CSPs: What’s your BSS sourcing and partnering strategy, and is it truly 5G-ready?
That’s the central question addressed by Gartner’s Market Guide for CSP Business Support System Solutions, which explores the BSS landscape, how new technology is changing it, and what you, as a CSP, need to do to be ready.
Today’s CSPs are well aware that a sea-change is upon us. 5G, AI, automation, IoT, and edge computing are changing what’s possible in a communications network and also changing CSP customer expectations around digital engagement. Demand for consistent low latency has never been greater, and everything that was being said about digital transformation five years ago is now actually starting to happen.
What this means from a CSP perspective is that the whatever approach you’ve been taking to business support system (BSS) solutions is probably not going to cut it moving forward. There’s just too much new stuff going on and too many new technologies to consider.
Most CSPs are in the process of completely rethinking their BSS strategy to reflect our new realities, but not many of them even know where to begin to look to make these big decisions.
A new Gartner guide, the Market Guide for CSP Business Support System Solutions, provides 24 pages of deep insights into the issues CSPs are facing around figuring out their BSS strategies. The guide covers:
Table Of Contents
1. The current BSS market landscape for CSPs
What are the demand and supply factors affecting the BSS landscape for CSPs?
There are at least 50 vendors offering BSS solutions to CSPs but most provide only partial solutions, and there is significant misalignment in the market, with CSP needs not matching BSS projects or BSS vendors’ product positioning.
Also—both CSPs and BSS vendors are approaching the changes in BSS-related capabilities in many different ways, from using LOB-oriented solutions to enhancing old BSS products to adopting new BSS solutions.
The guide notes that the BSS market saw increased action in 2019 and early 2020 compared to 2017 and 2018. This action involved a focus on certain business requirements such as solutions for B2B, wholesale, IoT, and second brands. But there were some key differences in the scope and size of BSS projects, which the guide explains.
2. The main technologies driving new BSS investments and projects
From 5G to cloud-native solutions to monetization, there are a number of new technologies playing into the evolving needs of CSPS. How are CSPs incorporating these technologies and how have their BSS vendors responded?
The guide discusses where BSS vendors are focusing their efforts and investments between services, cloud, and functionality. Are they deploying more on public cloud, private cloud, or on-premises? B2B or B2C? Graphs detail all of these answers.
3. The profiles of 18 representative BSS vendors
The guide reviews 18 vendors that represent a wide variety of BSS solutions, offering different portfolios, go-to-market approaches and focus areas for various segments of CSPs. It covers each vendor’s strengths, key partners and customers, and investment focus.
Moving forward, CSPs will need to adopt a much broader perspective on business and IT transformation, one that incorporates the rapidly changing technological landscape. This new perspective should guide their sourcing of products and choosing of BSS vendors. Gartner’s Market Guide for CSP Business Support System Solutions is the perfect first step.
Access the full Gartner BSS Solutions Guide for CSPs.
Gartner, Market Guide for CSP Business Support System Solutions, Amresh Nandan, Chris Meering, Jouni Forsman, 12 October 2020
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