TM Forum Casestudybook May 2011

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Spring 2011 | www.tmforum.org

Your guide to achieving a better bottom line

Service providers worldwide share their Frameworx success stories

CASE STUDYHANDBOOK

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Your guide to achieving a better bottom line

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Page 4What can Frameworx do for you?

Page 7China UnicomTurning chaos into harmony generates a

billion dollars

Page 10Qtel GroupRevenue assurance program aims to

deliver $105 million annually to bottom linebenefit

Page14Saudi Telecom CompanyTaking a customer-centric approach to

strategic goals

Page 16MobitelSimpler IT speeds up new service

provision, drives take-up

Page 20Qwestcuts operational costs, getsproducts out there faster

Page 22Colt Technology Services, TelekomMalaysia, AircelCertified solutions speed up time to market

for service providers

Page 26Telekom SlovenijeCustomers first: an object lesson in

achieving multiple goals

Page 29

Vodafone D2, Telefnica and T-MobileAutomation affords big gains in efficiency,security and compliance

Page 32AXISIntegration combats fierce competitionin Indonesia

Page 35Magyar TelekomBetter service provisioning and activation

create foundation for growth

Page 38Pakistan Telecommunication CompanyLimited (PTCL/Ufone)Enabling consolidation and growth to go

hand in hand

Page 40GTEL Mobile

Fast deployment and differentiatedproducts bring rapid success in Vietnam

Page 42PT InovaoSimpler network changes bring major

benefits

Page 46European operatorConsolidated BSS produces magic number

Page 48Microsoft Business Online ServicesTransforming IT systems to support new

business models

Page 50Leading Indian service providerMeasuring success through an open

process architecture

Page53South East Asian operatorHow to save a million dollars a year

Page 53

Views from the topIndustry leaders highlight the businessbenefits of using TM Forum standards

Page 58Fall 2011 edition of TM Forum CaseStudy HandbookHow to submit entries to the next issue


4/604 www.tmforum.org

CASE STUDYHANDBOOK

CASE STUDY HANDBOOK

Welcome to the spring edition of the TMForumCase Study

Handbook 2011. Here you will find real-life case studies on how

service providers from very different markets around the world

have benefited from using the Forums comprehensive suite

of tools and standards, Frameworx, as well as best practices

developed by our members, plus collaboration initiatives and

our Business Benchmarking Program.

Read how China Unicom has reaped around $1 billion in

cost savings and new revenues so far, while a Frameworxdeployment helped AXIS to offer tailored bundles in the fiercely

competitive Indonesian market, resulting in it signing up 2

million more customers in three months.

Qtel Group, which has a presence in 17 countries, has

gained $50 million in bottom line benefits since it launched its

three-year revenue assurance program, based on the Forums

Revenue Assurance Maturity Model, in 2010. The plan is to

add $105 million in bottom line benefits each year from 2013 in

recovered and assured revenue.

In Europe, Frameworx helped Mobitel reduce the signing

up process for new services from up to 45 hours to minutes.

As Botjan Robenik, IT director, Mobitel, says, Adoptingthe industry standards means using the best practices from

around the globe, which help us run optimally. Also, [our parent

company] Telekom Slovenije owns other mobile operators

that can now easily adopt our solution because it is based

on industry standards. This means our knowledge can be

leveraged for additional benefits.

In the U.S., to reduce investment risk and prove the viability

of what it wanted to achieve, Qwest and its partners turned

to Frameworx and the Forums Catalyst program before

it embarked on the transformation. Within a year of the

deployment, Qwest saw a 4 percent increase in revenue, a

5 percent cost reduction, a 25 percent improvement in newproduct deployment cycle times, and a decrease in unique

provisioning and assurance job steps.

An Asian operator is saving $1 million in procurement alone

annually, while rolling out 3G. This is due to better visibility of

its network assets, and massive savings due to automation

replacing many manual tasks, both facilitated through deploying

Frameworx.

This Case Study Handbookshows, in the most pragmatic,

real terms, how and why Frameworx and the Forums best

practices are applicable to many sectors and situations as the

digital ecosystem develops.

We hope this edition whets your appetite and starts you

too wondering what Frameworx could do for your business.

Or if youve had some success of your own with Frameworx,

or through the Forums other activities, that it inspires you to

share your story with others in the next edition of the Case

Study Handbook. Please see the panel on page 58 for details of

how to submit entries and what we are looking for.

TM Forum: enabling changeSuccessful business transformation involves complex decisions

at every turn. To succeed, you need the right strategy, a clear

view of change needed in your business, and technology

solutions that deliver results. Whether you are introducing

a new service portfolio, rationalizing existing systems or

transforming business operations, TM Forum provides its

members with thought-leadership, best practices and the

Frameworx suite of standards proven to deliver success every

step of the way.

As the case studies in this handbook illustrate, Frameworx

offers the standards and tools to dramatically reduce costs

and risks associated with the business and IT design, andimplementation stages of change shown below.

What can Frameworx do for you?

Business strategy

& objectivesStrategic planning

Business planning

and design

Business & IT design

Operational

impact analysis

Organization

impact analysis

Information

support systems

Procurement

Implementation

Implementation
http://www.tmforum.org/http://www.tmforum.org/



Introducing Frameworx

Already adopted by 90 percent of the worlds largest service

providers, TM Forums Frameworx suite of standards provide

the blueprint for effective business operations. They enable you

to assess and improve performance using a proven, service-

oriented approach to operations and integration, which allows

you to focus on growing your business.

Frameworx components

Frameworx enables a service-oriented, highly automated and

efficient approach to running a service provider's business

through the following components:

The Business Process Framework Efficient, clear and

effective business processes are critical to delivering

innovative services quickly, at the least possible cost. This

Framework provides a comprehensive, industry agreed,

multi-layered view of the key business processes a service

provider needs to run their business. Aligned to ITIL, and

supported by off-the-shelf tools, the Business Process

Framework provides:

a comprehensive, multi-layered catalog of the business

processes required to run a service providers business

guidelines and standard process flows ensuring your

processes are efficient and effective across the enterprise

business-to-business processes giving you standardized

processes across a value chain of partners.

The Information Framework End-to-end service

management means the consistent use of data across

the enterprise. The Information Framework provides a

comprehensive, industry-agreed definition for information

that flows through the enterprise, and between service

providers and their business partners. Supported by off-the-

shelf tools, the Information Framework provides a common

information model, reducing complexity and allowing for the

definition of standardized integration points. The Framework

enables business agility through:

an agreed enterprise information model for end-to-end

service management, defined using business-oriented

Unified Modeling Language models

an extensible, proven and flexible information model

supporting federation, enabling rapid introduction and

management of new technologies and services

a clear, common language between buyer, supplier and

business partners.

The Application Framework Understanding how yourbusiness processes are implemented in your software

architecture is paramount to success. This Framework

provides a model for grouping processes and their associated

information into recognizable applications. It provides a

common language and identification system between buyer

and supplier for all application areas. It gives you:

a coordinated systems map showing how your business

processes are implemented across applications

support for enterprise architecture design through

understanding of your systems architecture versus a

standardized map support for procurement through a consistent definition

of an application, the functions it should perform and the

information it needs.

The Integration Framework Automation of business

processes enables you to reduce costs significantly and

deploy new services rapidly. But automation requires

interoperability between systems across the entire enterprise

and an extended value chain of partners. The Integration

Framework defines how the processes and information

behind these systems can be automated by defining

"Already adopted by 90 percent of the worlds

largest service providers, TM Forums Frameworx

suite of standards provide the blueprint

for effective business operations."


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CASE STUDYHANDBOOK

CASE STUDY HANDBOOK

standardized, service-oriented, architecture-based interfaces

called Business Services (NGOSS Contracts). The Integration

Framework includes:

a taxonomy for services and guidelines for the

development of Business Services

model-driven tooling for the machine assisted production

of standard interfaces

a repository for Business Services.

Business Metrics Understanding the performance of

your business is a critical aspect of managing transformation.

Knowing how you compare to the industry in key operational

areas will guide your transformation investment.

TM Forums Business Metrics, mapped to the Business

Process Framework, provide a way for you to measuresuccess based on a balanced scorecard that covers:

revenue and margin a view of fiscal performance

customer experience measures that impact the end-

customers reaction to the service offering

operational efficiency a view of cost and expense drivers.

Frameworx support

TM Forum provides a comprehensive set of supporting

services to make Frameworx adoption easy for our members.

Our Frameworx Conformance Certification and RFx

programs make it easy to assess and procure products andsolutions conformant with Frameworx, while Conformance

Implementation Certification allows service providers to verify

their internal business processes and data model against

the standard.

Other important supporting services include an extensive

library of Guidebooks and Best Practice Guides, an

online member support community of more than 50,000

professionals, a Help Desk, professional Training and

Certification and Benchmarking services.

You can learn more about Frameworx at tmforum.org/frameworx

Frameworxs benefits at a glance

Developed through industry collaboration, Frameworx

helps you:

Understand your customer

Frameworx drives customer satisfaction and loyalty by

providing a common model for your customer

management information

Innovate and reduce time to market

Frameworx allows you to identify and capture new

opportunities helping you to rapidly deploy services

through streamlined, end-to-end service management

Reduce operating costs

Frameworx reduces operating costs by enabling highly

efficient and automated operations with a proven suite ofindustry standards

Reduce integration costs

Frameworx reduces the cost, risk and complexity of

integration by providing standardized interfaces and a

common information model

Reduce transformation risk

Frameworx reduces the risks associated with

transformation and change programs by delivering a

proven blueprint for your business

Gain independence

Frameworx gives you greater independence and

confidence in your procurement choices throughprocurement guides and conformance certification

Gain clarity

Frameworx brings clarity to procurement and

implementation of complex systems by providing a

common, industry standardized language

Build essential partnerships

Frameworx enables you to build effective partnerships

quickly and easily, by providing a common language for

your business and integrated systems.
http://www.tmforum.org/frameworxhttp://www.tmforum.org/frameworx



Turning chaos into harmony

generates a billion dollarsSummary:China Unicom is the countrys second largest mobile network operator with more than 160 million

subscribers, as of August 2010. Before the Unified Voucher and Top-up Management Network Solution

project, China Unicom had 55 different interactive voice response lines, 120 accounts receivable systems, and

200 different kinds of vouchers for topping up service accounts across the mainland. In addition, operations

in each region were unique for different user types and services (wireless, wireline and broadband). To

streamline the service operations from end-to-end, the operator developed the Unified Recharging Service

Network, using TM Forums Frameworx, to integrate these disparate channels and provide a consistent user

experience. Using Frameworx cut two months off the design phase of the project, which spanned over 268

BSS/OSS systems. The service has achieved 99.9 percent service availability and gained around a billiondollars a year in new revenues and cost savings.

China Unicom needed to streamline its various service top-up

operations and offer a consistent, simple customer experience.

Before starting its Unified Recharging Service Network project,

there were 55 separate interactive voice response (IVR) service

numbers for customers to call, 120 accounts receivable (AR)

systems and 200 different types of recharging voucher cards in

use across the mainland.

The recharging processes themselves varied widely across

China Unicoms 31 provincial subsidiaries: Operations in each

region were unique for different user types and services(wireless, wireline and broadband).

This situation caused all sorts of problems for the service

provider and customers alike. For instance, there was no

single voucher that could be used by a customer to recharge

all the services on offer and customers who used services in

one province couldnt top up their accounts while in another.

Nor was there a unified portal for recharging through multiple

channels, such as SMS, online, and IVR.

As Haoyang Lu, Planning Division, Information Department,

China Unicom comments, The projects goal was to turn this

situation from chaos into harmony.

He notes, It was a very big challenge to provide a

consistent recharging service for customers and different

service accounts across the country, requiring the integration

of multiple, distributed, province-centric systems. With so

very many systems involved, it was a huge task to streamline

all operations from end-to-end, and in particular revenue

management was a difficult but crucial area.

First such support system in China

Indeed, such was the complexity and scale of the project, itsno surprise that the Unified Voucher and Top-Up Management

Network Solution is the first such service support system

implemented in China. It unified the management of customer

interfaces nationwide, across multiple access channels

including the web, WAP, SMS and IVR portals. It also

standardized the operators business processes across the

country to provide customers with a consistent recharging

experience.

China Unicom chose to use TM Forums Frameworx to make

the huge integration project easier and quicker, and to lay the

foundations for future developments. Processes from the



CASE STUDYHANDBOOK

CASE STUDY HANDBOOK

Business Process Framework (eTOM) were used to define the

unified recharging processes and to resolve process design

issues, mainly in the domain of the fulfillment assurance and

billing (FAB) process blocks that is, customer interaction,

billing and revenue management.

The architecture design was based on the Information

Framework (SID), which was also used to resolve system data

model inconsistencies, especially for designing the core parts

of the recharging and account model. China Unicom took future

developments into account with its design, thinking ahead to

other possible transformational projects and trends.

The Application Framework (TAM) acted as a reference to

identify and define the scope of the technical solution; that

is the integration relationship and the system processes,

and interfaces between the customer interface, customer

relationship management (CRM), billing and AR system. The

Application Framework also defined system requirements and

corporate system specifications.

Service contractsChina Unicom used the concept of service contracts, derived

from the Forums Integration Framework, to define in detail

the services passing through the exposed interfaces and to

streamline process interactions and monitoring.

It also used Frameworxs methodology of service definition

and the service oriented architecture (SOA) governance to help

with the design of an holistic SOA-style architecture for the

integration of multi-system networking.

The use of the service contracts concepts and the

methodology derived from Frameworx and the Integration

Framework cut the design time by two months, resolving

holistic architectural issues and the processes and servicedefinition. From this, China Unicom developed a distinct

heart-beating mechanism that spans more than 268 BSS/

OSS systems that also draws on the Forums service level

agreement management and SOA governance. It is designed

to guarantee the end-to-end service quality an average of

99 percent service availability by defining and monitoring

distributed key performance indicators.

The heart-beating mechanism collects self-status information

from management module deployed in the recharging network

nodes in the 31 modules. It also collects status information

about the local BSS/OSS systems in each province by initiating

simple service transactions.

The central management system deployed collects

relevant information of each provincial node through periodic

management messages over HTTP protocol. Meanwhile, the

central system broadcasts the status information about the

provinces to each province. The communications within the

network of distributed BSS systems is organized as a set of

short connections, with a lot of built-in redundancy; that is

information is not lost if a single built-in link goes down.

China Unicom set up a star-like BSS network, linking multiple

distributed BSS/OSS application systems (such as portals,

CRM, business intelligence, settlements and intelligent

network elements) across the whole country.

This BSS-oriented networking infrastructure improves

the agility of ITs support capability greatly, acting as the

foundation for nationwide process orchestration and better

business support. The core part of this solution is a centralized

consolidation plane (centralized transaction switch) for service

and data switching, and routing. It is the primary application

infrastructure for the integration architecture in the future.Haoyang Lu says, With the help of TMF Frameworx

standards and best practices as references, we achieved

our project goal within a short time. Most importantly, all the

project team could refer to a common methodology and unify

thinking through the project lifecycle by referring to Integration

Framework model, which is more relevant to the BSS domain

of service providers rather than the general IT technical

domain.

The project was implemented successfully and by the end of

June 2009, the daily peak workload on the centralized switch

was 1.25 million transactions, with an average response delay

within the recharging network of 400 ms. At the time of ChinaUnicoms submission to the TM Forum Excellence Awards

2010, the operation had been up and running for over 7,000

hours without any faults.

Roaming rewards

Customers now have a consistent and convenient way to

recharge their own or others' service accounts and can pay as

they go while roaming in other provinces. The current monthly

recharge value passing through the system is around 1.2 billion

Yuan ($180 million).

In summer 2010, roaming recharge accounted for 35 percent



of that total with around 45 million people using the roaming

recharging service. China Unicom expects this to rise to 420

million Yuan a month, making an annual total of 5.04 billion

Yuan ($758 million) revenue that it missed out on before due to

the lack of support for roaming.

Costs slashed

Previously, the level of voucher commission was diverse

and too high in some provinces, resulting in the average

commission being 3 percent of the value of the voucher. By

introducing the One Voucher card the average commission

is 2 percent. As sales of the cards run at some 25 million

per month, annual sales are around 300 million and so the

commission saved is 300 million Yuan ($45 million) annually.

Other savings have resulted from the One Voucher card too

the cost of producing the vouchers has fallen, due to the mass

manufacture of one type of card, and costs have also fallen due

to implementing a centralized operational model. China Unicom

is producing around 480 million cards annually with a direct cost

saving estimated at 1.8 billion Yuan ($270 million).The new, easy to use service was promoted by TV ads

starting in December 2008. From the start, customers were

keen to use it. The average number of recharging transactions

increased by 50 percent. For instance, in Hong Kong, the

service became the primary way of topping up accounts soon

after its commercial opening on April 1, 2009, with 40,524

transaction there that month, with a value amounting to 4.3

million Yuan. Within another month, this had risen to 170

million Yuan.

China Unicom is benefiting from being able to manage

its business more effectively as a result of the project as all

the data concerning the status of the recharging vouchers iscollectedly centrally, quickly and accurately. Now the operator

has up-to-date information about the cards, nationwide, as

needed, and also controls the overall commission rate of

voucher brokerage dynamically, which was unimaginable in

the past.

Plans for the future

China Unicom plans to track developments in TM Forums

Frameworx and other projects relevant to SOA to enhance

its overall BSS infrastructure. It also plans to improve its SOA

architecture and governance, partly to make it more flexible

and easier to add other BSS service processes to, and partly to

improve the operational stability of its IT infrastructure.

The most recent stage of the project has already brought

more features of SOA architecture into the network hub,

including more SOA functionalities, such as service publishing,

service proxying, service invoking, service management,

service assembling and orchestration. These new features

make the network more aligned with SOA principles and enable

the centralized management to carry out service lifecycle

management across the whole network. Also, more IT systems

services are being deployed on the distributed BSS network.

Perhaps most excitingly of all, China Unicoms plans to

integrate the recharging network with more service portals and

turn it into a centralized payment hub are progressing rapidly.

The unified recharging system has linked into China UnionPays

member banks network and the centrally-deployed Portal

of China Unicom. Haoyang Lu says, We will hook up later

with our mobile micropayment system and other value-added

service platforms to broaden the scope of its applications. TM

Forums Frameworx and best practices provide us with goodreferences on which to base technical decisions.

"Perhaps most excitingly of all, China Unicom's plans

to integrate the recharging network with more portals

and turn it into a centralized payment hub

are progressing rapidly."



CASE STUDYHANDBOOK

CASE STUDY HANDBOOK

Revenue assurance program aimsto deliver $105 million annually to

the bottom lineSummary:The Qtel Group has grown rapidly from a single country operator with 500,000 customers in 2005

to a global player having presence in 17 markets in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia with

a customer base of 69 million today. Key markets include Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia and

Indonesia, through companies operating GSM networks and WiMax infrastructures. The operations in the

different markets are very diverse in terms of maturity. For instance, Indosat in Indonesia is more than 40

years old while the operation in Palestine was launched in 2009. Qtel International is the centralized managed

services arm, charged with increasing shareholder value across the Qtel Group from driving synergies,

standardization, and the use of best practices. Lee Scargall, Group director of enterprise risk management,

Qtel International, turned to TM Forums Revenue Assurance Maturity Model as the basis for a three year

program, starting in 2010, to add $105 million annually to the bottom line by 2012.

Lee Scargall joined Qtel International, at the end of 2008, to

work at the head office in Qatar. His role is to drive and exploit

synergies across the diverse operations, an important part of

which is standardizing toolsets and processes. He says, I

went straightaway to TM Forums Revenue Assurance Maturity

Model, which is part of the Forums Business Benchmarking

program (see page 13). Scargall had taken part in benchmarking

studies before when working for a previous employer and

understood the benefits it can deliver.He explains, It is something we needed to do as a Group

because some companies were mature in terms of their revenue

assurance capabilities and some were not. In 2009 we started a

maturity assessment across the Group to help us identify gaps

and weaknesses to figure out what steps we needed to take in

terms of improving our people, tools, processes, organization

and influence (see Figure 1 on page 11).

It quickly became apparent there were no standard toolsets

across the Group, processes were inconsistent, and controls

inadequate. Scargall says, Some of our companies were very good

at revenue assurance and had toolsets and robust processes, while

others had no revenue assurance measures in place.

Having carried out the assessment, Scargall proposed a three

year program to move everyone up to Level 4 of the Maturity

Model, which, he explained, would deliver more than $105

million annually straight to earnings, before interest, taxes,

depreciation and amortization. The Qtel board agreed to the

proposal and provided the funding to roll out the program,

although it is completely self-sustaining.

Typically, Qtel International pays for a short term pilot for anoperating company to showcase the benefits of using specialist

toolsets, then the operating company decides whether to

enter into a commercial arrangement with the supplier. Scargall

explains, The whole thing is part funded centrally, and part

funded locally to ensure ownership remains at the operating

company going forwards after a trial.

We set each operating company a target to detect and

recover leakage that is linked to the TM Forums Maturity

Model assessment; so if a company is at Level 1, then we

expect a 1 percent detection rate, if at Level 2, then a 1.5

percent detection rate and so on.



Every operating company submits a monthly report about

how much leakage was detected and recovered, and to which

leakage point, as described in the GB941-Annex D guidebook:

more than 100 leakage points have been identified by TM Forum,

so each incident is logged against one of the categories.

Scargall says, We look at all the incident information from all

the operating companies, we track it, check whether incidents

are open or closed, how much revenue is at risk, what the

recovery rate is, and so on. In other words, head office tracks

all the incidents relating to revenue leakage across the Group,

and can help the operating companies to manage them by

providing advice and assistance.

David Stuart, assistant director of revenue assurance and

fraud management, Qtel, adds, This holistic approach at the

head office allows us to identify those leakages that would

impact more than one operating company. For instance, if

one operating company reports a systemic leakage and we

have the same system in five other operating companies, we

will distribute the incident information to the others to ensureclosure across the Group.

Qtel International acts on each of the five aspects identified

by the Forums Revenue Assurance Maturity Model (for more

detailed information, see our Business Intelligence Quarterly

report on Revenue Assurance, published in November 2010,

which is free to members from our website.

Scargall says, On the tools side, we have a signed two

frame agreement to standardize the reconciliation software

suppliers across the entire Group. We like a dual supplier

approach to toolsets because it ensures there is always

competition on price, and the operating companies have a

choice of option A or option B which strengthens buy-in at thelocal level. They feel more part of the procurement process

rather than having a single supplier imposed upon them.

Concerning our people, we have established a training academy

in Doha, Qatar, that educates our staff in revenue assurance

using the TM Forums training program for which we receive Forum

accreditation. Our aim is to see all of our staff becomes accredited.

We also provide best practice guidance across the Group, and

weve implemented a wiki where staff can exchange information

and ideas. In addition, we have also enabled tweet alerts, and online

chat capability so we can share information across the Group in

real-time. This is particularly important when we are dealing with

Figure 1: Likelihood to impact the bottom line

RA people

RA organization

RA influence

RA process

RA tools

Overall

RA maturity

0 20 40 60 80 1

69%

69%

72%

81%

81%

81%

Source: TM Forum

"We have established a training academy in Doha,

Qatar, that educates our staff in revenue assurance

using the TM Forums training program for which we

receive Forum accreditation. Our aim is to see all of

our staff becomes accredited. We also provide best

practice guidance across the Group."



CASE STUDYHANDBOOK

CASE STUDY HANDBOOK

fraud, so having the ability to share vital information quickly can

be critical in preventing leakage.

He continues, The more you know about fraudsters activities

across different territories, the stronger the position you are in to

counter them. Developing a Group mentality is very important,

people need to feel they are part of one team all moving in the

same direction, and we want to embed this in our culture.

Scargall is encouraging competition among the operating

companies by setting up a league table around revenue

assurance targets. At the same time, he fosters a sense of

community, in part by holding Group revenue assurance forums

for some 30 people in total, sharing information benefits

everyone around the Group, he states.

The heads of revenue assurance are the greatest influence and

we all meet twice a year in a different location. We discuss the hot

issues and how best to work together. Between the meetings,

we have regular phone calls and on-site, follow-up visits.

We also work to raise the profile of RA with the local

management teams to gain recognition and support for what

we do: we need the CFOs, CTOs, and CIOs to all work together

to realize the potential benefits of a successful RA program

across the Group.

The Qtel Group is making excellent progress towards its

goals. Scargall says, We are exceeding our targets in terms

of revenue recovery, with over $50 million being added to the

bottom line in the first year of our three year program.

There is no complacency however. Scargall acknowledges

there is much more hard work left to do. We are making

good progress and report back to the steering committee each

month. This is a big program and theres significant financial

benefit for the Group. The operating companies appreciate the

leadership and co-ordination from head-office, he says.

He continues, We are also trying to standardize our

processes, establish centres of excellence across the Group,

and take the experiences of what is being done well and apply

it elsewhere. We have a range of operating companies that are

at Level 1 and 2, and the only way were going to get everyone

to Level 4 is by being more proactive.

Since embarking on the program in 2010, there has been

a noticeable improvement to all five aspects of the Maturity

Model, with the operating companies beginning to rise to Level

3. As Scargall concludes, Reaching Level 4 across them all is

the goal for the next two years.

We are exceeding our targets in terms of revenue

recovery, with over $50 million being added to the

bottom line in the first year of our three year program."



TM Forum Revenue Assurance Maturity Model

The Revenue Assurance Maturity Model is part of the Forums Revenue Assurance Solution Suite

(see http://www.tmforum.org/KnowledgeDownloadDetail/9285/home.html?artf=artf1442).

The Model (also known as GB941-B) offers a best practice approach. It provides a standardized way of

establishing how well developed the aspects of the revenue assurance (RA) are within an organization. It

enables service providers to identify weaknesses and standardize processes to maximize efficiency while

keeping costs down.

Five distinct aspects have been identified to help understand how RA matures (see Figure 2). How

advanced each aspect is determined using detailed questionnaires. The Forum conducts the Revenue

Assurance Performance study in addition to the Revenue Assurance Maturity Model for organizations

whose maturity is more advanced.

1. Ad-hoc, chaotic. Dependant on individual heroics.

2. Basic project/process management. Repeatable tasks.

3. Standardized approach developed. Designing-in control commences.

4. Leakage quantitatively understood and controlled.

5. Continuous improvement via feedback. Decentralized ownership, holistic control.

Figure 3: The phases of revenue assurance maturity

1. Initial

2. Repeatable

3. Defined

4. Managed

5. Optimizing

Organization People Influence Tools Process

The organization of

RA responsibilities

reflects how well

aligned the objectives

of individuals andthe business are

to the goals of RA.

Organizational fit

reflects the business

culture and how

well it is suited

to adopting RA

objectives.

The maturity of RA

can in part be gauged

from the human

resource dedicated

to it or providingsecondary support.

Instigating, managing

and delivering

change is a sign of

maturity. Influential

RA delivers financialrewards to the

business and is

a mechanism to

continuously improve

its performance.

The use of tools

is one of the most

tangible guides to RA

maturity, depending

on how well thetools are designed

and used, and the

synergy between

them. Their most

effective use meets

multiple business

objectives.

RA is a high level

process, containing

many detailed

processes, that

should be improvedconstantly.

In addition, the Model has five levels of RA maturity, as shown in Figure 3, to help a company establish

where it is and where it needs to go to improve constantly.

Figure 2: The five aspects of revenue assurance maturity

Source: TM Forum

Source: TM Forum



CASE STUDYHANDBOOK

CASE STUDY HANDBOOK

Taking a customer-centricapproach to strategic goalsSummary:A conversation with the CTO of a large European service provider changed Mohammed

Al-Hakbanis approach to Saudi Telecoms back office systems, from viewing them as a cost center to

seeing them as the key to achieving strategic goals. By using TM Forum standards, benchmarking metrics

and best practices, his companys transformation project demonstrated their benefits in only 16 weeks.

As he says, One of the most impressive aspects of this project is that, with the support of TM Forum,we were able to determine which transformations were low hanging fruit projects whose benefits

would subsidize follow-on work so that early projects could become self-sustaining.

Leading the investigation into the value of TM Forums

Frameworx for his company Riyadh-based Saudi Telecom

Company (STC), the largest telecom company in the Middle

East Mohammed Al-Hakbani, Operation Support System

(OSS) Director within the Network Sector, recalls a particularly

important day. We had been introduced to the CTO of a large

European telecom provider, and he explained to us the strategic

importance of OSS/BSS systems to his company indeed OSS/

BSS transformation was central to his companys shift from atechnology-centric to a customer-centric organization. Now, I

had been thinking of OSS/BSS as a cost center, not so much

as a way to help us realize our strategic goals. So this meeting

became a turning point that has since guided the Company

towards significant benefit.

STC was privatized years earlier, in 1998, marking the

beginning of a period of significant company transformation

that has included organizational change, strategic investments

outside the Kingdom, and technology and infrastructure

investments in all aspects of the business. Like most telecoms

operators worldwide, the move to a customer-centric focus

required changes not only to technology, but also to software,culture, and processes. With the help of TM Forum, the

company is now able to adapt industry best practices to its

own unique needs; driving improvements in several customer-

experience related key performance indicators (KPIs), as well as

reducing implementation time for complex new initiatives.

Al-Hakbani, who was the program manager for the companys

OSS transition, relied heavily on TM Forum. The Forum gave

us access to the experience of hundreds of service providers,

providing best practices, benchmarking data, and specific

standards and data models that helped us to coordinate both

technical and process transitions.

For example, explains Al-Hakbani, STC chose to introduce

a new Fiber to the Home (FTTH) product line. As part of the

design of new systems to support FTTH, STC was faced with

an important choice regarding how to orchestrate the various

systems that needed to be coordinated when provisioning

new FTTH service. STCs options were to use orchestration

functionality inside its own inventory system as had been

done previously for its DSL service or to spend the time and

effort creating dedicated, centralized orchestration functionality

Reducing risk, making informed decisions

In retrospect, it is very clear that our choice to orchestrate our

process flows through a central information bus was the right

choice, recollects Al-Hakbani. But at the time, the benefit

was not so clear. The initial project was more expensive, and

required changes to systems that had worked for years.

He adds, TM Forum benchmarking data and Frameworx

best practices were critical in helping us make the right

decision. They helped us and our executive management to

understand the substantial downstream capital and operational

benefits that will be driven by this investment, as well as theless tangible benefits to STCs customers experience.

Another example is STCs trouble management process,

also enhanced through the companys membership of

TM Forum. Increasing customer satisfaction by resolving

trouble tickets ahead of time resulted in saving cost and

improving STCs brand perception. STC used the Frameworx

trouble management process to identify opportunities for

improvement, and then to demonstrate the potential benefits o

the improvements to managers responsible for implementing

trouble ticketing processes.

A final example is STCs performance assurance managemen



process, which also gained through the companys membership

of TM Forum. With the introduction of a complex service such

as IPTV, where customer experience was essential in reaching

and maintaining the companys customer satisfaction goals,

STC used the TM Frameworx trouble and performance process.

Frameworx and best practices

Al-Hakbani explains that his company values hard numbers that

quantify business benefit: We are very pleased to have been

awarded the TM Forums prestigious Operational Excellence

Award in 2010 for a transformation project that demonstrated

benefit in only 16 weeks. In this project, STC worked with

IBM, and began with an assessment of current processes,

applications, and architecture against TM Forum Business

Process Framework (eTOM). One of the most impressive

aspects of this project is that, with the support of TM Forum,

we were able to determine which transformations were low

hanging fruit: projects whose benefits would subsidizefollow-on work, so that its early projects could become

self-sustaining.

STCs transformation team mapped al l OSS processes to the

eTOM model, in Level 3 as well as some in Level 4 and 5. As

part of this project, STC also used the Information Framework

(SID) for data integration. Internally, all vendor proprietary

interfaces are mapped to the Information Framework. In

addition, STC is pushing its vendor partners to be compliant

with the Information Framework. STC uses TM Forums

Integration Framework (MTOSI and OSS/J) for inter-working

between different vendors, technologies, and systems in its

service assurance implementation. STC is also collaboratingwith other vendors that comply with TM Forum Integration

Framework and its interface standards.

In addition to adopting Frameworx, STC is now involved

in the TM Forum Benchmarking Program. Our use of the

Forums benchmarking data is particularly important at STC,

explains Al-Hakbani, who now tracks several benchmarking

KPIs including: mean duration to fulfill service orders,

percentage of orders delivered by committed date, mean

duration to fix customer reported troubles, fulfillment process

cost as a percentage of operating expenditure (OpEx), and

assurance process cost as a percentage OpEx. By tracking

these numbers and using them in its decision-making, STC is

able to become a more rigorously managed organization.

Results Summary

In summary, STC has realized a number of benefits from

Frameworx and the companys TM Forum membership.

They are:

nsaving significant potential downstream costs through

understanding, and then implementing, TM Forum

Frameworx architectural best practices including Information

Framework (SID) and TM Forum interfaces (such as MTOSI,

and OSS/J);

ncultural and process change management support;

nsupport in identifying low-hanging fruit transformation;

projects, which produced the maximum value in the shortest

amount of time, thereby optimizing cash flow;nidentification of which KPIs, of the many thousands that it

could have tracked, were the most valuable in converting to a

customer-focused business.

Future

As the benefits of TM Forum-inspired initiatives continue to

be measured, STC will use them to justify further investments

that incorporate Frameworx best practices, standards, and

benchmarking information. Al-Hakbani explains that working

with the TM Forum is critical to our ability to cost-justify

ongoing investments in industry best practices. As our

thinking about the strategic nature of OSS/BSS investmentmatures, understanding other service providers experiences in

recouping the cost of these projects many times over is very

important to us, because it will make the benefits of this work

very clear to our executive sponsors.

Look to STC to leverage its excellent technical staff as well

as the passion of its OSS/BSS leadership to continue to push

new boundaries. Particular initiatives will include an increasing

use of software services, and continued development of its

business process management infrastructure.



CASE STUDYHANDBOOK

CASE STUDY HANDBOOK

Simpler IT speedsup new service provision,drives take-up

Summary:Mobitel, Slovenias biggest wireless communications service provider, operates in challenging

conditions. It is facing increasing competition, is heavily regulated and must comply with complex

governmental processes before it can provide customers with new products and services. In addition,

Mobitels OSS/BSS applications were developed in silos and it relied heavily on manual processes.

Nevertheless, it has transformed itself, now delivering unique and customized products and services

to the market, and will do so even more as it merges with its parent company, the incumbent fixed

communications services provider, Telekom Slovenije (see page 26). For example, it will begin to offer

combined fixed and mobile bundles starting July 2011. Little wonder Mobitel decided to adopt a serviceoriented architecture along with TM Forums Frameworx and streamline its IT and application infrastructure.

It worked closely with IBM to gain greater operational flexibility, business agility, and the ability to respond

to customers more rapidly. Mobitel reaped benefits almost immediately.

Mobitel was established in 1991 and is the biggest provider of

mobile communications in Slovenia. Mobitel is part of Telekom

Slovenije, which has some 3 million subscribers across five

countries. Mobitel itself has about 1.5 million subscribers, but

what it lacks in size, it makes up for in innovation. Arguably, it

leads the worlds service providers in many application areas.The telecoms market in Slovenia started out as a heavily

regulated industry. Mobitel, under its parent company Telekom

Slovenije, was the original mobile service provider in Slovenia.

At the end of 2003, Mobitel had approximately a 73 percent

market share, and competed against three other providers.

As Mobitel faced increasing competition, the company

realized it must reduce costs and streamline its processes to

enable it to react to competitive threats quickly. It needed to be

able to launch new products and services in days, not weeks or

months. The executives at Mobitel decided the best approach

was to implement industry standards and service oriented

architecture (SOA) principles and TM Forums Frameworx is

an enabler of SOA.

Mobitel has now automated and manages its complex

processes, SOA-based integration to various systems, and

OSS/BSS applications after adopting a business process

management platform (IBMs Dynamic BPM), combinedwith IBM WebSphere Telecom Content Pack (WTCP).

WTCP provides prebuilt accelerators aligned to TM Forums

Frameworx, and an SOA-based approach to accelerate its

time to market and optimize the business costs involved in

generating new products.

Botjan Robenik, IT director, Mobitel, led the push to

implement an SOA. He says, I approached Mobitels

executives with the idea that SOA is a clear must for the

future. You have to have an SOA to enjoy a clean IT structure.

SOA enables us to orchestrate the entire IT landscape and all

its applications using a single business support system. It was



only after we had obtained funding and implemented the SOA

technology that we began to realize the potential for business

optimization.

Mitja Stular, CTO, Mobitel, agrees with Robenik: SOA

increases our efficiency. It brings a kind of organized distributed

modularity into our network. Previously, we had many, many

modules which were programmed in Java and C++.

The new approaches are already proving beneficial, as

Mobitel is merging with its parent company Telekom Slovenije,

which provides fixed line services in Slovenia, and starting in

July 2011, will offer fixed and mobile service bundles. To do

that and offer new and innovative services and other bundles,

the merged entity will rely on the new products and concepts

enabled by the transformed order management process.

As Klavdij Godni, CEO, Mobitel states, We implement the

services of the future today, bringing the convergence of voice,

data, Internet, video, television, advertising, local services and

social networks. We achieve this by integrating with manyestablished technologies, products and service suppliers in the

industry.

Selection process

Mobitels primary reason for adopting a BPM and SOA approach

was to separate business processes from the business

applications so that business agility could be improved. TM

Forums Frameworx was adopted as the basis to provide a

standards-based implementation model based on SOA and

telecom industry standards, enabling Mobitel to reduce the risk

of a vendor-specific implementation model.

Mobitel then prioritized the business processes that neededto be transformed, focusing on the those that were most

important to meeting its core business objectives. SOA maps

IT services to business goals to help rationalize and optimize

business processes by identifying and minimizing redundant

or inefficient tasks. It also reduces operating costs, which in

tough economic times is very important. With the promise

of business optimization and the cost reductions it brings,

Robenik obtained buy-in from Mobitels business units.

One of the first aspects of its business that Mobitel chose to

transform was order management, specifically customer order

handling. Right from the start, Mobitel was committed to using

TM Forums Frameworx in its IT transformation program and

chose IBM as a partner to convert its existing infrastructure

using its Smart SOA approach.

Tangible benefits

The IBM WTCP provides prebuilt process models, business

services, messaging schemas and other content based on TM

Forums Frameworx, and supports the WebSphere Dynamic

BPM platform. By adopting this Frameworx-based approach,

Mobitel has enjoyed the following benefits:

n40 percent less expenditure on professional services;

n80 percent saved through the reuse of artifacts;

n45 percent shorter delivery cycle for the ongoing

maintenance and new releases of processes;

n40 percent reduced total cost of ownership.

Mobitel began work on the customer order managementfunction after a business value assessment was completed

in collaboration with a team of business and technical experts

from IBM.

Klemen Dragar, IBM client executive, says, We created this

assessment with staff from Mobitel working alongside our

telecom industry experts to draw up a transformation roadmap.

We needed to understand what Mobitel wanted to accomplish

as a business and how quickly they needed to achieve their

goals.

We helped them assess the costs and lead times

required for process transformation using their existing

systems and compared that cost to using a SOA approachusing IBMs Dynamic BPM capabilities and our accelerators

for implementing Frameworx process models, data models,

application maps and a technology neutral architecture. It was

clear SOA would create big financial benefits and we would be

able to measure the benefits to Mobitel.

Tackling the first process

Customer order management at Mobitel was a heavily manual

process, which took a long time to complete and was prone

to errors. In addition, Mobitel is obligated by law to provide

a contract with the consumer, verified by a signature, before



CASE STUDYHANDBOOK

CASE STUDY HANDBOOK

provisioning or placing an order for any service.

In the past, this manual process meant that the store keeper

had to call the credit card company to verify that the person

was who they claimed to be, then the signature had to be

sent to Mobitels back office to be scanned and fed into the

document management system. From there the customer

information was manually entered into the order management

system.

In addition to verifying the signature, the would-be

customers physical address had to be already listed in the

governments database. Not surprisingly, on average, it took

up to 45 hours for a customer to register for and receive a new

service.

Electronic signatures

Now, after streamlining the order management process, the

customer signs their name electronically on the new point

of sale terminals (which have electronic forms built in thatare filled in on screen) and provides all the other necessary

information on the spot. This information is sent straight to

Mobitels back office with all the credit details.

IBMs WTCP helped accelerate implementing this new

process, by providing out-of-the-box SOA-based business

services that are mapped to the Forums Application

Framework (TAM) to abstract the functions exposed by the

OSS/BSS systems. It also provides the business service

interfaces from the Information Framework (SID) used by

business data objects, and the business processes based on

the Business Process Framework (eTOM).

The Information Framework was used to describe theprocess by which the electronic form and signature were sent

to the order management system. It was implemented by

integrating the existing order management system, Mobile

Mercury, with the WebSphere BPM platform, using the same

processes. Mercury allocated tasks to the back office staff,

and then measured how long the process took. Every task was

created in the business process management platform, and

monitored and measured.

The whole business process is driven by a series of screens

so that when all the manual steps are completed, the order

handling process then invokes various technical processes.

These are exposed as business services in the service

management and resource management layers, and had been

deployed previously.

The Information Framework-based order process still requires

some manual intervention for exceptions, but getting the right

tasks to the right people has reduced the cycle time, as proven

by the measuring and monitoring key performance indicators

that are used iteratively to refine the process using the BPM

platform.

Once Mobitel is comfortable with the initial deployment, the

system will move to a higher level of automation. Approaching

the project incrementally ensured continuity and helped staff

develop their skills on the new tools. It also helped the team

identify gaps in the process, enabling process re-engineering to

meet the demands of the local situation.

The screens used by the back office staff are all wizard-

based, making for a better customer buying experience in

terms of consistency, and ensuring that Mobitel complies withgovernment rules related to pricing and discounts.

Sustaining the change

Now, through a BPM and SOA competency center, Mobitel

develops new business services that encapsulate the

integration functions out of the OSS/BSS applications once and

reuses them many times as developers access the services

they need. The center has a big impact on the deployment

of new processes and their upgrades, on the initial phases

of modeling and service naming, and the use of appropriate

standards.

Robenik says, By using the IBM WebSphere BusinessModeler, the business people have a way of communicating

with IT, providing ideas about what the business processes

should look like. Our business people used the IBM

WebSphere Business Monitor to measure our human tasks

and our different key performance indicators. This bidirectional

communication between IT and the business units gives us

more agility in the market and helps us lower costs.

Migration of services to the WebSphere platform has

reduced the number of servers and operating costs. We also

can introduce new services faster such as a self-service

portal, and a new billing and CRM application, so were



providing better support to our customers, who are happier as

a result.

Swami Chandrasekaran, Chief Architect, IBM Industry

Solutions Services, adds, The Frameworx standards

including the Application, Information and Business Process

Frameworks, and the WebSphere Telecom Content Pack were

key enablers for Mobitel. These elements combined helped

create the big picture, the vision, and allowed everyone to

visualize the consolidated OSS/BSS target architecture, where

we were going, to get their minds around it.

A lot of education was involved we built dedicated teams

to work on the enterprise business architecture, all using

standard interfaces and information models. WebSphere

Telecom Content Pack is aligned with the Information, Business

Process and Applications Frameworks, which enabled the

Mobitel team to accelerate the deployment of the automated

order management solution.

The future is exciting for Mobitel, as it prepares to mergewith parent company Telekom Slovenije, and offer combined

fixed and mobile bundles and yet-to-be-created product and

service offerings. To do this, staff will use the standards-based

processes and concepts that enabled it to transform the order

management system to improve customer service and speed

up order delivery times.

Robenik concludes, Adopting the industry standards means

using the best practices from around the globe, which help

us run optimally. Also, Telekom Slovenije owns other mobile

operators that can now easily adopt our solution because it is

based on industry standards. This means our knowledge can be

leveraged for additional benefits.

"Telekom Slovenije owns other mobile operators that

can now easily adopt our solution because it is based

on industry standards. This means our knowledge can

be leveraged for additional benefits.



CASE STUDYHANDBOOK

CASE STUDY HANDBOOK

Advances in the communications industry such as innovative

business models, expanded value chains, converged services,

and complex new technologies constantly challenge a

service providers ability to offer a high level of customer

experience and efficient operations. Don Toland, director of

program operations for Qwest Communications, knows those

challenges well.

We see products not just converged from within the

telecom industry, but we also see them coming from outsidethe traditional telecom space, cloud services being a perfect

example. In years past, the cloud was viewed as an IT

service, however now its seen as an extension of our hosting

operations. To support new services such as cloud, Qwest

realized we needed a service delivery solution that would

consistently federate our network and software services into a

common platform and optimize service delivery.

To reduce investment risk by assuring business goals

were achievable prior to committing funds to a full-scale

implementation, Qwest turned to TM Forums industry-proven

Frameworx standard as it planned and implemented its new

service delivery platform. Qwest used the service layer ofthe Business Process Framework (eTOM) to model proposed

telecom and cloud services, and Information Framework (SID)

to rationalize product and service definitions. TM Forums

Service Delivery Framework was used to address service

lifecycle requirements.

In addition, Qwest and its business partners prototyped

and demonstrated their proposed solutions using the TM

Forum Catalyst Program a collaborative approach to solving

critical industry challenges. The Catalyst process not only

demonstrated feasibility, but also confirmed compatibility

across Qwests business partners.

Qwest cuts operational costs,gets products out there faster

Summary:Qwest wanted to transform its service delivery to shorten the time-to-market for new products,

including cloud services, reduce its operating costs, and have visibility and traceability from products to services

to resources. It was also determined to reduce individual service component redundancy and enforce Qwests

high standards for the overall customer experience. To reduce investment risk and prove the viability of what it

wanted to achieve, the operator and its partners turned to TM Forums Frameworx and Catalyst Program before

it embarked on the transformation. Within a year of the deployment Qwest saw a 4 percent increase in revenue,a 5 percent cost reduction, a 25 percent improvement in new product deployment cycle times, and a decrease

in unique provisioning and assurance job steps.

Reducing risk

To transform service lifecycle and service delivery

methodologies to meet rapidly changing industry and business

pressures, Qwest needed to:

nstreamline service delivery processes;

nspeed concept-to-cash cycle times;

ncreate visibility and traceability from products to services to

resources;nreduce individual service component redundancy;

ndeliver best-in-class service levels.

Following Frameworx best practices and standards, Qwest

implemented the following solutions to meet its service

delivery transformation goals:

norder management: automated sales order entry and order

status visibility; centralized service and product

specifications; configuration tools; consistent product and

service orders; accurate quotes;

nproduct information manager: product lifecycle managementand workflow; rationalized product and service definitions;

real-time product definition simulation and validation;

nactive service catalog: logical integration of product and

service layers; model resources and services; drive

provisioning workflow automation and inventory; rapid

update of product offerings.

Toland recounts the successful adoption of Frameworx,

saying, Qwest first needed to ensure our approach for

addressing operational and service challenges was headed

in the right direction. To start, we presented our concepts



to the TM Forum Community via a Catalyst proposal. After

a critical review of TM Forum Frameworx standards and

extensive participation in the feedback forums with vendors,

we prototyped and demonstrated our solution Service Model

Catalyst: Enabling the Cloud Services Supply Chain at the

Management World event in Nice.

The Forum offers an unparalleled venue for establishing

standards, for testing proposals in a Catalyst, and for

demonstrating the real solution in a business environment.

Using this process, Qwest confidently justified its anticipated

return on investment, and was able to accurately break down

and verify the operational expenses of each anticipated service

deployment.

Toland stresses the critical importance of TM Forums role

in its service delivery transformation: The Forum helped us

establish a strong direction. We adopted Frameworx best

practices and standards, tested our proposal in a Catalyst,

demonstrated practicality, justified ROI, and moved forward

with an implementation. TM Forum was essential at every

step along the way.

As Toland notes, TM Forum excels at bringing the right

people together to actively debate and develop ideas, giving

you practical advice on your direction before you invest.

The resultsQwests approach to participate in and contribute to the TM

Forum Community led to a deployed service delivery platform

that exceeded expectations, with both quantifiable and

repeatable results.

Toland confirms, Frameworx absolutely enabled us to

shorten product definition, deployment, and assurance times,

improve our cycle times and operational environment, as well

as decrease provisioning time. The result was faster delivery

of consistent, reliable, and competitively priced services

the real measure of our success with excellent customer

experience.

Qwest believes TM Forum Frameworx Business ProcessFramework (eTOM), Information Framework (SID), and Service

Delivery Framework are exactly what it needs to achieve

practical application and fast return on investment.

Within the first year, Qwest used Frameworx in conjunction

with its own proprietary methods to realize a 4 percent

revenue increase, 5 percent cost reduction, 25 percent cycle

time improvement for new product deployment, and an overall

decrease in unique provisioning and assurance job steps.

Toland stresses the real value of TM Forum is when a

company participates in all aspects of the Forum, building

strategic partnerships through the TM Forum relationships.

One of the benefits of the Frameworx community is working

hand-in-hand with vendors.

Evaluating vendor technology and service provider ideas in

a Catalyst Project is extremely valuable as they work together

towards desired solution results. Not everything the company

does can be in the open light of the Forum, but Qwests

partnering success lies in focusing on vendors who adhere

to TM Forum Frameworx, and who can demonstrate reliable,

compliant interfaces with Qwests systems and applications.

Throughout this process, Qwest collaborated with a wide array

of vendors, including: BT, Cisco, Comptel, Verecloud, Progress

Software, Tribold, and Voss.

The vendor community has played a significant role in this

project. It embraces TM Forum for its standards which reduce

development costs and because it is a great marketing

opportunity for them, he points out. The communication

giants support of TM Forum Frameworx is absolute.

Toland asserts, We strongly encourage other members

to engage in the international Frameworx community. Not

one of us stands alone in this converged environment, so the

better we are at establishing common standards, the faster

we can make traditional geographic boundaries irrelevant. TM

Forum does a great job of looking at whats coming down the

road, implementing standards, and facilitating among all these

different roles and disciplines. When you can get an industryto agree on a baseline data model as TM Forum has done with

Information Framework, its just a Herculean task.

Core company divisions such as enterprise Business

Markets Group, IT Operations, Products, Network Engineering

Channel Operations, and Finance all worked together to

achieve Qwests service delivery platform success. The

company continues to strategize, innovate, and streamline

its service delivery methods with expert support from the

international TM Forum Community.

What the future holds

Now that Qwest has deployed its service delivery platform,it will look at the upfront sales process to improve sales

effectiveness, and at solution design to take in and fulfill

orders faster. Plans are also on the horizon to focus on real-

time events, on-demand customer configurations, and using

business analytics to explore cross-selling opportunities.

Toland understands the value the Forum offers to Qwests

future. He says, If you make the effort, theres a lot of depth

to what TM Forum puts together which can be leveraged for

the growth and success of your company.



CASE STUDYHANDBOOK

CASE STUDY HANDBOOK

In March 2011, Oracle Communications Rapid Offer Design

and Order Delivery (RODOD) solution received TM Forum

Frameworx Solution Conformance Certification. More precisely,

the RODOD solution scope was assessed for compliance with

the Business Process Framework (eTOM) 8.0, Levels 1 through

3. It is the first solution to be certified by TM Forum.

The productization and certification of solutions should lead

to higher business value for customers, and facilitate and

accelerate the adoption of Frameworx.

Oracle choose to embark on this rigorous process becauseservice providers prefer to procure standards-based products

to reduce risk, increase speed of service deployment

particularly concerning the time and effort taken in integration

and lower costs. This also frees up service providers

resources so they can concentrate on areas of differentiation.

The scale and scope of the problems caused by legacy

systems, proprietary interfaces, and inconsistent processes

is demonstrated by the fact that, according to Yankee Group,

the average time it takes a service provider to launch new

services ranges from 90 days to a year, while the average time

taken to modify offers is highly manual and varies from 10 to

20 days. As service providers need to offer more services andpromotions quickly just to compete, the situation is only going

to get worse.

TM Forum's Business Benchmarking Program has found

that it takes the best-in-class about two hours to make new

pricing or tariff changes for small variations or bundle updates.

However, the average is four months.

For all types of orders (regular services and bundles), the

Program has found that the best in class has a 4.4 percent

rework rate, while the average score is 13 percent, up by more

than 50 percent on the previous year. This is a worrying trend.

KRC Research estimates 25 percent of data service orders

Certified solutions speed up timeto market for service providers

Summary:Three service providers Colt, Telekom Malaysia, and Aircel explain why they chose to use a

solution that has now received TM Forum Frameworx Solution Conformance Certification (Business Process

Framework Release 8.0 eTOM Levels 1 through 3). Advantages include faster time to market, less time andeffort spent on integration, reduced risk and lower costs.

are cancelled before they are fulfilled. Vanson Bourne says

77 percent of service providers acknowledge that delivering

bundled products and services has increased operational

complexity, while 86 percent report an increase in transaction

failures.

Many initiatives that are described as BSS/OSS

transformation programs are not strategic overhauls, but

tactical improvements. Operators continue to struggle with

slow offer design, high order fallout, poor order lifecycle

visibility, costly in-flight order changes, and high operationexpense.

To address these issues, the horizontal Level 1 processes

included in the Business Process Framework 8.0 Certification

cover marketing and offer management and customer

relationship management. The vertical Level 1 processes

include product lifecycle management, fulfillment and

assurance.

Level 2 processes that are involved in the Certification

process include product and offer development and retirement

customer interface management, selling, order handling, and

problem handling.

At Level 3, some 24 processes were involved in Oraclescertification process. For example, under product and offer

development and retirement, they include the development

of detailed product specifications, and the launch of new

products. Level 3 processes that fall under order handling

include determining customer order feasibi lity, authorizing

credit, issuing, tracking, managing, completing and closing

customer orders.

Here three service providers explain, in their own words, the

value of greatly reduced integration time and effort in BSS/OSS

transformations, including less risk, lower costs and faster

time to market.



Colt operates in 13 countries, and runs a 25,000km network

that reaches 100 cities and includes metropolitan area

networks in 34 cities with direct fibre connections into 16,000

buildings and 19 data centres. The company offers IT managed

services, data and voice services to major organizations,

midsize businesses and wholesale customers.

The importance of speed to market is underlined by Greg

Branch, director of architecture, Colt Technology Services. Colt

was facing BSS/OSS challenges concerning order management

because, as Branch explains, As we move into providingcloud IT services to our customers, there is a demand for a

much greater degree of automation in the way we provision

those and we need to be able to combine the provisioning of

the cloud IT services with the network services as a single

integrated solution.

He adds, We have to be able to assemble those solutions

in a managed way and deliver them in a way that meets

our customers high demands. Colt chose to use Oracles

RODOD solution because it meets its requirements of

matching our need to offer assembled solutions made up

of technology components. Then, having placed an order,

it breaks it into those components, builds an orchestrationplan for the delivery of the solution, and invokes the delivery

workflows for each component in turn those delivery

workflows being integrated with our service platform to

automate the delivery of tasks.

The main thing is around speed to market. In our existing

systems it can sometimes take months to launch a new

product because of the changes that we have to make in

multiple disconnected systems. By being able to launch a

service on a single integrated platform, we expect that time to

reduce to weeks, or sometimes even days. The first service

we are launching on the platform was implemented from start

to finish in three to four months.

The main thing is around speed to market. In our

existing systems it can sometimes take months to

launch a new product because of the changes that we

have to make in multiple disconnected systems. By

being able to launch a service on a single integrated

platform, we expect that time to reduce to weeks, or

sometimes even days."

Colt greater speed to market



CASE STUDYHANDBOOK

CASE STUDY HANDBOOK

Telekom Malaysia (TM) describes itself as Malaysias leading

provider in information communications technologies offering

fixed, Internet and mobile services. Its High-speed Broadband

Systems was rolled out to 750,000 premises during 2010.

Nizam Arshad, VP, IT, Telekom Malaysia Group, spoke at

Management Worldin 2010, to share the IT transformation

project we have at Telekom Malaysia, lessons learned, and

the challenges we faced in order to bring forward a new IT

platform for the company and its customers. The program is

an 18- to 24-month program. We are about midway done withit, weve rolled out one release and well have two or three

more releases this year [2010]. We started off with more

consumer [offers], moving forward into small and medium-

sized businesses, government, and enterprise services.

Today we have lots of systems supporting the services

we offer to the market. There are gaps in some of them and

certain solutions are quite old; they have been implemented

for many, many years. The challenge we have today is that

everything that comes out is a bundle of services and you have

certain platforms that are fairly easy to deploy, but you have

other platforms that are difficult, and it is challenging to deploy

these new bundled services.We need a more end-to-end capability that will allow us to

bundle all of our services, for our internal users, for the call

center and operations, as well as for our customers. This is

something we are deploying in Telekom Malaysia today.

The RODOD requires a lot of flow-through provisioning,

activation process and now we have been able to deliver that

in some of the services. But, for the most part, where there

are bundled services, it is fairly challenging. So what we are

doing, even for our first release, is a triple play service that

we offer to the market. In order to do that, we require a set of

tools that are fairly integrated, that we can build and use for

the current offer we have, and also in the future for the new

services that are coming onboard.

The customers demands are going to be more and more

challenging. This allows us to deliver something to the market

quickly and efficiently. To do that we require a different set

of tools what we have today doesnt allow us to do that.

By deploying the Oracle automated management, the EI

[Enterprise Integration] solutions and the SDP [service delivery

platform], this allows us to go to market much faster, deliver

the services, and be more competitive in the marketplace.Today, most of the offers that go out will be bundled

services, which generally require several weeks or maybe

months to deliver the more complex services. With the current

solutions from Oracle, those systems allow us to deploy

something fairly quickly it could be a week, or it could be two

or three weeks. If its a configuration thats required quickly, it

could be done within a day.

The customer imposes upon us more visibility and control

in the way we deliver the services to them and with Oracle

order management, we are able to decompose these complex

products and services, and each step of the way, the status

of that particular order is floated up to the CRM [customerrelationship management] layer. That gives a lot more comfort

and confidence to the customers, that we are delivering the

service in the time level we are committed to. It has given us

more visibility in the way we deliver all the services to them.

Telekom Malaysias IT transformation



Aircel is a mobile services provider in India with over 35 million

mobile subscribers. It offers pre- and post-paid services.

Ravinder Jain, CIO, Aircel, explains about his use of

standards, The service relies on the entire Oracle [RODOD]]

communications suite, weve just gone live with it. It gives us

a lot of advantages in terms of service providers who come

on board and provide their services to us, so the boarding

of these content providers becomes seamless and much,

much faster because the SDP is pre-integrated with all these

southbound network elements and all the northbound classicOSS and BSS.

The role of order management becomes more vital, for

example, when we were launching

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