France Telecom

TMF + IPSF = IP(solutions)

Standard


As most of you have heard by now, the TeleManagement Forum has acquired the IPsphere Forum (IPSF). The TM Forum said it will integrate the IPsphere Framework into its Service Delivery Framework program, creating a pre-commercial test bed for pilot programs and multivendor interoperability. The TM Forum’s Service Delivery Framework focuses on enabling control of service lifecycle management across all execution environments, allowing flexibility in binding services with product catalogs.

That’s quite a mouthful. Whether the market swallows what the IPSF (and now TMF) is proposing will depend on fidelity to the core aims of the IPSF and delivering something as market-worthy as what is on the drawing board. Continue reading

NEC looks to crack the B/OSS code

Standard


As reported in Billing & OSS World by Editor in Chief Tim McElligott, NEC is acquiring NetCracker for about $300 million. And as Tim said, “Given the fate of mid-tier independent software vendors over the last three years – those at the $100 million mark or more – it was a matter of when, not if” Waltham, Mass.-based NetCracker would be acquired. Another great friend and colleague in this business, Elisabeth Rainge, program director of network software at IDC, accurately assessed the deal as having far more to do with the alliance between Alcatel-Lucent and the Cramer division of Amdocs or ALU’s acquisition of Motive than it does the acquisitions of similarly sized competitors such as Granite Systems by Telcordia, MetaSolv by Oracle or Syndesis by Subex.

Absolutely. This deal is another example of a company that has made its mark mainly through equipment and services acquiring a B/OSS leader to stop missing out on major network equipment contracts because it brings no OSS to the table. Continue reading

An OSS Observation

Standard


When industry observers compile listings of the most influential people in the technology markets, when organizers seek out the captains of computing, the titans of telecom, the biggest of the kahunas to give keynote addresses at industry events, some familiar names often adorn the dais. Bill Gates (alone and sometimes featured with the world’s best-known investor, Warren Buffett). Scott McNealy. John Chambers. The seemingly always-acquisition-minded and occasionally combative Larry Ellison. Pat Russo, longtime top executive at Lucent Technologies who now sits atop global hardware, software and services colossus Alcatel-Lucent. Ed Whitacre, long-standing head of SBC Communications and then at the helm of the reinvigorated AT&T before turning over the keys in mid-2007 to Randall L. Stephenson. Continue reading