Boosting revenues in the face of slowing subscriber growth has become a priority for mobile-telecommunications companies in Europe and North America, and to that end they are rolling out any number of new services to consumers. Applications now in the pipeline or already available include everything from fun and exciting products such as games (a big hit with NTT DoCoMo’s i-mode customers in Japan) to convenient concierge services (for instance, applications that help business travelers find restaurants). But in launching these services, mobile operators must solve a swath of strategic and marketing problems—and deal with vexing operational challenges stemming from the structure of the technologies that support the business.

Indeed, in mobile services IT not only supports the business but is also, to a large extent, the business itself: technology lies at the core, from the products and services to the way customers receive them to the operation of every company in the sector. But like companies in so many other sectors, mobile operators have for years installed one IT system after another, and the interconnections between them have become complex and often inefficient. Modifying these complex systems or adding new ones to the mix is more and more...