The document provides an introduction to Comptel Catalog, a product management solution. It discusses how Comptel Catalog can be used to manage complex product portfolios and the full product lifecycle. Key points covered include: - Comptel Catalog provides a central repository for product composition from the technical network level to the marketing level. - Items in Comptel Catalog have lifecycle states, parameters, dependencies, exclusions and transactions that can be managed. - Remote items define the lowest technical components while products are the top-level sellable items composed of other items. - The solution aims to improve efficiency in product management by streamlining collaboration and automating processes.

1. Comptel Catalog

3. Topics to be covered
 Introduction to product management
 Introduction to Comptel Catalog
 Working with remote items
 Working with items

5. Objectives
 Introduce the problem
 Introduce products and services
 Introduce the fulfilment solution for products

6. Adapting to a Changing World
 Competition in telecommunications affects offering to
customers
 Customers more demanding
 They want to buy suitable products and services
 Service providers need to regularly change and adapt
their offering
 Need to react to changes in the market
 Need to respond to customer demands
 Current OSS/BSS systems not flexible enough for the
modern telecommunications market
 Currently takes 6 to 24 months to launch a new product
 Efficient product management is required

7. Products and Services
 Service providers offer packages, product bundles and
products to their customers
 Package and product bundles are the same as a product
 Products consist of different services
 A single product can consist of several other products
 A single product consists of several services
 Services represent what can be offered to customers
 Using partner services
 With the current network configuration
 Can be spread across different network technologies

8. How to Manage Products?

9. Telecom Product Lifecycle

10. Why Is It So Complex?

11. Subscription portfolio Example

12. Product Portfolio Example

13. Challenges in Product portfolio
Management
 Marketing perceive products in a different way to the technical
network
 Challenge is to match technical capability to customer demands
 Creating a sellable product requires technical and commercial
expertise
 Value of a product differs between customers
 Targeting subscribers with pricing.
 The number of products and product bundles is growing rapidly
 Products for niche markets need low cost per service to be
profitable
 Product life-cycle and time span can be very short in campaigns
 Important to keep time to market as short as possible
 Need to be able to quickly adapt to changing market using existing
BSS and network infrastructure

14. Improving Efficiency in Product Portfolio
Management
 Store product composition
 From marketing level to technical network level
 Use the right tools to manage product and service
portfolio
 Use a system that helps sales and marketing to work
and communicate with engineering
 Centrally manage changes in products, services, and
technical capability
 Data is available for other systems

15. Central Catalog for Product Service
Management

16. Comptel Dynamic OSS

17. Catalog in the OSS/BSS

18. Catalog Driven Fulfillment View

19. Serving Different Business Functions
 Build product offering across different technologies and networks
 A centralised view of the full offering with tools for product life-cycle
management
 Manage changes in commercial products, services and subscriptions
 End-to-end automation gives operators full control of their product
business process
 Bottom-up approach to ensures services and products are technically
viable

20. Technical Capability Discovery

21. Summary
 Customers require products and services that enhance
their lifestyle
 Operators and service providers need to target their
services more specifically
 Comptel Catalog solution increase efficiency in the
service life-cycle
 Provides a single repository for product and service information
 Same tool can be used by different departments to manage the product
offering
 Comptel Catalog works together with provisioning and
activation solution

23. Objectives
 Introduce Comptel Catalog
 Deepen knowledge about Comptel Catalog
 Introduce architecture of Comptel Catalog
 Introduce Comptel Catalog UI

24. Comptel Catalog
 Product offering decomposed into re-usable elements
in different layers
 Provides life-cycle management for products and
services using states and versioning
 Combines technical and commercial views of products

25. Architecture of Comptel Catalog

26. Catalog Runtime Environment

27. Item Lifecycle States
 Items are versioned and each version has a state to
determine the current point of the life cycle
 Custom states can be created for specific needs
 E.g. design, integrate, test, review, approve etc.
 Transitions from new state to an existing state must
also be added
 States and transitions reflect the way in which the
local processes work

28. Conditions
 Conditions are optional
 Conditions define how an item changes from one state to another
Must be completed before transition is complete
 A condition can apply to the start or the end of a transition from one
state to another
 Possible conditions are:
 User Signoff - a specific user approves change
 Role Signoff - a user with defined role approves a change
 Web Service - change is approved by an external system through the
API
 Order of conditions
 State End - condition applies at end of current state
 Transition Start - condition applies at the start of state transition
 Transition End - condition applies at the end of end of state
transition
 State Start - condition applies at the start of new state

29. Example Condition

30. Item Types
 Define a name for a particular group of items
 Define the layering of items in Comptel Catalog
 Comptel Catalog can have any number of item types

31. Example Item Layering

32. Products
 Sellable entities that a
customer buys
 Defined by the marketing
unit of a company
 A product can depend on
other items
 A product consists of other
items
 When a product is selected
so are its constituent items

33. A Product Request in InstantLink

34. Services
 Services are the entities
that constitute a product
 Services are the
functions that customers
subscribe to
 A service can depend on
other items
 A service consists of
other items

35. Technical Services
 The low-level capabilities
are created as remote
items
 They are the building
blocks of services and
products
 They are defined by the
network capabilities
 Remote items can be
dependent on each other
like other items

36. A Remote Item as a Task in ComptelInstantLink

37. Dependency
 An item can be provided only if
other items are included or
activated first
 Dependencies can be defined for all
items
 Design level dependency
Defines the other items that must be
included in a service or product
 Outstanding dependencies are
discovered during design
 Dependencies can be promoted to
higher levels

 Runtime level dependency
 Connections between items define
the execution order of tasks
 Based on design level dependency
 Overrides design level dependency

38. Exclusion
 An item cannot be included with other items
 Exclusions are defined for individual items
 Exclusions can be used with all items

39. Transactions
 Comptel Catalog supports different transactions
 For example, create, modify, delete and display
 It is possible to define default transactions
 These transactions map to order/request/task types in Comptel
Fulfillment
 Each transaction has three messages
 Request is the initial message and defines the input parameters
 Response for asynchronous acknowledgement of the request
 Complete signifies the end of the transaction

40. Parameters
Define the properties of items
 The data type of the parameter (String, Long, Decimal)




The default value of the parameter
Mandatory or optional parameter
Minimum and maximum values
Namespace defines where the parameter is used,
e.g. in activation
 Parameters can be added for items and remote items
 Three classes of parameters; item, transaction and request parameters
 New parameter names are automatically added to the pool of parameters
 Allows cloning of parameters

41. Comptel Catalog Designer

42. Toolbar Icons 1/4

43. Toolbar Icons 2/4

44. Toolbar Icons 3/4

45. Toolbar Icons 4/4

46. UI Preferences

47. Summary
 Comptel Catalog is a central repository for product
and service composition
 Comptel Catalog has a UI to build a model of product
structure
 Items can be dependent on other items or excluded by
other items
 The lifecycle is controlled with lifecycle states

49. Objectives
 Introduce remote items
 Learn how to manage remote items

50. Technical Components

51. Remote Items
 The lowest level in the hierarchy
 Define most of the parameters for provisioning and
activation
 Their structure defined by external components, e.g.
network elements
 Can be imported from an InstantLink Network
Element Interface

Imported remote items should NOT be modified in Comptel Catalog
 Can be imported from other catalogs

Imported remote items should NOT be modified in Comptel Catalog
 Can be created in Comptel Catalog

52. Remote Items in Comptel Catalog

53. Adding a New Remote Item

54. A New Remote Item

55. Add a Capability

56. Task Parameters in Remote Items
 Item Parameters
 Added to the Design tab
 The parameters apply to all transactions of the technical service
 For example NE_TYPE
 Transaction Parameters
 Add to each Transaction tab
 The parameters are apply only to that technical service - not
mapped
 For example REQ_TYPE
 Request Message Parameters
 Task specific parameter
 Mapped to higher levels
 Value may come from request, product, service, or the technical
service
 For example subscriber identifiers

57. Adding Parameters

58. Parameters Added

59. Changing Parameter Default Settings

60. Working With Parameters

61. Add a Dependency

62. Changing Basic Information

63. Filtering Items

64. Summary
 The information of remote items is maintained in
Comptel Catalog Designer.
 Each remote item has item information, capabilities,
dependencies, transactions and parameters

65. Both Mid-level and Top-level items

66. Working with Mid-Level Items
 Objectives
 Learn about items using the concept of services
 Learn how to manage items that are between the
technical capability and products

67. Adding Services

68. Add an Item
 Define general information such as name, folder and
description
 Add remote items and items to design area
 Add capabilities
 Capabilities provide visibility of constituent remote items and items
to other items
 Promote or resolve dependencies
 Add exclusions
 Publish the item

69. Creating a New Service Item

70. A New Service Item

71. Adding Items

72. Adding Capabilities

73. Outstanding Dependency

74. Exclusion

75. Item Paramaters

76. Complete Mapping Views

77. Parameter Connections

78. Item Ready for Transition

79. Item Transition

80. Item Now Available

81. References

82. Summary
 Each item has basic information, composition,
parameters, dependencies, exclusions and references.
 Capabilities provide visibility of the contents of an
item.

83. Working with Top-Level Items
 Objectives
 Learn about items using the concept of products
 Learn how to manage items that are at sellable

84. Creating the Product

85. Add a Top Level Item
 Define general information such as name, folder and
description
 Add remote items and other items to design area
 Add capabilities
 Resolve dependencies
 Add exclusions
 Publish the item

86. Creating a New Product Item

87. Conflicting Exclusion

88. Item to Item Message Mapping

89. Publishing a Product Item

90. The Product is Ready

91. The Product Processing Order

92. Where are Capabilities Used

93. Replacing an Embedded Item

94. Summary
 Top-level items can be classified as Products.
 New versions can be created when changes are
required.
 An existing item can be used as the template for a new
item by copying.

96. Topics to be covered
 Advanced message mapping
 Transaction management
 Remote item groups
 Delta handling
 Comptel Catalog and InstantLink BST
 Administration

98. Objectives
 Introduce manual message mapping
 Show how to use message mapping to create runtime
dependencies
 Show how to use Events for even fine control of
runtime dependencies

99. Removing Parameter Mapping

100. Manually Mapping Parameters

101. Runtime Dependencies
 Auto mapping considers design dependencies between
remote items
 Means that tasks are generated in Comptel InstantLink in a certain
order
 If design dependencies are correct there is no need to modify the
runtime dependencies
 Runtime dependencies can be altered by manual
mapping
 Mapping the complete message of one item to the input message of another
item creates a runtime dependency between them
 The generated tasks will be put into separate groups

102. If No Remote Item Dependencies

103. Modifying Runtime Dependencies

104. Remote Items Are In Order

105. Events
 Events are used in items to
control the order of remote
items between items
 Events provide additional
control over the runtime
order of tasks for Comptel
InstantLink
 Tasks in same group are run in
parallel
 Order
 TSA, TSD
 TSB
 TSC, TSE
 TSF

106. Creating an Output Event

107. Creating an Input Event

108. Using the Event in a Product

109. Remote Item Processing Order

110. Task Order in Comptel InstantLink

111. Summary
 Manual mapping allows greater control over parameter
passing
 Manual mapping allows the correct order for runtime
to be defined
 Events allow runtime order control across services
within a product

113. Objectives
 Introduce Remote Item Groups
 Show how to define Remote Item Groups
 Show the affect Remote Item Groups have

114. What Do Remote Item Groups Do?
 Remote Item Groups allow related remote items to be
collated together
 Remote items in a group will create one task in Comptel
InstantLink
 Without grouping one remote item equals one task
 Parameters from the constituent remote items can be
manipulated
 Concatenate to join the parameter values together in one task
parameter
 Rule data defines the separation delimiter
 Fixed to set the value of the parameter to a particular value
 Rule data defines the value to use
 Override to set the parameter value to that of either the FIRST or
LAST remote item
 Rule data is either FIRST or LAST

115. Display Remote Item Groups

116. Create a Remote Item Group

117. Add Remote Items

118. Add Parameters

119. The Remote Item Group is Ready

120. A Remote Item Group in Comptel
InstantLink

121. Summary
 Remote item groups organise remote items into single
units
 A remote item group in Comptel Catalog equals one task
in Comptel InstantLink
 Reduces the number of tasks per product
 Remote item group parameters can be of type fixed,
override or concatenated
 Concatenate is a good way to manipulate supplementary codes for
activating/deactivating supplementary services

123. Objectives
 Introduce transaction management
 Define rollback
 Configuring error recovery in Comptel Catalog

124. Introduction to Transaction
Management
 Comptel Catalog has default seven transactions

Provide, Amend, Cease, Create, Modify, Delete, Display
 Create, Modify, Delete, and Display map directly to
request/task types in Comptel InstantLink
 It is possible to define new transactions for other
purposes, e.g. rollback

125. Undo=Rollback
 Rollback is defined by selecting the Undo transaction
Remote items and items can have undo transactions
 Item rollback requires that remote items have undo transactions
 If an item has rollback defined but one remote item does not then error
decomposition fails
 Undo transactions are defined on the other transactions
 Undo defines what transaction should be used if the
current one fails
 Creates an undo or rollback task in Comptel InstantLink

126. Add a Transaction to a Remote Item

127. Creating Remote Item Rollback

128. Add the Transaction to a Service

129. Assign Transaction

130. Map the Items

131. Creating Service Rollback

132. Rollback in Comptel InstantLink

133. Summary
 New transactions can be added if defaults are not
sufficient
 Undo transactions define what to do when a task fails in
Comptel InstantLink
 Comptel Catalog returns the error decomposition to
Comptel InstantLink
 Error decomposition is based on the error data of the failed task
 Comptel InstantLink performs rollback using the error
decomposition
 Network is returned to the original state and request can be resent

135. Objectives
 Introduce delta calculation
 Show how Comptel Catalog helps Comptel
InstantLink perform the changeover

136. What is Delta Calculation?
 Δ (Greek delta) is a mathematical symbol signifying
change
 Delta calculation is the change required to move from
one item version to another
 Comptel InstantLink provides the current item version
and new item version
 Comptel Catalog provides the details of the tasks that need
to be executed to perform the changeover
 Tasks can be create, modify or delete

137. Delta in Practice

138. Changeover in Comptel InstantLink

139. Summary
 Delta calculation discovers what remote items are
required to move from one product to another
 Comptel InstantLink provides Comptel Catalog with
the current product and new product
 Comptel Catalog calculates which remote items are
required for the new product and which can be
removed
 Comptel InstantLink sends the required remote items
as tasks to the network

141. Objectives
 Using Comptel Catalog in InstantLink BST
 Introduce the BST provisioning logic steps
 Introduce example Catalog provisioning logic

142. The BST-Comptel Catalog Client
 A separate installation package for InstantLink BST
 Catalog Client
 Used by BST to retrieve item specification and decomposition from Catalog
 Notification Service
 Used by Catalog to tell Clients of changes in decompositions
 Dynamic Library Logic loading
 A remote item can define a parameter for the name of a library logic
 In a Library Logic step, BST uses the parameter value to select the library
logic

143. Service Specification BST Step
 Finds the specification
for items and remote
items from Catalog
 Reports if mandatory or
optional attributes are
missing
 If product cannot be
found from Catalog this
step will produce an
error

144. Service Decomposition BST Step
 Gets the decomposition for
the remote items from
Catalog
 Returns the number of
task groups and number
of tasks in each group
 Grouping of tasks based
on design and runtime
dependencies

145. Error Decomposition BST Step
 Gets the error decomposition for items and remote
items from Catalog
 Returns the remote items involved in rollback as tasks

146. Delta Specification BST Step
 Gets specification on
customer's old subscription
and the intended new
subscription
 Discovers the existing
items and the new items
 The goal is to find the
minimum set of operations
to move customer from one
offering to another without
interrupting the service

147. Delta Calculation BST Step
 Calculates tasks needed
to be generated to swap
from one offering to
another
 Returns the number of
task groups and number
of tasks in each group

148. Getting Specification and Decomposition

149. Sending the Tasks to Network

150. Performing Rollback

151. Getting Specification and Decomposition

152. SC_STEP_SERVICE_STATE
 A request/BST parameter that defines how the
specification search is performed
 Value ALL searches for items that have one of the states
defined in the client parameter all_lifecycle_states
 This is a comma delimited list, e.g. Testing, Published, Deprecated
 Value ANY means the search will look for items in any
state
 E.g. Defining, Testing, Published, Outdated etc.
 If the parameter is missing or empty then only the items
with a state that is of type published will be searched

153. Example Configuration

154. Configuration Files 1/2

155. Configuration Files 2/2

156. Summary
 InstantLink BST has five steps
 Two for getting the specification the complete decomposition
 One for getting the error decomposition for rollback
 Two for getting the delta specification and for calculating the required
changes
 Using Comptel Catalog with InstantLink allows product
composition to be managed separately from the
provisioning logic

158. Objectives
 Introduce the Operational Client
 Show what can be done in the client
 Introduce the log files

159. Comptel Catalog Operational Client
 Accessed through the Designer

160. Search For Items

161. Export Items

162. Import Items

163. User Administration

164. User Group Administration

165. Role Administration

166. Item Lifecycle Administration

167. Item Type Administration

168. System Parameter Administration

169. Log Files
 Catalog log files
 Catalog.log - main log for Comptel Catalog
 Application server log file
 Depends on the application server
 Records server activity
 Designer UI log file
 Each user has own UI log file in Windows
 ~Catalogworkspace.metadata

170. Summary
 Operational Client allows to administer Comptel
Catalog
 You can manage system parameters
 You can import items from another Comptel Catalog
environment
 You can export items to an XML file
 You can get a list and see a summary of items

171. Thank you