Four carriers breaking away
“China Mobile, Tata, NTT, and Telefónica are creating open source groups to work on their own versions of management and orchestration (MANO) within ETSI’s network functions virtualization (NFV) framework.” SDX Central. Interesting news from SDX Central that these four organisations are breaking away from the theoretical development of MANO and looking to push things along […]
With knowledge comes power
“You’ve got Amazon knowing everything about purchasing, Google knowing everything about what people do on the Internet, and Salesforce knowing everything about the revenue side of a business.” Scott Raney. The big question for CSPs as they make the transition to the more modern Digital Service Provider (DSP) business models is, “what big thing can […]
CSG expands with WIND Mobile
CSG Expands Relationship with Canada’s WIND Mobile. CSG International (NASDAQ: CSGS) announced that WIND Mobile, Canada’s fourth largest carrier, will add Singleview Commerce Engine to its existing CSG revenue management solutions. The addition of this solution will enable WIND to leverage a single platform to offer pre-paid and post-paid payment models as well as real-time […]
VSD, PPT, XLS
Question for you: Do your OSS users also use ubiquitous tools like Visio, PowerPoint, Excel and others to help perform their day-to-day workflows? I have two contrasting views on this: POSITIVE: They have carefully specified their needs and they ‘re rightly using the OSS only to do the most important / efficient tasks, using swivel-chairing […]
Toy Story
I’m currently reading the book, “Creativity, Inc” by Ed Catmull, the CEO of Pixar, the company famous for creating animated films like Toy Story, Cars, Monsters Inc, etc. Perhaps you’ve heard of them? For me, animated movies are a fascinating blend of technology and art. For almost every customer of Pixar’s work, the technology is […]
More things gone wrong
Whoa! What an awful week. Last Monday, l promised to write a follow up post to “Things gone wrong” the next day. Well, that clearly didn’t happen, true to form, due to something going wrong. If you plan on taking gastro for a test-drive like l did, I’d strongly recommend against it. 🙂 Anyway, back […]
ETSI harmonises NFV information modelling
ETSI Seeks Harmonization of NFV Information Modelling. ETSI’s Industry Specification Group for Network Functions Virtualisation (ETSI NFV) convened a ground-breaking industry workshop to align cloud-centric initiatives and network-centric initiatives to ensure successful realization of NFV through automation. The workshop brought together the leading Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) and Open Source communities in an ‘NFV Village’. […]
O2 extends Netcracker partnership
O2 in the UK Extends Netcracker Hosted Managed Services Partnership to Enable Nationwide M2M Initiative and Partner Revenue Share Ecosystem. Netcracker announced that Telefónica UK, which operates as O2 in the UK, has agreed to extend the use of Netcracker’s Revenue Management solution through a hosted managed services model for two new significant initiatives. By […]
CenturyLink consolidates on Amdocs
CenturyLink to consolidate ordering, billing across its markets. CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is moving to consolidate its local service ordering and billing systems so it can streamline its process and systems across its markets for wholesale CLEC customers. The telco currently operates two ordering and billing systems for its local services products, a product of the […]
Things gone wrong
OSS has a bad name amongst many of our customers. Yes, even though they invest billions in our industry each year. Do they consider us a necessary evil? Quality, dependability, repeatability. These are the catch-cries of success in many industries. TGW (things gone wrong) per million or per thousand are common metrics that are the bellweather […]
Openet to provide free NFV software
Openet to Provide Free of Charge NFV Software in Initiative to Promote Interoperability and Openness. Openet announced that its OVLM (Openet VNF Lifecycle Manager) software will be made available free of charge from March 2016. This initiative will enable the adoption of vendor-interchangeable and interoperable Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) and help operators to realise the […]
Slovak Telekom selects Netcracker
Slovak Telekom Selects Netcracker to Radically Simplify Operations with Converged Billing and Services Deal. Netcracker Technology announced that it has expanded its billing relationship with Slovak Telekom, the largest telecommunications service provider in Slovakia. Slovak Telekom will leverage Netcracker’s Revenue Management solution to bring its fixed and mobile billing processes onto a single, end-to-end platform. […]
Ready for Work
There’s a commonly used terminology in our industry, I’m sure you’ve heard of it, TOW (Ticket of Work). I like to think of it as a RFW (Ready for Work) because that’s what your TOW needs to empower the field worker with. The field worker must know what they need to do, where they need […]
Do I actually generate value?
“Are you an expert at something that actually generates value?” Seth Godin in a recent post called, “No direction home.” Seth’s post is actually about finding a job in a different way than most people try, one that I’m also a big advocate of. The quote above though is a very philosophical one for all […]
CSG Ascendon offers Digital Streaming Service
CSG’s Ascendon to Power Digital Streaming Service. CSG International (NASDAQ: CSGS) announced that its CSG Ascendon digital services platform now supports a new digital membership service offering the biggest collection of movies, TV, books, music and apps from one of the world’s most loved entertainment brands. The new membership-based streaming service is available in the […]
Photos in the field
With the ubiquity of smart phones, when field workers are on site, they often photograph assets to show the state of the network before and /or after their site visit. Many organisations with OSS also have Digital Asset Management (DAM) tools that allow them to store digital assets (images, video, audio, etc) in a central […]
Smart boosts customer service
Smart boosts customer service using field app. Customer service of companies is usually handled by frontliners like store personnel and hotline agents. But mobile leader Smart Communications [of the Philippines] has added a versatile digital tool to help make life better for its subscribers. Smart recently developed and deployed a mobile application called CARA that […]
A fulfillment triage gap
The concept of triage is commonly used by OSS to ensure that the most urgent problems are assigned the highest attention by resolver groups in the assurance domain. Less common is the concept of triage in fulfillment domains. Interestingly though, I believe that the concept holds great merit to improve overall OSS efficiency bet it […]
Wireless tools
“If you’re already doing everything online on your smartphone anyway, why pay for home broadband service? That seems to be the conclusion of a growing number of Americans, particularly Millennials. According to the Pew Research Center, as charted here for us by Statista, the percentage of U.S. adults with home broadband has declined over the […]
Suck in the knowledge
OSS play a part in many activities within CSP environments. Some of those activities are common, some rare, and others still require a large dose of human decision interactions. However, most of those activities will have been done before, more or less. This should mean that OSS have seen it all before (more or less). […]