The demands of 4G networks will require operators to leverage the event-driven architecture paradigm to monitor, measure and act on thousands of network and customer initiated events to make intelligent decisions. This imposes stringent requirements regarding latency and scalability on the software system. In addition, the software system has the responsibility to hide this complexity from the customer and make interactions simple and easy to drive the best customer experience.
Service providers and vendors need to be very aware of the chasm between where software systems are today and where they should be. We outline the five steps needed to bridge the chasm.
Build the BSS/OSS on the event-driven architecture paradigm. The networks of tomorrow are going to need a real-time BSS/OSS system that processes event stream data from customer interactions in channels such as websites, retail and agent stores, kiosks and contact centers. The massive explosion of these interaction events have to be modeled, monitored and made sense of as they happen so that the operator can optimize its service to the customers in real time.
For example, the order-to-cash process for an individual customer will generate many events in the operator ecosystem. These include recognizing the customer profile and the type of interaction, personalizing the experience to suit the profile, recommending the products the customer is likely buy and then once it is bought triggering a set of provisioning, activation, assurance, billing and partner management events within the operator network. This instant processing of events designed to fulfill this process from start to finish will require an event-driven architecture to enable it.
Make the architecture flat and fast. The software systems should be built with the minimum number of layers possible. These systems will have to deliver real-time performance on all fronts. ln the next decade software systems will process complex events real time and provide the users the best actions to take based on those events. This directly enables the service provider to lower risks and provide an excellent experience to customers. This technology is available today in the financial industry and can be deployed to suit the needs of service providers to where there will be a growing need to provide an engine to process high volume, low latency applications.
Open APIs with zero integration tax. It is not sufficient to provide interfaces that will work with an adjacent package. The barriers to integration really must be lowered to enable interoperability as we have not seen before. The service provider should incur near-zero cost to build and maintain the integration between the old and new systems, and between the modules of the new system. The new systems must include pre-built adapters to help the service provider migrate to the solution in a phased manner.
Focus on a consistent experience at all touch points. Software systems must be experience-centric and not provider-centric, which means providing a single platform to deliver a consistent customer experience from the order handling, activation, provisioning and billing functions.
Provide an accurate and simple bill. The coexistence of the old and new networks, a variety of voice and data products, different QoS on hybrid networks, multiple profiles and multiple devices will need a software system that is designed to hide all the technology complexity and present a simple easy to understand bill to customers.
Ashvin Vellody is a SVP at Yankee Group