Realizing the Benefits of your OSS Transformation and Consolidation ProjectsAn IP-Based Service Performance Assurance Platform to Improve Customer QoE and Minimize TCO

The lack of E2E and cross-domain visibilityThe traditional siloed approach to monitoring and managing network performance with multiple point solutions for each network domain is no longer viable. This approach does not allow the end-to-end (E2E) service visibility that is required to e�ectively deliver IP services. Rather, it inhibits collaboration between adjacent domains, preventing e�cient troubleshooting and problem resolution and undermining the realization of service innovations.

The need to di�erentiate with service quality proof pointsLarge enterprise and wholesale customers expect their CSP to o�er real-time service quality reporting, support stringent and custom SLAs and receive proactive service degradation noti�cations and a better visibility on the way they consume services. These reporting capabilities will act as service quality proof points and enable the customer to make informed purchasing and subscription decisions. End-of-the-month reporting is no longer a di�erentiator. However, there is an opportunity to di�erentiate by bringing together a wide range of real-time performance indicators for all types of services. Distributing this real-time intelligence in a consistent and consolidated manner is a signi�cant challenge that requires the latest performance assurance innovations.

The consequences of today’s tactical decision-makingIT managers regularly work under tight budgets and timelines to support CSPs’ many organizations, including operations, engineering and customer care. All too often, decision-making is tactical and fails to align with the long-term corporate objectives

of minimizing OPEX/CAPEX and improving operational e�ciencies. A key example of this is the procurement of new management platforms for each new service to meet short-term time-to-market requirements. The result is a growing list of OSS and legacy applications with functional and data overlap that increases future operating expenses. As CSPs accelerate their product launches, it will be necessary for IT to adopt a more strategic approach.

The need to cope with an increased volume of information As IT supports the management of multiple domains, applications, services and network infrastructure elements through a single pane of glass, the scope of OSS expands – but so does the corresponding data to compute and store. IT managers must prepare to manage the current volume of data while planning to cope with higher future volumes in a cost e�cient manner.

Perhaps unique in the long history of the carrier industry, CSPs’ IT organizations now have the opportunity to take a leading role in determining the business success of their companies. The value of the network is no longer in its pipes, but in the services and applications delivered through these pipes to customers and subscribers. Delivering customer quality of experience (QoE) is no longer the job of switch technicians, but of service operations center (SOC) and network operations center (NOC) engineers focusing on network infrastructures and end-to-end (E2E) quality of service (QoS). Within most CSPs, IT is responsible for implementing the business-critical systems upon which SOC and NOC engineers rely to assure next generation services. In this role, IT is the vanguard of preparing and shepherding their organizations through the CSP’s current business model evolution and technology migration.

The communication service provider (CSP) revenue crunch, driven by stagnant and declining voice and data revenues,

is imposing greater pressure to control costs and operate more efficiently while rapidly innovating and launching

new service offerings. Next Generation Networks, Fixed Mobile Network Convergence and the transition to an all-

IP infrastructure were intended to help contain operating costs while providing the groundwork and bandwidth for

next generation service offerings, such as any-to-any data connectivity, mobile data, machine-to-machine (M2M) and

cloud-based services. Such innovations brought new technical and operational challenges which accelerated the need

to rationalize and optimize management practices. As a result, the carrier industry, as a whole, has been forced to

undergo significant changes in the way they do business.

The challenges of assuring and operating next generation network transformations

Become Strategic by Standardizing on One, Unified Service Performance Assurance Platform

The solution is to standardize on a single performance assurance platform. To successfully accomplish such an OSS transformation project, the platform must support each step of the service lifecycle and ensure that all stakeholders �nd the critical functionality required to launch, operate, assure, plan capacity for and improve their services.

How can CSPs improve operational e�ciency and improve customer QoE?

A single, uni�ed and cost e�ective platform that is easy-to-deploy and easy-to-use o�ers IT managers a strategic approach to not only alleviate daily pressures, but also ensure the success of their organization. InfoVista’s Platform is capable of replacing other point solutions for performance assurance and acting as the central repository for all performance data collection and network topology information. Additionally, it includes one reliable collection system to administer, one intuitive reporting interface to access performance data, one extendable solutions framework to overlay application and network performance management solutions and one open database for the rest of the OSS ecosystem to access for network and performance data.

InfoVista’s proven Service Performance Assurance

platform allows STC to monitor business, mobile

and broadband data services and to o�er network

intelligence to disparate business units, from

operation to marketing. Its ability to monitor

millions of resources in real time, to scale as our

needs grow and to massively export data to other

OSS solutions is unique on the market and enables

us to gain competitive advantage at an a�ordable

TCO. InfoVista’s approach and CSP expertise,

combined with its innovative collaborative

platform capabilities, enables us to reduce the

time required to identify and resolve service

a�ecting problems and ultimately increase QoE

and QoS.

Nezar N. Alhuzaimi, OSS Performance Manager, STC

Probe Systems

Performance

Fault & Event

ServiceManagement

Service Assurance

DeviceManagement

Telecom AppsServer

ContentManagement

Charging

Service DeliveryPlatforms

WorkforceAutomation

SubscriberManagement

CRM

CustomerInteraction

Customer Care

Mediation

Fraud and RA

Partner andInterconnect

Rating

Billing

Mobile DataBusiness ServicesWholesale

Business ServicesRetailPrivate Cloud

Services

Networks and NEMS

EngineeringTools

Activation

NRMInventory

OrderManagement

Service Ful�llment

Figure 1 – Telecoms software market segments - Analysis Mason and Infovista

Figure 3 – Platform Management Lifecycle

AdoptionStakeholder utilization

AdaptabilityAdapt to specic

environment

Future Proof-nessAlignment with future

strategies

DeploymentTime to market, integrations

with OSS Ecosystem

Operational E�ciencyEasy to use and manage

TechnicalSupport network and

business environments

FinancialCost to buy and own

Strategic / BusinessAlignment withbusiness goals

What must CSPs consider to align the service performance platform to the service lifecycle?

The “Management Platform Lifecycle” highlights challenges that the IT sta� often faces to manage a new service or existing product o�ering. The platform should allow IT Managers to easily model services, support custom service level agreements (SLAs) for each customer, integrate new devices, o�er vendor-agnostic performance indicators and scale predictably. Such capabilities will allow IT organizations to improve operational e�ciency and position themselves for future service launches.

Figure 2 – InfoVista’s Uni�ed Presentation and Collaboration Layer

How can CSPs minimize total cost of ownership (TCO)?

CSPs expend signi�cant resources maintaining multiple management platforms for their various services and network domains. InfoVista’s Platform is unique in its management domain and IP services coverage. It was developed by a single vendor, not produced through acquisition, which improves its ease-of-use with tightly integrated management functionality and reporting interface for all domains, services and users. To minimize the overall TCO, InfoVista o�ers a proven platform that:

yy E�ciently grows with business requirements

yy Seamlessly interoperates with the existing OSS environment

yy Supports the latest virtualization technologies

yy Sightly integrates application and network performance solutions

For IT managers, this means one platform can handle all their IP service performance assurance requirements while being easy to deploy, use, upgrade and grow.

Figure 4 – InfoVista’s Service Performance Assurance Platform Overview

VPN Customer AVPN Customer BMNO CustomerWholesale CustomerCloud Consumer...

CSP CustomersInternal User GroupsNOC EngineerCustomer Care RepresentativeService Account ManagerNetwork PlannerNetwork Optimization EngineerData Center Manager...

Service topologysynchronization

Data collectionDiscovery

Multi-Role, Multi-Tenant Self-Service PortalReal-time service performance reporting

Core Network

Compute + Storage Resources

Customer A

Customer B

MME

RNC Radio NetworkData Center Mobility Services

VPN Services

OSS/BSS Ecosystem Intuitive Web 2.0 Portal/Interface

Uni�ed Service Performance Assurance Platform

Customer ReportingService Level ManagementBusiness Intelligence AnalysisCapacity PlanningTroubleshooting

Performance Assurance Functions

ApplicationsIPDRs

ServicesKQIs

InfrastructureKPIs

Carrier Grade Architecture Service and Business Data Models

Platform and Solution Administrator

ServiceFul�llment

CustomerCare

ServiceAssurance

Billing

NetworkOptimization

Success Story

As the need to consolidate OSS and BSS assets accelerates, CSPs will bene�t from learning about today’s industry success, including the Telstra transformation project. This project looked at automating and integrating back and front o�ce processes as a way to reduce its 1200 BSS/OSS systems by 75 percent over three years. One of the lessons from the Telstra case study is to avoid “big bang” IT transformation projects. Instead, CSPs should select a best-of-breed platform from a third party that enables them to bene�t from innovation, ful�ll their speci�c service de�nition requirements and grow with their market’s expansion.

How can IT Managers save time while accelerating user adoption of their service assurance solutions?Delegate report development with intuitive self-service reporting.

IT sta� spend a great deal of time creating custom reports for users and creating these reports quickly and accurately is important. Users who do not have, or must wait for, the required views of the network will not be e�ective and are less likely to collaborate. InfoVista’s intuitive Web 2.0 reporting interface empowers end-users to build their own views of the network without a�ecting the underlying data models or disrupting other users’ reports. Its ease-of-use and aesthetic UI allows users to interact quickly, improving productivity by reducing the time it takes to customize reports. This unique collaboration solution enables operation teams from adjacent silos to solve performance degradation issues and lower mean-time to repair.

How can CSPs reduce the operational risks of their service assurance solutions?Gain peace of mind with a platform engineered for the intricacies of IP and with the built-in �exibility to handle future requirements simply and cost-e�ectively.

IT and OSS managers know that delivering reliable service quality is growing more complicated daily. Fortunately, InfoVista has nearly two decades of experience with building and implementing service assurance solutions for large service providers and has incorporated their requirements into a platform that e�ectively supports:

yy The complexity and scale of their networks

yy Migrations to new technologies and infrastructures

yy Resilient and dependable performance with high-availability con�gurations

Combining InfoVista’s depth of experience and the platform’s solid reliability of high-availability features creates a low-risk, high-value proposition for CSPs.

InfoVista supports its customer base to help them make the most of their technology investment, meet their particular needs and attain the business value they seek. InfoVista’s service o�erings have demonstrated how to go beyond technology alone and help customers maximize their technology investment.

COLT

With InfoVista’s uni�ed management platform, IT and OSS managers can support:

yy Collaboration among organizational silos

yy Service assurance solution functions for service level management, business intelligence analysis, capacity planning, troubleshooting and customer reporting

yy A holistic view of end-customer experience with integrated solutions for APM and NPM

yy End-to-end service visibility across network domains, technologies and infrastructure and the applications delivered over them

yy Out of the box integration with industry-leading vendors’ network equipment, EMSs and OSS applications

Infovista’s Platform Capabilities

Figure 5 – Infovista’s easy-to-use web 2.0 interface

OSS/IT Manager’s Challenges Benefits of the Unified Performance Assurance Platform

OPEX/CAPEX Constraints Minimize TCO – minimize the cost of procuring and owning service performance assurance solutions by deploying one uni�ed service assurance platform for all network domains that e�ciently scales and grows to meet business and operational requirements

Pressure to align platform with FMC [Fixed-Mobile Convergence] trend and consolidate OSS and stove-piped management applications

Manage Across Functional Silos – extend and grow a service performance assurance solution to support the management of multiple domains, applications, services and network infrastructure elements through a single pane of glass

Platform integration with OSS ecosystem Expose Open API’s – seamlessly interoperate with existing network and business environments

Respond in a timely manner to business line Accelerate Time to Market – facilitate integration with new devices and interfaces, plus the rapid de�nition and rollout of new services

Support e�ective monitoring of complex, custom SLAs per service and customer

Satisfy High-Value Customers – simply tailor out-of-the-box service de�nition templates to meet speci�c service level reporting requirements

Ensure deployment stability and management platform availability

Provide Peace of Mind – deploy in high availability and failover con�gurations that navigate in-house and customer-premise security constraints

O�er relevant service visibility of the end-customer/subscriber’s experience

Quickly Deploy Application and Network Performance Management Solutions – in a single pane of glass, link application performance and the network and service infrastructure supporting them to the customers using the applications

Provide a competitive service performance portal O�er a Uni�ed Web 2.0 Portal/Interface – deliver real-time views of all network services and domains with reporting and dashboards tailored to users’ roles

Avoid internal reporting request bottlenecks Accelerate Stakeholder Adoption – support easy-to-use, powerful self-service reporting and dashboard capabilities for end-users

Accurately predict costs, hardware and footprint requirements of the management platform as implementation grows or scales

Predictably Scale the Platform – to meet new infrastructure monitoring, service delivery and management solution requirements

Table 1. Service Assurance Challenges and the Bene�ts of InfoVista’s Uni�ed Service Performance Assurance Platform

InfoVista’s approach to performance management will enable us to improve customer loyalty and increase e�ciencies by o�ering enterprise users a vivid view into network performance. It will also enable us to dynamically address service issues. Considering InfoVista’s track record, we are also happy to announce the consolidation of the performance management systems for all our businesses under the Infotel Business Group with InfoVista. This will lead to improved e�ciencies, both operational as well as �nancial.

Jagbir Singh, Group CTO, Infotel Business Group, Bharti Tele-Ventures Limited.

Summary

CSPs need to evolve their business models and realize the bene�ts of their network transformation. Those business pressures provide an opportunity for their IT organizations to acknowledge critical challenges and assume an instrumental role in supporting innovative service launches, accelerating end to end service performance degradation troubleshooting and reducing CAPEX and OPEX. InfoVista o�ers IT organizations a single and uni�ed platform that, through its ease-of-use, reliability, service model �exibility and coverage of all network domains, enables successful OSS consolidation initiatives. By supporting each step of a service roll-out and aligning with the CSPs’ service lifecycle, the platform allows IT and OSS departments to become more strategic. It also allows CSPs to implement best practices across multiple silos, enabling them to di�erentiate in the marketplace.

InfoVista’s Service Performance Assurance Platform is the CSP’s single, uni�ed management platform for IP-based services. It monitors the entire IP service and network infrastructure, including all resources, technologies, vendors and domains. It aggregates and generates meaningful statistics about the current performance of network services in real-time. Additionally, through a single presentation layer, the platform provides service-relevant views of network performance to each stakeholder (operations, engineering, sales and customers). Rich sets of out-of-the-box features and integrations, as well as powerful, easy-to-use customization tools, simplify deployments and drive ROI. Validated in the most demanding environments of the world’s largest service providers, the Service Performance Assurance Platform ensures CSPs can con�dently address the current and future demands of their business, engineering and operations organizations.

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