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A master catalog can be a key component of next-generation BSS/OSS architecture. It is a highly flexible ordering and fulfillment platform. It provides a central repository that enables third parties to deploy their services to the service provider’s customers. The master catalog can provide self-service for both customers and third parties, so the service provider avoids the overhead cost of staff dedicated to deploying those services and fielding customer orders.
The master catalog’s intent should be to make it easier, faster and less expensive for third parties to reach their target customers. It should effectively free those value chain partners from reinventing the wheel, by allowing them to leverage the service provider’s OSS/BSS to deploy, sell and provision services. In doing so, the service provider can exercise value innovation.
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The master catalog’s intent should be to make it easier, faster and less expensive for third parties to reach their target customers. |
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Think of the master catalog as a service provider
app store, but one that isn’t limited to
a single network, device, technology or
operating system.
Capitalizing on Fragmentation
Until recently, consumers bought video services from a single source – their MSO, satellite operator or telco TV provider – and watched those services on a single device: their TV. Consumers are now buying video services from multiple sources and watching them on multiple devices. The Netflix and Hulu+ apps for the iPad and smartphones are two examples of this trend in device fragmentation, which a master catalog can help service providers to capitalize on.
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A master catalog can, for example,
enable consumer and business
customers to order services from a
Web portal rather than through more
expensive and less efficient means, like
voice or paper channels. The savings
and time-to-market benefits of
leveraging the service provider’s OSS/
BSS provide incentives for third parties
to share revenue. Compare that
scenario to today, where it’s tough for
a service provider to convince OTT
providers to share revenue when all
the service provider is supplying is a
fast but dumb pipe.
It’s shortsighted to
assume that OTT video providers and
other third parties will dismiss service
providers as unnecessary middlemen.
NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode proves that
many companies are more than willing
to pay a royalty to a service provider
that reduces the cost and time to reach
customers. Apple’s App Store is a more
recent example; tens of thousands of
developers are willing to share 30
percent of their sales because the App
Store provides them with a convenient,
cost-effective marketplace.
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A master catalog puts service providers in a better position to follow their customers across a variety of devices, including ones that the service provider does not sell. It can also give OTT providers and other third parties a single, convenient way to deliver their services to consumers and business users across a variety of devices and networks. Again, the master catalog can add value for those third parties, which gives them added incentive to share revenue.
Ultimately, the master catalog concept is all about giving service providers a powerful way to deliver value innovation and create competitive app- and bundle-driven markets for themselves that can generate billions of dollars in revenue; eliminate “dumb pipe” marginalization risks; drive positive experiences that attract partners and reduce customer churn; and create a strong foothold in the mobile value chain for years to come.
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