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How to bring your art and your science to your OSS

In the last two posts, we've discussed repeatability within the field of OSS implementation - paint-by-numbers vs artisans and then resilience vs precision in delivery practices. Now I'd like you to have a think about how those posts overlay onto this quote by Karl Popper: “Non-reproducible single occurrences are of no significance to science.” Every OSS implementation is different. That means that every one is a…

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20/03/2019 No Comments

OSS resilience vs precision

"Resilience is what happens when we’re able to move forward even when things don’t fit together the way we expect.[OSS project anyone???] And tolerances are an engineer’s measurement of how well the parts meet spec. One way to ensure that things work out the way you hope is to spend the time and money to ensure that every part, every form, every worker meets spec. Tighten…

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19/03/2019 No Comments

The Mona Lisa of OSS

All OSS rely on workflows to make key outcomes happen. Outcomes like activating a customer order, resolving a fault, billing customers, etc. These workflows often touch multiple OSS/BSS products and/or functional capabilities. There's not always a single-best-way to achieve an outcome. If you're responsible for your organisation's workflows do you want to build a paint-by-numbers approach where each process is repeatable? Or do you want the…

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18/03/2019 No Comments

OSS Best Practices, cough, splutter

"Organizations that seek transformations frequently bring in an army of outside consultants [or implementers in the case of OSS] who tend to apply one-size-fits-all solutions in the name of “best practices.” Our approach to transforming our respective organizations is to rely instead on insiders — staff who have intimate knowledge about what works and what doesn’t in their daily operations." Behnam Tabrizi, Ed Lam, Kirk Gerard…

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15/03/2019 1 Comment

A graphene analogy to help fix OSS data

By now I'm sure you've heard about graph databases. You may've even read my earlier article about the benefits graph databases offer when modelling network inventory when compared with relational databases. But have you heard the Graphene Database Analogy? It can help conceptualise the migrating, cross-linking and fixing of data sets. I equate OSS data migration and data quality improvement with graphene, which is made up…

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14/03/2019 No Comments

All OSS products are excellent. So where’s the advantage?

"You don't get differential advantage from your products, it's from the way you speak to and relate to your customers . All products are excellent these days." The quote above paraphrases Malcolm McDonald from a podcast about his book, "Malcolm McDonald on Value Propositions: How to Develop Them, How to Quantify Them." This quote had nothing to do with OSS specifically, but consider for a moment…

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13/03/2019 No Comments

Competition closing on 23 March

In case you didn't notice, we launched a competition yesterday. It's a 5 question survey and respondents are in with a chance of winning 1 of 5 copies of my book, Mastering Your OSS. Not only that, but it's your chance to give back to the next generation of OSS experts coming through. You'll achieve this by sharing your experiences on your earliest OSS projects. In…

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12/03/2019 No Comments

How did your first OSS project make you feel?

Can you remember how you felt during the initial weeks of your first OSS project? I can vividly recall how out of my depth I felt on my first OSS project. I was in my 20s and had relocated to a foreign country for the first time. I had a million questions (probably more actually). The challenges seemed immense (they were). I was working with talented…

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11/03/2019 No Comments

Can OSS/BSS assist CX? We’re barely touching the surface

Have you ever experienced an epic customer experience (CX) fail when dealing a network service operator, like the one I described yesterday? In that example, the OSS/BSS, and possibly the associated people / process, had a direct impact on poor customer experience. Admittedly, that 7 truck-roll experience was a number of years ago now. We have fewer excuses these days. Smart phones and network connected devices…

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08/03/2019 No Comments

The 7 truck-roll fail

In yesterday's post we talked about the cost of quality. We talked about examples of primary, secondary and tertiary costs of bad data quality (DQ). We also highlighted that the tertiary costs, including the damage to brand reputation, can be one of the biggest factors. I often cite an example where it took 7 truck rolls to connect a service to my house a few years…

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07/03/2019 No Comments

Juniper Networks to acquire Mist Systems

Juniper Networks Announces Intent to Acquire Mist Systems to Bring AI to IT, Delivering on Promise of Software-Defined Enterprise. Juniper Networks announced that the company has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Mist Systems, a pioneer in cloud-managed wireless networks powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The deal will enhance Juniper’s enterprise networking portfolio by combining Mist’s next-generation Wireless LAN (WLAN) platform with Juniper’s best-in-class wired…

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06/03/2019 No Comments

Calculating the cost of quality

This week of posts has followed the theme of the cost of quality. Data quality that is. But how do you calculate the cost of bad data quality? Yesterday's post mentioned starting with PNI (Physical Network Inventory). PNI is the cables, splices / joints, patch panels, ducts, pits, etc. This data doesn't tend to have a programmable interface to electronically reconcile with. This makes it prone…

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06/03/2019 No Comments

Waiting for the disaster to invest in the data

Have you seen OSS tools where the applications are brilliant but consigned to failure by bad data? I definitely have! I call it the data death spiral. It's a well known fact in the industry that bad data can ruin an OSS. You know it. I know it. Everyone knows it. But how many companies do you know that invest in data quality? I mean truly…

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05/03/2019 No Comments

Where an absence of OSS data can still provide insights

The diagram below has some parallels with OSS. The story however is a little long before it gets to the OSS part, so please bear with me. The diagram shows analysis the US Navy performed during WWII on where planes were being shot. The theory was that they should be reinforcing the areas that received the most hits (ie the wing-tips, central part of the body,…

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04/03/2019 No Comments

Telefónica and Ericsson sign AI-powered Network Ops

Telefónica and Ericsson sign AI-powered Network Operations agreement. Ericsson and Telefónica, one of the world’s largest communications service providers, have penned a new four-to-six-year managed services deal for AI-powered Network Operations in the UK, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Uruguay. Through its global Network Operations Centers (NOCs), Ericsson will provide services spanning day-to-day monitoring and service desk, change management, and problem and incident management - all powered…

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01/03/2019 No Comments

Mobily deploys Ericsson

Mobily deploys Ericsson full stack Telecom Cloud. Mobily Saudi Arabia has deployed Ericsson’s full stack telecom cloud solution, focusing on transforming its wireless network and providing a 5G Cloud Core. Mobily will gain a flexible, agile, and programmable network to improve customer experience and support the development of new services. Moezid bin Nasser Al Harbi, Chief Technology Officer, Mobily, says: "The cloud will help meet the…

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01/03/2019 No Comments

Ericsson extends OSSii to include 5G

Ericsson committed to extending OSSii agreement to include 5G. Ericsson, Huawei and Nokia have agreed to initiate discussions to extend an OSSii (Operation Support System Interoperability Initiative) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cover 5G network technology. The aim is to enable and simplify interoperability between OSS systems, reducing overall OSS integration costs and enabling shorter time-to-market for 5G. The scope will also look at simplifying integration…

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01/03/2019 No Comments

AED-SICAD acquires the Dynamic Design

AED-SICAD acquires the Dynamic Design Group. AED-SICAD GmbH has recently acquired all shares of the Dynamic Design Group. Dynamic Design develops, sells, implements and maintains software solutions for the planning and management of telecommunications networks. With its ConnectMaster product family, the company complements the existing business of AED-SICAD, whose technology focuses on information systems and software solutions for the management and operation of distribution networks in…

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28/02/2019 No Comments

Telefónica UK selects Netcracker

Telefónica UK Selects Netcracker’s End-to-End BSS/OSS Suite. NEC Corporation and Netcracker Technology have signed an agreement to partner with Telefónica UK to implement Netcracker’s end-to-end BSS/OSS suite. The partnership further expands Netcracker’s global, strategic relationship with Telefónica and underscores Netcracker’s continued market leadership in BSS and OSS. Telefónica UK will use Netcracker’s comprehensive BSS/OSS suite comprising its Revenue Management, Customer Management and Operations Management solutions. In…

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27/02/2019 No Comments

Ericsson and Airtel to build AI use cases for Network Operations

Ericsson and Airtel to further build real-world AI use cases for Network Operations. Ericsson and Bharti Airtel ("Airtel"), India's leading telecom services provider, announced their collaboration for building intelligent and predictive network operations. Leveraging on its developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automation, Ericsson will support Airtel to proactively address network complexity and boost user experience. Combining deep domain expertise with advanced technologies like AI and…

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27/02/2019 No Comments

Telecom Egypt and Ericsson apply AI

Telecom Egypt and Ericsson apply Artificial Intelligence to operate telco cloud. Telecom Egypt and Ericsson completed the successful deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to its full-stack telco cloud infrastructure. The objective is to operate telco cloud environment intelligently and efficiently to enable cloud Automation and orchestration. The telecom industry is moving into cloud automation especially with introduction of Cloud Native in 5G. Artificial Intelligence assets provide…

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27/02/2019 No Comments