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Telenor Serbia selects Ericsson BSS

Telenor Serbia transforms customer charging and billing experience. Ericsson has been selected by Telenor Serbia to deploy the Ericsson Charging and Billing in One (CBiO) solution as the operator's new real-time convergent charging and billing platform. As a result of the deployment, Telenor Serbia can support a full range of charging and billing needs for residential, corporate, mobile and fixed subscribers. Ingeborg Øfsthus, Telenor Serbia CEO…

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15/07/2016 No Comments

A collaborative style of solution design

Early in my (pre-OSS) career I noticed that I had a different approach to designing solutions than most of my colleagues. My colleagues, when given an assignment, would tend to disappear into their office cubicles and prepare a solution in isolation, before asking for a review (for quality assurance purposes) once their solution was all but complete. I, on the other hand, would summarise my thoughts…

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15/07/2016 No Comments

Netcracker acquires CoralTree Systems

Netcracker acquires CoralTree Systems. Netcracker Technology announced that it has completed the acquisition of CoralTree Systems, a leading provider of converged solutions for European service providers. The acquisition includes CoralTree's technology solutions and highly skilled resources in systems integration, business operations support and other professional services. CoralTree's solutions also include technology assets in video activation, BSS and OSS which complement Netcracker's solution portfolio. Netcracker has seen…

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14/07/2016 No Comments

Adding something by removing a lot more

"If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.” Woodrow Wilson. Going for a run can be fun, but adding a clock/stop-watch changes the dynamic. A game of football is fun to watch (or play), but adding a clock makes it somewhat more interesting…

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14/07/2016 No Comments

Ask your OSS a question…

A very clever friend of mine made an interesting observation recently. He had noticed that one of his global markets, a developing region, tended to ask for a very different set of outcomes from his OSS than his customers in more developed regions. He has noticed that the developing regions are asking business level questions like the following: How many services do I have Where do…

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13/07/2016 2 Comments

Sesame Street has a lot to answer for

I once heard a comment from a teacher that, "Sesame Street had a lot to answer for." Sounds strange on face value because this famous TV program has been educating children for decades. The teacher then went on to state that kids now all expect to be entertained, not just taught. Interesting perspective isn't it? If you look back at all the training you've received in…

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12/07/2016 No Comments

Gridlocked OSS cityscapes

"Nine in ten businesses (87 percent) face severe turbulence as they pursue digital transformation, according to research from Bizagi, a provider of digital process automation software. The global study of over 1,000 IT and customer experience professionals finds that businesses are rapidly embracing digital transformation, with 73 percent believing that failure to keep up will result in commercial downfall. However, the speed of change required, coupled…

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11/07/2016 No Comments

Many different breadcrumbs

There are many different breadcrumbs that contribute to any OSS. Business processes, organisation structures, data sources, hardware platforms, learning models, naming conventions, service offerings, communication methods, network topologies, equipment types, etc. The list is huge isn't it? There are so many immensely clever people in this OSS industry of ours too aren't there? It can be overwhelming, particularly to those new to a given environment. This…

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08/07/2016 No Comments

Telefonica selects Cisco NSO

Telefonica Business Solutions automates its global IP infrastructure. Telefonica Business Solutions, a leading provider of a wide range of integrated communication solutions for the B2B market, has selected Cisco’s NSO (Network Services Orchestrator), enabled by Tail-f, for automating and configuring its IP infrastructure and business customer premises equipment. The industry-leading Cisco NSO will significantly enhance the automation, agility and reliability of Telefonica’s network, while accelerating new…

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07/07/2016 No Comments

Redknee wins with EMEA Tier 1 customer

Redknee Wins Policy Management with EMEA Tier 1 Customer. Redknee Solutions Inc. announced the signing of a new multi-million dollar contract to deliver its policy management solution, Redknee PCS, to a Tier 1 communications service provider (CSP) in the EMEA region with more than 55 million subscribers. Redknee’s policy management solution allows service providers to monetize their network investments by quickly launching new data plan packages…

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07/07/2016 No Comments

Who are you presenting to?

Over the years I've seen many OSS presentations, often in the role of helping a customer make a decision on which OSS option to proceed with. There have been some good presentations and others that didn't go so well. I've even seen the best-fit products dropped out before short-listing because presentations were structured so poorly that customers couldn't see their merits. One of the things I've…

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07/07/2016 No Comments

A different type of OSS automation

"Most of us are, by default, in automation mode. We are pattern-seeking animals, and there is immense comfort in the familiar...established systems help to preserve our energy and attention. Things are easier. The cognitive (and emotional) burden of trying to figure out what needs to be done, when and by whom, is minimal, Automation is a good state to be in, when it's working." Dr. Jason…

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05/07/2016 No Comments

Data Bridge – Flexible data models

OSS tend to be created with CSPs in mind. But that's a small market. If we extend the data model to open it up to fit the data collection requirements of any organisation that relies on a network then we open up OSS to a much broader market. I call this style of OSS the "data bridge" model. I personally see the data bridge as the…

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04/07/2016 No Comments

Makedonski Telekom signs managed services agreement with Ericsson

Makedonski Telekom signs managed services agreement with Ericsson. Ericsson has been selected as a Managed Services partner by Makedonski Telekom in Macedonia, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom Group. Ericsson will assume responsibility for network operations, second-line operations, field operations and operation of passive networks, as well as infrastructure maintenance services for the fixed and mobile networks of Makedonski Telekom. Under this agreement, the employees of Makedonski…

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01/07/2016 No Comments

OSS career pathways

One of the biggest challenges for an OSS team is finding (and keeping) resources that know the industry, know their technologies and know why / how their OSS helps their customers (ie tripods). One approach is to get battle-hardened OSS resources from outside, put them into senior positions, and build teams around them. This approach might work in other industries, but is much tougher in OSS…

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29/06/2016 No Comments

Word of mouth is working against OSS

As you might have noticed, I'm passionate about OSS, what they can do now, what they can do in the future and how they can help organisations prosper in this highly digital era. But one of the things I notice when speaking with the vast number of people directly involved or touched by our industry is that so much of the commentary is negative. In this…

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28/06/2016 No Comments

OSS are hidden away

"More people will pay you money to help them achieve a monetary goal than will pay you to give them something pretty to look at." Web Teacher In recent posts we've explored OSS user interfaces and simpler interfaces in particular. But a pretty interface is only useful if helps a prospective client achieve a monetary goal (or avoid a monetary penalty). Billions of dollars have been…

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27/06/2016 No Comments

White space

"Whitespace, many times referred to as negative space, is the portion of a page left unmarked, the portion that is left blank, or the empty space in a page. In web design terms, it’s the space between graphics, columns, images, text, margins and other elements. It is the space left untouched in order to smooth things out and transform a page into something elegant. It is…

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23/06/2016 No Comments

Independent NFVI interoperability test results

Results from the world’s first independent interoperability evaluation of NFVI (Network Function Virtualisation Infrastructure), carried out by NIA and EANTC, can be found here. It provides an interesting read. Vendors include Cisco, Juniper, Ciena, Fortniet, Nokia, Dell and more. Juniper's perspective on this testing can be found here.

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22/06/2016 No Comments

Not just orchestration but more orchestratable

"The utter complexity of huge, standardized software systems also explains the death of big software. Enormous whole-company projects are often beyond the capabilities of even the most experienced project and program managers – especially when there’s never 100% consensus about the need for such a draconian project in the first place. The cloud has also killed big software. Years ago, companies would implement huge ERP software…

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21/06/2016 No Comments