The real driver here is the bottom line – managing service opportunities rather than reducing costs. Operators report that outsourcing ongoing network operations actually facilitates the transition from deployment to live operations that serve customers and earn revenues.
The hand-off from a managed installation to a self-supported ongoing operations state is tricky. Operators that have experienced the transfer of responsibility in a large-scale network report that problems are more than twice as likely to emerge in this interval as in ongoing operations. This can result in customer complaints and a loss of credibility for new services.
That doesn't mean that network integration and operations outsourcing contracts can't also save money. Skilled operations personnel make fewer errors, and as noted earlier, errors can account for fully half of total network operations center costs. This is particularly true for Tier Two and Three providers that likely cannot draw the necessary skills from their local labor pools.
Where local skills are lacking, operators must resort to incident-based support from vendors or integrators. The cost of these services on an as-needed basis, combined with local labor costs, often exceeds the cost of outsourcing them. The magnitude of the potential savings increases with the complexity of the NGN project, the geographic scope of the network, and the range of services the network will support.
Next-generation network integration is a special skill that operators have already recognized they can't hope to maintain in house. It's becoming clear that NGN operations is also a special skill, and that operators will need to think seriously about the benefits of outsourcing operations much more in the future.
Part one of a three-part series
Next: A four-step plan to next-gen network outsourcing and integration
Tom Nolle is president of CIMI Corp
This article originally appeared on SearchTelecom.com