SCOPE OF THE REPORT

Dittberner’s OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase™ is designed to help telecom service providers and OSS/BSS vendors track the OSS/BSS solutions and innovations.

The KnowledgeBase™ is designed to track the growing number of OSS/BSS vendors emerging in the market. For now, an estimated 162 OSS/BSS vendors already exist, but that number is likely to grow because 1) Next Generation networks will demand more functionality; and 2) integration technology such as J2EE and OSS/J is making it easier for new solution vendors to emerge as components of a larger OSS/BSS architecture.

The Dittberner KnowledgeBase™ helps carriers and vendors get control of this fast-growing body of knowledge for competitive advantage.

A common problem with other telecom research programs is that information is scattered across many research reports and newsletters with no means for quickly retrieving it for analysis and vendor evaluation.

Dittberner’s OSS/BSS KnowledgeBase™ solves that problem by delivering a fully organized body of knowledge via a web interface. Our approach allows users to drill down through keyword and indexed searches including current and historical analysis, to the precise information they need.

The KnowledgeBase™ draws on some 5,400 pages of analyst reports across a wide spectrum of OSS/BSS topics. As new innovation trends are discovered and analyzed, that information is integrated into the OSS/BSS framework.

Major Modules in the KnowledgeBase™:

•Billing Systems

•Mediation Systems

•Customer Assurance: CRM, Retention & the Call Center

•E-Business & Web Self-Care

•Data Warehouse, Bus. Intelligence & Analytics

•Revenue Assurance, Profit Maximization & Data Integrity

•Provisioning Systems

•Service Assurance & Network Care

•Network Inventory & & Numbering

•Service Activation & Telecom Discovery

•Field Service Automation

•Fraud & Security

Other general modules include sections on “OSS/BSS & Integration Technology” and a guide to “Marketing & Selling Telecom OSS/BSS Solutions.”

We not only track the products and companies in the BSS/OSS market, we also provide full market financials on an annual basis.

The Dittberner KnowledgeBase™ contains a comprehensive 342-line item comparison of OSS/BSS product and service “Specifications” for 259 solutions now available on the open market.

Major Technical Categories:

•Product/Service Description

•Product-Specific Contacts

•BSS/OSS Functional Categories

•Product Features by Category

•How Solution is Bundled/Deployed

•Network Services Supported

•Network Equipment Supported

•Telecom Types Served

•Geographic Regions Served

•Product Delivery & Integration

•Pricing & Distribution

•Computing Architecture

•Scalability

•Interoperability

•Differentiators

•Reference Telecom Accounts

The “Specifications” tool drives Dittberner’s unique “Buyer’s Guide”; an on-line capability to compare and group those products and services anyway the user so chooses, then print or export the results to Excel or a database.

On an annual basis, Dittberner conducts interviews with all the major OSS/BSS vendors.

Those interviews are used to deliver an annual financial analysis of each major industry sector. Here is where

Dittberner sizes and forecasts the market in terms of vendor market share, and what carriers types and regions of the world that are buying the solution.

Dittberner maintains an independent, objective view of the marketplace. The Dittberner approach minimizes bias because Dittberner learns about industry trends from both the vendor and carrier perspective.

Our research methodology begins by

identifying new solution trends. As new OSS/BSS solutions are discovered, Dittberner analyzes the market to understand the solution’s key functions, features, and benefits. Carrier and vendors interviews are then conducted to determine which vendors are selling the solution and which carriers are using it.

Finally, Dittberner provides further value added analysis tailored to carriers and vendors.

For instance, carriers are provided with

lessons learned and advice on how to select the best solutions to reduce their risks.

Vendors learn what carrier priorities are, what competitors are doing, and where profitable niche opportunities lie.