Carriers Back OSS/Java Council

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The OSS through JavaT Initiative (OSS/J) announced today the intention to form an advisory council that will include Vodafone, BT, Deutsche Telekom/T-Systems, QinetiQ and other leading service providers. The council will shape the strategic direction of the OSS/J initiative, share business and operational experiences, and align standards approaches in ways that accelerate industry adoption of OSS/J APIs and design guidelines.

A telecommunications industry group supporting component-based telecommunications solutions, the OSS through JavaT Initiative (OSS/J), has in little more than two years crossed the chasm from theory to commercial implementation within operations support system (OSS) projects at some of the world's leading communications service providers. For many, OSS/J compliance has become an evaluation factor in procurement specifications.

"The transition to a new infrastructure requires a new approach to supporting and managing services in a highly competitive marketplace," says Patrick Kelly, partner at independent analyst firm OSS Observer. "Over the next five years, communication service providers will fund new services from cash generated off legacy core business. OSS/J provides reference code and APIs that help service providers speed the deployment to support these new services and control the high cost of integration. Vodafone and BT have been strong backers of OSS/J and we expect other operators - such as Deutsche Telekom - to support the initiatives of OSS/J over the next year."

Vodafone, BT, and Deutsche Telekom/T-Systems have encouraged OSS/J to create an advisory council, an open body that allows service providers to actively participate in the definition and deployment of component-based end-to-end solutions.

"We are pleased that the OSS through Java Initiative has agreed to create an advisory council because we are convinced that component-based solutions are the way to go," says Joerg Frankenberger, head of network management engineering for Vodafone Germany. "Costly proprietary point-to-point integrations are no longer a viable option. Experience has proven that integration costs can be dramatically reduced by adopting OSS/J standards. We intend to play a very active role in setting strategic directions for the OSS/J is areas that we believe will yield even more savings."

In addition to the Java Community Process, the OSS through Java Initiative leverages the work of other standards bodies, including: TeleManagement Forum (TMF), 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), Object Management Group (OMG), Workflow Management Coalition, International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and IPDR.

"At BT, we're looking at moving from point and tactical integrations to a more systematic approach based on standards-based frameworks such as the TeleManagement Forum's enhanced Telecom Operations Map and NGOSS," says Dave Milham, OSS technical collaborations manager for BT Exact, BT's research, technology and IT operations business. "One of the main reasons we like the idea of an OSS/J advisory council is that it will encourage vendors to actively pursue implementable standards. We are convinced that OSS/J is creating an environment that fosters component-based solutions from multiple vendors and that this will be of great value to service providers worldwide."

Today, integration and maintenance account for the lion's share of telecom IT budgets. By following OSS/J guidelines, service providers are confident that these dollars can be better used to support the delivery of new services.

"We are very excited about the efficiencies to be gained by implementing OSS/J APIs," says Wulf Bauerfeld, head of innovative Internet products and projects for Deutsche Telekom/T-Systems. "Without OSS/J as a source of common integration interfaces, many service providers are forced to maintain a lot of different, duplicate systems that lack effective ways to share data. This can lead to enormous numbers of errors and can cause significant cost leakages. I'm convinced that service providers can save a lot of money by building an automated process chain through OSS/J."

OSS/J participants include BEA Systems, Borland Software, Covad, Digital Fairway, Eftia, Highdeal, IBM Business Consulting Services, Ilog, Instituto de Telecomunicacoes, IP Value, Mahindra BT, MetaSolv Software, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Nortel Networks, ObjectStore (Progress Software), SolarMetric, Sonic Software, Sun Microsystems, Telcordia Technologies (SAIC), Topcoder and Watchmark-Comnitel.

"OSS/J is now proven to deliver immediate and very tangible business benefits to all stakeholders along the value chain," says Philippe Lalande, Sun Microsystems, the Initiative's program manager. "We are extremely gratified that leading service providers desire a forum within OSS/J to maximize the positive impact OSS/J can have on their procurement and operations. As part of a larger plan to support the ongoing widespread adoption of OSS/J, it is now our goal to establish a working Advisory Council within the next few months."

OSS Through Java Initiative