Meeting Carriers’ Real-Time Requirements Is Critical for the Success of Next-Gen Service Delivery

Last year, ownership of Billing & OSS World transferred from TeleStrategies to Virgo Publishing. The first annual conference under this new ownership, held at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in Chicago between April 29 and May 1, saw most of the heavyweight BSS and OSS vendors and systems integrators under one roof. In the telecommunications software segment, 2008 was more or less a repeat of what we saw in 2007, driven in part by the fact that most large incumbent operators are still in the midst of OSS and BSS transformation projects, major system rationalization projects and projects specifically geared toward improving customer experience. Conference sessions as well as vendors’ marketing messages centered on the rapid change in carriers’ market dynamics as traditional voice revenue gradually dwindles and carriers are forced to focus more on value-added services such as messaging, video and multimedia services to increase their profitability per user and reduce customer churn.