Letter from the Editor - May 2015

By: Tim Young

“Progress is the nice word we like to use. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.”
-Robert F. Kennedy

When Bobby Kennedy said those words, he was Attorney General of the United States and he was speaking to a conference of mayors from cities and towns across the country in 1964. He was talking about big change. Social change on a massive scale. 

His point, however, is not confined to lofty goals and massive socio-economic upheaval. It is a nearly universal truth that we, as human beings, like to see things “getting better” in the abstract, but tend to be led by the oft-forgotten half of inertia… that an object at rest tends to remain at rest.

And there’s a good reason for our hesitance to accept change: change is hard. It takes lots of time and effort and often costs money. But in the world of Integrated Communications and Entertainment (ICE) technology (and you can read more on that bit of terminology here), change isn’t just a constant part of our business, it’s central to everything we enable. Change… progress… evolution on the part of service providers helps ensure that subscribers receive the services they need and want when they need and want them. Keeping up with those shifting needs requires change from the vendors who keep those providers running, particularly when it comes to OSS and BSS.

In this issue of Pipeline, we explore the evolution of support systems. We look at how OSS and BSS are changing to accommodate shifts in user behavior and network demands. We examine how the Internet of Things changes the game, creating billing inflection points and expanding network architecture. We look at how mobile money opportunities affect and are affected by BSS. We discuss the importance of a catalog-driven approach to products and services, and explore Big Data and CEM. We also hear from Nakina Systems on how networks can prepare for the “perfect storm” of mobile network complexity. In addition, we feature Comptel in our vendor spotlight and provide a preview of the 2015 Pipeline Innovation Awards.

Enjoy, and don’t stop changing.

Best,

Tim Young
Editor-in-Chief