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…
Read More »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…
Read More »"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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »"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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »"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…
Read More »"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…
Read More »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.
Read More »"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…
Read More »Thought you might like this graphic from AnalysisMason. The opportunities in OSS / BSS have their own list of corresponding opportunities. You can find a few thoughts here.
Read More »L&T Technology Services partners with Redknee to deliver IoT architecture for enterprises in transport, energy and insurance. L&T Technology Services Limited (“L&T Technology Services”), announced its collaboration with Redknee Solutions Inc, a leading provider of real-time monetization solutions. The alliance will offer our clients a complete architecture for enterprises to enable connectivity, analytics and monetization for the Internet of Things (“IoT”). Over the coming decade, the…
Read More »"Humans can speak 150 vs. type 40 words per minute, on average.." Kleiner Perkins' Internet Trends 2016. The latest Mary Meeker report (ie the link above) provides some interesting insights, as usual. One of them is the reference to voice becoming a much more significant computing interaction mechanism - evolving from keyboards to microphones and keyboards (see slides 115 on) with a 3.5x speed increase. It…
Read More »Nokia launches new IMPACT platform for fast and secure delivery of IoT services. Nokia is extending its device management leadership into IoT with the launch of the Intelligent Management Platform for All Connected Things (IMPACT), which gives operators, enterprises and governments a secure platform on which to scale new IoT services. IMPACT handles data collection, event processing, device management, data contextualization, data analytics, end-to-end security and…
Read More »"For IoT networks to become truly scalable, and not be dependent on a centralized cloud / management platform, decentralization of trust has to occur... and that's the picture of blockchain! Any decentralized IoT solution should support three foundational types of transactions: - Trustless peer-to-peer messaging - Secure distributed data sharing - A robust and scalable form of device coordination. With those three capabilities, the devices with…
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