Service providers want to be able to rapidly introduce new revenue generating services.   A key requirement for shortening the service introduction time is to enable the systematic reuse of service components for fulfillment, assurance, and billing.  The service management solution must also achieve operational cost efficiencies, as the service provider’s goal is to create innovative services that will profitably attract large volumes of customers.  These business challenges are addressed in the PROFITS catalyst through a service model framework that encompasses all the phases of the service lifecycle.

The key contribution of this "service centric" catalyst is to show how the service model concept facilitates rapid introduction and management of new revenue generating services as well as adaptation of the deployed services in response to customer behavior and market conditions. The service description abstraction enables flexible ordering and customer care processes that can be applied to many high-level services with different underlying network architecture, technology, and dependent services.  In addition, the service model supports services spanning multi-provider domains (B2B) and the seamless integration of provider partner systems for service provisioning and assurance, as demonstrated in the catalyst scenario.

The above mentioned business goal introduces many operational challenges for service providers, which this catalyst addresses:

• A flexible ordering process that can be applied to many high-level services with different underlying network architecture and technology,  and/or dependant services
• Service object modeling to abstract and separate the customer-facing concerns from the network and service implementation issues
• Self-servicing and customer care of high-level services must be independent of management of the underlying network technologies (wireless, broadband, etc.) or the services it depends on (directory, DNS,)
• Integration with third-party providers with minimal (ideally, no) manual intervention for service provisioning and assurance