What is Business Support Systems in Telecom
Business Support Systems (BSS) is the software and processes required for the “back office” to function. Typically, for a telecom operator, the scope of BSS includes managing rating, orders, products, billing, fraud, and customer relations. Also included are providing revenue assurance and business intelligence.
Operation Support Systems (OSS) refers to the network-centric elements, such as design, configuration, and monitoring; fault management; infrastructure security; and service fulfilment, quality, and assurance.
Market Size and Growth Trends
According to Ovum, annual revenues for the global OSS/BSS market will grow from $54.3 billion in 2015 to $63.1 billion in 2020, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.05 per cent.
Meanwhile, the analyst firm forecasts that OSS and BSS revenues will keep pace with each other. OSS revenues will increase from $29.1 billion in 2015 to $33.7 billion in 2020(a 3 per cent CAGR). The growth in the OSS segment is expected to be driven by network management requirements- particularly network monitoring and optimization. BSS revenues will increase from $25.1 billion in 2015 to $29.3 billion in 2020 (a 3.1 per cent CAGR). Revenue management is expected to drive BSS growth at a CAGR of almost 5 per cent through 2020.
In addition, the revenue/business model usually deployed in this sector is undergoing a change. In the period under consideration, software-led revenues will witness a marginal decline from $22 billion in 2015 to $21.9 billion in 2020, while service-led revenues will increase from $32.2 billion in 2015 to $41.1 billion in 2020 (a CAGR of just over 5 per cent). Cloud-based services will drive overall growth in OSS and BSS service revenue, especially since telecom operators are likely to shift to software-as-a-service (SaaS) and virtualized networks.
Region-wise, OSS and BSS revenue growth will be the highest in Western Europe and Asia-Pacific, while Latin America will witness the largest CAGR through 2020, growing at a rate of 3.9 per cent.
Key Growth Drivers
According to industry reports, the global OSS/BSS solutions market is chiefly driven by the rising adoption of convergent billon systems, increased demand for highly efficient customer care across major industries, and the steadily growth of the global telecommunication industry. However, there are also certain challenges facing this space-namely-the inability to integrate new OSS/BSS solutions with conventional systems and certain regulatory-related issues.
Likely Future Trends
- According to industry analysts, OSS and BSS vendors are likely to leverage the fact that network operators are becoming increasingly inclined towards outsourcing a certain part of their back-office functions.
- Meanwhile, another trend will be the transition to next-generation networks, and the associated need for new management and support systems.
- Transparency Market Research is of the view that the growing demand for convergent billing systems is likely to be a major trend, going forward.
