Pipeline Publishing, Volume 5, Issue 3

	This Month's Issue:
	Unlocking the Power of Web 2.0

The New Frontier: Enabling Web 2.0 for Service Provider Success

article page | 1 | 2 |

Optimizing Service Catalogs for Web 2.0

With customers browsing CSP websites for existing and potential services, it is vital to tailor additional services and bundled offerings to optimize the user experience based on the end user's history and preferences. Using a full-service product catalog that is user and channel-aware provides the ability to consume real-time web services form the CSP's back-end systems to compile a full profile of the end user. This helps create individualized offerings unique to the customer.

A catalog manager that provides product, service, and resource catalogs is key to addressing an end user's preferences on a dynamic basis. The catalog should enable the federation of underlying catalogs, whether located within the catalog manager itself, in other OSS/BSS CSP systems, or within supplier-provided catalogs. An example is a wireless offering that includes the melding of relatively dynamic services, such as handsets, ringtones, MP3s, and applications that are held in CSP and supplier catalogs. The packaging of the services must be dynamic and reflect the demands and preferences of each potential subscriber.

A fully-featured service catalog can support offer rankings based upon the client profile and a guided Q&A approach. As a highly configurable management solution, a fully-featured catalog manager handles promotions, up-sell/cross-sell functionality and lifecycle management through a fully-integrated Web 2.0 enabled platform. By enabling the CSP to permit the end-user to pick-and-choose the services and features desired, the service catalog can then present a customized bundle back to the client as a unique offer specifically tailored to their needs. This must be done while applying a complex set of business rules to ensure that the selected configuration is workable.

For CSPs, rolling out bundled service offerings across a national network presents a highly collaborative ordering process laden with multiple order failure points. These type of manual "quote-to-order provision" implementations require multiple interaction points, as well as decisions distributed and managed by provisioning centers across a national network. Due to the highly collaborative order process requirements needed, Web 2.0 technologies are ideal for automating and streamlining complex telecom orders. Benefits from utilizing a 2.0 infrastructure and techniques include:

Shortened service rollout time (typically realized in months)
Elimination of multiple and duplicated systems
Elimination of human input errors
Reduction of personnel handling of order process

In order to create an environment that supports this functionality in a Web 2.0 environment, CSPs need to ensure that the

following points are integrated into any dynamic fulfillment solution optimized for Web 2.0:

Customized solutions that leverage 2.0 capabilities to attract and retain customers. CSPs must be able to offer, particularly to their commercial clients, customized services that are differentiated not only by price, but also with managed network services, hosting, connection to non-standardized equipment, and support beyond the traditional demarcation point. These tailored solutions demand tailored fulfillment strategies.
Flexible and adaptive fulfillment strategies that incorporate the complexity of the services and their interaction with client hardware and software. The catalog and fulfillment solution must be capable of interpreting a dynamic set of business rules (often exposed by third party applications), and to decompose the order into services and orchestrate their fulfillment.
An interactive, project management approach to service orchestration and delivery. The explosion of multi-site orders involving the expansion of CSP connectivity to new sites, inter-carrier and cross-border facilities, and site and service inter-dependencies, demands on-the-fly adjustments to workflow and schedules. Due to the complexity and variations of these situations, an adaptive and interactive fulfillment solution managed by a project manager is required in order to ensure seamless order handling and management.

Conclusion

Web 2.0 is not all about next generation web applications. For CSPs, it is also about integrating new ways of interaction with their client base, creating a dynamic service delivery framework and enabling real-time billing and charging solutions that leverage and monetize the new service delivery platform. By utilizing an optimized catalog manager enabled for Web 2.0, CSPs can create a customized self-service environment that provides automated order fulfillment and orchestration to enable the creation of a larger marketplace with new services and ability to generate additional revenues.

article page | 1 | 2 |

© 2006, 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.