What is PROVISIONING?
Persons who do not understand provisioning include both technical and business.
To know what are experts are saying about my question, I googled but not able to get any satisfactory answer.
To understand provisioning, I have developed a small story.
Let’s assume Mr. X has applied for a job and reaches to an office for an interview. So now he is sitting on nice sofa and waiting for interview. Now he feels thirsty and requires a glass of water. He asks receptionist for water since there is no water cooler around. She asks Mr. X to relax and wait. She calls an office boy to serve water to Mr X. Office boy brings a glass of water and serves to Mr. X. Mr. X drinks water and thanks him.
In this story, Mr. X is a client who is asking for a service to be delivered to him. He is not talking to service provider but to provisioning engine (Receptionist) which in turn asks service provider (Office boy) to provide service (a glass of water) to client. Service provider provides service to client.
To further this example, assume Mr. X needs one more glass of water. Now will he ask again to receptionist or directly to office boy? There is no definite answer. If Mr. X wants water immediately after first glass, he can ask office boy for second one. But if Mr. X wants second glass after office boy has left the scene, he may ask receptionist again or may approach Office boy directly for glass of water.
So in real life systems, serving a service depends upon lot of factors:
1. Timings of first and subsequent service demands
2. Infrastructure and system capabilities
3. Conventions followed in particular domain/vertical
So what is provisioning:
Provisioning is a mechanism by which an intermediary system facilitates delivery of service to a client. So that client can maintain its ignorance about service provider in terms of how to register for delivery of service.
Some links to understand provisioning:
1. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-provisioning.htm
2. http://www.answers.com/topic/provisioning
3. JSR 124: J2EETM Client Provisioning Specification
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provisioning
5. http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/provisioning.html
6. http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci333804,00.html
7. Tivoli Provisioning Manager
Posts
Hi Tushar,
ReplyDeleteThis does defines term Provisioning. But now, how tomap this provisioning process in to the models like eTOM as you are focussing on Telco's.
Also, which area would this cater to in terms of solutioning ie. OSS or BSS or both..
Functionally, we do have multiple services like fulfillment,assurance, billing, customer care, value added services...
Let us take one scenario and drill down business and technical aspects to it along with the cost.
Hi Sunny,
ReplyDeleteChat with you was very interesting and compelled me to elaborate my ideas.
I am thankful that you have agreed to publish the little chat as blog post.
Tushar