IBM wins lead on NBN Co business systems

Three-year integration project.

IBM Australia has landed the prime systems integration role on NBN Co's three-year $200 million operational and business support systems project.

Implementation had already started and would be rolled out in four tranches.

The project would involve "other subcontractors and a range of software providers", according to a statement issued this morning.

The systems it delivered would allow retail service providers to provision new internet services, report faults and manage services delivered over NBN infrastructure.

They were also the platforms through which NBN Co would monitor the performance of its national fibre network and bill ISPs for the wholesale services they took.

"We will be carrying out this project by means of an integrated team of experienced providers all working together to achieve real end-to-end business outcomes," NBN Co's head of network operations Steve Christian said.

IBM would be particularly tasked with leading "process optimisation and automation" within the BSS/OSS systems.

It was not the first piece of work that IBM had picked up from NBN Co. Big Blue was charged with standing up interim IT systems for the network builder last year.

NBN Co was transitioning some of those IT functions to its own data centres in Sydney and Springfield, outside of Brisbane.

NBN Co chief Mike Quigley told the CommsDay Summit in Sydney that NBN Co had set out to create a system that "blended" the often disparate worlds of BSS/OSS and IT.

"We're completely integrating our ERP and OSS/BSS systems," he said.

"If we manage to stand it up right, it should provide a very good system for customers. Hopefully the transaction speeds will be very fast."

Quigley said NBN Co had hoped to buy off-the-shelf OSS/BSS systems but that "wasn't possible" due to the company's requirements.

One of the more challenging requirements for the systems was they provide customers - the access seekers - with an "end-to-end view of the NBN network as if it was their own network".