Enterprise modelling the telecommunications industry

The telecommunications industry is becoming both more co-operative and more competitive and this has dramatic consequences on the character of operati onal support. Operational activities make up the majority of telecommunicat ions companies, and investment in these activities is huge. Dynamic markets and emerging new roles and supply chains stress the design of such operati onal systems and processes, some of which can trace their origins back to t he monopolistic days of the past. This paper presents preparatory work in t he search for new architectural tools to prepare operational support for th e next millennium. The paper provides a definition for a value-adding enter prise and shows how conversation theory can help analyse the interaction of roles within an enterprise model. Such models can describe the interaction between responsibilities within enterprises and, in future, the required o perational support systems, activities, data and processes.