You cannot bore someone into buying

“You cannot bore someone into buying your product.” David Ogilvy. As my domain name indicates, I’m passionate about OSS, so I love seeing presentations and demonstrations of OSS products / implementations. I’m fascinated by the subject matter, yet I’ve sat through many demonstrations that were dead-pan boring. Invariably the presenters were stuck in the features […]

Loud and angry

“The problem with requiring people to be loud and angry to get things done is that you’re now surrounded by people who are loud and angry.” Seth Godin in this blog. The beauty of working as a consultant is having the opportunity to experience many different corporate cultures. Seth’s blog reminded me of a small handful […]

New category added

The network and network management worlds are watching on with interest as the network virtualisation snowball gains momentum. Passionate About OSS has hosted many posts on this subject, so I have created a new category here (https://passionateaboutoss.com/category/virtualisation/) that will allow readers to find posts on this subject matter more easily. For the moment, I’ve excluded […]

Destroying civilization

“If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.” Gerald Weinberg. Interesting perspective. It’s not just pointing a finger at programmers either. It’s effectively giving everyone in the software development industry a whack including business analysts, testers, etc. Some would say that software is first-of-its-kind, […]

Bright House Networks delivers NetCracker

NetCracker Drives Major BSS and e-Commerce Transformation for Bright House Networks. NetCracker Technology announced that Bright House Networks has completed the first phase of a large-scale, multi-phase BSS and customer experience transformation program. This program encompasses billing system consolidation and replacement, new CRM and e-commerce implementations, as well as a large managed services relationship. Bright […]

Redknee Supports Vodafone India

Redknee Supports Vodafone India’s Data Subscribers. Redknee Solutions Inc. announced that it is supporting Vodafone India to deliver the benefits of real-time charging to its Pan-India active prepaid and postpaid data subscribers. Vodafone India is leveraging the latest release of Redknee Unified Charging to boost its data subscribers’ adoption and enhance customer satisfaction. In addition, […]

Two sides to every story

“Every truth has two sides; it is as well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either.” Aesop. As the old saying goes, there are two sides to every story. Equally, there are two sides to every OSS interface (or possibly more if you including middleware, etc). Each side of the interface tends […]

The mysterious missing #4

“What if a demon were to creep after you one night, in your loneliest loneliness, and say, ‘This life which you live must be lived by you once again and innumerable times more; and every pain and joy and thought and sigh must come again to you, all in the same sequence. The eternal hourglass […]

Products or services?

“A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.” Chinese Proverb. It seems logical that OSS vendors want their products to reach a critical mass, whereby they no longer rely on their own marketing efforts alone. They want to reach a point where other people / organisations are selling their products. There appears […]

OSS self-analysis

“A lot of people asked me if it was frustrating not having a clear specific diagnosis, but I didn’t mind, I just chose the most optimistic diagnosis.” Karen Duffy. Predictive analytics has become a bit of a cliche for the OSS industry, one which I’ve succumbed to using too (see these previous blogs as but […]

Nobody will pay you to solve your problems

“Nobody will ever pay you to solve your problems… but they’ll line up if you can solve theirs.” Ramit Sethi. OSS were originally designed to coordinate and streamline network management processes for CSPs. OSS helped CSPs solve operational problems. They still do. Keeping Ramit Sethi’s quote in mind, if we have a customer that needs […]

Redknee Signs $6M deal in APAC

Redknee Signs $6 Million Dollar Order in APAC for Innovative Energy Retail Solution. Redknee Solutions Inc. announced that a leading national corporation and service provider in Asia Pacific has signed a deal for $6 million dollars with Redknee to support its growth in the energy retail sector. This is a significant deal that will equip […]

SaskTel International offers SaaS OSS suite

SaskTel International serves up new SaaS OSS suite. SaskTel International (SI), a leading-edge communications software and services solution provider, has announced the launch of a robust suite of Operations Support System (OSS) software solutions via a new Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. The SaaS-enabled software provides Communications Service Providers (CSPs) with a flexible approach to drive the […]

Your OSS elevator pitch

“While some seem to have a knack for this sort of thing, most of us fail miserably at this most basic sales skill – explaining what we do for a living.” Sean Rosensteel. How do you describe what you do for a living? Does your audience look dazed and confused when you describe what an […]

RCN Goes Live with NetCracker

RCN Goes Live with NetCracker Next-Generation Revenue Management. NetCracker Technology announced that RCN, a U.S.-based provider of high-speed Internet, digital TV, telephone and business communications services, has gone live with an upgrade to NetCracker’s next-generation Revenue Management solution. RCN is a leading, competitive cable provider focused largely on key metropolitan markets, such as New York […]

Hazards in your environment

“Our technological powers increase, but the side effects and potential hazards also escalate.” Alvin Toffler. One of the many user groups touched by an OSS (directly or indirectly) is the field work-force. The field work-force have to deal with hazards that most of us desk-jockeys don’t come into contact with. Confined spaces, hazardous materials (eg […]

C Spire selects Centina Systems

C Spire Selects Centina Systems for Strategic Service Assurance. Centina Systems announced that C Spire™ will deploy its NetOmnia™ suite of solutions for service assurance. This will include real-time end-to-end network visibility for improved troubleshooting and problem resolution. C Spire is a full service provider of Internet, telecommunications, and network services. The company offers Triple […]

What do your customers actually use?

“My goal is no longer to get more done, but rather to have less to do.” Francine Jay. A few questions for all the vendors out there. Do you know which applications within your suite that your customers actually use? Do you know which features of these applications they use? Do you know which features […]

Customer Experience – Customer Experience

“The more you engage with customers the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.” John Russell. You must be wondering whether the heading above is a typo? It’s not. Let me explain. This is the fifth post in my Customer Experience series. The previous four have been […]

The worst job in OSS?

“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.” Larry Bossidy. In a recent post, I spoke of the challenge in getting the right balance between two scarce assets, customers and human resources. This got me […]