The industry has been talking about the need for OSS transformation for many years. But progress has been mixed. It's unclear how widely the talk has been put into practice. In this global independent study (conducted by the Telesperience research firm), we uncovered what OSS transformation means today in practical terms for communications service providers worldwide: What are their primary goals? How are they going about transforming their OSS? What progress has been made to date?

What did we find?

The results of the study indicate that OSS transformational goals are increasingly being aligned with the service provider’s customer experience and commercial goals.

According to the study:

• This year alone, one-quarter of the market will begin transforming their OSS. In total, 70% of service providers have begun a process of transformation. While market innovators report being up to 75% through the transformation process, mainstream communications service providers are still at an early stage, typically only 25% through the process.
• There is no one-size-fits-all OSS transformation. The starting point for OSS transformation often varies, depending largely on a communications service provider’s legacy position and important business challenges. It is clear, however, that OSS transformation most commonly involves consolidation (73%) and simplification (70%) of existing systems.
• As a result of optimizing their OSS, 85% of service providers say they are enjoying faster time to market for new offerings, the ability to roll out niche products, a faster order-to-cash cycle, lower operational costs, the ability to support more customers and new low-margin services such as M2M, fewer customer complaints, and lower churn rates.

OSS transformation is a vital step in creating new business and generating revenues. Whether looking to create new revenue streams and diversify products, or enhancing customer centricity and personalization capabilities, an OSS transformation is more than just improving efficiency and reducing operational expenses.

Related to the OSS transformation, there are also major commercial shifts in the business. These are linked, so it is also important to understand the types of Business Model transformation which service providers may soon be going through.