Women in OSS

OSS doesn’t seem to be a very enticing career for women unfortunately. Over all my years of OSS projects, I can’t think of any where women outnumbered the men. However, my OSS projects have been interspersed with a variety of other projects where women have dominated the team numbers. Looking back, there’s almost perfect correlation […]

The story of Mike Flint

“Mike Flint was Warren Buffett’s personal airplane pilot for 10 years. (Flint has also flown four US Presidents, so I think we can safely say he is good at his job.) According to Flint, he was talking about his career priorities with Buffett when his boss asked the pilot to go through a 3-step exercise. […]

AIS upgrades with Netcracker

AIS Upgrades to Netcracker’s Revenue Management Solution to Optimize Customer Experience. Netcracker Technology announced that Advanced Info Service Public Company Limited (AIS) is upgrading to Netcracker 12 to deliver a better digital customer experience and meet myriad internal business objectives. As part of the engagement, AIS has also extended its use of Netcracker’s Professional Services […]

OSS S-curves

“I should say… that in the real world exponential curves don’t continue for ever. We get S-curves which closely mimic exponential curves in the beginning, but then tail off after a while often as new technologies hit physical limits which prevent further progress. What seems to happen in practice is that some new technology emerges […]

Comptel wins order from Saudi Arabia

Comptel Has Received Significant Order from Saudi Arabian Customer. Comptel has received a significant order from a Saudi Arabian customer. The deal is a continuation of a long business relationship between the parties. The value of the contract is approximately 4.9 M euros covering services for Comptel FlowOne Fulfillment, Comptel Data Refinery and Comptel Fastermind […]

Comptel wins new customer in Australia

Comptel has won a new customer in Australia. Comptel has won a new customer in Australia. The deal includes a proof of concept for Comptel’s FlowOne Fulfillment suite.

AI to practice as you play

I’m a die-hard sports fan, as a player and watcher, so I find it interesting how parallels are drawn between work and sport – in particular, that “you practice as you play.” Alternatively, it’s implied that if you practice sloppy, you play sloppy. But if we look at a professional athlete that dedicates 40 hours […]

Our tools going the way of the slide rule

My grandfather achieved many great things in his lifetime and I’m really proud to come from his lineage. I have many great memories of him and one perplexing one. When I was accepted into Engineering at Uni, he proudly presented me with his trusty slide-rule and stated that I’d be needing it in my course. […]

Customers buy the basic and learn to love the features

“Most customers buy the basic and learn to love the features, but the whole customer experience is based on trying to sell the features.” Roger Gibson. This statement appears oh-so-true in the OSS sales pitches that I’ve observed. In many cases the customer really only needs the basic, but when every vendor is selling the […]

OSS survivorship bias

Take a look at the image below. If you were told that the image showed where planes had taken hits in WWII before returning to base and were asked to recommend locations on the plane where armour should be strengthened, where would you choose? Would you choose to strengthen behind the cockpit and on the […]

OSS data as a business asset

“To become a business asset, the role of data within an organization must move from being departmentally siloed to being centrally managed. Breaking down the siloes is not necessarily a technical challenge, but an organizational one. It requires a data strategy, the correct level of ownership and corporate governance. Data-as-a-business-asset means a single definition of […]

The Second Law of OSS Thermodynamics

“Applying the Second Law of Thermodynamics to understanding reality, Boyd infers that individuals or organizations that don’t communicate with the outside world by getting new information about the environment or by creating new mental models act like a “closed system.” And just as a closed system in nature will have increasing entropy, or disorder, so […]

Etisalat enlists Comptel

Etisalat Enlists Comptel’s FWD to introduce cliQ to Sri Lankan Mobile Subscribers Comptel Corporation announced that Etisalat Sri Lanka has launched cliQ, its new offering designed to allow subscribers to purchase time-based mobile data packages by using Comptel’s FWD solution. As many mobile subscribers are ill-equipped to buy data in expensive and hard to understand […]

A dubious revenue stream

I recently met with an old friend who is now a leading Engineer in mega construction projects (I’m talking multi-billion dollar projects here). He told me that most of the lead construction companies struggle to make a profit from the main contract due to underestimating or perhaps just competitive bidding to ensure a pipeline of […]

If telcos don’t issue bills, where does new revenue come from?

“Many of you here are working on digitalisation projects but I would urge you to think bigger. You need to think about business model change – with existing customers or into whole new sectors. It isn’t just about product innovation. It’s about company innovation.” Deborah Sherry at TM Forum Live! I really like the way […]

Just three things

I was due to speak at TM Forum Live today but wasn’t able to make it across to France this year. However, the talk will still continue on, so if you’re in Nice please drop in to listen to Amrit Singh and Crispin Blackall talk about how Infosys and Telstra are using microservices to deliver […]

Dialog consolidates with Netcracker

Dialog Consolidates All Billing on Netcracker’s Next-Generation Revenue Management Platform. Netcracker Technology announced that Dialog Axiata, a subsidiary of Axiata Group Berhad, has expanded its partnership with Netcracker by using Netcracker’s Customer Billing Management solution to consolidate billing across all lines of business into a single platform. This expansion will bring Dialog’s retail and enterprise […]

Telenet Selects Netcracker

Telenet Selects Netcracker for Comprehensive Digital BSS Transformation. Netcracker Technology announced that Telenet has selected Netcracker to be its strategic partner and initiate a comprehensive digital transformation to leverage its cable and wireless assets and deliver the most innovative services and outstanding customer experience to its more than 2 million customers. This digital transformation program […]

Open source is like a free puppy

TM Forum Live is currently bringing together some of the leading thinkers in the world of OSS at a gathering in France. Whilst I can’t be there, a colleague is representing PAOSS and relayed this message: Best quote in my opinion was Shahar Steiff of PCCW – “Open source isn’t like free candy – it’s […]

Theseus’ OSS transformation

Last week we compared OSS to Theseus’ ship, how it was constantly being rebuilt mid-voyage, then posing the question whether it was still actually the same ship. OSS transformation is increasingly becoming a Theseus’ ship model. In the past, we may’ve had the chance to do big-bang cutovers, where we simply migrated users from one […]