"The most effective way to do it, is to do it" Amelia Earhart. An earlier post entitled, "The OSS inertia principle," spoke of the challenge of nudging massive organisations from a state of inertia to a state of momentum. In some cases, thinking, talking and documenting represent the application of force that gets an organisation moving. In large organisations, they can be a form of procrastination…
Read More »"Something strange is happening in a rubbish bin in Milton Keynes. On his way to the bus stop, Alex drops a drinks carton into it. The bin’s sensor system detects that an item has passed the top ridge of the container. It sends out a signal that alerts local rubbish trucks. Before Alex’s bus arrives, Becky’s truck comes to empty the bin. Milton Keynes Council’s MK:Smart…
Read More »"It’s less about boxes and bases stations; it’s now a lot about software analytics, capability of reconfiguration and all that. It’s a very big shift from what we have seen in the last years." Professor Mischa Dohler here. In the video in the link above, Prof Dohler suggests there are two major disruptions happening in relation to the telecommunications industry - one is an internal one…
Read More »Afghan Wireless Expands Growth Strategy with Redknee's Charging and Policy Solution. Redknee Solutions Inc. announced that it is supporting Afghan Wireless Communication Company (AWCC), the leading telecom operator in Afghanistan to differentiate its services and provide an advanced customer experience for its subscribers. Utilizing the Redknee Unified charging and policy solution, AWCC is leveraging convergent services, to monetize their next generation data strategy and support future…
Read More »"There is no need for us all to be alike and think the same way, neither do we need a common enemy to force us to come together and reach out to each other." Anthon St. Maarten. Over the years, I've worked in a few OSS environments where I had the distinct feeling that there was too much homogeneity amongst the team. You could say that it is…
Read More »Ericsson acquires telecom IT services business in China. Ericsson has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the telecom business of Sunrise Technology, a provider of IT services in the operations and business support systems (OSS/BSS) domain. Sunrise Technology, which is headquartered in Guangzhou, China, will continue to exist as a separate entity - serving customers in sectors other than telecom. The unit being acquired has a…
Read More »"Inspiration is much more likely to develop from the habit of consistently paying attention to life’s small moments." Robert Maurer, from his book, "The Spirit of Kaizen: Creating Lasting Excellence One Small Step at a Time." As we all know, OSS projects are a combination of people, process and technology. However, since most of us OSS implementers are technologists at heart, we have a tendency to…
Read More »"Cisco Systems Australia has announced a five-year investment program expanding to train over 100,000 Australian tertiary and school students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) skills. AUSTEM 2020 is a new program, which builds on Cisco Australia’s long-term commitment to tackle the STEM skills shortage and help create an innovation economy, boost productivity and boost jobs growth." Medianet. The press release also states that Cisco’s…
Read More »"The mind is seldom quickened to very vigorous operations but by pain, or the dread of pain. We do not disturb ourselves with the detection of fallacies which do us no harm.." Samuel Johnson. Operational Support Systems are exactly that - OPERATIONAL support systems. Many people in our industry lose sight of that fact sometimes. For example, how many of us actually know what our CSP's…
Read More »Schurz Communications Signs Multi-Year Renewal for NetCracker Billing and Revenue Management Solution. NetCracker Technology announced that it has signed a multi-year renewal with Schurz Communications for its NetCracker Billing and Revenue Management solution. This extension underscores NetCracker’s ongoing commitment to deliver cutting-edge solution functionality to cable operators across the United States. Schurz Communications is an Indiana-based communications provider, offering cable services across Indiana, Florida, Maryland and…
Read More »"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…
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