Passionate About OSS Blog | Passionate About OSS and BSS

Hansen acquires Sigma Systems

Acquisition of Sigma Systems. Hansen Technologies Limited announced the signing of definitive agreements for the acquisition of Sigma Systems (“Sigma”). The acquisition is expected to close on 31 May 2019. Key Points: Founded in 1996, Sigma is a leading global provider of catalog-driven software products for telecommunications, media, and high-tech companies. Its software is designed to streamline complex product and service offerings and provide a faster…

02/05/2019 No Comments

About the OSS that transmits on radio station WIIFM

Nobody is interested in you, your brand or your OSS. Well, that's a big negative and confrontational statement isn't it? You're probably thinking I got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning and took a big handful of emo pills. The reality is, all of our customers and colleagues are walking around tuned into radio station WIIFM (What's in it for me?), so…

01/05/2019 No Comments

Elon Musk’s SpaceX gets FCC approval to beam broadband from space

FCC AUTHORIZES SPACEX TO PROVIDE BROADBAND SERVICES VIA SATELLITE CONSTELLATION. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved an application by Space Exploration Holdings, doing business as SpaceX, to provide broadband services using satellite technology in the United States and around the world. With this action, the Commission takes another step to increase high-speed broadband availability and competition in the United States. This is the first approval of…

30/04/2019 No Comments

Would you hire a furniture maker as an OSS CEO?

Well, would you hire a furniture maker as CEO of an OSS vendor? At face value, it would seem to be an odd selection right? There doesn't seem to be much commonality between furniture and OSS does there? It seems as likely as hiring a furniture maker to be CEO of a car maker? Oh wait. That did happen. Ford Motor Company made just such a…

30/04/2019 No Comments

Do you wish more people fell in love with your OSS?

I'd hazard a guess that everyone reading this would admit to being a techie at some level. And being a techie, I'd also imagine that you have blatant tech-love for certain products - gadgets, apps, sites, whatever. But, let me ask you, are there any OSS products on your love-interest list? If yes, leave me a comment of "yes" and name of the product below. If…

29/04/2019 No Comments

The no accounts receivable OSS model

Unfortunately for OSS vendors / integrators, their business models have a dependency (and major risk) on accounts receivable. Investopedia states, "Accounts receivable are amounts of money owed by customers to another entity for goods or services delivered or used on credit but not yet paid for by clients." One of the earliest OSS projects I worked on was worth in excess of $30m for the vendor.…

23/04/2019 No Comments

Another 150 suppliers added

We've just added another 150 suppliers to the Passionate About OSS list of OSS / BSS suppliers. There are now well over 350 suppliers listed for your comparison. Let us know if yours isn't listed there yet.

22/04/2019 No Comments

Ooops. The 3GPP network management omission

A recent discussion with a learned and respected OSS colleague reminded me that there had been a major omission from the PAOSS History / Standards page. With the buzz developing around 5G, not to mention some of the advanced features like network slicing and radio infrastructure virtualisation, the oversight was a big one. We'd forgotten to include radio network management standards. We've filled that gap now…

18/04/2019 No Comments

Gartner OSS Magic Quadrant 2019

Gartner's OSS Magic Quadrant report for 2019 can be downloaded courtesy of Ericsson here.

17/04/2019 1 Comment

What are OSS “platform wrapper” roadblocks?

OSS can be cumbersome at times. Making change can be difficult. We tend to build layers of protections around them and the networks we manage. I get that. Change can be risky (although the protections are often implemented because the OSS and/or network platforms might not be as robust as they could be). Contrast this with the OSS we want to create. We want to create…

16/04/2019 No Comments

Only do the OSS that only you can do

A friend of mine has a great saying, "only do what only you can do." Do you think that this holds true for the companies undergoing digital transformation? Banks are now IT companies. Insurers are IT companies. Car manufacturers are now IT companies. Telcos are, well, some are IT companies. We've spoken before about the skill transformations that need to happen within telcos if they're to…

15/04/2019 No Comments

Solarwinds acquires Samanage for $350m

https://passionateaboutoss.com/solarwinds-acquires-samanage-for-350m/SolarWinds Sets Its Sights on the ITSM Market through Acquisition of Samanage and Introduction of a SolarWinds Service Desk Product. SolarWinds announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Samanage, an IT service desk solution company based in Cary, NC. Over the past 7 years, Samanage has built a strong, well-respected product guided by a customer-centricity that aligns well with SolarWinds’ mission and commitment to…

13/04/2019 No Comments

A single glass of pain or single pane of glass??

Is your OSS a single pane of glass, or a single glass of pain? You can tell I'm being a little flippant here. People often (perhaps idealistically) talk about OSS as being the single pane of glass (SPOG) to manage a network. I say "idealistically" for a couple of reasons: There are usually many personas who interact with an OSS, each with vastly different user interface…

11/04/2019 No Comments

Unleashing the chaos monkeys on your OSS

I like to compare OSS projects with chaos theory. A single butterfly flapping it's wings (eg a conversation with the client) can have unintended consequences that cause a tornado (eg the client's users refusing to use a new OSS). The day-to-day operation of a network and its management tools can be similarly sensitive to seemingly minor inputs. We can never predict or test for every combination…

10/04/2019 No Comments

An OSS without the shackles of topology

It's been nearly two decades since I designed my first root-cause analysis (RCA) rule. It was completely reliant on network topology - more specifically, it relied on a network hierarchy to determine which alarms could be suppressed. I had a really interesting discussion today with some colleagues who are using much more modern RCA techniques. I was somewhat surprised, but not surprised at all in hindsight,…

09/04/2019 No Comments

I sent you an OSS helicopter

"There’s a fable of a man stuck in a flood. Convinced that God is going to save him, he says no to a passing canoe, boat, and helicopter that offer to help. He dies, and in heaven asks God why He didn’t save him. God says, “I sent you a canoe, a boat, and a helicopter!” We all have vivid imaginations. We get a goal in…

08/04/2019 No Comments

Mythical OSS beasts – feature removal releases

"Life can be improved by adding, or by subtracting. The world pushes us to add, because that benefits them. But the secret is to focus on subtracting... No amount of adding will get me where I want to be. The adding mindset is deeply ingrained. It’s easy to think I need something else. It’s hard to look instead at what to remove. The least successful people…

04/04/2019 No Comments

The humbling experience of OSS superstars

"Years ago, I was so confident, and so naive. I was so sure that I was right and everyone else was wrong. Unfortunately I was lucky and got successful, so that kept me ignorant of my shortcomings. I sold my company, felt ready to do something new, and started to learn. But the more I learned, the more I realized how little I knew, and how…

02/04/2019 No Comments

I was a huge bottleneck on my first OSS project

I became a problematic bottleneck on my first OSS project. It didn't start that way, but it definitely ended that way. And I've been thinking ever since about how I could've managed that better. I started out as a network subject matter expert but wasn't a bottleneck in that role. However, the next two functions I absorbed were the source of the problem. The first additional…

01/04/2019 No Comments

Progress to acquire Ipswitch for $225M

Progress To Acquire Ipswitch, makers of WhatsUp Gold Network Monitoring. Progress, the provider of application development and digital experience technologies, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Ipswitch, Inc., a producer of secure data file transfer and network management software, for $225 million in cash. Progress will fund the transaction with existing cash on hand and funds secured under a…

30/03/2019 No Comments

The use of drones by OSS

The last few days have been all about organisational structuring to support OSS and digital transformations. Today we take a different tack - a more technical diversion - onto how drones might be relevant to the field of OSS. A friend recently asked for help to look into the use of drones in his archaeological business. This got me to thinking about how they might apply…

28/03/2019 No Comments

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