The Business Process Framework is an
operating model framework for
telecom service providers in the
telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
s industry.
[Brenner, Michael, et al.]
Service Provisioning-Challenges, Process Alignment and Tool Support
" Bergstra, J. und M. Burgess (Herausgeber): Handbook of Network and System Administration. Elsevier (2007). The model describes the required
business process
A business process, business method or business function is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks by people or equipment in which a specific sequence produces a service or product (serves a particular business goal) for a parti ...
es of
service provider
A service provider (SP) is an organization that provides services, such as consulting, legal, real estate, communications, storage, and processing services, to other organizations. Although a service provider can be a sub-unit of the organization t ...
s, and defines key elements and how they should interact.
The Business Process Framework (eTOM) is a standard maintained by the
TM Forum
TM Forum is a global industry association for service providers and their suppliers in the telecommunications industry. Members include communications and digital service providers, telephone companies, cable operators, network operators, cloud ...
,
an association for service providers and their suppliers in the telecommunications and entertainment industries.
History
The development of the business process standardization for telecom service providers started with the founding of the TM Forum in 1988. The initial goal was to facilitate the creation of 'interoperable network management products'.
[Robert Oebele Reitsma (2011) ''Innovating Mass-customized Service.'' p. 128] The first approved standard was the 'OSI/NM Forum Protocol Specification,' an extension of
OSI protocols
The Open Systems Interconnection protocols are a family of information exchange standards developed jointly by the ISO and the ITU-T. The standardization process began in 1977.
While the seven-layer OSI model is often used as a reference for teac ...
developed since the late 1970s.
The direct development towards the Business Process Framework (eTOM), as Brenner (2007) explained, was "the Telecom Operation Map (TOM) was first published in 2001. The goal of TOM was the creation of an industry-owned framework of business processes, including the definition of a common enterprise-independent terminology for service management. It was also supposed to serve as a basis for discussing the scope of information management necessary for the execution of the processes. The result of this latter effort has meanwhile spawned its own TMF document family, the
Shared Information and Data Model (SID).
The Telecom Operation Map (TOM) was extended in 2001 to eTOM, an acronym for Enhanced Telecom Operations Map.
The process model eTOm was renamed "Enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM)," and in 2013 to "Business Process Framework (eTOM)."
There have been many versions of eTOM. Version 14 was published in May 2014. It also has been developed into a component of
NGOSS
Frameworx is an enterprise architecture framework geared towards communications service providers.
It is developed by the TM Forum.
Structure
Frameworx consists of four frameworks:
* Application Framework (sometimes referred to as the Teleco ...
, which has been renamed
Frameworx
Frameworx is an enterprise architecture framework geared towards communications service providers.
It is developed by the TM Forum.
Structure
Frameworx consists of four frameworks:
* Application Framework (sometimes referred to as the Telecom ...
.
Building blocks
Hierarchy
![ETOM](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/ETOM.jpg)
The Business Process Framework model consists of processes at 5 levels:
* Strategy,
* Network Operations,
* Level-2,
* Level-3,
* Level-4.
These levels form a hierarchy, with each level encapsulating a group of processes at the next level of detail.
Rows and columns
The graphic representation of a Business Process Framework (eTOM) model consists of rows and columns, the intersections of which denote specific business processes.
* The top row includes customer facing activities such as marketing,
* While the bottom row includes supplier facing and support activities.
In this manner the Business Process Framework map covers the whole value chain. The map also indicates the interaction between processes.
Three broad sections
Business Process Framework (eTOM) processes fall into three major process areas,{{
; Strategy, Infrastructure & Product:
:; Columns
:: Strategy and Commit, Infrastructure Lifecycle Management and Product Lifecycle Management
:; Rows
:: Marketing & Offer Management, Service Development & Management, Resource Development & Management and Supply Chain Development & Management
; Operations
:; Columns
:: Operations Support & Readiness, Fulfillment, Assurance and Billing
:; Rows
:; Relationship Management, Service Management & Operations, Resource Management & Operations and Supplier/Partner
:; Relationship Management.
Other standards
*
ITIL
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of detailed practices for IT activities such as IT service management (ITSM) and IT asset management (ITAM) that focus on aligning IT services with the needs of business.
ITIL de ...
is an analogous standard or framework for best practices in
information technology
Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...
.
* Both of these frameworks are part of
Total Quality Management, in which industries have, since 1950, formalized their business processes and metrics in search of higher quality, fewer defects, and greater efficiency.
*
ISO 9000
The ISO 9000 family is a set of five quality management systems (QMS) standards that help organizations ensure they meet customer and other stakeholder needs within statutory and regulatory requirements related to a product or service. ISO 90 ...
is another of these "process and results improvement" standards, but it is far more generic than either Business Process Framework or ITIL.
* Business Process Framework has been adopted by the
ITU-T
The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) is one of the three sectors (divisions or units) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). It is responsible for coordinating standards for telecommunications and Information Commu ...
as a Recommendation and published in the M.3050.x series.
*
OpenReference is a business process framework developed for product and service businesses and includes processes, metrics and practices.
References
{{reflist
External links
{{Commons category, Business Process Framework (eTOM)
* {{cite web , url=https://www.tmforum.org/resources/suite/gb921-business-process-framework-etom-r17-0-0/ , title=Business Process Framework (eTOM) R17.0.0 , publisher= TM Forum , access-date= December 11, 2017
ITU M.3050OpenReference Frameworks
Standards
Telecommunications systems
IT service management