Passionate About OSS Blog | Passionate About OSS and BSS

MTN Selects CSG International

MTN Selects CSG for Comprehensive Managed Services Program. CSG International announced that MTN, one of the largest communication service providers in the world, has selected CSG for a long-term managed services engagement that will enable MTN South Africa to simplify and streamline its operations and focus its resources on core business lines. Under the terms of the multiyear agreement, CSG will provide end-to-end management of the…

04/06/2014 No Comments

The components of SDN, NFV, MANO & OSS

When you curate a website / blog called PassionateAboutOSS, it's pretty obvious that you would see the world through OSS-tinted glasses. The tech-world at least. And so it has been for me when evaluating new comms network / service concepts like SDN / NFV. It's been a case of, "that all sounds really exciting and great for network engineers, but how will it help the OSS…

04/06/2014 3 Comments

The marriage analogy

"Don't marry the person you think you can live with; marry only the individual you think you can't live without." James C. Dobson. A reader recently asked a great question about vendor lock-in. OSS tend to be very sticky (ie it's very hard to change suppliers once an OctopOSS's tentacles have spread throughout the CSP's operations) so vendor lock-in is always a risk that terrorises CSPs. OSS relationships…

03/06/2014 No Comments

Interruption is the enemy of productivity

"Interruption is the enemy of productivity." Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson in Rework. OctopOSS are tightly entangled beasts. There are so many complexities that collaboration with your fellow project members is essential. But too many OSS projects get bogged down due to different forms of communications - meetings, documentation, conferences, chatting with colleagues and so on. As the team from 37signals indicates in the quote…

02/06/2014 No Comments

What got you here…

"When times get confusing, it's easy to revert to the habits that got you here. More often than not, that's precisely the wrong approach. The very thing that got you here is the thing that everyone who's here is doing, and if that's what it took to get to the next level, no one would be stuck." Seth Godin in his blog. For all of us…

30/05/2014 No Comments

Maxcom Selects NetCracker

Maxcom Selects NetCracker to Transform OSS for Quad-Play Services. NetCracker Technology announced that Maxcom, an integrated, quad-play communications service provider serving key metropolitan markets in Mexico, has selected NetCracker to deliver a large-scale OSS transformation that will radically improve its order-to-cash process and network design, build and optimization capabilities. Maxcom provides voice, high-speed Internet, mobile and pay-TV services to residential and business customers in key urban…

30/05/2014 No Comments

Is marketing an OSS driver?

"Marketing is now a fundamental driver of IT purchasing, and that trend shows no signs of stopping –or even slowing down –any time soon. In fact, Gartner analyst Laura McLellan recently predicted that by 2017, CMOs will spend more on IT than their counterpart CIOs." Lisa Arthur on Forbes. According to Gartner’s research: 2011 B2B and B2C marketing budgets as a percentage of revenue were almost…

29/05/2014 No Comments

The debt analogy

"Arrange your list of debts from smallest to largest (making sure you’re meeting the minimum repayments on each). Here’s the trick: attack your smallest debt (say your credit card) by bumping up the repayments, so you can knock it over like a domino as quickly as possible. When it’s paid in full, throw your card into a blender (or have a bill burning ceremony). Then take…

28/05/2014 No Comments

More news on Clarity

Subsequent to our recent posts regarding Clarity OSS Ltd, further announcements have been published to the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX), as can be found here: ASX:Code=CYO. In brief, Clarity has reached an agreement to sell off 80% of subsidiary Clarity Malaysia and has agreed to terms with a secured creditor, to be paid by 31 May 2014. Clarity has now resumed trading on the ASX.

27/05/2014 No Comments

Project sponsor obligations

"If the primary aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever." Thomas Aquinas. As we all know, OSS projects can be complex behemoths that have as many people-related issues as technically-related issues. More so than on most projects, OSS project sponsors need to be involved. They can't just be figurehead leaders and leave the project to others. They…

27/05/2014 No Comments

Ohh, and don’t forget the customer contracts

"I don't understand this irony - valuable things like cars, gold, diamond are made up of hard materials but most valuable things like money, contracts and books are made up of soft paper." Amit Kalantri. When planning out a new OSS project, I generally focus on three things first: People (who is involved, who will be impacted, what training will be required, what corporate relationships /…

26/05/2014 No Comments

The book is now available! Mastering your OSS

My OSS book, entitled "Mastering your OSS" is finally available to the market. Click on the image below to take a closer look. For the next two weeks only, I'm offering an extra US$10 off the purchase price to readers of this blog. Just send me an email or a note via the Contact Page and I'll send you the discount code. . The link again…

23/05/2014 No Comments

1,000 things to avoid a Frankenstein OSS

"People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are. You have to pick carefully. I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done. Innovation is saying ‘no’ to 1,000 things" Steve Jobs. The…

22/05/2014 No Comments

Vendor selection reference checks

"Weaknesses seem to stick in my mind ... I'd have to really think about any strengths" Actual reference check response. An past customer of mine recently asked for some guidance on what questions he (a representative of a CSP) should be asking his counterpart CSP that has already selected the OSS vendor that he's evaluating. I suggested that the following are the major classifications of questions…

21/05/2014 No Comments

The proven way to add value

"The proven way to add value. Do extremely difficult work. That seems obvious, right? If you do something that's valued but scarce because it's difficult, you're more likely to be in demand and to be compensated fairly for what you do. The implication is stunning, though: When designing a project or developing a skill, seek out the most difficult parts to master and contribute. If it's…

20/05/2014 No Comments

Clarity extends suspension on ASX

Clarity announces extension of suspension from the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). Clarity OSS Limited announced that it has extended the suspension of its shares until 5:00PM on Wed 21 May, 2014 ("Extension Period"). At Clarity's request, on 14 May 2014, shares in Clarity were suspended until 5:00PM on 19 May 2014 when it was anticipated that negotiations with a potential purchaser would have crystallised into a…

19/05/2014 No Comments

MANO-a-MANO OSS DNA

"The king is dead, long live the king!" Management and Orchestration (MANO) is one of the key components of ETSI's NFV specifications. Some believe it and other cloud management approaches will spell the death of OSS as we know it (although NFV topology diagrams show the NFV Orchestrator connecting to higher-order B/OSS). After all, it will likely revolutionise the management and orchestration of "cloud" resources of…

19/05/2014 4 Comments

A reader’s question – Implementation sequence

"I’d like to get your thoughts on how to execute an OSS transformation program. As the OSS (or the OctopOSS as you put it) is made up of Fulfillment, Assurance and Inventory as major pillars / building blocks, it would be quite a big task implementing all these all at once. Should the program start with certain pillars first before others? Any dependencies that need to…

18/05/2014 No Comments

The two lungs of next-gen OSS

"Here we have a baby. It is composed of a bald head and a pair of lungs." Eugene Field. Many of you by now have seen the freight-train of network virtualisation (cloud, SDN, NFV) rapidly approaching the Telco space. Many in the communications technology world are salivating at the opportunity to leverage cloud-style concepts such as orchestration, abstraction, automation, rapid turn-up / tear-down, etc to revolutionise…

17/05/2014 No Comments

Cincinnati Bell and NetCracker Extend

Cincinnati Bell and NetCracker Extend Managed Service, Data Center Hosting, and Application Development Agreement Through 2020. NetCracker Technology announced that Cincinnati Bell will extend its professional service and data center hosting agreement with NetCracker through the year 2020 in order to ensure a steady cost structure for key processing, support functions and applications development for its mission-critical IT systems and infrastructure. With headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio,…

16/05/2014 No Comments

Counter-intuitive OSS

"Cognitive psychology has shown that the mind best understands facts when they are woven into a conceptual fabric, such as a narrative, mental map, or intuitive theory. Disconnected facts in the mind are like unlinked pages on the Web: They might as well not exist." Steven Pinker. A number of colleagues and I attended a 3-day course provided by a vendor last week. It was a…