Move Underscores TM Forum’s Strong Commitment to Billing and Business Support Systems (BSS)
Morristown, NJ –May 22, 2007 – The TM Forum announced today that the Global Billing Association (GBA) will become part of its organization. The merging of GBA into the TM Forum underscores the Forum’s commitment to business support systems, particularly in areas associated with billing and revenue management. As part of the new arrangement, the GBA will retain its name, identity and strategic business focus, and will become the BSS community within the TM Forum. Its on-going initiatives will form a major working program within TM Forum’s Collaboration Program.
This arrangement will enable both the GBA and existing TM Forum programs to mesh ideas and create an integrated OSS/BSS roadmap for the industry. GBA’s expertise includes helping communications companies maximize the efficiency of the whole billing process, and assessing the impact of new services and technologies to better understand the billing issues surrounding them.
“Bringing the GBA into the TM Forum will allow us to provide the industry with a single operational roadmap and enhances our expertise in the BSS arena,” said Keith Willetts, Chairman of the TeleManagement Forum. “Today’s fiercely competitive market demands as much integration and automation as possible at
the operational level. Joining with the GBA is part of a number of coordinated steps we are taking to ensure that any gaps or duplication within the organization are eliminated.”
“From an industry perspective, the time is absolutely right for this move, for the OSS and BSS communities to come together,” said Alex Leslie, CEO of the GBA. “It also strengthens both organizations, and significantly enhances the value that can be delivered to the industry.”
As a major “Collaboration Program” within the Forum, the GBA will drive contributions to the billing, charging and revenue management areas in several existing TM Forum programs including the widely accepted Enhanced Telecom Operations Map® (eTOM). The GBA, which also has a program for defining and collecting billing performance KPIs will combine their experience with the TM Forum’s Industry Benchmarking program.
The GBA is driving all billing and revenue management related content for the TeleManagement World conference, taking place May 20-24th in Nice, France.
For more information on how to get involved with GBA activities within the TeleManagement Forum, please contact Alex Leslie at aleslie@tmforum.org.
About the TM Forum
With approximately 600 members in 65 countries, the TM Forum is the world’s leading trade association focused on management of telecom, media & information services. The TM Forum provides leadership, strategic guidance and practical solutions to improve the way that services are created, delivered, assured and charged. Members include service providers, network operators, software suppliers, equipment suppliers and systems integrators.
The TM Forum currently facilitates over 80 technical programs and provides extensive training, conferencing and information services to its members. Through its initiatives to help providers move to 21st century ‘lean’ processes, the Forum helps its members automate business processes by deploying operational systems that will work seamlessly across various parts of the service delivery chain. The organization provides industry benchmarks, guidebooks, process and software frameworks and specific ‘plug and play’ standards. These give service providers the direction and specific roadmaps to achieve much greater business efficiency and operational flexibility.For further information, please visit www.tmforum.org
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Media Contact:
Juliet Shavit
SmartMark Communications for The TM Forum
215-504-4272
jshavit@smartmarkusa.com