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Navisite deploys Cisco ACI

Navisite Automates Data Centers Worldwide with Cisco ACI Platform, Enhancing Security and Agility. Cisco announced that Navisite, LLC., a part of Spectrum Enterprise and an international provider of managed cloud services, application management and hosting services, has deployed Cisco® Application Centric Infrastructure (Cisco ACI™) as a core technology platform of its software defined data center reference architecture. Cisco ACI will provide the Software Defined Network (SDN)…

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16/03/2017 No Comments

Nuage selected by Vodafone

Nuage Networks from Nokia selected by Vodafone. Nokia announced that it has been selected by Vodafone to be a global supplier of software-defined networking (SDN). Nuage Networks - the Nokia SDN venture - will be the supplier for SDN for the datacenter. As part of the selection, a VPN+ live pilot project with Vodafone is also underway, which will demonstrate the benefits of SD-WAN in providing…

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16/03/2017 No Comments

Verizon’s Exponent announcement

Verizon's Exponent – is it a bird or plane? No, it is a set of platforms. [Source: Ovum] Verizon announced at Mobile World Congress 2017 what it calls its new technology and business venture, Exponent, which is set up in a new, independent business unit within Verizon. Exponent’s target customers are global carriers that do not have the resources or capabilities to develop or build their…

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16/03/2017 No Comments

Tying OSS, BSS, IoT and blockchain together

"Some aspects of IoT will need blockchains, plural. Not "the blockchain", but a wide variety of private blockchains / distributed ledgers for a wide variety of different purposes. Remember, there is no singular "I" in IoT. It's 1000s of separate, non-interconnected networks." Dean Bubley. With millions of sensors running around collecting data and communicating autonomously, often with in "chatty" mode, IoT is going to generate a…

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16/03/2017 No Comments

Ambidextrous leadership in OSS

"Ambidextrous leadership (investor + operator thinking): Sue believes there is enormous value in pairing venture capital investor-type thinking with operator-type thinking. Being able to step back and analyze opportunities from an investor’s perspective can be a valuable tool in helping entrepreneurs and managers alike make better decisions. And for investors, thinking like an operator is so important to understand the businesses they are investing in and,…

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15/03/2017 No Comments

Oops. Solarwinds leaks customer client lists

Solarwinds sends customers each others' complete client lists. Software company Solarwinds, which sells IT management tools, has infuriated customers after a faulty alert exposed customers' entire client lists to their competitors. An unspecified issue affecting the Texas-based business' RemoteManagement tool, which it gained after acquiring Dundee-based LogicNow, led to a mass leaking of business data last Friday morning. Alerts designed to notify customers of "Inactive Workstations…

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14/03/2017 No Comments

OSS design…silence instead of shouting

"Sometimes designing is very tempting; sometimes not designing is the answer. Often silence is required instead of shouting." Karres en Brands. It's said that when presenting a lecture, the softly spoken have more chance of reaching an audience than the classical loud extrovert. The theory goes that if a voice is barely audible, the listener has to tune right in to hear what is being said.…

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14/03/2017 No Comments

Blue Stream extends Netcracker

Blue Stream Extends Revenue Management Engagement with Netcracker. Netcracker Technology announced that Blue Stream has extended its relationship with Netcracker in order to ensure its ability to deliver the best customer experience. Blue Stream will continue to use Netcracker's Revenue Management solution and consulting services to optimize call center operations, provision new services and make it easier for customers to pay for their services. Advanced Cable…

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14/03/2017 No Comments

OSS design…determined by users

"The design not only determines uses, it's also determined by users." Karres en Brands. Designing an OSS, or updating the design of an existing one, can be challenging for the reason that user experience is so subjective. You think your design is practical, intuitive, elegant and simple, but others may have a vastly different opinion. I can state this from personal experience as a designer! For…

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13/03/2017 No Comments

Success leaves footprints…

Success leaves footprints... and so does failure. This statement is probably true in any field but especially so in OSS. One of the reasons I follow the OSS industry so closely is because I'm always on the lookout for clues. Clues that track both sets of footprints to understand why. An organisation that consistently gets no tangible improvements on their multi-million dollar OSS investments, yet still…

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10/03/2017 No Comments

Start-up Accelerator BOLT invests in CROSS Network Intelligence

Start-up Accelerator BOLT invests in network solutions as it starts to cooperate with CROSS Network Intelligence.   Start-up Accelerator BOLT, an O2 Company, announces a new investment in solutions for network infrastructure, by taking a strategic stake in software developer CROSS Network Intelligence (CNI). The investment will allow CNI to further develop its CROSS software into a full-fledged platform for Communication Service Providers and to focus…

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10/03/2017 No Comments

VimpelCom engages Nokia

Nokia and VimpelCom sign major five-year managed services contract for management of fixed, mobile and transport networks. Nokia and the Russian communications and technology company "VimpelCom" (brand "Beeline") have signed a five-year agreement under which Nokia will become the major supplier of managed services for VimpelCom's fixed, mobile and transport network operations. Nokia, which has been managing services for VimpelCom's network in central Russia, will extend…

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09/03/2017 No Comments

Treating telco like electricity

Whenever I look at telco provisioning projects, I can't help but think at the complexity involved. Processes are lengthy, with multiple manual steps, mappings, data gathering, sequencing activities, approvals, settings and options. It's no wonder that OSS evolutions and transformations are a nightmare for operators from the perspectives of effort, risk, cost, etc. If we look at residential customer services, the 80% in Pareto's 80:20 rule…

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06/03/2017 No Comments

EXFO buys Ontology Systems

EXFO Acquires Ontology Systems. EXFO Inc. announced it has acquired privately held Ontology Systems, technology leader in real-time network topology discovery and service-chain mapping, for a total consideration of US$7.6 million, net of cash. UK-based Ontology Systems uses graph-data and semantic searches to build real-time views of network services and related network elements. Network functions virtualization (NFV) and software defined networking (SDN) technologies render communications infrastructures…

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04/03/2017 No Comments

Unleashed selects Comarch

Unleashed Selects Comarch as a preferred BSS Supplier in its IT Overhaul. Comarch will help Unleashed, part of the Belgian multimedia company MEDIALAAN, to lead its BSS transformation and become a fully Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO). Comarch’s solutions will manage customers, products and billing for the three brands managed by Unleashed: Mobile Vikings, JIM Mobile and Stievie. The contract was signed at the end of…

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04/03/2017 No Comments

OSS vendor websites – are they helping their customers?

Amongst other consultancy activities, I help clients find the best OSS solution for their needs. This means I'm constantly analysing vendor offerings to cross-reference against client needs. Based on this perspective, there's a question I would like to pose to vendors - Why are potential customers coming to your site? [Note: for the purpose of this blog we'll disregard existing customer visits] Can we assume that…

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03/03/2017 No Comments

Ericsson deploys fulfillment for Jio

Ericsson successfully deploys OSS fulfillment suite for Jio in India. Ericsson has deployed an end-to-end OSS fulfillment suite for Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited ("Jio"), the world's fastest-growing operator. This OSS deployment includes order management, inventory management and activation solutions. The deployment has helped Jio achieve faster onboarding and provide quality service to its 100 million users. Jyotindra Thacker, President, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, says: "At Jio,…

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03/03/2017 No Comments

OSS / BSS to replace cash in the twenty-first century?

"When the dollar was the currency in the twentieth century, banks made a fortune by selling trust. If data is the new currency, who’s going to sell trust in the twenty-first century?" Anthony Behan on TM Forum's Inform. Anthony also states in his blockchain-centric article, "The telco has a trusted position – even more trusted than government and banks — in most economies. There is an…

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02/03/2017 No Comments

Globe Telecom selects Netcracker

Globe Telecom Selects NEC and Netcracker to Accelerate Digital Transformation and Infrastructure Virtualization. NEC Corporation and Netcracker Technology announced that Globe Telecom has selected them to support its digital transformation initiative and lay the foundation for next-generation infrastructure, including virtualization. Globe will use Netcracker's sophisticated OSS suite and comprehensive Service Orchestration solution, a component of NEC/Netcracker's Hybrid Operations Management solution and Agile Virtualization Platform and Practice.…

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01/03/2017 No Comments

Learning about your OSS customers from the extremes

The first step of the Design Thinking methodology is emphathising (aka getting to know your customers). For some OSS vendors, they overlook this step assuming that they know what the customers want. Similarly for an internal project, the project team will act as the proxy on behalf of a large group of OSS users without really knowing what that group wants / needs. We all have…

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01/03/2017 No Comments

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Ericsson sign smart city partnership

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and Ericsson sign smart city partnership. Having transformed Istanbul into a 'city brand', Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) has signed a cooperation agreement for a smart city consultancy project with Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC). Under the umbrella of the Istanbul Informatics and Smart City Technologies (ISBAK AS) company, the IMM and Ericsson will work together to achieve Istanbul's smart city vision and 2024 targets. In…

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01/03/2017 No Comments