BSS : Business Support Systems

Business support systems (BSS) are the suit of applications that a

telecommunications service provider (or telco) uses to run its business
operations towards customers.

OSS: Operations Support Systems

An operational support system (OSS) is a set of applications that help a
telecommunications service provider to monitor, control, analyse and manage
it’s network. OSS systems are responsible to perform FCAPS (Fault,
Configuration, Accounting, Performance, Security) operations.

What are Business Support Systems(BSS)?

- Software applications that support customer-facing activities. Billing, order management,
customer
relationship management, call centre automation, are all BSS applications.
- BSS may also encompass the customer-facing veneer of OSS application such as trouble-
ticketing
and service assurance – these are back-office activities but initiated directly by contact with the
customer.
- This basic relationship between OSS and BSS, where OSS is passed service orders and
supplies
service assurance information to the BSS layer is often referred to as ‘Orders Down, Faults Up’

OSS & BSS: evolution history

BSS/OSS Decomposition

Key Functions of BSS

- Product Management (Commercial Catalogue mgmt. and Product Customer assurance)
- Customer management (CRM, Multi channel self-service. , Product Customer assurance,
Service exposure,)
- Revenue management (Billing & Settlement)
- Order management (Commercial order management)

Key Functions of BSS – Product Management

- Product management supports product development the sales and management of products,
offers and bundles to businesses and mass-market customers.
- Product management regularly includes offering cross-product discounts, appropriate pricing and
managing how products relate to one another.
- Product management is dealing with the planning, forecasting, and production, or marketing of a
product or products at all stages of the product lifecycle

Key Functions of BSS – Customer management

- Service providers require a single view of the customer and regularly need to support complex hierarchies
across customer-facing applications (Customer Relationship Management).
- Customer management also covers requirements for partner management and 24x7 web-based customer self-
service.
- Customer management can also be thought of as full-fledged customer relationship management systems
implemented to help customer care agents handle the customers in a better and more informed manner
Eg. CRM in turn records and manages customer life cycle

Eg. Multi- Channels provide entry points to customer for various interactions.

Key Functions of BSS – Billing and Revenue management

-Suit of systems responsible to collect raw call records from Network and transform
them into commercial Bills.
-Journey involves reading CDR’s from Network Interface Points ( IN, HLR, Switch, etc) by
Mediation Systems.
-Collected raw data is transformed into unified format and rating applied by Rating and
Dunning Systems.
-The data is then processed and appropriate rate plans, discounts, rebates etc., applied
by Billing Systems.
-Revenue management focuses on billing, charging and settlement. It can handle any
combination of OSS services, products and offers.
-BSS revenue management supports OSS order provisioning and often partner
settlement.
-Billing is an integral function offered by BSS systems and is not under the purview of
OSS
Key Functions of BSS – Order management
Order management encompasses four areas:
• Order decomposition details the rules for decomposing a Sales Order into multiple work orders or service orders. For example, a Triple Play Telco Sales
order with three services - land line, Internet and wireless - can be broken down into three sub-orders, one for each line of business. Each of the sub-
orders will be fulfilled separately in its own provisioning systems. However, there may be dependencies in each sub-order; e.g., an Internet sub-order can
be fulfilled only when the land line has been successfully installed, provisioned and activated at the customer premises
• Order orchestration is an objective application which is used by telos to precisely manage, process and handle their customer orders across a multiple
fulfilment and order capture network. It helps in the data aggregation transversely from assorted order capture and order fulfilment systems and delivers
an all-inclusive platform for customer order management. It has been in vast application in the recent times, due to its advanced and precise order
information efficiency and low order fulfilment costs, thus aggregating lesser manual process, and faster output. Its radical exception response based
functioning and proactive monitoring enables it to centralize order data in accurate manner with ease.
• Order fallout, also known as Order Failure, refers to the condition when an order fails during processing. The order fallout occurs due to multiple
scenarios; such as downstream system failure, which relates to an internal non-data related error; or when the system receives incorrect or missing data,
which subsequently fails the order. Other Order Fallout conditions include database failure or error pertaining to network connectivity. Validation or
recognition of order also occurs, in which the system marks the received corrupted order from external system as failed. Another Order Fallout condition
refers to the state of run-time failure, wherein an order is inhibited from getting processed due to non-determined reliance. Order Fallout Management
helps in complete resolve of order failures through detection, notification and recovery process, helping the order to process sustain-ably and precisely
• Order status management
Note : Order management as a beginning of assurance is normally associated with OSS, although BSS is often the business driver for fulfilment management
and order provisioning

Key elements of OSS

• Processes
• the sequence of events
• Data
• the information that is acted upon
• Applications
• the components that implement processes to manage data
• Technology
• how we implement the applications

Key Functions of OSS

• Network management system
• Service fulfillment, including the network inventory, activation and provisioning
• Service assurance
• Field Service Management
Key Functions of OSS – Network Management Systems(NMS)
• A network management system is a combination of hardware and software used to monitor and administer a network.
• Network management is the execution of the set of functions required for controlling, planning, allocating, deploying, coordinating
and monitoring the resources of a network including performing functions such as fault management, configuration management,
accounting management, performance management, security management and bandwidth management.Network Management
systems are responsible for the overall supervision of a network.
• Network elements are design to provide varying levels of self-diagnosis. More intelligent elements are often designed to provide
more precise trouble messages.
• Network management systems commonly provides trending reports based on information managed by each of the NMS
components. It enhances operator’s ability to proactively determine potential network problems periodically.
• Change and configuration management integrates configuration management with workflow and process automation, and
scheduling for current and future network planning for each network element.

Key Functions of OSS – Service fulfillment, including the network inventory, activation
and provisioning
• Involves specifying which pieces of equipment and network routes a given service will be utilized.
• The activation system activates service on the proper network elements (any piece of network hardware, such as a switch,
multiplexer, or cross-connect system)
• The Network Provisioning System encompasses the configuration of network resources, and logical resource provisioning for
individual customer instances.
• Current network elements are generally designed with an intelligent element manager built in that can receive and execute
commands sent by activation systems.
• Element managers also can feed equipment status data back to upstream systems for network-and trouble-management
functions.
• Today’s service providers are working toward enabling flow-through provisioning and activation, combining provisioning and
activation systems to allow order and design-and-assign systems to issue commands to an activation system.

Key Functions of OSS – Service Assurance

• Service assurance is the application of policies and processes by a Communications Service Provider (CSP) to ensure that services
offered over networks meet a pre-defined service quality level for an optimal subscriber experience.
• Service assurance enables CSPs to identify faults in the network and resolve these issues in a timely manner so as to minimize
service downtime.
• Service assurance encompasses the following:
• Fault and event management
• Performance management
• Probe monitoring
• Quality of service (QoS) management
• Network and service testing
• Network traffic management
• Customer experience management
• Service level agreement (SLA) monitoring
• Trouble ticket management

Key Functions of OSS – Field Service Management(FSM)

• FSM refers to services which need to manage installation, service or repairs of systems or equipment at the property of
clients/customers.
• Field service management must meet certain requirements:
• Customer expectations: Customers expect that their service should not be disrupted, and should be immediately
restored
• Underutilized equipment: Expensive network element when sitting idle to be utilized.
• Service to sales: Increasingly, companies expect their services department to generate revenues.
• Dynamic environment: Continuously balancing between critical tickets, irate customers, productive employees and
optimized routes makes scheduling, routing and dispatching very challenging
• Companies are using mobile computing to improve communication with the field, increase productivity, streamline work
processes, and enhance customer service and loyalty.
BSS- KEY SYSTEMS
• Channels: IVR, Web, Call Center, SMS, etc
• Systems enabling customer to interact with Telco Operator
• Campaign Management Systems
• Sales & Marketing Campaigns & Promotions
• Customer Relationship Management System (CRM)
• Primary database of Customer Information, Interactions, History, Preferences
• Rating & Billing Systems
• Aggregating customer usage, rating, billing & churn management
• Catalogue Management
• Commercial Offerings definition and composition
• ERP Systems – Finance, Asset Management, Payroll, HR
• Auxiliary systems to manage Telco Business in general.
• Catalogue Management
• Technical decomposition of commercial offerings
• Order Management & Orchestration
• Handling fulfilment of incoming order by sequencing and orchestrating actions across different OSS Systems.
• Work Force Management (WFM)
• Handling scheduling and delivery of manual services.
• Network Resource Management
• Virtual representation of Network assets and effective management.
• Mediation & Activation Systems
• Responsible for interaction and activation of services in Network.
• Fault & Performance Management Systems

Trending demands in OSS/BSS

• From broken “Silos” into fully integrated, automated Flow-through e-business operations.
• From resource heavy, tedious & customized integration into economic & efficient plug & play Solutions.
• From tailoring generic middleware into Tailored centric middleware
• From heavy integration programs into relatively lightweight APIs.
• Reducing cost and making it cost effective.
Features of a Good OSS/BSS
• Provide better value to customers
• Leverage technology and Systems across the Organization
• Improve Profits through Operational Efficiency
• Improve Customer Interactions to build loyalty.
• Ability to quickly introduce new products and services
• Flexibility to introduce new products and services in very less time