TM Forum used this week's Management World 2011 to launch a new automated benchmark tool for service providers.
The industry association announced its new Business Metrics Automation (BMA) platform, which allows service providers to automatically upload and compare their performance against a set of industry standard metrics at its annual industry congress.
The tool forms part of the Forum's Frameworx 11.0 standards suite, also launched at the event in Dublin.
Operators will be able to integrate BMA into their internal systems, or to use products from suppliers that have added the interface to their off-the-shelf products. Service provider controls and extensions will be added to the API in the next release.
A pilot group of industry suppliers - Clarity, cVidya, Oracle, and Subex – have already uploaded data in a standard format into the benchmarking database. WeDo Technologies and HP have also joined the pilot.
TM Forum also revealed it had added new security capabilities in the release of Frameworx 11.
The new release adds security management features enabling operators to detect and act on vulnerabilities and threats. It also includes a Policy Information Exchange Model, which aims to enable standards-based distributed policy management.
According to TM Forum, Frameworx has now been adopted by 80% of the world's largest service providers.