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Enterprises are realizing the importance networks play as they transition to digital environments. According to Gartner, by 2023, over 60% of enterprises will deem networking as core to their digital strategies, up from less than 20% today. With a growing demand for network services, automation of quoting and ordering minimizes service providers’ resources to support enterprises, as well as helps enterprises to reimagine their own buying processes. In this post, we explore how MEF’s APIs are currently benefiting service providers and the opportunities for enterprises to take part in this digital transformation movement.
Adoption of LSO Sonata APIs
MEF’s set of standardized LSO Sonata APIs address the business-to-business layer of inter-provider interactions, like quoting, ordering and inventory. Prior to LSO Sonata APIs, service providers created and maintained individual API connections with each of their partner providers. With the increasing number of inter-provider relationships, this effort required a significant workforce. LSO Sonata APIs provide a common standard for digital communication, which has made it easier for service providers to do business together. This standard has resulted in faster quote-to-order cycles and quicker revenue generation.
In 2019, AT&T and Colt completed the first successful application of MEF’s LSO Sonata APIs. In June 2020, MEF announced that eight leading service providers were on track to be production-ready in 2Q 2020 for deploying MEF 3.0 LSO Sonata APIs to automate ordering of MEF 3.0 Carrier Ethernet Access E-Line services. Their collective efforts represent a major leap forward in accelerating industry transformation to dynamic, assured, and certified services across a global federation of automated networks.
In February 2021, as part of the MEF 3.0 Proof of Concept Program, Amartus, AT&T, and PCCW Global showcased PoC 137 Partner Onboarding and Interop: Streamlining onboarding of LSO Sonata-conformant operator partners. They demonstrated how service providers can use MEF documentation and a MEF-facilitated service to prepare their tens or hundreds of wholesale partners, thereby substantially reducing their mutual workload when onboarding those partners into their MEF-standardized business interface environment.
LSO Cantata Offers Opportunities for Enterprise Automation
With more and more service providers updating their back-end systems with LSO APIs, an opportunity has emerged for enterprises to simplify their business interactions with service providers. Derived from LSO Sonata, LSO Cantata was defined to meet the needs of enterprises wishing to simplify the buying and management of telecom services from service providers. Similar to the challenges faced in the service provider ecosystem, global enterprises buying from multiple providers through LSO Cantata can now accelerate their digital transformation through the implementation of a standardized integration across multiple providers.
Implementing LSO Sonata & LSO Cantata with Technology Providers
For service providers and enterprises with limited resources to implement LSO APIs, help is available to take advantage of the API benefits. MEF has an ecosystem of technology providers with solutions that incorporate LSO APIs. These providers also help update the API specifications, so this frontline knowledge ensures their solutions are always using the latest API versions. Technology providers like Network Design and Analysis Corporation (NDA) help with everything from quote automation solutions to implementation and testing.
Companies have realized significant benefits through quote automation, including:
- 90% decrease in resources needed for quote creation
- 25% decrease in sales administrative costs
- Increased quote accuracy and consistency
- Doubling of quote volumes in under a year
- Quote turnaround from days to minutes
API standardization will continue to be an important part of MEF’s mission to empower digital transformation to make doing business easier. Are you ready to jump on board?
Learn More
- Learn more about MEF LSO Sonata APIs and MEF LSO Cantata APIs.
- Learn more about MEF 3.0 PoC 137 Partner Onboarding and Interop: Streamlining onboarding of LSO Sonata-conformant operator partners.
Related Posts:
- How MEF Membership Accelerates LSO Sonata API Implementation
- Q&A – Frederick Chui and Divesh Gupta, PCCW Global: MEF 3.0 LSO Sonata APIs for Inter-Provider Service Automation
About MEF’s LSO API Framework
MEF publishes SDKs as part of its LSO API Framework in releases every six months. The most recent release was ‘Aretha’ in December 2020. The upcoming release, ‘Billie,’ will be available in May 2021. There is one SDK per LSO Reference Point, as defined in MEF 55.1 Lifecycle Service Orchestration (LSO): Reference Architecture and Framework. The contents of each SDK can be found on Github.
About NDA
Since 1983, NDA has been a leader in quote automation solutions for both the buying and selling of telecom products around the world. NDA helps organizations implement MEF-compliant quoting interfaces for services and centralize the quoting of telecom services from global providers. These implementations have included quoting from providers that have implemented MEF APIs, those with non-MEF-compliant APIs, and those that do not have any APIs.
Tags: LSO APIs