Globe Business Case
AMDOCS | jNetX Customer and Business Case
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Customer and Business Case Executive Summary Continually enhancing prepaid subscriber loyalty is a major business focus for premier telecom service provider Globe Telecom. Philippinesbased Globe wanted to reduce time to market for new services, increase service innovation, and to enhance prepaid loyalty. Overall, Globe wanted to increase business flexibility. A complex, siloed service architecture was hindering these goals and was also expensive to operate and maintain. Globe turned to Amdocs for help with a strategic transformation of its service layer to a common horizontal architecture [Service Delivery Framework (SDF)]. As part of the SDF deployment, Globe selected Amdocs jNetX Service Broker to deliver any service on any network to any user. Results include reducing time to market from months to weeks, a double-digit increase in ARPU, tripling take-up of broadband promotions, reducing operations costs, and cost avoidance of approximately $1 million U.S. by enhancing capacity with the Amdocs jNetX solution. Globe now benefits from Amdocs’ next-generation service delivery platform, a foundation that prepares Globe for future network evolution and places Globe in a strong competitive position in the Philippines market.
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Company at a Glance • Globe Telecom, Inc. (Globe™) • Headquarters: Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila, Philippines • Major provider of telecommunications services in the Philippines • Web site: www.globe.com.ph • Stock Exchange: Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) with ticker symbol GLO • Annual Service Revenues (2009): US $1.35 billion • Lines of Business: wireless, fixed-line, broadband • Number of Employees: 5,450 (as of June 30, 2010) • Number of Mobile Subscribers: approximately 24.6 million (as of June 30, 2010)
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Challenges, Solution and Results at a Glance Challenges • Enhancing prepaid subscriber loyalty • Improving service innovation • Reducing time to market
Solution • Amdocs jNetX to help achieve a strategic transformation of the Globe service layer • Move away from proprietary systems and reduce operating expenses by deploying the standards-based, convergent Amdocs jNetX solution • Increase business agility by eliminating silos in service layer architecture with Amdocs jNetX • Implement Amdocs jNetX Service Broker to enable increased services, especially in the vital mobile broadband market • Globe is now able to: o Introduce any new service from any vendor/technology (IN, IMS or Web Services based) o Deliver these services to any Globe prepaid or postpaid subscriber o Develop and provide each service with an independent roadmap that does not impact the others
• Increased prepaid subscriber loyalty and customer satisfaction • Reduced time to market for new services to just weeks instead of months • Tripling take-up of broadband promotions • Cost avoidance of approximately $1 million U.S. by enhancing capacity with the Amdocs platform • Reduced internal costs for operations and maintenance • Double-digit increase in ARPU with increased service volume • Protected investment by leveraging legacy IN services while introducing new services • Enhanced competitive differentiation by enabling service innovation including the introduction of a wide range of mobile broadband services • Enabled potential new revenue streams with enhanced infrastructure flexibility
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Results
The Business Problems “Our primary challenge was flexibility: we needed to be able to make innovative offers to our subscribers, especially in the prepaid broadband area that is one of the most popular service types in the Philippines today,” said Mario Domingo, Head of Product Design and Service Creation at Globe Telecom. With multiple inflexible, multi-vendor IN prepaid systems, it was not possible for Globe to quickly and cost-effectively introduce new features and services to its overall prepaid user base. Globe turned to Amdocs to help address this issue by deploying a new SDP solution including the Amdocs jNetX Service Broker.
Need to address prepaid loyalty With approximately 25 million mobile subscribers, Globe Telecom is the second largest mobile service provider in the Philippines. Prepaid penetration in the Philippines is one the highest in the world (approximately 98 percent), consequently, Globe Philippines subscribers’ base is almost exclusively prepaid. Prepaid users do not have contracts and, as such, have a low barrier to churn. They essentially follow the best prices, which can reduce ARPU. In order to counter churn and increase ARPU, Globe made a strategic plan to increase its service offerings to prepaid users.
Need to extend existing IN services’ lifespan Like many other service providers, Globe Telecom has built its service layer architecture over time, introducing, with each new silo, solutions for Voice, SMS, MMS, etc.
© 2010 The Moriana Group. All Rights Reserved.
As a result, many silos/island applications have been developed over the years. This has created a complex system of IT and Network elements supporting specific business requirements, along with buried or unexposed capabilities of the underlying infrastructure.
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Need to reduce high Operating Expenses (OPEX) Most of the legacy IN services installed in the Globe network were not flexible enough to enable service innovation and they were also far from cost-effective to maintain and to operate. These concerns motivated Globe to move away from a proprietary system to a standards-based convergent solution that could help reduce OPEX.
Need to enable SS7 to NGN convergence flexibility In addition to the high OPEX, most of the Globe legacy IN services did not handle any convergence across SS7 and Next Generation Networks, such as IMS or IP. As a consequence, it was not possible to use any existing IN services for new IMS customers or to combine any existing IN services with innovative IMS or WS services.
Need to reduce time to market
The overall Amdocs jNetX Solution “Our architectural infrastructure lacked the flexibility to generate new offers rapidly, and this was dangerous in a volatile broadband market,” Domingo explained. “We partnered with Amdocs to help us gain the agility to grab market share by attracting and retaining prepaid subscribers.” To address its challenges, Globe targeted a strategic transformation of its service layer, with the following clear goals:
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Launching a new service was a long process, so that when the service was finally launched, it was often too late for the market. On average, nine weeks were required for Scoping, eight weeks for Business Case Validation and 18 weeks for Development and Testing. In total, an average of 35 weeks was needed, which was obviously too long.
• Reduce time-to-market for Globe services • Maximize use and re-use of existing capabilities Globe focused on creating a common horizontal architecture or Service Delivery Framework (SDF) from which it can provision, control and bill for all composite services, whether such services are created internally or by third-party application developers; thereby, offering customers a combination of services. Domingo stated that Amdocs’ strong reputations in the convergence and prepaid areas were major elements in choosing the Amdocs solution. “Amdocs is known globally for its strength in charging, rating, BSS and OSS solutions,” Domingo said. “In selecting the Amdocs jNetX solution here at Globe, we were very aware of Amdocs’ reputation for customer focus and innovative products.”
A full-blown SDF solution including Amdocs jNetX Service Broker A new Service Delivery Framework solution significantly reduces the amount of time it takes to develop and deploy new services and provide Globe with maximum re-use of existing systems. This SDF solution comprises the following two essential components. 1. A network layer composed of the Amdocs jNetX Service Broker, providing the Network Abstraction, Service Control and Service Brokering functionality, supporting SS7 based interaction (for the MSC, HLR and IN platforms) and a NextGeneration IP-based network.
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2. An IT layer or Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) layer providing IP-based interactions for the Messaging Gateways, Location Servers and especially the Globe proprietary provisioning systems and provisioning interfaces for the prepaid and postpaid platforms. The SDF solution provides network abstraction, enabling it to deliver greater flexibility and rapid service creation through modular, reusable application programming interfaces, carrier-grade scalability and creation of a highly extensible architecture.
The Service Brokering solution In order to solve its main business challenge of increasing the loyalty of its prepaid subscribers, Globe is now offering an expanding range of new mobile broadband services to its entire prepaid customer base. New services including Community and Location services and Voice and SMS Bonuses are enabled by the deployment Amdocs jNetX Service Broker.
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The Amdocs jNetX Service Composition / Blending
When a call requiring some particular intelligence is established, the MSC/Switch, responsible for routing this call, interrupts its call establishment and triggers, through an SSF (Service Switching Function) an Intelligent Network Application Server in order to know what to do with this call. This call establishment follows a model called BCSM (Basic Call State Model). This model is standardized, very well defined, rigid, and based on a complex state-machine. This model was not conceived to handle multiple IN application invocations per call establishment. As a result, traditional TEMs have developed some workarounds to allow several IN applications to be invoked during a single call establishment. One of these workarounds pertaining to the SSF enables the possibility of doing
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For historical reasons, Globe was using two legacy IN Prepaid platforms from two different Telecommunication Equipment Manufacturers (TEMs). This meant that some prepaid subscribers were attached to a first legacy IN Prepaid platform, while others were attached to the second legacy IN Prepaid platform from a different vendor. Because of this multi-vendor IN environment, Globe was unable to combine IN services across its entire prepaid subscriber base before Amdocs jNetX Service Broker was deployed.
multiple triggering. However, with such a solution, only one IN application is able to control the call (i.e. being in interrupt mode), the other IN applications can only be notified (i.e. in notify mode). Furthermore, this solution is mono-protocol (for example, both IN and AS need to run on top of CAPv2). Another solution, developed by traditional TEMs, consists of combining applications that are running inside a single SCP by adding an initial small application script that jumps internally to the appropriate applications. Of course, such a solution only works for applications coming from the same TEM and running on a single SCP. This pushes service providers towards a vendor lock-in situation. As a result, and as mentioned above, for a long time, it was not possible to combine IN services in a multi-vendor environment. Obviously this limited service providers’ capabilities to market new services by combining existing IN services. Using the Amdocs jNetX Service Broker, Globe has been able to immediately introduce new Location and Community services to all of its prepaid subscribers by supporting the service composition between the new applications and the two existing legacy IN Prepaid services.
© 2010 The Moriana Group. All Rights Reserved.
In addition, always with the objective to retain prepaid subscribers, Globe is now offering Voice and SMS bonuses to its entire prepaid customer base. Globe has one IN platform from one vendor for Voice Bonus and another IN platform from a different vendor for SMS Bonus. Here again, the Amdocs jNetX Service Broker is used to handle the service composition between the various Bonus platforms and the two legacy IN Prepaid platforms, while enabling the offloading of the legacy IN Prepaid whenever possible. The following high level call flows elucidates this service composition or service blending:
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1. A call is made. The Amdocs jNetX Service Broker decides which set of services to invoke for that call. 2. The Community Service is invoked first to check if the call is made within the community (special announcements, pricing, barring rules may apply). 3. The Bonus Service is then invoked to check whether or not the call can be allowed for free (with maximum call duration) 4. The call is allowed free of charge: 4a OR the call needs to be charged: 4b. 5. The charged call goes on.
The Amdocs jNetX Protocols Conversion / Capabilities Exposure
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In addition to the Service Composition or Service Blending presented in the previous section, the Amdocs jNetX Service Broker offers unique protocol conversion and network capabilities exposure functions. The following figure highlights the main protocol conversion and network capabilities exposure used in the Globe project.
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Initially deployed
Future deployment
Protocol Conversion • CAP X to CAP Y • CAP to INAP CS1x • INAP CS1x to CAP
Protocol Conversion • CAP/INAP to SIP (re-IM-SSF) • SIP to CAP/INAP (IM-SSF)
Network Capability Exposure • CAP to Web Services • INAP to Web Services • MAP to Web Services
Network Capability Exposure • Any Network protocol to Web Services
As the Amdocs jNetX Service Broker benefits from the convergent Amdocs jNetX technology, virtually all proprietary IN protocols are or can be supported by the Amdocs jNetX Service Broker. Amdocs jNetX has a proven track record in manipulating IN protocols from several IN vendors, and this vast experience is currently helping Globe to fully exploit its existing IN assets. Benefiting from the service composition, protocol conversion and network capability exposure from the Amdocs jNetX Service Broker, Globe is now able to differentiate its offerings from those of the competition by rapidly introducing a wide range of mobile broadband services. The Amdocs jNetX Service Broker represents a unique opportunity for service providers to fully re-use all of their legacy IN services, while harmonizing its respective service planes.
© 2010 The Moriana Group. All Rights Reserved.
The Benefits to Globe As part of its new SDF deployment, Globe selected the Amdocs jNetX Service Broker to be able to deliver any service on any network to any user. Globe has succeeded in increasing its prepaid subscriber loyalty. In addition, Globe is now benefiting from Amdocs’ next-generation service delivery platform, improving service time to market and solving any network evolution challenges that Globe may face in the future.
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Having deployed the Amdocs jNetX Service Broker, Globe has succeeded in first unlocking its service plane and has been able to achieve the following business objectives: • Introduce ANY new service from ANY vendor/technology (IN, IMS or Web Services based) • Deliver these services to ANY of its Prepaid or Postpaid users • Each service can have its own roadmap and does not impact on other services
1. Increase prepaid subscriber loyalty and customer satisfaction 2. Reduce time to market for new services to just weeks instead of months 3. Triple take-up of broadband promotions 4. Achive cost avoidance of approximately $1 million U.S. by enhancing capacity with the Amdocs platform 5. Reduce internal costs for operations and maintenance 6. Achieve a double-digit increase in ARPU with increased service volume 7. Protect its investment by leveraging legacy IN services while introducing new services 8. Enhance competitive differentiation by enabling service innovation especially in the market-critical area of mobile broadband services 9. Enable potential new revenue streams with enhanced infrastructure flexibility In conclusion, Amdocs jNetX Service Broker has succeeding in helping Globe retain its strong competitive position in the Philippines telecom market. “Amdocs really delivered on its promise of expertise, flexibility and speed,” Domingo stated. “From our initial meetings with Amdocs, we saw that their team was very knowledgeable about the issues we were facing and very committed to helping Globe address these challenges in a timely manner. When there were challenges during the project —including the difficulties of a multi-vendor environment — Amdocs swiftly acted on them. In addition, Amdocs’ continuing account management is excellent.”
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Combined with Globe’s strategic promotional effort, the new Amdocs platform has helped Globe:
ABOUT Amdocs jNetX jNetX, acquired by Amdocs in October 2009, pioneered the use of Java-based technologies to become the leading provider of communications application server solutions for convergent network service environments. Amdocs jNetX provides an extensive portfolio of rich communications applications supported by an expert community of communications application development partners. Together with Amdocs Turbo Charging, Amdocs jNetX is the carrier-class service control point for Amdocs solutions for prepaid services. Over 35 of the world’s leading service providers use Amdocs jNetX solutions, including: • Vodafone Group • Telefónica Group • mobilkom austria Group • British Telecom • Deutsche Telekom • SingTel Group (AIS, Globe, Optus) • eircom Group
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About Amdocs Amdocs is the market leader in customer experience systems innovation. The company combines business and operational support systems, service delivery platforms, proven services, and deep industry expertise to enable service providers and their customers to do more in the connected world. Amdocs’ offerings help service providers explore new business models, differentiate through personalized customer experiences, and streamline operations. A global company with revenue of $2.86 billion in fiscal 2009, Amdocs has approximately 18,000 employees and serves customers in more than 60 countries worldwide. For more information, visit Amdocs at www.amdocs.com.
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This Business Cases was originally published by The Moriana Group in October 2010 in the Free Operator Guide entitled:
Service Broker Operator Guide The Moriana Group Profile The Moriana Group is an independent market analyst specializing in the telecom service layer and next generation networks. Our focus is on: Service Delivery Platforms, Next Generation OSS/BSS, Convergent Charging and Billing, IMS, FMC, VoIP, WiMAX, IPTV, Triple Play Mobile Commerce and Advertising and other key technologies and services. Our mission is to help network operators and service providers to transform their business models, service offerings and network infrastructure. Our objective is to enable operators to create new revenue streams, meet the challenges of the competitive Telecom market and respond to the growing pressure from Internet and Web 2.0 players.
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All Moriana Operator Guides are available as a FREE download from: www.morianagroup.com.
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