Your Insider's Guide to the TMF World Conference in Nice Companies to Be Sought Out By Timothy E. Young

It's springtime in the idyllic South of France. The birds are singing, the flowers are in bloom, and the Mediterranean beckons. What better time for several hundred top-notch telecom firms, OSS experts, and other tech wizards to converge on the city of Nice for a conference? The host of the event, TeleManagement Forum, states on it's website that the event "has the industry's unparalleled recognition in driving lean operations for the OSS/BSS industry sector." Not to detract at all from TM Forum, but these are fine words from a proud parent. In order to get a fuller picture of the TMF World Conference, Pipeline decided to take a closer look and provide a sampling of 'who's what' is what you should seek out.

Agilent

Agilent will be announcing the initial deliverable from a collaborative effort to assemble and build the communication industry's first set of open source software components to support implementation of TMF's NGOSS standards. These components will provide an open source "sandbox" of NGOSS and OSS/J compliant software as part of the OpenOSS Initiative. While OSS/J has been proven in some network and service management domains, there are still unknowns regarding its applicability to other key functions. The OpenOSS Catalyst aims to validate these areas of OSS/J.

As a primary participant in the TMF OpenOSS Catalyst Project, Agilent used OSS/J and the NGOSS standards to create open source components for simplified integration between the Agilent OSS NgN Analysis System and systems from other catalyst participants. This solution will be demonstrated as part of TMF Catalyst Showcase. The open source software developed for this project and the associated documentation will be freely available to the industry to encourage re-use and continued open development.

Agilent is also participating in other TMF catalyst programs, most recently in the newly-formed Telecom Operations Benchmarking (TOB). The TOB aims to provide business performance reference data to support benchmarking and decision-making.

Amdocs

Amdocs will be demonstrating the recently announced Amdocs 6 Portfolio, a comprehensive portfolio of integrated, modular products designed to accelerate the delivery of integrated customer management. Bringing together products in billing, CRM, self service, order management, mediation and content revenue management, Amdocs 6 is designed to provide comprehensive support across the customer lifecycle (target, sell, deliver, bill and support).

As a key part of the Amdocs 6 Portfolio is the Amdocs Order Management System that address critical customer lifecycle processes including selling and delivering bundles, products and services, and providing ongoing customer support, both through the contact center and self-service - all important elements of an integrated customer management strategy.

Axiom

Will be repositioning their product suite, AXiOSS: Design and Delivery. Previously focusing on the service delivery element only, now this suite uses components the service provider can utilize to design, create and manipulate services within hours, and then deliver it to the customer within a few days, if not hours.

Celona Technologies

David Graystone will be presenting the successful implementation and value of the Celona™ product in the BT OSS. Highlighting both Celona Technologies and the Celona™ Product Portfolio Management, visitors will be given a detailed look at a software and services product, which enables telecommunications operators to build and operate their products and services more efficiently.

Noting Pipeline's article on "Good news for OSS....." in the March issue, "…that the OSS is still too complex, expensive and difficult to maintain." Celona addresses and whole-heartedly agrees with Pipeline's problem statement on this issue, and are doing something about it.

The Celona portfolio uses enterprise data from the OSS/BSS applications, creating a common model to unite (or 'federate') all of the data within the architecture. On top of this federated data, it provides a GUI to enable operators to easily create and manage business logic and data transformation. Rules defining processes, transformation, and coordination can then be simply developed and managed. This provides a capability to efficiently deliver and manage products across OSS/BSS application domains. The power of Celona™ is that only as few or as many processes as required are defined. Existing rule sets can be gradually migrated to Celona™ thus reducing up-front effort and any risk perceived in deploying the product.

cVidya's

cVidya, a sponsor of TMW, will be presenting a live demo of cVidya's MoneyMap® Revenue Assurance Solutions, which enables operators to correlate and consolidate information from all network, operations, and business systems. Unlike some revenue assurance solutions, MoneyMap® can be deployed in a very short period of time and can be configured to produce results bases on the operators' needs. Through an ongoing process, MoneyMap® automatically detects problem areas in which profit margins are decreasing as a result of revenue leakage, data inconsistencies or resources not being used efficiently, leading to substantial revenue loss. Once MoneyMap® identifies the areas of revenue leakage and resource inefficiency, operators can promptly correct and manage the problems to achieve profit maximization.

At their booth, Nir Sabag, Head of Network Management Systems Dept. in Bezeq will be lecturing on "Deploying Revenue Assurance Methodology across Organizations" and Alon Aginsky, cVidya CEO, will discuss: "cVidya's Best Practices for Implementing Revenue Assurance Projects."

Other discussions led by cVidya's Chief Scientist and Team Leader of Revenue Assurance Modeling Team, Dr. Gadi Solotorevsky will include:

• Birds of Feathers (BOF): Update on the next phase of the RA Catalyst Project
• Panel Discussion on Revenue Assurance: The Mega Trend Debate: The Role of Revenue Assurance in a Convergent Telecom Environment
• Revenue Assurance Catalyst Showcase: Reactive to Proactive Revenue Assurance - Closing the Loop
• TM Forum Revenue Assurance Modeling Team: An update of the team's progress and plans for the next steps

Convergys

As wireline operators increasingly venture into the 'triple play' arena, Convergys takes service bundling one step further with its Quadruple Play offering. Quadruple Play adds a mobile component to the traditional 'triple play' concept, enabling operators to offer service bundles across fixed and mobile voice, data, and TV.

Convergys' Infinys B/OSS software enables Quadruple Play across existing networks by merging data from different types of networks; Infinys provides operators with a consolidated view of their customer base and resources. This allows them to offer targeted bundles, cross-service discounting, and a converged bill for all subscribed services.

Quadruple Play supported by Infinys also drives B/OSS efficiencies and helps eliminate process duplication. For instance, rather than compiling, printing, and issuing four separate bills, operators will be able to issue a single bill for all services; a significant contribution to the company's bottom line. Tying in with Quadruple Play, Convergys will also be addressing topics such as, fixed mobile convergence, online charging, and advances in B/OSS architecture.

Next »   |   1   |   2   |   Subscribe

Send Comment

© 2005, All information contained herein is the sole property of Pipeline Publishing, LLC. Pipeline Publishing LLC reserves all rights and privileges regarding the use of this information. Any unauthorized use, such as copying, modifying, or reprinting, will be prosecuted under the fullest extent under the governing law.