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Sigma and Partners Win Catalyst Award at Digital Transformation World 2018

News Sigma and Partners Win Catalyst Award at Digital Transformation World 2018
Hansen News
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Hansen News

TORONTO, June 1, 2018 — Sigma Systems, the global leader in catalog-driven software, today announced that its Catalyst project Proving the Business Model for Sponsored Network Slices: Mobile Gaming has been selected as a winner in TM Forum’s 2018 Catalyst Awards at Digital Transformation World in Nice.

Championed by Orange and NTT, Proving the Business Model for Sponsored Network Slices: Mobile Gaming was recognized for the Outstanding Catalyst Business Impact Award. Catalyst participants included Sigma, Nokia, Cerillion and Cloudstreet. Catalysts are member-driven proof-of-concept projects which connect diverse organizations to develop innovative, commercially viable prototypes of new digital services and business models.

Stephen Krajewski, Director of Product Marketing for Sigma, commented: “Sigma’s mission is to help service providers become agile in product innovation to create their next business models now and monetize the next wave of living digital services. The Sponsored Network Slices catalyst is all about agility in creating a new business model, where service providers, gaming companies and gamers are connected to improve the gamers experience, increase a game’s market penetration and utilize the service provider network more efficiently. We’re honored to win this recognition and would like to thank the team for all its efforts to make this as an award-winning catalyst.”

“The Catalyst projects showcased at Digital Transformation World 2018 were incredibly innovative and demonstrated real solutions to industry challenges,” said Andy Tiller, EVP Collaboration and Innovation, TM Forum. “Catalysts showcase the power of collaboration enabled by TM Forum, and bring together a wide range of companies, industries and ecosystems. Our sincere congratulations to the winners and to all those who participated for their outstanding work.”

 Sigma Catalog, Sigma CPQ and Sigma Order Management from the Sigma Create-Sell-Deliver Portfolio were instrumental in demonstrating how a gaming company with a desire to promote a mobile game can easily be on-boarded into a sponsorship ecosystem. In the catalyst, sponsorship models defined in Sigma Catalog are used to drive a simple and efficient on-boarding process whereby the options relating to game sponsorship are chosen, a contract is generated and signed, and an order is generated to handle the orchestration of network slices. Provisioning of the service occurs within Nokia and Cloudstreet and the setup of billing accounts and product subscription takes place within Cerillion. TM Forum Open APIs are used at each of the integration points.

 More than 100 member companies and hundreds of individuals participated in the 2018 Catalyst projects, which spanned Open APIs, SDN & NFV, digital health, data monetization, AI, blockchain, smart cities, the Internet of Everything and more.

 

Contacts

Chloe Purcell
Head of PR
Milner Strategic Marketing Ltd.
+44 1473 633123

Glenn Gibson
VP Marketing
Sigma Systems
+1-416-827-6851

 

About Sigma Systems (sigma-systems.com or Twitter @SigmaSystems)

Sigma Systems is the global leader in catalog-driven software solutions for communications, media, and high-tech companies. It serves over 80 customers in 40 countries with its award-winning products.  The company’s portfolio spans enterprise-wide Catalog, Configure Price Quote (CPQ), Order Management, Provisioning and Insights products in addition to offering a core set of services including professional services, cloud services, and managed services.  Sigma utilizes an agile approach to implementing its B/OSS products for its customers.  Sigma has offices in North and South America, Europe and Asia Pacific, with technology and integration partners globally.

 

About TM Forum

TM Forum is an association of over 850 member companies’ customers across 180 countries. We drive collaboration and collective problem-solving to maximize the business success of communication and digital service providers and their ecosystem of suppliers around the world. Today, our focus is on supporting members as they navigate their unique digital transformation journeys, providing practical and proven assets and tools to accelerate execution and platforms to facilitate collaborative problem solving and innovation. Learn more at www.tmforum.org.

 

Press Contacts

Aisling Roberts
CCgroup PR
E: TMForum@ccgrouppr.com
T: +44 203 824 9201

Rebecca Huft
Awards Program Manager
E: rhuft@tmforum.org
T: +1 973-944-5100, Ext. 5296

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1. What does “modernise with precision” mean for Tier-1 telecom operators?

“Modernise with precision” describes a low-risk, targeted approach to BSS/OSS modernisation where operators upgrade only the parts of their digital stack that create the greatest impact. Instead of embarking on high-risk, multi-year full-stack replacements, Tier-1 telcos selectively introduce cloud-native BSS/OSS, API-driven telecom architecture, AI-ready data layers, and TMF-compliant BSS components.
This modular strategy reduces cost and disruption, allowing operators to strengthen areas such as product agility, order orchestration, customer experience, and operational efficiency while maintaining stability in core environments. It aligns directly with TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA), which encourages a composable, interoperable, future-proof approach to telco transformation.

2. Why is time-to-market so important for telecom monetisation today?

Telecom monetisation increasingly depends on the ability to respond quickly to new commercial opportunities – from enterprise IoT solutions and digital services to 5G monetisation, wholesale partnerships, and B2B vertical offerings. In this environment, operators that can design, package, and activate new services in days rather than months gain a clear revenue advantage.
Legacy catalogues, rigid product hierarchies, and tightly coupled BSS architectures make rapid innovation difficult. Modern operators therefore prioritise catalog-driven architecture, agile/composable BSS, and cloud-native BSS capabilities to give business teams control over offer creation without relying on long IT delivery cycles. Faster launch cycles = faster monetisation.

 

3. What is slowing down product launch cycles for many telcos?

The primary obstacles are deeply entrenched in legacy architecture: hard-coded product models, outdated catalogues, nonstandard integrations, and heavy IT dependencies. These constraints slow down even minor product changes, creating friction between commercial teams and IT.
Modern telcos are replacing these bottlenecks with TMF-compliant BSS, cloud-native catalogues, API-driven BSS integrated via TMF Open APIs, and low/no-code configuration tools. These solutions allow product owners to create and test offers independently, ensuring the Digital BSS backbone supports true agility.

4. How can telecom operators reduce order fallout and manual intervention?

Order fallout typically stems from fragmented systems, inconsistent data models, and brittle custom integrations across BSS/OSS chains. When orchestration spans numerous legacy systems, even small discrepancies can cause orders to fail.
Operators can dramatically reduce fallout rates by adopting zero-touch service orchestration, modern order management modernisation, end-to-end automation, and a unified data model across their Digital OSS and Digital BSS layers. Cloud-native telecom systems and order orchestration for telecom remove reliance on manual rework, minimise delays, and improve service accuracy – all essential to delivering predictable customer experiences.

5. Why is accuracy so important for B2B and wholesale customer experience?

For enterprise and wholesale customers, trust is built on precision. A single misquote, incorrect configuration, or missed activation can lead to delays, SLA breaches, revenue disputes, and strained relationships. These segments rely on highly controlled, predictable fulfilment processes – particularly as operators expand into 5G edge services, network slicing, managed security, and outcome-based contracts.
Improving accuracy requires strengthening the underlying architecture – through modern CPQ for telecom, clean data models, cloud-native BSS/OSS, and robust API-driven telecom architecture. When quoting, ordering, provisioning, and billing are accurate, customer satisfaction increases naturally.

6. How does cloud, AI, and API-driven architecture support telecom modernisation?

Cloud-native platforms provide the scalability, flexibility, and deployment speed needed to support modern telecom services. AI introduces intelligence into operations, enabling predictive analytics, anomaly detection, and proactive assurance. APIs – especially TMF Open APIs – ensure new components integrate cleanly with legacy systems.
Together, AI-powered BSS/OSS, cloud-native architecture, and API-driven integration create a digital foundation that supports continuous innovation, reduces technical debt, and enables operators to deliver new services more efficiently. This trio is central to future-proofing the telco stack.

7. What is TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) and why does it matter?

TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture (ODA) is an industry-standard framework designed to help telcos simplify, modularise, and modernise their BSS/OSS environments. ODA promotes interoperability, composability, and openness so operators can integrate new capabilities without heavy customisation or vendor lock-in.
For Tier-1 operators, ODA serves as a blueprint for transitioning from monolithic legacy stacks to cloud-native, API-driven, modular BSS/OSS infrastructure. By adopting ODA-aligned solutions, operators speed up integration, lower deployment risk, and reduce long-term operational cost.

8. How is Hansen involved in TM Forum and ODA?

Hansen aligns its architecture directly to TM Forum’s ODA principles and has contributed to the development of one of TM Forum’s recognised industry standards. This reinforces a commitment not just to following best practices, but to shaping them.
Hansen’s portfolio of cloud-native, AI-powered, API-driven Digital BSS/OSS modules is built on TMF Open APIs and composable design principles. This ensures seamless interoperability in multivendor environments and helps operators modernise safely and incrementally.

9. Can operators modernise their BSS/OSS without a full-stack replacement?

Yes – and in fact, most Tier-1 operators now prefer incremental transformation. Full-stack replacement is high risk, slow, and expensive. By contrast, modular modernisation allows operators to introduce new BSS/OSS capabilities – catalogues, orchestration layers, charging engines, customer management, monetisation components – without destabilising the existing ecosystem.
This approach reduces risk, accelerates value, and aligns with ODA’s principles of composability and openness. Operators can modernise at their own pace while still maintaining service continuity.

10. How does modular modernisation reduce risk?

Modular transformation focuses on improving specific parts of the architecture – such as product agility, order accuracy, unified data, or 5G monetisation – without changing everything at once. Each module is integrated, tested, and scaled independently, which reduces disruption and improves predictability.
It also allows operators to retire legacy systems gradually, reducing technical debt over time while still realising near-term efficiency and revenue gains. This is why agile/composable BSS is now the preferred model for Tier-1 telecom transformation.

11. What operational improvements can telcos expect from a unified data model?

A unified, AI-ready data model brings real-time visibility across commercial and operational processes, enabling faster decision-making and more reliable service execution. It also allows operators to detect issues earlier, automate root cause analysis, and reduce order fallout.
This consistent data foundation is essential for AI-powered BSS/OSS, predictive assurance, next-best-action recommendations, and advanced analytics. It ultimately improves operational efficiency, accuracy, and customer experience – three core pillars of modern telecom performance.

12. Why is Customer Experience (CX) tightly linked to operational excellence?

Most customer experience problems – delays, incorrect orders, billing errors, missed SLAs – originate from inefficiencies within the internal BSS/OSS engine. When operators modernise their Digital BSS/OSS processes, eliminate manual workarounds, and ensure accurate orchestration and service activation, the customer experience improves naturally.
This is particularly true for enterprise and wholesale customers, where CX is defined by precision, predictability, and contract performance. Improving CX requires improving the processes beneath it.

13. How do Hansen’s solutions fit into a Tier-1 telco transformation strategy?

Hansen provides cloud-native, API-driven, TMF-compliant, AI-powered Digital BSS/OSS modules that integrate smoothly into hybrid and legacy environments. Operators can use them to strengthen catalog agility, automate order flows, unify data, enhance monetisation, or improve service reliability – without needing to replace their entire BSS/OSS stack.
This flexibility supports transformation at the operator’s own pace, aligned to business priorities, regulatory requirements, and commercial objectives.

14. What benefits can operators expect from a layered or hybrid modernisation approach?

A layered or hybrid approach allows operators to combine existing systems with cloud-native components, enabling transformation without disruption. Key benefits include:
• Faster time-to-market for new offers
• Improved order accuracy and reduced fallout
• Lower cost-to-serve through automation
• Stronger customer experience
• Gradual reduction of technical debt
• Alignment with ODA and modular architecture principles
This approach balances stability with innovation – ideal for Tier-1 operators.

15. How do industry standards such as ODA accelerate telecom digital transformation?

Industry standards like TM Forum ODA and TMF Open APIs reduce integration complexity, promote interoperability, and give operators a trusted blueprint for modernisation. They ensure that new BSS/OSS components can plug into existing environments without custom engineering.
By reducing dependence on bespoke integrations and enabling modular deployment, standards significantly lower long-term cost and accelerate transformation across the business. They also future proof the architecture for new technologies, including AI, automation, and 5G service innovation.


 
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