Optiva Powering Business Innovation with BSS Offerings

Spotlight on BSS Innovations | TelecomDrive.com

At a time when telecom operators and CSPs are increasingly looking forward to reducing complexities in their network as well as generating new revenue streams – implementing the right BSS strategy holds the big key to success and it is extremely important to find the right BSS partner — a vendor that can work side-by-side with the operator on their BSS journey. Canada based Optiva is one such organisation that has been driving a lot of meaningful innovation in the BSS space.

Matthew Halligan, CTO, Optiva speaks with Zia Askari from TelecomDrive.com about the company’s current business strategy and how it is bringing BSS-driven innovation in the market.

What are the key priorities for you as the CTO of the company?

The simple answer is Customer Success. The how is more involved, of course.

I need to ensure our products solve the problems that the customers have today while laying the product foundation for their future needs, which means successfully delivering to their business goals. I need to ensure that we are trustworthy — we do what we say we will do, and we do it well.

This means an on-schedule, first-time-right culture. We are focused on being an innovator and thought leader in our domain and setting the direction and pace for the digital transformation of the BSS market — beyond technology to encompass delivery models (CI/CD) and commercial models (subscription/SaaS).

How do you look at the fast-emerging cloud-driven BSS market? How is Optiva positioned in this segment?

I joined Optiva because there is real opportunity to differentiate, and the timing is imminent — so it excites me. Optiva is in a privileged space in that it has a solid customer base. It has already evolved and delivered into the cloud. It has transformed itself around cloud technologies with a true CI/CD model, so the building blocks are there.

We have the unique opportunity to partner with our existing customers and help them evolve to take advantage of our experience in cloud transformation. We have the opportunity to bring new capabilities and functionalities CSPs will need while ensuring business continuity and reducing the risks driven by the use of cloud technologies.

As the company is investing heavily in R&D, we have the opportunity to support the execution of new business use-cases, coupled with CI/CD means we can get this to market quickly. New customers are a key focus also as there is real opportunity in this transformation to showcase to the CSP our solutions and our vision and commitment to that vision.

What are some of the innovative offerings that we can expect from Optiva in the coming months?

In 2021, we complete the cloud-native transformation of our best-in-breed OCS and best-in-suite BSS, so we can serve the spectrum of operators. We will expand and continue to address multi-play use cases — offering a compelling, cost-effective offering, minimizing risk and accelerating time to market for the operator.  We are delivering our optimizations through automation and CI/CD all the way to the customer — this is a key part of our solution.

How important is BSS in 5G era and how can an efficient BSS strategy increase monetization opportunities for CSPs?

The BSS has a basic and mandatory function across the network technologies, whether 3G, 4G, or 5G. However, the BSS can deliver business and market differentiation to telecoms operators by offering flexible and innovative monetization opportunities beyond connectivity.

This is growing more critical as both Capex and Opex become challenged, and the means to protect ARPU and grow subscribers become paramount. Enabling the capability to introduce new offerings, increase your service velocity and go to market quickly and cost-effectively is the new competitive advantage.

Enabling the operator to innovate — with service bundles, try new markets, new commercial models, iterate quickly, employ the Silicon Valley “fast fail” model and enhance with 360 detail on their subscriber base — will provide our customers the attitude and ability to be on the offensive in pursuing their business goals.

In today's fast-paced ever-changing technology landscape — how can operators future-proof their investment by enabling the right BSS solution?

It is critical to find the right BSS partner — a vendor that will line up and work side-by-side with the operator on the cloud journey, collaborate and evolve their current mode of operation to deliver business value by leveraging technology that achieves this cost-effectively — having an open architecture that has been designed with extensibility. Further to this is the ability to effectively integrate with 3rd parties that enhance the BSS solution and ultimately deliver new revenue streams and improved customer experience. Enable business innovation through an innovative BSS solution — that is our goal.