Explanation of softswitch system OSS: cornerstone of new business

As the next generation platform continues to evolve, Softswitch must not only provide traditional services, but also continuously develop new value-added services based on the softswitch platform, while providing more convenient and personalized services for end users, carriers are constantly seeking for new business and revenue growth points. The Business Operation Support System (OSS and Operational Support System) must Support the existing business of operators and Support the continuous release of new value-added services at any time, in the face of ever-changing business needs, performance, availability, and other needs, OSS has become more prominent in the softswitch system.

Status Quo and necessity of OSS in softswitch system

At present, the construction of the Chinese Softswitch platform is in full swing, but the application of the Operation Support System cannot meet the actual needs well, which is reflected in the relatively lagging behind in management. Due to the differences between SoftSwitch and traditional exchange systems, OSS and core networks in the softswitch system are more closely integrated than traditional exchange systems. Foreign vendors are at a disadvantage in understanding and understanding the business support of domestic operators, this makes the current operation support system on the software-for-system far fall short of the operation requirements. Therefore, it is imperative to build an operational support system that can be operated, managed, scalable, and profitable on the softswitch platform. Some suppliers of softswitch Systems in China also provide operation support systems at the same time. However, due to various reasons, the system construction is unsatisfactory, especially in the context of the emergence of new value-added services, the OSS system cannot reflect the real needs.

From the market point of view, in the face of the diversified business promotion methods of competitors, in the face of the diversified communication needs of end users, to achieve targeted personalized communication products and services for rapid support, as far as possible to attract new customers, retaining old customers, maintaining and increasing customer loyalty, and promoting the continuous growth of enterprise communication revenue through endless new businesses is a thorny problem and challenge facing all operators. The implementation of the original OSS system is basically based on each product and service. different products and services cannot be effectively integrated, and some even rely on different independent management subsystems. How to build an efficient carrier-level operation support system has become an operator to improve enterprise management, enhance enterprise operation efficiency, reduce operation costs, increase new businesses, and provide flexibility, this is a major task to comprehensively improve the core competitiveness of enterprises. All these objective conditions put forward higher requirements for the new generation of OSS systems, and the urgency of construction is also greatly improved.

OSS supports new value-added services

In the current telecom industry environment, how to create new sources of profit through diversified and distinctive value-added services, while maintaining and developing customers has become a key concern of operators, operators are actively exploring how to avoid low-level market competition (such as price competition) and provide attractive new businesses to customers. As the softswitch system continues to evolve, more and more new businesses bring potential sources of benefits to operators. Can OSS support the marketing and commercialization of these new businesses flexibly and quickly, it plays a key role in determining the survival of new businesses and the profit they can bring.

A support system that can meet the operational needs under the new situation should be built on the basis of a customer-centric design philosophy, considering the implementation of network businesses, sales of business products, and the billing revenue of these businesses, to manage customer data, we must design and implement the system around the "customer", so as to meet the system architecture requirements of the current and foreseeable next stages.

Due to the differences between SoftSwitch and traditional exchange platforms, value-added services on the softswitch platform will inevitably emerge one after another, and value-added services on the softswitch platform will also be more diversified to support these value-added services, OSS should fully consider the integration with the original business in terms of design, through the flexible database and table structure design of the system, in terms of data collection, price approval, inter-network settlement, customer/business management, integrated accounting, and customer service, the service can be smoothly expanded based on the original business.

1. Data Record and collection　

Service call records of all new businesses are generated by the Unified CDR Server and the CDR form is consistent with the original business format. Different value-added business types are distinguished by signs. The unified format CDR prevents the single Preprocessing Program from processing different requests due to different services.

2. Price approval　

Price approval is a key part of the OSS system. Real-time and personalized billing is currently a common requirement. During the launch of new businesses, there are many different billing requirements, such as monthly subscription, long-time billing, paybytraffic, tiered pricing, and cap billing, in particular, the single-level preferential implementation of the customer's details is a new generation of OSS system features required to achieve real personalized billing.

3. inter-network Settlement　

As we all know, on the one hand, with the increasing number of operators, on the other hand, more and more new businesses need to involve different operators to provide complete services to end customers. Therefore, the settlement requirements for these new businesses are also inevitable in the OSS system. A bill can be settled by multiple parties, the multi-settlement inter-network settlement system is also a key factor for the rapid deployment of new businesses.

4. Customer/Business Management

Customer/business management is the core component of OSS, and key functions such as fee approval and account settlement play an important role. All the information related to the customer is implemented in the function of this module, including the customized business of the customer and the information management of the selected tariff package. In the process of expanding new businesses, how to ensure synchronization with existing business data to ensure uniformity, uniqueness and accuracy of data is the key. Because of the customization of new businesses, new sales promotion policies will be bundled with old businesses in many aspects, resulting in cross-cutting and even conflicting customer charges. The management of customers/businesses should not only effectively manage the tariff policies and packages, it is a highlight of customer/business management to remind customers to select the most appropriate and preferential package in case of price conflicts.

5. Integrated Accounting　

Comprehensive accounting is the process of processing the customer's call records based on the customer's selected tariff policies after personalized price approval, and forming the final bill for the customer. Comprehensive accounting should support various payment methods of the customer, such as cash, collection, prepayment, etc. It has functions such as management of payment reminder and Management of arrearage. How to customize different business combinations based on the customer's customization, including the append customization of new businesses, to complete the accurate second price approval function at the account level, to achieve preferential accounting treatment under different tariff packages, is the core of the integrated accounting system. Customization of new businesses is often bound with existing businesses. Therefore, unified bill processing for multiple businesses is also a feature of the OSS system. At the same time, the system must support personalized bill processing. It can periodically or non-cyclically generate customized consolidated bills in any format based on the billing information and user data across regions, networks, and services, meet customer needs and improve service satisfaction.

6. Customer Service

With the increasing awareness and means of service by operators, a powerful end-customer-oriented self-service system has become an indispensable part of OSS, especially the continuous launch of new businesses, in the use process, there will inevitably be a variety of customer needs. A well-functional and easy-to-use customer service system not only improves customer satisfaction, but also saves a lot of manpower and material resources from operators. The OSS customer service system should support the customer's application for new businesses, custom changes, Bill fees, account balance and call record details through the Web interface, so that the customer's consumption can be clearly viewed. When necessary, in addition to self-services in the WEB mode, the corresponding IVR interactive voice response system is also necessary.

In addition to data collection, price approval, online settlement, customer/business management, integrated accounting, and customer service, a complete OSS system supports new businesses, OSS system management is essential. The powerful security management mechanism and flexible permission management and allocation mechanism guarantee the smooth operation of OSS. the intuitive, convenient, and easy-to-maintain man-machine interface is the prerequisite for the success of OSS operations. In terms of Customer Relationship Management, the OSS system must have certain data analysis capabilities to achieve initial decision support.

Ut oss Solution

The mBOSS solution of mSwitch consists of three subsystems: online billing system (OBS), user management system (SAM), and customer service system (CSS ), in addition, the OSS system also provides an Interactive Voice Response System (IVR) to enhance customer service functions. The platform is composed of a group of high-performance servers to achieve backend Management and Operation Support for the entire softswitch system.

The user management system SAM mainly Implements user management, customer management, employee management, resource management, Card Management, Business monitoring, and other functions, communicates with SLR, network management system, value-added business center, and other business monitoring/user management systems through an IP network.

The online billing system OBS adopts a modular design. Its comprehensive and smooth solutions can meet different and changing user needs. Including data collection, billing, accounting, sales, data management, review and verification, query service, statistical analysis, data management, and other functions.

The self-service system CSS website mainly includes three functional modules: business processing system, customer communication system, and background management system. Customers can log on to the Web-based CSS website or use their phs c-mode mobile phones to learn about telecom tariff policies, apply for services or discounts, and query their own business and usage information.

To build a proactive softswitch system, an operational support system that is advanced, open, highly reliable, scalable, manageability, and secure is also essential, especially in the current era of new businesses, we can foresee that with the advancement of new technologies and the development of new businesses, the next generation of softswitch operation support system will certainly develop more.

1. OSS support for new services in the softswitch system
2. Discussion on multimedia service and softswitch system technology
3. Introduction to Polylink ECM 3.0 softswitch system