The need for transformation is clear, however Communications Service Providers are still faced with the problem of exactly how to modernize and transform their many hundreds of separate, aging OSS systems into a modern, slick operations environment. The challenges are many, including making the right business and IT decisions about systems consolidation, which systems to keep and which to retire, as well as organizational aspects of how to restructure teams and optimize human resources in order to improve end to end operational efficiency.

One answer is to consider managed services or more specifically, OSS Managed Services as an enabler for transformation. By outsourcing operations systems, processes and applications development, it then becomes easier to manage the transformation process as part of a broader optimization and modernization plan.

Many OSS transformation projects don’t get off the ground because they are seen as too large and complex with a high initial cost. The outsourcing approach removes any need for capital expenditure and so the benefits can then be realized earlier on against a pure OpEx budget. Payments are amortized across the entire contract period so there is no upfront cost spike.

OSS Managed Services offer much more than just outsource services for systems support and can provide professional services to plan and manage changes to systems and business processes across the whole operations environment as well as providing ongoing business process management.

Outsourcing OSS transformation – sharing the risk

Taking responsibility for these operational processes means that the managed services provider can then support the business transformation process of OSS consolidation and modernization by utilizing their expertise in BSS/OSS integration, change management and business process optimization. Having all of the management functions within one competency center, helps to ensure minimal disruption to key business processes during the transformation process. The risk of a transformation project can then be significantly reduced by outsourcing both the operational processes and the transformation project to the managed service provider.

Through a process of governance, the capability to monitor and control outsourced OSS activities and change processes can be ensured, committing to service delivery performance targets through a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the communications service provider. The SLA is defined and agreed by both parties and contains a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) which are used to set and monitor the joint business objectives of the outsource program. This business model has been proven time and time again in the BSS domain for customer management and billing systems and therefore can be applied equally well to OSS Managed Services, since BSS and OSS are both IT centric and customer focused domains involving high volume, mission critical systems. This means that the governance processes required are similar.

The result – improved operational performance and lower costs

The combined result is a completely outsourced set of OSS managed services which remove the headache of internally managing a transformation project while at the same time trying to optimize business processes. OSS Managed Services can deliver a modernized OSS environment while reducing operations costs, shortening time to market for new services and delivering process management