OSS, BSS is the touch-point for mobile users

Nishant Batra, VP – Engagement Practices, Ericsson India shares how OSS and BSS is the touch point for all mobile users. Batra also shares Ericsson’s information about OSS-BSS plans and products.

For a mobile user, how important is OSS and BSS?

Operational Support Systems (OSS) and Business Support Systems (BSS) is pivotal for a mobile user in every aspect starting from his/her decision  to be a proud owner of possessing a mobile phone, selecting the Telco, choosing tariff plans/ subscriptions, service activation/ fulfillment/ assurance, customer Interaction, self-care, billing, purchases, payments. OSS/ BSS systems are the touch points of a mobile user.

Further, Mobile users today consume data and take advantage of mobility, broadband and cloud services as never before. There are higher expectations from the service catalogue provided by the Telco. Mobile users also want to decide when and where they will use a particular service, and importantly, desire to be “charged” accordingly.

So, the question that comes up is what makes a Mobile User choose and stay with a particular operator? Or, put in another way, what does a Telco require to create “stickiness” and also, to make itself an attractive service provider?

OSS, BSS is the touch-point where the needs of mobile users and Telcos meet. It helps the Telco create stickiness with the consumer and enables the mobile user to select the right service provider. Ericsson’s vision and contribution to the “Networked Society” and its ICT investments in OSS/BSS bring about significant economic, social and environmental progress to millions of mobile users.

How is Ericsson India’s OSS/BSS business in comparison to similar large markets?

Ericsson India has considerably done well in the OSS and BSS area. Ericsson’s Mobile Broadband Charging solutions are also being deployed by all major operators in India: Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Uninor, Aircel. Almost 75% of prepaid subscribers in India are charged using Ericsson systems.

As per the annual report of Ericsson, Region India has contributed significant growth YoY on OSS and BSS engagements.

Where does Ericsson stand in OSS segment?

Ericsson has made strategic acquisitions to position itself as a market leader in OSS; the OSS areas of service assurance and fulfillment, network assurance and fulfillment and order and catalog management, as well as on the OSS infrastructure necessary to support the transformation to SDN/NFV.

There have been acquisitions of product companies like Telcordia, Conceptwave, Optimi, MetraTech and Services companies like TeleOSS, Telcocell, amongst others that have given the requisite momentum to Ericsson vision of being a leader and enjoy premium partnerships with Telco’s globally. Through the acquisition of Telcordia, Ericsson has successfully obtained the most comprehensive OSS portfolio in the industry, domain management leadership, fulfillment leadership, multivendor OSS expertise.

With the portfolio, we currently have, we can claim leadership in OSS as a whole, and in many product areas of OSS. In the areas where we still foresee gaps, we fulfill them through own development, partnerships and non-organic growth options. Furthermore, the software product suite acquisitions happened five years ago and since then Ericsson has shown considerable thrust in excelling these product software suites by innovation and R&D.

What’re the major innovative products from Ericsson in this space?

Some of the notable innovations in the space are:

• Catalog driven everything; e.g. Catalog driven Order Management, Catalog driven charging and Billing: the solution fosters consistency and ease of reuse for faster time to market, a key value to both the operator and its partners.
• Real-time integrated policy and control (service aware charging and policy): It allows an operator to gain the agility necessary to succeed in today’s mobile marketplace, providing personalization and the right user experience while efficiently monetizing different services, partners and service flows.
• CEM solution has rather unique aspects like correlated session record, SLI
• Service Innovation framework for OTT monetization