Clarity Case Study

Telekom Malaysia Case Study

Telekom Malaysia Deploys Clarity’s
Integrated Next Generation OSS and
Consolidates Seven Inventory Systems in
Two Years in Preparation for NGNs
2 |TM Case Study
Telekom
Malaysia
overhauls its
Inventory
Management
Systems with
Clarity’s Unified
OSS
Mohd Pathulmuen Sharimau
NIS Project Director
In 2006, Telekom Malaysia initiated a major
OSS transformation. Its vision was to
accelerate the growth of broadband services,
whilst protecting themselves from agile new
entrants. Telekom Malaysia realized that
accurate network inventory data was a pre-
requisite for delivering broadband services at
the required pace. Simultaneously, it would
allow them to become an innovator within the
national market and focus on their customer’s
experience as a key differentiator.
The first and key component of this
transformation is the Network Inventory
System (NIS), supplied by Clarity International.
As a result of deploying Clarity’s solution, Telekom
Malaysia is able to:
• Consolidate and retire 7 legacy inventory systems in
2 years
• Quickly map between the requirements of new
commercial products and the capabilities of the
deployed technologies
• Establish, maintain and enhance an accurate base-
line of the network inventory at almost 1000 sites.
By exposing accurate reference data through an
NGOSS aligned architecture, Telekom Malaysia
is able to reduce time to provision, reduce
impacts of planned network activities on
customer services, reduce time-to-market for
new products and better exploit Next
Generation Network (NGN) technologies.
This system is instrumental in Telekom
Malaysia’s aggressive roll-out of NGNs.
Telekom Malaysia’s Business Challenge
In late 2005, broadband penetration in Malaysia
was around 1%. Intending Malaysia to become a
“high technology hub” for South-east Asia,
government targets of 10% penetration by
2008 were set. These targets have been met
with house-hold penetration running at 11% by
late 2007; a significant achievement given a
population of almost 26 million and one in
which Telekom Malaysia played a key role. The
challenge is now to match other countries in
the region where penetration is as high as 50%.
To continue growth in broadband services and
defend market share in a deregulated industry
against agile entrants, Telekom Malaysia
initiated a major OSS transformation
programme. The NIS is the first and central
part of this programme. The following are seen
as key drivers for the NIS as Telekom Malaysia
seeks to exploit the potential for growth in the
broadband and data communications sector:
• Increase operational efficiency by improving
the quality of network and service
configuration information
• Consolidate and retire legacy inventory
systems and file-based stores by deploying
one centrally maintained database
• Use data migration and audits to establish
accurate inventory “baselines” and then
maintain and enhance this with controlled
process, automation and auto-discovery
• Support rapid growth in broadband and data
services though:
• Enhanced end-to-end knowledge of
network reach, capacity and capability
• Standardisation, control and monitoring
of provisioning activities
• Exploit investments in NGN by supporting an
aggressive roll-out of new technologies in the
network

• Proactively assess the impacts of engineering
on customer services and mitigation of
potential outages
• Simplify implementation of an extensive
product catalogue
• Align to architectural “best practices”, such as
TMF NGOSS.
Incremental Benefits; Low Risk
Telekom Malaysia and Clarity jointly defined an
incremental deployment plan which provided
real business benefit early in the project and
reduced risk at the same time.
Taking a service by service approach allowed
Telekom Malaysia to gradually introduce the
network inventory at the same time as
gradually retiring legacy databases. Telekom
Malaysia selected those services which were
important to the business and Clarity
recommended low risk implementation
approaches to reflect the business imperatives.
In the first two phases, seven legacy database
systems were retired whilst deploying network
inventory for ATM, Frame-relay, Point-of-
Interconnect and business broadband services.
This phased approach will continue with the
deployment of NGN (VoIP, IPVPN, WiMAX,
Triple-play) soon to start, consolidating a
further 6 inventory systems in the process.
Why Clarity
Telekom Malaysia ap-
preciates the challen-
ges faced in deploying
an NIS. Consequently,
Telekom Malaysia was
looking for a partner
that could assist in the
potentially risky areas
of data audit, cleansing
and migration and Hanin Zainal
systems integration. NIS Project Manager
3 | TM Case Study
Factors important to Telekom Malaysia’s selection of
Clarity were:
• A cost effective solution
• Strength and reputation in the Asia-Pacific region
and ability to support the project and system in the
long-term
• Experienced and innovative migration team and a
delivery team rich in technical “know-how”
• Commitment to assist in the data cleansing activities
Tried and tested pre-integration of the solution
components.
Clarity’s products were also significant in
Telekom Malaysia’s decision:
• A single inventory system could accurately
and completely document both the legacy and
NGN, providing with a strategic inventory
solution
• Out of the box capabilities to map the
customer and their address to the access
network to quickly determine the feasibility
of broadband supply and the reach of the
network
• A customer to service to network mapping,
which could be used to stem revenue leakage
as well as improve service quality levels
• A pre-integrated solution, offering modular
assurance and fulfillment upgrades, reducing
the integration costs.
Also, of key importance was Clarity’s
reputation for taking on and delivering
challenging OSS projects in Asia Pacific.
Clarity Unified OSS
Deployment of Configuration Manager,
Clarity’s network inventory management sys-
tem, was a key component of the NIS. This
includes:
• Consolidated and normalised network
inventory; providing a reference base for
Telekom Malaysia’s legacy and NGNs
• An end-to-end view of services deployed
over the network and their relationship to
customers and addresses
4 |TM Case Study

over 100 products. By mapping these products

• Planned event management; helping Telekom
Malaysia to proactively record and assess the onto only 40 network delivered services,
impacts of planned maintenance and Telekom Malaysia is able to simply the
engineering events on customer services. provisioning processes and introduction of new
technologies and vendors.
Clarity also provided:
Up-stream CRM and Order Handling Systems
• Service Manager – Standardising, controlling CIS
ICAMS
MSOS
MIPS
GEMS
and monitoring workflow of provisioning and iCARE
CARES
GB CARES LNMS
engineering activities Strategic SOA/EAI

• Number Manager – Managing number ranges NIS - Consolidated Inventory

and IP addresses through bulk loading, Identifiers

Visualisation
Workflow

Reporting
storage and intelligent allocation. Services
Logical

Clarity’s solution has enabled Telekom Malaysia Physical

to migrate and consolidate data from many

ANI SMART
sources, including databases, files and manually ASAS SAMS FRAUD
DW

gathered data. This has allowed the retirement E-TRANS

of 7 legacy databases and the removal of less
efficient and less accurate file-based inventory
records.
Network Inventory System
40 Service Types
Structured Workflow
CRM
Simplification, standardisation,
control and monitoring of
provisioning and engineering
Over 100
Products
Faster introduction of new
technologies and network vendors
Simplifying Service Provisioning
As a result of on-going activities, Clarity’s
solution will:
• Expose accurate inventory information to the
OSS through integration to 21 systems
focused on assurance, asset management
(SAP), GIS, order management, CRM (Siebel),
network test and network provisioning
• Utilise strategic SOA architecture, based on
Sun Java System Integration Suite.
Clarity’s solution is a key component of
Telekom Malaysia’s service fulfillment stack for
Alert eQUEST INMS WebSTAR
Billing
Down-stream Systems, Dependent on Inventory Information
The NIS in Telekom Malaysia’s OSS
Quicker realisation of business benefits and
reduced risk were achieved through phased
delivery, first addressing traditional wireline
business services (carrier interconnect, frame
Network relay and managed leased line), then residential
Capabilities services. Clarity will soon start addressing
and
Reach
NGN (VoIP, IPVPN, WiMAX, Triple-play) and
will consolidate a further 6 inventory systems
Multi-technology in the process.
Multi-vendor
Telekom Malaysia and Clarity are working
Multi-domain together to gather and cleanse data from
almost 1000 exchanges, PoPs and sites, by:
• Training Telekom Malaysia’s staff to perform
data audits
• Employing Clarity’s innovative templates to
guide Telekom Malaysia’s staff through data
auditing
• Tracking the audit/cleansing process, in terms
of sites audited, regional completeness and
level of quality achieved.
Demonstrating its value as a consolidated
inventory system, the NIS will serve 9 order
management and CRM systems supporting both
traditional and next generation services and 12
 5 | TM Case Study

OSS platforms will be dependent on Clarity’s

solution for accurate reference information.
Business Benefits Realised
By consolidating legacy inventory systems onto
one platform, providing structured workflow
and exposing accurate reference information
into the OSS through strategic SOA/EAI,
Telekom Malaysia have achieved numerous
business benefits. Although technical in nature,
these benefits combine with and complement
those from the wider OSS transformation,
helping Telekom Malaysia:
By virtue of this approach, it has been possible
to implement all necessary modifications to the
inventory system for new products in a few
days rather than weeks or months.
Clarity plays a central role in provisioning
business services by providing workflow and
controlled access to the inventory for design-
assign activities. It supports the rapid growth in
Managed Leased Line services, the more
gradual growth in Point of Interconnect
services and the gradual retirement of Frame
Relay services.

• Meet demands for broadband services using 900

Provisioning of Business Services

existing legacy infrastructure 800

Cumulative Provisioning Orders

700
• Prepare for the NGN technologies and 600
services, confident that the OSS will allow 500
exploitation of potential 400

300
• Defend market share against agile new 200
entrants. 100

0
“Successful OSS transformations rely on the Dec-06 Jan-07 Feb-07 Mar-07 Apr-07 May-07 Jun-07 Jul-07 Aug-07 Sep-07
Managed Leased Line Frame Relay Point of Interconnect
customer and vendor working together to overcome
challenges that may not have been foreseen at the
start. This applies particularly to data migration and Business Services Growth Designed in Clarity NIS
integration; areas where projects can fail through a
lack of flexibility and collaboration. Telekom Malaysia Increased predictability in the time to provision
and Clarity have worked hard together to achieve a allows Telekom Malaysia to be more aggressive
high quality of data and ensure that the right in its SLA definitions, while a Mean-Time-To-
information is available where and when it is needed” Provide KPI provides the basis of monitoring
on-going business improvement.
By consolidating many inventory systems into
one, Telekom Malaysia has reduced its IT and 60
Provisioning Durations in Days

maintenance costs. Exposing the single 50

inventory system into the strategic SOA/EAI
Number of Orders

40
will further reduced the cost and lead-time for
integration of new systems – in fact, almost half 30

of the interfaces to the NIS will exploit the 20

strategic SOA/EAI platform.

10

Transforming over 100 products with 0

1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49 51 53 55 57 59 61 63
independent and hard-coded workflow and Managed Leased Line Frame Relay Point of Interconnect

screens into 40 generic and centrally managed

network services has reduced time-to-market Duration of Service Provisioning in Clarity
for new services and reduced the impacts of Clarity is also used to manage reactive and
adding new technologies and vendors. proactive planning of network infrastructure.
By providing a single inventory database,
6 |TM Case Study

planned and deployed resources are made

Telekom Malaysia has also been responsible for
immediately available for service provisioning
the implementation of Clarity’s Planned Event
activities.
Management module. Even within the first few
Infrastructure Build Activities weeks of operation, this was having a positive
1200
affect by guiding proactive handling of
1000 maintenance and engineering activities which
could impact customers.
Number of Activities

800

600 Proactive Management of Customer Impacting Events

900
400 14
800

N o . o f M an ag ed Im p acts

No . o f Plan n ed Even ts
700 12
200
600 10

500 8
0
Jan-07 Feb-07 Mar-07 Apr-07 May-07 Jun-07 Jul-07 Aug-07 Sep-07 400
6
Reactive Proactive 300
4
200

100 2
Proactive and Reactive Infrastructure Build 0 0
Activities, Managed in Clarity 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Days from Feature Introduction

The NIS also allows Telekom Malaysia to Cumulative Impacts M anaged Proactively Number of P lanned Events

monitor the time taken to implement

infrastructure build activities, and so monitor Increase in Customer Impacts Proactively
on-going business improvement in the network Handled, Clarity Planned Events Management
plan and build process area. Clarity has supported Telekom Malaysia
Com pleted Infrastructure Tasks in Days
through its customer enablement activities.
450
This is important in reducing the long-term
400
cost of ownership of the NIS.
350
Completed Infrastructure Tasks

300
Number of Users and User Activity
250
3500
200 140
150
3000
120

N o . o f A ctive U sers
2500
N o . o f A ctivities

100
100
50
2000
80
0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 1500
60
Completed Inf rastructure Tasks

1000 40

Completed Infrastructure Build Tasks, by 500 20

Duration 0 0
Jan-07 Feb-07 M ar-07 A pr-07 M ay-07 Jun-07 Jul-07 A ug-07 Sep-07
As a result of customer enablement activities, Number of Service Orders Number of Users
Telekom Malaysia is now self-sufficient in
report specification having created over 140
Activities and Active Users
business specific reports covering inventory
and capacity management, service and Take-up of the system within Telekom Malaysia
technology specific provisioning and has been positive, with increases in the number
administrative actions. of users with each new functional release.
 7 | TM Case Study

What the Customer Thought The Future

Clarity’s solution has helped Telekom Malaysia
support the nation’s drive to become a “high
technology hub” for South-east Asia.
“We are aggressively rolling out NGN infrastructure
inc. Digital Local Switches, Broadband Wireless & IP
MPLS. Clarity provides accurate organisation-wide
visibility of this infrastructure. The same day it’s
deployed, we can have infrastructure assigned to
customers, generating revenue & managed 24 x 7”
Both Telekom Malaysia and Clarity are
dedicated to collaboration to make NIS a
success, as illustrated in key project areas:
• Migration; where a major data cleansing
activity, supported by Clarity data entry
scripts, covering almost 1000 sites, is
improving the quality of data held in the
system
• Integration; where Telekom Malaysia and
Clarity had to show flexibility in aligning the
integration plans of 21 external OSS systems.
As a result of the NIS, Telekom Malaysia has a
consolidated inventory system which allows
them to model their diverse, multi-vendor and
multi-technology network in one system. A rich
supply of accurate reference network, service
and customer information is exposed into the
OSS via their strategic EAI platform which
utilises an NGOSS styled architecture.
Having addressed traditional business services,
Clarity is now focusing on residential services
including broadband. Beyond this, Clarity’s
system can help Telekom Malaysia build a
comprehensive inventory solution for its NGN.
This includes the deployment of WiMAX
technology as a means to increase the
penetration of broadband services in areas
where the copper network infrastructure is not
suitable and deployment of value-added
services such as VoIP.
Potential exists for Telekom Malaysia to deploy
Clarity flow-through provisioning and assurance
solutions. In particular, Clarity’s solutions for
field-force logistics and SLA management will
be very relevant for Telekom Malaysia, as it
deploys sophisticated services to an increasingly
technology aware and demanding population.

Deployment of Clarity’s solution to date has been very

successful and our phased approach has allowed for a more
concise and consolidated roll out.
Moving toward unified OSS has ensured we can rationalise
and better manage our assets; with over 31 million kilometres
of network, including 8.7 million exchange lines to track, the
completion of the second phase of roll out will ensure that
Clarity can help us monitor and utilise the network more
Abdul Latib Tokimin, Vice
efficiently. President, Network Operations,
Telekom Malaysia Wholesale
 8 |TM Case Study

About Telekom Malaysia

Telekom Malaysia Berhad (TM), a leading regional information and communications group, offers a
comprehensive range of communication services and solutions in fixed-line, mobile, data and
broadband. As one of the largest listed companies on Bursa Malaysia with an operating revenue of
more than RM16 billion, TM is driven to deliver value to its stakeholders in a highly competitive
environment.

The Group places emphasis on continuing customer service quality enhancements and innovations.
Currently, with investments and operations in 13 countries around Asia and globally, TM is focused on
sustainable growth in both the local and international markets.

On the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) front, the Group has always been a major corporate
contributor towards responsible activities in the belief that these practices are a fundamental tenet of
good corporate governance. The Group promotes 3 major platforms i.e. education, sports
development and community/nation-building. Under education, TM has spent some RM800 million to
develop Multimedia University with more than 20,000 students. TM has also provided scholarships to
over 10,000 graduates pursuing academic programmes locally and overseas. On the sports front, TM is
actively contributing towards the upliftment of football at all levels while under the community/nation-
building platform, the Group contributes towards causes that bring value to the community and nation
at large.

For further information on TM, visit www.tm.com.my.

About Clarity
Clarity enables its customers to simplify their operations with a unified operational management
solution. Clarity provides an integrated, modular solution to optimise and automate core operational
processes to manage network build and movements, develop and sell next generation products, and
deliver and assure the quality of customer services.

Clarity solutions provide the lowest total cost of ownership using embedded best practices and
process-driven workflow to reduce the complexity, risk and cost of operations. Clarity empowers its
customers to generate and protect revenue and enhance the complete customer experience. With
over 35 Telecom Tier 1, 2 and 3 customers worldwide, Clarity solutions currently help utilities around
the world manage over 250 million subscribers.

Established in 1994, Clarity has offices worldwide. For more information, please visit us at
www.clarity.com.

CLARITY INTERNATIONAL LIMITED

15 BLUE STREET
NORTH SYDNEY NSW 2060
AUSTRALIA

TEL: +61 2 9925 5000

FAX: +61 2 9955 9999
WWW.CLARITY.COM