Latest

Network orchestration can make or break an operator. Which category does yours fall into?

Details

Have you ever asked what is network orchestration? It’s a pretty fancy title. All it really is though is a technique to push commands down into a network to change its configuration. Sounds simple.

However, don’t let that description imply that it’s easy. In some cases, it can be relatively easy – if this happens, then do that (IFTTT). If a new customer order arrives in a queue, then push a command (and associated attributes) to the network to allow the order to be activated. If the performance of a given network link goes outside expected bounds, then apply some sort of traffic shaping policy.

Can your current OSS cope with network virtualisation?

Details

Network virtualisation has many benefits. It explains why network operators and vendors have invested so much in advancing this category of technology.

The primary benefit is the flexibility that virtualised networks allow. Unlike physical networks, it’s relatively fast and easy to change the configuration, topology, function and usage of virtual networks. Physical network changes tend to require human intervention, often with long planning cycles. By contrast, virtual networks can be changed almost instantaneously, not to mention being modifiable using algorithmic / automated techniques. This allows the networks to be optimised for usage patterns and performance targets in near real time.

Mobile OSS. How Apple’s design brilliance has simplified the management of field workforces

Details

Since the earliest days of long-haul telecommunications, the global network has been one of the most complex machines in the world. And in OSS, we have a “controller” that’s responsible for monitoring and managing these interconnected network “machines.” OSS inherits complexity from them. Therefore, the tendency is for OSS to also be complex.

Trust is a powerful tool for CSPs to use. Why aren’t they?

Details

There’s an interesting dilemma facing CSPs (Communication Service Providers) today.

If you’re selling a client’s data, then that typically doesn’t engender trust with that client. If you have access to client data, but treat it with the utmost regard for privacy and security, not seeking to monetise it, that does engender trust.

Why then, are some Internet companies assigned greater levels of trust than CSPs, even though their business models are based on selling client data? Recent examples have brought to light examples of how client data has been misappropriated.

 

who is information worker

Network managers might be next-level smart

Details

Something important dawned on me only recently. It’s fairly obvious that most of us who manage communications networks and their supporting solutions are information workers. As Daniel W. Rasmus declared, “An Information Worker is a person who uses information to assist in making decisions or taking actions or a person who creates information that informs the decisions or actions of others.”

5g oss bss

OSS/BSS in the age of 5G can’t be so introverted

Details

The hype of 5G has been around for a few years now. Given the amount of investment that carriers have made into uplifting their networks to 5G, the first phase of the hype has been successful. But we’re now deep enough into the global 5G network rollout that we have to start judging whether the second phase of the hype has been successful. That is, whether there’s going to be a valuable return on the initial investment in 5G.

Leveraging CRM for greater customer awareness and rapport

Details

Telcos deal with complex technology. They also deal with customers by the thousands. It’s the telcos’ ability to keep customers at arms-length from the technology complexity that helps them to win customers. It helps keep the services simple enough for customers to use and love. However, telcos also use complex technology as a mechanism to keep their customers at arms-length from operational staff, for reasons we’ll discuss shortly. It’s this enforced interaction with technology that often displeases customers.

Design operations processes using eTOM and BPMN

How to design operations processes using eTOM and BPMN

Details

The following quote from Raja Shah beautifully articulates why telecommunications providers are so essential.

“Telcos provide the fabric, the glue, that's enabling these digital experiences. From devices to networks, from stadiums to lounge rooms, and from content to broadcast and consumption, there hardly seems to be an industry out there that they don't in some way support or enable.

But for all the complicated advancements in technology, the role of each telco ultimately remains quite a simple one. They enable people to connect, communicate, interact and transact; things that the human race has been doing for thousands of years.”