Telecoms.com periodically invites third parties to share their views on the industry’s most pressing issues. In this piece Tony Gillick, VP Solutions Management at Openet, urges the industry to transform its approach to BSS and OSS before it’s too late.

TM Forum’s recent launch of its Open Digital Architecture is good news for the industry. It captures a lot of the good work that has already taken place and sets out a blueprint for the digital transformation of BSS and OSS.

Today’s service providers know they need to change if they are to keep up with the pace at which the industry is moving. But with ever-decreasing ARPU, and the race to free data underway, they don’t have the luxury of embarking on lengthy, hugely expensive transformation programs to get their BSS and OSS stacks up to speed. Instead, they need an API-driven open architecture that enables them to get away from vendor lock-in and having to deal with inflexible, large vendors who will deliver projects and upgrade software on their terms.

The bleak reality is that if operators are to survive in the face of rising competition from web-scale companies, it’s now or never to make that change happen, so what does that look like for operators willing to transform?

Become the model for change

BSS/OSS have been around since the start of the cellular business in the 1980s, and that’s where the problems begin for today’s operators. Throughout the years, operators have built up a complex burg of legacy systems and processes, which are not only no longer fit for purpose but also nothing short of a nightmare to overhaul.

For operators, transforming OSS/BSS begins in two ways. First, with overhauling traditional commercial models, which have become slow to move and very inflexible. These commercial models are no longer fit to serve the agile world in which we live, one where subscribers want everything now, on-demand.

Today’s operators need new commercial models that are driven by short-term goals and that do away with the old, lengthy, never-ending service contracts that look at transformation projects over several years, instead of months or even weeks.

The second way in which transformation can happen is through new delivery models. It’s no secret that web-scale companies’ agility is beyond that of operators. But this need not be the case; by harnessing new processes and technologies such as DevOps and microservices, operators can replicate the agility of Internet companies. It is only through this open, innovative and experimental approach that operators will start to compete with the big OTT players.

By overhauling commercial and delivery models, operators will not only be able to boost their rate of innovation, but they’ll also see the industry-wide issue of vendor lock-in disappear. As the industry moves towards open technologies which proliferate the use of DevOps and Open APIs, fewer vendors will be able to tie down operators to lengthy contracts that provide little in the way of innovation and experimentation.

Setting operator priorities straight

But making change happen isn’t just about technical capabilities, it also requires a shift in mind-sets and priorities, particularly when it comes to the deployment of new services such as 5G and IoT. Although the race to 5G is well and truly on, the state of affairs for operators today implies that perhaps it shouldn’t warrant such urgency.

Operators’ resources are stretched and, where subscribers are concerned, the pressure is on to be better and do better – this means, selling a wider variety of personalised digital services. While 5G and IoT will undoubtedly bring about a wealth of applications that will benefit operators, neither of these technologies will bring about immediate ROI. It’s important, therefore, that operators invest their efforts in laying the foundations to not only ensure their survival today, but to be able to support the technologies of tomorrow, and that starts with changing the way they approach OSS/BSS.

A greenfield approach to OSS/BSS

Adopting the correct technologies will be the key to unlocking the OSS/BSS treasure chest. Operators should approach transformation with a greenfield attitude – that is, to start afresh, with no legacy systems or culture and to adopt a “digital first, customer first” approach. And this does not mean that existing large-scale transformation projects should be abandoned, instead, new greenfield approaches mean operators can run these in parallel to the current legacy stack being transformed.

This greenfield approach promotes the switch from hardware and software stacks to real-time, automated digital platforms. These digital platforms can see operators launch services in as little as 14-weeks whilst still going ahead with their longer-term transformation projects. By using these platforms, operators can leverage a modular, API-driven approach and select which service or “platform component” they need, on an ad-hoc basis. This promotes faster service delivery but also reduces the cost attached to digital transformation.

Most importantly, this open, best of breed, platform approach is the antithesis of big vendor lock-in. By drawing on open technologies, promoted through the use of open APIs, operators will be better suited to encourage partnerships and the collaboration and sharing of technologies within these. Not only will this reduce OSS/BSS cost and implementation timescales, it will also prevent mega-vendors from selling services from a single supplier.

Ultimately, it is this openness that will promote innovation in the telecoms industry and that will see OSS/BSS become the systems operators need to succeed in this ever-evolving, digital world.

Digital Transformation: just a bump in the road

There’s no doubt that digital transformation is hard, and it’s clear that few operators know where to begin. But the solution lies in this greenfield attitude; by starting anew, with no pre-conceptions or notions in mind, operators can leverage experimentation to roll out new services that may have otherwise taken years to deploy.

It is this provision of tools – namely the platforms, new technologies, APIs – by vendors that will encourage operators to innovate, and will see the challenges associated with digital transformation soon fade into the telco past.

Tony is VP Solutions Management at Openet. He’s been designing and deploying BSS for over 15 years and is responsible for direction and deployment strategy for Openet Digital Business Platform.