[TMF eTOM] business process framework

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Role of the business process framework

 

Whether it is a veteran or a new service provider, whether it is a communication service provider, application service provider, or Internet service provider, they all need a highly automated operation process. Service providers are facing increasingly fierce competition. This market is experiencing an unprecedented rate of radical changes. At the same time, it is also an industry that is experiencing drastic turmoil. Some merchants are trying to achieve high growth from the beginning, while others are providing high-income services, there are also some ongoing labor-intensive, non-continuous environments with a lack of flexibility and variability to a customer-centric environment with a focus on service quality, unit costs, and market time. Service providers must gradually adapt to electronic trade with trading partners, suppliers, wholesalers, and retail customers. For the growing mobile/wireless and IP service market, these service providers must focus on rapidly serving new customers and ensuring service quality. For all service providers, it is an urgent task to provide new value-added services while significantly improving customer support. As the entire industry is currently in the trend of continuous merger, service providers must also be able to manage the integration work required for mergers and acquisitions.

For comprehensive service providers and network operators, the primary task of the TMF Forum is to automate the end-to-end process of information and communication services for business and operation processes. Tom and the new eTOM are the business frameworks required to complete such tasks.

The purpose of eTOM is to continuously plan the future for the industry by implementing the business process-driven approach required for enterprise management, so that merchants can successfully compete. This includes ensuring the integration of all key enterprise support systems related to service provision and support. The focus of the eTOM document is on the business processes adopted by the service provider, the links between these processes, the identification of interfaces, and other information about customers, services, resources, suppliers/partners, and various processes.. In the future, all the information in the business process will be the key to success. In an e-commerce environment, automation of productivity improvement, revenue growth, and better customer relationships are all crucial. Today, process automation is of unprecedented importance to the success of sellers in the market. The highest purpose of the eTOM business process framework is to continue building upon the success of the TMF Forum:

• A "industry-oriented" General Business Process framework;
• Provides general definitions for describing service provider business processes;
• Agreement on the basic information required to execute business processes, sub-processes, and process activities, that is, taking a sufficiently high level of information as the starting point for business requirements and information model development, at the same time, the above requirements are met through commercial application contracts, shared data model elements, and Industry protocols supporting system infrastructure and products;
• A process framework used to identify processes and interfaces that require most integration and automation and are most dependent on Industry protocols;

This document (eTOM business process framework) the Business Process Model describes the combination of processes and processes that constitute the end-to-end customer operation process flow for implementation, guarantee, Operation billing, policies, infrastructure, and products. ETOM focuses on processes related to information, communication services, and technical management. However, this model also applies to other types of business.

Service providers need this generic process framework to efficiently and effectively conduct business with other entities, and develop and use third-party software, saving a lot of customization work. In a business environment, a general understanding of this process is crucial to managing more complex business relationships in today's Information and Communication Service Markets. Powerful process integration seems to be the most successful way to integrate e-commerce between enterprises. The recent downturn in the industry, even the embarrassment of. com, has not affected the trend of E-Commerce Automation-but proved the correctness of investment in e-commerce. However, eTOM is not only an electronic trade or e-Business Process framework, but also supports the integration of traditional business processes and e-commerce.

 

Definition of general terms

 

The eTOM document also provides definitions of general terms related to enterprise processes, sub-processes, and activities in each process. In general terms, it is easier for service providers to communicate with customers, third-party suppliers, and other service providers. For the definitions of eTOM abbreviations and terms, see Appendix.

 

Protocol tools

Tom was initially launched at the TMF forum to serve as an agreement tool for service providers and network operators to discuss and develop agreements. Support for protocol tools of Tom and eTOM:

• The TMF Forum Group focuses on defining detailed business requirements, information protocols, business application contracts, and shared data model specifications (exchange between applications or systems), and checking the consistency of these results.
• Associate business needs with existing or required standards.
• Provides a general process view for device providers, application constructor, and integrators to build management systems by combining third-party software and internal development.

The final result should be: the business and operation management products of networks, information technologies and services purchased by service providers and network operators can be better integrated into the buyer's environment, cost-effectiveness of end-to-end automation. In addition, the general view of processes and information helps process interconnection between operators and suppliers, this is a basic requirement for quickly providing services and solving problems in a global competitive environment. Interconnection of this process is particularly critical for E-Commerce supply chain management.

 

What is eTOM?

ETOM is a business process framework or model that provides the enterprise processes required by service providers. It is not a business model of a service provider. In other words, it does not solve such problems as strategic issues, "Who Should the target customers of a service provider be", and "what is the goal and Task of the service provider. The business process framework is only part of the strategic business model and plan of the service provider.

The purpose of eTOM 1.0 is to provide the working direction for members of the TMF forum in the traditional TMF Forum-"what to write and what to do. ETOM 2.x reflects the feedback from members of the TMF Forum and other personnel on the first version and further work on the framework. The key objective of eTOM 2.x is to break down the data step by step (refer to the process framework diagram and the 0th, 1st, and 2nd levels in later models) define process definitions and layers at the highest conceptual level. The currently released eTOM version 3.0 provides a member-approved eTOM business process framework and a global protocol from the highest level of concept to the underlying level of work.

However, the development of eTOM is still mainly in the process decomposition and process flow at a lower level. Continuous feedback from NGOSS business application contracts, shared data models, and system framework activities will be used to guide future development and deployment. In addition, developing a comprehensive process framework is a growing business. It needs to carry out a long-term and gradual process based on the Process Characteristics of the members of the TMF forum and the resource availability of the members.

ETOM is based on the telecom operation diagram (Tom ). The background of Tom and the Tom function inherited in eTOM will be discussed in detail later in this chapter. ETOM expands Tom into a complete enterprise framework and solves the impact of e-commerce. Although eTOM is more complex than Tom, it is more intuitive than Tom in a sense, because it fills in enterprise management (that is, enterprise type) gaps between processes, market processes, customer retention processes, supplier and partner management processes. Because e-commerce opportunities, needs, and Internet applications in business processes need to be combined, there are not many restrictions on operation management, and it is an effective way to avoid failures.

Based on a large number of the latest materials, we found that service providers and system integrators, access service providers and vendors have used eTOM before it is approved, because it can better represent the real world. They need an industry-standard framework to guide the procurement of software and equipment and interfaces with other service providers in constantly complex business relationship networks. For the first time in history, service providers provided their own business models for the process work of the TMF forum because they realized that they needed a broader industry framework, this framework should not only solve operational or traditional business process problems, but also solve more problems. In the past, many service providers used Tom as their core process framework or standards to ensure consistency. However, many operators have pointed out that they must add additional content to Tom to realize the inheritance of e-commerce and the complete enterprise framework. They are welcome to upgrade from Tom to eTOM.

 

Figure 1.1: eTOM business process framework-level 0th Process

 

Customer:Customer

Strategy, Infrastructure & Product: Strategy, infrastructure and products

Operations: Operation

Market, product & customer: Market, product, and customer

Service: Service

Resource (application, computing and Network): Resources (applications, computing, and networks)

Suppliers/partners: Supplier/Partner

Enterprise Management: Enterprise Management

Registrant holders: Shareholder

Other stakeholders: Other shareholders

Employees: Employee

 

Figure 1.1 shows the highest level of eTOM business process framework: Conceptual attempt. This view provides an overall environment that separates the strategy and survival process from the operation process. They are divided into two groups, as shown in the two boxes. It also divides key functional areas into five horizontal layers. In addition, Figure 1.1 shows the internal and external entities that interact with the Enterprise.

Figure 1.2 shows the 0-level view of the 1st-level process in the eTOM framework. This view reflects the enterprise process framework from the perspective of the CEO. However, people tend to use a 1-level view of a 2nd-level process because the detailed information it provides is required to analyze the business. This view is provided in the detailed analysis of a series of eTOM frameworks later in this article.

Figure 1.2 shows seven vertical Process Groups. These processes are end-to-end processes required to support customers and manage businesses. ETOM (and earlier Tom) focuses on the core customer operation process of activation, assurance, and billing (FAB. Here, operational support and readiness are distinguished from the FAB real-time process to better reflect the support and automation in FAB, that is, online and Instant Support for customers. The strategic and contractual vertical layers and the two survival management vertical layers are also differentiated, because they do not directly support customers, therefore, it is different from the operation process and the work of different business survival periods.

The horizontal process grouping in Figure 1.2 separates functional operation processes from other types of business functional processes (such as marketing and sales, service development and service configuration ). The left-side functional process (in strategy and Conventions, infrastructure lifecycle management, and product lifecycle management vertical Process Groups) ensures, supports, and guides the work in the Operation vertical group.

 

Figure1.2: eTOMBusiness process framework-The1Level Process

 

From Figure 1.2, we can see that eTOM has made the following improvements to the advanced TOM framework:

• Extends the scope of all enterprise processes
• Because the importance of the market process in the E-Commerce World has been improved, the market process is independent.
• The enterprise management process is independent so that everyone in the enterprise can determine their key processes, thus improving the acceptance of the process framework throughout the enterprise.
• The activation, assurance, and billing (FAB) are moved to the top-level framework view, emphasizing that the customer priority process is the focus of the enterprise.
• Defines operational support and ready vertical process groups for all functional layers (excluding enterprise management. In order to integrate e-commerce with customer self-management, enterprises must understand the processes required to support direct, more and more online customer Operation Support and customer self-management.
• By separating the SIP process (Strategy and convention, infrastructure survival management, and product survival management), three enterprise process groups different from the operation process are identified.
• Determine the different cycles of the Strategy and lifecycle management process and distinguish these processes from the Customer Priority operation process that requires automation. This is achieved by separating strategy and Conventions and two lifetime management processes from the daily and hourly periods of the customer's operation process.
• From customer-oriented care or service to customer management focusing on customer self-management and control, the customer's value to the enterprise and the use of information to achieve customer customization and personalized value are improved. It also adds more elements to the customer operation function layer to better display the sales process and integrate marketing satisfaction with customer relationship management. It should be noted that eTOM has a wide range of definition of Customer Relationship Management, which is wider than some CRM definitions.
• By integrating network and system management functions into resource management and operation, we acknowledge the need to manage resources across various technologies (application, computing, and network. It also moves it management to this function layer, instead of grouping the content independently in Tom.

 

Tom's background

The Service Management Business Process Model (that is, the subsequent telecom operation diagram) aims to drive the process, input, output, and activity agreements required for service provider operation management. Its focus and scope are operation and operation management. It can serve the communications industry well, including the recently emerging mobile and information service market segments. By using it, you can better understand the process of service providers and drive solutions for service providers in business and Operation Systems/software. With the development of Tom, it can be used to deal with the current problems, requirements and trends (such as the integration of e-commerce), so Tom will remain the core of the eTOM business process framework in the future.

Currently, Tom 2.1 is the business process framework or model of the TMF forum. Many service providers around the world use it as their own operational business process framework. Many vendors use Tom as the basis for product development and sales. Tom will remain valid until the TMF Forum member approves eTOM. Tom's extension is called eTOM, which has two basic reasons: First, members of the TMF Forum always want to extend Tom into a complete enterprise business process framework, and second, using e-commerce and the Internet is the key to success in today's environment. Tom is not enough to address the needs of e-commerce for the business environment, business driving force, the e-commerce integration process, and the increasing complexity of Service Provider business relationships. It is also important that Tom does not use the process model method that begins to provide necessary connections for NGOSS system work. The NGOSS program drives the development of the infrastructure framework of public systems. In such a framework, components with good performance are completely plug-and-play. The core of success in e-commerce is flexible application infrastructure. Therefore, the connection between eTOM and the system environment of the TMF forum is critical.

Figure 1.3 shows the advanced view of the telecom operation diagram since Tom 2.1.

 

 

Figure1.3:Telecom operation diagram and Business Process Model

 

Customer: Customer

 

Customer interface management processes: Customer interface management process

 

Sales, order handling, problem handling, customer QoS Management, invoicing and collections: Sales, order processing, problem handling, Customer quality management, pricing, and Billing

Customer Care Processes: Customer Care Process

 

Service Planning and Development: service planning and development

Service configuration: service configuration

Service problem management: service issue management

Service quality management: Service Quality Management

Rating and discounting: pricing and discounts

Service development and operations processes: Service development and operation process

 

Network Planning and Development: network planning and development

Network Provisioning

Network inventory management: Network inventory management

Network maintenance & restoration: network maintenance and recovery

Network Data Management: Network Data Management

Network and systems management processes: Network and system management process

 

Network Element Management Processes: Network Element Management Process

 

Physical Network and Information Technology: Physical network and information technology

 

Information Systems Management Processes: Information System Management Process

 

ETOM inherits the power of Tom

 

Because Tom has the following powerful functions, it is an "de facto" industry standard for service provider operation management:

• Focuses on business processes
• Customer-driven approach
• Top-down direction
• Direct and natural descriptions and Methods
• In an intuitive form, the service provider can immediately understand that it is the way of operation or the way it should be taken
• Natural Operation Management
• Widely used among service providers, vendors, and media
• Great flexibility and support for most SP process models

These powerful features make Tom the driving framework of the service provider's operating system and software solutions.

ETOM has not weakened these features. It will continue to serve as a business process framework and focus more on processes and rules. In an e-commerce environment, the relationship between entities is the first in the process. ETOM will strengthen the customer-driven approach, because today and tomorrow's world will involve customers in controlling the world. E-commerce has switched the market from supply to demand and from push to pull. In eTOM, the top-down method is naturally retained, not only because this method is the core concept of Tom, but also because it is a business process modeling method that can withstand the test.

Many people studying eTOM have accepted the overall framework of eTOM. During the design of eTOM, the TMF forum made great efforts to keep it simple and direct. However, since it is a broader framework and more complex than the existing Tom, it is impossible to direct it like Tom.

 

Why is it eTOM?

Static changes will certainly lose leadership in Business Process Model Construction and Management, so it will not bring value to the communication industry. In the e-commerce environment, static changes to any enterprise will lead to disasters. Although Tom is extremely successful, he needs to develop it to adapt to and lead the changes in the communications industry and the needs of various organizations to participate in the work. In addition, to meet the requirements of the NGOSS system environment, Tom must develop into a framework integrating e-commerce and Internet capabilities. The business world is changing rapidly. We must recognize the industry changes in the next five years. In future versions, other goals that eTOM needs to achieve include:

• Create a database for a process stream instance
• Encourage and support various processes for eTOM
• Adjust process input, activity, and output

ETOM is not just a document

The previous release of eTOM 1.0 is a very large document that contains all the process decomposition, descriptions, and process flows developed at that time. Such a large document is released to improve it in the future. The fast start of eTOM 1.0 is too large. Therefore, the current eTOM business process framework is a collection of multiple documents and models. The structure is as follows:

• This article-eTOM: business process framework, which is the core document that explains all elements of the overall framework and framework, however, it only provides a brief process description for the highest level of conceptual view (Level 0th, level 1st, level 2nd, and level 3.
• ETOM implementation Overview: it will be released in the near future. It is an important short document that provides an overview view of the eTOM business process framework and highlights key concepts.
• The two appendixes of the eTOM version 1.0 document are now documented and will be released in the future:

ETOM standards and guidelines

ETOM Business Process Modeling

The eTOM business process framework model provides the eTOM framework, process, and process flow that will be automatically processed by the modeling tool. This part will be published in several forms:

• Tool-based forms (for example, casewise enterprise model tools)
• HTML Format
• MS word form

 

 

 

[TMF eTOM] business process framework