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…
Read More »"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,…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »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…
Read More »"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…
Read More »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…
Read More »"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…
Read More »"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…
Read More »"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.…
Read More »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…
Read More »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.…
Read More »"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…
Read More »There's a slight problem about being passionate about OSS - you see everything In relation to OSS problems, solutions, analogies, etc. l was talking with Simon, a great friend of mine recently about a new role that he's taking on. He will be responsible for technology in the facilities used by the large bank that he works for. Those facilities include branches, offices, data centres and…
Read More »"There is currently no reliable method for IoT system security managers to detect and garner timely, dynamic, valid and comprehensive awareness of all components connected to and/or affecting their infrastructure." Michael Cooney in his article, "DHS says IoT security vulnerabilities are critical and need to be addressed." The link above provides fascinating reading from a few perspectives. lt outlines the challenges of securing sensor networks, so…
Read More »Anite licenses Huawei OSS interfaces – will integrate with Anite’s Nemo products. Anite announced that it has signed an agreement with Huawei for access to their OSS interfaces. The contract was signed under the Operations Support Systems interoperability initiative (OSSii). Access to Huawei product interfaces ensures that Anite’s Nemo products can accurately integrate with operators’ wireless network OSS infrastructure. “We are excited about having signed an…
Read More »Your first answer to the headline question today will probably relate to Bitcoin transactions. That would indeed be a clever answer but there is more potential in blockchain for OSS / BSS than just crypto-currencies. I figure that it could be applicable for the following use cases and probably many more: Obviously billing reconciliation (and disputes) becomes superseded by the public ledger of the blockchain Data…
Read More »"If you are a product company and you only have one customer, then you effectively have a boss." Given that even the biggest OSS product companies only have a few customers, there is a tendency for the customers to be matrix bosses. To be in more control of your own destiny, you need to have a large number of customers, with no reliance on any one…
Read More »"...our research suggests that as many as 45 percent of the activities individuals are paid to perform can be automated by adapting currently demonstrated technologies. In the United States, these activities represent about $2 trillion in annual wages. Although we often think of automation primarily affecting low-skill, low-wage roles, we discovered that even the highest-paid occupations in the economy, such as financial managers, physicians, and senior…
Read More »As someone who is afforded the privilege of seeing many OSS when evaluating vendors, it strikes me that most OSS are designed by Engineers. It seems to me that if a developer hits on a user interface (UI) that can perform the required function then that interface layout will do. After all, Engineers in the OSS industry tend to have too many other tasks in their…
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