S T R A T E G I C W H I T E P A P E R

Services Access and Onboarding

The new game for network providers

With the explosive growth of new services and applications for end users, fed by
application stores and Web 2.0 expectations, network providers face an array of
challenges from both new and traditional providers seeking to gain competitive
advantage. After providing a brief explanation of services access and onboarding
concepts, this paper explores how network providers can apply them to implement
innovative new business models, generate profitable new revenues and compete
successfully. The paper examines issues driving industry interest in services access and
onboarding, and then it identifies key business model considerations and how they
impact the business, technical, operational, and partnership dimensions. Throughout
these discussions, suggestions are made for steps that network providers can follow to
maximize the opportunities that services access and onboarding provide.
Table of contents

1 Executive Summary

2 Introduction

5 Identifying the Right Model for Success

6 Business Model Impact Considerations

7 Business Considerations
8 Technical Considerations
9 Operational Considerations
10 Partnership Considerations

11 Conclusion

11 About The Author

Executive Summary
In an ongoing effort to enable rapid end-user services growth and generate reliable revenue, network
providers are seeking to implement innovative new business models. Perhaps the most compelling
of these emerging models relates to services access and onboarding. Directly associated with services
exposure to third parties and partner ecosystem enablement, it opens the network provider’s envi-
ronment to external developers while possibly simplifying internal development as well, which can
then result in new revenue streams.

Major network provider benefits from services access and onboarding include:
• Leveraging and monetizing existing network capabilities, increasing revenues with relatively low
investment cost
• Reduction of time to market for providers that wish to be application and content providers,
through component services re-use and by using third parties to create new services – freeing the
network provider from upfront work like development and, possibly, market assessment
• Entry into the Web 2.0 value chain, whether the network provider is the application and con-
tent provider or not
• Reduction of cost and delays through automation, while improving quality and satisfaction
through standardization and monitoring

The last item reflects a key premise that commercial viability requires the “industrialization” of
partner, service and application onboarding. Onboarding industrialization encompasses a set of
formalized processes and automation for applying the network provider’s governance policy to the
following types of functions:
• Third-party qualification and registration
• Third-party access and usage of individual component services
• Application registration, acceptance, certification, marketing and insertion into storefronts
• Provisioning to establish end-user service-specific QoS and resource usage
• Establishing the appropriate level of service assurance depending on the profile
• Monitoring of onboarding processes, using dashboards and reports
• Trial and launch processes

Further, the network provider must establish these policies and the associated processes in the con-
text of their implications on the business, technical, operational and partnership dimensions.

This paper examines:

• The issues that are driving industry interest in services access and onboarding
• The factors that impact successful implementation
• Key business model considerations and how they impact the business, technical, operational,
and partnership dimensions
• The steps that network providers can take to ensure they maximize the opportunities that ser-
vices access and onboarding provide.

Services Access and Onboarding | Strategic White Paper 1

Definition of Terms
Services Access exposes network provider value-added services (e.g., messaging services such as MMS and
SMS, location information, subscriber data, on-demand bandwidth increases, centralized billing, customer care)
using a well-defined, controlled, secure approach governed by pre-established policy and contractual agree-
ments.

Onboarding is the assimilation of new partners and service components and applications into the network
provider environment. It requires a set of formalized processes for applying the network provider’s governance
policies to the initial approval, certification, assurance, provisioning and billing needs of the onboarded service
or vendor. Formalized processes can be monitored and managed and at least partially automated to ensure
end-to-end efficiency and consistency.

Business Model, when used in the context of this paper, addresses the business approach that includes aspects
such as, but not limited to, revenue sources and charging options, policy and governance (including how rules
are applied under varying circumstances, such as different branding and on/off-portal arrangements impact-
ing what is expected), partner criteria and management requirements, service level agreement considerations,
retail/wholesale relationships and value chain, and component services being offered.

Network Provider is the entity that delivers carrier network services in the wired and/or wireless market. Ex-
ample component services can include, but are not limited to, location, presence, voice call processing, delivery
of videos to a mobile or IPTV device, subscriber information, and centralized billing.

Application and Content Provider is the entity, such as an ISP, virtual Network Operator, or an over-the-top
player such as Google or Skype, that provides a new (e.g., communications, entertainment or business) service
using the network provider’s resources. This can include the network provider itself.

Introduction
The continued competitiveness of the communications market is driving network providers to
consider new approaches and partners for enabling end-user services growth and ensuring profitable
revenue. Network providers face challenges not only from alternative telcos, but also from application
and content providers like Google, Amazon and Microsoft; pure-play hosting companies and network
equipment providers migrating to application and content providers; social networking companies;
and even consumer brands like Best Buy that are functioning as retail service providers. At the same
time, it is important to recognize that many of these players, such as other network providers and ap-
plication and content providers, can operate in both cooperative and competitive modes.

These market dynamics have network providers evaluating options they might not have considered
before. Among those options getting the closest scrutiny is services access and onboarding, also
known as third-party services exposure or partner ecosystem enablement, which may have the side-
effect of simplifying internal development as well.

Opening the network provider’s environment to external developers, whose new end-user services
may directly or indirectly generate revenue for a network provider or application and content pro-
vider, requires a secure and policy-controlled approach. Until recently, and occasionally still true,
this innovative take on service delivery was viewed as anathema, and with good reason: Granting
unprecedented levels of access to third parties, some that could be thought of as competitors in
their own right, and breaking down the walled garden goes against the traditional network model of
total control of service quality and features. But the current climate has network providers viewing
third-party services access and onboarding as a viable option, and research from a 2008 study by
Heavy Reading sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent1 sheds light on the top five catalysts that are driving
their interest, including (in order of importance):
1 Graham Finnie, Heavy Reading, “Third-Party Applications Enablers: Over the Top Revenue Opportunity,” October 2008

2 Services Access and Onboarding | Strategic White Paper

• Improving time to market of new services, reducing time to integrate new end-user services
• Increasing flexibility in how new end-user services are delivered (e.g., across network infrastruc-
ture)
• Preventing revenue erosion and increase customer loyalty
• Gaining access to new revenue streams via new business models (e.g., advertising, revenue shar-
ing with third parties, QoS SLA enforcement, and the creation of application stores)
• Reduced cost of end-user service creation

How are these catalysts translating into the implementation of services access and onboarding as
a competitive strategy? The same Heavy Reading study found that 25% percent of the more than
140 network provider respondents surveyed currently enable third parties to deliver end-user services
via their networks, while 55% plan to do so in the future. What’s more, the bulk of respondents
expressed either agreement or strong agreement with the idea that services access and onboarding
will be critical to their future success.

Approaches vary and continue to shift for those network providers that have implemented services
access and onboarding or are close to doing so. Orange, for example, offers more than 20 APIs that
let developers integrate elements of its network and back-office functions into their own applica-
tions. It has established separate charging mechanisms for different groups of APIsóbased on the
developer using them, the assets the developer uses, and the revenue potential for Orange. While it
is seeking to attract developers of all sizes to its program, it has had particular success with small- to
medium-sized businesses. One software company, for instance, uses Orange APIs to send 100,000
SMS messages a month, a figure it hopes to raise to 1 million per month, which could potentially
yield US$1.6 million in revenue for Orange.2 Sprint, meanwhile, has indicated that rather than
giving partners network-specific APIs, it might seek to work with companies like Facebook and
Gmail in an open ecosystem so as to give customers access to the services they want. 3 TeliaSonera
has little enthusiasm for Web 2.0-style development and only exposes components to trusted third
parties, such as its partners in the Rich Communications Suite initiative. 4 These are only a few
examples of what is happening in the industry, but they illustrate an interesting portion of the ap-
proach spectrum.

Even though a significant number of network providers are acknowledging the importance of ser-
vices access and onboarding in meeting their strategic goals (and there is clearly experimentation
in the market), they’ve stated uncertainty about how to achieve profitable revenue. There is no one-
size-fits-all business model for success, but there are key factors that must be individually considered
to get the desired outcome. Factors are varied and requirements are case-specific. Examples include,
but are not limited to:
• Selection of value-added services exposed and offered (can include network and business serv-
ices)
• Content and partner controls and criteria (or lack thereof)
• Quality and performance controls
• Security and privacy controls
• Level of public identification of the service with the network provider (e.g., through centralized
billing, marketing or on-deck management)
• Levels of developer ecosystem support
• Revenue generation sources and approaches (e.g., through advertisements, subscriptions, usage
fees, paid clicks, etc.)

2 Telecoms.com, “Orange Sees API Uptake, But Operator Cooperation Needed,” January 30, 2009
3 Graham Finnie, Heavy Reading, “Third-Party Applications Enablers: Over the Top Revenue Opportunity,” October 2008
4 Caroline Chappell, Heavy Reading, “Multi-Client Study on Service Innovation,” May 2008

Services Access and Onboarding | Strategic White Paper 3

 Combining these factors, in accordance with business goals, shapes the business model, and the
network provider is not precluded from using multiple models simultaneously. Choices made across
all of these considerations will have an impact on revenue, costs, technical requirements and net-
work provider differentiation.

To illustrate the Services Access and Onboarding concept and the breadth of players, figure 1
shows the network provider’s perspective. At the center are their network, billing and customer
care capabilities. Support, processes and controls must surround the capabilities to be able to suc-
cessfully expose and monetize the component services and manage thousands of new applications
and partners. This supports the flow of revenue from multiple types of buyers and sellers (i.e., not
just the traditional model of getting revenues from only subscribers). While there are multiple con-
tent and application providers that are currently operating over-the-top, network providers are in a
position to leverage their unique service components to become part of the value chain with these
players as well.

Figure 1. Illustration of the Services Access and Onboarding Concept

This paper will examine these considerations in more detail, while laying out possible steps for
network providers to follow as they work toward harnessing services access and onboarding as a
competitive strategy.

4 Services Access and Onboarding | Strategic White Paper

Identifying the Right Model for Success
Putting the best services access and onboarding strategy in place can be a challenging and complex
undertaking. Achieving third-party development goals may involve attracting the most sought-after
application and content providers/partners (such as Disney or Google, for example) or the largest
number of developers, or both. Delivering network capabilities involves security and performance
control driven by policy and QoS agreements. Offering value-added services beyond basic network
functionality can involve changes such as updates to the network provider’s OSS/BSS systems and
operations, data analytics and federated identity management across networks. The levels and scope
of approval, control, testing and automation will all have an impact on time-to-market, costs and
image. Additionally, there are now more ways to make money, as there are new sources of revenue
and ways to recognize charges.

Network providers must start by asking questions that will shape the best fit business model across
all dimensions, including business, technical, operational and partnership. A sampling of questions
includes:
• Brand and marketing: Will end-users (consumer or enterprise) associate all or certain services
with the network provider’s brand? Who handles the different aspects of marketing?
• Services: What network control and information options will be provided? Is there a desire to
sell operations-related services such as billing, customer care and service assurance? Does the
network provider wish to encourage reuse of services or a standard approach, perhaps across
multiple types of networks?
• Operations: How can this be accomplished profitably while meeting service-level agreements
(SLAs)? What can be automated? What needs to be monitored? What are the key quality and
performance metrics?
• Subscriber data and privacy management: Is there a need to supplement subscriber data with
user preferences, usage patterns, contacts and communities? What data analytics should be
incorporated to bring revenue or unique value to partners and internal departments? What
dynamic, contextual information (e.g., location, devices in use, activity in progress) should be
collected? Is federated identity management of interest? How much information will be shared
with third parties and under what circumstances?
• Revenue models and content control: Under what conditions (considering context, content,
user controls, payment, and so on) will advertisements be acceptable? Will there be a need to
prove delivery and that it gets to the right recipient? What are the real-time and background
data requirements for billing? How is the competition making money today, and is that likely to
change under different circumstances?

To break free from the traditional voice and data business model parameters, network providers
need to ask the following questions regarding each of the above strategic decision areas: What is the
full range of choices, and why is one better than the others?

In addition, whenever possible, it is best to not rule out future interest in alternative approaches or
to unnecessarily restrict the technical or operational solution. Instead, consider a large-scope frame-
work that incorporates reasonably flexible and extensible tools, and put quality controls and metrics
in place for proper monitoring and governance of the current approach.

Services Access and Onboarding | Strategic White Paper 5

 It can be helpful to look at what can be done to “industrialize” the new model. As an important
example, onboarding industrialization encompasses a set of formalized processes and automation for
applying the network provider’s governance policy to the following types of functions:
• Third-party qualification and registration
• Third-party access and usage of individual component services
• Application registration, acceptance, certification, marketing and insertion into storefronts
• Provisioning to establish QoS and service/resource usage on a per-service basis
• Establishing the appropriate level of service assurance depending on the profile
• Monitoring of onboarding processes, using dashboards and reports
• Trial and launch processes

Figure 2. Example Onboarding Process Overview

Sandbox User
Registration
• Simple, open registration
• Leverage Telco/Web2.0 creativity
• Workflow can include, as examples:
simple checks, id creation,
SLA configuration Identification
of a
Business Partner Application Application
revenue
Registration Prototyping Onboarding
generating
• Detailed registration (e.g., application
partnership type info, biz partner info,
required APIs/Resources)
• Establish business arrangement
• Workflow can include:

Extensive and contractual
acceptance process (business,
financial, campaign)

Id mgmt. (including BSS provisioning)

Exposure/security provisioning

Play / Develop “Go-forward” Offer/Activate app, according to business model(s)

• Web 2.0 Model
• Application hosted
externally
• Limited environment (e.g.,
stubbed APIs, limited
access to network,
additional policy restrictions)
• OSS/BSS not typically
involved
Assessment • Can be on-portal or off-portal.
• Assess popularity • Workflow may include:
of the prototype (e.g.,
Assessment (e.g., strategy, business,
contests, bids, reviews) campaign/shortcodes)
• Surveys (e.g.,
Network system setup (e.g., establish
willingness to connections, certificates)
pay or sponsor)
Business partner profile update

Catalog update

Assurance and provisioning system updates

Launch/Pilot certification

Commercial launch

Similar considerations apply to the services access portion of the solution, where applying security
and control, with correct policy enforcement, must be handled automatically.

These functions and capabilities span business issues, technology, operational concerns, and
partnerships. Taking action in one of these areas can have consequences for others. The goal is to
ensure that these impacts are positive and well understood.

Business Model Impact Considerations

Clearly, the services access and onboarding approach can be complex and broad in scope. network
providers need to devote time and resources to planning the people, process, metrics and systems
aspects, with the range of issues spanning disciplines and departments.

6 Services Access and Onboarding | Strategic White Paper

Below are examples of considerations that network providers should keep in mind when evaluating busi-
ness models and their impacts on the business, technical, operational and partnership dimensions. Con-
sulting and modeling professional services can be used to support the full exploration of a best-fit approach.

Business Considerations
Business considerations span revenue, expense, legal, marketing and regulatory issues. The decisions
are often inter-related and can have ripple effects as illustrated in the examples below.
• On portal (i.e., accessed from the network provider’s branded portal) and off portal (i.e., access
from a portal supplied by a third party that could be an enterprise customer, third-party appli-
cation and content provider, aggregator, etc.) decisions will influence numerous aspects of the
business, such as:
¬ Restrictions on third-party use of the network provider’s brand
¬ Service quality requirements and certification
¬ Criteria for partner approval
¬ Aggregator roles to address cross-operator services
¬ Revenue models, including money flow, and contractual agreements
¬ Customer care, service assurance and marketing performed by the network provider
• The extent to which the end-user service, and therefore the service quality, is associated with
the network provider will impact the levels of approvals and certifications required, which then
impact the time required for the onboarding process and time-to-market. One Tier 1 network
provider manager was wondering why some operators were able to complete onboarding within
two days when it took his company approximately five months; part of the answer lay in consid-
erations like this one and how long the approvals and certifications took.
• Revenue and pricing models will influence technical decisions as well as other business deci-
sions, such as:
¬ How will the sources of revenue be acquired and managed? Will revenue come from advertis-
ers, consumers, enterprises, third-party developers, virtual network providers or other sources?
¬ Can the network provider establish and utilize a reasonable set of contractual agreements
that do not require customization for new partners and new end-user services? One network
provider reported that contract negotiations had become a critical path item and took, on
average, 18 weeks, which did not support speed-to-market and low costs.
¬ How will the revenue be collected? This may be determined by revenue models (e.g., sub-
scription, fee-on-download, usage-based, revenue sharing, advertisement exposure or
response rates, targeted vs. general advertisements service rates, etc.) RIM and Apple use a
relatively simple model where they keep 20% and 30%, respectively, of the purchase price
on download.5
¬ Is there a point (based on usage, features, bandwidth/quality, etc.) at which an end-user ser-
vice changes from free to for-fee? Assessing the spectrum of value (and related costs) associat-
ed with “free and fee combinations” has become a topic of increasing interest, and it impacts
both business and technical aspects.
• Selecting component services to expose and determining usage conditions, options (e.g., on-de-
mand bandwidth increases), and the rollout schedule will, for example, impact revenue, opera-
tions staff, procedures and costs (e.g., when offering customer care and billing services), policy
and QoS management (impacting operations and systems costs), data collection requirements
(impacting upfront costs), and the network provider’s ability to attract new partners or other
sources of revenue.

This is neither an exhaustive list nor a full explanation of decision implications, as that would re-
quire more rigor and details than desirable for this white paper. Rather, these examples are intended
to highlight the depth of considerations required.
5 Sara Silver, “What’s In Store,” Wall Street Journal, February 17, 2009, pgs R4-R5.

Services Access and Onboarding | Strategic White Paper 7

 Technical Considerations
Network providers’ technical considerations include implementation of secure, controlled services
access and onboarding, as well as the business, operations and partner implications. Examples in-
clude, but are not limited to, the following:
• An extensible architecture helps to future-proof the solution. Whether starting out with a mini-
mal services access and onboarding solution or, alternatively, using services access and onboard-
ing as one of many steps towards a larger service delivery environment (SDE), network providers
will likely need to add incremental or even major functionality over time. For example, the net-
work provider may initially plan to expose only a few component services and forgo the upfront
cost of incorporating service-oriented architecture (SOA), which involves multiple technical
components, such as registry/repository and additional design and run-time governance tools,
and governance boards and processes, that will impact operational requirements. As the number
of exposed services increases or more potential is seen for re-using newly created, innovative ser-
vices, incorporating SOA is likely to become more important. BT, an interesting case example
in many respects, has publicly stated that it was motivated to incorporate SOA for service re-use
and has experienced a 20% reduction in staff as a result of the reusable services.
Another situation may require adding subscriber data management (possibly including profiling,
data mining and federated identity) once services access and onboarding have been established.
The key is to start with a flexible blueprint that considers broad-scoped SDE requirements and
incorporates standards and best practices. This combination results in an extensible architecture
that helps future-proof the initial investment and speed the addition of new capabilities.
• Policy management and enforcement while monitoring the overall business and QoS is criti-
cal, with “monitoring” in this context used as a quality checkpoint to determine if adjustments
are needed. The right policy management and enforcement can make end-user services more
context-appropriate (i.e., smarter, better) and quicker to deploy. Service- and user-specific QoS
(which impacts revenue and technical requirements for rating, charging and service assurance)
implies appropriate flexibility and granularity in the policy implementation. In addition, policy
enforcement can be treated as a revenue-generating service, e.g., with location or content-based
parental controls, and impact broader technical requirements.
• Security issues are inherent in opening the network and must be carefully addressed. With more
people accessing network capabilities, broader use of Web services and SOA, and increased
information privacy legislation, operators must use multiple approaches to guard their systems,
data and subscribers. Requirements must address application-level compliance, a corporate-wide
compliance infrastructure, runtime policy enforcement and audit trail, protection of sensitive
corporate and subscriber data (including runtime control of who can see the data, who can
change it, and providing a compliance audit trail of who has seen or changed the data), and
enabling a managed partner extranet (preferably through a single point of control and audit for
partner access as well as seamless access to applications among partner sites).
• Integrating third-party applications with the network provider’s OSS/BSS requires a technical
solution that will almost provide a plug-and-play approach. It may, for example, involve the use
of an enterprise service bus (ESB) and possibly legacy OSS/BSS modifications, or the introduc-
tion of next-generation OSS/BSS. This is not only a technical decision, but also one that is
significantly impacted by business (e.g., should billing or customer relationship management
[CRM] be sold as a service by the network provider?) and operations.
• Process automation, data integrity management and business monitoring tools directly impact
costs and quality. The time it takes to onboard an application increases with the complexity of
the qualification/approval process; regardless, business process management (BPM) improves
cross-organizational workflow and data management (for speed and error reduction) and can
provide business activity monitoring to prevent something from being overlooked. Automation
can be applied, for example, to configuration management, addressing internal workflow for
service data and activation of network elements between validation (testing) and production
environments. If a certification process is needed (this is dependent on the business model), the

8 Services Access and Onboarding | Strategic White Paper

 solution can leverage automated test tools and reusable certification steps to increase speed and
reduce costs.

Operational Considerations
New business models and technology will impact operations. Training will be required for the new
tools being introduced, new processes and metrics will need to be supported, and increased data
complexity can create integration and integrity challenges. A few examples are provided here as an
illustration of operational considerations and their potential impacts.
• Operations best practices and the tools they require will be altered by the introduction of third-
party services access and onboarding. Network and IT management best practices, as set out
in the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and in the TM Forum’s Business
Process Framework (eTOM), are essential in ensuring a successful operational approach for on-
boarding. ITIL provides a detailed description of a number of important IT practices with com-
prehensive checklists, tasks and procedures that can be tailored to any IT organization, while
eTOM describes the full scope of business processes required by a network provider. Release 8.0
of eTOM incorporates the best practices defined in ITIL, thus bridging IT and communications
environments and helping network providers build ITIL-compliant front ends and business
models. Technical requirements, such as the incorporation of the Telecom Application Map
(TAM) and Shared Information and Data (SID) Models, will be impacted by implementation of
these best practices.
• Efficient, cost-effective onboarding process management requires automation and tracking, as
well as new reports and dashboards to keep track of what’s in the pipe and whether anything is
falling outside of allowable quality or schedule ranges. Otherwise, for example, “lost” manual
provisioning tickets might go unnoticed, causing severe partner and customer dissatisfaction.
New metrics and, perhaps major, enhancements to existing processes will likely be required,
which imply technical and operational changes.

Figure 3. Examples of Services Access and Onboarding Interactions

Application
Providers

Application Onboarding Portal

Approval process
KPIs and KQIs
Certification
Business Partner Registration Provisioning Secure, Controlled Operational
Approval process Service Exposure For
Deployment
External Applications
Contract (on & of portal)
SLAs ...

IPTV LTE

Telco Service
Sandbox Service Exposure OSS/BSS Portal/Gateway For
IMS Provider(s) IN Business Partners
Secure Gateway with Policy
control (limited network Dashboards
access) Trouble Ticketing
Sandbox Portal (limited
OSS/BSS Troubleshooting
support via FAQ, Forum …) SLA Mgt
…

Services Access and Onboarding | Strategic White Paper 9

 • Assurance must now be focused on end-user services and the total end-user experience. This im-
pacts the assurance technical solution but also the operational processes, which are all impacted
by the network provider’s scope of responsibility, which is directed by the business and partner
expectations of the business model.
• CRM will be directly impacted by the business model and how well it is implemented. There are
situations today where the network provider receives all service trouble calls, even when they
are not directly selling the end-user service or being compensated for the CRM service. Other
situations existing today give the network provider no options but to provide a refund whenever
a complaint is made. Clearly this indicates multiple business and technical considerations that
must be addressed.

Partnership Considerations
Finally, network providers preparing a services access and onboarding strategy need to be cognizant
of the partnership considerations. These include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Identifying partner requirements and goals will be significantly impacted by the business model
and directly influence technical requirements. If the partner’s financial stability is essential, the
partner onboarding process will have to address the collection of information, perhaps from a
portal and independent sources, and the review process. If only a few key partners are desired,
additional evaluation criteria will need to be incorporated, and they may have impacts on the
external-facing portal capabilities and marketing programs. Dealing with large numbers of part-
ners might result in using partner relationship management systems. Because of the potential
volume of application providers, along with uncertainty over which new end-user services will
be popular, the new operations processes must be optimized with appropriate lifecycle manage-
ment automation and standardization, so that the business model meets quality and profitability
expectations.
• Addressing partner expectations will depend on the types of partnership supported. Partners may
include aggregators, developers and Virtual Network Operators, all with different business and
technical expectations. They may be working with multiple network providers, and the applica-
tions may be off-portal. In general, they will want to make a profit and have the independence
and flexibility to introduce innovative new end-user services quickly. This will impact pricing
models and competitive offers, policy, and partner self-help support toolsósuch as dashboards,
problem isolation and resolution, trouble-ticket monitoring, and SLA management. Contractual
options and customization might also be impacted, but care must be taken to avoid introducing
unacceptable delays. As anyone who attended the debate at the Mobile Network Operators’
panel at the 2008 Mobile 2.0 Barcelona conference knows, third-party application developers do
not always consider network providers to be reasonable partners.
• Developer ecosystem support will vary dependent on the business model. Partners will require
some level of development support and, potentially, business services support (such as in market-
ing or funding). Offering support can help the operator encourage participation, thus leading to
a more diverse development community. Development support can be offered free, following the
methods used in the open source community (bug lists, dev forums), or more dedicated support
could be offered for a fee. Sometimes, as with the iPhone up-front developer membership pay-
ment, an entry barrier of some type is desired. The network provider must consider a wide range
of potential costs and benefits.

10 Services Access and Onboarding | Strategic White Paper

Conclusion
The game is changing for network providers. New customer expectations and competitors are
already here. Traditional network providers are evaluating their options for business success.

One of the most compelling emerging models for network providers relates to services access and
onboarding. It offers significant business model options with new ways to make profitable revenue.
With new opportunity comes new challenges, and it is critical that all aspects of the business
model(s) be thoroughly analyzed, including identifying the business, technical, operations and
partner impacts. The right questions must be asked, modeling tools should be employed, and full-
scope feedback mechanisms need to be established. By using a flexible, extensible framework, the
network provider can get started, expand as needed, and adjust to changing market drivers and
new technology.

By opening their network environment to third-party developers and service providers, operators
may find themselves better able to maintain their position as market leaders, equipped to deliver
the services that end-users want, enhance those services quickly in response to user demand, and
capable of leveraging the third-party partnerships they forge to build new business models.

A new game demands a new playbook, and it comes with a new set of rules and sophisticated plays.
Network providers can experiment with different plays, or they can find partners who have studied
the new dynamics.

About The Author

Cindy Mills is the Strategy and Marketing Director for Multivendor SDP and SOA in Alcatel-Lu-
cent Professional Services. Her career started with Bell Labs, and her experience includes a variety
of software product development, deployment, strategy, and offer management roles, as well as di-
verse international programs, such as the creation of software R&D centers in India and Indonesia.

Services Access and Onboarding | Strategic White Paper 11

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are trademarks of Alcatel-Lucent. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
The information presented is subject to change without notice. Alcatel-Lucent assumes no responsibility
for inaccuracies contained herein. Copyright © 2009 Alcatel-Lucent. All rights reserved.
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