www.comarch.com

The Magazine of Comarch

Telecommunications

Business Unit

no 1/2011[13]

IN THIS ISSUE:

In focus: BSS/OSS Transformation Transformation… what do you mean?

How to avoid embarrassing challenges in projects – a vendor view

Customer Spotlight Multimedia Polska, a multi-service operator,

has a new consolidated BSS

Hot topic: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience Service Quality and Customer Experience – where customers meet

the network

COMARCH OSS SUITE

Operational, Support & Readiness

Strategy, Infrastructure &

Product

Fulfillment AssuranceS

ervi

ce

Man

agem

ent

Res

ourc

e M

anag

emen

tC

ust

omer

M

anag

emen

t

OSS Process Management

OSS Mediation

Field Service Management

SLA Monitoring

Customer Experience Management

Service Inventory Management

Service Activation

Service Fulfillment

InventoryPlanning

Service Quality Management

Service Monitoring

Auto-discovery & Reconciliation

Configuration Management

Network Inventory Management

Performance Management

Fault Management

Market/Sales

App

lication Integration Infrastructure

Product Management

Operational, Support & Readiness

Fulfillment Assurance Billing

CRM

Service Control

Policy Management

AAA

Central Product Manager

Self Care Point of Sale

ESB

/ Integration B

us

B2

B G

ateway

B2

BG

W

Business P

rocess Manag

ement &

Workflow

BP

M

Web Portal Corporate Self Care

Service Management

Resource Management

Customer Management

CRM

Customer Order Management

Corporate Self Care

Self CareConvergent Billing

Supplier/Partner

PRM InterPartner Billing

Active Mediation

Active Mediation

Billing Mediation

Billing MediationMaster Resource Management

Voucher & Top-Up Management

COMARCH BSS SUITE

PREFACE 3

PIOTR MACHNIK Comarch SA

Vice President, Product

Management & Marketing

Telecommunications

Business Unit

Editor-in-Chief: Katarzyna Gajewskakatarzyna.gajewska@comarch.comLayout & DTP: Jakub MalickiPhotos: www.fotolia.comProofreader: Katherine MeusPublisher: Comarch SAAl. Jana Pawła II 39a, 31-864 KrakówTel. +48 12 64 61 000, Fax: +48 12 64 61 100www.comarch.comPrint: Skleniarz Printing Houseul. J. Lea 118, 31-033 KrakówCirculation: 1 500

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Comarch Technology Review is a publication created by Comarch experts and specialists. It is created to assist our customers and partners in obtaining in-depth information about market trends and developments, and the technological possibilities of addressing the most important issues.

ransformation seems to be a permanent state of

business development. During the last decade,

telecom business has been transformed by

technologies like mobile communication, internet, next

generation networks and by global economic changes like

the digital revolution, the internet bubble, globalization or

economic downturn. Now, after the phase of geographical

expansion of global telecom groups, we can observe

a  consolidation of valuable assets around strong brands

and service innovation centers.

As a software vendor and integrator we see significant

changes in the requirements for BSS and OSS solutions

defined by communication service providers.

Currently, besides requests for specific products we receive

inquiries for specific OSS architectures, congestion-driven

customer experience management or consolidation of

business processes around central product management

and around a “one company - one service” approach.

Apart from standard requirements related to functionality,

performance, compliance with technology and industry

standards, we get many requirements for multi-tenancy,

white labeling, support for daughter companies within

the  whole group, centralized management of resources

(like customer premises equipment (CPE) and SIM cards)

and processes such as service creation and service rollout.

Additionally for traditional “license + setup + integration”

delivery models CSPs request long term partnership options,

business-driven payment models and commitment to agile

development and support in specific countries.

There are many things that drive transformation, one

of  them are the ever changing demands and needs of end

customers. Currently Customer Experience seems to be

what everybody in the telecom industry is talking about.

I  was asked by an industry analysts, what I think Customer

Experience Management really is. Is it only a new expression

for gathering more and more data about the customer’s

behavior, service usage patterns, and the correlation of

such information with more efficient computers to create

new variants of tariff plans or marketing campaigns? Is

there a BSS or OSS product behind it? We at Comarch see

Customer Experience Management as a part of each mature

business. Telecom and cable operators in Europe and US

are transforming their IT environments and organizations

in order for them to be capable of delivering services

cheaper and faster while caring for saving their customers’

time and  money, securing their needs for comfort and

professional or personal lifestyles. So from this viewpoint

Customer Experience Management is not just a single

product and is far from being merely a buzzword, but it is

rather a way of thinking and a change in business focus that

can potentially bring huge profits in the long run.

In this issue we talk about simple and clear metrics like

business efficiency measured in dollars and market share,

and time to market measured in days, hours and minutes.

We will also take a look at customer experience from various

points of view. Enjoy the magazine!

“One company - one service” approach?

T

TABLE OF CONTENT S4

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

16 The advantages of product catalog-centric

BSS

In the old times, before barcodes and readers were

introduced, product offering and sales processes in

small grocery stores were quite simple. You would

just stick a price tag to the product and put it on the

shelf. The customer would then come in, take the

product, and get charged by the person managing

the cash register. Despite the fact that entering

prices manually was more time-consuming, at least

the product offer definition was simple and the offer

was completed in short time.

21 Increase efficiency of order-to-cash

processes with optimal field service

management

If you ask telecommunication executives, which

process is crucial for their company’s operations,

probably most of them will answer that it is the

order-to-cash or order-to-cash-related process.

Moreover, if you ask, which one is the most

complex and was recently or is currently planned

to be optimized or transformed, the answer would

be almost always the same.

26 How will you benefit from BSS transformation

How can the strategic goal of any communication

service provider – increasing the market share

– be achieved practically in mature, saturated

markets with significant competition from

established players and new entrants?

HOT TOPIC: AIMING FOR PERFECTCUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

31 Service Quality and Customer Experience

– where customers meet the network

Customer Experience Management (CEM) may

seem to be a broad term but in practical terms

within the area of telecommunications, it refers to

monitoring the stream of transaction records from

a subscriber’s perspective. Is the call setup time

at an acceptable level? Are there places where

setting up a GPRS session takes too long? Was

MMS transferring successful?

34 Managing network congestion problems with

automated Configuration Management and

SQM

Communications service providers have created

a new customer demand for faster, more reliable

services and increased network capacity for

their subscribers with the use of smartphone’s

and tablets. This trend has been additionally

strengthened by the dropping prices of mobile

devices. All of this is pushing traffic in access

network to its limits.

36 Thriving as Web platform enabler – “beyond

dumb” pipes

The advent of the mobile internet has been

a great success, but it also appears to have

opened Pandora’s box. The tension is even greater

because the real beneficiaries are over-the top-

players like Google, whilst CSPs seem to have been

cast the role of “dumb pipe” providers.

39 How to transform your BSS to achieve the

perfect customer experience

We live in a world where communications go far

beyond voice and SMS. A mobile phone serves for

video streaming, navigation, playing music and

e-mail, and the traditional use of voice and SMS

can account for just a small portion of the total

time that a handset is in use. The expansion of

operators’ service offerings into data services has

a huge impact on the underlying platform.

BEYOND BSS/OSS

44 A new era of tagging

Since the very beginning of human civilization

people have always had a tendency to mark and

label things, which at first was motivated purely

by the desire to express ownership but later it

evolved into a way to maintain order and facilitate

the management of belongings.

46 Telework – an unexploited niche for telecom

operators?

With the constant progress of communication

technologies - mobile telephony, Internet, and

consumer devices like PCs, laptops, netbooks,

tablets, smartphones - it is becoming more and

more possible for people to work from home or other

locations outside their central office, distribution

or production sites. Telework has the potential to

transform working patterns and to positively impact

health, safety and the wellbeing of the people

involved. Telework has the potential to become an

interesting part of any telecom operator’s portfolio.

TELCOSPHERE BLOG

48 Six issues about the role of BSS in the M2M

business model

50 Renewal of a mobile subscription – is it

simple?

WHAT’S NEW

5 News in Brief

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT

8 Case Study:

Grupo TVCable have obtained new flexible

back office systems assuring smooth order-

to-bill process support

Being a market leader comes with specific

responsibilities. Early on, Grupo TVCable realized

that adding VoIP services would address

a  growing market need and also entice new

customers to sign up for an attractive product

bundle: TV, internet, and telephony (triple-play), but

the introduction of triple-play required new, flexible

back office systems to assure smooth order-to-bill

process support while guaranteeing high levels of

customer satisfaction.

10 Case Study:

Multimedia Polska, a multi-service operator,

has a new consolidated BSS

Multimedia Polska is a multi-service operator,

established via the consolidation of several

regional cable TV providers. Prior to the merger,

each company concentrated on its own area of

interest, (cable TV, telephony and broadband)

acting independently and within its home region.

As a result of these acquisitions, MMP has

transformed into a nationwide corporation, offering

triple-play services throughout Poland with the

need of BSS Consolidation.

IN FOCUS: BSS/OSS TRANSFORMATION

12 Transformation… what does this mean???

Throughout the years of designing and delivering

IT solutions for telecom operators I have witnessed

many transformations. Telcos were created

as startups, then formed their own business

model and constructed their IT to support their

business yet in the end (after a few years) they

accumulated a backlog of unsolvable problems

proving unbearable - so they transformed.

14 How to avoid embarrassing challenges in

projects – a vendor view

Without any doubt, embarrassing challenges

happen in projects, especially in IT. In this article

I will elaborate on the most common and most

important challenges of this kind.

NEWS IN BRIEF 5

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Vectra selects Comarch to shorten time-to-market

News in Brief

is designed to support various types of operators

– including fixed, cable and mobile – and is the

answer to the requirements of modern multi-play

operators.

Piotr Piatosa, Vice President of the Management

Board and Head of the Telecommunications

Business Unit, Comarch S.A., claims:- “One of

the most advanced elements of our solution for

Vectra is Comarch Central Product Manager which

simplifies configuration of offerings associated

with particular sales channels and regions. With

offers being configured in one place, it is possible

to radically reduce time-to-market and costs on

the operator’s side. For demanding customers like

Vectra it is also very important to have Business

Process Management as a part of the solution

to allow flexible process configuration and

a  possibility of reconfiguration in the future”.

Polish multi-play operator, Vectra has selected

Comarch BSS for its core billing, customer

management and self-service platform as well as

for field force automation software.

Currently, the major challenges facing cable

operators regarding BSS is the result of the huge

number of products that have to be managed. As

most cable operators are now operating in a multi-

play model, they need to handle various types

of services (cable, Internet, voice and mobile) in

a  consistent way and with the possibility to create

bundles of multiple products.

In addition, multi-channel customer service

requires a consistent product catalog that needs

to be exposed to all sales channels, including CSR,

self care and e-shop.

– “Competition between telecom operators has

forced us to introduce new products increasingly

faster. From a technical perspective we were

looking for a next generation BSS platform which

would support us in pursuing a strategy of product

innovation, streamlining and facilitating the

creation of new offers. We were also looking for

a  solution to enable easy creation of personalized,

on-demand offers for specific customers. From

a business point of view, we expected radical

improvement of customer service quality and

after the first stage of this project I’m sure that

Comarchs’ solutions will help us meet our goals.

Together with Comarch BSS tools we can really

become an important player in quad-play services

on the Polish market” – Tomasz Żurański, President

of the Management Board, Vectra S.A.

Comarch products being implemented at Vectra

include Convergent Billing, Customer Management,

Self Care, Central Product Manager, Billing

Mediation and Field Service Management. All these

products are a part of Comarch BSS Suite which

Comarch Field Service Management – Product of the Year 2011On the 23rd of March 2011, Comarch received

the Golden Antenna (“Zlota Antena”) Award

for its Field Service Management system,

which was acknowledged as “Product of the

Year 2011” in the category Telecom Operator

Solutions.

Comarch Field Service Management has

already been implemented by a number of

operators including WildBlue Communications

– a satellite internet provider from the US, and

many cable & multi service operators. In 2010,

Comarch started the FSM project for Vectra,

a  Multi-Service Operator based in Poland.

The product has also been recognized in

a  recent Stratecast (Frost & Sullivan) Report

“OSS/BSS Global Competitive Strategies”

dedicated to Workforce Management

(WFM) Strategies for Changing Markets

and Challenging Economics. Comarch FSM

was assessed as a solution that efficiently

optimized skilled resources and schedules

using modifiable and adjustable ratings based

on appropriate business needs.

Comarch was awarded its first “Antenna” in

1999 for the Tytan Billing System (currently

the Comarch BSS Suite). In 2009, a award

was presented for Comarch Next Generation

Service Management, part of the Comarch

OSS Suite portfolio, which enables managing

services and resources in cutting-edge

telecommunications networks – Next

Generation Networks (NGN). In 2010, Comarch’s

Service Quality Management System was also

awarded a Golden Antenna in the category

of Product of the Year / Telecom Operator

Solutions.

NEWS IN BRIEF6

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Bogumil Butryn, Technical Department Director

at OXYCOM S.A.: - “The experience and skills of

Comarch’s professionals enabled us to create a

customized system configuration that allowed

to run optimally with our new services. Thanks to

the training at Comarch’s Headquarters, our BSS

systems’ administrators can react dynamically on

the business needs that are evaluated and we can

expand OXYCOM’s offer. The flexibility of Comarch’s

portfolio allows us to build new rate models, which

are later made available to our customers online.

The Software on Demand (SoD) or Software as a

Service (SaaS) market is growing very fast and

so bearing an updated offer in this area has a

substantial meaning.”

Piotr Piatosa, Vice President of the Management

Board and Head of the Telecommunications

Business Unit, Comarch S.A., claims:- “Thanks to

our products from the BSS Suite, OXYCOM has

a coherent, well-integrated system that allows

them to maintain operational and finance areas

of their business. The product catalog for all

service platforms is worth mentioning, as also the

integration with existing platforms such as eBOK,

CRM or eCommerce.”

Scheduled project completion is planned at the

end of September 2011.

About OXYCOMOXYCOM S.A. is one of the most innovative

companies from the news technologies and

communications sector in Poland. Its main

advantages are: a rich portfolio of modern IT

services, a well-trained team and flexibility, through

which OXYCOM is able to adapt to customer needs.

Among OXYCOM’s products can be found solutions

based on the cloud model, voice communications,

as well as systems allowing for savings and IT

outsourcing. Thanks to a group of experts, OXYCOM

S.A. is able to meet the challenges posed by the

IT market and suggest a solution tailored to his

needs of any client.

OXYCOM, the start-up company has decided

to build a BSS Platform based on Comarch’s

products. According to the agreement, the

following modules will be implemented: Comarch

Convergent Billing, Comarch Service Activation,

Comarch Billing Mediation and Comarch ESB

(Enterprise Service Bus).

The project has been up and running since the

ending of the first phase of the implementation.

During this stage, main functionalities and

integrations were deployed, which are perceived by

OXYCOM as crucial in order to deliver all its services

such as VoIP, Software on Demand (SoD), Software

as a Service (SaaS) and eCommerce platform.

Currently, the project is in its second stage, during

which further functionalities are developed, mainly

focused on automation processes and system

integration, which will enable OXYCOM to activate

its next advanced services.

The key component of the implemented solution

is Comarch Convergent Billing, a modern high

capacity and scalable billing system which

contains a Central Product Manager with all

the products and rates of OXYCOM’s services.

The solution also supports partner data

management and inter-partner settlements,

customer relationship management, account data

management along with a full integration with the

existing CRM system, thanks to Enterprise Service

Bus - Comarch ESB.

Comarch Billing Mediation is a fully scalable

platform, responsible for data collection

distribution, processing and system distribution.

It monitors the elements to which it is connected

and generates predefined alarms and notifications.

Comarch Service Provisioning is responsible for

fast and reliable service activation along with

complete integration with the existing platforms

which provide services.

Comarch Rebuilds its BSS around Central Product ManagerIn answering the crucial requirements of

modern communication service providers,

Comarch has rebuilt the architecture of

its flagship product suite – Comarch BSS

– to support operators in optimizing IT

architectures and cost savings, unlimited

innovation, acceleration of business and

shortening of time-to-market.

Products within the Comarch BSS Suite have

been designed and developed in-house,

meaning that CSPs can count on shorter

delivery times, as well as better quality and

more secure deployment, as compared

to suites from large vendors that arose

as a result of mergers and acquisitions.

All BSS products are based on a unified

data model for reference data and product

catalog. This provides a short time to market,

while facilitating system management and

configuration. Mass and real-time, rule-based

data processing is the core of Comarch’s

competences. This includes service-agnostic

and multi-industry rating, charging and billing.

Business process orientation based on

TMForum eTOM means that there are no limits

to workflows and business processes, as they

are delivered out-of-the-box or configured

during the implementation process. It is

always possible to reconfigure business

processes and workflows to suit particular

needs of the customer.

Comarch BSS Suite is already implemented at

KPN - Netherlands, Auchan SA - France, Bite

Latvia and Lithuania, OnePhone - Germany,

DTMS - Germany, Belize Telemedia Limited -

Belize, Cable Onda - Panama and many others.

In 2010 the following operators also decided

to use Comarch BSS Suite: GTS Poland, Fring,

OXYCOM and five others including Tier-1.

OXYCOM, a new systems aggregator on the polish market, chooses Comarch’s solutions

NEWS IN BRIEF 7

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Key improvements introduced in Comarch Self Care

6.6 include:

Ability to define additional user relationships

in residential and SME segments –

e.g.  household, family

User profile advanced management (making

it easy for customers to grant suitable rights

to others)

Notifications/escalations – specific alerts can

be created on the basis of rules or events, e.g.

when a new invoice is created

More automated configuration (added generic

overview display and generic contracting,

which allows implementation of the system in

less than 10 weeks)

Case management and order basket

improvements – possibility of painless

integration with external workflow engine

through ESB

Pawel Lamik, CRM and Self Care product manager,

at Comarch’s telecommunications business unit,

said: – “We are devoted to constantly improving

and developing our products based on both

customer demand and the innovative ideas of

our employees. Our customers – communication

service providers - can now implement a state

of the art self-service portal for end-users

significantly faster. The new features now

offer even more value to the users in terms of

convenience and flexibility in using the portal.”

Comarch Corporate Self Care provides online

ordering, data management and reporting

for corporate customers. It is also a telecom

expense management solution, increasing the

value of a  service provider’s offer. Managers of

an enterprise customer can set spending limits

for their employees and receive notifications

when the limit is exceeded. By making use of

virtual hierarchies, the company can delegate

responsibility for the management and control

of costs and services to middle and lower

management.

Comarch has introduced the new version of its

Self Care product, with additional functionalities.

Comarch Self Care is a web self-service portal

enabling communication service providers to

reduce customer service costs and increase

customer satisfaction. It answers the needs of the

consumer and SME markets, while the Corporate

Self Care product provides advanced features for

enterprises.

Comarch Self Care enables consumers and small

businesses to browse their bills and usage,

manage their services, and modify personal

information without the assistance a call center

agent. It helps service providers get closer to their

customers and deliver non-interfering, relevant

messages. Comarch Self Care has already

been implemented at: Bite Latvia and Lithuania,

OnePhone, Germany, KPN, The Netherlands, Auchan

Telecom, France or 6GMOBILE, The Netherlands.

services, in addition to monitoring and reporting

them. The project also involved business partners

such as G2S and PayPal, as providers of the

payment services.

– “This is another very important step for Comarch,

especially as it concerns our services in the

cloud model, for such a prestigious customer. It

proves that our portfolio is both highly rated and

trustworthy among players on the telecom market.

We know that real-time billing must be more

open to operators, and we are going to meet this

challenge” – highlights Piotr Piatosa, Vice President

of the Management Board and Head of the

Telecommunications Business Unit, Comarch S.A.

Comarch Billing SaaS ensures delivering

the highest quality services to an operator’s

customers. It offers prepaid and postpaid billing,

real-time AAA (Authentication, Authorization, and

Accounting), CRM functionalities and services

monitoring.

About fringfring (www.fring.com) is a mobile communication

service that gives users internet-rich

communication from their mobile phones. fring

members make free video calls, voice calls and

live chat to friends on the fring network and

to other social networks. Users can also make

almost-free calls to friends and family worldwide

to any landline or mobile phone from 1c/minute

via fringOut. fring leverages the mobile phone’s

internet connection to create these communication

experiences. fring is available on all major

Smartphones (including iPhone, iPod, Android and

Symbian) on any mobile operator, and any mobile

internet connection (3G/4G, Wi-Fi, GPRS, EDGE).

Comarch signs an agreement with fring, a leader

in global mobile VoIP and Video communications,

for a high availability Billing Cloud service.

Thanks to the Comarch Billing Cloud, fring has

been able to add fringOut to its services portfolio.

fringOut lets fringsters call any landline or mobile

in the world from their mobile phone at very

attractive prices, starting from 1¢/minute. As the

billing service is provided from the Comarch Cloud,

the project was completed within a very short

time. The billing service is provided to multiple fring

datacenters around the globe.

The delivered solution covers the entire process

of product preparation, allowing defining details

of the services offered to customers, providing

and reselling such services over available sales

channels, activating, controlling and billing for such

Comarch Self Care version 6.6 has been launched

Comarch successfully delivers its billing cloud to fring, a global mobile VoIP leader

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT8

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT8

Grupo TVCable have obtained new flexible back office systems assuring smooth order-to-bill process support

Being a market leader comes with specific

responsibilities. Early on, Grupo TVCable realized

that adding VoIP services would address a growing

market need and also entice new customers to sign up for

an attractive product bundle: TV, internet, and telephony

(triple-play). VoIP telephony provided a viable alternative

to traditional fixed telephony for tens of thousands of

households. But the introduction of triple-play required new,

flexible back office systems to assure smooth order-to-bill

process support while guaranteeing high levels of customer

satisfaction. Moreover, historically Grupo TVCable’s billing

and customer care systems were decentralized, with each

geographical region managing its own local customer base

and billing operations. As the company grew, this setup was

becoming very inefficient and difficult to manage. A new

system was needed to bring it all under one roof.

The challenge – multiple systems instead of one

With the introduction of VoIP telephony, the concept of

usage-based billing became a critical issue for Grupo

TVCable. The company had two options: purchase a

dedicated standalone VoIP billing system, or a convergent

billing system that would support not only VoIP but also

all its existing services (CATV and internet) as well as new

innovative offerings in the future. Although migration to

a single convergent billing system initially seemed like a

grueling task, there were obvious long-term benefits of such

an approach. The main advantage was the ability to present

a subscriber with a unified bill for all services. This would also

simplify the payment handling process. In addition, having

to manage only one billing and customer care platform

would lower OPEX for Grupo TVCable, while at the same

time allowing it to offer specially priced product bundles

(packages) to its subscriber base. One final challenge was

the transformation of the BSS domain towards process-

driven and centralized product management, while still

being flexible enough to allow for regional offer and pricing

variations to better suit individual local market conditions.

Why Comarch?

“Prior to implementing the Comarch solution, Grupo TVCable

operated multiple regional back office instances, with

products, pricing, and billing managed locally in separate

databases and no centralized control. Early on, we realized

that if we wished to maintain the rapid growth of our

customer base, the back office systems must be centralized

in order to achieve transparency, consistency, and data

and process unification across the entire corporation. Yet

these systems must continue to allow us to stay attentive

to regional customer needs. And this is exactly why we

partnered with Comarch. It allowed us to introduce the level

of management control which is necessary to streamline

customer acquisition, billing, and support structure. The

resulting 25% reduction in operating costs allowed us to

offer more attractive pricing while improving our bottom

line.” – acknowledges Fernando Carrillo, VP of Information

Technology at Grupo TVCable.

TCOMARCH PRODUCTS & SERVICES:

Comarch Convergent Billing

Comarch Cash Desk

Comarch Customer Management

Comarch Business Process Management

Comarch InterPartner Billing (including Reconciliation)

Comarch Billing Mediation

Comarch Service Provisioning Mediation

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT 9

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

The ability to manage a unified order-to-bill cycle from

a central location provided Grupo TVCable with the level

of management control that was previously impossible.

Migration and switchover to the new system was performed

gradually, by region, thus unifying all customer account,

contract, and financial data across the country and across

the enterprise. Thanks to the underlying Business Process

Management tool, approximately 40 different workflow

processes were configured to simplify tasks and capture

information which previously was only noted on paper or

sometimes not recorded at all, such as information related

to technician visits at customer sites. These business

processes range from basic account and contract

management, adds, moves, changes, equipment swaps, and

service visits, through more complex resolutions of trouble

tickets, and advanced dunning scenarios. Moreover, Grupo

TVCable gained a competitive edge as the solution’s flexible

configuration enabled it to launch new national and regional

offers and product bundles with discounted pricing in a

matter of hours rather than days and weeks. In addition, the

time needed to connect and begin billing a new subscriber

was halved, while the time spent by technicians at customer

sites was reduced by nearly 30%. Significant cost reductions

were also achieved by centralizing the IT staff needed to

maintain the new BSS solution. Finally, top management can

now obtain accurate, consolidated customer care and billing

reports in minutes, not days, as was the case in the past.

An added benefit of having a unified data model and

a  centralized database is management reporting. The

solution implemented at Grupo TVCable comes with its own

flexible reporting engine which makes it possible to configure

and execute periodic and ad hoc reports on the activities

of the enterprise, both on a regional as well as a global

scale. It is now possible to quickly track and report on the

level of incoming orders, resources needed and consumed

during customer installations, technician visits and their

performance, amounts billed, and amounts still outstanding.

Historical data gathered in the system provides an

important source of information for top management about

the performance of the company, and helps make better

business decisions that will ensure Grupo TVCable’s leading

market position and allow it to offer new innovative products

and services in the future.

The result – increased operational efficiency thanks to a centralized BSS solution

Preceded by an in-depth requirement analysis, the resulting

Comarch BSS Suite implementation provided Grupo TVCable

with a centralized TV, internet, and IP telephony billing and

customer care system that was still capable of supporting

regional product offers for the various geographical markets

in which the company operates.

Figure 1. Comarch BSS Suite at Grupo TVCable

CUSTOMERGrupo TVCable, Ecuador

INDUSTRYCommunications

Grupo TVCable is the

largest MSO (multi

service operator) in

Ecuador. The company

was founded in 1986

when the construction

of a hybrid fiber co-ax

cable network linking

various major cities in

the country began. In

1987, the first subscribers

took advantage of Grupo

TVCable’s comprehensive

programming which

included cultural, family,

sports, news, movie,

music, and children’s

channels from all over

the world. Since then,

the subscriber base

has been constantly

growing as the network

coverage has expanded

to reach other parts of

the country, and as the

product portfolio has

broadened to include

internet access and

telephony services.

Today, Grupo TVCable’s

delivers high quality

communication,

entertainment and

educational offerings

to its subscribers

nationwide.

Billing System

Customer Management & Business Process Management

InterPartner Billing

Overdue Bill Callcula-tions & Dunning

Cash Desk

Accounting & Taxation

Account Mgmt

Carrier Settlements & Reconciliation

Order Mgmt

Trouble Ticketing

Rating &Billing

Mediation Platform

Printhouse

Banks/payments

Point of Sale

Call Center

Safari C3 soft switch

IntrawayProvisioning

Gateway

EMTA cable modems

AURIS(pin codes)

DAC6000Digital TV controller

ACCAnalog TV controller

Microwavecontroller

E-mail Controller

Comarch solution

Legend:

Service Provisioning MediationBilling Mediation

Invoices, CDR s, Products/Services, Prices,

Discounts, Customer Contracts, CustomerBase

Data

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT10

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT10

ultimedia Polska S.A. (MMP) is a multi-service

operator, established via the consolidation of

several regional cable TV providers. Prior to the

merger, each company concentrated on its own area

of interest, (cable TV, telephony and broadband) acting

independently and within its home region. As a result of

these acquisitions, Multimedia Polska S.A. has transformed

into a nationwide corporation, offering triple-play services

throughout Poland.

The business need: BSS consolidation

Consolidation resulted in the requirement for a wave of data

migration efforts from legacy Business Support Systems

used by particular daughter-companies, to a single, central

system capable of handling all regions and services under

MMP’s jurisdiction. A flexible and complete billing solution

was needed to perform the migration seamlessly, and the

Comarch Billing System proved to be the ideal choice.

Multimedia Polska S.A. decided to perform the migration from

the specific systems autonomously, in order to maintain

control and confidentiality of the migrated data. Such an

operation would have been unfeasible without the in-depth

technical knowledge possessed by MMP’s IT personnel,

and thus Comarch delivered this know-how through profound

product training, delivered as part of its solution. This

approach proved to be highly fruitful, and the customer’s

IT department succeeded in migrating a group of regional

operators into the new, centralized system. Tariff plan set-up

and overall configuration were performed by MMP, leveraging

for this purpose, a pre-defined API delivered by Comarch.

The challenge: a tool for winning price wars

Multi-service operators face rigorous competition, with

diversified geographical intensity. For instance, in some

major cities (or even, in particular streets) multiple operators

are present, whilst at other locations, there are none at all.

In order to compete effectively within these areas, operators

aim to vary their pricing and adjust it to local market

conditions.

Multimedia Polska S.A. was capable of pursuing such

a demanding sales policy, thanks to the Comarch Billing

System, which grants an operator the ability to define

various “regions”, with independent pricing schemes offered

to subscribers. Even the smallest of areas can receive its

own tailor-made offer (e.g. a single street perimeter), in this

way allowing an operator to fine-tune its pricing, and attain

a  competitive advantage over the competition.

This built-in mechanism enables MMP to effortlessly win

regional price wars so typical of the multi-service industry:

areas penetrated by intense competition can have a lower

price-tag attached with numerous discounts, whereas higher

margins can be enjoyed in “virgin” geographical regions.

Multimedia Polska S.A. offers triple-play services including:

Cable TV

Broadband Access

Video On Demand

Telephony

M

CUSTOMERMultimedia Polska S.A.

INDUSTRYCommunications

Multimedia Polska

S.A. is the third largest

nationwide cable

operator and provider

of digital television,

with video on demand,

broadband and mobile

data, and fixed-line and

mobile voice (mobilFON).

We were the first

operator in the country

to offer High Definition

Television (HDTV) with

numerous add-on

modalities, such as video

on demand (VoD) and

personal video recorder

(PVR) etc.

The company has been

listed on the Warsaw

Stock Exchange since

2006.

Multimedia Polska, a multi-service operator, has a new consolidated BSS

CUSTOMER SPOTLIGHT 11

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Figure 1. Comarch solution in MM environment

The result: “multi-service” product bundling

Subscribers can select between single and multiple services

from the portfolio. Since all services are managed by one

central billing system, discount schemes attached to

customer orders can be introduced by MMP. Such discounts

would apply to either single services, or service bundles

offered at more preferable prices in order to encourage

subscribers to order more. Even complex formulas are

possible, such as discount thresholds for one service

dependant on the consumption level of another service

(Cross Discount). Employing this method, the Comarch Billing

System allows MMP to concentrate purely on the needs of its

subscribers.

The Comarch Billing System, used by MMP as a replacement

for the various legacy systems of its daughter-companies,

avoided additional business obstacles deriving from

diversification of payment days for particular subscribers,

which had been introduced by previous architecture. Some

subscribers would pay in advance, while others had down-

payment plans defined within previous systems. MMP

needed to maintain this configuration within the new system,

in light of the fact that attempting to unify payment schemes

for all subscribers may have led to customer churn or cash-

flow disadvantages for the operator. Comarch tackled this

issue by featuring the individual configuration of payment

plans – whereby the payment day can be customized for

each subscriber, separately.

In this manner, data migration was performed transparently

for the subscribers, and there was no requirement to force

any changes to the contractual terms, allowing MMP to

dodge potential problems related to financial liquidity or

customer dissatisfaction.

Why Comarch: many technologies, one billing system

Multimedia Polska S.A. is a dynamic and highly flexible

operator. Possessing the relevant technical background,

MMP uses various technologies to offer its services: e.g.

DSL, HFC, WiFi, etc. Most importantly, independently of the

technologies in use, all services are now managed by one

billing system. This helps to reduce costs and improve daily

operations significantly.

“We value the Comarch Billing System, due to its

simultaneous comprehensiveness and flexibility. This

platform has seamlessly replaced various legacy systems,

and is currently used to bill all our services. In addition, we

enjoy the benefits of the new functionality it has provided us

with, enabling the initiation of successful product bundling

and pricing policy.” – states Mr. Krzysztof Jaskolski, CTO of

Multimedia Polska S.A.

Moreover, the nationwide scale of MMP’s business requires

the operator to maintain adequate technical support

resources (i.e. to perform on-site installation services).

In this way, MMP employs the Comarch WorkFlow task

management system, which is integrated with the billing

platform, also automating the majority of task management

efforts, improving daily performance even further.

COMARCH PRODUCTS & SERVICES:

Comarch Convergent Billing

Comarch Customer Management

Comarch Billing Mediation

Comarch Business Process Management

Comarch Cash Desk

Billing System

Customer Management & Business Process

Management

Commissions Calculating

Accounting & Taxation

Rating &Billing

Billing Mediation

General Ledger Call Center

ESB Others

NOC / provisioning

Printhouse

Debt Collection Agency

Data warehouse

Bank

Resource Management

Voice Exchanges VoIP Gateways VoD Sources Others

Comarch solution

Legend:

Overdue Bill Calculations &

Dunning

Invoices, CDR s, Products/Services, Prices,

Discounts, Customer Contracts, Customer Base

Data

Customer Contacts, Prospects, Workflows

IN FOCUS: BSS/OSS TRANSFORMATION12

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

IN FOCUS: BSS/OSS TRANSFORMATION12

Throughout the years of designing and delivering

IT  solutions for telecom operators I have witnessed

many transformations. Telcos were created

as startups, then formed their own business model and

constructed their IT to support their business yet in the end

(after a few years) they accumulated a backlog of unsolvable

problems proving unbearable - so they transformed.

A question comes to mind… they went through

a  transformation, but what does this mean? Usually they

would have transformed their aging IT, having it replaced with

a new more powerful and flexible package.

And so a second question springs to mind: did that solve

the accumulated backlog problem? Well, typically it would

have solved IT- related problems, but… problems which

were caused outside of IT still remained, regardless of how

many times IT itself was transformed. Furthermore, if IT was

transformed but business was not changed, then soon

enough the old patterns of doing business would start to

imprint old problems onto new IT.

So is there a way of solving the unsolvable through

transformation? Yes there is. Business Transformation is the

correct answer.

The right time for Business Transformation comes naturally

with the maturity of the telecommunications industry. Telcos

were formed years ago, through the course of this time

they grew, acquired other telcos or were acquired (some

even many times over) to finally end up in multi-technology

business groups. Nowadays, large telcos are often organized

as multiple companies doing more or less the same things,

but using different means and bravely solving problems that

they uniquely and unpredictably bring upon themselves.

It is worth noting that even if a group itself standardizes IT

platforms, employees of different group members will still

be organized differently and they will use these platforms in

their unique ways.

So what is this “Business Transformation”?

Business Transformation, i.e. changing the way of doing

business. Thus, Business Transformation is about changing

organization, changing business processes, changing

patterns of interactions and somewhere at the bottom of

the whole process, adjusting IT in order for it to match new

realities (where “adjusting” is most often just an euphemism

for “replacing”).

Business Transformation is much more than just changing IT.

However, changing IT may be the best known and controlled

element of all transformation aspects. After all, IT has been

changed, modified or transformed many times in the lifetime

of any mature CSP, so they know how to avoid typical

mistakes.

Business Transformation is difficult as it requires changing

an employees’ way of working, changing their habits,

re-distributing responsibilities, changing organization

charts (and in turn –titles and positions). This means that

the first and most important thing that is needed for such

a  transformation is the commitment of the executives, i.e.

the effective decision makers. When an organization is being

changed, vigorous disputes are held (“I want my team left

intact”), generating endless e-mail chains that are bound

to occur and could well impact the transformation. Unless

Management is prepared to use all of their executive powers

to firmly tell their employees “We are transforming and that

means that you are transforming too”.

IDEAS IN BRIEF:

Not all problems can be solved by changing IT

All problems can be solved by transforming business

Changing business affects an organization’s structure, end to end processes and IT

Transformation… what does this mean???

TOMASZ OMIECINSKI Comarch SA

Senior Manager,

Convergent BSS/OSS Solutions,

Telecommunications Business

Unit

IN FOCUS: BSS/OSS TRANSFORMATION 13

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

OK, let’s get started…but how?

Gaining commitment will not be possible if there

is no concrete transformation plan, which must

clearly define to what and how the business will

transform. As it is often easier to setup a new

business than to transform a mature organization,

the creation of such a plan must not be taken

lightly. The difficulty is in defining transformation

plans which grow with the size of the business

undergoing the transformation. In this context,

transforming multi-market & multi-country

businesses into a single “pan-geographical

business unit” elevates the challenge to yet

another level.

So how does one climb such a mountain? Well,

one way is to hire a leading consulting company,

which would provide thousands of hours of

services. As a result, a detailed report would be

filed that would summarize all of the existing

problems and would hold a list of means to

address them. The report would leave the decision

to the operator and each of the possible “ways out”

would be accompanied with tens (if not hundreds)

of pros and cons to make the decision process a

little bit “easier”. After drawing up such a report CSP

will not differ from where it started, apart from the

fact that now it would have a “summary problem

report” – which could make it easier to explain to

people that the problems exists and have to be

addressed.

Is there another way? Well, the operator could

go back to the good old TMF eTOM to decompose

its Frameworx (especially the Business Process

Framework – in its brand new Release 9 of course)

taking it apart in order to reconstruct the CSP’s

own business like a jigsaw puzzle. One should also

bear in mind all of the past experiences in order

to avoid missing some aspects that have been

inadequately dealt with before. Surprisingly as it

may sound, although multi-market transformations

present additional challenges, they also bring

big advantages as they allow to combine multi-

party and multi-country experiences into a single

business setup.

A second opinion should also be taken into

account, and rather than going for a theoretical

consulting view, it would be better to choose an

experienced IT partner who would share their

experiences in this area. What we mean is an

IT partner that has already delivered complete

business support suites on its own to a number

of CSPs. An IT partner who has built up its own

portfolio of best practices and standardized

systems in real-life projects. This is one of

circumstances where multi-vendor solutions

delivered by multiple integrators truly fail. Multi-

party deliveries do not allow a party to build

up practice in running end-to-end business

processes, navigating them through various

organizations and effectively supporting them in

different IT systems.

What does it take to execute the transformation?

1. The management’s commitment and

readiness to defend the program against

people who are prepared to go all the way to

derail the transformation in order to protect

their old ways.

2. Strength and dedication, never minding the

sleepless nights when forming and then

executing transformation plan. A plan that

has to be sound and robust if it is to result in

the management’s “GO” call.

3. Exquisite program/project management skills

in order to execute the plan in a controlled

manner, knowing that the transformation will

span across multiple levels, and will happen

in multiple parallel streams that will affect the

whole organization.

4. And last but not least – an IT partner. Yes,

“IT partner” and not “IT vendor”. Business

Transformation requires an IT partner who will

be prepared to be there with the CSP in the

long run. A partner who is ready to support

the transformation planning process a long

time before IT delivery starts. A partner with

goals that reach far beyond selling licenses or

man days of work.

How will the transformation efforts pay off?

1. It is THE way to free the CSP from the backlog

of problems accumulated throughout the

years.

2. It is THE way to re-compose business,

preparing it for new challenges.

3. It is THE most comprehensive way to

effectively invigorate a mature organization

to make it competitive and ready to race

head-to-head with those who have not been

burdened with years of bad experiences.

Why am I telling you all this?

I am currently taking part in a transformation

program – a multi-market and multi-country

Business Transformation. Comarch is supporting

it not only with BSS/OSS Suite components, but

provides CSPs with access to experience gathered

in previous projects.

The transformation is tiresome, the amount of work

is phenomenal (as I said, complexity grows quickly

with the size of the business undergoing the

transformation), yet I am personally proud that we

are the IT partner supporting the transformation,

and it is my privilege to work with people who have

the right attitude and show admirable commitment

to actually making things happen. People who

have prepared the plan and took their executives

message seriously. People who have organized

themselves in multiple streams and work tirelessly

on “seemingly unrelated” paths, all of which lead to

one common goal. People who have embarked on

a climb of the “transformation mountain”, no matter

what it takes.

Perhaps in one of the next issues of this magazine

I will be able to present how this transformation

was actually carried out and how it transformed

the businesses involved. As of now I can only say

that if you are tired of old problems that reoccur

over and over again, regardless of the times IT has

been changed – don’t be scared and go all the

way, follow the Business Transformation path.

IN FOCUS: BSS/OSS TRANSFORMATION14

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

How to avoid embarrassing challenges in projects – a vendor view

MAREK CIENKIEWICZ

Comarch SA

Implementation

Department Manager, OSS

Core, Telecommunications

Business Unit

IDEAS IN BRIEF:

Defining project owner is the clue

Precise definition of requirements and scope

Correct project organization

Without any doubt, embarrassing challenges

happen in projects, especially in IT. In this article

I will elaborate on the most common and most

important challenges of this kind.

The conclusions, which can generally be drawn from this

article, are based on the completion of five large OSS projects

for the largest players on the telecom market. These projects

have consumed a combined total of more than 18 years in

their collective completion. Thousands of man days have

been invested, with circa two hundred team members, just

by Comarch alone.

A lack of a project owner on the customer’s side

Let’s take a look at the first case. After the initial

implementation was finished, the first worrying signs

started to appear during prototyping sessions: future users

complained about a number of functionalities. They said,

that the system was not designed in a way that would suite

their current work, and that they would prefer to stick with

their current solutions. This tendency was becoming stronger

and stronger. Nevertheless, as a result of the management’s

decision, the next project phases were already defined.

Unfortunately, the customer had not yet assigned a project

manager or a technical manager able to make a binding

decision on the project scope. The project team existed, but

no clear responsibilities were assigned to customer’s team

members. As a result, nobody really encouraged the end

users to take advantage of our system – and consequently,

they did not show interest either. Management didn’t push

the users to switch to the new solution which would enable

them to work more efficiently.

What was the root cause for all these issues? It was only

after a few months that we found out that a project owner

was not defined on the customer side. This is definitely

the most difficult kind of challenge, as the vendor cannot

really change it. In this case, management was obviously

not supporting our project, limiting resources as much as

possible and handing over the overall responsibility to us.

So, we just presented our expectations concerning project

management and put a lot of effort to contact users: Webex

sessions were organized to demonstrate system capabilities

and they convinced some users but still, Comarch was

the one taking the risk of making technical decisions,

influencing system acceptance in a negative way.

Imprecise definition of project requirements and scope

The next challenge is, in my opinion, very common and

has been present in a greater or lesser extent in almost all

projects. Project scope is usually based upon the customer’s

request for proposal (RFP), the vendor’s offer and results

of an analysis. Some project assumptions were taken

from the offer and due to several reasons (lying on both

sides) analysis was not detailed enough. This resulted in

misunderstandings regarding the scope of the work and

revealed its full effect during acceptance tests. Questions

appeared: is this particular feature “in scope” vs. “not in

scope”? Such doubts may seriously endanger system

acceptance.

IN FOCUS: BSS/OSS TRANSFORMATION14

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Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

A project without challenges is not exciting. Therefore it is not the challenges that we should focus on, but rather the way to deal with them.

The reason was simple: imprecise definition of requirements

and scope – a difficult challenge to deal with. First, you

must convince the customer to define his requirements

precisely (which is already a challenge when dealing with big

enterprises): either by doing so in advance, before the project

starts (even more challenging), or by participating in the

creation of the work scope during analysis. Precise wording

in offers is self-evident.

A very interesting solution for this problem has a commercial

nature: the analysis may be ordered separately to the

implementation. This offers advantages for both sides. The

customer gets exactly what it wants for a reasonable price,

because the vendor does not have to assume a higher

implementation budget for risk coverage – as the scope

is known. Unfortunately, customers resist to accept this

proposal, especially at the project start. They prefer to have

a  fixed price for the entire scope and not risk – as they think –

wasting money on analysis which could lead to “nowhere”.

Incorrect project organization

The last embarrassing challenge, which is wide spread, can

sometimes be seen in the tiniest elements. Team members

are not prepared for workshops or testing, the training

environment is not prepared or firewall rules are not set.

Questions are answered after a significant amount of time,

due to lack of interest or communication issues. Such signs

can be easily neglected by project managers because they

might think they belong to “normal” issues or depend on

the customer and as such are the vendor’s concern. This

is not always the case. The issue here is incorrect project

organization.

One of the key means to overcome this is to set up a project

communication plan specifying who can communicate with

whom, when and by what means. Being introduced by a pro-

active project manager, the plan guarantees success – at

least in project organization.

A project without challenges is not exciting. Therefore it is

not the challenges that we should focus on, but rather the

way to deal with them. Having right means in place and time

is what we should concentrate on. This is the reason why

project management methodologies have been developed.

The Project Management Institute (PMI), PRINCE 2 and

Scrum are the most common in the IT world. There should

be no struggle to introduce changes in the strict approach.

In one of our projects we achieved very interesting effects

by setting up the base of project management on a formal

methodology, like PMI or PRINCE 2, and use Agile/Scrum

elements to a required extent in chosen project phases

such as analysis and specific configuration of software

(which were combined into one phase). Such an approach

enables to create a product in a flexible way, fulfilling

customer requirements much faster in comparison to

a strict waterfall-like management style. The project team

reacts quicker to changes and the customer observes the

progress of product development in regular, relatively short

intervals, of a maximum of two-three weeks. During this

time, organizational, reporting and commercial framework of

the project remains according to traditional methodologies,

which is beneficial for the customer and us.

IN FOCUS: BSS/OSS TRANSFORMATION16

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

In the old times, before barcodes and readers were

introduced, product offering and sales processes

in small grocery stores were quite simple. You

would just stick a price tag to the product and put it on the

shelf. The customer would then come in, take the product,

and get charged by the person managing the cash register.

Despite the fact that entering prices manually was more

time-consuming, at least the product offer definition was

simple and the offer was completed in short time.

In the telecom business, the situation also used to be much

simpler then it is today. Nowadays, product offers and

definitions consist of many different elements including

price, target group, distribution channel and offer validity

time. And since an operator often has thousands of products

created, managed and offered by multiple departments,

managing the product portfolio may become very complex

and ineffective. This drawback grows even greater, as

product lifetimes get shorter (e.g. promotions / personalized

prices) and the number of product variations keeps growing.

The situation can be better pictured from the end-customer’s

perspective. A customer notices an offer about a new

smartphone with attractive, low monthly fees. He goes to

a point of sale and wants to purchase the smartphone with

a mobile broadband service. The dealer enters the order

into the system and tells the customer the estimated time

when the service will become active. The estimated time

comes, but the service doesn’t become active. As a result,

the customer gets frustrated and returns the smartphone to

the point of sale. Then he goes to another operator’s point

of sale, where he buys a similar smartphone and gets the

service activated in one hour. What went wrong?

Challenge 1 – difficulties in managing multiple systems

The operators that have existed on the market for many

years may have products defined and maintained in multiple

systems from different vendors. One billing system handles

mobile services, another deals with fixed line telephony

services, and yet another is for cable TV services. All these

systems need to support sales-related applications such

as CRM, a self care portal and a point of sale system.

A customer service agent should use the same CRM

applications for mobile, fixed and cable TV services, so the

sales-related applications need to be able to use all the

product data that has been scattered across many systems,

and present this data in a unified format.

Developing a telecom operator’s business (adding new

business models, entering new regions, involving in mergers

& acquisitions) calls for the addition of new systems,

databases, terminologies, data structures and new levels

of information quality. As a result, the operator has multiple

data models for products managed in various systems. The

old BSS system that handles fixed line services may not be

as flexible as the new system that handles mobile service

offerings.

If the old and new systems are using different terminologies

to describe the same things, systems cease to “speak the

same language”. In turn, the people working with product

data (e.g. product managers and call center agents), who

need to get an overview of product status, face difficulties

in obtaining the information they want. This increases the

amount of time-consuming manual work, entailing more

costs and errors in the service delivery process. Bringing new

services into the market using a platform with no common

IDEAS IN BRIEF:

The disadvantages of having multiple product catalogs

How Comarch approaches BSS transformation in terms of a product catalog-centric architecture

What impact can a product catalog have on customer experience

The advantages of product catalog-centric BSS

IN FOCUS: BSS/OSS TRANSFORMATION16

IN FOCUS: BSS/OSS TRANSFORMATION 17

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

language can be very challenging, and may give an edge

to competitors. Operators cannot evaluate their current

business performance well, if the underlying system does

not provide a consistent, single view of the situation.

Challenge 2 – complexity of new product definitions

Data consistency is not the only challenge. When a product

manager is designing new products and offerings, he should

be able to design them effectively, without needing to repeat

the same work multiple times using various applications. The

same should be possible during the implementation of the

product.

Having many parallel systems for product management can

bring various disadvantages:

Duplicated work. Depending on the system, the data

model may be different so one data structure cannot

be used for multiple products. This entails product

managers’ additional effort at product definition stage

and disables product inheritance. All of this means a lot

of time is spent making similar configurations instead

of re-using existing ones.

Complicated maintenance of product data. Managing

existing product data and reconciliation of the data

between products and systems becomes complex,

leading to increased effort on the side of service

providers’ staff.

Lack of consistent product performance data. It may be

difficult to get an overview about the products defined in

different systems. To analyze the overall product portfolio,

the product manager may need to browse data in multiple

systems, which takes more time.

All these disadvantages are slowing down the operator’s

business. This becomes a severe drawback, damaging the

operator’s ability to respond swiftly to changing market

conditions. Apart from time to market on new product

launches, operators need to think about product life cycles

that are getting shorter nowadays. This calls for effective

management of the product retirement strategy, in order to

keep maintenance and retiring costs under control. This is

also a relatively new challenge. Back when fixed-line voice

telephony was almost the only type of service, retirement

was not essential, as the same service could have been

offered for years.

Challenge 3 – geopardized customer experience

The problems occurring from the complex definition and

management of products won’t only affect the product

management department. These problems can eventually

damage the customer experience too. If the product data is

inconsistent, the order management process may encounter

difficulties, for example in situations where incorrect product

data (e.g. wrong price) would be presented to the customer.

Additional difficulties may occur from the service fulfillment

process. For example, the service activation component of

an operator’s BSS platform may obtain wrong data (e.g. in

case multiple database are used) so the wrong product is

activated as a result. This entails dissatisfaction on the end

customer’s side. The damaged customer experience may not

only increase churn rate, but also customer service costs.

To conclude, operators can no longer afford fragmented and

inconsistent product catalogs. They are too time consuming

to manage, which is a huge burden for operators struggling

to optimize their business processes. A centralized product

catalog also shortens the time-to-market, which entails cost

savings (products are designed with less manual effort)

Nowadays, product offers and definitions consist of many different elements including price, target group, distribution channel and offer validity time. And since an operator often has thousands of products created, managed and offered by multiple departments, managing the product portfolio may become very complex and ineffective.

PEKKA VALITALO Comarch SA

BSS Market Analyst,

Telecommunications

Business Unit

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Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

and revenue loss elimination (delayed product launches

result in lack of revenues from the products). It also enables

definition of new products and management of the product

life cycle using a single system. The system services multiple

stakeholders of the operator (e.g. product managers, sales

and marketing), while using a single, consistent data model

for product data standardization.

Comarch’s solution

A central product management should cover offer and

product specification, product relationship definition, and

a possibility to specify which products are exclusive or

sold only as a component of a bigger package. It should

also provide tools for defining target customer types, offer

locations and many other parameters. Central product

management should be an integral part of the BSS

architecture, fully integrated with its other components.

Based on these principles, Comarch has designed its

Central Product Manager (CPM). The Figure 1. presents the

logical architecture of the product. Comarch Central Product

Manager is located between the Sales Channels, Order

Management, Service Activator, and Billing System layers.

As shown in Figure 1, the Sales Channels group includes CRM,

Self Care and Dealer Care applications. This group may also

contain other Comarch or third party applications that are

supporting the sales process.

The most important element here is Order Capture, integrated

with CPM and Order Management. The Order Capture element

gathers complete order data and sends it to the Order

Management component. In addition to the basic information

delivered from the CPM for the order capture process (e.g.

product and price information), CPM can bring additional

value to the process by providing sales recommendations

and price quotations. Integration between CPM and the

underlying billing system depends on the billing systems’

capabilities. In the case of Comarch Convergent Billing

integration is performed using pre-defined interfaces and

pricing algorithms as the main tools for sharing information

between systems.

The order gets sent from the Order Management module

to the Service Activator. This module can perform complex

service fulfillment tasks, consisting of various steps and

based on workflows. Such functionalities provide enable the

operator to flexibly customize business processes.

Figure 1. Comarch Central Product Manager architecture

Sales Channels

CRM

Order Capture

Self Care

Order Capture

Dealer Care

Order Capture

Central Product Manager

Billing System Service Activator

Product Inventory

Order Management

Specification Manager

Product Offering Manager

Product Catalog Manager

Sales Network Manager

Cart Manager

Recommendation Engine

Quotation Engine

Product Configurator

Pricing Algorithms

Order Manager

Service Catalog

BPM / Order Orchestration

Service Fulfillment

Product Instances

Rating Elements

Workbench

Product Information Publisher

Product Lifecycle Management

Initial Data Importer

Integration & Administration

Linking Mapping

Specification & Offering Management

Sales Support

Operators can no longer afford fragmented and inconsistent product catalogs. They are too time consuming to manage, which is a huge burden for operators struggling to optimize their business processes.

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Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

The Product Inventory module is used for managing

product instances, which store information about the

product offerings to which customers subscribed, and

subscription conditions. It provides an interface for other

modules (especially Order Management) to create and

terminate product instances, and for obtaining information

about product instances e.g. by the CRM application in

the sales channel layer. Example case can be where the

CRM application is used to terminate a specific product

subscription from a customer or to get current subscriptions.

Information model based on SID

As the product structures of operators usually depend on

multiple legacy systems managing product data in their own

databases, managing this data becomes complex. To enable

managing products centrally and making them “speak the

same language”, consistent data and terminology must be

applied to product-related information. Only this way product

life cycle management can be applied effectively.

To achieve this, Comarch based its Central Product Manager

on the TM Forum Information Framework, also called

the Shared Information Data (SID) model. The SID model

provides a single information / data reference model and

a common information / data vocabulary from a business

entity perspective. The model is becoming widely adopted

among the telco operators, so it means that the integrations

between systems from different vendors can use a similar

data model which facilitates system integration.

Product and offer definition

Operators that have complicated product catalogs scattered

around multiple systems can still use these catalogs to

launch new products. But this means product managers

will struggle with duplicated product information, keeping

fragmented data consistent and maintaining integrated

legacy systems. Additionally, legacy systems can limit the

creativity of product managers in defining products and

offers, whereas a modern BSS with centralized product

catalog improves the situation significantly. It enables

product managers to define any kind of associations

and rules in relation to the products. It also ensures

product data is available for sales channel applications,

order management, billing system and service activation

components. Managing product specifications and defining

associations in Comarch’s CPM is possible thanks to the

specification manager component.

One of the essential processes that a central product catalog

should enable is product life cycle management (PLM), which

facilitates maintenance and retirement of products. Faced

with an increasing number of offered services and shorter

service lifetimes, operators must focus on their service

retirement strategies.

Comarch Central Product Manager enables operators to

deploy their PLM processes effectively. After a product is

defined in the system, it must be made available as an

offer to the customers. Different offers may be targeted e.g.

based on the end customer type, geographical location,

or sales channel (point of sale / web shop). Comarch CPM

provides a  large set of capabilities for preparing offers such

as definition of: prices, promotions, upgrade rules as well as

publication and termination rules.

In the stage of product definition, Comarch CPM simplifies

configuration and allows the existing specifications to

be re-used easily by providing an advanced inheritance

functionality based on a mix-in concept. For example,

products can be inherited by various versions with slight

changes, leading to saved time and effort. Multiple products

can be mixed in – thus the inheritance can be used while

keeping the hierarchies of the products.

Inbound and outbound integration

Although the product catalog provides a central point for

managing products and storing master data, it must be used

in tandem with legacy BSS systems. It should provide various

possibilities for inbound and outbound integration with

legacy BSS systems that may not support the SID model.

Comarch CPM provides a Data Importer component that

supports data migration from legacy systems – the imported

data can be used as an entry point for configuring a full

product catalog with marketing offers.

The data can also be exported from Central Product Manager

to legacy systems. In such a case, the replication module

of the Central Product Manager can be used. This is useful

in situations where online integration cannot be performed

and data needs to be replicated into the format of the target

legacy system.

Accelerating sales support

A customer service representative needs information about

the products that are available to a customer. Presenting

information about the products that the customer cannot

purchase makes no sense, because it will lead to situations

where invalid information is given to the customer, and

may entail order drop-out as well as reduced customer

satisfaction.

One of the essential processes that a central product catalog should enable is product life cycle management (PLM), which facilitates maintenance and retirement of products.

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Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Therefore, the CRM system needs to use the available

product and offering data from the product catalog.

Additional information could be delivered from the product

catalog to the sales channel applications to facilitate the

order capture process. The CRM application should be able

to access the information in the product catalog about

available products during customer interaction, together with

quotations for the products that the customer would like to

contract. In addition, the central product manager should

analyze the data about customer’s current services and

provide sales recommendations to the CRM applications,

based on the customer data (for example current

agreements, consumption information).

A sample scenario will be best to describe how the product

catalog can support the sales process. A customer goes to

a point of sale and wants to buy two smartphones: one for

him and one for his wife. The customer service agent gets a

list of available smartphones on his screen. After selecting

the smartphone, the list of available tariff plans appears on

the screen. Only those tariff plans that can be used with

the smartphones are shown, so there is no possibility of

error during the contracting process. Next, the appropriate

payment details are chosen. For example, information

such as whether the customer would like to have both

smartphones billed on the same invoice. After capturing all

the order details, the service agent can provide an accurate

quotation and the estimated service activation time, based

on the data from the central product manager.

The sales process is also supported by the Cart Manager

component of Comarch CPM. It supports the order capture

process by exposing an advanced interface, which can be

used by external applications such as CRM or a self service

portal, providing information about products to the sales

channel layer. The Cart Manager provides information on

products which are available for specific customers, and

enables order building using a cart, as in web shops (building

an order is like adding items to the cart). This component

can also be integrated with the external serviceability check

systems to verify in real time which service can be installed

at customer’s premises. This reduces the risk of order drop-

outs and service activation errors. The Recommendation

Engine functionality of the Cart Manager is exposed to

sales channels using the same interface. It generates sales

recommendations based on various conditions, to support

the Cart Manager in the Order Capture process.

Comarch CPM also contains a Quotation Engine that

can estimate prices for the currently selected products.

Customers who are interested in purchasing multiple

products, either separately or in bundles, can be informed

about the total cost of their order. If the tariff plans are based

on multiple parameters (monthly fee, usage fee, initial fee

etc.), the customer can obtain information about upcoming

costs, which reduces the risk of bill shock. In addition, the

Quotation Engine is useful for preparing quotations for

business customers, who would like to purchase a large set

of products at the same time, as it provides them with full

transparency of the costs.

The advantages of Comarch Central Product Manager from

the sales perspective include:

Consistent information about products and offers for

the customer – reduced risk of inaccurate prices and

other data inconsistencies.

More accurate order management and service

fulfillment process – leading to fewer order drop-outs

and fewer service activation errors.

Personalized products, due to flexible product creation

– the underlying platform is no longer limiting the

creativity of new product definitions.

Better up-selling and cross-selling opportunities,

originating from the recommendation engine

component.

Business process optimization

To maximize the benefits of switching to centralized product

catalog, associated business processes should be optimized.

As the product catalog has an impact on many different

business processes, such as sales, order management,

service fulfillment and billing, it needs to support seamless

integration of these activities. Composing the end to end

process that translates the customer order into service

fulfillment accelerates the operator’s revenue flow, as the

service is activated with fewer drop-outs or errors.

Conclusions

The operators need to improve their agility when introducing

new products to the market. Multiple legacy systems

containing product data that is scattered around multiple

databases increases operating costs, increases the risk of

errors and slows down product development.

Having the product data available and manageable from a

single location accelerates the operator’s business. Not only

can it speed up product management, it also reduces the

cost of system maintenance, improves customer experience,

and increases visibility of the business performance.

Centralized product catalog is the perfect answer to these

challenges.

The advantages of Comarch Central Product Manager from the sales perspective include:

+ Consistent information about products and offers for the customer

+ More accurate order management and service fulfillment process

+ Personalized products, due to flexible product creation

+ Better up-selling and cross-selling opportunities

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Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

f you ask telecommunication executives, which

process is crucial for their company’s operations,

probably most of them will answer that it is the

order-to-cash or order-to-cash-related process. Moreover,

if you ask, which one is the most complex and was recently

or is currently planned to be optimized or transformed, the

answer would be almost always the same. This is because

the order-to-cash process generally affects the strategic

aspects of most telecom businesses: improves time to

market for new services and, if effective, increases market

share. The process is attractive from many points of view

(integrations, workflows, etc.) and the concept of making it

efficient and flexible with certain tools is essential.

However, sometimes there is no time to consider one very

important aspect of the process. An aspect that is often

covered in one point on the transformation map or presented

as one particular step, but that has remarkable impact

on many areas of CSPs’ core activities, such as customer

service or network operations. This aspect is field service,

an area which can be described as all of the activities that

have to be carried out at the customers or networks location,

in order to complete the order-to-cash process and start

collecting charges for the service. This activity however, is

complex and has to be managed well.

Order-to-cash in telecommunications

Before elaborating on field service, let’s take a look at the

standard order-to-cash process. Generally there is no such

thing as a “standard” process here, as it is unique for every

CSP when you look at the details, but on a high level it is

possible to pinpoint its universal stages:

Order Capture – an order may get captured from

various sources and channels. A dedicated system

then receives a new instance of an event-driven

process. From a technical point of view it comes down

to integrating with a complex IT environment. From this

moment on, the order processing system is responsible

for the order fulfillment process.

Order Data Collection – after the process is launched,

the system has to collect all data that may be

significant for process purposes. This step can be

partially executed through manual activities, and often

involves many interactions with external sources of

information that are necessary to process the order

(e.g. inventory data, customer data, billing history, etc.).

Order Validation – it is important to validate all collected

data in order to process the new order properly.

I

SZYMON UCZCIWEK Comarch SA

FSM Product Manager,

Telecommunications

Business Unit

Increase efficiency of order-to-cash processeswith optimal field service management

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Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Order Processing – according to its purpose, the

order has to be processed in many departments and

in many supporting systems. The order processing

system is responsible for accurate workflow and for

all events which may have an impact on the order.

Order processing can be related with decomposing the

general order into many tasks which are processed in

many systems.

Order Verification – this step plays a significant role

in ensuring the efficiency of the process, due to the

reduction of redundant activities.

Order Completion – is one of the most delicate steps

of the process. It influences the entire business of the

company and the way it is perceived by the customer. If

this step involves any kind of field service activity, then

not only the company specialist but also the customer

plays an important role in the execution of the task.

Service Installed – after all activities in the process

(especially on-site ones) are executed, the new service

is provisioned and the customer may enjoy its new

services.

Customer Charging - when all data is sent to the

rating and charging systems, payment for the service

is calculated and the order-to-cash process is then

completed.

Most of the steps mentioned above relate to a proper

order processing engine and flexible integration with the IT

environment. As has been mentioned, the execution of tasks

needed to fulfill the order may involve field activity. In such

a case, even if the workflow is flexible and the system is well

integrated with CRM, it may not be enough, due to the unique

character of field services.

The unique character of field service

Field service (e.g. on-site installation) is often treated as

part of the general workflow in the process and is managed

the same way as do other manual activities. Field service is

different from other activities performed during the execution

of a process, this is due to the fact that it is related to the

mobile workforce, performed in the field and executed

at the customers or networks location. Mobile workforce

means that resources are not stored in a warehouse or

based in an office. When something in the service has to

be changed, changing it may pose a challenge if you don’t

have proper tools. A service is executed in the field, so there

is an additional and crucial aspect – driving time (equal to

a technician’s working hours spend on route) and driving

costs (vehicles, mileage, carbon footprints and many others).

Without any dedicated processes, this time and cost may be

really significant (see the section related to costs). Probably

the most important aspect is that all field activities are

performed at the customers or networks’ location.

Figure 1. Example of order-to-cash process supported by CRM, OSS and Field Service Management systems

CRM

OSS

FSM

1. Find Customer

in CRM

2. Select package

3. Check & reserve

A. Feasibility Check Process

C. Resource Reservation

Process

D. Service activation Process

Check & Reverse Request

YES

NO

B. Schedule manual intervention

5b. Inform customer

about 6. Contracting

7. Service activation request (auto)

Trouble Ticket Resolution

8. Customer premise

installation scheduling

5a. Notify customer: Service not possible

suggest “another data service”

4. Inform customer about manual intervention

and expected time of response

7a. Inform customer about

problem and expected time

of response Home install ordered?

Service OK?

Reservation OK?

Feasible?

Activation OK?

Order registration

Execute task

I. Local Exchange Process

Order registration

Execute task

II. Customer Installation Process

YES

YES

YES

YES

YES

PROCESS START Customer Call

NO

NO

NONO

SA Request

Home Visit Result

Home Visit Result

OSS Process Result SA Result

Mobile workforce means that resources are not stored in a warehouse or based in an office.

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Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Network location aspects include access keys, procedures

and run services, whereas customer location aspects

include appointment time, a possibility of a customer not

being found on-site, and most importantly - customer

experience. Because of these three main differentiators of

field service, tools which are implemented to support the

organization in field service management, should consider:

Driving time - should be supported by a GIS system. The

more aspects of geographical information are included

in routes calculation (i.e. traffic information), the more

efficient will the solution be. Moreover, routes should

be calculated globally for the whole department. It is

not crucial to prepare the most cost-effective route in

the context of only one technician. It should be optimal,

taking into consideration all tasks and all resources.

Task priorities – some customers or tasks should be

attended to quicker than others because of their value

to the company or their impact on services.

SLA – a very important factor for customer service. If a

CSP needs to achieve a customer churn rate lower than

20%, its technicians must always be on time (with only

15 possible minutes of delay, if no green option was

chosen by the customer or in a set range of time when

the green option was selected).

Warranty – if it is a service call within the warranty

period.

Technician skills matched with order parameters – so

that field work orders are assigned to the appropriate

technicians.

Task duration – calculated based on history data (may

be changed by a technician on site).

Real-time management of any changes in the field

which may appear; if not supported by proper tools

may be unexpected.

All these things in the order-to-cash process are essential

for its efficiency. But how to measure the exact impact and

what specifically affects field service management in the

order-to-cash process?

Figure 2. Optimal field service delivery process and tools for supporting the process

New Service Call

Dispatching

Technician On Route

Task Execution

Order Completed

Visit reservationReal time scheduling

Automated schedulingSchedule optimization

Routes optimizationLocation based scheduling

On-line schedulesTask detailsOn-line completion reports

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Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

It is all about KPI’s

To have full knowledge about the situation and efficiency

of the order-to-cash process, you can use metrics which

describe how the company handles this part of operations.

There are many KPIs used for this purpose, but let’s focus just

on some of them and examine what influence field service

has on them:

Process time – if the order-to-cash process is

automated, it can be completed quite quickly, in

minutes or even seconds. If there are some manual

back office steps, it can be measured in minutes, but if

it is field service, it has to be measured in weeks. First

of all, an important strategy to boost performance is

to limit field service to the minimum, by automating

tasks performed on the network. In many cases it is

not possible to fully automate it and field intervention is

required. In such cases well implemented field service

management can reduce the process duration from

weeks to days or even hours.

Process cost – operational expenditures of automated

processes are generally low and still the main cost

will be field service. Because it can’t be off-shored,

people, vehicles, petrol are a significant part of the cost

process, and can be only reduced by lean management

supported by dedicated systems.

First time fix rate – a crucial KPI, which has impact not

only on the process. If the process is not finished during

the first visit, then the costs of order completion are

significantly larger and the cost of repetitive truck rolls

is really high. But, there is something more to it. This KPI

is deeply correlated with customer experience. First call

resolution is crucial for customer satisfaction. Without

skilled technicians, provided with mobile access to all

important data and without reactive rescheduling, it is

impossible to achieve its improvement.

Correction costs – similar as in the Process Cost KPI

but with a negative impact on customer experience.

Time to market - the time in which the service is

launched – a major aspect of the order-to-cash

process. The period of time when the process was not

completed should not be charged to the customer’s

bill considering the customer was not serviced. This

is regarded as a more complex process. In this case

the service provider bears not only costs of resources

but also costs of not holding prospective income from

services.

These are not all the possible KPIs, but if the process is

related to on-site activity, these are the most important

elements of the process. So why wasn’t it registered as

something important by the service providers and resolved

many years ago? Maybe the cost of field service is not high

enough or savings from dedicated tools are not significant

enough? Or maybe the cost of technology is higher than the

benefits? The answer is very short – none of the above. I will

try to support this answer with real numbers presented below.

Cost inefficiencies don’t have to fly under the radar

Although in industrialized countries services are a major part

of their economies, the main improvements in productivity still

relate mainly to improvements in manufacturing. However, the

problem of service performance (especially field services) is

remarkable. Even mid-market service providers, for example

with 150 field employees, can waste about 1mln EUR.

In Figure 3 you can see a calculation made by Comarch, based

on an experience in delivering field service management tools

and market research. Savings include all ingredients of TCO

for dedicated tools. How is it possible and why is it still not

resolved, even in companies which have been on the market

for over 100 years? Researchers from British Telecom in their

book “Service Chain Management – Technology Innovation

for the Service Business” claim that this is a consequence of

an uncompetitive regulated market and a result of high profit

margins, leaving little room for the operational inefficiencies

to “fly under the radar”. But the situation has changed and

now the market is becoming competitive and customer-

centric at the same time. So to cut costs, maximize resource

performance and customer experience improvements in the

area of field service, the following aspects are required to:

Improved technician productivity and efficiency due

to providing them with mobile access to task details,

optimized scheduling and routing, as well as accurate

resource management.

Dispatchers equipped with automatic tools for

scheduling - a real-time dispatcher management board,

GIS support and direct contact with technicians, thanks

to mobile access provided for technicians.

Advanced scheduling methods which enable the

calculation of schedules while considering every

aspect of field work orders, including even the most

complex SLA rules.

Easy access to information - when technicians know

what to do and can check their current task list while

in the field, the customer knows the exact time of the

technician’s visit and the CRM is seamlessly integrated,

tasks are completed on the first visit and customers are

satisfied.

Maybe the cost of field service is not high enough or savings from dedicated tools are not significant enough? Or maybe the cost of technology is higher than the benefits? The answer is very short - none of the above.

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Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Conclusions

As order-to-cash is a crucial process for every telecom

service provider it should be organized as well as possible.

At the same time it is one of the most frequently executed

processes, so any improvement in it has to be multiplied

by thousands. One of the aspects of the process is field

service. As cost of work still increases in OECD countries,

mileage has to be reduced, due to costs and requirements

for sustainability regarding these processes. Therefore, the

proper management of field service becomes a necessity,

and the process has to be comprehensively supported by

tools which really make a difference.

Figure 3. Calculation of cost savings after implementation of dedicated tools for field service management

(fsm.comarch.com)

The proper management of field service becomes a necessity and the process has to be comprehensively supported by tools which really make a difference.

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Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

ow can the strategic goal of any communication

service provider – increasing the market share

– be achieved practically in mature, saturated

markets with significant competition from established

players and new entrants?

First of all, no company can grow without protecting

its existing market share effectively. This task can be

achieved by management of customer satisfaction and

loyalty, competitive benchmarking, and ensuring high

quality of service. The second task - increasing the market

share and entering new markets - can be much more

challenging as it requires a comprehensive, bottom-up

transformation. At one end of the spectrum there are

mergers and acquisitions – rare, but spectacular events.

At the other end lies continuous marketing innovation

– regular shipments of small yet bright, differentiating

ideas in areas such as product, pricing, market segment,

distribution, and promotion. This kind of innovation plays

a pivotal role in enabling growth, but does not require the

development of products from the pages of a science

fiction novel. It’s often more than enough to fix a small

difficulty in a customer’s everyday life, increase availability

and convenience of using a telecom service provider’s

products, or improve customer experience.

Communication service providers often have a vision

about how to approach these tasks, but there are ways

to improve the effectiveness of executing them. Having

already invested so much in next generation networks

and OSS in recent years, operators need to monetize

these investments. Their goal may be set on customer

intimacy or product leadership, and their network may

have the required capabilities and potential, but in terms

of BSS architecture, many service providers are still in

the world of product silos and fragmented processes.

Hundreds of big and small applications forming the overall

IT landscape make business goals difficult to reach and

seriously constrain the operators’ ability to reinvent their

offerings dynamically. They hinder attempts to leverage

relationships with customers and partners in new ways.

Overall, this situation can lead to stagnation and loss of

market share to rivals.

Enabling sales-driven product innovation

Customers, especially in the enterprise segment, expect

customized products and services - well aligned to their

ICT needs, budget, and corporate goals in general. Thus,

selling mobile subscriptions at a discounted price may no

longer be a viable market strategy when the product is so

commoditized and it’s hard to differentiate one operator’s

offer from all the others.

Imagine an eco-friendly company as your potential

customer. Given that all operators can offer a similar price,

network quality and customer service, how can you win

this opportunity? It’s by making your offer unique – aligned

How will you benefitfrom BSS transformation

H

IDEAS IN BRIEF:

Enabling sales-driven product innovation

Delivering a personalized customer experience

Moving operations and customer interactions to the Web

Focusing on exploring market segments and niches

Leveraging partnerships to maximize returns on core assets

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Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Without an IT architecture built around a  centralized product catalog and capable of utilizing 360-degree customer information negative customer experiences are more than likely to occur repeatedly.

to this company’s values. Providing a conveniently

packaged “environmental protection solution” - for

example consisting of an online conference product and

a  pack of mobile subscriptions for a predictable monthly

fee and with an estimated overall CO2 footprint.

Bundling existing products into a tailored solution

during the sales process makes your offer stand out

and increases the probability of converting a lead into

a  customer. But there are still some questions that need

to be answered. Does your sales force automation system

support selling ad hoc solutions based on products

defined in the billing system? Can your fulfillment rely

on integration and mapping of products to customer-

facing services and in turn to resource-facing services, to

ensure fast and faultless delivery? Is your billing system

able to put exactly the same solution name, price and

solution item structure on the invoice as in the agreement?

Unfortunately, for many service providers – even market

leaders – the answer to these questions is no.

We spent a lot of time and effort to develop a solution that

would help you solve these challenges. Our Comarch BSS

Suite is now fully equipped with features that let you easily

define and sell customized packages made of existing

products, and offer them to specific customer segments.

Such customer-dedicated solutions are instantly available

for use in the CRM sales and ordering, as well as fulfillment

and billing modules. Thanks to the centralized product

management concept of Comarch BSS, such ad hoc

product bundles are consistently handled across the

solution – from lead, through order, to invoice – in terms of

naming, pricing and business rules.

Delivering a personalized customer experience

Personalization of product features, customer service and

marketing communications has a strong, positive influence

on customer experience and loyalty. This potential often

goes to waste. First of all, there are countless examples of

customers disappointed at being treated in a standardized,

mediocre way. Imagine you make heavy use of your mobile

internet service, and receive a loyalty offer for contract

renewal where you can choose between a pack of free

airtime minutes and a pack of free text messages, but

nothing else. Since you’re mainly using your phone for

downloading content, social networking or playing games

online, and only occasionally to call someone or send an

SMS, such an offer will be unattractive to you, but may

even be annoying. An ideal offer would take your profile into

account and include additional options of free data traffic

or free downloads packages.

How do such situations occur, with a complete history of

customer transactions - usage data, payments, service

channels interactions, orders, trouble tickets, leads and

campaign data being stored in the service provider’s

databases? With regards to personalization of products

and customer relationships, this data should be treated

as a “treasure chest” and leveraged for the highest level of

customer satisfaction.

What makes this treasure so hard to be effectively used by

product management, sales, customer service and loyalty

teams? It’s the fact that the data is scattered between

numerous data stores, applications and processes.

Without an IT architecture built around a centralized

product catalog and capable of utilizing 360-degree

customer information such negative customer experiences

are more than likely to occur repeatedly.

But personalization of customer dialogue based on

a 360-degree view and analytics is only one of many

promising possibilities. There are also opportunities in

policy management, pricing, bundling and service delivery.

Take policy management as an example – regulators have

taken care of some aspects, such as bill shock prevention.

But customers expect not only more transparency in their

service usage and spending profile. They also seek flexibility,

to tweak thresholds and rules, both on a per-subscription

basis, and within broader units such as a   household

or a company. Other examples of innovations through

personalization include on-demand quality of service

(QoS) adjustments, dynamic pricing based on network

characteristics, or pick-and-choose TV channel packages.

These opportunities also create multiple difficulties for

service providers in terms of OSS-BSS data and events

integration, configuration management through different

customer service channels (including self-service), or

setting up dynamic QoS-driven pricing schemes.

Comarch BSS enables a service provider’s employees to

access and leverage a 360-degree view of a customer

relationship. As a centralized system with configurable

business rules, Comarch BSS helps you personalize

customer experience by differentiating product offerings,

process flows, service levels, and marketing activities

based on customer preferences and trends. In addition, by

using flexible data and functionality access rules, you can

empower your partners - resellers, dealers and telesales

- with the same information and tools your employees

use, thus increasing coherence of customer experience

across various channels. Comarch BSS also provides an

advanced, user-friendly self-service portal for end users

as well as telco managers working for your customers, to

manage their personalized service profiles.

PAWEŁ LAMIK Comarch SA

CRM Product Manager,

Telecommunications

Business Unit

IN FOCUS: BSS/OSS TRANSFORMATION28

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Moving operations and customer interactions to the web

Customer self-service and online selling have the potential

to reduce a significant portion of a service provider’s

repetitive, day to day sales and customer service tasks,

including exchange of paper documents and costly face

to face or phone-based interactions. Most individuals

and companies are used to searching, buying and even

consuming products online, not to mention fostering their

relationships with other people on the web. An information

portal was the first step in a service provider’s online

presence.

Opening internal systems to customers and partners is the

next step. It is a proven method for service providers to

reduce the cost of customer service and billing. It enables

them to offer customers better pricing transparency by

allowing them to browse their bills, service usage data and

detailed charges. This way, customers know what they are

paying for, which leads to higher customer satisfaction.

But providing such capabilities to customers is now

becoming more of a best practice then a novelty. Today,

the innovation and differentiation is in the effectiveness of

tackling the key challenge of turning your web portal into

a robust sales tool; when this happens, it becomes not

only a significant source of leads and orders but also a

preferred customer service channel. Among the issues of

security, usability, performance, licenses or flexibility, one

of the toughest challenges service providers face in this

matter is user adoption.

Comarch BSS offers a user-friendly set of self-service tools

for your customers and partners, making it easy for them

to order, receive bills and manage subscriptions online.

With the Comarch solution, thanks to channel-dependant

product offering rules and pricing, motivating customers

to use the online channel is going to become easier

than ever. User adoption and partner productivity is also

improved through dedicated self-service portal features for

users from different customer segments – residential, SME

and corporate. Centralized order management eliminates

delivery bottlenecks and enables effective orchestration

between order capture, fulfillment and product

management capabilities, supporting fast provisioning of

communication products and first-class customer self-

service.

Focusing on exploring market segments and niches

Deeper coverage of a market segment or vertical

industry may bring new potential revenue sources for

communication service providers. So does becoming an

expert in a given field, or finding a lucrative market niche

before competitors do so. Best of all is be the only player

there. Since such strategies require high organizational

agility and strong IT support, it’s no wonder they are

frequently best executed by market challengers – small,

yet innovative service providers. They have the required

flexibility to change their business model when their

competition changes theirs, and to outsource the boring,

low-impact business areas to third parties, while remaining

in charge, staying close to their customers, and inventing

remarkable products.

Can your company enter new markets and address niche

markets as quickly and cost-effectively? Not with the

burden of organizational silos and fragmented internal

applications. These are flexible but inefficient, and require

a lot of error-prone manual work, with maintenance

costs steadily increasing and ever longer innovation

lead times. While major business and IT transformation

may be a suitable way for some operators to overcome

these hurdles, to others it may well be unacceptable

for various reasons. They prefer an alternative path –

rolling out new services through deployment of adjunct

solutions managed by standalone business units, affiliate

companies or joint ventures. There are multiple benefits of

this approach, including reduced financial and marketing

risk, faster time to market and minimized total cost of

ownership, dynamically tied to business growth. Fixed

mobile convergence for SMEs, managed mobility services

for multinational corporate customers, cloud computing or

a multi-tenant M2M service enablement platform are just

a few examples of services rolled out this way recently.

Thanks to its centralized product and customer

management as well as flexibility in shaping business

rules and processes, Comarch all-in-one BSS Suite

supports innovative service providers in effective

exploration of valuable market segments and niches. It

can serve both as an end to end BSS solution for MVNOs

wanting to implement new business models as well as an

MVNE gateway for network operators and enablers who

want to apply and automate advanced, multi-sided B2B

interaction schemes in order to exploit the capabilities

offered by Next Generation Networks.

Today, the innovation and differentiation is in the effectiveness of tackling the key challenge of turning your web portal into a robust sales tool; when this happens, it becomes not only a significant source of leads and orders but also a preferred customer service channel.

While major business and IT transformation may be a suitable way for some operators to overcome these hurdles, to others it may well be unacceptable for various reasons. They prefer an alternative path – rolling out new services through deployment of adjunct solutions managed by standalone business units, affiliate companies or joint ventures.

IN FOCUS: BSS/OSS TRANSFORMATION 29

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Leveraging partnerships to maximize returns on core assets

Maximizing return on core assets such as customer billing

relations, customer data and the huge network, OSS/BSS

and IT infrastructure expenditures requires improvement

of both operational efficiency and transformation of

supply and sales channel partnerships - on multiple

levels. The resulting 2.0 partnerships are all about sharing

– data, resources, and infrastructure, but also risk and

responsibilities in the value chain - in unprecedented ways.

On the network level, where there’s an almost exponential

growth of data traffic, network performance is becoming

a competitive issue. This is especially true in case of

mobile operators. Although LTE and large fiber network

deployments make it possible to provide enough capacity,

they are extremely expensive and therefore not feasible

for all players. Network outsourcing and sharing have

become viable strategies for service providers to optimize

operational costs and it’s not a niche trend (according

to Gartner, by 2012, 80% of Tier 1 CSPs will be involved

in advanced intra-industry alliances, similar to those

undertaken by airlines).

In terms of what the network carries, a vast portion of

traffic is generated by content and applications delivered

by OTT (over the top) players – mostly internet companies

having a direct relationship with the customer regardless

of the network he or she is using - as opposed to

traditional telecom services. Communication service

providers treat them as new competitors, and not without

good reason; as Gartner reports, by 2014, over the top

players will have captured almost 10% of consumer mobile

voice minutes in developed markets. Operators will be

better off entering partnerships, not only in the internet and

media industry, but also in other transforming industries

such as utilities, payments, or medicine. As a result, old-

new requirements will appear across network core and

transport, service delivery and BSS/OSS layers alike.

These will include convergent, network access method-

independent service delivery, fulfillment, assurance and

billing, cross-partner integration and multi-tenancy. Since

the lines between a customer and partner are blurred,

products go far beyond basic connectivity services, and

the definition of the role of a service provider in the value

chain is blurred, legacy OSS/BSS product catalog, service

inventory, revenue sharing, or partner management

capabilities will usually prove to be insufficient.

The complete set of OSS/BSS tools delivered by Comarch fulfills

the requirements of 2.0 partnerships and helps to achieve

higher operational efficiency through integration, automation

and flexibility. Communication service providers looking for

more agile win-win co-operation models can leverage the fact

that Comarch is both a software and service vendor with a

stable financial condition, diversified product portfolio and a

global presence.

Conclusions

In the face of high network, IT and business transformation

spending, ineffective BSS environments disable efficiency

and innovation in the delivery of differentiating services

and customer service. Modern BSS solutions enable

efficiency and innovation needed to monetize these

investments and to strengthen communication service

provider’s position on mature, saturated markets. Comarch

BSS supports marketing innovation of communication

service providers with its open architecture, customer-

centric approach, centralized product management,

built-in business process manager and rule-based

configuration on various layers.

From our perspective, the strategic building blocks to sustain EBITDA growth are service innovation, strong customer focus, and operational efficiency. We like working with vendors whose solutions help us reach these goals with increased productivity and lower IT costs.

Robbert Noorman, manager Innovation & ICT

KPN Managed Mobile Solutions

IN FOCUS: BSS/OSS TRANSFORMATION30

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

OPTIMIZING INNOVATING ACCELERATING

Optimizing architecture for lowering costs

IT departments are forced to optimize costs.

One way to do this is to reduce the number of

redundant IT systems used for similar activi-

ties. Therefore, a good way to optimize costs

is IT consolidation by using the same sys-

tems in various domains, e.g.:

> pre-paid and post-paid as well as mobile

and fixed customers on the same plat-

form

> retail and wholesale domains on one plat-

form, with the possibility of sharing infor-

mation

> interconnect, roaming, revenue sharing,

M2M and MVNOs on a single platform

Apart from the time and cost savings it also

brings more flexibility, shortens the time to

market, and can be an additional driver of

transformation.

Another way to optimize costs is to eliminate

revenue leakages. This can be achieved by

gaining more control over processes, qual-

ity and revenue assurance tools, as well as

reducing the amount of manually performed

tasks by automating certain processes man-

aged by various departments across the or-

ganization.

Cost optimization also requires flexibility

in launching new products designed by the

marketing department and expected by cus-

tomers. This means introducing new products

without expensive, risky and time-consuming

system upgrades. The need of IT departments

for cost-efficient introduction of new prod-

ucts, configurations and business processes,

or modifications of the existing ones, calls for

a modern, consolidated BSS.

Innovating without limits for a winning product portfolio

Communication service providers must be

able to introduce new products and enter

new markets easily. An example here can be

entering the M2M market, strengthening an

operator’s multi-service offering or simulta-

neous use of various business models such

as reselling, enabling or two-sided. IT de-

partments play a significant role in this area

– they need to ensure that IT systems used

in their company empower innovation. BSS is

one of the crucial elements here, so it should

not create any limitations or block innovation,

but support it in the best possible way.

While innovation is best expressed by add-

ing new products to the offer, the majority

of pre-existing products must still be main-

tained. So the total number of products to

maintain is continually growing. BSS must

be able to support the growing number of

products and at the same time eliminate the

need for creation of redundant products by

mechanisms such as personalized pricing

and promotions.

Innovation also requires constant develop-

ment of existing IT systems. Whole new inte-

grations and systems have to be added to the

BSS. Such development can be supported by

applying Service Oriented Architecture using

open interfaces to help limit the overall com-

plexity of the solution.

Accelerating time to market for faster business results

The changes on the telecom market are hap-

pening faster than ever, and the pressure on

IT departments to keep pace is increasing.

Shortening the time to market from a mere

buzzword often becomes a nightmare.

One of the biggest problems with the time

to market is that legacy systems force you

to configure new products in various places,

with different rules. This involves a complex

process of testing, limits the possibility of

managing the entire process of a product

launch, and does not allow for obtaining con-

sistent product performance data.

This calls for the architecture to be transformed

so that it includes centralized product man-

agement and unified order capturing for all

sales channels. Such a change lets you con-

figure products in a single place, which radi-

cally decreases configuration time. In addition,

product life cycle management lets you bet-

ter organize processes connected with design-

ing, implementing and terminating products.

Another key condition for quick introduction

of new services to the market is pre-integra-

tion of BSS and OSS that lies in a common,

standard data model. Such a model empow-

ers the user, by allowing a uniform view of the

network and service layer. Pre-integrated BSS

and OSS provides the ability to ensure high

quality of service and thus better customer

experience. Additionally, this approach allows

automating many processes and in turn ac-

celerating the business.

It’s time to transformyour BSS!

Go to:

http:// transform-your-BSS.comarch.com

Download series of white papers on BSS transformation by Comarch.

IN FOCUS: BSS/OSS TRANSFORMATION 31

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011 Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

ustomer Experience Management (CEM) may seem

to be a broad term but in practical terms within the

area of telecommunications, it refers to monitoring

the stream of transaction records from a subscriber’s

perspective. Is the call setup time at an acceptable level?

Are there places where setting up a GPRS session takes

too long? Was MMS transferring successful? These are the

typical questions a CEM system tries to answer.

Service Quality Management (SQM), on the other hand,

deduces the quality of services from network-related

data. Typically it integrates with a lot of performance data

sources, both high- and low-level. SQM correlates all these

different types of information upon the service model in

order to calculate service-level KQIs from network-level KPIs.

CEM and SQM – alternatives or complementary solutions?

SQM perceives service data through network data while

CEM directly monitors the stream of subscriber transaction

records. Are these two different approaches redundant or

complementary? Are they two alternative ways to achieve

the same objective? If we already have CEM, is SQM still

necessary and vice versa? How can we benefit from one

integrated SQM+CEM environment?

The first important difference can be already seen in

the name itself: CEM concentrates on Experience while

SQM concentrates on Quality. Experience means that the

subscriber needs to use the service so that the operator

C

Service Quality and Customer Experience– where customers meet the network

Figure 1. Integrated SQM+CEM+NGSA environment

Comarch OSS Suite

SQMNGSA

PM solution PM solution PM solution

CEMwith SLA

Data Integration Layer

NetworkBTS

HLR

VLR

MSCLTE BS

NodeB

OSS Console OSS Web GUI BO Universe or another 3rd party BI

OSS Portal

MALGORZATA KWATERA-KNAPEK

Comarch SA

OSS Solution Manager,

Telecommunications

Business Unit

CEM is reactive by nature. It can help detect and solve issues before a  customer calls the hotline but not before the issue appears. SQM can at least try to be proactive, because it can have the necessary performance data before problems occur.

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience 31

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience32

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

performance indicators. Of course, we can introduce priorities

and rules to treat rural areas differently than airports and

business centers. We can also prioritize cells by traffic level,

which is also measured by SQM. Yet both possibilities entail

more configurations and more complexity in rule definitions.

The first one also requires a high level of quality of inventory

data, on which SQM will rely when applying these rules.

Again, in CEM it comes naturally: in highly used areas of the

network, a lot of experience records will be gathered and

naturally the concerned cells will get higher priority. In the

new commercial center traffic will be higher on the opening

day: CEM will take this aspect into account by design,

while SQM will need to learn that some cells should have

an assigned higher priority, either by updating inventory

information or by generating a threshold violation due to

traffic which in some cells exceeds everyday values.

It is clear that SQM and CEM are not alternative solutions:

only together can they create integrated quality and

experience management environment where customers

meet the network. Only by having both of them we can

understand how customer problems map onto the network

and vice versa. Only SQM can provide root cause analysis

necessary to understand from a network level, why problems

detected by CEM occur and where and how they can be

fixed. On the other hand, CEM ensures everyday verification

of the SQM service models and enables filling in the

so-called “experience gap” between customer perception

and measured quality. Thanks to this fine-tuning of service

models, SQM can be really proactive and the two systems

sum up to really improved customer experience.

can measure it and deduce problems. Shortly speaking,

something needs to go wrong first, so that the operator

can react and draw conclusions. Better experience for

other customers comes from lessons learned. CEM is

reactive by nature. It can help detect and solve issues

before a  customer calls the hotline but not before the issue

appears. SQM can at least try to be proactive, because

it can have the necessary performance data before

problems occur. Customers experience problems, because

something went wrong in the infrastructure, at least in

some cases. This means that, at least in theory, it should

be possible to predict and prevent them.

Now let’s take a look at Quality. SQM can measure quality also

in areas where there is very little experience. Even in cases

where bad customer experience is a result of the customers’

own errors (for example terminal misconfiguration), SQM can

help: it is sufficient enough to collect KPIs together with the

cause of the problems, e.g. user authentication failure. On the

other hand, SQM relies on service models and associated

KQI definitions. Defining CEM indicators is easy and they will

usually reflect the real perception of the subscriber quite well.

The design and fine-tuning of SQM service models may take

years. Calculations are complicated and multi-dimensional.

The models need to be verified against reality every day.

What is the point of having “all services in green” in SQM if

the customers still experience problems? This can happen

with SQM, a little change in calculation algorithm or threshold

level can immediately influence the service state.

From SQM perspective, in principle, all cells in the mobile

network look the same – they will provide the same

What is the point of having “all services in green” in SQM if the customers still experience problems?

Figure 2. Integrated SQM+CEM+NGSA+PM environment

Comarch OSS Suite

SQMNGSA

PM

CEMwith SLA

NetworkBTS

HLR

VLR

MSCLTE BS

NodeB

OSS Console OSS Web GUI BO Universe or another 3rd party BI

OSS Portal

IDEAS IN BRIEF:

What are the principal differences between SQM and CEM solution?

Are SQM and CEM two alternative ways to achieve the same objective?

If we already have CEM, is SQM still necessary and vice versa?

How can we benefit from an integrated SQM+CEM environment?

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience 33

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

A look from solution architecture perspective

Figures 1 and 2 present two possible functional architectures

of an integrated SQM+CEM environment implemented upon

Comarch OSS Suite.

Figure 1 shows SQM+CEM+NGSA (the last being Next

Generation Service Assurance that in this context receives

and manages the alarms created by SQM and CEM),

implemented over an existing distributed performance

management architecture, where every technology is already

covered by a dedicated performance management tool. This

is a relatively fast and cost-effective path towards SQM+CEM

environment, which enables achieving quick wins while

keeping old investments alive.

Figure 2 shows a different approach where the entire

performance management architecture is built from scratch

in order to form one integrated PM+SQM+CEM+NGSA

environment. Bringing benefits such as maintaining and

managing all KPIs in one environment, having all performance

data in one place (for faster and more productive reporting)

and one consistent GUI for all users.

Of course, a hybrid approach is also possible, where

SQM+CEM work partially on the basis of existing performance

management tools and partially use integrated PM for

areas in the network where dedicated PM does not exist.

A hybrid approach may also be considered a step-by-step

migration from a scattered network-oriented performance

management environment to integrated PM+SQM+CEM,

where customer and service finally come into focus.

Finally Figure 3 presents an example of a report that enables

to correlate increased MMSC device latency (measured

by SNMP protocol) with increased MMS sending time

(in  regarding to transaction records).

Conclusions

As we have seen, in order to guarantee a real improvement

in customer experience, it is not sufficient enough to only

implement CEM, whereas pure SQM will never be able to have

real customer perspective. Only together can they give the

best results. “Together” means also interacting, integrated

and freely exchanging data. And here’s the next challenge,

because usually CEM and SQM areas are handled by different

departments and different processes in the telecom operator

organization. Only will overcoming these processes and

organization challenges make it possible to take a big step

towards better customer experience.

In order to guarantee a real improvement in customer experience, it is not sufficient enough to only implement CEM, whereas pure SQM will never be able to have real customer perspective. Only together can they give the best results.

It is clear that SQM and CEM are not alternative solutions: only together can they create integrated quality and experience management environment where customers meet the network.

Figure 3. MMSC device latency (red) vs. MMS sending time (brown)

Correlation

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience34

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

ommunications service providers have created

a new customer demand for faster, more reliable

services and increased network capacity for

their subscribers with the use of smartphone’s and

tablets. This trend has been additionally strengthened

by the dropping prices of mobile devices. All of this is

pushing traffic in access network to its limits. Apart from

issues associated with finding new business models for

increasing revenues, operators are also investing in the

rollout of their 3G/4G network. How to manage rollout, so

that the millions of Euros spent actually entail an increase

in network &  service quality?

Resource inefficiency and service quality – two main challenges

Each operator can manage massive network rollouts to

a certain extent. Aside from a huge investment, the main

limitations are observed in resource efficiency and the

capability to manage both positive and negative impact

on service quality. One of the ways of improving resource

efficiency is by automating the configuration management

process.

So far, a typical approach is that the planner works with

a planning tool and the output is provided via a file-

based interface to the configuration department. The

latter is then responsible for providing the configuration

to the network. This means that the input from planners

is combined with the current network information (input

from operations or ticketing systems). In fact, this means

manually re-planning the network, very often without tools

or consistency checks that are available for planners.

As the configuration is then integrated in the network,

planners have to also compare the exact implementation

effort with their plans, and manage changes. They can

do so either by accepting the differences or by rejecting

and pushing the engineers to update the configuration.

All of this creates an additional workload, which limits

the operator’s possibilities to manage massive network

rollouts. Additionally, also the output quality of the network

is very often different from what was requested.

The second issue relates to the quality of the services

perceived by customers. When an operator is doing large

network rollouts, the standard way of performing drive

tests is not always the most reliable. Additionally, together

with standard coverage and population KPIs, strategy

decisions regarding site locations should take into account

the impact on service quality. However, currently only a few

operators have systems in place allowing for providing KQIs

with aggregated services, based on specified criteria. So

the decisions are purely based on standard coverage KPIs.

Transforming the OSS

In order to mitigate those problems operators must

transform both their OSS and organization. As this is

already happening, there are different strategies on the

market to manage the process. Some service providers

focus on outsourcing as a strategy to eliminate in-house

problems and enable flexibility in their rollout activities.

Such a strategy looks good, but in fact, in order to

successfully implement it, a change in the IT landscape is

also necessary. Other operators choose to address only

OSS transformation, by improving tools and capabilities.

Automating configuration management

Figure 1 illustrates the direction, in which the

transformation of the OSS should head in order to improve

C

Managing network congestion problems with automated Configuration Management

and SQM

JAKUB KAPUSTA-ZALUSKI

Comarch SA

Telco Consulting Manager,

Telecommunications

Business Unit

IDEAS IN BRIEF:

Increasing network and service traffic

Automating configuration management as a key element

Quality of services perceived by customers

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience34

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience 35

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Figure 1. OSS transformation

Network Planning Network Planning

Network Configuration Operations

Operations

OperationsReconciliation

Customer

Customer

CustomerTickets

CustomerTickets

Network Plan

Feed

back

abo

ut

activ

ated

site

s

Planning DB

Configuration DB

Planning & Inventory DB

Fault Management

Fault Management

Service Quality Management

Service KQIs & Service Impact

KPIs

Performance Management

Network

Netw

ork

Faul

ts

Network

Automated Configuration Management

Network Faults

network quality and operations efficiency. There are two

elements of the solution: automation of configuration

management and constant monitoring of service quality.

Automating configuration management is a key element

as it brings planners closer to the network and improves

the quality of the rollout and integration. With such an

approach planners have full control over the network, and

the error rate in configuration requests is significantly

decreased. Additionally, through feedback from the

network, planners can easily control the implementation

of the configuration requests and immediately react on

discrepancies. Such a solution also allows seamless

introduction of a self-organizing network (SON) strategy,

with central configuration management and automated

site configuration delivery, which retains the planners’

control over the process and the network.

What about Service Quality Management?

In order to fully benefit from the automation, it is also

important to implement a tool and processes that

will measure the impact on service quality. Every

process needs measuring and a constant improvement

strategy – the same applies to configuration management.

A  Service Quality Management (SQM) solution delivers

information, that is used by several departments - starting

from operations and planning departments and ending

on management. The use of the solution in the planning

department is an interesting case. There are two main

processes which can be used. The first one corresponds

with measuring network quality and pointing out areas

where services are not fully seeing to the capacity of the

network. Such information can be used to trigger network

optimization processes or plan a network upgrade in

a  specified area. The second process is an automated one,

allowing for comparing the service quality before and after

network upgrade. This example can show planners how

their changes influence services and can steer the planner

towards more efficient network design in future.

Conclusions

Automated configuration management and service quality

management solutions are key components on the road

to manage increasing network and service traffic. As this

trend will stay strong and customers will demand more

and more capacity for their services, it is very important to

keep the network cost under control. Automation and good

control over service quality are one of the most important

elements of cost management.

Automation and good control over service quality are one of the most important elements of cost management.

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience36

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience36

The advent of the mobile internet has been a great

success, but it also appears to have opened

Pandora’s box. The problem is that the surge

in data consumed by users is not compensated for by an

adequate growth in revenue. This is mostly due to the fact

that in order to promote the mobile internet CSPs have

introduced flat rates. The tension is even greater because

the real beneficiaries are over-the-top players like Google,

whilst CSPs seem to have been cast the role of “dumb

pipe” providers. As a result, CSPs are seeking a way out, in

order to be able to fill the gap between increasing costs

and flat revenues. As a remedy, a concept has emerged

that exposes service delivery platforms to third parties,

including the community of developers, has emerged. The

concept is closely related to the idea of operator application

stores.

Critics of this approach argue that telco operators lack the

competences to provide a platform for developers, and that

the API provided is too limited to be attractive to developers.

Moreover, the problem is that the only platform which really

holds any significance for developers is the Web itself.

End-users inherit CSPs’ problems

From an end-user perspective we might say that problems

encountered by CSPs are exactly that: their problems.

However, this belief is slightly naive as it is always the

customers who finally pay the costs. When looking more

closely at the surge of data consumed by end-users, it turns

out that the majority of data is consumed by relatively small

user groups. These groups are either peer-to-peer application

riders, YouTube addicts or alike. What does this mean for the

average user who probably only needs email access or basic

web browsing services when he/she is on the go? Well, it is

likely that they will pay extra to cover the costs generated

by high data usage profile users. “Paying” can mean literally

both covering the costs and the receiving of a poor quality

of service (QoS). We will most likely pay money. This is due to

the fact that flat rates are calculated according to the rule of

average, which means that the majority of users pay more,

so high data usage users can pay less. Suffering from a poor

QoS is even more evident, as inevitably, when accessing the

internet, each of us has recognized that the real bandwidth

is far smaller than advertised by the CSPs.

Selling more than just “dumb pipes”

The solution, which is expected to solve both CSP and

end-user problems, is shifting the role of telco operators.

Instead of selling Mbps, operators will be able to sell service

and application enablement. This means that application

connectivity with the appropriate QoS is tuned to a

service. From the end-user perspective it is the services

and application, with embedded connectivity, which are

purchased. Embedded should mean that connectivity costs

IDEAS IN BRIEF:

The solution for CSPs is to become a Web platform enabler

End-users have different needs and thus a different perception of what the Web is

CSPs provide something more than a technical oriented QoS network

Freedom means the ability to enjoy applications without counting the consumed kilobytes

Thriving as Web platform enabler – “beyond dumb” pipes

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience 37

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience 37

are included in the price for the service/application. For

the end-user it enables maintaining unconstrained access

to their most favored applications/services without the

need to count minutes or kilobytes. For CSPs it enables

receiving compensation for network costs according to the

application/services network usage profiles. An example

service package can be an email and basic web browsing

package or access to social tools, for example, unlimited

use of Facebook or alike. An example from the opposite

end of the spectrum could be a peer-to-peer applications

package. The idea is designed to enable end-users to

decide for themselves what it is they want to use, as we

all have different needs and thus a different perception of

what the Web is.

Figure 1. Web Enablement platform

Network

Web

Network Service Platform

WebEnablement

QoS, Authentication,Autorisation,

Accounting, payment

LUKASZ MENDYK Comarch SA

OSS Product Manager,

Telecommunications

Business Unit

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience38

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

As CSPs are to sell User Experience enablement rather than just being “dumb pipes”, it should allow them to have a fare share of revenue generated by the customers of over-the-top players.

Over-the-top players and CSPs don’t have to be bitter enemies. They can cooperate or at least compete on fair terms where each party is compensated for the costs it endures and receives revenue share according to the value it brings.

CSP as a Web Enabler

The question, which may arise, is how to implement the idea

without granting telecommunication operators too much

power. If the only way to use applications and services was

via an operator’s application store, it would probably mean

that operators would have a monopoly -acting out the role

of gate keepers. Being a true enabler must mean that third

parties have a choice as to whether they want to leverage

an operator’s application store or whether they prefer to use

alternatives. In the case of the latter, the operators should

only provide a network enablement, or more precisely, the

discussed network QoS required by a third party service or

application. This is expected to enable different business

models as some developers may chose revenue sharing,

leveraging operators application stores with a built-in

charging and billing functionality, while the others may chose

to pay purely for network QoS enablement. The role of CSPs

service platform is depicted in Figure 1.

Selling User Experience– business models

Retailing QoS by operators will require the technical

capabilities of traffic shaping and policy enforcement, which

may be challenging. The envisioned practical approach

is that when an end-user acquires a “basic browsing”

package and all online applications, which confine to the

assumed “basic” QoS, the providers of these applications

will not require additional enablement. However, if the

application is data intensive, for example video streaming,

in order to guarantee appropriate user experience, the

third party application will need the appropriate network

QoS enablement. This, in fact, means that CSPs provide

something more than a technical oriented network QoS,

instead enabling good user experience. Depending on the

business model, the costs of the enablement can be covered

either by the price of the application paid by the end-user,

or in the case of Ad supported usage of the application, the

owner of the application will cover the costs. In addition, an

end-user can purchase the “video streaming” package to

cover the costs of the required enablement.

In conclusion, the overarching idea is that each party is paid

according to the added value it brings to the ecosystem. At

the same time, end-users should have a choice regarding

what they pay and what experience they receive in return.

CSPs vs. the Over-the-top players

The idea presented above - of CSPs playing the role of a

web enabler - is attractive as it allows both competition

and cooperation with the over-the-top players while in each

case gaining a profit. Competing means that CSPs endeavor

to create their own developer community. Cooperation on

the other hand is treating the over-the-top players much

the same as developers, which means that they are treated

as application providers. But in this scenario over-the-top

players are likely to have direct access to customers which

distinguished them from just individual developers. As CSPs

are to sell User Experience enablement rather than just being

“dumb pipes”, it should allow them to have a fare share of

revenue generated by the customers of over-the-top players.

This is because the proposed mechanism would allow CSPs

to be compensated according to the added value they bring

to the end-user applications. For example, in case of an end-

user application, whose value is based mainly on network

ability to carry the content with appropriate QoS, the CSPs

should get a relatively high revenue share. Video streaming

applications are an example of this. On the contrary, in case

of an end-user application, whose main value is not based

on connectivity but on some other business logic (where

connectivity is not intensively used), the CSPs’ share should

be relativity lower. In either case CSPs may receive adequate

compensation for network related costs. For us - as end-

users - it seems to be a perfect solution as everybody

receives a fare share according to the value they bring.

Conclusions

Over-the-top players and CSPs don’t have to be bitter

enemies. They can cooperate or at least compete on fair

terms where each party is compensated for the costs it

endures and receives revenue share according to the value

it brings. This is also good news for end-users who, after

all, always pay the final bill. If the role of web enabler was

to be taken over by CSPs, and connectivity costs covered

by applications, this would allow end-users to retain the

freedom which flat rates provide. Freedom means the ability

to enjoy applications without counting consumed kilobytes.

At the same time heavy usage users don’t have to add to

the bills being paid by modest users or broaden the CSP

revenue-costs gap. It also dispels the CSPs’ frustration

caused by thriving over-the-top players being the only

winners, while CSPs suffer the costs.

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience 39

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

e live in a world where communications go far

beyond voice and SMS. A mobile phone serves

for video streaming, navigation, playing music

and e-mail, and the traditional use of voice and SMS can

account for just a small portion of the total time that a

handset is in use. The expansion of operators’ service

offerings into data services has a huge impact on the

underlying platform. Offering more data services not only

entails additional network capacity investments, but also

calls for extra capabilities to be added to the BSS platform.

The operator must be able to charge for the new types of

services and adapt quickly to competition, while keeping

the customer experience intact.

I already have a billing system – why transform it?

The increasing availability and choice of smartphones, their

wider capabilities and the reduced prices of mobile data

offerings have led to wider use of mobile data services. This

poses a new challenge for the operators: the revenues from

mobile data services are no longer covering the costs of

network maintenance and network capacity investments.

Flat rate data offers are evolving into more complex products,

where the various services can be rated and charged

differently. But the question is this: are the billing systems

currently used by operators fit for the new charging models?

The increasing complexity of charging models does not only

mean an operator has to face redefining rating rules. The

underlying BSS platform must also have enough capabilities

to process the growing number of event data records. It must

be able to differentiate the amount of data and the service

types that the customer is using, in order for the operator

to charge properly for the service usage. As mobile data

services are becoming increasingly popular, the existing

BSS platform that has been capable of simple data session

charging, is facing bigger challenges. This is true especially

now, when operators have started to cut down on all-you-

can-eat data plans and introduced tiered levels of data

quotas per month (including service-specific data quotas).

W

PEKKA VALITALO Comarch SA

BSS Market Analyst,

Telecommunications

Business Unit

How to transform your BSS to achievethe perfect customer experience

HOT TOPICS: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience 39

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience40

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

IDEAS IN BRIEF:

Why you need to transform your current billing system

How a modern convergent billing platform can help you improve customer experience while keeping costs low

What features and functionalities you should look for in an ideal convergent billing solution

Are the billing systems currently used by operators fit for the new charging models?

Then there is a question of another type of differentiation

between pricing models – i.e. prepaid versus postpaid.

Offering both prepaid and postpaid services can pose

a challenge for operators. When the products are rated

and charged on different systems, maintenance of both

systems becomes much more complicated and expensive

than having a single, convergent platform for handling both

prepaid and postpaid services. The same also applies for

different types of services (for example one billing system

for mobile services and another billing system for xDSL

services). The ideal billing solution should be able to charge

all the services, regardless of the underlying network

technology. Additional problems may occur when introducing

new charging models, because the legacy system may

not be capable of supporting them (for example, the billing

system used for mobile data may not be able to handle data

services efficiently enough).

Complexity of charging and pricing models is however just

one side of the coin. Due to heavy competition, telecom

operators are also forced to shorten the time-to-market for

new services. Delayed service not only entails additional

work, but also potential loss of revenues. Short time-to-

market also has another advantage: if an operator is the first

one among its competitors to introduce a given service to

the market, this service is in unique position, which provides

a strong competitive advantage.

The challenges described above are pushing the operators

towards transforming the billing platform into a more

convergent one. The benefits from this transformation include

not only business and revenue growth, but also the ability

to react faster to market changes, improve the customer

experience and reduce operating costs.

Towards customer-centric BSS

The relationship between an operator and its customers

has shifted in favour of the customer and evolved into a

more customer-centric model compared to a couple of

years ago. The times when the customer and operator had

a simple relationship (e.g. the customer used a fixed line

telephone service and received an invoice once per month)

are over. More stakeholders have entered the market and the

service that a customer purchases from an operator acts

as a channel for additional content. The operator also has

more business partners than before (e.g. content providers,

interconnect partners, resellers) and they must be managed

efficiently too, but the main focus stays on the end customer

(regardless of whether it is a business customer or an

individual).

The operator’s billing platform should support the customer-

centric approach, by enabling the creation of convergent

offers and personalized services. The operator should be

able to provide any combination of services in a bundle, and

constantly improve the customer experience. Customer data

becomes a valuable asset that should be leveraged through

up-selling and cross-selling.

Things to look for when looking for a convergent billing platform

Support for numerous business modelsThe operators that have been in the market for a long time

may have modified their business models during the years of

operation, or added new ones. Perhaps the focus has been

mainly on business customers, and only later expanded

to individuals, or vice versa. Perhaps the sales model was

based only on direct selling at first, and later it was extended

to involve resellers too. Business models evolve. This is why

operators need to have a single, convergent BSS platform to

support as many business models as possible. Each time

the business model changes, the existing BSS platform

should be able to support it.

A truly convergent billing system should be service-agnostic,

and able to be used in any business model with rating,

charging, billing and invoicing for any services offered. That

kind of platform should also show versatility, which means

the system can operate in a diverse range of configurations

with different providers.

Ability to reduce the time-to-marketIf an operator’s products are defined in multiple systems,

those systems can be used to launch new products and

charge for their usage, but sooner or later the restraints

will become too severe. Operators may find that their

current BSS platform does not support modern products,

that configuration of individual products takes too much

time, or that system maintenance becomes too expensive.

The current process of product and offer introduction may

already include activities such as duplicating product

information (the same information is entered multiple times),

struggling to keep the fragmented data consistent, and

maintaining the integrated legacy systems. The amount

of work in these areas can be significantly reduced with

a single convergent billing platform.

If we take a case of a greenfield operator in rollout phase

of its services, short time-to-market may even be more

important as it speeds up the start of the revenue stream.

A convergent billing system should also provide convergence

on the prepaid/postpaid level and on a service level.

The revenues from mobile data services are no longer covering the costs of network maintenance and network capacity investments.

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience 41

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

This provides a foundation on which the greenfield operator

can construct a large customer base, without limiting the

available payment options.

Legacy systems that are still in use in many telecom

businesses may limit product and offer definitions or rating

and charging scenario definitions. By transforming the

billing system into a convergent platform, product managers

will gain an opportunity to define and apply many kinds of

associations and rules to the products and their charges,

which will make their work a lot more efficient.

A truly convergent billing system has a modular and object-

oriented construction, which enables fast and simple

implementation of new services. Definition of new services is

possible thanks to the parameterized services and business

rules, and does not then require modifications of the

application code (hard coding).

StandardizationWhether an operator needs to fulfill almost the complete set

of eTOM processes or just a subset of them, a convergent

billing system should come with a suite of out of the box

integrated applications to match the individual operator’s

needs. This enables the operator to avoid the challenge of

integrating various software solutions from multiple vendors.

Providing multiple types of operation possibilities Also, some operators have their business model based

on a strong outsourcing strategy, enabling the operator

to focus on the most strategic subjects instead of system

maintenance. Thus the development and operation efforts of

the billing-related activities should be able to be outsourced

to the BSS vendor.

One platform for both prepaid and postpaid servicesIn legacy billing solutions, the operator often maintains

two separate systems for postpaid and prepaid services. If

similar products are offered in postpaid and prepaid models,

there may be a lot of duplication. Thus having one solution for

both types of offers has great advantages (such as cost of

ownership and flexibility). Additionally this change will cause

all event types (voice, data, SMS) to be rated and billed by the

same convergent billing system. Furthermore, the extra work

caused by duplicated product catalog and customer data

records, as well as all other problems associated with mixed

prepaid / postpaid offers, can be eliminated with a single

convergent platform.

A well-chosen convergent billing system enables postpaid

events to be rated in real-time if needed, reducing the

configuration differences between prepaid and postpaid

tariff plans. Consequently, only the core of the billing system

should be aware of the difference between a postpaid

and a prepaid event. All other elements of an operator’s IT

systems and telco network can be completely unaware of

this difference. This results in a very clean implementation of

logic for these systems.

Easy integration with other IT systemsTo support transformation towards a convergent billing

platform, it is necessary to integrate existing IT systems

with the platform. Such development can be supported

by applying Service Oriented Architecture with the use of

open interfaces, which can help limit the growth of the total

complexity of the solution. A convergent billing system can

support the innovation of operators through the inclusion

of features such as an open architecture, customer-

centric approach, centralized product management, built-in

business process manager and rule-based configuration on

various levels.

Multiple levels of convergenceConvergence exists on multiple levels. Prepaid and postpaid,

multiple underlying network technologies within a single

platform, many different customer types, all services in one…

these are just some examples. Having a separate platform

for each of these issues would significantly complicate an

operator’s daily operations.

A convergent billing system allows operators to price and

invoice distinctly different services together, with new

combinations created quickly to reflect market changes.

A unified customer account enables an operator to view the

big picture easily, spotting cross-service relationships and

buying patterns that show new business opportunities.

Easy introduction of new charging modelsAs mentioned earlier in this document, network capacity

investments and maintenance costs are increasing more

rapidly than the revenues from data service usage. In

addition, a small percentage of subscribers are using most

of the network capacity, thus causing network problems for

other subscribers and influencing their customer experience.

This is why policy management has become a very popular

concept. It was used for network throttling before, but now

it is becoming more common as a tool for providing value-

added services and segmenting data services. For example,

the usage of Facebook via smartphone can be offered with

a  cheaper tariff than the usage of YouTube.

Operators should have policy management capabilities in

their billing platform, to be able to offer personalized services

and tariffs to their customers, while removing the unlimited

Operators may find that their current BSS platform does not support modern products, that configuration of individual products takes too much time, or that system maintenance becomes too expensive.

The ideal billing solution should be able to charge all the services, regardless of the underlying network technology.

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience42

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Figure 1. High level architecture of Comarch Convergent Billing

data consumption plans and differentiating service types. A

convergent billing system enables operators to control and

charge the subscriber services basing on the service type,

instead of general data consumption only. This provides

operators with new business opportunities, reduces the

network investment and maintenance costs, and improves

customer experience.

Better performance of the billing platformThe increasing volume of transactions (for example, from

data services that are charged based on a service type) puts

a lot of pressure on the billing platform. It must therefore be

scalable and support a high volume of transactions. There

is no excuse for delays in system operation, especially if

these delays are visible to the end customer. For example, if

a prepaid service is not charged correctly and a customer’s

prepaid account is charged much later than when the

service was used, the customer may become confused

about the actual available balance on their account. Another

issue is when service performance is too low and a service

cannot be used by a customer. This causes a negative

customer experience and leads to revenue loss.

From the hardware perspective, efficient data processing

is crucial. An efficient data processing engine in the billing

system can handle more events with similar hardware in

a  given time, than a less efficient tool (where more hardware

is needed to reach similar rating performance). A convergent

There is no excuse for delays in system operation, especially if these delays are visible to the end customer.

Existing Systems of the Operator

ESB

/ In

teg

rati

on B

us

Pro

du

ct In

stan

ces

Product Information Publisher

Product Lifecycle Management

Specification & Offering Management

DMS/Archive

Inventory

MNP

Payments

Printing

G/L

Data Warehouse

Central Log Manager

Process Scheduler

SalesSupport

Customer Information

Management

Billing Account Management

Product/Service Rating

Bill Format /Render

OnlineCharging

Resource Management

Price Management

Bill Calculation

Reporting

Receivables Management

Collection Management

Billing Inquiry, Dispute & Adjustment

Transactional Dopcument Production

Active Mediation Billing Mediation

Customer

Business Process Management

Dat

a Ac

cess

&M

anag

emen

tR

epos

itory

Dat

a P

roce

ssin

g

Product Catalog Manager, Product Inventory

Product Management

GUI

Product Managers IT Billing Managers Finance Backoffice

Customer Management

GUI

System Management

GUI

Comarch Convergent Billing

Multi-Service Network

IP, IMS, NGNFixed, Cable 2G, 3G, 4G

Output FormattingBilling ProcessesRating & Pricing Processes

Reports

Service UsagePricing Algorytm

Rating Element

ProductSpecification

Output Definition

System Configuration

Customer Bill, Customer Bill Collections

Applied Customer Billing Rate

Product CatalogProduct Offering

Product SpecificationDistribution ChannelProduct Promotion

Product Offering Price

Financial Data

HOT TOPIC: Aiming for Perfect Customer Experience 43

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

billing solution should include a high-performance rating

engine, and in this way it should reduce hardware costs.

Additional savings on hardware can be reached by

consolidating the separate legacy billing systems into

a  single convergent platform.

Apart from high performance of the billing platform, efficiency

can be increased by automating mass data processing.

A convergent billing system provides tools for configuring

and scheduling processes (one benefit of this is that billing

procedures can be performed during the night when the

system is not overloaded with regular user activities) and

real-time updated graphs and charts about the process

status. It should also be possible to issue detailed reports

about, for example, errors.

Comarch Convergent Billing overview

The business challenges that have been presented in this

document, can be approached with the Comarch Convergent

Billing solution. The solution is a high capacity, scalable

billing system which can be used in any service provider

business model including fixed, mobile, broadband, satellite

and cable TV operators, as well as multi-service and MVNOs.

The solution enables fast and simple implementation of new

services offered in the process of business development,

and can operate in a diverse range of configurations with

different providers.

In order to streamline the management of complex products,

it is recommended that Comarch Convergent Billing is used

together with an additional module for product management:

Comarch Central Product Manager. This module handles

offers and product specifications, defines relationships

between various products, and specifies which ones are

exclusive or only sold as a component of a bigger package.

It also defines target customers, their locations, and many

other parameters. Comarch Central Product Manager is an

integral part of the overall BSS architecture, and can also

be integrated seamlessly with other components of the

Comarch BSS Suite if needed.

Comarch Convergent Billing solution can also be used

together with a Product Inventory module that manages the

product instances. The Product Inventory module provides an

interface for other modules (including Comarch Convergent

Billing) to create and terminate product instances, as well

as fetching the product instances to be used in the billing

system.

The logical architecture of the Comarch Convergent Billing

module is presented on the Figure 1.

The system can be used for both prepaid and postpaid

events. From the implementation point of view, in the system

there is almost no difference between a postpaid tariff plan

and a prepaid tariff plan. When introducing new tariff plans

for the products, the logics from the old tariff plans can be

re-used. For example, extending a prepaid tariff plan into a

postpaid tariff plan is a straightforward operation, because

both tariff plans can use the same configuration rules and a

single database that contains the accounts and tariff plans.

When it comes to data processing, Comarch Convergent

Billing also shows very high performance. It contains two

internal components for data processing – one for mass

data processing and one for real-time processing. Both

components use the same administration application and

configuration rules. The efficiency of the system makes it

process even the most complex tariff definitions quickly and

accurately.

In addition to the key functionalities such as prepaid and

postpaid billing, the system supports multiple types on wired

and wireless networks. It also contains a built-in business

process management functionality, supports a wide range of

additional processes relating to core functionalities, such as

mediation, payment processing, dunning and G/L integration,

and has a modular architecture, providing various interfaces

to external systems.

The key benefits of the solution can be summarized

as shorter time-to-market for new services, reduced

maintenance costs, convenient adaptation to new business

models within the same platform, and improved customer

experience.

Conclusions

The telecom business has become more customer-centric

than ever before. The customer experience is the strongest

focus as it becomes the most efficient weapon in the

constant fight for customers. Despite the challenges of falling

revenues from voice services, the operators get additional

business opportunities from providing new, personalized

services to their end customers. Customers also appreciate

the smooth operation of the services they are using, and

pricing transparency – customers must know what they are

paying for.

To use the business opportunities, the underlying billing

system of the operator must be capable of enabling new

types of services and bundles and ensure a short time-to-

market for the services, while at the same time providing

cost savings.

The customer experience is the strongest focus as it becomes the most efficient weapon in the constant fight for customers.

To use the business opportunities, the underlying billing system of the operator must be capable of enabling new types of services and bundles and ensure a short time-to-market for the services, while at the same time providing cost savings.

BEYOND BSS/OSS44

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Since the very beginning of human civilization

people have always had a tendency to mark and

label things, which at first was motivated purely

by the desire to express ownership but later it evolved into

a way to maintain order and facilitate the management of

belongings. With recent technological development new

ways of tagging have emerged, not only providing new, more

convenient ways of putting order numbers onto physical

objects, but also enabling the creation of completely new

functionalities, going far beyond original intentions.

The beginning of things – traditional barcodes

Let us begin with traditional and ubiquitous barcodes, the

invention of which was mainly driven by the need for having

groceries labeled by something which is easily recognizable

by machines. They are completely illegible for the human

eye, but a cashier equipped with an electronic reader can

easily and quickly count the total price of even the biggest

supermarket cart filled up with the smallest articles.

Over the recent years, traditional barcodes, called 1D

barcodes, have been slowly but successively replaced by

their improved successors, 2D barcodes. These, as compared

to the 1D’s capacity of a dozen or so digits, can store several

thousand of characters, which makes it possible for the

producer to put much more machine-readable information on

the packaging, than just the product’s identifier.

A new era of tagging

GRZEGORZ WACHOCKI Comarch SA

R&D Department Manager,

Telecommunications

Business Unit

BEYOND BSS/OSS44

2D barcodes can store several thousand of characters and can store much more than just the product’s identifier.

Figure 1. Traditional 1D barcodes

Figure 2. 2D barcodes are created on the base of the

same idea as the traditional barcodes but can store much

more data

One step further – RFID

Another technology that was originally used for product

identification is RFID (radio-frequency identification). However,

the technology has evolved from its original use and is

currently quite a powerful tool. The idea behind it was to store

data in a small silicon chip which transfers it to a  reader in

the form of an electromagnetic radio signal. This can improve

the shopping experience, as the cashier does not need to

read articles in the cart one by one because it is possible to

pass the whole cart through a gate equipped with a special

antenna that detects all the tags at once. Shopping can really

be as simple as that, theoretically at least.

BEYOND BSS/OSS 45

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Composed of a small silicon chip and an antenna, RFID

tags, in contrast to barcodes, can be applied to virtually any

objects, such as clothes, thickets or credit cards..

Entering the mobile market

Together, with the boom of smartphones over the recent

years, these technologies have become very popular on

the mobile market due to embedding of these readers

into handsets e.g. a camera with an appropriate software

piece for barcodes and NFC technology for RFID. The

mentioned NFC (Near-Field Communication) technology is

a communication protocol designed for portable terminals

allowing them to read RFID tags. It also provides new features

based on a radio communication channel, which is designed

to work only on very small distances – a few centimeters at

most. Integrated in a mobile phone, the technology enables

not only to read RFID tags attached to objects but also

makes it possible for the phone to imitate a contactless

RFID tag or to communicate and exchange information with

another NFC device.

A world of possibilities – how are tagging technologies used?

There are numerous possible applications of such

technologies, now embedded in a small phone that everyone

carries in their pocket, which are way more interesting than

shopping and check-out improvement. Next-generation

tagging is one example. It enables the label to store

additional data related to the product such as its description,

as well as a command for the handset to display a web site

or launch an application that helps the user to configure

the product or service he or she is just about to buy. Indoor

location is another example. It can replace the old-fashioned

“you are here” marks, on maps, with an advanced easy-to-

use system which can show the person’s location on their

smartphone screen, as well as direct the user to a chosen

destination. Copying data from a business card (encoded in

one of the mentioned technologies) with the use of a phone

without the risk of making an error in unfamiliar foreign

names or long phone numbers, is yet another element on

the long list of possible benefits of tagging technologies

utilization.

The solutions provided by the NFC technology alone can

be even more amazing when you consider the various

communication modes (RFID reading, RFID simulation,

and communication between two NFC-enabled devices).

The first one is not very surprising as it allows the phone

to read the RFID tag exactly the same as any other reader

and take corresponding action according to the obtained

value, but the remaining two are much more powerful. RFID

simulation implies that the phone can imitate (simulate)

that it is an RFID tag, and thus enable a new range of

possible applications. This makes it possible to tag, read and

identify not only physical but also virtual objects, such as

an electronic business card or your fly ticket which exists

only in your phone memory, iyou do not have a physical

ticket but you can still enter the aircraft. Communication

between the two NFC-enabled devices means that two NFC-

enabled handsets can exchange data in an y manner. This

can include sharing local network configuration, exchanging

contact data between devices or even making money

transfers between two tapped phones - though in this

case some confirmation from the user would probably be

necessary.

QR applications:

Marketing & advertising

Information distribution (e.g. when printed on business cards)

Links to resources located online from the real world

Logistics and transportation

Providing context-based information about products/services/places

Indoor navigation

Tagging of goods

NFC applications:

Electronic tickets

Mobile payments and micro-payments

Mobile promotional coupons

Loyalty programs

Indoor navigation

Quick retrieving of information and configuration to the mobile phone (e.g. for WIFI service configuration)

Access authorization (e.g. buildings, cars)

Figure 3. RFIDs may have many forms, from a simple

sticker ,as viewed in the picture, a key ring or virtually

anything that may be an embedded inductor/antenna

or just simply a really small silicon chip. There are also

available ones that can be implanted into the human body.

Conclusions

Initially intended to simply attach identifiers to products,

the RFID and barcodes triggered the appearance of new

possibilities and solutions. This in turn has made ‘next

generation tagging’ even more attractive and therefore, has

increased their popularity.

Will everything in the world be soon labeled with RFIDs?

Well, maybe not everything, but certainly some products,

such as those requiring complex or personalized instructions

of use, will soon be equipped with a chip. This will improve

customer assistance and enable new functions such as

multimedia guidance put on a pill box, providing dosage

information adjusted for the particular person who will be

using it.

BEYOND BSS/OSS46

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

BEYOND BSS/OSS46

W

Employees save time, get more choice and work arrangement flexibility.

ith the constant progress of communication

technologies - mobile telephony, Internet, and

consumer devices like PCs, laptops, netbooks,

tablets, smartphones - it is becoming more and more

possible for people to work from home or other locations

outside their central office, distribution or production sites.

Telework has the potential to transform working patterns

and to positively impact health, safety and the wellbeing of

the people involved. Telework has the potential to become

an interesting part of any telecom operator’s portfolio.

Have you ever woken up and experienced that “Oh no, not

again!” feeling, knowing you’re about to spend an hour in

a  huge traffic jam, nine hours in the office, then again an hour

in a traffic jam? If you did, perhaps you’ve heard of telework

– the idea of working remotely and substituting work

travels and commuting with telecommunications. Working

from home could save you those 1-2 hours of commuting

time, gasoline expenses as well as spare the world a few

kilograms of daily emission of CO2. Some people tend to work

more productively outside of the office – experiencing less

distraction and being motivated to prove, that their boss’s

decision to let them work remotely was correct. Can anybody

work remotely? Of course telework is not for everybody. If

your work requires your physical on-site presence (e.g. such

jobs as chef, working at a carwash, selling tickets at the

train station or running a farm) – working remotely is not

necessarily for you.

Telecommunications support telework

Since there would be no telework without modern

telecommunications services - let’s find out how they can be

useful in typical telework arrangements. Let’s start with mobile

services. Mobile telephony and mobile Internet seem to offer

more freedom in terms of choosing the location to work. It

could be relatively static like home, but it could be also a coffee

shop, a park, or even such a dynamic location as a train or

plane. For most of us however, it would be very inconvenient

to run an online meeting, not to mention a videoconference

from, say, a coffee shop. This is due to limited privacy as well

as potential quality issues (can your mobile provider guarantee

uninterrupted coverage, as well as satisfactory levels of

throughput, packet loss, average jitter and delay during an

important video conference?). Quality of service is still a major

challenge mobile operators need to address. On the other hand,

investments in LTE and the advent of 4G technologies looks

promising in this context. Perhaps the extreme, 100% location-

independent flavor of telework with guaranteed reliability could

be offered by mobile operators to companies and become

a  small yet growing revenue stream.

Telecommuting – how does it differ from telework?

The less mobile category of telework, where daily commuting

is eliminated (but not necessarily all work travels) and an

employee is mainly working from a single location (e.g. home

office) is called telecommuting. Telecommuting supported by

fixed-broadband services creates interesting opportunities

for operators, their corporate customers and the employees

of the latter. Let’s take Nordic countries as an example -

telecommuting is quite popular there. There are operators who

offer a special type of triple-play service: a large enterprise

signs a contract and DSL lines are installed at the homes of

selected employees (telecommuters). The employer pays.

Thanks to the DSL line, an employee can access company

systems via VPN, send e-mail, attend online meetings and

so on. But for private use he can sign an agreement with the

same operator and order IPTV and/or VoIP services. These

services are activated on top of the DSL line serving as a base

service. The private person pays bills and can manage his

subscriptions (e.g. through a dedicated self-service portal),

without the access of that person’s employer to the information

regarding those private services. The company can only see

Internet access DSL line parameters and statistics (preferably

through a corporate self-care portal).

Split billing – how to do it well

In terms of BSS, a feature which enables the described

scenario (some services paid by the employer, some by the

employee) is called split billing. There are different possible

IDEAS IN BRIEF:

Working from home could save you those 1-2 hours of commuting time

Mobile telephony and mobile Internet offers more freedom in terms of choosing the location of work

Billing can be split - some services are billed to the employer, some billed to the employee

Telework – an unexploited niche for telecom operators?

BEYOND BSS/OSS 47

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Figure 1. Telecommuting

ways to handle this. ADSL subscription installed at an

employee’s home can be paid by his employer. ADSL costs

can also be taken off the employee’s gross salary - this way,

in some countries, an employee is saving a percentage

of tax from the bought amount. A company may also pay

completely, partially or not at all for private IPTV and VoIP

for an employee’s subscriptions. Optionally, an employee

with ADSL from his company may sign a direct agreement

with the same operator and have IPTV and VoIP usage billed

separately on his private account.

Except for billing, there are more areas to consider – product

management, pricing, agreement handling, customer order

capture, product terminations and transferring, dunning, and

campaign management, just to name a few. A CRM / billing

solution must support management of both residential and

business customers, customer roles (payer, owner, user) in

the context of subscriptions, linking of products on separate

customer accounts during product ordering, and of course

splitting charges. In reality, a typical telecom’s silo-based

architecture with its legacy CRM, billing and delivery systems

has a low capability of covering these requirements and

is not able to meet the expectations regarding support for

the  telework scenario described above.

Win-win game

Assuming an operator does have a modern BSS solution in

place. What are the key benefits of telecommuting service

availability? Employers can reduce office maintenance

costs, as well as increase productivity and loyalty of their

employees (by allowing them to work remotely while

financing their DSL line and other necessary services).

Service providers gain a new niche for their triple-play

services - a cross-selling opportunity at a lower subscriber

acquisition cost. The environment is less polluted.

Opportunities for people to participate and remain in

employment extend. Employees save time, get more choice

and work arrangement flexibility. They also gain more

convenience – if they switch their employer, they can retain

private services from the operator (by just transferring the

DSL line onto themselves or onto the new employer) – thus

avoiding service provider switching hassle.

Conclusions

Telecommuting works well in all-IP fixed broadband

networks. Services like VoIP, VPN, videoconferences and

online meetings enable virtual teams of teleworkers to

collaborate effectively with their “on-site” colleagues and

prove that physical presence in the office during work hours

may be overhyped. Mobile operators, introducing mobile

broadband based on next-generation networks with high

quality of service, have a great opportunity to support the

growing trend, virtualizing workspaces and transforming

workers into teleworkers. Telework supported by a flexible

BSS platform also enables the introduction of innovative

marketing offers to companies and their employees.

Maybe sometime soon you’ll wake up an hour later than

usually, and instead of driving to the office, you’ll just go to

another room, sit down, switch on your laptop and perhaps

your TV set to set up a videoconference with your virtual

teammates. After all, the telecommuting motto says: work is

something you do, not something you travel to.

Employers can reduce office maintenance costs, as well as increase productivity and loyalty of their employee.

Corporate customer:Bricks R Us

John Smith: residential customer and a Bricks

R Us teleworker

ADSL can also be paid from gross salaryIPTV/VoiP usage is billed separately to

the employee

Company pays for ADSL subscriptions installed at homes

of employees.Company may also pay completely or partially or not at all for private IPTV and VoIP subscriptions of an

employee

Private IPTV/VoiP subscriptions are using ADSL line activated under company

hierarchySubscription

Invoice sent to end-users for the part for which

the  company does not pay

Billing account:Customer care department

Non-bilable account:John Smith as an employee (teleworker)

Billing account:John’s private bill

Salary

BillingBilling

PAWEŁ LAMIK Comarch SA

CRM Product Manager,

Telecommunications

Business Unit

TELCOSPHERE BLOG48

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

Mobile operators need a completely new BSS for M2M because M2M is a totally different business model.

The M2M business model is mature and well-known by

operators, although the facts that the technology is relatively

cheap and that the telecom market is quite saturated offer

new opportunities for growth. Final charging and invoicing

are not the main issues, and very often the existing billing

systems for the enterprise segment are good enough to

fulfill a standard M2M business model. I don’t recommend

using retail BSS; I know a case when an SMS campaign was

addressed to air conditioners. The end user is different, the

processes are different and the ARPU is different.

Operators can consider cooperation with specialized service

partner or buying a new charging or billing solution for M2M

when:

1. They would like to be more independent from

M2M aggregators, have direct contact with end

customers(usually corporates or enterprises which are

their customers in a purely telecom business sense),

and deal with many aggregators instead of having one

strategic partner reselling the communication pipe to

M2M devices and dealing with end customers.

2. The cost of upgrading the current billing system is

unacceptable. The current billing system doesn’t

recognize the difference between traditional mobile

subscription with ARPU at 20-40 EUR, and M2M with

ARPU at 1-5 EUR.

3. The current billing system doesn’t support hierarchical

billing or charging scenarios for B2B and B2B2C

business models.

4. The current solution consists of numerous modules, is

too complicated, and incapable of adopting new tariffs

and products or of integrating with non-standard M2M

infrastructure.

Of course basic set of M2M functions shall include:

1. Subscription management (hierarchy, access

technology and procedures).

2. EDRs correlation, intelligent de-duplication, and

enrichment with e.g. location context.

3. Bulk SIM activation and management.

4. Fraud prevention to support M2M policy assigned to

specified SIM or data source.

5. Workflow processes and automation of logistics and

selfcare.

6. Control Tools and integration gateways.

At Comarch we provide a solution for managing this business

area called the M2M Platform.

M2M charging and tariffs are flat and  simple

It depends. When operators come to vertical business they

have to think in categories of value adequate for specified

vertical markets. The charging policy for an M2M business

evaluates simple tariffs (including monthly or annual fee),

usage-based charges beyond thresholds (like 100kB/month),

and more specific use cases such as:

1. Quantity of transmissions for toll road or periodical

maintenance of expensive electrical equipment.

2. Completed data transfer from a number of machines

(terminals) in a specified time frame for utilities or real

estate business.

3 Direct (from end terminals at customer premises) or

drop-in (from concentrators) mode of transmission for

RFID like ZigBee.

4. Uni-directional/bi-directional transmission for upgrades

and media downloads (as in the connected cars

business case).

Six issues about the role of BSS in the M2M business model

PIOTR MACHNIK Comarch SA

Vice President, Product

Management & Marketing

Telecommunications

Business Unit

TELCOSPHERE BLOG 49

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

5. Content-based policy (short notification of

alarms, and big file transfer for online security

business cases in eHealthcare diagnostics

platforms like Comarch iMed24 traffic

management for electronic readers such

as Amazon Kindle). For example ECG on-line

examination is a precise sequence of both side

notifications and big media files downloads

when blood sugar check consist of few very

small checks in specified time of the day.

6. Risk-share and revenue-share model based

on real revenue transfer scenarios. E.g.

operators can secure M2M transmission to

the big bulldozer but they would pay when the

equipment works (and earns a real money).

The important features of the charging system for

M2M are: hierarchy management and location,

automation and self-configuration of many

subscriptions, user-defined pricing and flexible

offering (typical for enterprise segment), mass

process and subscription management (such as

bulk SIM card management and activations).

Operators will become M2M technology vendors and vertical platforms’ operators

It’s similar to handset manufactures or the internet

USB dongles market. The M2M chipset and device

manufacturers and service providers market is

mature. It has its own established leaders both in

technology and business. The telecom operators’

business is to support this market with intelligent

connectivity, special quality of service (QoS), high

automation of processes, self care applications,

and open, real-time APIs or B2B gateways to the

communication medium and data.

Operators could monetize existing assets and

benefit from hosting applications, managing

international communication, increasing

membership of loyalty programs, remote upgrade

management, and the option of ad-hoc look-up

to remote intelligent terminals. Communication

service providers could play a significant and direct

role in those M2M areas which will have become

standardized in the next few years (such as the

eCall automated emergency call service during

car accidents, connected vehicles and automated

traffic control). M2M standardization is a very hot

topic in organizations such as ETSI, GSMA and OMA.

Standardization in field of open sensor networks

and unified business applications framework is a key

for communication operators who want to increase

their share in the global M2M pie.

Aggregation of M2M services and co-operation with

many M2M service and vertical partners, could be

the best way to increase the profitability of an M2M

business. When they stay offering pure network

service they could lose customers to service

aggregators.

In my opinion the best strategy for Telco Operators is:

Offering direct B2B services trough direct sales

channel for mass and global M2M connectivity

like automotive, navigation, global logistics and

asset management.

Find strategic vertical partners for B2B2C model

for selected services and offer differentiators

like eHealth or connected homes and work.

Leave a middle and small business and non

strategic market segments for partners and

developer communities securing revenue share

from intelligent connectivity management.

The M2M business model is based on SIM cards so it’s the same as pure retail telco

In theory yes, because everybody can buy M2M SIM

cards but the M2M business model and processes

are different. It’ is similar to the business model in the

enterprise segment. The main differences between

traditional SIM-based retail and M2M are:

1. The importance of bulk SIM management and

SIM logistic processes.

2. Specified SIM cards adequate for industry

purposes (more life cycles longer than 12 years,

as opposite to 3-5 in retail telco, tolerance for

high and low temperatures because of outdoor

use).

3. Special policy: no voice, usually small portions

of data exchanged in specified time periods.

4. Dealers, resellers and aggregators; A long-

tail revenue share model in contradiction to

retail account sales to enterprises; web will

be a major customer contact channel in this

business.

5. Specified roaming agreements for international

use (logistics, carriers, global vendors of moving

goods) or multiIMSI, MultiMSISDN.

6. Users are different and demands are different.

In voice and internet it’s quite simple. We talk

or we download content and we pay for it. But

in M2M we can have, for example, a case of a

company which leases fitness machines, trucks

or bulldozers. The benefit of a customer is in

using M2M remote diagnostics for significant

reduction of costly on-site maintenance and

increasing productivity of the equipment and

profitability of the core business.

Most of companies, including Vodafone, KPN and

Sprint have dedicated smart M2M business units or

specialized teams within their enterprise business

departments.

Is there a difference between M2M and RFID and NFC?

RFID is one among others technologies that could

be used to establish M2M communication. RFID is

perfect for short distance communication (100-

300m), for monitoring fuel tanks, containers,

automation of distribution processes in big fashion

factories and stores, and so on. Technologies such

as RFID ZigBee have been developed specifically for

enterprises, in contrast to GSM or GPRS which was

originally developed for voice and the transfer of large

volumes of data. ZigBee is much more efficient than

SIM-based M2M in terms of power consumption,

‘plug & play’ features and integration with automatics

including SCADA, MODBUS or intelligent buildings

systems. RFID technologies are dedicated to small

distances and relatively small data transfer (ZigBee

250kB/s in 2.5GHz). When we have to secure long-

distance transmission between moving assets we

ought to use a SIM-based M2M communication

channel. When we have to arise security level of the

transmission we have to consider Bluetooth or NFC.

Of course, mixed architectures consists of unlicensed

spectrum transmission and GPRS concentrators

are possible and, for example in smart metering,

are very popular and cost-effective in terms of

communication costs and energy consumption.

Comarch Technology Review 02/2010

TELCOSPHERE BLOG50

Comarch Technology Review 01/2011

The first call from a call center agent arrives 3 months before the

end of the contract.

Agent: “Hi, would you be interested in renewing the contract

today?”

Me: “Please call me again in 2 months (one month before the end

of the contract).”

Agent: “Ok”

Fine, it seems as though they are interested in keeping me as a

customer.

1.5 months before the contract ends, the next call arrives from

the call center agent.

Agent: “Hi, we have prepared an offer for you. Because the

average amount of your invoice has been XXX, we would like to

offer you some new attractive pricing. Which services have you

been using the most? Voice or SMS?”

Me: “I have used voice services more than SMS”

Agent: “Do you usually call numbers in our network, or also

numbers of other mobile operators in the country?”

Me: “Yes, and also to numbers abroad. And what about mobile

data service? Can you send me the offer by e-mail, so I can have

a look at it without making a decision right away?”

Agent: “Sorry, I cannot send any e-mails from the call center. You

would need to make the decision based on the information that

I’m telling you over the phone”

Me: “Ok, so I’ll check the offers on your website before making any

decision. Please call me back later”

When the operator is calling to subscribers and proposing them

new offers in this way, it does not seem to be a very smooth

operation.

Why are they asking if I have been using more voice or

SMS? Shouldn’t they already see this from their CRM

systems, and not simply look just at the final amount of the

invoice?

Shouldn’t they see from my service usage profile that a big

portion of the invoice amount comes from calls abroad?

Instead of just voice and SMS, why are they not offering me

data services as well (which my current subscription also

includes)?

And why not send the offer details to me by e-mail so that

I could have a closer look at the offer details? If the offer is

complex, not everyone wants to make the decision right

away.

Would the customer appreciate getting a personalized offer,

based on his previous service usage profile? The amount on the

invoice does not say much about the subscriber’s service usage

profile.

One month before the end of the contract, the call center agent

calls again.

Agent: “Hi, have you checked the offers on our website.”

Me: “Yes, one offer looks interesting and I am interested in it.

However I checked the offer conditions from your website and

I have a couple of questions. Do you speak English? No? Ok,

please have some English-speaking agent call me and discuss

these issues and the agreement”

Agent: “Ok. An English-speaking person will call you soon”

When negotiating a new subscription during a telephone call, I’d

rather agree to a new contract in English, since I’m not a native

speaker of the local language.

There are still 2 weeks until the end of the contract, and still no

call from the English speaking call center agent. It looks like I

need to check what the other operators are currently offering.

The issues that I have complained about in this blog post should

not be too difficult for the operator to handle better. It would at

least increase customer satisfaction and reduce the churn rate.

* The above blog post was written in February. I got no additional

telephone calls from the agent, so three days before the contract

expiration I finally went to the point of sale for renewing the

contract. Service was good and the contract renewal took less

than 5 minutes.

The opinions expressed in this blog post are solely those of the

author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Comarch.

I subscribed to a mobile service almost one year ago. The end date of this subscription is approaching. We are hearing about how customer satisfaction is important for operators, so let’s see what effort the operator has made to try and renew the contract.*

PEKKA VALITALO Comarch SA

BSS Market Analyst,

Telecommunications

Business Unit

Telco Sphere blog - a place to share ideas on the developments in the telecom world:

telcosphere.comarch.com

Renewal of a mobile subscription – is it simple?

achine-to-machine (M2M) traffic can provide

additional revenue sources for operators battling

against reduced revenues from voice services. The number of

connectable machines is 5 times greater than the amount of

humans (source: ETSI), and the number of machines currently

connected is extremely low.

As the level of M2M traffic increases and M2M devices

become more common, the price of individual M2M hardware

components falls, boosting M2M popularity even further. In

addition, the declining price of data services facilitates more

M2M business scenarios. Scenarios that a couple of years

ago were deemed useless, due to high costs, now present

an attractive business opportunity, with telco operators able

to attain a new revenue source by offering M2M connectivity

services.

The Comarch M2M Platform for mobile network operators and

M2M enablers supports rating and charging, and also provides

tools for actions such as performing mass operations on SIM

cards, and integration with inventory and a self service portal.

The platform contains a B2B Gateway for secure web service

integration with a partner, thus enabling self management

and provisioning functionalities that partners can utilize via

their systems. This platform can be added to the existing MNO

infrastructure in the same way that MVNE platforms are added

to support MVNO business.

Comarch M2M Platform – Benefits:

Single platform for various types of M2M services:

service-agnostic data processing for multiple types of

industries

Able to process vast amounts of data

Increased automation and cost efficiency

Enhanced cooperation with business partners

Flexible integration with external systems: standardized

interfaces, modern and open technology

M

More info is available at: http://m2mplatform.comarch.com/

M2M Partner Systems

External Systems

Self Management

Integration

Integration

Services

Comarch M2M

Platform

Existing BSS Platform

Existing OSS Platform

Underlying Network

M2M PARTNERTELCO OPERATOR

Partner’s administrators

The Comarch M2M Platform is designed to support mobile network operators and M2M enablers with their M2M business operations. In addition to rating and charging, the solution contains other functionalities such as mediation, provisioning, self-service (including self-provisioning) and partner management, depending on the requirements of the M2M enterprise. With this solution, the operator and M2M enabler are able to control resources (such as SIM cards) and manage workflows.

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