Slashing the Integration Tax (cont'd)

Say It! NGOSS Could Be Tough for SIs
TMF officials can’t seem to state this case without spluttering. They suggest that SIs may not suffer too much because service providers will still spend piles of money with them - just on different sorts of consulting and professional services. What makes more sense, however, is that a service provider would take its integration tax savings and spend it on network elements, marketing, reducing customer charges, improving network security, buying new desktops, throwing a big party, giving the executives a pay raise… the list goes on. Some of that savings should also stay in the bank, because profitability is becoming important again to investors, and not spending is one way to increase profitability. The service provider would still spend some money with its SIs, but give it all back? Not a chance.

Why is it so difficult for people to state, plainly and loudly, that if NGOSS works, SI integration revenues will plummet? Maybe because by avoiding this important fact, we don't have to acknowledge that SIs are happy with a high integration tax. This is not a criticism, just a statement of business reality. The question is, are SIs to blame for telecom being ‘decades' behind the financial services industry because they've resisted change? The answer isn't so simple.

What Does NGOSS Compliant Mean?
Service providers say they can’t demand NGOSS compliance when they buy applications because they aren’t sure what that really means. Most vendors aren’t NGOSS compliant anyway, so they have to work with what’s available on the market. Application vendors still don’t quite know what being NGOSS-compliant is either, and they won’t spend money on it until service providers demand it. Systems integrators mostly point out that we are where we are, and there’s not a lot we can do. The legacy environments, the applications available, the decisions customers make - these are all the givens we have to work with. In the end, there’s no point in blaming SIs, or anyone else for that matter. What is important is to understand what’s needed to break the logjam.

There is specific work being done within the TMF that will help change things. For example, the work of TMF members on Shared Information/Data model (SID) is very important, and likely to prove of continuing value as it becomes more complete and mature. The sector will also benefit from a range of IT tools that facilitate rapid development and application messaging and are now widely available.

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