My API Story: Accelerating business performance through seamless integrations

Tell us about yourself and your job?

As TM's Chief Information O­fficer, I lead strategic initiatives to maximize stakeholder value. Guiding key projects, overseeing IT operations and fostering talent development are core aspects of my role. I also manage IT architecture strategies to meet organizational needs, drive process improvements for service excellence, and ensure stakeholder requirements are met. Additionally, I enforce policies to reskill and upskill our IT staff for high performance in this evolving IT landscape.

Why do you believe in TM Forum’s Open API program?

We believe in the program because it represents a global initiative fostering seamless application integration in the telecommunications industry. It stands out for its collaborative approach, where industry experts jointly develop Open APIs through a structured methodology. With 60 certified APIs, we consistently meet and exceed industry integration standards, strengthening our platform approach, while positioning TM as a reliable partner, fostering industry-wide interoperability and innovation.

What TM Forum Open APIs are most valuable to your company?

We have an in-house development team building Open APIs aligned with TM Forum standards. Over the past 6 months, we have progressed from Bronze to Diamond Conformance Certification status. Below are the most valuable TM Forum Open APIs for us:

TMF 620 – Product Catalog Management

TMF 633 – Service Catalog Management

TMF 622 – Product Ordering Management

TMF 666 – Account Management

TMF 638 – Service Inventory Management

TMF 641 – Service Ordering Management

Why did you choose to highlight those APIs?

TMF 620 Product Catalog Management standardizes adding partners' products to our catalog, enabling direct integration of technical product descriptions into partners' systems.

TMF 633 Service Catalog Management manages the lifecycle of service catalog elements, facilitating easy retrieval and storage of service specifications (e.g. network access) and categories (e.g. fixed, mobile services) via an API.

TMF 622 Product Ordering Management allows Order Capture portals to place orders with all necessary parameters, ensuring consistent interaction with our CRM system.

TMF 666 Account Management manages customer accounts via an API, enabling efficient retrieval of account-related items like billing and settlement accounts within the Telekom Malaysia ecosystem.

TMF 638 Service Inventory Management enables Order Capture portals to access service inventory information, providing frontliners with easy access to customer service status and other details.

TMF 641 Service Ordering Management integrates our CRM with the Service Orchestrator to automate and expedite service order placement, improving the provisioning process.

How do you use these APIs?

We use them within our Business Support System (BSS) platform to streamline order registration and service provisioning, enhancing digital channel experiences for frontliners, partners and customers, and improving service activation to ensure a smoother and more efficient experience for all parties.

How have you benefited from using these APIs?

Using TM Forum Open APIs has significantly accelerated our business performance. Partner onboarding now takes under 2 months, a massive improvement from 6 months before. Additionally, we have reduced custom API usage by 50%, boosting system response time by 34% and achieving a remarkable 98% uptime for customer-facing APIs.

Where do you use them?

We use TM Forum Open APIs in our private data centre, primarily to streamline customer onboarding for fixed and mobile services.

Have you used them in conjunction with any other APIs?

We often use TMF 641 Service Ordering Management alongside TMF 640 Service Activation Management to accelerate service activation and improve customer experiences when acquiring new services from TM.