At this stage, it is worth defining some of the key components of true Enterprise Product Management (EPM) – Product Data Management and Product Lifecycle Management. This stage-setting is particularly relevant as the industry embarks upon yet another generation of network technology and all that it promises... 4G!
The expectations of 4G are similarly large to 3G, but without all the hype. While 3G promised a whole new world of wireless services to great fanfare, it took its time in materializing and eventually under-delivered; in contrast, 4G is expected to actually deliver on its promises of ubiquitous services at even higher speeds in a much shorter timeframe.
Which means the pressure is on for CSPs to define and exploit the capabilities they will introduce with 4G.
The question of what and how they introduce these new capabilities is the definition behind and difference between Product Data Management (PDM) and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).
PDM is the creation and management of the data specifications that define the capabilities from a systems and network perspective. So all the pieces of data that define how the 4G services will function in the BSS/OSS, within the SDP and on the network. The PDM emphasis with 4G will be on system and network definitions for the high levels of service and speeds of delivery.
PLM is the process through which the capabilities are defined and the version managed through their lifecycles. So the steps the CSP will take to eventually deliver and then manage the 4G services. The PLM emphasis with 4G will be on how quickly the 4G services will be operationalized into the CSP’s infrastructure.
In my humble opinion, whilst PLM is important to 4G, I actually see PDM as the critical function. I say this for a couple of reasons. Whilst PLM is a pretty messy prospect for most CSPs today, they tend to at least have well-defined paper based processes and handovers that allow them to successfully run a product development project. Sure, every CSP could do with a capability to manage the PLM workflow and the projects themselves, but the real bottleneck lies with PDM. Inevitably, every product development project falters when it comes to defining the system and network specifications for new capabilities / services. It takes way too long for cross-system analysis and data definition. And because data definition is what ultimately operationalizes the services, this activity is really what is at the heart of delivering a new product development project.
So with 4G, CSPs have a real opportunity to address their PDM challenges at the root. Introducing a product and service information MDM / catalog, which is what a PDM solution is, should be one of the key infrastructure decisions taken as part of the 4G capex. This decision will serve both the short and long game: short term it will provide the 4G product development project with a central data design specification to deliver the systems requirements; long term it will provide the CSP with a centralized and rationalized master of their 4G, 5G, 10G, etc capabilities that can be more proficiently (i.e., better, more innovative products to market) and master efficiently (i.e., faster and cheaper products to market) managed.
Read the complete post at http://www.tmforum.org/community/blogs/enterprise_product_management/archive/2009/08/18/pdm-vs-plm-4g-implications.aspx
Posted
08-18-2009 7:28 PM
by
Enterprise Product Management