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009 – Managing OSS/BSS Transformation at a Mid-Tier Telco with Steven Cocchiarella

Much of the focus within OSS/BSS centres around the big-budget projects being done by the Tier-1 telcos. They get attention because there are lots of people involved, lots of OSS horsepower, with big, ambitious goals. But there's another part of the industry that doesn't tend to get so much public recognition - the mid-market telcos and utilities. These OSS/BSS tend to cover just as much scope.…

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22/02/2021 No Comments

OSS Functionality – Is Your Focus In Anonymous Places?

Yesterday's article asked whether OSS tend to be anonymous and poorly designed and then compared how Jony Ive (who led the design of iPads, iPods, iPhones for Apple) might look at OSS design. Jony has described "going deep" - being big on focus, care and detail when designing products. The article looked at 8 care factors, some of which OSS vendors do very well and others,…

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19/02/2021 No Comments

OSS – Are they anonymous, poorly made objects?

"We're surrounded by anonymous, poorly made objects. It's tempting to think its because the people who use them don't care - just like the people who make them. But what [Apple has] shown is that people do care. It's not just about aesthetics. They care about things that are thoughtfully conceived and well made."Jony Ive (referenced here). As you undoubtedly know, Jony Ive is the industrial…

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18/02/2021 2 Comments

008 – Making OSS Mega Projects Happen with Ashley Neale

While it might sometimes feel like OSS mega projects just happen, there's usually a lot that must first play out up-stream, long before us technologists get the chance to design and build. First someone must spawn the idea, then be able to persuade a bunch of other people, exciting them with the possibilities of the idea. In many cases, this happens on the customer-side with OSS…

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17/02/2021 No Comments

Treating OSS Products as Your Own

I was listening to a podcast this morning and the host mentioned a concept that he calls "treating products as your own." In other words, there are certain products that he's an evangelist for - he actively spruiks them as if he had shares in the company or developed the products himself. They're products he loves so much that he's willing to tell everyone about even…

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10/02/2021 No Comments

How to Design an OSS / Telco Data Governance Framework

"Data governance constructs a strategy and a framework through which an organization (company as well as a state…) can recognize the value of its data assets (towards its own or global goals), implement a data management system that can best leverage it whilst putting in place controls, policies and standards that simultaneously protect data (regulation & laws), ensure its quality and consistency, and make it readily…

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09/02/2021 No Comments

007 – Building Products to Solve Fundamental OSS Problems with Jay Fenton

Jay Fenton is the Founder and CEO of Savvi, makers of innovative and highly performant OSS/BSS components that redefine the state of the art. Savvi's portfolio notably includes SNMP, Streaming Telemetry, Netflow and IoT collectors each of which operate in the 10s of millions of events per second on a single server, solving collection problems for massive networks. We also mention Luna - a unique visualisation…

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09/02/2021 No Comments

006 – A Career of Innovation in OSS with Francis Haysom

Francis Haysom is a Principal Analyst for Appledore Research Group, a global research and consulting firm specialising in the telecommunication and software markets with a particular focus on OSS/BSS. In this episode, Francis takes us on a ride through his career leading OSS/BSS innovation across the last three decades with iconic companies such as Convergys, Cramer, Amdocs, Telcordia and Ericsson. He then takes us into his…

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01/02/2021 No Comments

005 – Making Standardised Open-Source a Strategy for OSS with Vance Shipley

Vance Shipley is the CEO and Founder of SigScale. SigScale is a provider of standardised, open-source, cloud-native OSS/BSS tools, including flagship product, OCS (Online Charging System). In this episode, Vance takes us on a fascinating journey through a career that started three decades ago with his first role as a high-tech lumberjack through to his current owner / developer role with SigScale. His journey follows an…

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26/01/2021 No Comments

Launch of The Passionate About OSS Podcast

We're excited to announce the Launch of The Passionate About OSS Podcast. The first batch of five episodes can be found here, with new episodes to be released here on a weekly basis: https://passionateaboutoss.com/paoss-podcast/ The aim of the show is to shine a light on the many brilliant people who work in the OSS industry. We'll interview experts in the field of OSS/BSS and telecommunications software.…

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19/01/2021 No Comments

004 – An Analyst’s Perspective on the OSS Industry with James Crawshaw

James Crawshaw is a Principal Analyst with Omdia, one of the world's top-three technology analysis agencies. James specialises in analysis of OSS, telecommunications and IT industries, which means he spends more time researching OSS technologies and firms than almost anyone on the planet. In this episode, James provides insights into what's currently trending in OSS, but he also describes the techniques he uses to peer over…

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18/01/2021 No Comments

003 – Hints on Finding a Role in the OSS/BSS Industry with Michael Jones

Michael Jones is a Practice Principal at Analytica Resources, a recruitment role that sees him connecting employers and employees. Analytica is a niche agency that specialises in BSS and OSS placements. This provides Michael with an insider's perspective on the successful techniques that applicants use to find their first, or next, job in the OSS / BSS industry. Michael describes the processes that he uses to…

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18/01/2021 No Comments

002 – The Importance of Physical Network Inventory (PNI) in an Increasingly Virtualised World with Peter Dart

Peter Dart describes his journey working with some of the world's earliest geospatial software to his current role as Chief Architect with Synchronoss. In this role, he helps to guide the roadmap of Synchronoss' Spatial Suite, a set of tools that assist leading network operators to manage and maintain their Physical Network Inventory (PNI). In a world where network virtualisation technologies are grabbing the attention of…

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18/01/2021 No Comments

001 – From OSS Startup to IPO with Tony Kalcina

Tony Kalcina recounts the story of taking Clarity International from its founding team and customer to IPO (Initial Public Offering) and beyond. He also describes an extensive career starting with Telstra OTC through to his current role as the APAC CTO for Tech Mahindra and Ambassador for TM Forum. Tony provides insights into the formation and leadership of OSS teams and the opportunities that still exist…

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18/01/2021 No Comments

000 – Introduction to The Passionate About OSS Podcast

Welcome to the Passionate About OSS podcast, the show for people who are just that – Passionate About OSS – Where the OSS stands for Operational Support Systems. In other words, the software solutions that help manage and operate the complex telecommunications networks of today. Thanks for joining me on the episode that isn’t quite an episode – it’s more of an introduction message that describes…

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18/01/2021 No Comments

Canary Releases

Do you remember back in the old days of OSS/BSS releases into production? They were a little bit stressful.... especially for the Release Managers. I remember one Release Manager who used to set up the packages, type out the commands, then his hands would be poised above the keyboard, literally shaking. He would then position his finger above the Enter key and look away from the…

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10/12/2020 No Comments

OSS Sandpit – Power, Supervisory and Comms Networks combined in our Inventory Prototype

This article provides a tutorial for building a Power network with corresponding SCADA and comms network into the inventory module of our Personal OSS Sandpit Project. This prototype includes components such as: Power Network including: Wind Turbines (WT) Solar Panels Transformers Circuit Breakers (CB) Substations (Generation, Transmission and Distribution) Transmission Towers Power Poles Smart Meters / AMI Inverters Power cabling, including OPGW (Optical Groundwire, which bundles ground wire…

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30/11/2020 No Comments

OSS Sandpit – Telco Cloud / DC Inventory Prototype

This article provides a tutorial for building Telco Cloud / Data Centre components into the inventory module of our Personal OSS Sandpit Project. This prototype has been a bit of a beast to build and includes components such as: Hosting Services including: IaaS (VMs, storage, network - FlexPod) PaaS (ONTAP-AI a hosted AI solution, hosted voice) SaaS (email, secure keys) Internet ecosystems Cloud provider ecosystems CoLocation / Rack…

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25/11/2020 No Comments

OSS Sandpit – GPON Network Inventory Prototype

This article provides a tutorial for building GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) components into the inventory module of our Personal OSS Sandpit Project. It's also a model for FTTH / FTTP (Fibre to the Home, Fibre to the Premises) as well. This prototype build includes components such as: Passive Optical Network (cables, patch panels, splices, splitters, containment, multiports, other splice joints) Active GPON equipment (OLT, ONT) This GPON…

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17/11/2020 No Comments

Industry News: TTG implements for Turkcell

Breaking news: "TTG implements for Turkcell" has been published on our Industry News stream. Industry News includes: contract wins, new product releases, job openings, EOIs/RFPs, etc. To publish news about your organisation, first claim or register your organisation’s listing on The Blue Book OSS/BSS Supplier Directory then create a news post.

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10/11/2020 No Comments

OSS Sandpit – Fixed Wireless Network Inventory Prototype

This article provides a tutorial for building Fixed Wireless (FW) Network components into the inventory module of our Personal OSS Sandpit Project. This prototype build includes components such as: A fixed wireless core network Radio Links across licensed and unlicensed (5 GHz and 24GHz) Line of Sight analysis of each Radio Link and Viewshed Fibre links (including cable management) Tower Management Routing and Switching Layer 2 and Layer…

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10/11/2020 No Comments