The OSS through Java Initiative announced the availability of a Web Services integration profile for its Trouble Ticket API (JSR 91). In 2005, the Initiative unveiled its Web Services strategy and published design guidelines for the development of the Web Services profiles of all OSS/J APIs. Today, the Web Services profile for the first API is made available. Web Services specifications for other OSS/J APIs will be available by April 2006. (A full list of OSS/J APIs is provided below.)

The Web Services profile completes OSS/J's portfolio of API integration profiles. The Java EE profile supports tightly coupled integration between OSS applications that are increasingly developed natively on the Java EE platform. The XML upon JMS profile supports loosely coupled integration and facilitates legacy integration. The Web Services profile addresses B2B integration. All OSS/J APIs are downloadable free of charge. OSS/J is the only open OSS standard available with full reference implementations, compatibility test suites, a portfolio of certified products, and an open ecosystem of tools, adapters, and extensions.

"This is the final step to complete our vision of delivering an OSS-aware Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) for the management of next generation telecommunications networks and services," says Philippe Lalande, Sun Microsystems, the head of the Initiative. "Because OSS/J technology is now widely adopted and deployed in production environment by service providers around the world, we continuously receive pragmatic feedback to our API roadmap. Carriers tell us that they must have flexibility to support different integration strategies. This feedback allowed us to anticipate the business case for our Web Services profile and deliver it at a time when it is in high demand."

OSS/J-enabled Web Services will allow service providers to make OSS services available to customers and business partners without major investments in client software and custom communications software.

"Thanks to the availability of OSS/J Web Services profiles, Vodafone will be able to integrate partners and suppliers into our global OSS architecture in cost-effective ways," says Joerg Frankenberger, head of network management engineering for Vodafone Germany. "This will not only lower integration costs. It will also increase our ability to strategically collaborate across an extended and fully integrated network. Already, we have estimated that the use of OSS/J technologies will save us 20 percent or more by reducing integration costs. The new Web Service profiles will only add to these savings."

OSS/J technologies are aligned by design with the TeleManagement Forum's New Generation Operations Support System (NGOSS) framework, which provides architectural guidelines, information and data models, and business process models.  OSS/J Web Services profiles are the first implementation of the TeleManagement Forum's program for Web Services Enablement.

The profile supports the web-service-based SOA in demand by telecommunications carriers worldwide.

This is the latest in a series of firsts for OSS/J. In May 2004, the TM Forum formally endorsed OSS/J as the first technology specific implementation of NGOSS. Since then, it has become clear that OSS/J technologies are in the forefront of an industry-wide effort to resolve the integration roadblocks that for years have hampered the delivery of new telecommunications products and services.

"We are very pleased that OSS/J has made available a Web Services profile in alignment with the TM Forum's Web Service Enablement program," says Martin Creaner, CTO of the TeleManagement Forum. "This is yet another real-world validation of our NGOSS framework, a technology neutral architecture that continues to prove its value to the telecommunications industry. NGOSS, OSS/J, and Web-service-based Service-Oriented Architecture have reached maturity in parallel and in many respects share a common approach."

OSS/J APIs Standardized under the latest Java Community ProcessSM (JCP) program, OSS/J APIs include:

OSS Service Activation (JSR 89)
OSS Quality of Service (JSR 90)
OSS Trouble Ticket (JSR 91)
OSS Billing Mediation (JSR 130)
OSS Inventory (JSR 142)
OSS Common (JSR 144)
OSS Service Quality Management (JSR 210) Pricing (JSR 251) OSS Discovery (JSR 245) Fault management (JSR 263) Order management (JSR 264)

About the OSS through Java Initiative
Building on the success of Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EET), XML, and Web Services technologies in enterprise applications and e-commerce, the OSS through Java Initiative is chartered to develop functional APIs that accelerate the development of innovative OSS/BSS solutions where all applications function together. The Initiative's APIs are standardized under the latest Java Community Process(SM) (JCP) program.

The deliverables for each API consist of a specification, a reference implementation, and a technology compatibility kit - all of which, including source code, are made available to the industry free of charge. The Initiative's APIs help service providers jumpstart the deployment of end-to-end services on next-generation networks and leverage the convergence of telecommunications and Internet-based solutions. For more information on the OSS through Java Initiative and its membership, visit: http://www.ossj.org