An asset is something that puts money into your pocket every month. A liability takes money out. Based on those very simple terms, is your OSS an asset or a liability? If a liability, does it aspire to be an asset? By that, I mean are you actively doing stuff to make it profitable in its own right, or are you happy to just apportion the…
Read More »Vivo Extends Operation for Netcracker's Revenue Management and Provisioning Solution Until 2020. Netcracker Technology announced that Vivo, the subsidiary of the Telefónica Group operating in Brazil, has extended its BSS Operations and Support contract with Netcracker until 2020. The Netcracker BSS platform used by Vivo is currently responsible for supporting the billing operations for B2C and B2B for more than 35 million subscribers. As the leading…
Read More »Event: "OSS in the era of SDN / NFV" In it's fourth year of staging this event, Light Reading continues to build on its successes as the industry's premier forum for the discussion of the impact of SDN and NFV on network operations and OSS. It's being held on 1 Nov (next Wednesday) at The Royal Garden Hotel in London. More info can be found at…
Read More »"The only way to get rid of Dirty Tickets of Work (DToW) is to get rid of Tickets of Work (ToW)" DToW is terminology used in Telstra to indicate that incorrect information has been entered into the ToW or where the field tech hasn't been able to complete the ToW as originally designed / planned. I'm not sure if only Telstra uses this terminology. I haven't…
Read More »The following quick checklist will give you a feel for whether your OSS is too complex for general users: Who are the personas that interact with your OSS (give those personas names and attributes to give life to them) What are they trying to achieve with your OSS (what specific use cases do they fulfil) How many hours a week do the personas dedicate to those…
Read More »Something dawned on me recently - People who want to save money don't want to spend money. That statement has more profound implications for the world of OSS than you might initially think. Let me explain. If someone's main priority is to save money, what are the chances that they'll spend money to buy a product (let's say a book) that shows them how to save?…
Read More »Have you ever experienced an event where you realised that you'd spent the previous 10+ years doing something wrong (or at least incomplete)? I had one such experience last Friday during a presentation by Roger Gibson, a Partner at Infosys Consulting. Now you all know that I'm a passionate spruiker of change management on OSS projects, mainly because one of the biggest reasons for OSS failure…
Read More »SK Telecom brings TANGO into the mobile networks for network evolution with AI. SK Telecom announced that the company has expanded the application of the ‘T Advanced Next Generation Operational Supporting System,’ also known as TANGO, to all telecommunications network of the company. TANGO is an AI-assisted network operation system with big data analytics and machine learning capabilities, a result of SK Telecom’s two year-long effort…
Read More »Vodafone Germany Expands Revenue Management and Billing Relationship With Netcracker to Improve Customer Experience. Netcracker Technology announced that Vodafone Germany, one of Germany's largest telecommunications service providers, has expanded and extended its billing relationship with Netcracker to bring new cable subscribers onto its Revenue Management platform. Vodafone Germany, a subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc, manages a network that supports more than 44 million customers and 300…
Read More »Let's say you act for a service provider and the diagram below represents the number of variations you could offer to customers - the number that are technically supported by your solution. That's 13,824,000 colours. By comparison, the following diagram contains just 20 colours: If I asked you what colours are in the upper diagram, would you say red, orange, yellow, green, blue, etc? Is it…
Read More »I've been promising to release an OSS Call for Innovation, a manifesto of what OSS can become - a manifesto that also describes areas where exponential improvements are just waiting to happen . It can be found here: https://passionateaboutoss.com/oss-call-for-innovation/ And you'll also notice that it's a new top-level menu item here on PAOSS. Each time I've released one of these vision-statement style reports in the past,…
Read More »OSS tend to be powerful software suites that can do millions of things. Experts at the vendors / integrators know how to pull the puppet's strings and make it dance. As a reader of PAOSS, chances are that you are one of those experts. I've sat through countless vendor demonstrations, but I'm sure you'll still be able to wow me with a demo of what your…
Read More »"Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow." Eric S. Raymond, whose quote is now known as Linus' Law in honour of Linus Torvalds. In other words, if you have enough people looking at the code, someone will surely categorise the problem and then the community will also figure out a way to solve it. The fragmentation of the OSS industry means that OSS eyeballs are spread…
Read More »"Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) are about to transform and disrupt the network operator industry. That’s why Swisscom, Telia Company and Proximus, three leading telco providers from across Europe, are jointly issuing this unique Call for Innovation and invite startups and innovators developing "Next Generation Virtual Telco Functions & Services (SDN / NFV 2.0)" to apply until 23 October 2016. The best…
Read More »Netia Chooses Comarch OSS for Network Management. Netia, one of the largest telecom operators in Poland, chose Comarch Fault Management – a central network monitoring system. The implemented system allows telecoms companies to detect network issues and service incidents promptly, enabling an immediate response. Additionally, the system significantly reduces the risk of network failures, improving the quality of service for customers. The contract between Netia and…
Read More »Have you ever noticed that almost every person who works in OSS is extremely clever? No? They may not know the stuff that you know or even talk in the same terminologies that you and your peers use, but chances are they also know lots of stuff that you don't. OSS sets a very high bar. I've been lucky enough to cross into many different industries…
Read More »Smart Embraces Intelligence to Deliver a New Level of Service Personalization to Millions of Filipinos. Amdocs announced that Smart Communications Inc. (Smart) has deployed an Amdocs solution enabling personalized and contextualized customer engagement. Smart is one of the largest wireless service providers in the Philippines and has deployed the Amdocs solution to support its entire subscriber base of nearly 60 million prepaid and postpaid subscribers. The…
Read More »I recently saw the advertisement below: I've clipped only the last 10 seconds because that was the part that struck me. The ad is for BHP*, one of the world's largest miners. The mining industry thinks in long-term projects because it takes many years to deliver results - for exploration, planning, approvals, for the infrastructure to be built and operationalised, etc. Mining is "only" the process…
Read More »"When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions." Steve Jobs. The quote above pretty well describes my experience with…
Read More »"Think war. Extreme times call for extreme measures. When your ideas are facing life or death, that's an extreme time. Like a soldier in battle, you can't even afford to suffer a single hit - so make sure you hit first. Pull out all stops. Remember, when your idea's life is on the line, the last thing you want is a fair fight. Use every available…
Read More »Nuage Networks wins first SDN-based, large enterprise project in China. Nuage Networks, the Nokia venture focused on software-defined networking (SDN) solutions, today announced a significant addition to its roster of global financial customers with its first SDN-based, large enterprise project win in China with China Pacific Insurance Company (CPIC), the country's second-largest property insurance company. The private cloud SDN project,won via Nokia Shanghai Bell, will use…
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