"Have no fear of perfection - you'll never reach it." Salvador Dali. The heading for today's blog sounds ridiculous doesn't it? How could the pursuit of perfection be detrimental to my customers (and many organisations in OSS that have not been my customers yet)? It's not so much the pursuit of perfection, but the expectation of perfection that causes all the problems. As Engineers and problem…
Read More »OSS/BSS Market Being Reshaped With Emergence of Convergent Billing Systems, to Post 12.7% CAGR From 2014-2020: Transparency Market Research. As companies pump investments into customer service platforms, OSS/BSS will lay claim to a sizeable chunk of these investments, helping the global OSS/BSS market to be worth US$ 49.78 billion by 2020. This is one of the key findings of Transparency Market Research's report titled 'OSS/BSS Market…
Read More »"What I'm suggesting is that we define services in a series of hierarchical modeling steps, with each step based on an intent model that offers a from-the-consumer-side abstraction of the service/feature being defined. For network services and features, we could assume the model had a standard structure, which defined FUNCTIONAL-PROPERTIES for the model, and INTERFACES that allow for connection of models or to users. The FUNCTIONAL-PROPERTIES…
Read More »"I generally look at Google as a vast machine learning engine that’s been stuffed with data for a decade and a half. Everything that Google does is about reach for that underlying engine - reach to get data in and reach to surface it out. The legacy web search is just one expression of that, and so is the search advertising, and so are Gmail and…
Read More »VimpelCom’s Beeline Deploys Amdocs Customer Management to Improve Customer Experience and Operational Efficiency. Amdocs announced that PJSC VimpelCom (Beeline™), one of the largest service providers in Russia, has successfully deployed an Amdocs customer management solution that improves call-center agent efficiency across the country. As a result, Beeline can increase satisfaction and retention rates of its more than 59 million mobile and fixed-line broadband customers throughout Russia.…
Read More »SKY Television Expands Relationship with NetCracker to Optimize Billing and Customer Experience. NetCracker Technology announced that SKY Television, the leading satellite pay-TV provider in New Zealand, entered into an agreement to expand the NetCracker Billing and Revenue Management solution and form a 7-year strategic partnership for professional services with NetCracker. This will enable SKY to bring more innovative offers to market and establish a more customer-centric…
Read More »Redknee and Elster to Offer End-to-End Prepay Energy Solution. Redknee Solutions Inc. announced its partnership with Elster, a market leader in Smart Grid and Energy Management Solutions. This strategic agreement is to deliver an end-to-end prepayment solution for the utilities sector that combines the Redknee Connected Suite for smart utility billing and Elster’s smart grid software solutions. The joint offering will be available across the Asian,…
Read More »"Each of us guards a gate of change that can only be opened from the inside. We cannot open the gate of another, either by argument or emotional appeal." Marilyn Ferguson. lt's an exciting time for spatially-based OSS. The tools that underpin them such as GIS and CAD have moved off the desktop and onto mobile devices. Sensor networks, geo-positioning and augmented reality technologies are also…
Read More »Sri Lanka Telecom Goes Live with NetCracker Integrated Revenue Management, Interconnect and Active Mediation Solutions. NetCracker Technology announced that Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), the leading ICT solutions provider and the National Backbone operator in Sri Lanka, has gone live with upgraded NetCracker Revenue Management, Interconnect and Mediation solutions. The upgraded NetCracker Revenue Management solution will provide Sri Lanka Telecom with a number of unique benefits, including…
Read More »"They (OSS) CAN allow a CSP to be more nimble. They CAN allow a CSP to deliver business insights to customers in real-time. They CAN add significant value to a CSP's customers. But for any number of reasons, the OSS that most telcos implement AREN'T nimble, insightful or small-business enablers." In yesterday's blog on "Peak Telco" we posed some of the challenges facing the global telco…
Read More »When it comes to the industry of CSP (Communication Service Provision), success has always followed the organisations that enabled small business (and residential, corporate, government, etc too for that matter) to harness the power of the network effect. The invention of telephony, followed shortly thereafter by telephone networks, enabled telcos to ride the network effect to profitability, because telephony provided enormous business value that organisations were…
Read More »AccessKenya Chooses Procera Networks' PacketLogic Platform for Next Generation IT Services. Procera Networks, Inc., the global Subscriber Experience company and XON, the Pan-African ICT group, announced AccessKenya, the leading and most reliable converged Communication and IT infrastructure service provider in East Africa, has selected Procera's subscriber management solution to replace an incumbent installation and deliver next generation subscriber experience management solutions to meet the region's growing…
Read More »Ericsson to acquire the assets of Guatemala-based Icon Americas, a consulting and systems integration company. Ericsson intends to acquire the assets of Icon Americas, a Guatemala-based consulting and systems integration company. Icon Americas specializes in providing application development and maintenance (ADM) services - specifically in the area of billing and charging - to leading telecom operators. Approximately 250 employees and consultants are expected to join Ericsson.…
Read More »TalkTalk Modernizes Operations with CSG Solutions. CSG International announced that TalkTalk Group, one of the United Kingdom's leading broadband, landline, TV and mobile providers, has selected key components of CSG's Total Service Mediation and Wholesale Business Management Solution (WBMS) suites. TalkTalk will deploy the latest version of CSG Intermediate, CSG Interconnect including Dispute Manager, and CSG Route, replacing a combination of bespoke systems as well as…
Read More »"Everyone is familiar with a technology that can be useful for the verification of messages in SDN and NFV, but not in the form they'd expect. Bitcoin uses what's called "block chaining" or (as one word) "blockchain" to keep a tamper-proof history of something. One could apply blockchain principles to SDN and NFV interfaces or control elements to keep a log of everything that happened there,…
Read More »Maxis Transforms Service Layer with NetCracker's Comprehensive Resource and Service Management Suite. NetCracker Technology announced that it has successfully delivered its Resource & Inventory Management solution to Maxis Berhad (Maxis), Malaysia’s leading communications service provider. The upgraded modules include the NetCracker Framework, Resource Management & Service Management modules. These capabilities will help Maxis to achieve better network utilization, faster deployment of services and ROI on its…
Read More »"Income follows assets" Daniel Priestley. In OSS-world what are our biggest assets? Apart from your customers, what are your biggest OSS assets? Products? Services? People? Intellectual Property? To put this another way, what is it that underpins your strongest revenue streams? If you're a product vendor then it's probably your products. lf you're an integrator, then it's probably your services / systems. If you're a consultancy…
Read More »AIS Signs Multi-Year Renewal for NetCracker Systems Integration and Professional Services. NetCracker Technology announced that Advanced Info Services (AIS), Thailand’s largest mobile phone operator, has agreed to a multi-year renewal for NetCracker’s Systems Integration and Professional Services. As part of the agreement, NetCracker will continue to provide a range of services, including Support and Maintenance, for the NetCracker Billing and Rating solution that AIS uses to…
Read More »"There is no accountability for results in the business. We are never able to follow up or measure the proper return on projects. Investments are open to so many different factors - it's too difficult to measure and wouldn't be credible so is felt to be a waste of time. For cutting edge/new tech projects we are under so much pressure to get to market ahead…
Read More »"Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." Francis of Assisi. What inspires your OSS users/operators? What is it that makes them rave about your product? Is it having a flexible layout? Is it the colours and graphics? Is it the navigation and flow? The number of clicks in which they can achieve an objective? Is it the…
Read More »Bulgaria's Mtel and Amdocs Extend and Expand Multi-Year Managed Services Engagement. Amdocs announced the expansion and extension of its managed services agreement with Mtel through 2021. The new agreement will simplify operations and achieve synergies across lines of business to reduce costs, and improve business and operational performance levels. One of the largest affiliates in the Telekom Austria Group, Mtel is Bulgaria's leading mobile service provider…
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