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…
Read More »SWAN Mobile, a.s. selects Subex’s industry leading ROC® Fraud Management solution. Subex has announced that it has been selected to provide its industry leading ROC Fraud Management Solution by Swan Mobile, a.s. SWAN Mobile, a.s. is a rapidly developing Slovak telecommunications service provider, which aims to provide customers with professional telecommunications solutions of the highest quality. As part of the implementation, Subex’s ROC Fraud Management will…
Read More »"Insecurity is fascinating. We hide it. We beat ourselves up for it. And to top it off, it seems like we’re the only ones who ever feel it. And yet: It’s the times we feel most insecure that we grow the most. Take my friend Noah Kagan. He’s founded two multimillion-dollar businesses. And he lives an amazing life eating tacos in Austin, snowboarding in Vail and…
Read More »Sonera selects Nokia’s Nuage Networks for enterprise SD-WAN. Telecom operator Sonera, part of Telia Company, has selected Finnish Nuage Networks’ virtualized network services (VNS) product portfolio to provide software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) services to its enterprise customers in Europe. Nuage Networks, owned by Nokia, was founded as an internal startup by Alcatel-Lucent in 2013. Nuage Networks’ VNS portfolio allows the telecom operator to control customer…
Read More »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)…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »"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…
Read More »"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,…
Read More »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…
Read More »"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…
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