About TM Forum Frameworx and its Certification

TM Forum is a formal industry association of communication service providers and all other companies related to them such as software, hardware, and integration services providers. The primary goal of the organization is to help and guide their members in order to solve problems and ensure they are able to maximize and increase business results.

Nowadays, TM Forum has more than 850 members representing 180 countries. Some tools and related work from TM Forum include eTOM (a comprehensive Business Process Framework), SID (a Data Model ), TAM (an application model Map), and FrameworX Certification (set of standards and business practices).

Learn how companies measure customer’s satisfaction by reading our blog post: Net Promoter Score – Why do we care about it?

What is TM Forum’s Frameworx?

Frameworx is a toolbox that contains definitions, standards, and a set of guidelines related to business flows, applications, and data information. It also provides best practices for the integration and modular components in order to be used in almost any kind of projects. The main benefits for the companies that use Frameworx as a business and project driver are:

• A decrease in the cost of running projects, especially digital transformation by ensuring low cost (standard bas) integration.
• High level of quality by using common language and reference framework for all the members and provider involved.
• Future proof and solid pillars for long-term evolution.

TM Forum has defined a wheel with all the related components.

The heart of the model is defined by the Integration Framework, which assists in the task of integrating and creating relations among the other frameworks components.

These other components are Business Process Framework (eTOM), Information Framework(SID), and Application Framework (TAM) that are supported by the Business Metrics and supervised by the Best Practices recommendations.

Now, if we take a deeper look from a software provider for CSPs perspective, they do not need Frameworx for their operations. However, they can (and probably they should) perform a “Conformance Certification Assessment” in order to measure and certify the alignment and compliance with defined standards by TM Forum.

In a nutshell, the TM Forum conformance is a certification procedure that can be executed in order to verify and certify how well their business processes and information models are aligned with the industry standards defined in Frameworx.

Then, the certified company (actually, software components are being certified, not the companies themselves) that achieves Frameworx Certification can formally validate and ensure to the market and their customers that the software and services that they provide meet the standards needs. Finally, the benefits of the certification are discovered when running a project or even better, in the long-term evolution of the processes.

Let’s return to the CSP perspective. Usually, when they look for a product or a solution, they can request the providers to be compliant (with Frameworx) with the benefits exposed above. So we can say that when CSP is taking a buying decision, this requirement should have an important influence on the final selection.

Benefits of Certification

• Insight into where and to what degree the company has successfully adopted the Business Process Framework (eTOM) and Information Framework (SID)
• Reduces the time, costs, and risks associated with procurement and integration of Frameworx conformant products and solutions overall reduces risk in transformation projects
• An independent and unbiased verification and certification of the level of conformance provided by TM Forum – a known and trusted non-profit third-party partner
• Use of TM Forum’s certification mark which demonstrates internally and externally the commitment to the industry best practices and standards found in Frameworx
• Eliminate duplicity in the list of terms and definitions, having a common, industry-standard language.

According to TM Forum, 90% of the world’s largest service providers have already adopted TM Forum Frameworx suite of standards, which provide the blueprint for effective business operations, enabling assessment and improved performance. Also, 82% of them mandate the standard in many or all specifications or transformation projects.

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