"It is easier to act yourself into a new way of thinking, than it is to think yourself into a new way of acting." Millard Fuller. The agile, lean documentation delivery models of today have the huge advantage of gaining momentum on OSS projects. No longer do we have the big-bang cutovers, but we start with barely viable solutions and progressively build on them. It starts…
Read More »How ONAP Will Merge Millions of Lines of Code from ECOMP and Open-O. (Repost from SDxCentral). How long does it take to merge eight million lines of code from AT&T’s ECOMP framework with the code from the Open-O project, which is also very large? Now that ECOMP and Open-O have merged into one project under the Linux Foundation — the Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) —…
Read More »One of the advantages of being a consultant is that you get to assist big corporates without being wrapped up in some of the big corporates' mindsets. Of course this isn't true of all employees at big corporates, but I've found the, "that's somebody else's job," mindset to be more prevalent there. In some ways it makes sense right - having a large group of employees…
Read More »"Many people steeped in the tradition of product promotion naturally feel drawn to prattle on and on about their products and services. But I have news for you. Nobody cares (except you). Yes, you read that right. Get over it. What people do care about is themselves and solving problems. How do you do that?" David Meerman Scott here. David Meerman Scott's quote reflects the same…
Read More »Comptel Has Received a Major Order from an Indian Customer. Comptel has received a major order from an Indian customer. The contract value is approximately 2.3M EUR, and it comprises FlowOne Fulfillment licenses and related services. “This deal will help our customer to operate efficiently and increase agility on the end user service offering. It provides superior time to market on launching new services and a…
Read More »"The truth is that whale-sized companies would love to do business with smaller suppliers. The relationship is more immediate in every way. Small suppliers can deliver goods more quickly than larger ones. It's much easier to get the CEO of a small supplier on the phone for discussion of the transactions. Small suppliers are more flexible. So why are so many small companies unsuccessful in entering…
Read More »Here's a tip for you to try on your next OSS project: Instead of building a behemoth OSS with a million contributors (and a million opinions), stand up something simple (but meaningful) quickly and let word of mouth draw others in. It's a technique I've helped implement in some very "democratic" decision-making environments, environments where I'd previously struggled to get any significant project momentum.
Read More »You're probably aware that our OSS and/or underlying EMS/NMS have been assisting organisations with their governance, regulatory and compliance (GRC) requirements for some time. Our OSS have provided tools that automatically enforce and validate compliance against configuration policies. Naturally, network virtualisation and network as a service (NaaS) offerings are going to place an increased dependence on those policies and tools due to the potentially transient services…
Read More »"It might be the ultimate entrepreneurialc superpower - the ability to shift perspective and understand the viewpoint of another person... whether it’s a client, prospect, or team member. If you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes, it’s the shortest path to influence, collaboration, communication, and connection." Jeff Walker. Can OSS (or at least their data) help you to develop this entrepreneurial superpower? Or for vendors,…
Read More »Canonical combines its OpenStack with Huawei’s SDN Controller. Reposted from SDxCentral. Huawei and Canonical announced the integration of Huawei’s CloudFabric data center network system with Canonical’s Ubuntu OpenStack. They’ll combine Huawei’s Agile Controller for software-defined networking (SDN) with Canonical’s OpenStack distribution, Ubuntu OpenStack, along with Canonical’s application modeling service Juju. “We’ve been doing a number of things with Huawei, but this expansion across telco and enterprise…
Read More »Ericsson’s Turnaround Plan Includes Around $2B in Charges. Reposted from SDxCentral. Swedish equipment vendor Ericsson is facing more challenges. The company announced today that it will have restructuring charges of between $1.8 billion and $2.4 billion this year as it tries to revamp its struggling business amid slowing sales of 4G equipment and increased competition from Chinese vendors like Huawei and ZTE. CEO Borje Ekholm, who…
Read More »The most stunning sunrise inspired my journey into the office on the train this morning. The train was packed with dozens (hundreds?) of people, all with their heads down on looking at their phones, books, tablets, music players, etc. Looking around the carriage, only one other person even seemed to have noticed the stunning panorama playing out alongside the train (and even she had her headphones…
Read More »Many telcos around the world have a sometimes subtle, sometimes not, turf-war going on between networks / operations and IT groups. Virtualisation of the network potentially amplifies this because it increases the scope of possible overlap. As described in yesterday's "Noah's Ark of OSS success," one of the ways of improving the success of an OSS is to make it relevant to a larger set of…
Read More »"Don’t be involved in 50 or 100 things. That’s a Noah’s Ark way of investing – you end up with a zoo that way. Put meaningful amounts of money in a few things you know well." Warren Buffett. There are a lot of OSS products on the market. From that list, you can probably name a handful that have been very profitable. The reason why, I…
Read More »Tier 1 APAC CSP Selects Redknee for Multi-Million Dollar Upgrade as Demand for 4G Services Grows. Redknee Solutions Inc. announced that it has won a multi-million dollar Redknee Unified upgrade with a Tier 1 communication service provider (CSP) in Japan. The operator is experiencing increasing demand for 4G services while its subscriber base expands rapidly. The solution will upgrade Redknee’s integrated policy and charging solution to…
Read More »Gartner's magic quadrant for OSS is often used by organisations as a proxy for determining a short-list from the hundreds (thousands?) of OSS products available on the market. I've even heard of executives from tier-one telcos issuing directives that their short-list should consist of the top right corner of Gartner's OSS Magic Quadrant (the Leaders quadrant). The Gartner analysis makes for great reading and its readers…
Read More »"The history of lean manufacturing shows that it is usually feasible, if not downright simple, to eliminate waste from a process. This cannot happen, though, until the waste is recognized for what it is. One of Henry Ford's key success secrets was the ability to identify waste that others overlooked even though it was (with the benefit of hindsight) in plain view..." William A. Levinson, here.…
Read More »Comptel Has Won a Multi-Million Deal from South America. Comptel has won a multi-million deal from a new customer in South America. The contract value is approximately 3.4M EUR, and it comprises FlowOne Fulfillment licenses and related services. “With our FlowOne Fulfillment solution, the customer can truly take control of their end-to-end OSS/BSS transformation process, which is the main reason they awarded us the deal. This…
Read More »Netcracker Provides End-to-End BSS and OSS Transformation Program to Telefónica. Netcracker Technology announced that Telefónica Business Solutions is using an end-to-end BSS/OSS stack from Netcracker to help it become a more automated and efficient service provider by enabling the faster delivery of business services and with a significant cost reduction. Netcracker will provide a complete end-to-end IT stack, including BSS and OSS, for Telefónica’s worldwide Wholesale…
Read More »"Some vertical markets or segments where it’s logical for telcos to enter and compete are quickly becoming crowded. Smart homes, for example, are also drawing investment from cable TV providers, home security ?rms, mobile device manufacturers and other tech behemoths, including Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft. However, telcos tend to focus too heavily on vertical solutions, underplaying their hand in two large, horizontal spaces where they…
Read More »If you're using an OSS/BSS and/or IVR in your role with a service provider, are you able to tell what's causing customer contacts and why? For example, do you know which customer-facing products are leading to the highest proportion of calls into your contact centre? If so, are you able to determine why (eg recharge, fault, information, etc)? Often contact centres and OSS/BSS are tasked with…
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