Cutting-Edge BSS Transformation for a Leading Telco

Business challenge

Our client is a global software solution integrator helping a leading German telecommunications service provider transform their business support systems (BSS) using the latest cloud technologies. The BSS transformation focused on modernizing the telco’s IT architecture to optimize customer services, launch products faster, and reduce operating costs.

As the COVID-19 pandemic had affected their workforce capacity, our client partnered with the Intellias team to implement this ambitious project. Given our expertise in cloud software development, the client tasked us with modernizing the legacy BSS to revolutionize and future-proof the telecom operator’s entire IT landscape.

We established a comprehensive cooperation model to deliver a variety of cloud-based solutions, from inventory management and billing to customer portals, apps, and eShops. Moving BSS to the cloud would enable the telecom operator to streamline business operations, improve customer satisfaction, and cut overhead.

Solution delivered

A fundamental digital shift

As telecom companies reconsider the way they operate and deliver products and services to users, integrating innovative digital technologies offers significant optimization opportunities. Costly on-premises data centers used for running IT applications don’t provide enough capacity and flexibility to fulfill current business needs, let alone meet future market demands. Recognizing this, the German telco decided to consider cloud BSS as a strategic development direction to reinforce their IT architecture.

Over 60 systems need to be migrated to the cloud within the BSS transformation process. The resulting ecosystem will include about 200 microservices running in multiple cloud environments. Using standardized systems such as Salesforce for easy product integrations will also reduce the telco’s need to develop proprietary systems. Intellias vast experience building highly integrated cloud solutions and telecom software development expertise proved advantageous in undertaking this fundamental shift.

Parallel development streams

To meet high engineering demands for the telco’s BSS transformation, we explored new labor markets to find best-fit developers with the required skill sets and backgrounds. Within a month, we pulled together a team of 15 lead engineers versed in frontend, backend, DevOps, and architecture development.

To ensure a smooth transition to cloud BSS, we are working in two development streams: 1) maintaining existing systems and 2) moving BSS to the cloud as part of digital transformation. Modernizing the legacy BSS requires us to create a brand-new architecture based on cloud microservices and to completely revamp the frontend codebase.

Multi-cloud environment

When transforming the BSS via cloud services, the telecom operator wanted to establish a multi-cloud infrastructure based on several cloud platforms. Such an environment allows for capturing the benefits of each platform while mitigating its downsides. This provides organizations with great flexibility and competitive pricing.

We leveraged our expertise working with all major cloud providers to help our client build a high-performing, reliable, cloud-native BSS to accelerate the digital transformation of the entire telecom ecosystem. Among many systems that we transformed using cloud-native microservices were the API Gateway, Point of Sale, Self-Service, and other telecom and enterprise-level IT platforms.

Business outcome

Many telecom organizations are planning to transform their legacy operating models to reap the benefits of moving BSS to the cloud, and we provide the technical knowledge needed to implement it. Geographical and cultural proximity to the end customer allowed us to respond promptly to their needs and deliver effective results. By employing innovative technologies such as cloud-based solutions, a microservice architecture, and multi-cloud deployment, we laid the foundation for seamless BSS transformation with the expected outcomes:

• A leaner cloud-driven IT architecture that will streamline operations support systems (OSS) by reducing operating costs by up to 30% three years from now.
• Halve the time to market for telecom products by having both OSS and BSS in the cloud, significantly improving customer satisfaction.
• With data centers deployed in the cloud, up to 80% of all applications will run as cloud-based BSS/OSS, providing improved scalability and portfolio management.
• The multi-cloud environment will allow the end customer to mitigate vendor lock-in and provide flexibility to get the most value from any cloud provider.

As a reliable engineering partner and technology consultant, we are helping our client gain a competitive edge in the dynamically evolving telecom market through their OSS/BSS transformation.