TM Forum (TeleManagement Forum)

TM Forum was founded in 1988 as OSI/Network Management Forum. The purpose of the organization it was put to accelerate access of the interacting products of network management and assistance to operators in solving of tasks of increase in efficiency in the conditions of transition to the NGN standard.

From operators such companies as AT&T and British Telecom, Verizon, Vodafone, China Mobile Communications were among founders of the company from equipment suppliers - Northern Telecom and Hewlett-Packard.

In 2012 Rostelecom was a part of the international non-profit organization TeleManagement Forum (TM Forum) integrating 775 companies from 195 countries. According to the vice president of JSC Rostelecom for strategy and operational efficiency Mikhail Magrilov, "one of basic reasons of strategic partnership of the company with TeleManagement Forum is the possibility of use of the best world practices and international standards of the industry of telecommunications, including participation in their development based on our experience of implementation of telecom projects of the most different level and scale". Rostelecom is the permanent member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and enters into Council of operators of telecommunication of the Regional commonwealth in the field of communication (RCC).

In 2012 Asteros Labs company, the resident of Skolkovo Foundation, was a part of TM Forum, and then nominated to certification the flagship product "Asteros Business Kontakt.Telecom" created with assistance of Skolkovo Foundation. The product is intended for business process automation in contact centers and sales offices of telecommunication companies.

In January, 2015 Bell Integrator, the Russian system integrator, announced the accession to the international professional association TM Forum which principal direction of activity is assistance to the member organizations in the most complete use of new opportunities of infocommunication technologies. Membership in TM Forum association will allow Bell Integrator to make the contribution to development of the international methodologies and standards regarding business process automation of telecom operators and creation of OSS/BSS of systems. Also in plans of Bell Integrator use of the best world practices on implementation of perspective IT solutions in the companies of telecom industry in Russia and abroad.

Application of methodology and the TM Forum standards allows the operator to increase efficiency of business at the expense of business process optimization and also to perform transition to more effective IT architecture, to develop and implement in the company a uniform information model which will simplify vendor interaction of information systems and will facilitate integration with already existing systems.

By the beginning of 1989 the first specification of the OSI/NM Forum Protocol was approved, and to 1990 - the organization included already 85 companies from 13 countries.

With development of technologies and business processes also TM Forum which integrated practically all world telecommunication companies – telecom operators, providers of services, system integrators, equipment suppliers and the software progressed.

TM Forum contains more than 700 companies from 75 countries, manages the most important conferences and the OSS/BSS exhibitions.

TM Forum offers a way for creation of the "optimal" operator (Lean operator) through standards of conversion of business processes and systems. The "optimal" operator is understood as efficiency of the company, a kliyentoortentirovannost, flexibility of evolution of business under market conditions.

Main directions of research and development TM Forum:

• development of the concept of NGOSS (New Generation Operations Systems and Software) - the main initiative of TM Forum of simplification and standardization of processes of determination, development and deployment of OSS/BSS systems in the telecommunication industry
• modeling and process automation
• regulation of interaction with consumers of services

Methodologies and practices of TM Forum are concentration of practical experience of telecom industry regarding business management, and their application guarantees to the operator success in achievement of the goal. On pilot projects – Catalyst TM Forum accelerators rolls methodologies using standard services and solutions of OSS/BSS of global manufacturers based on the chief telecommunication operators.

TM Forum actively interacts with the leading industry standardizing organizations, for example, with the International Telecommunication Union (International Telecommunication Union, ITU). So ETOM of version 7.0 is accepted by ITU-T in the form of recommendations M. 3050, SID - in the form of recommendations M.3190.

TM Forum increases connections with other industry forums. So in 2006 the OSS/J organization (OSS through Java Initiative) was a part of TM Forum. As the TM Forum program she provides implementation of the interfaces developed on the basis of standards of NGOSS (OSS/J APIs) and creates the principles for development of components of OSS systems. OSS/J technologies provide the base for fast consolidation of the existing and new applications with the smallest costs. OSS/J API is the cornerstone Java EE technology. It is compatible to other technologies, in particular, provides support of CORBA and Web services.

TM Forum gives a unique opportunity of participation in development of standards for the industry of telecommunications, exchange of experience, the ideas with specialists of the whole world as technical, and in the field of management.

Modern means of communication and conveniently organized platform for interaction of specialists from different corners of Earth allows members of TM Forum to be always in the center of events.

Development of standards is performed in the working groups organized on subjects and which are in permanent contact with each other. For example:

• OSS/BSS
• Revenue Assurance (Guaranteeing income)
• BPM