Business support systems (BSS) is one of the main pillars of any telecom it has been around and evolving for a while now and we are at the point where is the next horizon is just around the corner. BSS was founded on the premise that the telecom knows whats best for the customers, products and services are built based on what the telecom expects would fit most of the customers similar to mass produced products where the most common dominator is sought after, a product which is acceptable by most, loved by some, hated by a few.
Globally the new trend is tailored products, with millennial having high expectations and a sense of individuality that mass produced products fail to satisfy, this trend can be seen with the rise of tailor made custom products that rely on a social angle to sell, allowing the customers to express their individuality and their custom built fine tuned products.
To meet these new expectations telecoms are shifting towards a more nimble stack that would allow for customer tailored products and rapid services release, telecom vendors are picking up the trend and are proposing a smarter more intelligent framework such as Huwaei BES (Business Enabling Systems) and Ericsson’s DBSS (Digital BSS).
ROADS is a concept Huwaei is promoting which in my opinion is a very concise way to describe what the next generation BSS should include.
Real-Time: Promos, Product Recommendations, Order Fulfillment should all take place in realtime.
On-Demand: Products and services can be tailored to match the customer’s need on the fly, Soft bundles that can be built on the fly as needed with a micro-services flexible architecture to cope with it.
All-Online: Anything the customer needs should be possible to do online in a channel agnostic way, with an Omni-channel approach to empower the customer to conduct his requests using the channel most suitable to his lifestyle.
Do It Yourself: Customers should be able to manage and use their accounts with Minimal to no manual interaction with provider, as with google products customers should be empowered to resolve any issue or requirement they have. Customers also should be product and services definition process.
Social: Social friendly product that is compatible with the social infrastructure that currently makes the internet. Customer should be able to exchange or even sell their surpluses through social channels. Gasification features that drives engagement and increases customer loyalty should be built into the product’s DNA.
This concept along with others allow the telecoms to meet the new challenges posed by a shifting market in which the customer needs are drastically different to what was the norm for the last few decades.
