The Use Of BSS/OSS In Information Technology Advances

The management of business support operations and operations support systems known as BSS/OSS, defines the efficiency with which an information technology process runs. As one might expect from the names, BSS deals with all the portions of an information technology process that is internal to the delivery of service. The OSS portion is all the processes that deal with the customer or client.

Running an IT operation is truly like running two different businesses at the same time. Telecommunications is a global entity and when satellite technology is included, there is literally nowhere on earth that can not be reached. We even have cables stretched across the ocean floors and receivers underwater for detection and analysis. The physical infrastructure and technical development side of this business is enormous all on its own. After all that work, there is the ever present and all important customer base to deal with.

As with any business, both the product and the customers are important, and depending on the crisis of the day, each is as important as the other. It is easy to see how a company can get bogged down in either sector to the detriment of the other, resulting in a loss of capability or success. To assist in maintaining the proper balance between these often competing parts of the business, the OSS/BSS approach gives leadership the tools necessary to make timely decisions that do not conflict.

For most managers, the immediate and primary concern for the business will automatically focus on the people side. Taking care of the customer has long been the hallmark of good businesses. While the advent of new technologies has not changed that venerable maxim, it has complicated it quite a bit.

The problem is that in the telecommunications industry, the costs of infrastructure and product development are extreme, and the attention needed to keep that portion of business under control can not be underestimated. A clever technique that has been used is to highlight the complicated physical layout of infrastructure in a way that keeps the consumer aware all this work is done on their behalf.

In addition, with the rapidity with which the physical devices the consumer wields is changing, the needs of an infrastructure to keep up are complex and require forward looking strategies and knowledge in order to keep up. The answer is the notion of having computer programs controlling other computer programs, the next level of information technology application.

Writing programs that allow managers to control the myriad subprograms in an efficient manner timely enough to meet customer needs is not quite artificial intelligence but it is close. It allows parameters to be set by leadership that can be promulgated across the wide range of the network over massive numbers of systems in an electronic second. The key is to also have the systems monitor that promulgation to troubleshoot and even make corrections where necessary.