The Top Five Functions of Next-Gen BSS
Our recent survey found that service providers are looking for next-gen BSS functionality, but what does that mean?
What Is Next-Gen BSS?
The capabilities that set next-generation BSS apart from other solutions reflects the changes in how many of today's service providers think about their products and core capabilities compared to the past. In a recent survey conducted by European Communications in partnership with Netcracker, 60 service providers shared their views regarding what sets next-gen BSS apart and how it is important to achieving their business goals.
Respondents revealed which benefits of next-gen BSS are critical or very important to success. The five most popular benefits are detailed below.
Integrated Self-Care Portals
Self-care portals are a staple of digital customer and partner interaction: 83 percent of service providers rated them as critical or very important. Users now expect a high degree of control over basic experience factors like favorites, landing pages, dashboard widgets, menus and controls. In the partner realm, a self-care onboarding process that’s as accessible as and no more complex than creating a social media profile is expected.
Innovative Pricing
Market factors now require service providers to consider, match and innovate different pricing and service consumption models. As a result, 83 percent of respondents rated the ability to support an array of pricing models among their most important next-gen BSS capabilities. The communications services market is being disrupted, in large part, by pricing models that offer more choice, more flexibility and more clarity. Service providers are now taking appropriate steps to respond in kind.
Real-Time Transaction Management
Real-time BSS is in some cases a foregone conclusion, especially in a software-centric, digital goods business. Customers expect instantaneous service fulfillment, which makes real-time authentication, authorization, permissions and payments fundamental to next-gen BSS. Seventy-seven percent of respondents said it was critical or very important.
Virtualization-Readiness
Next-gen BSS has to productize and commercialize virtual services and consumption models. Nearly three-quarters of respondents cited a virtualization-ready catalog for bundling SaaS, VNFs and telecom services as critical to success. Revenue will come from virtualization technology faster as a result of partner ecosystems that focus on integration, commercialization and monetization. Being virtualization-ready means being able to quickly roll out fully commercialized, virtualized service bundles.
Centralized Product Catalog
Leveraging a centralized product catalog has long been a goal for digital transformations. The digital environment adds more market pressure to this established trend. Centralized product catalogs are digital enablers. They provide a foundation for omnichannel interactions, digital shopping experiences, customer self-care and product offerings derived from active partner ecosystems.
Next-gen BSS has a complex task ahead of it, given the variety of innovative pricing, payment and consumption models entering the market. Service providers want more speed, flexibility and market-readiness to keep pace with the speed of digital business. This confirms that service providers across the industry are taking action to diversify their offerings, improve customer experience and put pressure on vendors and partners to deliver more innovation to market faster.