TM ForumCollaboration Community, pleasecontact Andy Tiller.

TM Forum research reports

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Trend Analysis Report

AI AND ITS PIVOTAL ROLE IN TRANSFORMINGOPERATIONSAuthor: Mark Newman, Chief AnalystEditor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing EditorDecember 2018

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Sponsored by:

IOCTIOIOIO

TIOCTICTCTCTIITIO

R E D E F I N IN G T H E C T I O

Trend Analysis Report

REDEFINING THE CTIOESSENTIALS FOR THE DIGITAL AGEAuthor: Catherine Haslam, Senior AnalystEditor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing EditorNovember 2018

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Author: Tim McElligott, Senior AnalystEditor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing Editor

May 2019 | www.tmforum.org

NETWORKAS A SERVICE:ADDRESSING THE FULL ENTERPRISE OPPORTUNITY

Author: Paul Ridgewell, Contributing AnalystEditor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing Editor

May 2019 | www.tmforum.org

BL CKCHAIN: WHERE’S THE VALUE FOR TELEC MS? Author: Tim McElligott, Senior Analyst

Editor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing Editor

April 2019 | www.tmforum.org

DYNAMIC INVENTORYThe foundation of intelligent automation

5G: EVOLUTIONAND REVOLUTIONAuthor: Mike Hibberd, Contribu�ng AnalystEditor: Dawn Bushaus, Managing EditorApril 2019

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Sponsors:

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Meet the Research & Media team

© 2019. The entire contents of this publication are protected by copyright. All rights reserved. The Forum would like to thank the sponsors and advertisers who have enabledthe publication of this fully independently researched report. The views and opinions expressed by individual authors and contributors in this publication are provided in thewriters’ personal capacities and are their sole responsibility. Their publication does not imply that they represent the views or opinions of TM Forum and must neither beregarded as constituting advice on any matter whatsoever, nor be interpreted as such. The reproduction of advertisements and sponsored features in this publication does notin any way imply endorsement by TM Forum of products or services referred to therein.

Report Design:Intuitive Design UK Ltdinfo@intuitive-design.co.uk

Published by:TM Forum4 Century Drive, Parsippany, NJ 07054USAwww.tmforum.orgPhone: +1 973-944-5100Fax: +1 973-944-5110ISBN: 978-1-945220-62-3

Report Editor:Dawn BushausManaging Editordbushaus@tmforum.org

Chief Analyst:Mark NewmanChief Analystmnewman@tmforum.org

Report Author:Tim McElligottSenior Analysttmcelligott@tmforum.org

Customer Success &Operations Manager:Ali Grovesagroves@tmforum.org

Editor, DigitalContent:Arti Mehtaamehta@tmforum.org

Global Account Director:Carine Vandeveldecvandevelde@tmforum.org

Commercial Manager,Research & Media:Tim Edwardstedwards@tmforum.org

Digital Marketing Manager:Anna Kurmanbaevaakurmanbaeva@tmforum.org

Chief Marketing Officer:Paul Wilsonpwilson@tmforum.org

For more about TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture, please contact George Glass