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XML glue: an XML workflow and integration layer for telecommunication providers.

Article Excerpt
There are a number of skeletons in the closets of today's telecommunication service providers. One of the scariest is that most service providers cannot successfully deliver on the promises they make as service-level commitments to their customers. Not do not or will not. Cannot. For many reasons, successful service-level management in the competitive telecom arena remains a theory -- full of unfulfilled potential and many broken promises.

The OSS

When I was younger I had a sign on my monitor that read "to err is human; to really make a mess requires a computer." This is a bit misleading since the problem isn't with computer systems per se. It results from a correlation between complex businesses and businesses that utterly depend on software.

The telecommunication industry is one of the most complex industry verticals in the world. Telecommunication providers are faced with many technologies (SS7, ATM, IP telephony, PBXs, etc.) that need to operate at very high efficiency and very low margins. They serve a huge consumer base and offer very diverse products. It's safe to say that as a business operation, telecommunication providers are among the most advanced in the world.

In order to manage such a complex operation, these providers have many IT systems that work together to run a smooth operation (at least that's the intent). These systems can be part of the customer-facing layer or the operations layer. The focus of running an efficient operation is the set of systems categorized as Operational Support Systems -- the OSS.

The key to a practical solution to the problems mentioned above is to collaboratively integrate the OSS and develop automated business rules and workflow processes. Especially important is the need to define the workflow process from end to end and to identify and consider all the handoffs and touch points between other organizations, systems, and workflows and other business processes. Every party involved in the workflow must continually collaborate with the others so as to execute effectively. Experience has shown that most departments or organizations do a credible job within their particular sphere of influence. It's when the order or ticket is handed off (or what one party thought was a handoff) to another organization that the potential for delay, nonperformance, miscommunication, or simply losing track of the job is at its highest.

An Example Nightmare

A real-world example: many large service providers planned for...

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