"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.…
Read More »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…
Read More »"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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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,…
Read More »"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…
Read More »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.…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »Verizon boosts NFV service assurance with end-to-end visibility - CENX to provide closed-loop intelligence across multiple platforms. Continuing to advance its network virtualization strategy, Verizon has implemented an orchestrated real-time analysis engine that aggregates IP and optical network data to successfully provide service assurance for NFV deployments. Verizon has chosen CENX to provide the tools that deliver a unified view of the state of physical and…
Read More »In the past, there has tended to be a chasm between the back office (eg network design) team and the field work force. The back office team prepared design packs and A0 prints. The field workforce marked up these design drawings with as-built versions. Feedback tended to be paper-based (ie needing transcribing) and was often delayed until the field worker returned to base to lodge their…
Read More »"My role is that of a catalyst. I try to create an environment in which others make decisions." Ricardo Semler, in his book, "Maverick." Creating something big and bold that's never been done before (within a company, if not an industry) seems to scare most people in OSS. I think that this comes about partly because most people in the tech industry seem to be details…
Read More »This recent news brief relating to the AT&T ICE program reminded me to write an article on the standardisation of southbound interfaces. As Chris Rice SVP of AT&T Labs’ Domain 2.0 Architecture and Design stated in reference to certification of VNFs, "Unfortunately, you can get a lot of snowflakes — VNFs that are totally unique — when what you really want is Lego blocks." In the…
Read More »Linux Foundation announces Open-O and ECOMP Combine to Create ONAP. The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit advancing professional open source management for mass collaboration, announced the merger of open source ECOMP and Open Orchestrator Project (OPEN-O) to create the new Open Network Automation Platform (ONAP) Project. ONAP will allow end users to automate, design, orchestrate, and manage services and virtual functions. AT&T, China Mobile and the world’s…
Read More »Ericsson tapped by Verizon Enterprise Solutions to provide enabling support for NFV services. Verizon Enterprise Solutions has selected Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) to provide enabling technologies for its virtualized global Managed Network Services offerings, including Software Defined Wide Area Networking (SD WAN) services. The enabling technologies will allow Verizon customers to take advantage of self-service ordering and configuration, end-to-end automation and flexible payment models resulting in more efficient…
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