• Comprehensive description of generic applications and typical implementation of next generation OSS modules
• Conceptual and technological advances in OSS
• Indication of OSS pricing trends and market shares
• Case studies of 14 pioneering telecom service providers' implementation experience with next generation OSS systems
• Company overview and detailed product technical descriptions of 91 world-class next generation OSS systems offered on the world market
• Conclusions and recommendations for carriers and OSS vendors

Readers of this report should know that Dittberner Associates is an independent telecommunications consulting firm that is owned by its employees, and accepts no long-term retainers or sales commissions from any supplier of telecommunications equipment or services. The principals of our PROJECT ESS team have worked together on this program for almost 25 years. Thus, readers of this report can be assured that our professional efforts have been used to present an objective, professional, and technically sound document.

Scope

There are many companies and products that offer OSS software that serves only a particular hardware, in other words, software that is platform-dependent, or software that offers only mediation devices. We have excluded companies products on purpose in order to focus on OSSs that are platform independent and offer at least five of the eighty module functionalities as defined by Dittberner Associates.

VOLUME 1

I. INTRODUCTION TO UPDATE 42

1. SCOPE OF REPORT

A. INTRODUCTION

B. SCOPE

2. THE PROJECT ESS MULTI-CLIENT RESEARCH PROGRAM

A. OBJECTIVE OF PROJECT ESS

B. FUTURE PROJECT ESS TOPICS

3. INDUSTRY CHANGES SINCE OUR PREVIOUS OSS STUDY REPORT OF 1997

A. TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES IN OSS DEVELOPMENT AND ARCHITECTURES

4. FRAMEWORK OF THE OSS CLASSIFICATION UTILIZED

A. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF OSS

B. NEXT GENERATION OSS

1. Product Selection

2. OSS Product Classification

5. ORGANIZATION OF THIS REPORT

6. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

II. GENERIC APPLICATIONS AND TYPICAL IMPLEMENTATIONS

1. BILLING

A. BILLING DATA GATHERING

1. Definition of Functions

2. Typical / Existing Procedures

3. Major System Suppliers

4. Typical Implementation Costs Incurred

5. Typical Implementation Problems Encountered

6. Cost / Benefit Conclusions

7. Evolution

B. RATING / DISCOUNTING

C. BILL CALCULATION / INVOICING

D. CONSOLIDATED BILLING

E. WHOLESALE BILLING

F. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE / PAYMENTS / COLLECTIONS

G. BILLING INQUIRY HANDLING / ADJUSTMENT

H. COLLECTIONS / TREATMENT

2. CUSTOMER CARE

A. TROUBLE TICKETING & TRACKING

B. COMPUTER TELEPHONY INTEGRATION

C. CUSTOMER TROUBLE MANAGEMENT

D. BILLING DISPUTE MANAGEMENT

E. DIRECTORY ASSISTANCE

F. PRE-FORMATTED REPORTS

G. SLA MANAGEMENT

H. CSR PERMISSIONING CENTRALLY

I. OTHER

3. PROVISIONING / DEPLOYMENT

A. SERVICE ORDER ENTRY

B. PRE-QUALIFICATION / QUALIFICATION

C. SLA NEGOTIATION SUPPORT

D. COMPUTER-TELEPHONE INTEGRATION (CUSTOMER CALL CENTER)

E. NUMBER ADMINISTRATION

F. SERVICE CREATION ENVIRONMENT

G. SUPPORT CROSS SELL & UP SELL

H. SERVICE ORDER PROCESSING

I. ORDER DECOMPOSITION

J. CREDIT AUTHORIZATION / VERIFICATION

K. PLANT INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

L. SERVICE / NUMBER ASSIGNMENT

M. NETWORK CONNECTIVITY MANAGEMENT (PACKET)

N. NETWORK CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

O. CUSTOMER CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

P. GRAPHIC OUTSIDE PLANTS RECORDS

Q. WORK FLOW MANAGEMENT

R. SERVICE ACTIVATION

4. MARKETING AND SALES SUPPORT

A. DATA WAREHOUSING AND ANALYSIS OF USAGE DATA

B. JEOPARDY CUSTOMER IDENTIFICATION

C. PROSPECT IDENTIFICATION FOR NEW SERVICES

D. SALES CALL ROUTING / SCHEDULING

E. PRODUCT CATALOG ONLINE

F. PRICING SUPPORT ONLINE

G. CUSTOMER ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT - CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

5. WORK FORCE MANAGEMENT

A. CRAFT SCHEDULING / DISPATCH

B. GPS LOCATION / TRACKING

C. OPERATOR SCHEDULING

D. REMOTE CRAFT ACCESS SUPPORT

E. OVERALL FORCE MANAGEMENT

F. WORK ORDER TRACKING

6. NETWORK MANAGEMENT

A. NETWORK SURVEILLANCE / MONITORING

B. FAULT ISOLATION / DIAGNOSIS

C. SWITCHED NETWORK PERFORMANCE

D. TRANSPORT RESTORATION / REROUTING

E. QOS / CUSTOMER SLA MONITORING

F. FRAUD DETECTION / USAGE ANALYSIS

G. NETWORK ENGINEERING / DESIGN

H. END-TO-END SERVICE MONITORING

I. TROUBLE TICKETING / TRACKING (NETWORK)

J. AUTOMATED TESTING

K. ROOT-CAUSE ANALYSIS

7. GATEWAYS - INBOUND WEB BASED

A. PRE-ORDER / ORDER ENTRY / ORDER STATUS INQUIRY

B. OUTSOURCED GATEWAY SERVICES FOR RETAIL / WHOLESALE ORDER HANDLING

C. WEB PRODUCT / SERVICE CATALOG INFORMATION AND PRICING

8. GATEWAYS - OUTBOUND

A. PRE-ORDERING / ORDER CONFIRMATION

B. E-911 EMERGENCY SERVICE CALLING

C. TROUBLE REPORTING / STATUS

D. LOCAL NUMBER PORTABILITY (LNP)

E. LINE INFORMATION DATA BASE

F. SERVICE REQUESTS (ASR, LSR, DSR, ETC.)

G. ELECTRONIC BILL PRESENTMENT (WEB-BASED)

9. FRAUD DETECTION / SECURITY

A. REAL TIME FRAUD DETECTION

B. POST ANALYSIS FRAUD DETECTION

C. IPSEC

D. USER AUTHENTICATION

E. SERVICE AUTHORIZATION

F. LOGIN / PASSWORD PROTECTION

III. CONCEPTUAL & TECHNOLOGICAL OSS ADVANCES

1. EVOLUTION TOWARDS THE FUTURE OSS ENVIRONMENT

A. WHY DO WE NEED A COMPREHENSIVE NEW ENVIRONMENT FOR FUTURE OSSS?

1. Needs for Next Generation of OSS Systems

2. Key Requirements for the Next Generation OSS

B. DEALING WITH NEW GENERATION SWITCHING AND TRANSMISSION SYSTEMS

1. Next Generation Switches

2. Optical Fiber Transmission Systems

C. THE EMERGING STRUCTURE

1. General

2. A Strictly Modular Structure is a "Must" for Future OSSs

3. Interworking between Different OSSs Must be Supported

4. Scalability and Decentralization are Requirements for Large Public Networks

D. SNMP AND ITS ROLE IN THE FUTURE OSS ENVIRONMENT

1. Background

2. SNMP - The Basics

3. SNMP Version 2

4. The Network Manager Software Platform

5. Why Use SNMP in a Public Network?

E. THE ROLE OF THE OSI MANAGEMENT MODEL AND OF CMIP

1. Introduction

2. The Basics

3. The Managed Information Model

4. Advantages of the OSI Management Model

F. TMN - WHICH ROLE - IF ANY - WILL IT PLAY IN FUTURE OSSS?

1. Overview of the TMN Concept

2. Can TMN Adapt to Play a Convincing Role in Next Generation Networks?

3. TMN and SNMP - Friendly Cooperation versus Picking One or the Other?

4. IP as a Transport for TMN

5. Will TMN Survive in the Future Competitive Environment?

6. The Likely Evolution of TMN

G. STANDARD SETTING ACTIVITIES FOR OSS

1. ITU-T

2. ETSI

3. ANSI

4. The Network Management Forum (NMF)

5. The Internet Architecture Board

6. Telcordia (Formerly Bellcore)

7. Other Activities of Significance for OSSs

H. TINA AND OSS

1. General

2. The Significance of TINA for the Future OSS Environment

I. CONCLUSIONS

2. IMPACT OF NEW / ADVANCED SERVICES ON FUTURE OSSS

A. INTRODUCTION

B. IMPACT OF FAST INTERNET ACCESS - DSL SERVICE, ETC.

1. Impact of DSL Service

2. Fast Internet Access via a Dedicated Line

C. OTHER IP- AND ATM-BASED SERVICES

1. IP-Based Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)

2. ATM Services

D. REAL-TIME ACCESS TO ACCOUNT INFORMATION

E. SELF-PROVISIONING BY THE CUSTOMER

F. SERVICE LEVEL AGREEMENTS

G. CONCLUSIONS

3. TRENDS IN OSS PRODUCT OFFERINGS

A. INTRODUCTION

B. SUCCESSFUL VENDORS MUST OFFER OSS SUITES

C. MEETING THE NEEDS OF NEW UPSTARTS - "OSS IN A BOX"

D. LEGACY SYSTEMS - ASSET OR LIABILITY?

1. Introduction

2. Adapting a Legacy OSS to a State-of-the-Art OSS Environment

3. Retaining Only the Legacy Databases

4. Conclusions - Are Legacy Systems an Asset or a Liability?

4. TRENDS IN SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY

A. INTRODUCTION

B. OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAM STRUCTURES

1. Objects - What They Are

2. Object-Oriented Programming Languages

3. Object-Oriented Software Architectures

C. MANAGEMENT PLATFORMS AND MIDDLEWARE

1. Introduction

2. Requirements for a Software Platform

3. Specialized Types of Middleware

4. Conclusions

D. DCE - OSF'S DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING ENVIRONMENT

1. What It Is

2. DCE - What It Does

3. Significance of DCE for OSSs

E. CORBA - THE COMMON OBJECT REQUEST BROKER ARCHITECTURE

1. What It Is

2. A Brief Overview of the Inne