The worldwide market for telecoms service fulfilment systems will grow from USD2.2 billion in 2009 to USD3.2 billion in 2014, at a CAGR of 7.4%, according to our latest forecast (see Figure 1). Service fulfilment systems allow communications service providers (CSPs) to plan the capacity and technology of their networks, prepare networks to provide services, and to plan and implement the changes required in the network and services layers to support the services as ordered by customers.
![Figure 1: Service fulfilment system revenue, worldwide, 2009–2014 [Source: Analysys Mason, 2010]](/PageFiles/16245/Figure_1.gif)
Figure 1: Service fulfilment system revenue, worldwide, 2009–2014
[Source: Analysys Mason, 2010]
In the short term, several factors are driving the growth in this market:
- network evolution towards optical/packet technology
- the push towards instant availability of complex service bundles
- the need to operate in uncertain and changing business environments
- deregulation of broadband and mobile in growth markets
- the increasing desire to meet the needs of SMEs.
However, more interesting factors will come into play in the long term, as CSPs adjust their business models to take advantage of new opportunities, and the service fulfilment software market changes to support them. These factors will include:
- CSPs’ new ‘double-sided’ business offerings
- cloud computing and storage services
- national broadband infrastructure investment projects
- renewed interest in convergence projects.
CSPs may replace their ‘closed gardens’ with new ‘double-sided’ business models, in which they provide a ‘platform’ for businesses to provide their services and products to end users – and collect money from both sides. Such value-added services and platforms will require their own service fulfilment infrastructure, along with content management and management of the increasingly complex end-user devices. This market will emerge by 2012.
CSPs may offer SaaS and IaaS services to consumer, business and government markets. As a result, they will need a new service fulfilment infrastructure that is tuned to this environment. It will be 2013 before substantial movement occurs in this market, but experiments and market trials will be common until then.
Governments in many emerging, and some developed, markets are considering broadband national infrastructure programmes. Some focus on mobile technology, others on FTTH. The market for infrastructure OSSs, such as engineering systems, will benefit most from these initiatives from 2012 onwards.
Many market drivers create a need for service fulfilment convergence. Most important are CSPs’ need to introduce services rapidly, increase customer self-care, improve scalability, and introduce converged services, new mobile services, and new content and data services. Providers’ usage of new systems will expand to include the legacy functions, which will benefit vendors that use pricing models that scale in this way. Federation projects will also emerge, where applicable, which will generate additional services work for ISVs and systems integrators. System transformation projects that aim to break down ‘silos’ within an organisation have fallen out of favour during the recession, but will re-emerge from 2012 onward.
These and other drivers of the service fulfilment software market are presented in Analysys Mason’s recent report by Mark H. Mortensen, Service fulfilment systems: worldwide forecast 2010–2014.