Getting service delivery right

Your network is complex. Delivering services to your customers is complex. How can you simplify this for your business? Efficient delivery of services on a large scale requires automation. TSPs have looked to tackle this problem from two directions:
  • From the network layer and;
  • From the operational support system (OSS) layer.
Network element providers (NEPs) have pushed new technologies that deliver services 'out of the box'. Although this approach makes service provisioning simpler, it locks TSPs into particular service offerings and increases the complexity of integration with business support systems (BSS). Operational Support System (OSS) vendors have promoted a more 'open' approach through the combination of a mediation layer that communicates with disparate network elements and an OSS designed to manage service activation processes. This approach however has been hampered by the increased complexity of new services and the need to effectively re-configure the OSS from scratch to support each new service type. So what is the solution? We believe that what is needed is a flexible service management layer that maps services to the underlying network technologies. This requires a feature rich language for modelling services. Cognizant's Service Creation Environment (CSCE) allows TSPs to model a full variety of services including wireline, mobile, email and web hosting services in an integrated manner, using XML standards. These models can then drive network element configuration for service delivery and provide service usage data for billing. Other benefits include the ability to analyse service availability and performance, that can be used to optimise network design and manage customer service levels.

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