"At least DO SOMETHING! DO! Don't think, don't hope, do! At least you can come off and say 'I did this, I shepherded, I played on. At least I did something" John Kennedy. I find this to be a brilliant analogy for OSS implementation projects too. There's so much complexity, so many things happening dynamically, so much chaos happening, so much interaction with the team and…
Read More »"1. What percentage of your time is spent creating something new, as opposed to working out operational details or protecting the past? 2. List five ways that you can beat your competition. How could they beat you? 3. If you were entering your industry as a startup, how would you break the mold to beat the incumbents? 4. What elements of the past or status quo…
Read More »"Above all, remember to challenge everything. Challenge assumptions. Challenge the status quo. Challenge the “complacent incumbents.” Challenge the rules. Challenge yourself." Josh Linkner in his book "Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity." In my mind, creativity within an OSS framework comes from being able to make connections that nobody else has made before. The typical OSS collects a staggering amount of information and…
Read More »"Companies that have “innovation processes” often stifle the creativity of their organization by making those processes too rule-driven, formal and restrictive." Josh Linkner in his book "Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven System to Drive Breakthrough Creativity." As you'll see in the side-bar, innovation is a common theme in my blog posts. There is so much innovation required to develop outstanding OSS suites, so it's a topic of…
Read More »"Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge." Winston Churchill. Dear reader, let me ask you a question.... or maybe more than one. If you engaged a consultant on a $1m assignment and they gave you a report on a single sheet of paper, would you feel aggrieved? Now what if that single sheet held a formula that unlocked the cure for cancer? Would it be worth…
Read More »"One thing at a time, all things in succession. That which grows fast withers as rapidly; and that which grows slow endures." J. G. Holland. When it comes to building an OSS team, having a diverse team of linchpins who have specific knowledge of your OSS is essential. It’s definitely helpful to promote from within your own organisation for a whole number of reasons, including: Team morale…
Read More »"I’ve met plenty of egomaniacs who think they have all the answers. Time typically proves them wrong. I’ve never met anyone who’s had more than a few of the answers herself. That’s why we need other leaders to help us. Build a well-rounded team, hopefully one with plenty of misfits, and typically someone in there will have the answer you need to any given problem –…
Read More »"Plenty of recruiters and those in HR like to talk about engaging in a war for talent, but to be truthful, most of it is about finding good enough people at an acceptable rate of pay. Filling slots. More relevant and urgent, though, is that it's not really a search for talent. It's a search for attitude.... ....An organization filled with honest, motivated, connected, eager, learning,…
Read More »"Anyone who says businessmen deal in facts, not fiction, has never read old five-year projections." Malcolm Forbes. OSS have an important role to play when it comes to creating the trends and projections from aggregated data. Put simply: if the projections underestimate real network growth then congestion will be high, as will customer dissatisfaction. if the projections overestimate real network growth then overcapitalisation will occur by building…
Read More »Ericsson and Orange announce BSS cooperation in Switzerland Ericsson and Orange are expanding their business together in Switzerland. As part of the new agreement Ericsson will supply core components of the new hardware and software architecture supporting Orange Switzerland’s business processes, or business support systems (BSS). In addition, Ericsson will integrate the platforms into the Orange network and operate it over a five-year period under a managed…
Read More »"You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety." Abraham Maslow. B/OSS started out servicing only the biggest of telcos, starting with AT&T. Then they migrated to the smaller carriers, then ISPs and the march continues. As electronic business and related digital communications are increasingly built into the business models of new companies, so is the need for OSS to evolve…
Read More »Orange Business Services reinforces its global M2M capabilities for multinationals with Ericsson’s Device Connection platform Orange Business Services and Ericsson announced that the companies have entered into a strategic agreement to better serve the growing global M2M market and to respond to multi-domestic needs. International companies often need global operations while addressing local requirements of end-users, such as high broadband usage. These needs are mainly driven by…
Read More »"The likes of Facebook and Whatsapp are eroding traditional revenue streams and CSPs therefore need to prioritize, looking at alternative streams instead of relying on traditional revenue streams which offer legacy services like voice and SMS." Timo Ahomäki. OTT players like Whatsapp are definitely a threat to CSP revenue streams and are clearly causing erosion in many markets. The OTT organisations have a few advantages that…
Read More »Hub One Chooses NetCracker to Streamline OSS for its Network Infrastructure and Accelerate New Service Introduction Hub One, the trademark of Hub télécom and Nomadvance, companies of the Aéroports de Paris group, and NetCracker Technology announced today that Hub One has selected NetCracker’s OSS Solution to help the company to expand, tailor, and accelerate its service offerings; gain greater control over its network topology; and streamline…
Read More »"Research into the decline of creativity has led to some startling conclusions. In a sample of 1500 children aged 3–5, 98 percent ranked as "geniuses" in divergent thinking; in children aged 8–10 the figure fell to just 32 percent; and by age 13–15 it had declined further to a mere 10 percent. In other words, children become less creative as they grow older. Moreover, in a…
Read More »"One of our three candidate picks for CEO would be a leader who has made elephants dance and has the gravitas that would make Wall Street swoon." Carl Howe. The comment above is in relation to finding a replacement for Steve Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft. That doesn't have a whole lot of relevance to OSS, but I love the part about making elephants dance, which…
Read More »Comptel Streamlines Mediation for Ziggo’s Services Comptel Corporation announced that its convergent mediation software has replaced some of Dutch communications service provider Ziggo’s existing systems. The company’s software platform enables the operator to more easily and rapidly collect, process and transform service transactions into billable records.
Read More »"Operators need to take a new approach to customer relationship management (CRM), whereby all customer interactions are performed in the context of the customer’s end-to-end experience. To adopt this approach, operators must maximize the use of all the customer-experience data within their network OSS, BSS and CRM domains in order to form a three-dimensional view of the customer. This approach will enable operators to ensure positive…
Read More »"Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think there are no little things." Bruce Barton. Having built multi-domain OSS from the ground up I know how daunting a green-fields OSS can be. So many things to get done. So many inter-dependencies. So many facts and figures to uncover. So many interfaces to develop. So much data to collect.…
Read More »"These are calculated automagically" Darryl Harvey. OSS automations like flow-through provisioning are the holy grail of CSPs as they seek to offer self-service models for their customers. As Darryl mentions above, CSPs often expect OSS vendors to get these automations working automagically. Perhaps you're more familiar with the other mythical term, "out-of-the-box." But behind the scenes these automations are usually a complex combination of processes, data…
Read More »"Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business." Zig Ziglar. So, you've sold a new OSS and then handed over the keys to the customer. Are they ready to take over at the wheel yet? Have you given them enough of an apprenticeship? Okay, let's say that all…
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