Managing, planning and running your network has never been easier! COS Business Engine offers many features and allows you to stay on top of your network and its performance easily and at all times with tailored diagnostic data. There are two standard roles available:

Admin profile: Take control! Effortlessly allows you to update service assortment, prices, and terms.

Support profile: Gain access to a limited subset of data network diagnostics and information on how services are performing on the network.

Effortlessly Handle Network Outages

Additionally, our latest update in COS Business Engine makes it easier to manage and communicate network outages. If a network element such as an OLT goes down you can create a disruption for that OLT and publish it on the marketplace; either visible for all subscribers or only those who are actually affected. 

Say goodbye to chaos during network disruptions! Our latest update simplifies the process:

Instant Updates: Experience swift communication during outages. Using this function not only keeps your subscribers informed but also reduces the number of tickets that are created and reduces the workload for your support staff.

Prioritizing Information: If a subscriber calls in, the support staff immediately sees that they are affected by an ongoing disruption, and they are therefore able to provide the customer with accurate information right away.

Integration Benefits: If your NOC has monitors and automatically detects outages, our new Network Operations API can push that disruption into the Business Engine.

This disruption is visible to all system users, and they can choose to approve or edit the disruption message and publish it on the marketplace.

Let’s Connect and Transform Your Fiber Project

Are you ready to take the next step in transforming your fiber project? If you’re looking for a partner committed to automation, efficiency, and excellence, COS Systems is here to help.

Contact us today and discuss how our fiber network solutions can empower your business bridging the digital divide and providing our communities with comprehensive FTTH coverage.

If you want to dive deeper into the topic, I highly recommend reading our whitepaper.

The post Improving Network Operations through the Networking Management System of COS Business Engine. appeared first on COS Systems.

How our software solutions can offer planning, building, monitoring and managing fiber networks. And how COS can help optimize performance and efficiency at different stages of the network lifecycle.

If you’re using automated provisioning via one of our partners, our provisioning dashboard gives you an overview of the status of the services on your network.

The integration with COS Business Engine keeps track of your network and the services that have been provisioned, should be provisioned, or should be canceled but haven’t been terminated yet.

For example, the dashboard lets you know quickly how many services are activated even though they are missing a contract or how many services are still active even though the service has been canceled.

Let’s Connect and Transform Your Fiber Project

Are you ready to take the next step in transforming your fiber project? If you’re looking for a partner committed to automation, efficiency, and excellence, COS Systems is here to help.

Contact us today and discuss how our fiber network solutions can empower your business bridging the digital divide and providing our communities with comprehensive FTTH coverage.

If you want to dive deeper into the topic, I highly recommend reading our whitepaper.

The post Improving Fiber Networks through Network Monitoring Tool appeared first on COS Systems.

The key to efficient network operations is self-service, and in order to make marketing to your subscribers as easy as possible for you as an ISP, COS Business Engine has an integrated online marketplace.

This marketplace can be tailored, (visually) adapted, and branded and enables customers to choose what they want when they want and no matter where they are – around the clock!

The filter function makes it easy to choose between different services (e.g. internet, phone, tv) and to compare offers from different providers. At a glance, the customer sees which providers offer the best price to what conditions.

Once they have made their choice, neither the operator nor the service provider needs to take any further action, thanks to the zero-touch service provisioning functionality of COS Business Engine:  services are provisioned automatically and ready to be used at the customer’s address within minutes.

The online marketplace can essentially complete the tasks of an entire call center while eliminating human error. 

Let’s Connect and Transform Your Fiber Project

Are you ready to take the next step in transforming your fiber project? If you’re looking for a partner committed to automation, efficiency, and excellence, COS Systems is here to help.

Contact us today and discuss how our fiber network solutions can empower your business bridging the digital divide and providing our communities with comprehensive FTTH coverage.

If you want to dive deeper into the topic, I highly recommend reading our whitepaper.

The post ISP Marketing: The Power of Self-Service and Automated Provisioning with COS Business Engine appeared first on COS Systems.

about the future

Ten years ago, I was contacted by people on the board of a startup called COS Systems. They knew I had recently moved back to my hometown Umeå where they were headquartered, and asked if I was interested in becoming their CMO. I did two things. First, I googled the term CMO as I wanted to be sure I knew what it meant. I found out it was a role that encompassed both Sales and Marketing strategy and much more since keeping these parts of the customer acquisition process in tight sync is a good idea. On Wikipedia it also said that typically a CMO stays about three years, often because it’s a lot to manage both Sales and Marketing. But it sounded like something that could fit me, and as I’ve been at COS for ten years now, I assume it wasn’t that bad.

The second thing was to meet with the company and figure out what they were doing and if there was a market for them. They had two platforms: a BSS/OSS called COS Business Engine that was built for Open Access Networks and a new platform under development. I didn’t know then what a business and operations support system was, and Open Access I only knew from being a customer on the city network, where I could choose between multiple providers. It wasn’t hard to understand that a network where you have a choice as an end consumer would be more attractive than being “owned” by a monopoly, so I loved it.    

The platform under development didn’t have a name yet, but the idea was to use the fiber sales tactics that had been used in Sweden for a long time and build an out-of-the-box SaaS platform around it. The idea was to split the area planned to be built out into several competing zones and let the people living there take surveys, then pre-sign up and try to reach the take-rate target set by the network builder to bring fiber to their home. Also, the customers would be kept informed throughout the process automatically by the software. 

I was mesmerized! Aren’t there tons of platforms like this already? Isn’t every fiber builder in the world using this tactic? I couldn’t see how this shouldn’t sell like water in the desert. Fast forward, I decided to take the job, got a laptop and a ticket to a Broadband Communities show in the States, and got started. To our big surprise, while we were developing COS Service Zones, Google Fiber launched and used a similar tactic with their “Fiberhoods” ” which made it easier for us to explain what the platform was for. In the US, these pre-sales tactics got a name – Demand Aggregation – but it wasn’t us who came up with it. Does anyone want to take credit!?

The first customer to sign up was California-based ISP Sonic, and I will never forget when Dane Jasper asked me at our booth, “So, who is using this?” I thought for a second and then replied, “You’re the first one Dane!”. They had started building something similar on their own, but an entrepreneur at heart, I guess Dane was brave enough to jump on to something new. At COS, we are still grateful since that was really the start of our growth in the US. Big shoutout to  @dane and the entire team at Sonic! Since then, we’ve done 200+ projects in the US alone and seen many networks built and expanded with subscriber commitment. Many of the first customers were small, privately owned ISPs and WISPs moving into fiber. I guess that if you’re spending your own money, you really want to make sure you spend it in the best possible way. We’ve also seen competitors pop up, and many network owners and ISPs have built similar features into their websites. All in all, I would say that some sort of gathering of customer interest and pre-signups is the norm today in Fiber network build-outs and is often mandatory when applying for grants.

Today, we have merged the survey and pre-signup functionality into our BSS/OSS platform COS Business Engine to create an even smoother transition into build-out and operations of the network.

So, back to the Open Access history. It was a big surprise to come to the US from Sweden, where fiber is not solely viewed as something that has to do with internet service but rather as an infrastructure. More or less the same as having electricity or water connected to your home. In Sweden people are not hard to convince to pay $2000-$4000 to get it installed. In the USA it was about lightning fast and Mbps and the Gig! Mentioning Open Access was like cursing in church. Some early failures had given the term a bad taste it felt like, and there were misconceptions about what it is (still today!). My personal view was that there were two main reasons for early failures.

1. “Build it, and they will come” mentality rather than the Demand Aggregation model we proposed. 
2. Trying to run an Open Access network without proper system support, or trying to build your own system (without the experience of actually running an Open Access network), or trying to run it with a system built for something else. I mean, pickup trucks are awesome, but no one would roll up to the start line in a NASCAR race with one of those. It’s the same as trying to operate an Open Access network using a traditional ISP billing platform. 

We still managed to build a loyal customer base, and the next shout-out goes out to the awesome team at Kitsap PUD in Washington State for believing in us and sticking with us. Some of my best times in this industry have been with Angela Bennik and Paul Avis. 

Today, we have expanded our BSS/OSS platform COS Business Engine to not only support Open Access Networks, but pretty much any business model. The Marketplace-driven Open Access model, of course, where you can choose between multiple providers on a network-provided marketplace. Pure wholesale networks where the ISP ties their Billing platform to our backend to front the customer on a network with a separate entity owning and operating it, but less obviously so to the end-customer. Traditional ISPs, where service provisioning and billing is automated from the Marketplace. And more. Some enhancements we are working on now are even better support for ISPs who want to remain the Internet service provider but invite other providers to sell additional services on a wholesale fee model and also sales of enterprise-type services like dark fiber, point-to-multipoint connections, and similar. Our BSS/OSS customer base is growing faster than ever, and our customers are building fiber to millions of homes and businesses on several continents. It feels great to be part of the solution for those who still lack good broadband.

So what about the future?

When it comes to business models, I have no doubt that the infrastructure approach to fiber will dominate. Whether it’s called Open Access, wholesale, digital infrastructure, or something else doesn’t really matter. With big investors, such as Meridiam with their networks in the USA, Canada, and Europe, or Blackrock in their Gigapower venture with AT&T, stepping in with billions to fund infrastructure, they will not settle with selling internet services. They will focus on owning the infrastructure of the future and be able to use it for whatever use cases the future will hold. 

When it comes to the tech stack for fiber operators, I also see a clear trend. Since I started traveling to the US in 2013, several new companies have grown to, in my opinion, lead the market. Digital fiber mapping tools such as Vetro Fibermap and IQGeo, Auto design tools like Comsof (now acquired by IQGeo) and Biarri, and digital construction management platforms like Vitruvi, Render, and Ocius-X. There are more examples, these are just a few. But what they all have in common is that they are built to digitize and automate processes of planning, building, and operating fiber networks. On the hardware side, all electronic vendors are focusing more and more on their software platforms and simplifying integrations to other systems, such as BSS/OSS platforms. The tech stack of future broadband network operators will be highly integrated and centered around one core platform holding the source of truth, ensuring real-time data you can trust and in turn, enabling a maximum degree of automation in all daily tasks of running a network. Just like COS Business Engine. It will not only be new operators choosing modern, integrated, and automated software stacks. Existing operators will migrate over to more modern alternatives to make their operations more efficient. Old clunky software has to adapt or become obsolete. Today, it’s not about fewer clicks. It’s about no clicks and preferably enabling the subscriber to drive everything! 

Now, there are new operators popping up left and right to get their share of the market in the fiber race, especially in the USA and Canada. This is the right time. The window is now because once built it will be very hard to find a business case strong enough to support overbuilders. The next phase in some 3-5 years, will be a time of consolidation that will continue for quite some time. Smaller and failed networks will be acquired by those who win the race in the next few years. 

For COS, the future looks brighter than ever. We have a great platform that fits well with the direction the market is evolving in. We have amazing partners in the industry that I’m very grateful for (you’re too many to mention, but we are grateful for each and every one of you). We’re growing the COS team and are having a lot of fun despite all the work that comes with this very exciting opportunity. I hope we can team up on this journey. Reach out!

The COS Team says hi and has gathered some old pictures of Isak – we hope you enjoy them

The post #17 COS Christmas Calendar — Isak Finér celebrates ten years at COS appeared first on COS Systems.

Billing is a very central part of telecommunications and of any fiber broadband network. Automated billing is key; cuts costs, ensures revenue, and saves time. 

If you’re running your network and using our platform as a single provider, you can easily bill your end customers. 

Subscribers can use the billing function under MyPages where they can 

• change payment details,  
• see upcoming bills 
• see their payment history, 
• check on their payment status.

COS COS Business Engine supports all business models and even as  a single provider, you can open your network for other services such as security, phone, IPTV etc.

Embrace the efficiency and versatility of our ISP Billing Software for a seamless and profitable telecom experience.

Let’s Connect and Transform Your Fiber Project

Are you ready to take the next step in transforming your fiber project? If you’re looking for a partner committed to automation, efficiency, and excellence, COS Systems is here to help.

Contact us today and discuss how our fiber network solutions can empower your business bridging the digital divide and providing our communities with comprehensive FTTH coverage.

If you want to dive deeper into the topic, I highly recommend reading our whitepaper.

The post Effortless Billing Solutions with ISP Billing Software appeared first on COS Systems.

FTTH solutions are designed to simplify the planning, building, and operating a fiber broadband network is very complex, and we have made it our mission to make each step as simple, efficient, and automated as possible for you.

We automate your fiber venture from conducting a broadband survey to find out where the demand for fiber is the highest and where you should start building your network to zero-touch provisioning and billing. Whether you are a traditional ISP, a network operator, or a network owner – our solutions can help you run your business more efficiently and profitably.

COS Business Engine revolutionizes telecom operations! It accelerates digital transformation, improves data accuracy, and meets the challenges of modern fiber broadband networks.

Let’s Connect and Transform Your Fiber Project

Are you ready to take the next step in transforming your fiber project? If you’re looking for a partner committed to automation, efficiency, and excellence, COS Systems is here to help.

Contact us today and discuss how our fiber network solutions can empower your business bridging the digital divide and providing our communities with comprehensive FTTH coverage.

If you want to dive deeper into the topic, I highly recommend reading our whitepaper.

The post Simplify Fiber Network Management with COS Business Engine appeared first on COS Systems.

Unlocking the Potential of Fiber Marketing for ISPs and Network Operators

No matter if you are a traditional Internet Service Provider (ISP), an Open Access Operator, or a wholesale network operator, your main goal is to make the network as attractive as possible and to generate high take rates.

A great way to do this is to use an online marketplace that enables your customers to choose what they want when they want and no matter where they are – around the clock!

No matter if you’re offering three or five different internet plans, you need to be able to easily market these to your potential customers while creating a great user experience.

This kind of self-service offers flexibility for your customers as they’re not dependent on the opening hours of your customer service center, and faster scalability for you, as you have automated the steps from the customer choosing a service through zero-touch provisioning to their address and collecting their billing information.

Explore the potential of Fiber Marketing and elevate your network’s attractiveness today.

Let’s Connect and Transform Your Fiber Project

Are you ready to take the next step in transforming your fiber project? If you’re looking for a partner committed to automation, efficiency, and excellence, COS Systems is here to help.

Contact us today and discuss how our fiber network solutions can empower your business bridging the digital divide and providing our communities with comprehensive FTTH coverage.

If you want to dive deeper into the topic, I highly recommend reading our whitepaper.

The post Generate High Take Rates with Fiber Marketing appeared first on COS Systems.

#5 is a special day, as it is Marcus’ birthday! We won’t reveal how many candles are on his birthday cake, but he’ll probably tell you if you reach out to him. Below, you find a short interview with Marcus to get to know our latest addition to the team and our new Senior Sales Executive a bit better. 

Tell us a little bit about yourself – who are you, and what is your background?

Hi! I’m Marcus Kitchens. I started my career as a GIS Analyst for a Houston, TX based firm after graduating college and interning @ Esri. After working in Houston for two years, I joined NISC as a MapWise Support Specialist. At NISC, I helped their members solve any mapping questions/concerns that they had. While @ NISC, I focused on the Telecom side of things. I spent three years @ NISC before I had the opportunity to work for Esri as an Account Manager for Local Government out of the St. Louis Regional Office. In this role @ Esri, I helped cities/counties (under 50k in population) in Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Kentucky modernize their ArcGIS platform. I worked in this role @ Esri for (almost) 5 years before joining COS Systems as a Senior Sales Executive. I’m ecstatic to be a part of this great team @ COS Systems and can’t wait to see what the future holds.

What caught your interest in COS Systems?

COS’ end-to-end-automation approach is what ‘caught my interest.’ I’m a big fan of automation when it comes to helping people with their work. The GREAT team spirit and the dedication to customers at COS Systems piqued my curiosity, too. I love working with a fun team dedicated to helping their customers. So – COS Systems was a no-brainer. The chance of participating in Fika may have played a role, too  

What are your goals for the coming months?

To learn as much as possible about how our software works and how our software can help deliver services to the community! Also, I look forward to meeting my COS Systems colleagues and getting to know them.

Why should people contact you and press the “connect with Marcus” button?

We want to connect as many people as possible to fast and reliable internet. However, building, running, and operating fiber networks that can offer just that is extremely complex, and we have made it our goal to make it as automated, effective, and viable as possible. As part of the Sales Team, I would love to have a conversation about how COS Systems can make your job easier. No matter if you are a traditional operator who wants to offer your subscribers a better customer experience or if you own an Open Access Wholesale Network and want to increase take-rates and extend the number of services on your network – we can help automate your processes from beginning to end; from broadband survey and demand aggregation to zero-touch provisioning and automated, (wholesale) billing.

Tell us fun facts about yourself.

I can play the piano! I have 2 long-haired dachshunds that are a bundle of cuteness, but both of them keep me busy with their shenanigans. I LOVE riding bikes whether it’s mountain biking, gravel biking, road biking, or even an exercise bike! I love it all when it comes to biking. One of my dreams is to follow the Tour de France in person. I’ve been watching it on TV for 20+ years with my dad. I would love to see it in real life one day.

The post #5 COS Christmas Calendar — Meet Marcus Kitchens out New Senior Sales Executive appeared first on COS Systems.

A lot is happening in the industry in the US at the moment – The Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program provides $42.45 billion to expand high-speed internet access and to bridge the Digital Divide, and our US team is growing. To be at the right place at the right time, our CEO Mikael Philipsson has moved from Sweden to Florida and below you find a short interview with him where he tells us about his plans for the coming months:

Good morning Mikael, you moved from Sweden to Florida a couple of weeks ago – can you tell us a little bit about your background and your move to the US?

Good morning! Well, first of all, it is very exciting to be here in the States as it makes it much easier to drive our expansion in the US and Canada. We moved here at the beginning of August, so we have had some time to get used to the nice and sunny Florida summer weather. We already feel at home, and being closer to our US team is amazing.

My background is within the telecom industry, where I’ve spent a good 20 years. My main experience is from the operator side, as I was the CEO of a fiber operator that built fiber infrastructure across the Nordic region, addressing large enterprises and offering wholesale fiber to large carriers. About ten years ago, the company made a strategic decision to move into the residential market, and since then, has addressed millions of homes with it’s fiber-to-the-home offering. 

With this background, having personally faced all the challenges you meet when scaling an FTTH business, I got very attracted to what COS had developed, and that quickly made me take the step from my initial position on the board of directors to taking on the role as CEO a little over two years ago.

COS’s software was built during the crazy fiber race that started in Sweden in the early 2000s when there was a need for solutions like COS Business Engine that enable extremely fast growth through automation and optimization of both the revenue side and the network operations. This combination is unique and what operators, who are the same situation as we were 10 years ago, are dreaming of.  

The fiber race is taking off here in North America now, so this is really the place to be. We have been active in the US since 2013, and we have an amazing team here. We are expanding as we see a strong demand from fiber operators in the need for software to support their growth and optimize the KPIs driving their business. 

What are your plans for the coming months?

I will focus on growing the team here, meeting up with customers/partners, and attending several conferences: in mid-October, I will attend INCOMPAS in Tampa and Calix ConneXions in Vegas at the end of October. 

Finally, I am really looking forward to using my and the team’s joint experienc and software suite to help operators in this market to excel in the fiber race and to avoid the mistakes we made. Fiber infrastructure is a game-changer and hugely impacts all aspects of our society as exactly everything is digitized. COS Systems has an active role to play in this fiber race. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I and the team don’t want to miss!

Don’t hesitate to connect with me!

The post CEO Mikael Philipsson relocated to the States  appeared first on COS Systems.

Our latest feature update lets you establish hierarchies for serviceable locations that have dependencies on each other.

For example, if you want to collect signups from potential customers in a multi-dwelling unit (MDU), you can create a parent-child relationship and hierarchy in COS Business Engine:

In this case, the “Parent Object” is the MDU, and the apartments are set up as “Children”. 

After establishing these levels, individual apartments/customers can pre-sign up for services but will have to wait for the “Parent,” the associated MDU, to be connected and ready before these signups can proceed to actual orders. 

A typical use case would be to sell to customers in MDUs where you don’t have the property owner’s permission to come into the building without overpromising.

Of course, this works in conjunction with Work Orders, which means that you can create installation workflows specific to MDU buildings to streamline that installation process.

The post Product Improvement of the Month appeared first on COS Systems.