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Features Telecom Services

OSS/BSS: Choice Is Yours...

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Voice&Data Bureau
New Update

The Indian telecom market is in its growth phase, despite
recent regulatory issues. With the new minister expected to deliver on removing
the bottlenecks by the second quarter of 2003-04, action is likely to begin
again on implementation of growth strategies by different operators, both mobile
and fixed line.

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However, the factors that will drive the market and the way
business will be done will be extremely difficult. The major qualitative changes
that the market will encounter are as follows:

n Second
Round of Growth: Free incoming regime will mean new entrants. Most of the
new users will join as prepaid users. That will see an explosion in prepaid
subscriber base. So far, the operators have not started new marketing campaigns
targeting new users. Once the regulatory pressures are off and the tariff regime
becomes clearer, they will market it to new users.

n Network
Quality Will Be Marketed: In mobile, airtime rates have fallen to all-time
lows. These are probably the lowest rates anywhere in the world. This will not
only grow the subscriber base, but also see a spurt in airtime usage. That will
lead to more pressure on the networks and quality will be an issue. Operators
will not only have to work on this, but also market network quality. To some
extent, companies like AirTel have already started doing that.

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n SMS
Applications Will Be Key Differentiators: For GSM operators, SMS, that has
already become popular, will continue to drive up ARPU. Peer-to-peer SMS will
grow on its own in terms of number of SMS sent per day. However, operators have
to create premium content and look at contests and promotions. That will see SMS
becoming a strategic tool.

n Multimedia
Applications Will Grow: With Reliance taking pioneering steps, both CDMA and
GSM operators will focus a lot more on games/video and other such multimedia
applications. That will change the way the telecom service is positioned today.

All this will have a direct impact on the billing and OSS
strategies of operators. While broadly, content billing will grow as an area, a
lot more focus will be on service activation and service monitoring, while the
initial planning for network optimization/operations optimization will begin.

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Billing:
What to Look For While Buying?
PARAMETERS COMMENT
SERVICES Give equal,
may be more importance to the services while deciding on a product. Even
if the product is good on features, if they are not properly implemented
for you wither by the vendor or its partner, you may not be able to take
the full advantage.
PARTNERSHIPS With which
integrators does the company work globally? This means that even if at a
later date you go for new systems, like say CRM, you have a wide choice to
choose from integrators which can smoothly integrate a CRM with the
billing system. Similarly, if the consultants that you plan to employ for
process development, know the system, it is always an added advantage.
SUPPORT Does the
company have adequate support facility in India? What does he promise?
UPGRADEABILITY This is
different from scalability. As investment protection today is a major
worry for you, you do not want that to again be an issue. Do you? So is
the billing system easily upgradable to take care of new services without
affecting your processes?
MIGRATION
PATH		 What
is the future plan? Is the company working on the next version? What new
features will the next version include? Are those the ones you are likely
to need?
CONVERGENT Does the
company has three products for three services or just one platform?
Important if you plan to provide multiple services?
CONTENT/DATA
CAPABLE		 You
may not be doing that today. But sooner than latter, you will have to
charge for content/application in some form or other. So is the product
ready. Do not ignore this parameter.
RELIABILITY Well, you
can test for new products. For old products and/or companies, reference
sites is what matters.

Where Are the Gaps?

Broadly speaking, there are only a few gaps, but they are so crucial that
they impact not only the overall output of the systems but also the entire
business process.

n OSS
and BSS Remain Distinct Functions: The biggest gap is that OSS strategies
and BSS strategies are on their own distinct paths and there is very little
integration between the two. Let us consider two examples to see how the OSS/BSS
integration will bring value to the users. First a mobile operator who provides
a content service, say where consumers can send an SMS to get
scores. Today, not many operators can boast of a reverse credit when the SMS
request does not get fulfilled. Typically, a true OSS/BSS integration would
provide information on the service request that could not be fulfilled and
accordingly reward the user for non-performance. On fixed line services, a VPN
service taken from a service provider never gets the due credit, as there is
seldom a sure-shot way in which an operator can prove/disprove service
availability. Most operator SLAs are yet to conclusively cover this area.

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n Too
Much Dependence on Vendors: Yet another short-term approach, it not only
makes the whole thing expensive, but also prevents operators from getting an
independent perspective so as to see the future problems. This, despite the fact
that India is home to some of the best system integrators in the world, like
Wipro, Infosys, Satyam, and TCS. BSNL, with its CDR-based billing project, has
taken a step in working with SIs. Private operators have to do it sooner or
later.

n Postpaid
Billing Migration for GSM Operators Is Complete, but Issues Remain: Most of
the mobile operators have changed their billing systems and have standardized on
one vendor. But in most cases, they have gone for the history of the vendor–or
simply the number of years behind him–than the actual product quality and
support capability. While this does not suggest that all the older vendors
should be shunned, many CIOs ‘confess’ that day-to-day issues are so much
that none has any time left to do long-term planning. So most of them have gone
for a reliable name and promise for a smooth migration, rather than flexibility
and how future-proof the system is. This means ‘postponing’ the problem,
rather than ‘solving’ it. While this year may be smooth, expect nightmares
again in 2004.

n Prepaid
is Still Neglected: While most operators have changed their postpaid billing
system, there is still no major decision on prepaid. Partly because prepaid
users are not the priority customers for operators (despite their large number)
and partly because CIOs are not too familiar with the existing prepaid system.
Many others are waiting for a true prepaid-postpaid convergence, which remains
elusive. And till that happens, they are not doing anything to standardize on
customer care and a common database.

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n CDMA
Operators Haven’t yet Launched Prepaid: CDMA operators, who are banking on
its affordability have also not done anything on prepaid. This is surprising
considering the fact that almost the entire low-end price-conscious market in
GSM is prepaid.

n SMS
Is not Getting the Attention It Deserves: While most of the operators do
acknowledge the criticality of SMS to their businesses, none of them have a way
of charging for SMS other than a flat rate. As content becomes more prevalent
and enterprises look at using SMS for their B2C, B2B, and B2E applications, not
only will the SMS system have to be reliable, functionalities such as billing
for premium content, reverse credit, and reverse billing will have to be
incorporated.

n BSNL
and MTNL are Treating Services Differently: BSNL and MTNL, which provide
wireline, CDMA wireless and GSM wireless have treated these services as
independent services. They are not leveraging their existing subscriber base and
hence not utilizing their inherent strength to tackle competition. Imagine a
BSNL user getting a single bill for all his usage of GSM and wireline with
incentives on large usage. Such moves will give BSNL a huge advantage over
mobile operators.

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n Mediation
Is Still an Afterthought: For Indian operators, who decided the importance
of a system based on how much it cost, mediation was something that did not need
a rethinking. For most of them, it was the billing vendor that provided
mediation and provisioning. A mediation system can actually tell an operator
whether he is going to make or lose money by introducing a service, especially
if the operator actually goes for value-based charging from time/data size-based
charging. As Indian operators go for differential price-based services like GPRS,
a good mediation system is a must.

Tips

So, what do service providers focus on? Experts give some food for thought.

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n Streamline
Processes: The main reason behind numerous billing complaints that operators
encounter everyday–many of which charge them of being unscrupulous–is not
that the billing systems do not have the capability to provide those basic
functionalities. Neither it is any faulty implementation of the billing or
customer-care system. In seven out of 10 cases, they are related to incorrect
processes. Take for example, the case of a mobile user in Delhi. He did not
receive his bills for four months. He could not even get outstanding amount for
the first month, and when he asked, he was given a consolidated amount with no
monthly bill break-ups. What is more, when he paid up, even after three weeks of
the money being deducted from his account, he could not get a confirmation. Do
you believe it’s the fault of a billing system?

This is an example of customer dissatisfaction. There can be
revenue leakage, churn, and even fraud when processes are not in place. This,
according to experts, is the highest priority area.


Migration Challenges

The
billing migration task is indeed a complex exercise. Some of the major
challenges that operators face are as follows.

l Data
migration: Migrating huge billing data itself is a complex exercise,
as any IT manager involved with large migration projects would know.

l Functionality
mapping and gap analysis: Not any two the billing systems do the same
thing in same way. There are always slight variations between the system’s
functionalities. Most of the services that are based on the older billing
system have to be exactly offered in the same way in the new billing
system. Else, there will be customer dissatisfaction, confusion or revenue
leakage or both.

l Third-party
application migration: The older billing systems, at the time when
they get replaced, consist of not just the core billing system but also
third party applications. They need to be migrated to the new system so
that there is no gap with the earlier functionalities and billing
capabilities. The challenge becomes much more complex when a group has
five different operations in five circles and all operators have different
third party applications. The deployed core billing systems are a handful
in the market. The third party applications could be numerous. That adds
to the complexity.

l It
is real time: The times, however, do not stand still while an operator
is migrating the billing system. Especially in a fast evolving market like
India. So the operator not only will have to tackle the issue of
continuity of business, in some cases, it has to quickly respond to market
changes even while the migration is on. For example, while Orange in
Mumbai was changing its billing system, AirTel launched its service,
introducing some new rate plans. Orange had no option but to respond. No
CMO would take no for an answer from the CIO at a time when the market
demands a change.

l Processes:
The smoothness of migration depends on the internal processes. No
matter, how good the system is, a smooth migration is not possible, unless
internal processes are correct.

l Lack
of professional integrators: Unlike most markets, Indian service
providers have not worked with integrators that would have taken a lot of
burden from their shoulders. Ironic, considering the fact that India is
known for its software services skills globally and some of the Indian
software giants have huge global experience in telecom practice. In many
markets, the vendor does not even get involved in the project. It is the
integrators who front-end and ensure the smoothness of migration. A good
professional integrator reduces the complexity, uncertainty, and duration
of migration. Lack of an integrator has added to the migration woes of the
operators.

n Don’t
Get Married to a Vendor: While turning vendor relationships into long-term
partnerships is a good practice, an operator cannot afford to be dogmatic about
it, especially when the vendor does not have some capability. If a vendor is not
able to offer something, it is time to look beyond. This does not necessarily
mean that one has to sever the relationship but merely look outside for
solutions. That leads to the next point.

n Be
Comfortable with Add-ons: You cannot change your billing system everyday.
But you have to keep pace with the changing demands of the market. This means
that if the vendor is incapable of providing something when the market demands,
an operator can look outside (for small application developers that are in
plenty in India) for point applications, that would run with the core billing
systems. Many Indian operators have already done that but are still not
comfortable with the idea. The problem: managing multiple relationships and lack
of accountability if the systems are not functioning properly together. What is
the solution? Over to the next point.

n Work
with Independent Professional Services Companies: Once an independent
professional services company takes charge of the billing system management, it
is his responsibility to ensure that you get what you want as and when you do,
and without any major hitches. This also means that you will not remain hooked
to your vendor and he cannot blackmail you.

n Prepare
for Outsourcing: Working with professional services companies could be the
first step toward being comfortable with ‘outsourcing’. The way this
business is moving, you will have to do it sooner than latter. And why not? When
India is betting big on doing BPO for the entire world, why can’t we do that
within India?

Prepaid-postpaid Convergence: Whose Purpose will it serve?

Like many markets, and unlike many others, India has chosen the prepaid path. Today, there is not an iota of doubt in anyone’s mind that only prepaid can grow the mobile penetration in the country to a significant level. Different estimates project it will stabilize at anywhere between 60 to 75 percent of the total mobile user base.It means prepaid has become the core business of mobile operators. Operators now have to face two realities. One, prepaid users have to be treated at par with the postpaid users. Two, at the same time, efforts have to be made to steadily (even if slowly) take up the prepaid ARPU level over the next few years.

So far, the operators had two options regarding offering services to prepaid users. One was to deny services, where authentication is difficult (mostly data services), to them. The other was to provide those services, but remain prepared for compromising on real time authentication, and thus leaving scope for revenue leakage.

Today, the CEOs have realized that denying services to 70 percent of users mean losing out on huge amount of revenues. The ARPU-starved operators certainly cannot afford that. So the new directive to the CIOs: "do something about it.". What goes unsaid is of course, "without significant revenue leakage."

That is a tough task for someone who till yesterday never seriously bothered about prepaid. Traditionally, prepaid has been part of IN and so has been the responsibility of the network head.

Quite naturally, the CIOs have turned to the people that they are most familiar with–the postpaid vendors.This is the first and non-contentious part of the story.

The next part is more interesting, which postpaid vendors term as a deliberate conspiracy theory.

And here it goes. Already worried about the loss of licensing revenue once the postpaid user base stops growing, the postpaid vendors realize it is their last chance to hold the empire from falling. So globally, especially in Europe and Asia, campaigns begin to bring the prepaid to the postpaid fold.

So the issue–a more flexible billing mechanism for prepaid users–gets redefined to what is arguably the biggest OSS market hype in recent times: prepaid-postpaid convergence. An extra item gets added to the billing wish-list of the mobile operators. Today, prepaid-postpaid convergence is the biggest talking point in industry. What do you think about it?

While full billing outsourcing may take some time, one could
start with facilities management.

n Time
to Invest in aCRM: With competition becoming intense, analysis of
information to help take service creation and marketing decisions is something
that operators need to invest in this year.

n Prepaid
Issues Are Waiting to Explode: Be more proactive. Observers believe that
Indian operators have not given enough attention to prepaid billing systems. The
IN billing systems are not best for taking care of all future requirements and
the converged prepaid-postpaid billing systems that many CIOs are waiting for,
may not become a reality anytime soon. The operators, therefore, need to have
their act in place in terms of prepaid billing systems.

n Treat
OSS as a Strategic Tool: This is more discussed than practiced. With intense
competition on the tariff front, operators are likely to continuously create
niche segments and try to address them over a period of time, thus establishing
a position for themselves. This means that new products–whether voice-based or
more importantly SMS/data-based–would have to be created on a weekly, if not a
daily basis. In other words, billing has to be treated as a strategic as well as
a tactical tool, and not as a back-office function.

EXPERTS
PANEL

Ashwani
Vaccher, Chief Solutions Architect, Portal Software
Bithin
Talukdar, Market Development & Alliance Manager, Software Global
Business Unit,
Hewlett
Packard India
Anu
Bajpai, Head Convergence Software, Escosoft

Who’s Who: Vendors

l Agilent

Product Portfolio: Fault Mgmt., Service Mgmt.,
Performance Mgmt.

Website: www.agilent.com/comms/oss

l Bharti
Telesoft

Product Portfolio: Billing and customer care,
switching and network management

Deployments in India: Bharti Cellular

Website: www.bhartitelesoft.com

l BrainRoots

Product Portfolio: Convergent Billing

Website: www.brainroots.com

l CinShyam

Product Portfolio: Inter-carrier settlement
solution, OSS, CRM, Call management and service provisioning system, IVR,
Prepaid system

Deployments in India: Shyam Telelink (Billing),
Heaxcomm, Hutchison (Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Karnataka) (Interconnect
billing)

Website: www.cinshyamindia.com

l Comptel

Product Portfolio: Mediation & provisioning
(global leader), other OSS/BSS products

Deployments in India: Bharti Telenet (all
circles), Tata Teleservices (all circles), Idea Cellular (all circles),

Website: www.comptel.com

l Comverse
Network Systems

Product Portfolio: Prepaid billing

Deployments in India: Bharti prepaid (Andhra
Pradesh, Kolkata, and Chennai), Reliance Infocom (CDMA)

Website: www.comverse.com

l Convergys
Corporation

Product Portfolio: Billing for wireless, xSPs,
broadband, application suite, IP suite, settlement suite, mediation manager,
activation manager

Website: www.convergys.com

l CSG
Systems

Product Portfolio: Full suite of billing and
related applications for Wireline, Wireless (prepaid and postpaid), broadband,
IP services; mediation

Deployments in India: Bharti Cellular (all
circles), BSNL (all zones), Tata Teleservices (all circles)

Website: www.csgsystems.com

l Digiquant

Product Portfolio: A convergent billing
platform

Deployments in India: Web based Customer Care
module at Jaipur for a European ISP

Website: www.digiquant.com

l Escosoft

Product Portfolio: CRM, billing

Deployment in India: Escotel

Website: www.escosoft-tech.com

l Eftia

Product Portfolio: Integrated OSS suite for
service order management, circuit and asset inventory mgmt., number mgmt., and
trouble mgmt.

Website: www.eftia.com

l Hewlett-Packard
India

Product Portfolio: OSS Suite, mediation

Website: www.hp.com/go/telecom

l Hughes
Software Systems

Product Portfolio: Mediation product and
integration services

Deployments in India: Bharti Cellular, Escotel,
Hughes Tele.com, HFCL Infotel, BSNL (South)

Website: www.hssworld.com

l Infozech
Software

Product Portfolio: Customer Care and Billing
and Settlement solutions

Website: www.infozech.com

l Intec
Telecom Systems

Product Portfolio: Inter-carrier billing and
mediation

Deployments in India: Bharti Telesonic, VSNL,
BSNL

Website: www.intec-telecom-systems.com

l Lifetree
Convergence Ltd.

Product Portfolio: Retail billing, OSS, web
self-care, content settlement, EBPP, customer care,

Deployments in India: Spice (Karnataka &
Punjab)

Website: www.lifetreeindia.com

l Portal
Software

Product Portfolio: Billing and mediation

Deployment in India: VSNL, HCL infinity,
British gas, Global (ISP), Data Access (both voice and data)

Website: www.portal.com

l Protek

Product Portfolio: Full suite of billing
applications

Website: www.protek.com

l SchlumbergerSema

Product Portfolio: Billing and customer care,
messaging

Deployments in India: Hutch and Idea are
standardized on Sema (all circles), BPL (all circles), RPG Cellular (Chennai),
Escotel (all circles)

Website: www.slb.com

l Siemens
Information Systems Ltd

Product Portfolio: Prepaid and postpaid
billing, mediation, prepaid management

Deployments in India: Prepaid and postpaid
billing for Reliance Telecom GSM operations (Eastern India),

Website: www.sislindia.com

l Subex
Systems

Product Portfolio: Design, development,
implementation and support of Revenue Maximization

Website: www.subexgroup.com

l Suntec

Product Portfolio: Billing, customer care and
e-commerce transaction management solutions

Deployments in India: BSNL, HFCL Infotel (CDMA
Network), I-Serve

Website: www.suntecgroup.com

l Tata
Consultancy Services

Product Portfolio: In the areas of customer
care & billing, mediation & provisioning, interconnect accounting
system, CRM, datawarehouse and business intelligence, ERP, integration based on
an EAI framework and e/m-commerce solutions

Worked in India with: Bharti group, Idea
Cellular, Tata Teleservices and MTNL

Website: www.tcs.com

l TCIL-Bellsouth

Product Portfolio: Software solutions and
services including project consultancy, offshore/onsite design and development
of OSS, training and turnkey project implementation

Deployments in India: BSNL

Website: www.tbladm.com

l Ushacomm

Product Portfolio: Service management, business
intelligence, convergent mediation, Billing and Customer Care

Deployments in India: Aircel

Website: www.ushacomm.com


Billing & Mediation Who is using what

Billing
& Mediation Who is using what
SERVICE
PROVIDER		 COMMENT POSTPAID-PRESENT POSTPAID-PAST MEDIATION
& PROVISIONING		 PREPAID
(PRESENT)
MOBILE
Bharti Group (15
circles/metros)		 Centralized CSG
Systems (Arbor)		 HSS
Delhi Sema
(CABS 2000)		 Ericsson IN
Karnataka Sema
(BSCS)		 NA
Andhra
Pradesh		 Sema
(BSCS)		 Comverse
Kolkata Wipro,
LHS* (BSCS)		 Comverse
Himachal
Pradesh		 Ushacomm,
Lifetree		 NA
Chennai Sema
(CABS 2000), Ushacomm		 Comverse
Punjab,
Mumbai, Kerala, Maharashtra,		 New
circles
Tamil
Nadu, Gujarat, Haryana,
MP,
UP (West)
Hutch Group (7 circles/metro) Standardized
on SchlumbergerSema (BSCS)
Hutch-Delhi Will shift to
SchlumbergerSema (BSCS)		 CSC Intellicon (ISIS) No change in the past Wipro Siemens IN
Orange-Mumbai SchlumbergerSema (BSCS) Sema (CABS 2000) Wipro Ericsson-IN
Command-Kolkata Will shift to
SchlumbergerSema (BSCS)		 Ushacomm (Unicom) Kingston SCL (Jupiter) Wipro NA
Hutch-Gujarat Centralized
from Gujarat for		 SchlumbergerSema (BSCS) Earlier Version of BSCS In-house, replacing Comverse
Hutch-AP,
Karnataka, Chennai		 SchlumbergerSema (BSCS) New
circle		 Ericsson-IN
SchlumbergerSema (BSCS) New
circle		 Ericsson-IN
aa SchlumbergerSema (BSCS) New
circle		 Ericsson-IN
Idea Cellular Standardized
on SchlumbergerSema (BSCS)
Andhra
Pradesh		 SchlumbergerSema (BSCS) CSG Systems (Arbor) &
Kingston SCL (Jupiter)		 Comptel Nokia IN
Delhi SchlumbergerSema (BSCS) New circle Comptel Nokia IN
Maharashtra SchlumbergerSema (BSCS) Sema (CABS2000) Comptel Ericsson IN
Gujarat SchlumbergerSema (BSCS) Sema (CABS2000) Comptel Ericsson IN
Madhya
Pradesh		 SchlumbergerSema (BSCS) No change Comptel Ericsson IN
aa
BPL
Mobile-Mumbai		 SchlumbergerSema (BSCS) No change SchlumbergerSema
(provisioning only)		 Siemens IN
BPL
Cellular
Tamil Nadu Decentralized SchlumbergerSema (BSCS) No change SchlumbergerSema
(provisioning only)		 Siemens IN
Kerala SchlumbergerSema (BSCS) No change SchlumbergerSema
(provisioning only)		 Siemens IN
Maharashtra SchlumbergerSema (BSCS) No change SchlumbergerSema
(provisioning only)		 Siemens IN
Escotel aa
Kerala SchlumbergerSema (CABS 2000) No change Hughes Software, Shortlisted
Comptel, Wipro, Ushacomm		 Lucent IN
UP
(West)		 SchlumbergerSema (CABS 2000) No change Hughes Software, Shortlisted
Comptel, Wipro, Ushacomm		 Lucent IN
Haryana SchlumbergerSema (CABS 2000) No change Hughes Software, Shortlisted
Comptel, Wipro, Ushacomm		 Lucent IN
Punjab Undecided New Circle Undecided Undecided
Rajasthan Undecided New Circle Undecided Undecided
UP (East) Undecided New Circle Undecided Undecided
Himachal Undecided New Circle Undecided Undecided
MTNL Changing
the system and has shortlisted		 EHPT (Progressor) No change in the past EHPT Lucent IN
SchlumbergerSema
and CSG
BSNL
BSNL-North CSG Systems (Arbor) New
operation		 Ericsson-IN
BSNL-South CSG Systems (Arbor) New operation Hughes Software Systems Siemens-IN
BSNL-East   CSG Systems (Arbor) New
operation		   Ericsson-IN
BSNL-West CSG Systems (Arbor) New operation CSG Lucent-IN
Reliance
Telecom (8 circles/metros)		   SISL (GABS) Siemens
Nixdorf (INTEBIS)		   SISL (GABS)
Spice
(2 circles)		 Lifetree In-house Logica-IN
Aircel-Tamil
Nadu		 Ushacomm (Unicorn) No
change in the past		 NA
RPG
Cellular Chennai		 SchlumbergerSema (BSCS) No
change		 Ericsson-IN
Hexacomm-Rajasthan