OSS deals with critical issues of operators

OSS deals with critical issues of operators:

•Order management systems allow operators to coordinate the process of configuring the network to deliver the services ordered by a customer.
•Provisioning systems allow operators to turn up (activate) services on the network/service infrastructure.
•Inventory systems allow operators to accurately track their network assets, and assign those assets to customers.
•Mediation systems allow operators to determine service usage.
•Rating systems allow operators to determine how much to bill based on the service usage for a particular customer.
•Network management systems allow operators to detect and isolate network failures, and quickly restore service.
•Service assurance systems allow operators to correlate network performance with service quality requirements, and appropriately communicate and compensate customers for any disruption.
•EAI systems allow operators to quickly integrate diverse support systems and network elements.

Importance of OSS/BSSs

Reason 1 — OSSs/BSSs enable operators to manage their customers

Manage the customer account :
Contact information — admin, technical, billing, ...
Track products purchased, contracts

Manage the sales process :
Correlate customer requirements with service offering
Service ordering
Service changes, termination, etc.

Manage the billing process :
Determine how much a customer owes
Invoicing, apply payments, adjustments
Manage customer expectations
Communication of service performance
Failure resolution
SLA credits
Delivery dates, downtime, and more ...

Reason 2 — OSSs/BSSs enable operators manage their service offerings
Defines technical, legal and contractual specifications of service (SLA, regulatory)
Catalogs services into product offerings
Pricing, promotions, discounts
Availability, eligibility

Facilitate quote generation
•Manage the order process
•Configures the network to deliver services purchased
•Determines the quality of service (QoS) actually delivered by network
•Reconciles the delivered QoS with customer expectation / contract (SLA)
•Provides business-oriented reports of resource capacity and utilization
•Facilitates resource planning

Reason 3 — OSSs/BSSs enable operators to manage their network
Ensures proper operations of equipment
•Installation
•Configuration
•Testing
•Inventory and assignment
•Maintenance
•Fault detection and resolution
•Security
•Usage collection
•Fraud detection
OSS becomes more critical to manage diversified services, support multiple network technologies and meeting customers’ expectations.