OSS Line

Maxis Selects NetCracker

Maxis Communications Berhad, a Malaysian converged services provider, has bought some NetCracker OSS products, including: Service Inventory, Resource Inventory, Discovery & Reconciliation, Design & Planning, Service Provisioning & Activation, Asset Management, and Outside Plant.

That’s what I would call a ‘classic’ OSS deal. Inventory-centric. None of that fruity service catalog stuff.

It’s nice to see a PR that is actually specific. I usually have to guess what the customer might have bought based on vague ‘lower CAPEX and OPEX’, ‘faster time to market’ statements.

NetCracker’s products will manage the core, transport and RAN networks along with some core mobile services (MMS, location-based, BlackBerry and the like). So, pretty comprehensive footprint at this mid-sized (11 million mobile customers) service provider.

Expect to see NetCracker more focused on winning in the APAC region. Since 2008 they’ve been owned by NEC, strong in APAC, and have made clear statements about their interest in the region.

NetCracker’s PR on Maxis is here

NetCracker Win at Intelsat

It says here: "Intelsat, the world’s leading fixed satellite services provider, has selected NetCracker Technology software and services to improve the automation of its service delivery processes."

This is presumably addressing provisioning in the 'service layer' as satellite operators don't have a huge amount of fixed line network, not enough to spend much on OSS.

Head End -> MW Link -> A Satellite -> MW Link -> Remote Site. One 45Gbit point-to-multi-point circuit.

Is that about it? I reckon I could model that well enough in Excel.

The PR goes on to say "Intelsat purchased NetCracker’s Resource Inventory, Discovery & Reconciliation, Service Inventory, and Service Provisioning & Activation modules..."

So I guess there must be some core network or IT infrastructure being managed with a service delivery component. Indeed, Intelsat have "Unrivaled ground and fiber services" it says on their web site. And "6 PoPs in strategic traffic exchange points, multi-homing Tier 1 IP Nodes... 50 satellites..." which isn't much, physical inventory wise, but they do provide private line, VPN and VoIP services on top. They'll be high-value, need-it-on-in-10-minutes business critical services too, so worth investing a bob or two in OSS.

NetCracker Turns 15

It wouldn’t be fair to note Telcordia’s birthday but not NetCracker’s, would it?

Perhaps due to it being an otherwise quiet time of year for PR, a trend is emerging in announcing company birthdays. This month is NetCracker’s 15th birthday! Woo hoo! Please could someone in Waltham send me some birthday cake wrapped in foil? Thanks.