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The CAPEX tri-chotomy

"The proposed AT&T/Time Warner deal combines two powerhouses. AT&T is the nation’s largest pay TV provider, the second-largest wireless provider, and the third-largest home Internet provider. Time Warner owns a dizzying array of media properties, including HBO, CNN, Warner Brothers, DC Comics, TBS, TNT, the Cartoon Network and broadcast rights to many live sporting events. But it does not own Time Warner Cable, a separate entity…

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26/10/2016 No Comments

What are you afraid that your competitors might do?

Here's a quick strategy idea for you to extrapolate upon. Whether you represent a service provider, OSS vendor, integrator, consultant, etc, what are you most afraid your competitors might do? Chances are that your answers will represent a quantum leap in some form. Does your answer to the question help to articulate what your ideal quantum leap might be? Are you currently working towards that, or…

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25/10/2016 No Comments

Are our OSS / BSS contributing to customer churn?

"Some simple principles: - Software can change faster than hardware, which means that in changing markets, bet on software. - It's tempting to treat the user interface as a piece of fashion, some bling, a sort of jewelry. It's not. It's the way your user controls the tool you build. Change it when it stops working, not when you're bored with it. Every time you change…

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24/10/2016 No Comments

We’re doomed! Destined to ossifying

Do you know what the word ossify means? If not, can you guess? No, it's not another of my made-up words to describe OSS in an obscure way. For those of you who didn't already know that it's a real word and what it means, wait for it... it means to cease developing; to stagnate. It's more commonly used in medical circles - to turn into…

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21/10/2016 1 Comment

Does your organisation have the culture to handle new OSS models?

We've recently talked about the two service provider business model extremes - OTT / DSP (Over the Top or DSP) versus REIT / TaaU (Telco as a Utility) are affecting OSS. The fast-twitch OSS that services the OTT / DSP model is bringing about some fascinating changes in the way service providers procure "assets." They're no longer buying equipment (or software) outright, but buying as a…

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20/10/2016 No Comments

Have you noticed the different races being run in OSS?

Yesterday's blog discussed innovation at the speed of data being even faster than innovation at the speed of software. But not all aspects of OSS need to evolve at the sames speeds. In the Olympics, sprinters need fast-twitch muscles and training to hone for speed, whilst marathon runners need slow-twitch muscles and appropriate training for endurance. The same appears to be true in OSS, with the…

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19/10/2016 No Comments

What’s faster than innovation at the speed of software?

Marc Andreessen famously wrote an essay entitled, "Why software is eating the world," in the WSJ in 2011, which has proven to be an accurate insight. I thought he was also responsible for the term, "innovation at the speed of software," but a search only reveals PAOSS and a few other references, so perhaps I've mangled a quote somewhere along the line. I like it nonetheless…

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18/10/2016 No Comments

Have you ever fitted aircraft-grade aluminium to an OSS?

Does this clip from Big Bang Theory remind you of any of your OSS colleagues? It does remind me of many colleagues and customers from over the years, but it also unfortunately reminds me of myself sometimes. I've been guilty of prescribing the aircraft-grade aluminium when the cheap Swedish media centre would've done the job. I have to try hard not to slip into this mode.…

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14/10/2016 No Comments

This counter-intuitive OSS niche marketing strategy rocked my thinking

"Once upon a time I used to think that entrepreneurs had to be smart enough to develop a niche strategy. A nice smart strategy which will keep them hidden from the big ugly and powerful incumbents and other startups. A strategy to extract sneaky revenue. I learned how wrong I was the hard way... Turns out niche strategies limit the number of doors we can knock…

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13/10/2016 No Comments

Windstream automates using Ciena Blue Planet

Windstream Automates Provisioning of Wavelength Services Across Nationwide, Multi-Vendor Network Using Ciena Blue Planet. Windstream is deploying Ciena’s Blue Planet orchestration software to automate the delivery of managed wavelength services across the company’s multi-vendor optical network. By leveraging the open orchestration capabilities of Blue Planet, Windstream is able to utilize its optical network as a programmable resource and accelerate the delivery of managed 1 GbE, 10…

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12/10/2016 No Comments

How does OSS architecture cope with exponential growth

Yesterday's blog covered how exponential growth in ICT industries has been (and will continue to be) a challenge for all of us in OSS-land. We've already seen some fundamental changes in OSS in recent years to be able to cope with the massive growth in device counts, bandwidth demands, etc. We've seen hyper-scaled hardware/software platforms becoming much more common as well as the load-balanced interfaces that…

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12/10/2016 No Comments

How can OSS keep up with exponential progress?

We've all heard of Moore's Law, which predicts the semiconductor industry's ability to exponentially increase transistor density in an integrated circuit. "Moore's prediction proved accurate for several decades, and has been used in the semiconductor industry to guide long-term planning and to set targets for research and development. Advancements in digital electronics are strongly linked to Moore's law: quality-adjusted microprocessor prices, memory capacity, sensors and even the…

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11/10/2016 No Comments

More cars registered for phone numbers than did handsets in Q1/16

"In the first quarter of 2016, more cars were registered for phone numbers in the US than were personal cell phones." From an article named, "Five technologies for the next ten years" The article starts, "Over the next decade, mobile, the Internet of Things, machine learning, robotics, and blockchain technologies will change a great deal..." The report talks about how these technologies will change the oil…

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10/10/2016 No Comments

Is being an OSS chameleon an advantage or disadvantage?

One of the interesting parts of starting a new OSS project or new customer is figuring out their mode of operation. For example, some architects want high-level requirements to design their own solution against. Others want you to document the requirements so tightly that you're effectively designing the solution for them (eg field mappings, data structures, interface designs, etc). I'm comfortable operating in either mode (and…

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07/10/2016 No Comments

Apttus and Comptel collaborate

Apttus and Comptel Collaborate to Deliver B2C Customer Journey Solution Built on the Salesforce Communications Industry Framework. Apttus, the category-defining Quote-to-Cash solution provider, and Comptel Corporation, today announced the launch of a new end-to-end offering for the consumer communications segment. As CSPs (Communications Service Providers) evolve to meet the demands of modern business, they’ve turned to leading cloud solutions to complete their customer-centric transformations. This joint…

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06/10/2016 No Comments

GWI adopts VETRO FiberMap

GWI Adopts VETRO FiberMap™ SaaS Platform for Broadband Network Mapping & Fiber Management. VETRO FiberMap™ announced that GWI, a rapidly growing internet service provider (ISP), has adopted VETRO FiberMap™ as a core business platform. Through the power of APIs and a user-friendly open architecture that is unique in the industry, VETRO FiberMap™ provides GWI with a secure, flexible, cloud-based platform. This solution helps GWI plan, design,…

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06/10/2016 No Comments

Redknee implements for Omantel

Redknee Successfully Implements Multi-Play Monetization for Omantel. Redknee Solutions Inc. announced the successful implementation of Redknee Unified, a converged multi-play billing, charging and customer care platform at Omantel, a leading communication service provider (CSP) in the Middle East. The successful implementation of Redknee Unified transformed Omantel’s IT infrastructure across multiple lines of business including mobile, fixed, IPTV, Internet, and cable. Redknee Unified reduces time to market…

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06/10/2016 No Comments

Leveraging synthetic OSS transactions to assure the user experience

Five nines is a catch-cry in the telco industry. There's a view that we should measure the up-time of all the devices in our network and they should all reach the gold standard of 99.999% (ie downtime is less than five and a half minutes per year). But how many times have you seen an ops team quoting their five nines KPIs, whereas the users are…

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06/10/2016 No Comments

How would your OSS handle a troop of chaos monkeys?

A recent blog discussed the concept of running fire drills on your OSS to see how your organisation would handle outages. In Monday's blog, we discussed where OSS customers are going to be and what their requirements are going to look like. The "Telcos as OTT players" model will be hyperscaled and more "transient by nature - services, contracts, capacity, etc. will be spun up and…

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05/10/2016 No Comments

You’re an OSS expert. Have you heard about GDPR?

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It seems to be gaining momentum as a framework for personal data protection. Various governments have been releasing data protection Acts of their own lately too. At the moment the focus appears to be on data privacy within public bodies, but big business is sure to be required to meet similar demands too. It hadn't really dawned on me just how…

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04/10/2016 2 Comments

Where does Sam Walton think OSS customers are going to be?

"Don't build where they are. Build where they're going to be." Sam Walton. Sounds like a persuasive argument and not dissimilar to Wayne Gretzky's famous quote about skating to where the ice hockey puck is going to be. Sam Walton had plenty of proof to back up this claim (as did Gretzky). Walton was after all one of the most successful retailers of the 20th century.…

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03/10/2016 2 Comments