The award will be given to the Supplier or System Integrator who has developed a new, leading edge Operational and/or Business Management product or a combination of integrated products that, through technical excellence, provides Service Providers with a more efficient means of delivering, operating, or maintaining services. The submitted product must be described in terms of its relation to the TM Forum Applications Framework (TAM). Products can include entire systems, product modules, or applications.

Eligibility

This category is open to all developers, suppliers, application vendors, network vendors, system/solution integrators of operations and business management related solutions.

Entries can only be submitted for products that are commercially available. The product entered must have been launched after 1 January 2007 or will be launched before December 31st 2007.

Judging criteria

The judges will be looking for answers to the question, "How does this product or application improve an operator’s ability to efficiently and cost effectively provide or support new services?" They will be looking for the following:

• What evidence is there that your product has improved the customer’s ability to offer or better support new services in terms of cost, packaging, and/or accuracy?
• How does this product fit with the Applications Map?
• How has your product or application improved response times, service quality, or customer satisfaction levels? 
• What makes your product easier to use or easier to implement such that your customer can more quickly capitalize on its benefits? 
• What positive impact does this product have on the customer’s overall business and operations process and systems infrastructure?
• Case studies and endorsements/testimonials from customers (including field trials)
• Is there objective benchmarking that supports the stated improvements in cost or performance?
• Highly innovative and original thinking in an OSS/BSS related product, application, service or technology concept 
• Clear benefits for service providers offering next generation services
• Applicability to Service Providers across the global marketplace
• Ease of implementation

Submission Requirements

Entrants must answer the following questions:

1. What is the name of your product/solution?
2. Describe the application or set of applications in relation to the Telecom Applications Map, including the data the system uses/acts upon/ and the function/process they perform. (1000 characters = approx 170 words)
3. Describe the features or characteristics of your product that are new and particularly innovative or original? Specifically, have any patents been taken out on it (or pending)? (1000 characters = approx 170 words)
4. What evidence is there that your product will enhance/improve the deployment of next generation services, the customer engagement process, and/or business and operational excellence? Please include any measurable benchmarking metrics which supports stated improvements. (1000 characters = approx 170 words)
5. What makes your product easier to use or easier to implement such that your customer can more quickly capitalize on its benefits? Are there particular standards which are associated with these benefits? (1000 characters = approx 170 words)
6. An extract from a customer testimonial may be given. Please supply customer name and company name. (1000 characters = approx 170 words)
7. Entries for your award category must be commercially available. Please provide evidence to support this, specifically launch date of the product, regions covered and (if applicable) which operators are using the product in a live environment. (500 characters = approx 80 words)