OSS BSS

ASSIGNMENT

Submitted by
Aniket Ravindra Ahire
PRN: 18020541003

Symbiosis Institute of Digital & Telecom Management

Pune 412115
MBA TM | Batch 2018 – 2020
Q.1 Mention all components and explain how telecom billing works.
Sol: The diagram of Telecom Billing System is given below:

Billing Process:

Considering the above system architecture: → After a call is made or you can say a usage is
generated by the end customer, the mediation system gathers usage data from the network
switch and builds a call-detail record (CDR). This CDR must contain 'A' party number and 'B'
party number, the start and the end date & times.
The CDR is then stored until it can be rated. To rate the call, the CDR is examined to see if the
call is, for example, an 800 number, a local call that is covered by a local-area calling plan,
international call or a toll call. Information such as the time of the call was placed and city
code or country codes are used to calculate the rate for the call.
Once each call is rated, this information is stored until the invoice is run, usually once a month.
When the invoice is run, other non-usage charges, such as discounts or monthly fees, can be
applied to the bill or sometime called invoice.
There could be a rating time discount or billing time discount, different payments done by the
customers, different adjustments given, all this information contribute in the final invoice
generation. This information is then converted in a format, which can be printed in a readable
form. Finally, the envelope is printed, stuffed with enclosures, and mailed to the end
customer.

All components of telecom billing system are as follows:

1. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)/ Order Management and Order Fulfilment

(OMOF) System

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 It is the first system from where a customer’s order is captured and customer is created
into the system. The CRM system keeps customer-related information along with product
and services. The OMOF module is responsible to track order starting from its creation till
its completion.

Here, we have two possibilities −

 CRM/OMOF system contacts with the billing system and billing system contacts with
provisioning system to provision the services and network inventory system as well to
assign phone numbers or IP addresses, etc.
 Second possibility could be that CRM/OMOF system itself contacts with provisioning
system to provision the services and network inventory system as well to assign phone
numbers or IP addresses, etc.
2. Provisioning System
This system takes commands either from the Billing System or CRM/OMOF System to
activate, deactivate and suspend the services. After taking provisioning commands, this
system contacts with core network system to activate, deactivate or suspend the services.
After a successful provisioning, this system sends a response back to either the Billing
System or the CRM system depending on who sent it the last command.

3. Network Inventory System (NIS)

This system maintains all the network identifiers like phone numbers, MSISDN, IP
addresses, e-mail addresses, etc., and technically it is called Network Inventory System.
This system is responsible to maintain the life cycle of network identifiers, which starts
with available and then flows through different stages like activation, suspend, terminate,
quarantine, and again available.

4. Network Switches
Generally, Billing System does not interact with network switches. Network switches are
responsible to provide all the services to the end customers based on what services have
been provisioned for the customer. These systems are responsible for controlling calls,
data download, SMS transfer, etc., and finally generating Call Detail Records. It include
MSC, SMSC, GGSN and MMSC.

5. Mediation System
The Mediation System collects CDRs from different network elements in different
formats. The Mediation System processes all the CDRs and converts them into a format
compatible to the downstream system, which is usually a Billing System. The Mediation
System applies various rules on CDRs to process them. Once the collected CDRs are
processed, Mediation System pushes all the CDRs to the Billing System using FTP because
usually Mediation and Billing systems run on different machines.

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6. Data Ware House (DWH) System
This is a downstream system for the Billing System and usually keeps tons of historical
data related to the customers. Billing System dumps various customer information into
the DWH system. This information includes service usage, invoices, payments, discounts
and adjustments, etc.

All this information is used to generate various types of management reports and for
business intelligence and forecasted system is always meant to work on bulk and huge
data, and if there is a need for any small report, then it is always worth to generate it
from the billing system directly instead of abusing DWH for a small task.

7. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system provides modules to handle Financials,
Human Resources and Supply Chain Management, etc. This system works like a general
ledger for the finance department and gives complete revenue information at any point
in time it is required. Billing System interface with this system is used to post all the
financial transactions like invoices, payments, and adjustments.

8. Payment Gateway
It is a kind of custom component, which sits in between the Billing System and different
payment channels like banks, credit card gateway, shops, and retailers, etc. All the
payment channels use payment gateway to post payments to the billing system to settle
down customer invoices.

Q:2 Mention advantages of Cloud Computing over traditional software

architecture.

Sol: The main advantages of Cloud Computing over traditional software architecture are as
follows:
 Cost Savings and Total Cost of Ownership.
When you move to cloud computing you tend to save money in several ways in
comparison to traditional IT, including the reduction of inhouse equipment and
infrastructure.
 Dissatisfaction in Traditional IT.
Many companies are frustrated with the negatives that come with traditional IT, such as
poor data backup, managing and maintaining our own hardware, and lack of disaster
recovery options. Businesses often become dissatisfied that they don’t have the same
capacity, scalability, and flexibility as those who are leveraging the cloud. You also do not
have the same access to apps and data.
 Time to Value and Ease of Implementation.
Since you don’t have to spend time configuring hardware, maintain systems, and patching
software, you can invest our resources elsewhere.
 Access to Emerging Technology.

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 Much like a car, the minute you purchase on-premise hardware and software, it
immediately starts to age. You can access the latest and greatest innovations with a cloud
provider who has more purchasing power and stays up-to-date with available solutions.
Also, as new innovations are released, they become less likely to integrate with legacy
solutions that are often inflexible. Instead, cloud-first development is coming to the
forefront.
 Using Hybrid to Optimize our Operations.
Some organizations take the use of the cloud even further by using multiple clouds
simultaneously, thus giving them even more agility. Workloads are placed where they
perform best, and where costs are most efficient.
 Economics of the Cloud.
When considering the economic aspects of moving to the cloud, the best place to begin is
by comparing the cost of an on-premise server versus a cloud server. The cost for a
company with more than 50 employees to run an on-premise server for a period of about
five to seven years is usually less than it would be for using a cloud server. On the other
hand, if the server only lasts two to three years then cloud computing is much more cost
effective. Other factors to consider are the indirect costs of running our own servers,
such as cooling, power, license fees, and labour.

Some financial benefits of moving to cloud are as follows.

 Completely Exploited Hardware.

Because cloud computing is practical the ever-changing workload evens outs and
becomes smoother. Thus, the hardware is fully utilized, which means resources aren’t
going to waste.
 Lower Employee Costs.
Most companies employ several IT professionals. Those expenses add up quickly. When
you move to the cloud, you can typically cut back on the number of the IT employees our
organization needs, thus saving you a significant amount of money.
 Lower Power Expenses.
When you use in-house servers, you must pay to run them 24/7 even though you aren’t
using them all the time. A cloud service provider will charge less for energy than you would
pay if you ran our own on-premise data centre.
 No Capital Costs.
When you send everything to the cloud you eliminate all capital expenses. You don’t have
to purchase the servers or set up the infrastructure. Our cloud provider pays those
expenses instead of you.
 No Redundancy.
Most companies with in-house servers have to go the extra mile and purchase backup
hardware as well. Having extra hardware lying around just in case is a huge waste of
resources. Enterprise data centres also offer redundant power and infrastructure, which
is difficult to afford on our own. You can eliminate these expenses and use the funds
elsewhere when you move to the cloud and away from traditional IT.

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Q:3 Explain five techniques of requirement gathering in a software project.

Sol: Five techniques used in gathering requirements in a software project are as follows:

1. Interview: Interviews of users and stakeholders are important in creating wonderful

software. Without knowing the expectations and goal of the stakeholders and users, you
are highly unlikely to satiate them. You also have to understand the perspective of every
interviewee, in order to properly address and weigh their inputs. Like a good reporter,
listening is a quality that assists an excellent analyst to gain better value through an
interview as compared to an average analyst.
2. Prototyping: Prototyping can be very helpful at gathering feedback. Low fidelity
prototypes make a good listening tool. Many a times, people are not able to articulate a
specific need in the abstract. They can swiftly review whether a design approach would
satisfy the need. Prototypes are very effectively done with fast sketches of storyboards
and interfaces. Prototypes in some situations are also used as official requirements.
3. Requirements Workshop: Popularly known as JAD or joint application design, these
workshops can be efficient for gathering requirements. The requirements workshops are
more organized and structured than a brainstorming session where the involved parties
get together to document requirements. Creation of domain model artefacts like activity
programs or static diagrams is one of the ways to capture the collaboration. A workshop
with two analysts is more effective than one in which on works as a facilitator and the
other scribes the work together.
4. Brainstorming: It is utilized in requirements elicitation to gather good number of ideas
from a group of people. Usually brainstorming is used in identifying all possible solutions
to problems and simplifies the detail of opportunities. It casts a broad net, determining
various discreet possibilities. Prioritization of such possibilities is vital to locate needles in
haystack.
5. Document Analysis: Document Analysis is an important gathering technique. Evaluating
the documentation of a present system can assist when making AS-IS process documents
and also when driving the gap analysis for scoping of the migration projects. In today’s
world, you will also be determining the requirements that drove making of an existing
system- a beginning point for documenting all current requirements. Chunks of
information are mostly buried in present documents that assist you in putting questions
as a part of validating the requirement completeness.

Q:4 Explain the following emerging areas of BSS/OSS:

1.Omni-channel journey
2.Customer Experience
3.Digital transformation
4.Zero touch provisioning

 Omnichannel journeys.
Large scale digital transformation of enterprise IT and OSS/BSS capabilities are being
driven by the need to lower costs, become more agile, improve
customer-centricity and increase revenues and profits. A key strand of digitization for

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 companies and organizations in many business sectors is the omnichannel model of
customer experience management. With omnichannel, the enterprise has the ability to
engage and interact in a synchronized fashion with customers at each and every
touchpoint– online and offline – encountered in the journeys made by those customers.
The result is a consistent, continuous, seamless and personalized brand experience across
multiple devices using consistent, consolidated and current customer data. With
omnichannel, customers are engaged in a managed, coordinated manner across all
channels. The front-end systems and back-end systems need to be fully decoupled and
there should be an interaction hub which can handle interactions between touchpoints
and the back-end systems.

Figure - Omnichannel Experience

 Customer Experience.
It is moving away from “technology-centric” to “customer-centric”. Most telecoms offer
the same standard services, so it has become imperative to differentiate and personalized
customer experience achieves this. As a result, OSS and BSS systems are starting to
develop technology to gather consumer data, in order for telos to understand their users.
Using analytics, OSS and BSS systems become more strategic business resources to predict
customer behaviour.

According to network operators, the top telecom industry trends in OSS/BSS systems
and architecture are being driven by service layer architecture and changing the need to
manage customer experiences rather than subscription services. The major changes
include the following:
 A transformation from a supply-side to demand-side vision of the business;
 A transformation from craft (operations personnel) support to automated support
 A transformation from management-as-an-overlay to management-as-service logic.

 Digital Transformation.
To enable digital transformation across our business, you need to lay a solid foundation
for it with our business and operational support systems. Some of the key elements are:
 Digital Channels
Today’s customers demand a seamless omnichannel experience

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 that works across all touchpoints with their CSP, from sales through to after sales
service and care. It is therefore crucial for CSPs to identify key areas which are ripe
for transition towards digital channels, such as self-service portals and apps, and
design these channels with the primary goal of delighting their customers.
Furthermore, organisations need to build capabilities that allows their sales teams to
sell seamlessly across multiple channels without affecting user experience. Investing
in omnichannel sales can help CSPs bolster revenues and reduce costs.

 Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

ESBs are essentially integration platforms that allow CSPs to build rich integration
between applications and support complex, service-oriented business processes. ESBs
also make it easier to implement common security and compliance measures along
with the tools to monitor transaction performance. One great advantage of using ESB
technology is that it allows for building CSP specific customisation at the edge, rather
than having it within the core of the BSS/OSS platform. This means our BSS/OSS
platform doesn’t diverge from the standard product (making it harder to upgrade),
but still offers the flexibility to customise the logic to the needs of our own business.
In addition, open standards-based interfaces such as the TM Forum’s Open APIs
provide a standardised methodology for partners to integrate their applications and
offer value-added services to end consumers along with opening newer opportunities
in other industry verticals.
 Enterprise Product Catalogue
The ability to centrally manage all products and services and publish to different
channels seamlessly in a user-friendly manner is a must-have during the digital
transformation process. This is needed to quickly and efficiently prototype and launch
new products that are tailored to specific market segments.
 Scalable systems
All our systems and processes need to be scalable with the ability to handle large
volumes and velocities of business and operational data. A lot of telecoms businesses
across the globe are now adopting microservices architectures for improved
scalability. This architecture is essentially about developing an application that is
comprised of a set of smaller autonomous services that are independently deployable
and communicate with each other. Each microservice handles a single business
capability. The big advantages include fault isolation, lightweight technology structure
and improved scalability.
 Cloud Ready
One of the largest opportunities in digital services will undoubtedly be in monetising
cloud-based services. However, to be able to take full advantage of this, CSPs must
have cloud native BSS/OSS platforms which will allow them to quickly transform their
business models, reduce costs and increase innovation.
 Robust Charging Systems
A powerful and flexible charging system is a critical weapon in our digital
transformation arsenal. The ability to seamlessly rate and charge from different
systems with real-time charging and balance management capabilities allows CSPs to
streamline processes and offer customer-friendly pricing plans.

 OTT services

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 Many of the leading CSPs across the globe are already moving towards offering their
own ‘OTT’ style services or providing the infrastructure to integrate and monetise OTT
services provided by partners. This will open up newer revenue channels and is crucial
to offset dwindling revenues from traditional voice and messaging services. Analysts
predict that in the future, telecom operators will be more like hi-tech train lines - a
smart backbone for others to ride the digital wave.
 Best of breed technologies
The only thing certain about technology is change. New paradigms such as quantum
computing and blockchains will dramatically alter the telecoms landscape. So, it is
important to adopt agile and rapid development methods to launch new systems
quickly. Using newer automation technologies cloud architecture and containerisation
platforms to standardise and streamline developer workflows, CSPs can provision
quickly, build more efficiently, and get apps and services to the market much faster.

 Zero touch provisioning

It is a next-gen network management approach using closed-loop principles hosted by

ETSI. It will be fully automated in the closed loop model, requiring complex
mathematical models and machine learning algorithms. It can reduce costs of device
implementation, after which initial configuration, software updates and script
execution can be done automatically. After installation, devices can connect to the
network, self-configure and activate necessary services, reducing the time needed for
service implementation.

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