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Telco Sphere - a place to share ideas on the developments, news and trends in the telecom world. Read what our experts have to say! 

Comarch’s User Group Survey identifies order-to-cash as a key challenge faced by operators
The results of the survey conducted during Comarch’s annual customer meetingidentified current challenges faced by operators in the service delivery, data intelligence, product management and service quality assurance areas.
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The eternal question – repair or replace?
A lot of projects currently operated by service providers are related to organization and IT transformations, especially Business Supporting Systems transformations. For a bit longer time there were also OSS and network transformations. Before attempt to answer the question set out in the title let’s take a look at why operators started to think about “transforming” the existing sensitive systems which control their business ? Why do we have so many BSS transformation project initiatives? There are a lot of reasons…
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Escape from frequency migration havoc
As you may know – quick and wide changes applied in a big, well established organization can be very creative – however, usually turn out to bedestructive. Sometimes even small modifications implemented on a large scale result in quite astonishing changes.
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4 Facts about Telco field services
When it comes to field service management, the main trends and facts describing the current situation of telecom service providers are generally described in research delivered by analytical companies such as Frost & Sullivan (i.e. a report on “OSS/BSS Global Competitive Strategies” dedicated to Workforce Management (WFM) Strategies for Changing Markets and Challenging Economics).
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Customer experience through the eyes of an average subscriber
Customer experience has been a buzzword for a while now. When I started doing some research on the subject I came across articles as old as 2007 (!). However, the topic is evolving and it still seems to be generating a lot of discussion in the telecom industry. Various polls and surveys conducted by analysts from companies such as Frost & Sullivan or Yankee Group all confirm that now more than ever operators are seeing the importance of customer experience as their differentiator on the market. There are however some differences in the ways, in which customer experience is understood by both telecom operators and their software providers.
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Telework – an unexploited niche for telecom operators?
Have you ever woken up and experienced that “Oh no, not again!” feeling, knowing you’re about to spend an hour in a huge traffic jam, nine hours in the office, then again an hour in a traffic jam? If you did, perhaps you’ve heard of telework – the idea of working remotely and substituting work travels and commuting with telecommunications. 
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Billing in the shadow of the Acropolis

I just returned from the two day ETIS Billing Working Group workshop. This time it was hosted by OTE in Athens. In the shadow of the amazing architectural achievement we know as Acropolis, we sat and discussed contemporary strategic and technical problems of telecom businesses.
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Six issues about the role of BSS in the M2M business model
Mobile operators need a completely new BSS for M2M because M2M is a totally different business model. 
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We are actually a telco!
The main theme of this year’s ETIS Community Gathering in Stockholm was ‘The Future of Telecom Services  – How to Stay Relevant in a 2.0 World’.

It was a fine opportunity to hear strategic core belief statements about the future of telco, from TeliaSonera CEO Lars Nyberg and Deutsche Telekom’s IT Europe vice-president, Dr Michael Damarowsky. Their statements were quite contrasting. 
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Employing the Self-Organizing Network concept for LTE rollout
Following my recent posts about the concept of Self-Organizing Networks, I decided to elaborate further on my ideas by putting them together in a white paper.

In the paper, I recapture some ideas presented in this blog, while adding some new thoughts on the subject. 
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Unlimited data plans – disappearing into extinction?
Many operators have already removed their offerings of unlimited mobile data plans, and replaced them with new plans that have a monthly data quota (in the case that the quota is exceeded by the subscriber, an additional fee is paid to the operator). The reason for the removal of such unlimited data plans, is because data service revenues are not covering the network investment and maintenance costs for handling the growing amount of traffic. 
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Murphy’s Law in 21st century telecommunications
A thought-provoking thing happened during the TM Forum webinar I led last week on a cloud computing CRM solution. Both I and the other moderators were dialed-in to a conference bridge, each of us calling from a different country (the audience was connected via a live audio stream). When I finished my segment of the presentation, the other presenter started his part. 
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SON: the network as a super-organism
The founding fathers of modern psychology made us aware that we as human beings are driven by self-interest, yet when observing the achievements of our civilization and global culture it appears that we are able to act as a “super-organism” with common goals. When considering the application of the rules of self-organization, it is essential for the network to behave as a super-organism.
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Some thoughts following TM Forum Management World 2010
Was this year’s TM Forum Management World affected by the ash cloud? Well one thing is for certain, no ash cloud could be seen when strolling around sunny Nice on the French Riviera, where the event takes place each year. The only clouds “appeared” in speakers’ presentations and in the delegate discussions (more about this below). However, we can be sure that for Comarch, this was definitely an extremely successful event.
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Why doing your laundry can be a lot like talking on the phone
Companies representing the energy industry are focusing more and more on telecommunications,  including us and the things we do. One might think that our industry fascinates them, because as their sector develops, they begin to see similarities between their own business and the world of telecommunications. You may be wondering: how does voice even remotely relate to electricity? Where are the similarities?
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Customer experience from the self service
A self service portal is an effective means for an operator to reduce operating costs, yet subscribers still need convincing about the usefulness of self service. Earlier, I discussed why the subscriber prefers to contact the operator’s call center as opposed to using the self service web portal. Pawel Lamik also discussed how self service is a key aspect of customer experience.
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Comarch OSS/BSS User Group commentary
This year’s annual Comarch OSS/BSS User Group moved to Düsseldorf, Germany. The elegant and tasteful interiors of Düsseldorf’s Intercontinental Hotel, where the event took place, matched the scale and the atmosphere of the event. Never before has the User Group gathered so many representatives of leading telecommunications operators from all over the world, focused on sharing their experience with each other, and assisted by analysts and press.
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Open solutions facilitate a transition towards service-oriented BSS
Service providers worldwide have embraced the idea that transition to SOA is inevitable. However, a major step forward in the long run may comprise of two steps backwards in the short term. While connecting billing and CRM systems to a service bus is a step towards service-oriented BSS, the side effect of adding new abstraction layers and interfaces can be increased complexity and – unexpectedly – hampered business agility.
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And many more entries...