Logo_white_on_blue-min

Blogs

Filter by Date Period

Select Date
Filter by Date Range
Filter by Date Range

Filter by Category

Filter by Category

Nokia to acquire Nakina Systems

Nokia strengthens security portfolio with planned acquisition of Nakina Systems. Nokia plans to acquire Canadian software firm Nakina Systems ("Nakina"), to reinforce its position in security at a time when customers are bolstering their defenses to cope with the increasing demands of hyper connectivity, new regulations and emerging technologies. The companies previously had a five-year partnership where Nokia used Nakina's software in several customer projects. Security…

Read More »
23/02/2016 No Comments

Creating assets

"Your financial planner, real estate agent, and accountant all call your house an asset. But in reality, an asset is only something that puts money in your pocket. If you have a house that you rent out to tenants, then it’s an asset. If you have a house, paid for or not, that you live in, then it can’t be an asset. Instead of putting money…

Read More »
23/02/2016 No Comments

What would Warren Buffett’s OSS look like?

"Lethargy bordering on sloth remains the cornerstone of our investment style." Warren Buffett in his 1990 Chairman's Letter. It's been said that 90% of Warren Buffett's immense wealth has been derived from just 10 deals. That's 10 deals in roughly 60 years of investing. Warren undoubtedly gets to see many opportunities but only invests in a select few, bypassing many great opportunities to bet big on…

Read More »
22/02/2016 No Comments

BT Mobile selects Openet

BT Mobile selects Openet to deliver real-time charging for mobile MVNO. Openet announced that BT has installed Openet’s NFV-ready Evolved Charging solution. The market leading converged service provider has selected Openet’s virtualized, real-time BSS technology to monetize its consumer mobile service. BT Mobile will harness the added agility and flexibility of Openet’s real-time charging platform to drive fast time-to-market for its new MVNO venture. BT Mobile…

Read More »
22/02/2016 No Comments

Telstra Ericsson and Sequans partner on loT

Telstra network ready to support IoT - Telstra blog post. Telstra announced another major milestone in their network evolution as they enable support for Category 1 (Cat1) devices and build a new foundation for the Internet of Things (IoT). To date when we have spoken of our LTE service on our mobile network we have compared it to a highway optimised for the fastest vehicles racing…

Read More »
21/02/2016 No Comments

Getting to genba part 2

In "Getting to genba" we discussed the Japanese concept of genba or defining where is the real place that work gets done. According to a learned colleague named Paul who also grew up in Japan, genba is part of popular culture there, being cited regularly in business discussions. We had an interesting discussion about the earlier blog and some of the thoughts have spawned this follow-up…

Read More »
19/02/2016 No Comments

T-Mobile Netherlands selects Netcracker

T-Mobile Netherlands Optimizes End-to-End Product Management with Netcracker BSS. Netcracker announced that T-Mobile Netherlands, a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom, has selected Netcracker to implement its sophisticated Product Management solution, which is comprised of Product Catalog and Product Lifecycle Management components. This will help T-Mobile Netherlands improve the overall management and delivery of its services. T-Mobile Netherlands is among the largest providers of mobile telecommunications, offering services…

Read More »
19/02/2016 No Comments

3 Macau signs CSG

3 Macau Leverages CSG Singleview for New 4G LTE Services. CSG International (NASDAQ: CSGS) announced that 3 Macau now uses CSG Singleview® to provide comprehensive integrated revenue and customer management system for its advanced 4G LTE services. To coincide with the network launch in December 2015, CSG used its proven Accelerate methodology to deploy a comprehensive revenue and customer management solution. The deployment included CSG’s Singleview…

Read More »
19/02/2016 No Comments

Network data models

Over the years of working with different OSS products I've noticed two distinct approaches to building the data models that underpin OSS functionality. The two options are: Network specific data model Generic data model The first approach sees the vendor implement a different data structure for each different network type (eg Ethernet, transmission, etc). The second has a network-agnostic approach that by default is also agnostic…

Read More »
18/02/2016 4 Comments

TOT signs with Netcracker

TOT Combines Pre-Paid, Post-Paid, Mobile and Fixed Billing with Convergent Netcracker Solution. Netcracker announced that TOT Public Company Limited, formerly known as the Telephone Organization of Thailand, has implemented Netcracker’s Convergent Billing solution to consolidate its pre-paid and post-paid fixed and mobile rating, charging and billing processes, which were traditionally managed on disparate platforms. TOT is a leading provider of fixed and mobile telephony services across…

Read More »
18/02/2016 No Comments

Getting to genba

Efficiency experts refer to getting to genba (or gemba), a Japanese term for "the real place" or the place where the "real" work gets done. lt's the place where every movement is vital and any inefficiency or waste is a target for improvement. In OSS, genba resides in two places - the product development and the customer implementation site. Creating OSS tools and configuring them for…

Read More »
17/02/2016 No Comments

Designing complex solutions with seemingly insignificant OSS tools

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." Vincent Van Gogh. I recently contributed on a vendor's product design exercise and came away with some ideas that are worth sharing here. We started the process by trying to resolve a problem faced by many OSS customers. The problem related to re-designing their network to adapt to ever-changing demands within the network. The…

Read More »
16/02/2016 No Comments

SolarWinds completes $4.5B sale

SolarWinds completes $4.5B sale. On Friday morning Austin software maker SolarWinds Inc. quietly completed its $4.5 billion sale to two investment firms. Jason Ream, Solarwinds’ chief financial officer, said the day was business as usual for the 17-year-old company, with only an internal email announcement sent out notifiying employees the deal had closed. In October, Silver Lake Partners and Thoma Bravo announced plans to take SolarWinds…

Read More »
15/02/2016 No Comments

Smart city OSS

A great friend of mine, Evan, and I recently caught up with Mike Lawrey, the Chairman of the TM Forum. Mike spoke to us about some interesting initiatives the TM Forum has in the pipeline, including some that build upon the success of their Smart City Forum. You may have noticed that I regularly discuss the future of OSS spreading from operations into digital ecosystems. I…

Read More »
15/02/2016 No Comments

OSS pyramid scheme

Most pyramid schemes have a bad name, but I have one for you today that is actually helpful to all involved. As we know, (almost) every organisation in the OSS industry is constrained by a shortage of talented resources that know the organisation's specific solution intimately. In some cases, the shortage leaves individuals as single points of knowledge and single points of failure. This is not…

Read More »
12/02/2016 No Comments

Planning – A tough challenge

After years of seeing OSS products, there's one set of functionality that tends to be highly desired by customers but rarely offered (well) by vendors. This tells me that it is very difficult to implement, and having also worked with vendors, I can attest to the challenge faced. The functionality set I'm talking about relates to network planning, being able to store multiple overlapping or cross-dependant…

Read More »
11/02/2016 2 Comments

Nokia launches AVA

Nokia AVA, the new cloud-based cognitive platform for service delivery to operators. Nokia has created a new way to develop and deliver expert services to operators seeking near-perfect network performance and availability, improved operational efficiency and thus a superior customer experience. Nokia AVA is a cloud-based platform that combines big data storage, intelligent analytics and extreme automation, allowing operators to move away from traditional reactive network…

Read More »
10/02/2016 No Comments

The reverse release

“To attain knowledge, add things everyday. To attain wisdom, remove things every day.” Lao Tzu. There's an interesting phenomenon in OSS, but probably software development in general, keep adding new features without giving a thought to removing any. This is fine if you're in a growth phase in terms of resources, budgets / revenues, customers, etc. But if you have already settled into a roughly balanced…

Read More »
10/02/2016 No Comments

Bright House Networks deploys Netcracker CRM

Bright House Networks Deploys Netcracker CRM Solution to Enhance Customer Experience and Deliver Greater Personalization. Netcracker announced that Bright House Networks has deployed Netcracker’s eCommerce and CRM solutions to enhance the customer experience and deliver greater personalization through more effective and automated customer engagements. As the sixth-largest cable MSO in the United States, Bright House Networks is providing simplicity and personalization with an eCommerce platform that…

Read More »
10/02/2016 No Comments

Virtual satellites

Last Friday the post, "Managing satellites," discussed how the satellite OSS concept provides core OSS to work on Telco networks / eTOM models, whereas ITIL / ITSM has become increasingly prevalent for the tools to help service managed service contracts. Does this concept resonate with you regarding management of virtualised networks in terms of satellites for the virtualised components and Core for the more physical activity…

Read More »
09/02/2016 No Comments

The signal in the noise

In our life and our OSS we're now bombarded with so much info that it can be overwhelming. We have to understand what really matters to know how to set up the right filters. Have you ever noticed how life in OSS, just like our email inboxes, is an endless stream of activities with a never-ending set of urgent tasks that need to be completed? But…

Read More »
08/02/2016 No Comments