All you need to know about the OSS BSS market

What is OSS and BSS?

OSS/BSS, in telecommunications, stands for operations support systems and business support systems. These systems operate together to manage the operational and the business dimensions of telecommunications service providers (TSPs) across the gamot of such services.

OSS includes a number of software domains that support numerous back-office activities, which operate a telecom operator’s network to provide for and maintain customer services. OSS is usually used by network planners, service designers, support, architects, operations and engineering teams. Product managers and senior management under the CTO or COO also use or rely on OSS sometimes.

BSS includes software applications that usually support customer-facing activities. BSS may also include the customer-facing veneer of OSS application like trouble-ticketing and service assurance. These are back-office activities but are initiated directly by contact with the customer.

The relationship between OSS and BSS is simple, OSS usually passes various service orders and also supplies service assurance information to the BSS. BSS focuses on managing the business aspects associated with the telecommunications network to secure revenue and maintain quality, while also supporting many business functions, including marketing, product offerings, sales, contracting, and delivery of goods and services. Together with OSS, BSS is used to support various end-to-end telecommunication services.

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In the past, BSS would capture the order, set up billing and pass the order to OSS for fulfillment. Now, networks and services are more complex and flexible making telcos offer a wider range of differentiated products.

What solutions do they include?

OSS and BSS provide consistent network capacity and stable quality of service for telecom operators, along with enforcing charging parameters for next-generation high-speed mobile broadband services. These include policy control and charging, real-time service delivery and customer support.

OSS and BSS include various other services:

Business Support System
— Billing and Revenue Management
— Customer and Product Management
— Service Fulfillment

Operation Support System
— Service Assurance
—Resource Inventory Management
—Network Management

What are the factors driving the rising demand for OSS BSS?

The demand for cloud OSS/BSS is driven by factors such as:

• Acceptance of customized cloud digital Busines Support system (BSS) solutions and services
• Increasing usage of convergent billing systems
• Shifting target of Communication Service Providers (CSPs) on enhancing customer experiences
• Lower operational expenses and reduced costs of ownership
• Need for business agility
• Faster deployment and scalability
• Increasing awareness among CSPs globally

The primary growth driver of this market is the increased adoption of Revenue Management Systems (RMS). Such billing processes include features such as pricing management, credit limit management, invoicing, payments, rating, and charging. Convergent billing systems provide new businesses with a unified platform for rating and pricing alike. The customers can see the real-time consumption and expenditure across a particular service or a payment mode. Globally, telecom operators are rapidly adopting RMS, which supports retail, wholesale, and other enterprise business segments. Increasing demand to centralize the individual systems will amplify the implementation of RMS and will help in the growth of the OSS-BSS market in the years to come.

Current market situation — North Ameria is #1

North America has dominated the OSS and BSS market over the past few decades. However recent changes in the developed market dynamics have predicted regions such as Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East to have a bigger presence in the OSS/BSS market in the years to come. Telecom operators in developed and mature markets are expected to concentrate more closely on the monetization of mobile broadband data services that is driving other areas of growth. The investment from legacy systems and other complicated service support platforms have encouraged the use of Software as a Service (SaaS), in the OSS and BSS industry.

APAC gaining market share in the OSS/BSS market

The APAC region is in the initial part of its growth phase and yet is the fastest-growing region globally in the cloud OSS and BSS market. The key reasons for the high growth rate in APAC include the diverse subscriber base in many countries, increased spending on IT infrastructure, the proliferation of mobile devices, data services, Over-the-Top (OTT) services, and rising cloud-based applications. The emergence of a wide range of affordable cloud services and the new mandatory government regulations are together helping in expanding the growth of the cloud OSS BSS market in the APAC over the past few years.

Cloud OSS/BSS market to reach an estimated 21.77 Billion USD by 2022

The telecom sector is gravitating towards cloud adoption for efficient operational functions and better customer experiences. Network management revenues are expected to boost overall OSS revenues while the requirement for RMS will contribute to the overall growth in revenue of BSS. With the launch of new technology infrastructures such as IP-based multimedia systems, increasing competition, and customer churn, OSS and BSS have emerged as key elements of an operator’s network. The rollout of the next-generation OSS-BSS framework is providing abundant opportunities to the OSS/BSS market to grow in the coming years.