NEW YORK-The telecommunications environment has become so dynamic that it is forcing rapid and radical change in the way internal information technology departments and external middleware providers operate.
Carriers’ legacy computer systems are scalable and reliable but also resistant to change. Even some middleware companies brought in as systems integrators are having a difficult time keeping pace with demands for provisioning of services, supply chain management, field force automation and electronic commerce transactions.
“You see this in billing systems. The market changes so fast, lots of money is spent to respond, but the changes are not fast enough,” said Bob Ferguson, vice president of Perot Systems’ Communications and Media Division.
“Perot Systems had a reliance on legacy systems, which caused problems for our customers, so we want to extract our clients from that stranglehold.”
In the telecommunications area, Perot Systems has joined forces with operations support systems provider Kabira Technologies Inc., said Ferguson.
Kabira’s “LiquiFi” technology, “offers a new approach to architecture” based on “the liquidity of information across a company’s systems,” he said.
The combined effort will be based on existing standards for seamless interconnection with existing systems. Its goal is to provide new services “on the fly” without requiring removal of existing IT systems.
“Perot Systems writes the back-end systems process engineering. … All at once, we are commoditizing a service that has been built by hand until now,” said Grover Righter, vice president of marketing for Kabira.
From the Gartner Group’s perspective, one of the most important possibilities opened up by the Kabira-Perot collaboration is its revitalization of business process modeling, or “try before you buy,” said Jim Sinur, vice president and research director.
“This is especially important for companies that have grown by acquisition and need to integrate legacy systems or for companies that want to analyze potential mergers and acquisitions,” he said.
Of equal importance to end-user satisfaction, the Kabira-Perot partnering relationship will enable other companies to conduct simulations of supply chain scenarios. This will allow them to advance plan for alternatives in cases where the first choice of product or material becomes unavailable or is delayed in delivery.
“Business process modeling that includes services builds on middleware provision and will become the next level above it,” Sinur said.
“We are moving to a world of hybrid applications that requires preparation for specific yet open processes. This will require (internal) IT departments to think dynamically instead of calcifying rules in order to protect their jobs. Applications providers, systems integrators, will either improve their skills or they’re toast.”
Wireless telecommunications carriers still need scalability, more so now than ever, but they also want to avoid being “trapped in a stove pipe, like WAP or Palm,” Sinur said.
Compounding the complexity of demands placed on internal systems is the “significant growth in customer-facing apps designed for handhelds, smart phones and PDA,” he added. These multiple access points require infrastructure able to store and forward many kinds of data, including service provisioning, order tracking, telecommunications usage and e-commerce transactions.
“There is a strong surge in Europe, and the United States will follow quickly. Its common infrastructure and ability to provide cellular dial tone consistently puts Europe at the forefront,” Sinur said.
In Europe, Perot Systems is working with British Telecommunications plc and Deutsche Telekom AG. It also has a joint venture with KPN Telecom to upgrade the carrier’s OSS system to enable outsourcing of these services to the growing number of new carriers in the Netherlands’ newly deregulated telecommunications market, Ferguson said.
“We are working closely with BT Cellnet, which was first to put in WAP and first to get a GPRS system up and running. They looked immediately to rolling out these services to business customers,” said Randall A. Dence, vice president of business planning and development for w-Technologies Inc.
“Originally (non-carrier) clients thought wireless was just a bolt-on, but now companies see it as a segment in its own right. It’s not `Honey, I shrunk the desktop.’ “
