"Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others. It is discarding the meaningless and stressing the true values." Thomas S. Monson. Don’t worry, I’m not actually writing about OSS on our Christmas Day holiday here in Australia. I spooled this up for post a while…
Read More »"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how." Friedrich Nietzsche. A recent post posed the question, "have you noticed that the more technically proficient your customer is, the more likely you are to receive their specifications as "required solutions" rather than requirements?" To put this another way, the customer is telling you how to do it before telling you why they…
Read More »“It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” Harry S Truman. In recent blogs, “Data Architecture Levels” and “Testing Architecture Levels,” the need for contextually relevant data has been mentioned. One of the other areas where contextually relevant data is essential, but very often ignored, is in training delivery. For the purposes of creating generic, repeatable training packages to ensure efficient delivery of…
Read More »"Beware of the problem of testing too many hypotheses; the more you torture the data, the more likely they are to confess, but confessions obtained under duress may not be admissible in the court of scientific opinion." Stephen M. Stigler. In a recent post, entitled "Data Architecture Layers," we discussed the need to architect data from the perspective of both format and context. The context perspective…
Read More »"We left the meeting with a list of open issues, not a handshake." David Sacks. "Best-of-breed versus single vendor" is an age-old discussion point between OSS exponents. There is no right answer to this argument, with every customer having different needs. However, when speaking about the best-of-breed model, I sometimes use the handshake analogy to describe why we should aim to limit the number of disparate…
Read More »"As soon as we feel attacked or backed into a corner, it’s almost inevitable we will fall into “Fight” or “Flight.”" Dr Stephen Samuel Lomax. When a CSP has been backed into a corner by their OSS vendor, when for whatever reason the OSS is not delivering what the CSP needs but they are locked into the existing OSS, have you noticed that a fight or…
Read More »Amdocs, in Association with Triotech, to Enable SBI-BSNL Mobile Financial Services to Millions of Unbanked Households in Rural India. Amdocs announced the selection of its Mobile Financial Services solution, in association with Triotech's solution, that will enable State Bank of India (SBI) to offer mobile financial services to India's unbanked and under-banked population, using the mobile network of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited's (BSNL). The solution will…
Read More »Vodafone Hutchison Australia Deploys Amdocs Self-Optimizing Networks Solution. Amdocs announced that Vodafone Hutchison Australia has deployed Amdocs Self-Optimizing Networks (SON) solution to help with the program to improve its 4G coverage and customer experience across Australia. The solution helps Vodafone to free up 850 MHz spectrum previously used for 3G, so that it can be used for LTE. The 850 MHz spectrum is the most widely…
Read More »SingTel selects Amdocs for billing project. Asian telecom service provider SingTel has selected Amdocs for a billing project in Singapore and Australia to enhance and differentiate its customer experience. Amdocs will migrate the billing and customer support for retail, enterprise and government users of SingTel onto a single platform. SingTel, which has a stake in Bharti Airtel in India, aims to improve the customer satisfaction and…
Read More »DST Selects CSG to Support Wholesale Business Efficiencies CSG International announced that DST, a leading provider of communications services in Brunei, has expanded its strategic partnership with CSG. DST has been a CSG client for nearly 15 years. Under the terms of the expanded agreement, CSG will consolidate wholesale business and settlement operations for DST using CSG Route and the newest release of CSG Interconnect. The…
Read More »"That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains." Steve Jobs. What’s the most important task you have to work on today? I’ve noticed that the complex OSS projects…
Read More »"It's our challenges and obstacles that give us layers of depth and make us interesting. Are they fun when they happen? No. But they are what make us unique." Ellen DeGeneres. I love looking at data and making sense of it for transferring, sharing and leveraging between systems. There are two distinct layers that the data architect must relate to: Format - this relates to the…
Read More »"Hide not your talents, they for use were made. What's a sundial in the shade?" Benjamin Franklin. Shine the light of your talent outwards not inwards. Having worked with numerous OSS vendors, I've seen amazingly talented individuals hidden away at head office, shining their light internally. I can't help but think that it's important for your customers to get the opportunity to see these people at…
Read More »Changyou selects Fortumo for billing in Mobogenie App Store. The mobile payments company Fortumo announced that it has been chosen by China’s leading digital entertainment company Changyou as a billing partner for its Mobogenie app store. Thanks to the partnership, developers publishing apps on Mobogenie can now use Fortumo’s Android 1-click payment SDK to generate revenue from users in 83 countries across the world. Changyou’s Mobogenie…
Read More »"The least productive people are usually the ones who are most in favor of holding meetings." Thomas Sowell. Massive OSS projects can tend to spawn massive numbers of meetings with the intent of keeping everyone informed of all the moving parts. Have you ever stopped to think about how much each of your meetings costs? Let's say you have 10 people in your 1 hour meeting,…
Read More »Redknee Signs Multi-Million Dollar Contract with Omantel. Redknee Solutions Inc. announced that Omantel, a leading operator in the Middle East and a provider of multi-play services, has signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract to upgrade to the latest version of Redknee’s converged charging platform, Redknee Unified, in support of Omantel’s 4G/LTE network. The highly scalable and flexible solution provides Omantel with innovative real-time charging and billing…
Read More »Atlantic Broadband Extends Contract with CSG. CSG International announced that Atlantic Broadband, the nation's 13th largest cable operator, has extended its contract with CSG to provide comprehensive billing and customer care solutions across the enterprise. Under the terms of the six-year extension, Atlantic Broadband will continue its use of CSG’s pre-integrated, end-to-end billing solution to reduce operational and network costs. The solution suite creates efficiencies through…
Read More »"The formulation of the problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill." Albert Einstein. If you've ever been a solutions integrator or an implementing vendor, have you ever noticed that the more technically proficient your customer is, the more likely you are to receive their specifications as "required solutions" rather than requirements? There are three…
Read More »Blue Ridge Communications Signs Multi-Year Renewal for NetCracker Revenue Management Solution. NetCracker Technology announced that Blue Ridge Communications has agreed to a multi-year renewal for its licensed NetCracker Revenue Management solution. This solution will support ordering, billing, provisioning and operations for Blue Ridge’s pay-TV, on-demand, high-speed data and voice services. Blue Ridge Communications, a division of Pencor Services, Inc., is one of the longest operating cable…
Read More »"If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk." Robert Baden-Powell. I already know what I know, so I'm not learning anything new when I'm talking. I don't get the chance to learn what you know when I'm talking. I've recently started a new OSS project with a product that I haven't used before, which is integrating…
Read More »"We all need people who will give us feedback. That's how we improve." Bill Gates. I was having an interesting chat about ivory towers in OSS development with a learned colleague named Steve recently and had a lightbulb moment. Whilst we have a feedback form on every single page of a SaaS product my company has developed, it never dawned on me that OSS should incorporate…
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