Business Process Framework (eTOM)

Are there enhancements needed to eTOM for Charging and Billing of M2M?

DharmendraMisra — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:27:55 GMT

Thanks Johannes

Are there enhancements needed to eTOM for Charging and Billing of M2M?

DharmendraMisra — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:14:34 GMT

Hi All

I think M2M will have some impact on Rating/Billing process. We can imagine some use cases and vallidate if its actually true or not. Something that I can put for debate from top of my head is

1- How to treat partial CDRs? In Human conversations or data transfer its stream flow and normally no need to look if at intermediate stage there was any problem whereas in M2M, normally atomicity will always be important so events need to be validated to see that conversation was atomic, we can draw analogy around bank ATM. Here contracts and relationship between M2M provider, communication service provider, customer etc will determine or impact us, may be at much lower level and not at L3

2- Same goes true for Manage Balance. M2M conversations will have a lot of automation and many scenarios can be thought of for unlimited transactions between devices, few due to unlawful reasons and few due to network/system issues. In such scenario, specially if contract is prepay, different than usual tratment for balance/bucket will be required. For example, very much hypothetical, suppose a heart patient has a monitoring device that talk to remote sensing tool and provides report at interval apart from special sms etc at threshold value, suppose that person takes device off without notifying server then a spurt of transaction will occur and then its debatable how to treat that thanks to social, human and business implications. Again yes, may be at L4 or so.

3- Moreover I think invocing and bill presentation will have some restructuring to showcase some patterns etc how M2M devices have generated traffic, example graph etc. It is essential and help in educating customers how they can best plan and manage their devices apart from selecting proper billing plan and service.

4- Moreover I think it depends on implementation of service as well and cannot be separated.

Still thinking, just some wide statements to keep discussion goining, please suggest and help to correct

Thanks & Regards
Dharmendra

Certify BP Framework 9.0 or wait for 11.5/12

JohnSheehy — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 15:48:45 GMT

Hi Beth Anne,

Apoplogies for the delay in getting back to you.

Per the current plan Frameworx 12 is targeted to release in conjunction with the MW 2012 in Dublin. The date of MW Dublin is May 21 -24 inclusive, so Frameworx 12 will be released then. We roll out the revised conformance certification process to coincide with the release, so certification on Frameworx 12 will be available on May 24th.

Frameorx 12 will have Business Process Framework 11.5 and the INformation Framework at 9.5. These are the 2 Frameworx components that we will do the conformance assessment against. in Fremeworx 12.

If you need more information on Conformance Assessment, you can find more information at the following website -

www.tmforum.org/ConformanceCertification

I am the TM Forum Product manager and my email address is the following -

jsheehy@tmforum.org

If you need more clarification, please contact me.

Best Regards,
John.

Relation between lead prospects and expansion projects

nedakoci — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:13:55 GMT

Hi Guillermo,
I agree with Hugo when stating that you can identify these processes in eTOM, more precisly in the CRM Support & Readiness processes.

Herein are grouped all those processes that ensure that the CRM framework (applications, marketing campaign, resources et.) is ready to support all CRM processes (selling, order handling, billing etc.).

Basicaly the projects that affect this area either fulfill requirements deriving from new products or address issues reported from day-to-day operations. Obviously if need to release or change new IT applications is verified herein, this will be coordinated by the respective ITIL processes mapped in Enterprise Effectivenes Management.

Hope this help,
Neda

Re: Positioning of Policy in eTOM

JohnR6 — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:48:10 GMT

Howdy, Johannes...I believe you took the quote you used from my last post and positioned it out of context. I further added that this base set of policy processes could be specialized as needed and provided an example.

Positioning of Policy in eTOM

JohnR6 — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:08:31 GMT

Howdy, all. I know this discussion was deemed "ended", but wanted to clarify a couple of things and make a "final" point.

1. I did not mean that the SID Policy ABE would be replaced by eTOM processes. I tried to make this clear in one of my posts.
2. I still believe that there should be a common set of base processes that manage the SID ABEs. I mentioned this in another post about Policy...you can find the discussion thread here... http://www.tmforum.org/community/groups/the_business_process_framework/forum/t/171259.aspx
...my suggestion was that processes could include "For example, Policy Management, has somewhere within its decomposition management of Policy, Policy Application, Policy Server, .... And a little more detail within Manage Policy - Define Policy, which could be decomposed into Define Policy Rule (which would further decompose into Define Policy Condition and Define Policy Action), Group Policies, ..."

And my "final" point...both the eTOM and SID are frameworks that are meant to be extended. We extended the Policy model to support Product Offering Price rules by specializing some of the Policy entities, such as PolicyCondition and Policy Action. The same specialization could be done for the base set of processes. For example, a lower level process in the decompostion of Develop Product Commericialization Strategy (the process the deals with prices) could include a specialization of the Define Policy Condition process that defines the PolicyConditions associated with the SID ProdOfferPriceCondition. This specialization, and those in other domains, could address the different constituencies that JohnS brought up.

That's all from me.

Query on Trouble ticket to Solution Process Flow - GB921E

JohnW — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:47:58 GMT

You may also want to look at the level 3 end-to-end perspective on page 15 of the Quick Start Pack for Trouble to Resolve available at http://www.tmforum.org/Guidebooks/GB957QuickStartPack/46962/article.html

From the description of this perspective: "Note that event acquisition (shown as Network Surveillance) can initiate any of the level 3 flows except Problem Handling (which is initiated by customer interaction). Also note that each level 3 process flow, in contrast to the more prescriptive organization of the GB921-E process flows, is organized as a sequence of process elements “managed” by the “Track & Manage xxx” process specific to its domain."

Positioning of Policy in eTOM

PerFranzén — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 16:09:37 GMT

Hi Wedge G

I think it's right to have the one "Define Policy" process within the eTOM and that the EM domain is the right place for this process. This process is as someone said a "housekeeping" activity.

The result of this "Define Policy" process will be a lot of approved unique Policies that can be used (linked) in any process depending what the Policy should "regulate".
This is what you also wrote I hope.

The SID Policy guide book (GB922-1POL), as John R was referring to, describes very well all the different types of Policies that a CSP needs. So it's right to have the definition of Policies within SID. First I didn't see that you could describe Policy in just one object, because it should regulate so many different type of things.

Regarding the Application side of this, there might be a need for one "Business Rule Engine", where all the Policies reside. I haven't seen that single functionality described within the TAM or am I wrong? What I can see is that the functionality to invoke policies and rules are scattered around or have I misunderstood something here? If you have an "Engine" like this you would only have one place to change policies or rules.

Regards,
Per Franzén
Ventelo Networks AS

Query on Trouble ticket to Solution Process Flow - GB921E

DirkR6 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:16:32 GMT

Sainath, the main difference is IMHO that trouble tickets generated within the resource domain may cause a pro-active notification of customer (or product user) of productsn that are effected by the service degradation.
With regards to the second part of your question, my understanding is, that the process flow is a customer-oriented E2E flow, i.e. "both ends" are within the customer domain.

Hope that helps,
Dirk

Query on Trouble ticket to Solution Process Flow - GB921E

SainathM1 — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:00:33 GMT

Hi ,

I would like to get some clarity around Trouble ticket to Solution Process Flow with respect to the Supporting statement and the process flow diagram provided.

The Statement mentions - 'This process is either triggered internally through a Service or Resource alarm or externally through a trouble ticket generated based on a complaint of a customer'. If i were to go by the last part of the statement (underlined and higlighted in red) and then read the statement provided for Problem to Solution where the process is triggered by a Customer , how different are these 2 , because in both the scenarios the root cause is attributed to a issue with resource. Can you please clarify?

Secondly , when i refer to the diagram for Trouble ticket to solution :

shouldnt there be a trigger from the resource domain as well? or have i misunderstood.

Can anyone please clarfify to me?

Thanks and Regards,

Sainath

RE: [Business Process Framework (eTOM)] Positioning of Policy in eTOM [#171463]

JayasuryaV — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:09:54 GMT

Dear Dr Strassner,

Would you say that these policy formalisms would be triggered by the states of a set of associated SID entities?

Rgds

Jayasurya

From: Business Process Framework (eTOM) [mailto:etom@community.tmforum.org] On Behalf Of John Strassner
Sent: Friday, February 03, 2012 4:53 AM
To: jayasurya venugopalan (WT01 - Talent Transformation)
Subject: [Business Process Framework (eTOM)] Positioning of Policy in eTOM [#171463]

John Strassner , Professor , Pohang University of Science and Technology

Hi John,

I respectfully disagree. Policy is about management through automating a set of (hopefully) intelligent decisions; this requires a set of mathematical formalisms to represent the various types of reasoning processes, as well as to prove that the policies are correct, that they realize their goals, etc.

The eTOM has none of the infrastructure to support these functions, and these are only the most basic policy maintenance functions. I fail to see why it would be moved from the SID.

regards,

John

Dr. John Strassner, Ph.D.

TMF Distinguished Fellow

CTO, Software Laboratory, CRD

Futurewei Technologies

US R&D Center

2330 Central Expressway
Building A, office A2-2143

Santa Clara, California 95050

Business Process Framework (eTOM)
Topics:eTOM, General

Shared In:2 Communities

Shared In:Frameworx Architecture Solutions Team (FAST) : General
Policy-Based Management : piephase2, policyinfoexchange

View thread online

Please note, this discussion thread is shared across communities. Any replies that you make to this discussion thread, will be posted to all of the communities and topics listed above.

/o:p>

Full thread available online here: http://www.tmforum.org/community/groups/the_business_process_framework/forum/p/171463/197774.aspx?utm_campaign=community&utm_medium=the_business_process_framework&utm_source=alert#197774

This message was sent to jaya.venu@wipro.com and follows the subscription preferences of your membership of the Business Process Framework (eTOM) TM Forum Online Community.

To unsubscribe immediately, please click here and click "Edit Collaboration Community Notifications". You will be prompted to log in if you are not logged in already. To cut down on email volume, you may also choose to receive your discussion notifications via a daily or weekly digest email as opposed to immediate separate emails.

TM Forum, 240 Headquarters Plaza, East Tower, 10th Floor, Morristown, NJ 07960-6628, USA. Call +1 973 944 5100. info@tmforum.org

Please do not print this email unless it is absolutely necessary.

The information contained in this electronic message and any attachments to this message are intended for the exclusive use of the addressee(s) and may contain proprietary, confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately and destroy all copies of this message and any attachments.

WARNING: Computer viruses can be transmitted via email. The recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. The company accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email.

www.wipro.com

Certify BP Framework 9.0 or wait for 11.5/12

Beth AnneLambrechts — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:34:08 GMT

Hi there -

I have a question surrounding the release of v 11.5/12 which appears to be slated for mid 2012. Is this still on course for formal release? If so, when do you anticipate the certification process for this version beginning?

I am trying to decide whether we should go ahead and go through the certification process for 9.x or wait for 11.5/12 and then go through certification.

Any information on this would be very helpful.

Thanks.

Positioning of Policy in eTOM

JohnR6 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 17:46:51 GMT

Howdy, Johannes and all. Johannes, what I meant is that it would be good to have a single set of processes and a single information model, rather than duplicate a lot of it, or all of it, all over the place. Deployment is another issue. I have seen both centrally located and seen them both deployed to various applications/organizations.

On the definition of Policy...I suggest you take a look at the SID Policy guide book (GB922-1POL).

Antivirus License Offering as product, service or resource?

JohnR6 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:56:23 GMT

One more thing, Jose. I would have a composite ProductSpec or bundled ProductOffering that is the Total Secure, which is comprised of Internet, Antivirus, and the router. If you use ProductOffering, you could have a ProductOfferingTerm for the Antivirus that specifies it's a one year term...and a separate Product for each.

Ordering, Receiving, Loading of SIM Cards

JohnR6 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:43:29 GMT

Howdy, Neda and all. Neda, I think we may have come full circle here. JohnS's original questions and the topic of this discussion was about ordering, receiving, and loading (into inventory) SIM cards.

In an earlier post, I provided this as part of my response ". I think that you want the Supplier/Partner (card manufacture in your example) Requistion Management process to place, track, receive,... the SIM order. Upon receipt of the order, you can use the Manage Logistics Level 3 process in the Resource Management & Operations Support & Readiness Level 2."

In your previous post you mention "Resource Administration in a Billing System" which to me are in part the Manage Logistics processes I mentioned being implemented as part of the Resource Admin in Billing.

Fuori sede: [Business Process Framework (eTOM)] Financial Plan [#171449]

Pier LuigiA — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:11:23 GMT

Sono in malattia. Rientro il 6/2.
Pier Luigi

Questo messaggio e i suoi allegati sono indirizzati esclusivamente alle persone indicate. La diffusione, copia o qualsiasi altra azione derivante dalla conoscenza di queste informazioni sono rigorosamente vietate. Qualora abbiate ricevuto questo documento per errore siete cortesemente pregati di darne immediata comunicazione al mittente e di provvedere alla sua distruzione, Grazie.

This e-mail and any attachments is confidential and may contain privileged information intended for the addressee(s) only. Dissemination, copying, printing or use by anybody else is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient, please delete this message and any attachments and advise the sender by return e-mail, Thanks.

Rispetta l'ambiente. Non stampare questa mail se non è necessario.

Financial Plan

José DavidSantacoloma Rivera — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:06:33 GMT

Hi Johannes, I'm very agree with your comments and I thank you for the clarification.

However in the 1.1.1.11.2 Manage Customer Payments process it says in their extended description:

"The processes are also responsible for establishing managing back-end bank accounts for receipt of the customer payments and for the transfer of funds collected by third parties."

Q1. Should be this interpreted as "[...] responsible for establishing managing back-end bank accounts with the customer for receipt of the their payments [...]" ?

I meant, this is not an establishing of accounts of the operator itself where the payments of the customer will be transfer, but the customer's account from wich will be transfer the funds. is it?

NOTE: In a first sight, I understood this as a posible mistake in the process description because anything needed previous to operation like establish something must be part of some "OS&R" processes.

Q2. So, establishing or defining the financial plans (that will be used by a Customer Care Agent) , and operator accounts for receipt customer payments are part of 1.1.1.1.14 Support Bill Payments & Receivables Management processes?... Even when their extended description doesn't say it explicitly .

In advance, thank you all for your support.

Ordering, Receiving, Loading of SIM Cards

nedakoci — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:40:07 GMT

Hi John,

What do you mean by processes implemented by these applications? If you refer to provisioning of the connection attached to SIM Card, for sure that this will be mapped in Service & Resource Managment & Operations, but registration of SIM Cards as assests to be sold in my opinion are strictly part of Assset Management & CRM processes...

Neda

RE: [Business Process Framework (eTOM)] Positioning of Policy in eTOM [#171463]

HugoVaughan — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:30:40 GMT

Hi Wedge

The current work on Business Services has a consumption point for Policy against a Business Service.

This implies a point of application of policy in operations will be within the Integration Framework.

The work in hand also allows for policy to be applied at the touch point level within a Business Service, presumably for cases where specific policy is applicable to a specific touch point. While we have not yet arrived at a shared name or definition of what a touch point is, the working notion is that a touch point is the message that is passed between process flows, via Business Services, and can either a request (a break point) or a response (an interruption point).

These notions are being developed under the Business Services Charter, and included previous work from amongst other sources, GB 942CP and TOGAF.

Hugo Vaughan

Principal Architect

t +27 (0)82 992-0519

skype hvaughan_TMForum

e hvaughan@tmforum.org

w www.tmforum.org

Positioning of Policy in eTOM

JohnR6 — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:24:29 GMT

Howdy, Wedge. I believe the reason for placing Policy in the Enterprise Management (EM) process area in the eTOM is that the purposes of the EM is to support the enterprise and to set policy for the enterprise. In this case providing a consistent way that enables various processes to define policies and have them enforced.