While OSS is common industry jargon, but laypersons still do not understand OSS much. That is why we post here a beginner’s guide to OSS. This is more brief than the Wikipedia version and less complex than other definitions that you would find on the web.
So this beginner’s guide is as follows:
Definition of OSS:
OSS stands for Operational Support System. It is commonly used along with the word billing. So OSS Billing is the popular phrase. It refers to the various operations related to inventory of customers and their billing. In the Telecom industry, OSS Billing can be understood to mean the management of each mobile user’s account. The system through which the data of all these millions of mobile users is stored and updated is called as the OSS billing system or telecom billing system.
Brief History:
All the work of OSS, which is to maintain the inventory of bills, was manual till the 1970s. The people gradually began to realize that many of these tasks can be handled automatically through technology.
Gradually computers began to take over the job of storing the data and created a system of feeding it.
The language of Unix and C programming was created to cater to this requirement,
But networking of all these OSS systems was still a hurdle.
This means that if a task is completed on one of the systems, it will still show unfinished in a separate system. The need was felt for an integrated network where completing the task in one system would automatically get updated on all OSS systems of the network.
Present situation:
Today all these hurdles have been overcome. OSS is largely an automated and networked system of billing. Presently the installation and maintenance of OSS is a costly proposition. Research is on to make it more compact and less expensive.
But we must add that the most cost-efficient OSS Billing solutions are available with us at CareTel! So think OSS Billing, think CareTel.