Technology proliferation: Navigating across the OSS savannah

Back in my early days of OSS, I knew there was soooo much to learn. As the signpost below suggests, as well as the OSS applications themselves, there were also adjacent / related fields like databases, networks, services, architecture, programming, and so much more. Pretty daunting! But after a few years in the industry, I […]

When OSS architects meet the midwit meme

Have you ever tried to be one of the cool kids and have felt that eerie feeling that you’re going to get shown up for not actually being cool? In the business world we call it imposter syndrome…. but I’m already giving off strong hints about being completely uncool aren’t I?  …But let’s push on […]

Being fired, the blessing in disguise

I’ve only been fired once. This might sound like a gloomy topic but it’s closely tied into the Passionate About OSS origin story, so I definitely look back on it with fondness now, over a decade later. I was CTO of a consulting company, but contracted out to another company in a Program Director role. […]

What will you do if the telco industry dies?

Christel Heydemann, Orange’s CEO, brought to our attention at MWC 2023 that a survey of European telcos indicated that almost half of the polled CEOs do not expect their businesses to make it through another decade. That’s a pretty scary thing to think about if you’ve built your career around the telco industry and don’t […]

How can we reduce the size of the OSS buyer-seller chasm? (part 2)

Our previous post highlighted a chasm between buyers and sellers. It has sparked quite a lot of conversation, which is exactly as intended. In another earlier post about telco reaching its burning exchange moment, we wrote: In a keynote speech at Mobile World Congress (MWC), Thierry Breton, the European Union’s internal market commissioner opined, “In […]

The AIOps Venn Dilemma

Whilst preparing our recently launched paper, “AIOps of the Future: A Definitive Guide, ” one thing came through loud and clear from the carriers we spoke with – assembling the skills-mix required to support AIOps tools / programmes. The carriers simply don’t seem to be confident in being able to find, or keep, people with […]

Knowledge used to be power. Is it still?

Many years ago, I was lucky enough to spend a year advising the executive team of an Asian monopoly carrier. I was helping them to implement their first ever OSS project. It was a real eye-opener on many different levels. This carrier had a strong culture of hoarding knowledge. It was well known amongst the […]

Who are the real heroes of your OSS project? It might not be who you think!

When I first left uni with my freshly minted degrees, whenever I thought of salespeople, I had an image something like the one below in my head. This image might still be true if you’re on the hunt for a used clunker. However, nothing could be further from the truth for the salespeople that make […]

Getting hands-on with the OSS espresso machine

“Is there anyone in this room who can go with me to an espresso machine and make a latte?” That’s what Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz reportedly asked his executive team at a November 2022 meeting, according to this WSJ article. He added: “I don’t think we can fix the systemic problem with the level of […]

Selling the destination of OSS and AIOps, not the transportation

Many of the readers of this blog veer towards the technical side of OSS (that includes me too) and therefore we could all do well to consider the old phrase, “Sell the destination, not the transportation.” The phrase originally suggests that a salesperson should highlight the incredible experiences waiting for the prospective traveler in Paris, […]

Asking your colleagues to give you AIR

Let me tell you a story. A love story. A story about data. A story about AIR. On my first OSS project, all the way back in 2000, I was brought in as a network SME. But it was only after getting involved in the data modelling and data migration activities that I really became […]

A strategic OSS expert: Work smart, work lazy, build assets

Whilst reading an article on Business Insider called, “A Gen Z software engineer at Google reportedly earns $150,000 working one hour a day,” I found one comment quite confronting. It wasn’t the extrapolation that an 8 hour day (possibly working multiple jobs) could generate a $1.2m annual salary but the mindset. The Gen Z software […]

Telco innovation: 13 examples of harnessing OSS for super-charged experimentation

We know the modern digital marketplace is evolving and proliferating at mind-blowing speeds. Everything you know right now, and all the knowledge you have collected over your career, is diminishing in relevance at an increasing rate. The same is true of us as individuals as well as us as the telco industry and the companies […]

OSS cynics get airtime. OSS optimists deliver

There are always many ways to transform your OSS aren’t there? There are always lots of different options to analyse (which can lead to analysis paralysis, but that’s a whole other story). In most cases, there are obvious pros and cons of each different option.  Therefore, there are always lots of different opinions on the […]

The OSS fireplace that is running out of heat

There’s an old parable from Earl Nightingale that I think about every day in terms of the OSS industry and the business operations of Passionate About OSS. Earl was a motivational speaker and author known for his inspiring teachings. He gained prominence in the 1950s and continued his work until his passing in 1989. One […]

Want to know where the next wave of OSS/BSS innovation is coming from?

Everything you know right now, and all the knowledge you have collected over your career, is diminishing in relevance at an increasing rate. For those of us who’ve been in this game for decades rather than years, a lot of the knowledge we accumulated during our “apprenticeship” years is losing its lustre. This is particularly […]