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Biarri and NBN Co nomination

Australia's NBN Co and Biarri Networks: What do they have in common? They are all finalists in the 2014 INFORMS (Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences) Franz Edelman Prize. The Prize is the world’s most prestigious recognition for excellence in applying advanced analytics to benefit business and humanitarian outcomes. So what is NBN Co and Biarri Networks doing up there? It all started four…

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13/03/2014 No Comments

Gathering Requirements – Driven by Use Cases

"The most difficult part of requirements gathering is not the act of recording what the user wants, it is the exploratory development activity of helping users figure out what they want." Steve McConnell. When starting out on a requirement gathering exercise, The Radar Analogy always seems to spring to mind because it carries such a powerful, but simple requirement gathering message. In a nutshell, identify your…

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13/03/2014 No Comments

Gathering Requirements – Driven by Data

"You can have data without information, but you cannot have information without data." Daniel Keys Moran. Data is probably the only reason why you intend to invest so much time and money into your OSS so this must be the key to your requirement gathering phase. The following provide a few hints about the types of data that might be valuable to your organisation: Asset utilisation and…

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12/03/2014 No Comments

Inmarsat selects CSG

CSG Selected to Support Inmarsat Global Xpress(R) Offering. Inmarsat, the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications services, and CSG International, Inc. a global provider of interactive transaction-driven solutions and services, have joined forces to support the new Inmarsat Global Xpress service. Global Xpress is the world's first globally available Ka-band, high-speed, broadband satellite network for mobile and fixed consumers. It is designed to enable seamless…

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11/03/2014 No Comments

Infotech buys Softential

Infotech buys US-based Softential in all cash deal. Infotech Enterprises announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Infotech Enterprises America has signed a definitive agreement to acquire IT service management and service company Softential, Inc in an all cash deal. The buyout will allow Infotech to provide better services to its telecom clients and add to its margins. Speaking to CNBC-TV18's Latha Venkatesh and Sonia Shenoy about the…

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11/03/2014 No Comments

Federating virtualised network controllers

"Integration: An infrastructure for enabling efficient data sharing across incompatible applications that evolve independently in a coordinated manner to serve the needs of the enterprise and its stakeholders." John G. Schmidt, and David Lyle, in their book "Lean Integration: An Integration Factory Approach to Business Agility." Another of Tom Nolle's insightful blogs has helped to describe a question that I've had for some time in relation…

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11/03/2014 No Comments

Data Integration Types

"Data integration is the process of transferring data between different storage types and locations. This typically includes extraction, cleaning, loading into target data repository and verification." Anatella.com's Data Integration page. Whilst cross-referencing some data integration work that I was doing recently, I came across this great web-page with helpful icons and descriptions for the different types of data integration, as follows: Data Migration - transferring existing…

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10/03/2014 No Comments

Digital strategist or traditional OSS?

"While customer focus is a high priority, nearly half of the CIOs in our survey--47 percent--have difficulty getting their IT staff to be more business-oriented and customer-facing." CIO.com, in their report, "State of the CIO 2014: The Great Schism." In CIO.com’s 13th annual survey, 25% of CIOs (Chief Information Officers) were perceived as “game-changers that can create and launch new products and open new markets.” Conversely,…

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09/03/2014 No Comments

OSS skill shortage

"We can make computers affordable by all, we can make every device smart, we can augment every aspect of our lives with technology…but not if it means we all have to be technologists.  Even relatively high-tech buyers like businesses and network operators are finding it difficult or impossible to sustain the skill levels needed to adopt the state-of-the-art stuff that’s out there.  And as we drive…

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08/03/2014 No Comments

Tele2 Sweden signs NSN

NSN to enhance customer experience for Tele2 Sweden using its network insights. Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) has implemented its Serve atOnce Traffica for Tele2 Sweden to ensure a significantly better service experience by linking network performance to customer satisfaction and application behavior. An integral part of NSN’s Customer Experience Management portfolio, this solution provides a display of network performance based on service quality, service usage…

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07/03/2014 No Comments

OSS Triage

"The term triage may have originated during the Napoleonic Wars from the work of Dominique Jean Larrey. The term was used further during World War I by French doctors treating the battlefield wounded at the aid stations behind the front. Those responsible for the removal of the wounded from a battlefield or their care afterwards would divide the victims into three categories: * Those who are…

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07/03/2014 No Comments

What’s the worst that could happen?

"You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before." Rahm Emanuel. In the modern day, most CSPs simply couldn't operate if a crisis erupted that made their OSS / BSS inoperable. In fact, I recently heard a story of staff being sent home for the day in…

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06/03/2014 No Comments

WOW! Selects NetCracker

WOW! Selects NetCracker for OSS Transformation. NetCracker Technology announced that WOW! has selected NetCracker to deliver an OSS transformation program that will help the US-based cable operator to streamline network operations, enhance service fulfillment processes, support its existing lines of business and pursue growing opportunities in the commercial services market. WOW! has been one of the United States’ leading providers of high-speed Internet, cable TV, and…

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05/03/2014 No Comments

My 3 favourite OSS projects

"Far and away the best prize that life has to offer is the chance to work hard at work worth doing." Theodore Roosevelt** Having worked at almost every different aspect of OSS, there are three types of projects that I've enjoyed most, despite them tending to consume 80-100 hour weeks, sometimes for months at a time: Proofs of Concept (PoC) Demonstrations - These are the true embodiment of…

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05/03/2014 No Comments

Google’s hiring approach

"There are five hiring attributes we have across the company [Google]." Laszlo Bock, SVP of people operations for Google. The following is a list of the five key hiring attributes sought by Google, as described by Laszlo Bock. Interestingly, they are very similar attributes to the ones I'd look for in new OSS starters. I've seen individuals with proven Telco technical skills, leadership skills, people skills…

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04/03/2014 No Comments

IBM transforms IDEA Cellular

Successful Post-paid IT and Business Transformation Enables Idea to Deliver Superior Experience to Over 5 Million Customers Across India. IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Idea Cellular Ltd (Idea), India's 3rd largest mobile operator, has leveraged the company's business consulting expertise to transform its postpaid business, enabling Idea to provide improved customer service while simultaneously reducing operational costs and growing revenue. This postpaid transformation program is…

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04/03/2014 No Comments

Data Visualisation 3 – The Powerpoint Analogy

"Consider a 13th century Samurai sword, crafted by someone who dedicated their life to perfection, creating a blade so sharp it can cut falling silk, so strong it can slice through trees. In the hands of the Samurai the sword represents justice, protection and a way of life based on simplicity and harmony. To many people it is a thing of beauty. Yet not so long…

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03/03/2014 No Comments

Data Visualisation 2 – notifications

"[The] basic visual cues of spatial/location, colour, shape, size and motion cues are tested. Investigations focus on two aspects, 1) Users’ ability to identify separate categories and 2) Users’ ability to differentiate visual cues." Moonyati Yatid and Masahiro Takatsuka, in "Understanding Spatial and Non-spatial Cues in Representing Categorical Information." Yatid and Takatsuka indicate that visual notifications can be positive (attracting attention for urgent matters) or negative…

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02/03/2014 No Comments

Telcos lack the DNA

"Telecom operators don’t have the DNA to develop these kinds of applications. In this new world we build the network, but the service is built by someone else. We have to share monetisation... First, [telcos] are more focused on their infrastructure business and are not as strong in applications;  second, this ecosystem of applications is developed in smaller companies… in another environment to that of the…

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01/03/2014 No Comments

Data Visualisation Techniques

"These three design issues—data collection, representation, and navigation—can be considered as significant building blocks that constitute an overall design process of data visualization, not necessarily put in a linear sequence." Mao Lin Huang and Weidong Huang (eds) in their book, "Innovative Approaches of Data Visualization and Visual Analytics" With the amount of data being processed by OSS tools ever on the increase, data visualisation and interaction…

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28/02/2014 No Comments

ONO Upgrades with NetCracker

ONO Upgrades Rating and Billing Capabilities with NetCracker. NetCracker Technology announced that ONO, the leading Pay TV, broadband, mobile, and fixed line voice provider in Spain, has signed an agreement with NetCracker to upgrade its rating and billing capabilities and to deliver its Active Mediation solution to support ONO’s rapidly growing mobile service offerings. ONO provides its quad-play services to 1.8 million consumer customers in Spain.…

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28/02/2014 No Comments