Within the Cloud & New Services Initiative, multiple working teams and groups are addressing key related industry issues, developing and demonstrating best practices and standards - and thereby, removing barriers and accelerating adoption of Cloud and advanced digital services. Additionally, these best practices, standards (and other relevant tools such as guidebooks etc.), further enable TM Forum members to deploy and ramp-up their innovative Cloud & New Services strategic plans to optimize end-to-end business processes, cost-efficiencies and customer satisfaction.
The following are teams and Special Interest Groups that currently are providing valuable opportunities for TM Forum members to address these key areas related to Cloud & New Services. If your company is interested in Cloud & New Services from either the Service Provider or Buyer standpoint, these groups should be of interest to relevant individuals within your company. Please click on the following to learn more and to join the teams. If you need any assistance in finding the appropriate individuals within your companies - or a conference call to provide more information about a specific team, please do not hesitate to contact:
Buyers: Bob Cohen bcohen@tmforum.org
Service Providers: Christy Coffey ccoffey@tmforum.org
Click here for Cloud project details
Cloud Billing
A key component to any Cloud Services offering will be the ability to bill for them. While existing billing systems and payments channels are an area where Communication Service Providers (CSPs) excel, will it give them a distinct market advantage? The billing requirements for Cloud services should not be underestimated; however, competitor capabilities and partner needs must be understood before CSP services can be differentiated, and for there to be real value added to the Cloud Services market place.
This project will produce a whitepaper that will explore the various CSP business models and their billing requirements and complexities. It will also explore what distinct value proposition the CSPs have to offer in the delivery of Cloud Services and also highlight any gaps that need to be filled and the potential risk to CSP’s success.
Details of the work project include:
- Utilize Frameworx in support of billing with regard to business processes, data models, applications and interfaces.
- Utilize Enterprise Customer and Service Provider questionnaires in order to explore new business models and the monetization of Cloud Services; in particular:
- Cloud Services Provider, Retailer, Wholesaler and Billing Services Provider.
- Charging and Pricing models; what to charge for, and how to price?
- Competition, Single Bill, BoBo, Revenue Leakage, Payments, Settlements...
- Participants include MetraTech, LTC International, AT&T, Deutsche Bank, CBA, ING and Cisco.
Cloud SLA Management
Developing a new application note for Cloud Services SLAs based on a use case defined by the Enterprise Cloud Leadership Council (ECLC) and contributions from the TM Forum’s Cloud SLA community.
Details of the work project include:
- This work project is being conducted with the SLAM team to update the SLA Handbook.
- Objective to expand the GB917 Service Level Agreement Management Handbook by ensuring Cloud use cases are covered.
- Utilize use cases to create the Cloud Application note for review the SLA Handbook methodology.
- Utilize use cases from the Enterprise Cloud Leadership Council’s (ECLC) “Enterprise Grade External Compute Infrastructure-as-a-Service” document and will follow the NIST Cloud Computing Standards Roadmap as a reference architecture.
- Closing the loop between business intelligence, data analytics and benchmarking.
Cloud Security & Risk
The Cloud Security & Risk Special Interest Group is a part of the Cloud & New Services Initiative. To learn more about this effort and to register to join in the Cloud Security & Risk effort, please click here: http://www.tmforum.org/community/groups/cloudsecurity/default.aspx
Cloud Business Process Framework
A foundational component of the Cloud Business Process Framework project is the Cloud Frameworx/QSP effort which is bringing together Frameworx experts and Cloud experts to complete "Quick Start Packs" for key "user stories" and business process flows such as Lead-to-Cash, Concept-to-Market and Trouble-to-Resolve. These QSPs will help to map the critical business process flows which will enable a clear identification of any Cloud-specific enhancements, modifications or terminology that will make Frameworx more applicable in the Cloud environment. To join the Cloud Frameworx/QSP effort, please register here: http://www.tmforum.org/community/groups/cloudframeworx/default.aspx
In addition to the Cloud Frameworx/QSP effort, the Cloud Business Process Framework project will include:
- A review of Business Process Framework contributions from leading Cloud organizations.
- Contributions look at the Business Process Framework and the process flows in delivering Cloud Services and its linkage with ITIL.
- The objective of the work project will be to stress test a level 4 process flow (e.g. order handling) with a Cloud use case.
Service Provider Leadership Council (SPLC) Cloud Requirements -- This group is reviewing the Enterprise Cloud Leadership Council (ECLC) Cloud requirements to provide subsequent Service Provider level requirements.
Details of the work project include:
- Service Providers to analyze ECLC’s requirements (e.g. relationships, billing and SLA Management. Incorporate other Standards Development Organization (SDO) work.
- Capture NIST examples using a common view for a collaboration model.
- Business model canvas as a high level statement of the collaboration and then:
- Identify what services area exposed by each role; touch points and management
- The relationships between the roles supplier consumer operational service
- The business rules and constraints applied to roles/ parties
- Especially the billing and revenue share aspect- follow the money
- End to end service composition
- End to end processes SLA provision repair, management stats
- Apply and analyze ECLC requirements into secondary Service Provider-centric requirements.
Software Enabled Services Management Solution
To be profitable in the complex service delivery environment, Service Providers must standardize and automate service delivery processes across service life cycles so that services can be created and delivered as rapidly as the market demands.
Supporting these needs, the TM Forum Software Enabled Services (SES) Management Solution program’s business objectives are to:
- Minimize the cost and cycle time to translate service ideas into market offerings
- Reduce costs by repurposing existing content and applications
- Adapt swiftly to market changes and customer preferences.
To accomplish these objectives the Software Enabled Services (SES) Management Solution program defines a conceptual management structure enabling the delivery of next generation services — independent of the underlying software or network technologies used to implement those services. This service delivery management structure addresses the full services lifecycle, covering such important use cases as concept-to-cash, service marketplace, service composition or aggregation, and service catalogs.
IPsphere
The IPsphere framework delivers a business layer for rapid service delivery, including advanced support for IP services. Using the principles of a service-oriented architecture (SOA), the IPsphere framework defines mechanisms to automate offers, purchase and provision service components among multiple stakeholders, enabling providers to optimize flexibility and efficiency. The framework engenders service autonomy and control for Service Providers, Network Operators, Content Providers, Application Developers and System Integrators.
B2B Product Trading
The purpose of this project is to help Communication Service Providers (CSPs) and partners in other industries to understand the impact of new business models on business processes, information architecture, applications and interfaces. The program will help determine adaptations to TM Forum Frameworx components, to enable CSPs to leverage those components to realize and facilitate new business models to compete successfully in the market place.