OSS/BSS of systems (Russian market)

There are two types of systems:

• OSS (Operation Support System) - systems responsible for interaction with the telecommunication environment: telecommunication networks, switching equipment, PBXs, hardware communication systems, etc., designed to support the operation of telecommunication systems of the telecommunications enterprise.
• BSS (Business Support System) - systems that provide support for the business processes of telecommunications operators, primarily in one way or another closed for interaction with subscribers.

The functionality of OSS and BSS solutions often intersects and interpenetrates, so there are many integrated solutions on the market. In this regard, the abbreviation OSS/BSS, sometimes BOSS, is used to denote the general market. The TeleManagement Forum is engaged in the standardization of OSS/BSS systems and the development of concepts for their further development at the international level.

2024: The volume of the Russian BSS market at the end of the year is estimated at 52.7 billion rubles

On April 8, 2025, the company Nexign ("Nexain") announced that it had conducted research on the BSS market. Its goal is to explore how business strategies and the transformation of telecom operators Russia CIS and influence the development of their business systems, as well as what functionality and technologies of BSS they plan to invest in in the next three years. The survey involved 77 executives and technical specialists of the largest mobile and fixed companies communications using telecommunications: ON OSS/BSS, - CRM platform.

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Фото: Nexign

As reported, the Russian market for BSS systems that automate key business processes of operators, including customer management, tariff plans and services, billing and billing, continues to grow actively. Analysts estimated its volume at 52.7 billion rubles. at the end of 2024, and by 2027 it can reach 110.6 billion rubles. with a projected growth of an average of 28% per year. Several key factors influence the market dynamics.

In the next 1-2 years, the majority of survey participants plan to invest in the modernization or replacement of BSS (61%), which is associated with the transformation of telecom business and the development of new areas outside it.

According to the results of the study, the main changes in the structure of telecom business revenue in the next 3-5 years, respondents call the transition from traditional services to digital (48%), the growth of b2b/b2g directions (43%), an increase in revenue from cloud services and data centers (35%) and focus on ecosystem development (26%). The same trends are observed in the international telecom market: for example, according to the TM Forum report, most operators see revenue growth prospects in the b2b segment - in the provision of cloud services, security and professional services.

The transformation of the operators' business entails changes in the IT infrastructure. In particular, it involves improving the key digital tool for managing business and customer interaction - BSS. This is due to the fact that it is either impossible or long and expensive to run new services on current systems. Upgraded BSS make it more efficient, faster and cheaper. In addition, operators are upgrading systems to meet the requirements of the regulator, replacing software no longer supported by foreign vendors, ensuring personalization and work with big data, as well as optimizing the quality of service of subscribers.

At the same time, the majority of survey participants believe that the most important technological trends in the PO BSS market in the next 3-5 years will be the transition to cloud and hybrid solutions (61%), the integration of artificial intelligence and analysts (61%), support for flexible tariff models and monetization 5G (52%). These are the main directions for the development IT of solutions in this segment.

The development of operators' business management systems follows several key tracks. According to the results of the study, BSS functional blocks for product management, monetization (billing and charging), as well as automation of customer service.

About a quarter of Nexign surveyed also consider it important to invest in improving tools to manage customers' digital experiences, and about a fifth in loyalty management. From the point of view sight of specific technologies, in the near future the focus of telecom companies may shift to the introduction of innovations in BSS: according to the respondents, in modern management systems it is important to integrate with platforms for working with large data and (analytics as 44% of respondents believe), support for flexible service delivery models based on service level agreements with QoS quality of service control (39%), advanced self-service functions through (39 mobile application %) and use/for AIML automation of client experience management (33%).

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Фото: Nexign

The target environment for BSS deployment is also gradually changing, with a growing number of operators moving from a clean model of deploying business systems on physical servers to hybrid environments (63%) or the private cloud (56%).

In addition, the import substitution process continues to influence the development of the BSS market. In the next few years, BSS loop systems can be classified as significant objects of CII due to their critical impact on the operating activities of operators and access of subscribers to communication services. Many telecom companies have already taken care of the issue of switching to Russian software - especially since there is a pool of mature solutions on the market that cover the main needs of operators in terms of business management and customer relations.

The next generation of Russian BSS class systems are modular, open platforms that allow operators to quickly adapt to changes in the market. It is important that these solutions, on the one hand, give the operator the opportunity to flexibly manage the profitability of his main business - telecom - on a convergent basis. On the other hand, they should become the technological base for the growth of the operator in new business areas. commented Sergey Karpov, Commercial Director of Nexign

2014: The OSS/BSS market in Russia stagnated at 34 billion rubles in 2014

The volume of the Russian market for telecommunications OSS/BSS solutions in 2014 did not change and amounted, as in 2013, to about 34 billion rubles, according to a study by J'son & Partners Consulting.

Two-thirds of this amount, according to analysts, falls on the cost of supporting existing systems (OPEX), and the annual volume of purchases of new OSS/BSS solutions by Russian operators (CAPEX) does not exceed 8 billion rubles.

This CAPEX/OPEX ratio is typical for almost all global operators, where CAPEX accounts for about 40% of costs. Nevertheless, experts overshadow, the CAPEX/OPEX structure of Russian operators is significantly shifted from the global average towards the costs of refinement and maintenance of previously implemented systems (for world operators, the share of such costs is 30-50%).

"This can serve as indirect evidence of significantly less effective management of the existing fleet of various outdated IT systems (the so-called Legacy or" legacy systems "). This circumstance even more sharply raises the issues of OSS/BSS transformation for domestic operators. Moreover, not only are the evolutionary path traditional for all large operators being worked out, but migration options to the new OSS/BSS stack are also being considered, "the study says

If we talk about the general structure of the Russian telecommunications software market, then the BSS segment covers about 70%, and the OSS segment - 30% of the market. About 80% of the market in monetary terms falls on the operators of the Big Four (MTS, VimpelCom, MegaFon, Rostelecom). The remaining 20% is shared by medium and small telecommunications operators.

The most popular among Russian telecommunications operators in the BSS segment are billing and CRM systems. The most important OSS modules are Network Management (Inventory) systems, including all network planning and optimization tools (Planning, Provisioning, Network Performance). The remaining market share is occupied by performance monitoring systems (Fault Management), as well as a promising segment of service quality management (Service Quality/Performance).

The main drivers of the development of the Russian telecom OSS/BSS market are the growth of the mobile broadband access segment and new telecom segments (M2M, BI/Big Data, financial services, Media), the need to transform the OSS/BSS stack of operators, including using umbrella solutions, as well as the need to reduce the cost of owning systems and increase transparency, manageability and flexibility.

At the same time, a number of factors restrain the growth of the market. The economic crisis, the instability of the ruble exchange rate, the sanctions regime have a negative impact; slowdown in the Russian telecommunications market as a whole; Russian operators have a diverse multi-tender fleet of outdated IT systems.

J'son & Partners Consulting also studied the OSS/BSS market for telecom operators of other CIS countries. This market is estimated at about 30-40% of the Russian volume, or 14.5 billion rubles, based on the fact that Russia accounts for 60-70% of the volume of the telecommunications market of the CIS countries. The OPEX/CAPEX ratio, which is typical for the Russian telecommunications OSS/BSS market, is also true for the rest of the CIS countries. The market structure in general terms repeats the Russian one: 2/3 of the market in money falls on the BSS segment.

2013

Ecosystem of the Russian OSS/BSS market for telecommunications operators

The ecosystem of the Russian OSS/BSS market of telecommunications operators includes directly customers, Russian and foreign developers, as well as integrators who play a connecting role and have IT competencies for customization, maintenance and their refinement. At the same time, often large customers (telecommunications operators) have an established relationship with solution developers and partner integrators. The general scheme of the Russian ecosystem of the OSS/BSS market of telecommunications operators is shown in Figure 1.

According to experts from J'son & Partners Consulting, the Russian market is distinguished by three key and, in many respects, contradictory features:

• an increasing trend towards the introduction of expensive and powerful industrial solutions of foreign vendors in large companies;
• the desire of the largest holdings to ensure the maximum development and acquisition of telecommunications software from partner developers;
• maintaining a significant share, even among large telecommunications operators, of proprietary OSS/BSS solutions.

2013 Market Volumes and Structure

According to J'son & Partners Consulting estimates, the total annual volume of the Russian market for telecommunications OSS/BSS solutions is approaching 1 billion USD. However, a significant part of it, reaching 200-300 million USD, is a relatively closed part of the market. It is formed from the services of partner developers and integrators, actually remaining internal (in-house) developments of the operators themselves. Thus, the available part of the Russian telecommunications software market, which can be claimed by Western and part of Russian vendors in open competition, is about 750 million^[1]

It is important to note that 2/3 of them fall on OPEX, and the annual volume of purchases of new OSS/BSS solutions by Russian operators (CAPEX) does not exceed 240 million USD. If we remove from this volume the cost of equipment (up to 30%) and design implementations (another 35%), then vendor sales of telecommunications software itself, taking into account the margin of all partners, account for only about 55 million USD. It is in this figure that J'son & Partners Consulting consultants estimate the annual volume of OSS/BSS solutions sold for telecommunications operators in Russia.

The formation of the overall market structure in monetary terms, taking into account the fact that 2/3 of the markets form OPEX (license payments, cost of improvements, upgrades, maintenance of already installed OSS/BSS solutions in the company), is given in Figure 2 below.

If we talk about the general structure of the Russian telecommunications software market, then the BSS segment covers about 70%, and the OSS segment - 30% of the market. At the same time, about 80% of the market in monetary terms falls on the Big Four operators (MTS, VimpelCom, MegaFon, Rostelecom), while the remaining 20% are divided by medium and small telecommunications operators.

As for the key and most popular OSS/BSS systems among Russian telecommunications operators, billing and CRM systems are of paramount importance for them in the BSS segment. The most important and most popular OSS modules are Network Management (Inventory) systems, including all network planning and optimization tools (Planning, Provisioning, Network Performance). The remaining market share is occupied by performance monitoring systems (Fault Management), as well as the currently growing Service Quality/Performance segment.

Drivers and Restraints

Growth drivers of the Russian telecommunications OSS/BSS market:

• Mobile broadband access segment growth.
• Growth of new promising segments: M2M, BI/Big Data, MNP/MVNO.
• Attempts to switch operators to direct contracts with vendors.
• Prospects for automation of the combined RTK Holding T2.
• Maintaining the need for progressive modernization of OSS/BSS solutions of the Big Three operators with the continued growth of the mobile broadband access segment.

Market Growth Restraints:

• Russian operators have a diverse multi-vendor fleet of outdated IT systems (legacy).
• Refusal of Chief information officers to take responsibility for long-term projects.
• Slowdown in the growth rate of the Russian telecommunications market as a whole.

The key driver of the growth of the Russian market, according to consultants J'son & Partners Consulting, is the growth of mobile broadband access, as well as new promising market segments, for example, M2M or analytics based on "big data." This is why the Big Three operators maintain the need to constantly modernize existing OSS/BSS of solutions and purchase new ones. In addition, the combined T2 RTK Holding, having incorporated the mobile assets of Rostelecom and Tele2 Russia, remains a promising large "window of opportunity" for OSS/BSS vendors. It is known that the new operator during 2014-2016. plans to unify its business processes on the basis of a common IT and telecom infrastructure.

A key deterrent to the development of the Russian OSS/BSS market is the large number of outdated IT systems from various manufacturers that need to be supported. J'son & Partners Consulting estimates that, on average, each of the Big Three operators today has 100-300 different OSS systems and 50-200 BSS systems. Such a "zoo" of systems slows down the development process, since the time and cost of introducing new products is significantly increased due to additional integration and improvements. Another deterrent is related to personnel problems. Thus, the average "term" of work at the post of Chief information officer in the largest operators in Russia recently does not exceed 1.5-2 years, and therefore often Chief information officers do not take on complex long-term projects, preferring the implementation of a number of shorter projects. And, finally, the natural market-wide deterrent to the development of the OSS/BSS market in the period 2014-2017. is the slowdown in the growth rate of the Russian telecommunications market. J'son & Partners Consulting predicts that the Russian cellular market will decline by 1% per year during the period 2014-2017. This will inevitably affect the revision of the procurement policy of Russian operators towards sequestration of IT budgets and optimization of their costs in terms of OSS/BSS.

Competitive landscape of the Russian OSS/BSS market for telecom operators

As a rule, an important advantage of Russian OSS/BSS developers is a narrow specialization in the BSS segment and, in particular, in billing. This does not allow them to take part in tenders for the supply of OSS solutions, but in the current conditions and the desire of Russian operators to be independent of the solutions of one IT supplier, this is not a critical drawback. As a result, Russian billing firmly fit into the telecommunications ecosystem of domestic operators. This is facilitated by both the geographical proximity of the Russian developer to the customer, and an understanding of the specifics of doing business in Russia and knowledge of all legislative requirements. In addition, Russian developments are often more affordable than Western counterparts.

The strength of Western vendors is the wide portfolio of solutions of the entire OSS/BSS stack. These companies have a wide global presence and hundreds of customers in different countries of the world, which makes it possible to summarize their experience and improve products. In addition, the world's leading vendors have a stable financial position and are able to invest significantly in R&D.

According to J'son & Partners Consulting, in the period 2014-2017. breakthrough directions for the development of telecommunication the OSS/BSS market in Russia will be concepts SDN () Software Defined Network and (), NFV Network Function Virtualization automation of the promising direction of M2M (both in OSS and BSS parts), as well as an increase in the need for Russian operators to monetize data and recoup 3G/LTE networks. The most suitable option for this, according to the experience of Western countries, may be separate charging of traffic by type of content and quality provided. This, in turn, imposes fundamentally new requirements not only for billing, but also for the entire stack of OSS/BSS systems.

Notes