"The Toyota production system has been built on the practice and evolution of this scientific approach. By asking and answering ‘why’ five times, we can get to the real cause of the problem, which is often hidden behind more obvious symptoms." Eric Ries, in his book, "The Lean Startup." Some time ago, I prepared a Toyota five-whys analysis on why so many OSS projects fail to…
Read More »MegaFon selects Nokia Networks to build its 4G LTE network. MegaFon has signed a contract with Nokia Networks to upgrade the operator’s nationwide network in Russia. Under this 7-year deal, a 4G network based on the company’s Single RAN (radio access network) technology will be built in order to benefit from greater capacity, higher data rates and low latency. 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) enables better…
Read More »Eastlink selects CSG International. CSG International announced that Eastlink, one of Canada’s leading video entertainment and communications service providers, has chosen CSG Ascendon to further strengthen the consumer viewing experience. CSG Ascendon is a new platform designed to enable service providers like Eastlink to launch, scale and monetize new digital services such as movies, games, home security and over-the-top offerings with a seamless link to the…
Read More »Bulgaria's Mtel Deploys Amdocs Master Enterprise Catalog. Amdocs announced that Mtel, the largest mobile service provider in Bulgaria and part of the Telekom Austria Group, has deployed the Amdocs Master Enterprise Catalog enabling Mtel to reduce the operational IT complexity typically associated with service provider product rollouts and reduce time to market for new offers by more than 80 percent. The new Amdocs catalog has helped…
Read More »"Thrashing: tweaking, updating, revising, sometimes even major surgery; essential, but when to do it? Amateur: all at the end. Pro: early." Seth Godin in his book, "Linchpin." One of the biggest challenges facing a new OSS project is gaining a workable and binding set of requirements on which to build a solution. There are all sorts of challenges in achieving this, including: Identifying all of the…
Read More »"Most systems deal with complexity by adding more – more systems, more measures, more internal meetings, more units, more custom products, more unique processes, more new initiatives, more coordinators at the interfaces, and on and on. Our belief is that for more companies, the antidote to escalating complexity – and to the greater distance between management and the reality at the front line – is simplification,…
Read More »"A while ago our world exploded. The environment and the world of towns and cities and families and communities blew apart, along with the world of ideas and information, of entertainment and communication, of politics and diplomacy, and of course the world of businesses and organisations. It’s hard to date when the explosion started, but it was after JFK’s assassination and before 9/11. Somewhere in there…
Read More »"A single twig breaks, but the bundle of twigs is strong." Tecumseh. I have an interesting dilemma to pose for you today. Let's say you have a migration to undertake that involves your field work-force. The migration requires the re-direction of customer services from one destination to a new destination via re-patching at various points in the physical network spread across a wide geographical area. Your…
Read More »"I don’t have any easy answers to the time management dilemma. For me, it works best if I divide my week into 10 half-days. My guess is it would take much less than half a day a week to coach your team on the messages and vision the CEO is passionate about." Rob Davidson, here. In large organisations like CSPs, it's difficult for an executive team…
Read More »Sprint selects Brite:Bill to Improve Customer Billing Experience. Brite:Bill has been selected to serve as a billing communications solutions provider for Sprint Corp. As a result, Sprint will be able to enhance customer experience across all channels through transparent, personalized and easy-to-understand billing communications. Sprint required a customer communications and billing analytics capability to support its customers’ needs over the coming years, and Brite:Bill was selected…
Read More »"Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them." James A. Michener. In a recent post, I posed the question about whether we would soon no longer need network engineers. This was slightly cheeky of me. Today I shall note some caveats on posing such a bold question, as well as providing my humble opinions on what the future may hold for this question: I think…
Read More »Zain Kuwait selects Ericsson for transformation project to improve customer experience. Ericsson has been awarded the entire Business Support Systems (BSS) transformation project for Zain Kuwait. The agreement covers a wide range of products, solutions and system integration services, which will prepare Zain for the opportunities of the Networked Society. With Ericsson's solutions, all Zain customers will be able to benefit from the advantages of a…
Read More »Ooredoo and Ericsson launches M2M platform in Indonesia. Ooredoo's Indosat and Ericsson has launched a cloud-based Machine-to-Machine (M2M) platform in Indonesia. The platform, Ericsson Device Connection Platform (DCP), uses innovative technologies suited to developing markets, which create connected solutions to existing problems. Indosat is the first member of Ooredoo Group to launch this M2M platform with Qatar, Algeria and Tunisia scheduled to follow this year. Dr…
Read More »Procera and Openet to provide Proof of Concept demonstrating Virtualized Real-Time OSS/BSS. Procera Networks, Inc. together with Openet, a leading provider of real-time BSS (business support systems), today announced they will showcase an ETSI NFV proof of concept demonstration of real-time OSS/BSS running on a virtualized environment. It will show how Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) concepts can be applied to OSS/BSS to deliver on the business…
Read More »Taiwan Star Telecom Signs Multi-Year Agreement for NetCracker Revenue Management Solution and Managed Services. NetCracker Technology announced that Taiwan Star Telecom has agreed to a multi-year extension of NetCracker’s Remote Managed Services for its billing operations. Taiwan Star Telecom is a 4G mobile operator based in Taipei, Taiwan. In June 2014, Taiwan Star acquired 3G operator Vibo, making it one of the leading mobile operators in…
Read More »Ericsson powers Telkomsel's OSS transformation. Ericsson announced that it has been selected by Telkomsel for a comprehensive OSS transformation that will help the operator meet new customer demands and efficiently manage rapid network growth. Telkomsel, the largest mobile operator in Indonesia, will deploy a broad range of Ericsson software solutions to deliver premium service quality. Ericsson's Consulting and Systems Integration plays a key role in the…
Read More »"Undermine their pompous authority, reject their moral standards, make anarchy and disorder your trademarks. Cause as much chaos and disruption as possible but don't let them take you ALIVE." Sid Vicious. In many previous posts (including "A new category of OSS"), I've pondered how network virtualisation will disrupt the status-quo within OSS. If, in the likely event that network virtualisation frameworks such as SDN / NFV…
Read More »Ericsson selected as solution partner for Network Virtualization platform and Cloud Manager by NTT DOCOMO. Ericsson has been selected as a solution partner to provide Japanese operator NTT DOCOMO with its network virtualization platform and cloud management for their project of commercial deployment of a complete virtualized evolved packet core (EPC) network in a multi-vendor environment. Ericsson will deploy its globally-recognized Cloud Execution Environment and Cloud…
Read More »"Many believe effective networking is done face-to-face, building a rapport with someone by looking at them in the eye, leading to a solid connection and foundational trust." Raymond Arroyo. As a typical engineer, when I first entered OSS projects my initial focus was on understanding the technologies and delivering the best technical solution that I was able to. Soon enough though, I noticed that a technically…
Read More »Samsung Electronics Partners with IBM and Guavus for Next Generation OSS Offerings. Samsung announced key partnerships with IBM and Guavus to provide comprehensive Operational Support Systems (OSS) offerings to mobile network operators. Samsung’s newly launched portfolio of operational support systems, CognitiV OSS will help mobile service providers to manage and optimize their networks in a proactive and intelligent way. Based on information collected from network elements…
Read More »"Over the past six months, we have reorganized the entire company. Almost 70 percent of our engineers are now doing something different for us. We had to do some very painful things like laying off 7,000 people and hiring back 6,000 with different skill sets. We have moved from selling boxes to selling outcomes." John Chambers. In this recent post, I posed the question of whether…
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