R6 Functional Overview | Infonova R6 Supplier and Service Management
Effective Supplier and Service
Management plays a key role in multi-
layered, cross-industry 2.0 business
models. In order for Service Providers to
take advantage of cross-industry 2.0
business models, they must be able to
easily introduce a variety of services from
different suppliers and partners into their
service portfolio. These can then be
exposed so that end-customers can select
from a wide array of single products and
bundled offers.
The market is opening up to aggregating
services or products from multiple
suppliers and partners thereby leveraging
brand power and customer access.
In order to widen the market exposure of
services where the Service Providers do
not have direct access to the branded
products, they can also define channel
partners, virtual service operators (VSO),
who offer the services to other markets
under their own product brands.
Supplier and Service Management Managing Suppliers, Partners and Services within complex Industry 2.0 business
models
Functional Overview | Infonova R6
R6 Functional Overview | Infonova R6 Supplier and Service Management
TWO-SIDED BUSINESS MODELS
Cross-industry 2.0 fundamentally calls for the capability to manage a multi-layered business
model. In a two-sided business model, a platform aggregates multiple services from different
suppliers into wholesale and retail offers that include legacy and other products, services and
devices.
Supplier
Service
Provider
Retailer /
Virtual Service
Operator 1
Service
Provider
END-CUSTOMER
Retail Product Offer
Retail Product Offer
Wholesale Product Offer
Retailer /
Virtual Service
Operator 2
Wholesale Product Offer
Infonova R6
Retail Product Offer
Supplier 2
Services
Virtu
al W
ho
lesa
le
Tra
ditio
na
l W
ho
lesa
le / R
eta
il
Virtu
al R
eta
il
Supplier 1
Services
Figure 1: Infonova R6 multi-layered business model
Infonova's R6 is a comprehensive multi-layered platform that can manage both traditional and
cross-industry 2.0 business models. On the one hand, it aggregates multiple suppliers'
services into wholesale and retail offers that include next generation, legacy and other
products, services and devices. On the other hand, the platform supports the definition of
multiple retail operators (sometimes called tenants) and channels, and enables these tenants
to sell and deliver their branded and bundled offers to end-customers, and bill them for
services provided.
SUPPLIER AND SERVICE MANAGEMENT
R6 Supplier and Service Management enables the Service Provider to easily define and
manage suppliers, partners and their services. In the cross-industry 2.0 scenario,
collaboration is the key to successful delivery of value-added services and retention of
customers. Infonova's Supplier and Service Management provides the capabilities to
aggregate suppliers and their services on one platform which enables the services to be
made available throughout the Infonova business ecosystem.
R6 Functional Overview | Infonova R6 Supplier and Service Management
SERVICE MONETIZATION
The monetization of service usage is equally important as enablement. The supplier
management functionality is the foundation for effective Mediation and Rating processes and
the correct allocation of charges for execution of the wholesale and retail bill runs. The
following figure shows how a service of a supplier becomes a product offer suitable for end-
customers.
Figure 2: Service Monetization
The wholesale operator creates and manages service providers / suppliers and manages
their service portfolios by defining services and related service events and service features.
The wholesale operator then defines and manages products by choosing services from one
or more suppliers' service portfolios and associating a variety of charges to them. Once the
wholesale product has been exposed to the Retail Operator, it enables the Retail Operator to
individually price the underlying services for the end-customer consumption.
Retail Product Offer
Wholesale Product Offer
feature
feature
Service Provider
VSO
VSP
Service
Feature
Feature
Feature
service
feature
feature
service
feature
feature
service
feature
feature
Product Offer
Configuration
Product Offer
Configuration
Product
Configuration
Wholesale Product
feature
VSO Tariff
VSP Tariff
Tariff
R6 Functional Overview | Infonova R6 Supplier and Service Management
HOW SUPPLIER AND SERVICE MANAGEMENT WORKS
R6 Supplier and Service Management involves:
Management of suppliers/partners
Configuration of services provided by a supplier/partner
Assignment of business process events for the triggering of service provisioning via
adaptors
Definition of resource management workflows for service fulfillment
Figure 3: Supplier and Service Management in the Infonova R6 process overview
SERVICE INTEGRATION PATH
The service of a supplier is introduced into the Infonova R6 business ecosystem by following
the Infonova integration path appropriate for service integration.
This involves:
Defining Suppliers / Partners in Supplier Management
Defining Services and SLAs in Service Management
Integrating service event handlers
Provisioning interface integration in Service and Resource Provisioning
Service workflow integration in Workflow Management
This integration is a combination of step-by-step configuration and process and data
integration, described in detail in the Administration Guide, Supplier Management Guide,
Workflow Development Guide and Service Resource Provisioning Guide.
R6 Functional Overview | Infonova R6 Supplier and Service Management
Figure 4: Infonova R6 Integration Paths - Service Integration
STEP BY STEP SUPPLIER AND SERVICE INTEGRATION
R6 Supplier and Service Management allows the easy definition and management of
suppliers and their services.
Supplier / Partner
All supplier/partner information like supplier names, contact information, and contracts are
collected in the system.
Supplier management establishes a billing account for each new supplier / partner to which
the mediation and rating process allocated charges are accumulated for reconciliation
invoicing.
Service Specification and characteristics
A service specification represents a template definition of a service (e.g. DSL, Mobile,
Insurance, power, etc.) or resource (equipment) and comprises of invariant characteristics
associated with the specification. This service specification definition enables multiple
instances to be derived from a single specification entity.
R6 Functional Overview | Infonova R6 Supplier and Service Management
Service Management
Characteristics
Service Specifications
Figure 5: Service Management
Service specifications define a service or resource that can be provisioned from either a B2B
gateway to a 3rd-Party Service Provider (e.g. PSTN line, DSL, mobile handset), an integrated
Service Delivery Platform (e.g. AAA, IPTV), or an integrated Service Management System.
Several aspects need to be considered for a service specification:
What are the service characteristics that are customizable and need to be captured at the
time of order placement?
What characteristics need to be defined as read-only and therefore require a default
value?
What characteristics need to be defined for service provisioning, but do not need to be
shown during order process?
Service specification characteristic templates are available for the definition of characteristics
sets. Service characteristics can be defined in various formats, e.g. as phone numbers,
strings, lists, dates, numbers and Boolean, supported by configurable validation rules.
Figure 6: Service Specification
R6 Functional Overview | Infonova R6 Supplier and Service Management
Service
A service definition comprises a service specification, service characteristics and supplier.
Figure 7: Supplier and Service - Instantiation
A service is defined (instantiated) when a service specification is associated with a supplier /
partner, given unique identity information. A service thus contains the full range of service
characteristics available from the original service specification and their default values where
applicable. The service can represent one, and only one, external service or resource that
can be provisioned; external services with the same service specification from different
suppliers must be defined by different services.
Service Workflow Integration
Process integration involves defining the workflows that are required to fulfill service
activation, modification and termination that are triggered by business process events
(Orders, Relocations, Payments, Dunning, etc.)
Figure 8: Service workflow integration
Service Workflow Assignments are a way to let the workflow engine know which specific
workflow is assigned to specific actions or events in combination with Services. For example,
if a new service XYZ is created during an offer, the workflow engine can look up in the
Supplier Management which specific workflow must be started if the service XYZ is affected
by the “CREATE” event.
Supplier and Service Management - Instantiation
Suppliers
Characteristics
Service Specifications
Services
Infonova R6
Workflow Engine
Rule EngineTask Management
workflows
…UPGRADENEW TERMINATE
R6 Functional Overview | Infonova R6 Supplier and Service Management
Provisioning Interface Integration and Resource Management Adaptor
Service-oriented architecture plays a highly important role in Infonova R6 .The Infonova SOA
approach enables greater flexibility, efficiency, and responsiveness in the way that companies
produce and use services; particularly when OSS/BSS environments are heterogeneous and
business requirements are dynamic.
Infonova SOA is enabled through a number of technologies, such as Enterprise Service Bus
(ESB), Business Process Execution Language (BPEL), or Web Services (WS).
Interaction can be established through four different kinds of communication levels:
Local Call for synchronous local calls when the Infonova BPM runs on the same
instance as the caller
Enterprise Java Beans or Web Service for synchronous remote calls when the
Infonova BPM runs on a remote instance
Java Messaging Service and Enterprise Service Bus for asynchronous remote calls
when the Infonova BPM runs on a remote instance
File communications using the Infonova ImpEx (Import/Export) for file/location based
interfaces
Many legacy systems don’t use web services but some other form of communication, e.g.
file/location based interfaces. The Infonova ImpEx (Import/Export) component can be used in
such situations.
Figure 9: Resource Management
Infonova R6
Workflow Engine
Rule EngineTask Management
Resource Management Adaptor
EJB JMS WebServiceESBFile
R6 Functional Overview | Infonova R6 Supplier and Service Management
Assigning Fulfillment Workflows to a Service
Figure 10: Business event workflow integration
A dedicated fulfillment workflow can be assigned for every service or service provisioning type
(e.g., NEW, CHURN IN/OUT, UP/DOWNGRADE and TERMINATE). Supplier Management
interfaces to the supplier through a defined resource management adaptor to which the
fulfillment workflows communicate.
Figure 11: Add business event workflows to Services
Supplier mediation feeds
Supplier mediation feeds and service events, which are used for the billing of service
consumption data, are defined per supplier.
Figure 12: Mediation events and feeds
Supplier and Service Management - Instantiation
Suppliers
Characteristics
Service Specifications
Fulfillment workflows
Services
Supplier and Service Management - Instantiation
Mediation events and feeds
Suppliers
Characteristics
Service Specifications
Fulfillment workflows
Services
R6 Functional Overview | Infonova R6 Supplier and Service Management
This definition is the foundation for effective Mediation and Rating processes and the correct
allocation of charges for execution of the wholesale bill run.
Figure 13: Add mediation events and feeds in Supplier Management
INFONOVA
Infonova, founded in 1989, specializes in providing technology and business-oriented solutions and services to telecommunications, media, utility and convergent industries.
Infonova’s BSS solutions have been implemented for incumbent, attacker and cable operators supporting triple & quadruple play service portfolios.
Encapsulating decades of knowledge, Infonova’s latest BSS product, R6 is a fully J2EE platform that supports real multi-tenant concept-to-cash operations for fully convergent and complex multi-industry 2.0 business models while also supporting Telco 1.0 simultaneously. R6 also delivers transformation scenarios and Pre- & Post-paid Convergence at a fraction the cost and time of traditional integration scenarios.
For more information please visit www.infonova.com