Passionate About OSS Blog | Passionate About OSS and BSS

ETSI harmonises NFV information modelling

ETSI Seeks Harmonization of NFV Information Modelling. ETSI’s Industry Specification Group for Network Functions Virtualisation (ETSI NFV) convened a ground-breaking industry workshop to align cloud-centric initiatives and network-centric initiatives to ensure successful realization of NFV through automation. The workshop brought together the leading Standards Development Organizations (SDOs) and Open Source communities in an ‘NFV Village’. The workshop was hosted by CableLabs at their Louisville, Colorado (USA)…

15/01/2016 No Comments

O2 extends Netcracker partnership

O2 in the UK Extends Netcracker Hosted Managed Services Partnership to Enable Nationwide M2M Initiative and Partner Revenue Share Ecosystem. Netcracker announced that Telefónica UK, which operates as O2 in the UK, has agreed to extend the use of Netcracker’s Revenue Management solution through a hosted managed services model for two new significant initiatives. By using Netcracker’s Revenue Management solution and Hosted Managed Services, O2 will…

14/01/2016 No Comments

CenturyLink consolidates on Amdocs

CenturyLink to consolidate ordering, billing across its markets. CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is moving to consolidate its local service ordering and billing systems so it can streamline its process and systems across its markets for wholesale CLEC customers. The telco currently operates two ordering and billing systems for its local services products, a product of the various acquisitions it has made over the past two decades, including…

13/01/2016 No Comments

Things gone wrong

OSS has a bad name amongst many of our customers. Yes, even though they invest billions in our industry each year. Do they consider us a necessary evil? Quality, dependability, repeatability. These are the catch-cries of success in many industries. TGW (things gone wrong) per million or per thousand are common metrics that are the bellweather of attaining success (or not). Do we have such metrics in…

11/01/2016 2 Comments

Openet to provide free NFV software

Openet to Provide Free of Charge NFV Software in Initiative to Promote Interoperability and Openness. Openet announced that its OVLM (Openet VNF Lifecycle Manager) software will be made available free of charge from March 2016. This initiative will enable the adoption of vendor-interchangeable and interoperable Virtual Network Functions (VNFs) and help operators to realise the benefits that open NFV can deliver. Michael O’Sullivan, GVP Engineering for…

10/01/2016 No Comments

Slovak Telekom selects Netcracker

Slovak Telekom Selects Netcracker to Radically Simplify Operations with Converged Billing and Services Deal. Netcracker Technology announced that it has expanded its billing relationship with Slovak Telekom, the largest telecommunications service provider in Slovakia. Slovak Telekom will leverage Netcracker’s Revenue Management solution to bring its fixed and mobile billing processes onto a single, end-to-end platform. Netcracker’s Revenue Management solution was Slovak Telekom’s longtime wireline billing system.…

09/01/2016 No Comments

Ready for Work

There's a commonly used terminology in our industry, I'm sure you've heard of it, TOW (Ticket of Work). I like to think of it as a RFW (Ready for Work) because that's what your TOW needs to empower the field worker with. The field worker must know what they need to do, where they need to do it and be appropriately supplied (consumables, tools, equipment) to…

08/01/2016 No Comments

Do I actually generate value?

"Are you an expert at something that actually generates value?" Seth Godin in a recent post called, "No direction home." Seth's post is actually about finding a job in a different way than most people try, one that I'm also a big advocate of. The quote above though is a very philosophical one for all of us in the OSS industry to ponder. Do our OSS,…

07/01/2016 No Comments

CSG Ascendon offers Digital Streaming Service

CSG's Ascendon to Power Digital Streaming Service. CSG International (NASDAQ: CSGS) announced that its CSG Ascendon digital services platform now supports a new digital membership service offering the biggest collection of movies, TV, books, music and apps from one of the world’s most loved entertainment brands. The new membership-based streaming service is available in the United Kingdom and allows consumers to explore entertainment content through a…

07/01/2016 No Comments

Photos in the field

With the ubiquity of smart phones, when field workers are on site, they often photograph assets to show the state of the network before and /or after their site visit. Many organisations with OSS also have Digital Asset Management (DAM) tools that allow them to store digital assets (images, video, audio, etc) in a central repository where they can be searched, managed, retrieved and shared. Perhaps…

06/01/2016 No Comments

Smart boosts customer service

Smart boosts customer service using field app. Customer service of companies is usually handled by frontliners like store personnel and hotline agents. But mobile leader Smart Communications [of the Philippines] has added a versatile digital tool to help make life better for its subscribers. Smart recently developed and deployed a mobile application called CARA that empowers its 7,000-strong workforce to deliver an awesome customer experience to…

06/01/2016 No Comments

A fulfillment triage gap

The concept of triage is commonly used by OSS to ensure that the most urgent problems are assigned the highest attention by resolver groups in the assurance domain. Less common is the concept of triage in fulfillment domains. Interestingly though, I believe that the concept holds great merit to improve overall OSS efficiency bet it may require a new, special type of tool. In any given…

05/01/2016 No Comments

Wireless tools

"If you’re already doing everything online on your smartphone anyway, why pay for home broadband service? That seems to be the conclusion of a growing number of Americans, particularly Millennials. According to the Pew Research Center, as charted here for us by Statista, the percentage of U.S. adults with home broadband has declined over the last two years, and is down six percentage points among adults…

04/01/2016 No Comments

Suck in the knowledge

OSS play a part in many activities within CSP environments. Some of those activities are common, some rare, and others still require a large dose of human decision interactions. However, most of those activities will have been done before, more or less. This should mean that OSS have seen it all before (more or less). So if they've seen it all before, it seems to me…

24/12/2015 No Comments

Calm under fire…mostly

"All humans overestimate their ability - depending on the study, between 65 and 80% believe they are above average drivers." Richard L. Peterson. I loved playing sport when I was growing up. Still do. I believe that it has made me better at making decisions under pressure. As an interesting side note, it has also seemed apparent that most of my colleagues who excelled under pressure…

23/12/2015 No Comments

It gets expensive

"There are risks and costs to action. But they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction." John F. Kennedy. I'm doing a renovation to my house currently and costs have been increasing because I've refined things along the way. I've compromised on some things along the way too. I'm not a builder. I don't know what rot is likely to be under…

22/12/2015 No Comments

I want to design better OSS

"Good design is as little design as possible Less, but better – because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity." Dieter Rams: ten principles for good design. I've recently had the opportunity to design some OSS user interfaces (UI) again. Our customer had laid out their preferred UI design for a customised module.…

21/12/2015 No Comments

Death by OSS

A friend of mine, Keith smiled when he said, "You are Passionate About OSS, whereas I'm the opposite, I feel like its more like death by OSS," while catching up over lunch recently. Keith has a point - a whole series of points. Every project is beset by problems, delays, cost blowouts, inability to get / keep great resources skilled in your flavour of OSS, seeing…

18/12/2015 No Comments

Redknee enables Dutch National Railway

Redknee Enables Dutch National Railway Infrastructure Operator to Increase Reliability in Network Communications. Redknee Solutions Inc. (TSX: RKN) announced that it has launched the latest version of its Intelligent Network (IN) solution for GSM-Railway (GSM-R) networks at ProRail, the Dutch railway infrastructure operator. ProRail is a Government task organization responsible for maintenance and extension of the national railway infrastructure including allocating rail capacity and traffic control.…

17/12/2015 No Comments

Corruption!

"There is no compromise when it comes to corruption. You have to fight it." A. K. Antony. Corruption is a powerful sentiment. Having grown up in a society where it's not prevalent, not to my knowledge anyway, it has been interesting to observe it in the developing countries where I've worked. In one company, the Managing Director is paid the same amount as those doing the…