By Tim Young, Editor-in-Chief, Pipeline Magazine
Every industry needs a laboratory. A workshop. A playground. Innovation is often best achieved through ceaseless tinkering, and the pooling of knowledge to enable analysis and synthesis. If you’re looking for an example of what collaboration, cooperation and experimentation look like in the communications software space, you might start off by taking a look at the Catalyst Projects that are being shown off here in Nice.
There are eight Catalysts here at Management World, and if you’ve not yet been able to check them out, you may consider a trip to Forumville to see these projects.
Here’s a run-down of the Catalysts, their participants and champions, and where they fit into the wider communications space:
End-to-End Operation & Management of Defense Communications:
Managing Future Satellite Communications
The goal of this Catalyst is to showcase an end-to-end operation and service enabler of Network-Centric Operations (NCO) with future IP-based satellite communications management systems. This project will use existing TM Forum standards and build upon those standards, when necessary, in order to achieve its aims.
Champions: NATO, QinetiQ
Participating Suppliers: Booz Allen Hamilton, Dax Technologies, APL, Progress Software, Thales, Site of Knowledge.
Harmony Phase 4 – End-to-End Service Quality Management:
What Can Your Network Really Do for You?
“Practical, harmonized, Contract-based standards” are a boon for all involved, reducing integration costs and enabling firm, integrated management that can keep track of spending, and follow those dollars and euros to the customer experience they deliver. “Concept to revenue, customer to quality.” The goal of this Catalyst is a more efficient network and a happier customer. Worthy goals, indeed.
Champions: BT, DMTF
Participating Suppliers: Amdocs, Harris Stratex, Nortel, Progress Software, Tail-F, Telchemy, Telcordia, TTI Telecom, RAO Infosystems
IPsphere
Implementing the Business of IP
The IPsphere Framework is a complement to and a continuation of the work underway within TM Forum's Service Delivery Framework. IPsphere fuses best practices, standards and guidelines for the automated deployment of IP-based information, communications and entertainment services.
Champions: Deutsche Telekom, Telenor, Telstra, Telus
Participating Suppliers: i2Cat, Juniper, NetOne Systems, RedZinc
Margin Assurance and Verification
Margin Assurance is Your Profit Assurance!
The Margin Assurance Catalyst is the sort of project that is particularly valuable to be able to study and analyze. It was grown out of a real-life business challenge provided by Swisscom. Visit, and see how the participating suppliers were able to help Swisscom retain a desired profitability, prevent revenue leakage and optimize complex pricing schemes and rates.
Champion: Swisscom
Participating Suppliers: Connectiva, cVidya
Transition to Greenfield 2: Visibility and Flexibility using PLM, Active Catalog and BPM
This is phase 2 of the Forum’s PLM work, this time incorporating critical adjacent areas around CRM, billing & mediation, and service assurance as part of the transition to Greenfield. This will broaden the scope of the project from product definition and ordering to post-ordering service and customer management.
Champion: TeliaSonera
Participating Suppliers: Comptel, Tribold, Vitria
The Service Model Catalyst
Achieving Consistent Service Component Definition
Definitions matter. The Service Model Catalyst demonstrates that a consistent approach to the way that the components of a service are defined is the key to CSPs realizing the efficiency and agility benefits of a Service Assembly approach.
Champion: Qwest
Participating Suppliers: Comptel, Network Cadence
Next Generation Data Migration
A Key Enabler for Business Transformation
The drivers for service provider businesses transformation have never been more urgent, with market consolidation, cost and revenue pressures growing ever stronger. The Application Data Migration Catalyst addresses the industry challenges resulting from current migration practices and strategies to overcome those challenges. It demonstrates the principles and recommendations using a real-world case study.
Participants: Celona, KPN, Logica.
Optimization of Business Transformation Programs
A key factor in the success of any Business Transformation program is the ability to identify and discover dependencies between products, applications, networks and business processes and their relevant data sources. This demo showcases ways to optimize transformation activities.
Participants: BT, Ontology Systems
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