It’s hard to do big things in a small way

“…it’s hard to do big things in a small way, so I suspect incumbents have more of an advantage than they do in most industries.” Nic Brisbourne. The quote above came from a piece about the rise of ConstructTech (ie building houses via means such as 3D printing). However, it is equally true of the […]

PLDT, Smart sign seven-year US$300M deal with Amdocs

PLDT, Smart ink seven-year US$300M deal with Amdocs. Leading Philippine telco and digital services provider PLDT and its wireless subsidiary Smart Communications (“Smart”) announced that they have entered into agreements to establish a strategic relationship with Amdocs, under which this leading global provider of software and services to communications and media companies will upgrade and […]

The two types of disruptive technologists

OSS is an industry that’s undergoing constant, and massive change. But it still hasn’t been disrupted in the modern sense of that term. It’s still waiting to have its Uber/AirBnB-moment, where the old way becomes almost obsoleted by the introduction of a new way. OSS is not just waiting, but primed for disruption. It’s a […]

How “what if?” scenarios can halt a project

Let’s admit it; we’ve all worked on an OSS project that has gone into a period of extended stagnation because of a fear of the unknown. I call them “What if?” scenarios. They’re the scenarios where someone asks, “What if x happens?” and then the team gets side-tracked whilst finding an answer / resolution. The problem with […]

U Mobile renews BSS with Ericsson

U Mobile renews Business Support System deal with Ericsson. Ericsson has further extended its partnership with U Mobile Sdn Bhd to transform the Malaysian telecommunications service provider’s Business Support System (BSS) into an industrialized, real-time converged environment. Originally signed in 2012, the partnership has been extended for another five years until 2022. In the ongoing […]

Germany’s Tele Columbus Selects Netcracker

Netcracker’s Solution to Provide Tele Columbus Group With Comprehensive Billing and Charging Capabilities Across B2B and B2C. Netcracker Technology announced that Tele Columbus has selected Netcracker’s Revenue Management solution as the single billing and charging system for the entire Tele Columbus Group, which has grown substantially following its acquisition of Primacom and Pepcom. The scope […]

The developer development analogy (to OSS investment)

In a post last week, we quoted Jim Rohn who said, “You can have more – if you become more.” Jim was surely speaking about personal growth, but we equated it to OSS needing to become more too, especially by looking beyond the walls of operations. Your first thoughts may be, “Ohh, good idea, I’d […]

The evolving complexity of RCA

Root cause analysis (RCA) is one of the great challenges of OSS. As you know, it aims to identify the probable cause of an alarm-storm, where all alarms are actually related to a single fault. In the past, my go-to approach was to start with a circuit hierarchy-based algorithm. If you had an awareness of […]

What is your OSS answer : question ratio?

Experts know a lot…. obviously. They have lots of answers… obviously. There are lots of OSS experts. Combined, they know A LOT!! Powerful indeed, but not sure if that’s what we need right now. I feel like we’re in a bit of an OSS innovation funk. The biggest improvements in OSS are coming from outside […]

Customers don’t invest in OSS. What do they invest in?

“An organisation buys an OSS, not because it wants an Operational Support System, but because it wants Operational Support.” So if our customers are not investing in our OSS, what are they actually investing in? Easy! They’re investing in the ability to solve their own problems and opportunities in future. If we don’t actually understand […]

Nokia wins five-year managed services agreement with Optus

Nokia wins five-year managed services agreement to manage Optus’ network. Nokia and Optus have signed a five-year agreement under which Nokia will manage and maintain key components of Optus’ network infrastructure, operations and field maintenance. As part of the contract, Nokia and Optus will develop a Network Operations Centre (NOC), building on global best practices […]

The exposure effect can work for or against OSS projects

The exposure effect (no, not the one circulating through Hollywood) has a few interesting implications for OSS. “The mere-exposure effect is a psychological phenomenon by which people tend to develop a preference for things merely because they are familiar with them.” Wikipedia In effect, it’s the repetition that drills familiarity, comfort, but also bias, into […]

If the customer thinks they have a problem, they do have a problem

Omni-channel is an interesting concept because it generates two distinctly different views. The customer will use whichever channel (eg digital, apps, contact-centre, IVR, etc) that they want to use. The service provider will try to push the customer onto whichever channel suits the service provider best. The customer will often want to use digital or […]

Funding beyond the walls of operations

“You can have more – if you become more.” Jim Rohn. I believe that this is as true of our OSS as it is of ourselves. Many people use the name Operational Support Systems to put an electric fence around our OSS, to limit uses to just operational activities. However, the reach, awareness and power […]

When low OSS performance is actually high performance

“It’s not unusual for something to be positioned as the high performance alternative. The car that can go 0 to 60 in three seconds, the corkscrew that’s five times faster, the punch press that’s incredibly efficient… The thing is, though, that the high performance vs. low performance debate misses something. High at what? That corkscrew […]

The 10 minute / 1 minute / 10 second Agile OSS challenge

Check out the video below, which gives an example of the 10 minute / 1 minute / 10 second challenge (you can check out more of them here). When given 10 minutes to sketch Spiderman, the result is far richer than when the artist is given only 10 seconds… well obviously!! But let me pose […]

The double-edged sword of OSS/BSS integrations

“…good argument for a merged OSS/BSS, wouldn’t you say?” John Malecki. The question above was posed in relation to Friday’s post about the currency and relevance of OSS compared with research reports, analyses and strategic plans as well as how to extend OSS longevity. This is a brilliant, multi-faceted question from John. My belief is […]

Keeping the OSS executioner away

“With the increasing pace of change, the moment a research report, competitive analysis, or strategic plan is delivered to a client, its currency and relevance rapidly diminishes as new trends, issues, and unforeseen disrupters arise.” Soren Kaplan. By the same token as the quote above, does it follow that the currency and relevance of an […]

The future of telco / service provider consulting

“Change happens when YOU and I DO things. Not when we argue.” James Altucher. We recently discussed how ego can cause stagnation in OSS delivery. The same post also indicated how smart contracts potentially streamline OSS delivery and change management. Along similar analytical lines, there’s a structural shift underway in traditional business consulting, as described […]

I found a way to save ten million dollars

Yesterday’s post about egos in OSS contained the following Dilbert cartoon: . It reminded me of a story from many years ago. I was working in a developing country, advising the board of a tier-one telco on the implementation of their first-ever OSS (they’d only ever operated their networks at NMS level previously). During the […]