OSS Made by Engineers for Engineers

There’s this phrase that just keeps ringing in my head when I see OSS and BSS in action – “Made by Engineers for Engineers.” This was certainly a badge of honour. If the people who built OSS tools had network engineering experience, then there was a great likelihood that they were building solutions to solve […]

How a Lego challenge helps provide a new lens on OSS

Did you love to play with Lego as a kid? I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that since you’re reading a blog about OSS, then you’re probably leaning towards the technical end of the spectrum… and therefore probably did play with Lego. Perhaps you even crossed into Lego Technic that allows […]

The Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) cliff facing the telco and OSS/BSS Industries

In recent times, we’ve seen widespread damage caused by cybersecurity events impacting the telecommunications industry. Unfortunately, we’re rapidly approaching another monumental cliff for security of telecommunications (and all the industries that rely on electronic communications). The same cliff is something the OSS/BSS industry also needs to be patently aware of. Traditional cryptographic algorithms, which underpin […]

What will you do if the telco industry dies?

Christel Heydemann, Orange’s CEO, brought to our attention at MWC 2023 that a survey of European telcos indicated that almost half of the polled CEOs do not expect their businesses to make it through another decade. That’s a pretty scary thing to think about if you’ve built your career around the telco industry and don’t […]

Closing the OSS Buyer / Seller chasm – More solutions (part 5)

This is the fifth of the “buyer / seller” chasm articles (pt1, pt2, pt3, pt4). We’d previously highlighted the issues, the pain points, the sources of friction and more about getting Buyers and Sellers together to build better telcos. But in today’s article we’ll complete the solutions list that we started on in part four, […]

Revolutionising Network Operations with AIOps – Our Latest Report and Video Link

As you may have noticed, we recently launched a new report, “The Future of AIOps: A Definitive Guide.” In the rapidly evolving landscape of carrier networks, Operations was and still is, the linchpin of business stability. It’s effectively every telco’s insurance policy. With the complexity of systems and the demand for instant resolution of issues, […]

The AIOps Venn Dilemma

Whilst preparing our recently launched paper, “AIOps of the Future: A Definitive Guide, ” one thing came through loud and clear from the carriers we spoke with – assembling the skills-mix required to support AIOps tools / programmes. The carriers simply don’t seem to be confident in being able to find, or keep, people with […]

Asking your colleagues to give you AIR

Let me tell you a story. A love story. A story about data. A story about AIR. On my first OSS project, all the way back in 2000, I was brought in as a network SME. But it was only after getting involved in the data modelling and data migration activities that I really became […]

How our OSS can enhance customer experiences and perceptions for the telcos we work for

In a recent article, we compared how telco holds itself accountable to its internally adored five-nine availability standards, yet still has cellar-dwelling customer satisfaction scores. When you consider the expanse and complexity of the global telco network, and the millions of micro-events that occur on it each day, telco networks are amazingly resilient. Telcos certainly […]

Telco innovation: 13 examples of harnessing OSS for super-charged experimentation

We know the modern digital marketplace is evolving and proliferating at mind-blowing speeds. Everything you know right now, and all the knowledge you have collected over your career, is diminishing in relevance at an increasing rate. The same is true of us as individuals as well as us as the telco industry and the companies […]

Oh, sorry. I had it in 2D. Good luck!

Have you ever worked out in the field, turning design packs / drawings prepared by colleagues in your design team into built network? Have you ever worked at head office (eg the NOC) and interacted with your colleagues out in the field? If you have, you’ll know there’s often a disconnect in situational awareness between […]

The five D’s of automation

Automation is an exciting ambition in the world of digital transformation. Everyone aspires to implement a lot of it. It gives you leverage, allowing you to do more with less. Who wouldn’t want that? There are two main problems with automations though: For many scenarios, the cost of automation outweighs the benefit. Either the benefit […]

Two new products to help you kick-start your next OSS project

There’s only one way that OSS and BSS can get better – clients need to invest in them, which in turn convinces vendors to invest in product development. There’s a simple sequence of events: The demonstrable delivery of value by OSS to an organisation, which Justifies the allocation of budget to your organisation’s OSS, and […]

Network Resilience Engineering: The Role of Operational Support Systems (OSS)

Operational Support Systems (OSS) perform many business-critical functions for network operators, as shown in the diagram below. They are the connectors and the profit engine behind any communications network. As indicated above, the assurance flows help to retain revenues and customers. OSS are an insurance policy for a telco’s brand, or at least the technology […]

The next OSS breakthrough: Accessibility

Our motto at Passionate About OSS is, “Removing complexity from OSS.” Sadly, we’re awash with complexity in our industry. If most OSS were represented as a board game, they’d look something like this: Image sourced from https://technabob.com Would you know how to play this game without instructions? Even if you had instructions, it could take […]

I’ve just been blown away again by another really revolutionary demonstration

Earlier in the week, I shared a really exciting video from EnterpriseWeb (in collaboration with KX and Microsoft in particular). Clearly others have been just as impressed with that video as I was. That one video alone has triggered a wave of discussions. I suspect that’s because it provides a line-of-sight to what network operations […]

An AR/VR product I’d love to develop. What are your thoughts?

As some of you will have spotted in past articles, I’ve spent the last couple of years working with solutions at the intersection of OSS/BSS (data) and AR/VR for visualisations and new ways of working. A couple of animated GIFs from that work are shown below. An interactive 3D model with assets identified from OSS […]

From Idle Time to Deep Attention: The Impacts on Operational Support Systems

Of all technological advancements, smartphones have had one of the most profound impacts on humanity in recent history. They have ingeniously monetised “idle time,” the brief intermissions between our important tasks, often filling our idle moments with a plethora of addictive apps, content and social media. However, as technology has evolved, these “idle time” tasks […]