Summer Heat and Services Brokering

Summer has come to the northern hemisphere. The term Service Broker is hot. Within the TM Forum membership, discussion about the term is growing. It reminds me a bit of the SDP and Telco 2.0 movements that started some years back. The hype got really loud and expectations grew significant. Both SDPs and Service Broker applications have found their place in the Next Generation Network architecture and the integrated business architecture. But, the industry lacks clarity on use of the term.

What strikes me is that there are two very important contexts for the term Service Broker:

1) Network Service Broker as part of a NGN architecture, typically focused on abstraction and mediation functions across IP Multimedia System (IMS) SCIM and Intelligent Network (IN) functions. It’s a complementary service control point (SCP) to complement SOA and SDPs northbound with IMS and traditional IN networks (2G/3G mobile, PSTN, etc.) southbound.

2) Services Brokerage as a category of business models typically focused on market making transactions between two sides, like roles in the Telco 2.0 model. This is sometimes called B2B2B or B2B2C, the B in the middle serves as a Business, such as a Service Provider, in a two-sided brokerage role. The first B is the upstream Business supplier or partner, and the B or C at the end is a downstream Business or Consumer customers.

So, when we in the industry say “Service Broker,” it may be helpful to clearly state (or ask the question of those using the term), are we talking “in the network” (NGN architecture) or “between markets” (business model)?

For more on the Network Service Broker, one of many good resources in the TM Forum is an on-demand webinar from Accenture and Oracle, available for replay during 2010 to TM Forum members at no cost here.

Services Brokerage represents a category of web-centric, retail focused business models that are growing in importance for CSPs, especially in the apps (mobile, IPTV, and SaaS) and IT business services areas such as cloud computing.  Several value-adding, informally-defined example brokerage models include:
• Search & Discovery Agency
• Aggregation & Distribution (content, apps, services, etc.)
• Access (identity, access controls, subscriptions/usage, etc.)
• Marketplace Exchanges - includes transaction clearing and settlements
• Auction
• Delivery
• Marketplace Portals

A corporate ability of a CSP to rapidly develop, compete, and grow businesses and new services over the web in these types of brokerage business models requires not only an agile network, but an agile and integrated business architecture along with an organization that is adept at market making and merchandising.  Services Brokerage in this broader business and technical context is where many see TM Forum Frameworx offering tremendous business benefits for the well-architected CSP business platform.