msoftware development in the telecom industry and software

development in the information technology (IT) industry

have followed separate paths, reflecting the unique business
models, operational requirements, and deployment scenarios
of the two domains.

mAssessing the Success factors for telecom IT managed

services is the capabilities and experience assessment of
Telecom IT in industries.
m `onvergence of Telecom IT
1)New type of service providers
2)`ore Telecom services
3)Telecom operators
m Horizontal software architecture
m Software Evaluation Model
m `ommon Managed Services Outsourcing Model
m Key Success Factors For IT Managed Services
m Requirements for Managed Services Success
mAs the telecom and IT industries continue to converge,there is
increasing pressure for underlying software technologies to also
converge, driven by several market trends like,
M New types of service providers (such as Google and Yahoo) are appearing,
seeking to leverage services from currently available telecom networks into their
own service offerings.
M `ore telecom services are being standardized via IT interfaces, such as the Web-
Services-based Parlay-X application programming interfaces (APIs).
MTelecom operators are looking for common telecom and IT service creation and
composition capabilities to reduce the complexity and cost associated with
introducing new services.
moth the IT and telecom industries have adopted horizontal
software architectures as a way to abstract and hide complexity,
allowing applications to decouple to varying degrees from the
underlying computing platforms and networks.
mTo achieve the latency and performance tolerances associated
with voice, many telecom vendors have found it easier to couple
higher-level applications with the low-level messaging, load
control, and task scheduling infrastructure. As a result, the IT
industry has consistently led the move toward horizontal
networks.
m3
 


large software systems were implemented and optimized to
execute on a specific computing platform and, as a result, the
applications necessarily implemented platform-specific capabilities.

mRu   

larger-scale network deployments, the software industry
implemented the first level of a horizontal network Ȃ specifically,
platform abstraction via common runtime environments.
The set of APIs effectively defines a software-based runtime
environment .
 in the 1990s the IT industry adopted the HTTP servlet and
Enterprise Java eans (EJ) containers as a way to abstract web
platform capabilities from applications. Similar techniques evolved in
the telecom industry, including Service Logic Execution
Environments (SLEEs) in the 1990s and Session Initiation Protocol
(SIP) servlets and Service Availability Forum (SAF) APIs in the early
2000s.
m`  

a component-based software development strategy, characterized
by common Service Development Platforms (SDPs) that enabled easy
integration of components through XML-driven description
languages and tools.
 These decoupled components are implemented once and reused in
different ways in various applications, having the ability to define new
applications or to change application deployment models, simply by
changing software deployment configuration policies. This capability
allows the benefits of a component-based abstraction to be realized within
the operational tolerances of a large-scale telecom network.
m  R u
  

changing the software development model from component composition
to a service brokering model. Within a service brokering model, software
integration is achieved by invoking different software capabilities at
runtime, rather than using traditional software compilation and bundling
mechanisms. The service broker is itself a specialized application enabler
that allows the software invocation and interworking rules to be defined
and controlled.
mManaged services projects have always been complex and are
becoming even more so due to the evolution of `ommunication
Service Providersǯ (`SP) requirements and new business
expectations. `SPs need to follow best practices for planning and
implementing managed services.
mset of success factors for managed services projects: long-term
business objectives, defining the scope for relevant services, a
feasible and optimized implementation roadmap, customer-
experience related business objectives, business objectives driven
SLAs, alignment of commercial terms with business goals, proper
vendor qualification, usiness/Operations Support Systems
(/OSS) specific best practice implementation methodology,
effective and efficient governance and leverage of market
experience.
m

 

In recent years managed services started supporting
Telecom IT transformations and build-ups in two ways:
Directly, by performing the required transformation or
build-up under a managed services program, offering lower
transformation costs, reduced transformation risk and
attractive transformation financing options.
Indirectly, by taking ownership over legacy operations
and systems, enabling redirection of valuable resources to
development and operation of new lines of business and new
IT capabilities
m `ost reduction takes place by `ommon Managed Services
Outsourcing models.
mAT&T for example is in the process of eliminating between 30
percent and 40 percent of its IT systems over the next five years in an
effort to reduce the cost of systems management, and increase its
overall agility to offer a comprehensive service offering to its
customers.
m!  
   

 
Horizontal - /OSS domains, systems and processes. A `SP can
use managed services for domains.
Vertical Ȃ type of services: usiness Process Operations,
Application Management and IT Outsourcing layers. A `SP can use
managed services for one or more of those layers.
m^  
 

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Defining the long term business objectives and clearly

articulating the long term business expectations is really the
first step in developing an effective outsourcing strategy.
m^  
 


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Relevant scope definition is important because it influences
the ability of the MSP to generate and maximize efficiencies,
enable the required operational monitoring and control, and to
support growth.
m¦ 
      


It will not always work to have a single-cut transition to
managed services, where the entire managed services scope is
being transferred to the MSP at the same time.
m^  
u
 
  
 u   
It is important to make sure that the end-customer
experience is not affected by the move to managed services;
achieving the maximum cost reduction at the expense of the
end-customer experience is clearly counterproductive.
m^  
 

u   
SLAs can be defined in a multitude of ways. It is
important to align SLAs to bottom line business objectives and
to make sure that every business or operational process has a
specific SLA.
m 



u 

If the only goal of the managed services engagement is cost
reduction, then itǯs easy: the `SP should look for the minimum
cost MSP that can handle the required SLA.
m¦

 
u
`hoosing the right vendor is definitely the most important
single success factor. A `SP can have a good managed services
plan in terms of scope, implementation plan, SLAs and commercial
terms that can still fail because of the MSPǯs.
inability to deliver according to this plan.
më

  
    
 

The telecom industry is unique in many aspects and /OSS
specifically have unique characteristics. The implementation of
managed services for /OSS should follow /OSS specific best
practices for the due diligence, transition, operation and
optimization stages of a managed services lifecycle.
m!
   
      


 
There should be no surprises. A managed services operation
has to be constantly monitored and controlled by the `SP to
make sure it delivers all required business outcomes.
mIT managed services will be cost effective when the `SP and
the managed services provider (MSP) are aligned around a
common goal of cost reductions, technology transformation or
operational efficiency improvements that will be of
benefit to the `SPǯs long term business strategy.
m`SPs should understand the telecommunications-specific
success factors needed to guarantee a successful outcome, and
subsequently in our opinion, should work with a managed
services provider that can provide the correct balance of
telecommunications domain expertise, technology and human
resource assets to achieve such an outcome.
u