"They say "the house always wins." And it's true – games always favour their maker. If you're not playing a part in designing the game you're playing, you're probably being played.." Dr Jason Fox. Following a recent blog entitled Gamified Learning, a friend and colleague pointed me towards the work of Dr Jason Fox, someone with far more expertise on the subject matter than me. Thanks…
Read More »"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." Benjamin Franklin. In an earlier post, the question of using gamification as a means of learning was posed In another earlier post, knowledge bases were discussed. And in a third post, the concept of an OSS apprenticeship was proposed. In today's post, let's discuss a product concept that merges the three together. In any new OSS implementation, your…
Read More »"Let us not bankrupt our todays by paying interest on the regrets of yesterday and by borrowing in advance the troubles of tomorrow." Ralph W. Sockman. In yesterday's blog, we spoke of the need to understand how money flows in a CSP and build the systems / processes to improve upon defined metrics. Today, I recount a story of a high-flying, voice-only CSP that went bankrupt,…
Read More »"In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later." Harold S. Geneen. In the world of Telco, there are also two coins. One is technology and one is cash. Telco and OSS engineers often get wrapped up in the righteousness of technology. Having a B.Eng. and B.Sc. means that I'm tempted to stray…
Read More »"Innovation accelerates and compounds. Each point in front of you is bigger than anything that ever happened." Marc Andreessen. Regular readers / subscribers of this blog have noticed that SDN / NFV (Software Defined Networking and Network Function Virtualisation) has been a regular topic of conversation because it has the potential to revolutionise not just OSS and carrier networks but vendor and CSP business models as…
Read More »"Heights by great men reached and kept were not obtained by sudden flight but, while their companions slept, they were toiling upward in the night." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 110 years ago today, the Wright Brothers made the first manned flight, a well known story. Not quite so well known is the story of Samuel Langley, a highly educated, distinguished individual who was seen as the man…
Read More »"We don't know where our first impressions come from or precisely what they mean, so we don't always appreciate their fragility." Malcolm Gladwell. They say that first impressions are lasting. Apple knows this and invests greatly in their first impressions, their packaging. I'm no great devotee of Apple, but I was certainly wowed by the packaging of one of their products as I unwrapped it recently.…
Read More »"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.." John Donne. Just as no man is an island, no CSP is an island since they all rely on connections with other providers (and customers for that matter). Carriers will rely on network links or asset sharing with other CSPs to deliver services for customers. Since those off-net links are…
Read More »"A communications network forms the backbone of any successful organization. These networks transport a multitude of applications and data, including high-quality video and delay-sensitive data such as real-time voice. The bandwidth-intensive applications stretch network capabilities and resources, but also complement, add value, and enhance every business process. Networks must provide secure, predictable, measurable, and sometimes guaranteed services. Achieving the required Quality of Service (QoS) by managing…
Read More »"Seriously, we are in the midst of the convergence of voice and data and that is challenging the infrastructure of the telephone companies. There are huge commercial interests in the basic technology, but even more so in content delivery and control of content." Steve Crocker. It's important for a CSP to develop a convergent data strategy across a diverse set of tools within it's B/OSS estate.…
Read More »Crnogorski Telekom Deploys NetCracker’s OSS Solution to Streamline Fulfillment and Accelerate Time-to-Market NetCracker Technology announced that it has successfully implemented its OSS solution for Crnogorski Telekom, the Deutsche Telekom Group operating unit based in Montenegro. NetCracker’s OSS Solution, which has been chosen as the DT group OSS standard, will help Crnogorski Telekom to achieve aggressive time-to-market goals for new services, consolidate its legacy OSS to gain…
Read More »"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself." Peter Drucker. In yesterday's blog we discussed the trend of carrier's focussing on Customer Experience Management, specifically the results of a Comarch study on mobility carriers. There are so many aspects of CEM that go beyond the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools that most…
Read More »Lightpath Deploys NetCracker’s BSS/OSS Solution Suite NetCracker Technology announced that Lightpath, which provides Ethernet-based communication solutions for New York metropolitan area businesses, has deployed its BSS/OSS solution suite. By leveraging NetCracker’s next-generation OSS, Lightpath has streamlined operations and enhanced automation. “The entire Lightpath organization is focused on providing the best experience we can for our customers and streamlining our operational processes helps us continue to deliver…
Read More »"Every operator in the industry will argue emphatically that the experience customers have of their service is crucial to their ongoing sucess. As operators’ offerings become increasingly homogenised, and price-based competition ever more difficult to sustain, operators are embracing Customer Experience Management (CEM) as a key differentiator. But just how much of what we hear reflects real commitment and activity—and how much, for the moment, is…
Read More »"Genius takes time, but stupidity can be achieved in a heart beat, and usually is." Anonymous. There are many network devices that have the ability to publish data at intervals in time, or upon the incidence of an event occurring. An example might be a network device failure sending a notification to its element manager (EMS), which then sends a notification to its OSS. There are…
Read More »"If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher." Abraham Lincoln. Flow-through provisioning is a wonderful thing. It usually takes a lot of effort to design the data model so that all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle line up for each and every new service provisioned by your awesome product. But the oft forgotten Cinderella at this dance is actually the…
Read More »"As consumers we are incredibly discerning. We sense where has been great care in the design, and when there is cynicism and greed." Jonathan Ive. Over the years, I've created interface specifications for many devices, element managers and network managers (NE/EMS/NMS). Some have been very easy to figure out. Others have been highly complex. Today, I'm going to visit this from a slightly different angle. I'm…
Read More »"Gold was discovered in California in of 1848. By May of 1848 reports were stating there is more gold in them there hills that all the people in California could take out in fifty years.” A man called Samuel Brannan opened his small store at John Sutter’s Fort, right in the heart of the gold rush. Brannan took a little gold and traveled back to San…
Read More »"Sometimes you are in sync with the times, sometimes you are in advance, sometimes you are late." Bernardo Bertolucci. Yesterday we spoke of the OSS of the future not having an offline database that needs to be synchronised against network assets regularly. As we all know, data synch is one of the banes of an OSS operators existence. Another area of generic weakness within the OSS…
Read More »CSG International to Acquire Key Volubill Assets CSG International, Inc., a global provider of interactive transaction-driven solutions and services, announced that it has purchased key assets of Volubill, a leading supplier of integrated real-time policy and charging solutions to mobile, satellite, and fixed broadband operators. Volubill products, which are used by service providers globally to bring to market and monetize the new generation of digital, communication-based…
Read More »NetCracker Transforms BSS and Enhances Content Delivery for Israel’s yes Satellite TV NetCracker Technology announced that Israeli direct broadcast satellite provider yes has implemented its Billing, Rating, and CRM solutions to improve customer interactions, accelerate speed-to-market for complex service bundles and promotions, and support new forms of content delivery and transactions across a variety of customer devices. yes is the sole direct broadcast satellite TV provider…
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